I would have thought so at one time.  I gave it up for the many substantial health, and obvious environmental, benefits.  And yet, things change.  Today I tasted plant-based jerky that was indistinguishable to me from beef jerky.  Throughout our evolution, humanity has been predominantly a plant-eater, and like many herbivores (and unlike most omnivores) we can't taste protein.  When we eat meat, all that we taste are the fats, salts, and any seasoning that we add.  Food companies are getting crazy good at mimicking the taste, texture, and smell of meat with plant-based alternatives.  So within 5-10 years, you'll likely be able to have your cake and eat it too.

No one's perfect, myself certainly included.  I just try to do a better job each day of bringing my beliefs and actions into alignment than I did the day before.  I'll never be perfect, but striving for constant improvement seems like a reasonable second choice.

You don't have to go all vegetarian. I lost a lot of weight following a balanced diet wit meat, fruits, vegetables, grains and dairy products. I recommend to increase you consumption of fruits/vegetables, but don't miss all the goodies from the meat.

Which is not a convincing argument, since we do actually need proteins (though they can also come from different sources.)

Making appeal to what's "natural" is a poor argument, in any context. Rationality should determine morality. Not that I disagree with the conclusion - as said, I find it hard to defend an industrial meat-based diet as moral, especially when considering highly intellegent species, such as the pig, which can very obviously feel pain, empathy, fear, disgust (pigs actually can't stand to sleep anywhere close to defections in nature - in industrial meat production, they don't have a choice.) 

Which is not a convincing argument, since we do actually need proteins (though they can also come from different sources.)

Making appeal to what's "natural" is a poor argument, in any context. Rationality should determine morality. Not that I disagree with the conclusion - as said, I find it hard to defend an industrial meat-based diet as moral, especially when considering highly intellegent species, such as the pig, which can very obviously feel pain, empathy, fear, disgust (pigs actually can't stand to sleep anywhere close to defections in nature - in industrial meat production, they don't have a choice.) 

Which is not a convincing argument, since we do actually need proteins (though they can also come from different sources.)

Making appeal to what's "natural" is a poor argument, in any context. Rationality should determine morality. Not that I disagree with the conclusion - as said, I find it hard to defend an industrial meat-based diet as moral, especially when considering highly intellegent species, such as the pig, which can very obviously feel pain, empathy, fear, disgust (pigs actually can't stand to sleep anywhere close to defections in nature - in industrial meat production, they don't have a choice.) 

Which is not a convincing argument, since we do actually need proteins (though they can also come from different sources.)

Making appeal to what's "natural" is a poor argument, in any context. Rationality should determine morality. Not that I disagree with the conclusion - as said, I find it hard to defend an industrial meat-based diet as moral, especially when considering highly intellegent species, such as the pig, which can very obviously feel pain, empathy, fear, disgust (pigs actually can't stand to sleep anywhere close to defections in nature - in industrial meat production, they don't have a choice.) 

True.

So very true.

I believe every point in your post is incorrect.  Plant protein is every bit the equal of animal protein in the ways that you want it to be (building muscle, etc.), and plant protein is far superior to animal protein in the ways you would wish it to be different (such as how plant protein doesn't stress the kidneys like animal protein does).  It's a myth that people need a lot of protein, even vegans (on average) consume nearly twice as much protein as is recommended.  It's nearly impossible to get too little, even 20% of the calories in romaine lettuce come from protein!  :)  It's also a myth that animal protein is somehow superior due to its amino acid balance.

This myth dates back to an issue of Vogue magazine (yes, Vogue) from the 1970s.  If you'd like to take your nutrition advice from a fourty year old issue of fashion magazine, be my guest!  :D  I'll get mine from scientific research, and that research says that you don't need (or want) a "complete protein" every meal.  In the time since that issue created this misconception, we've learned that the body has the ability to break down and store the amino acids from proteins, later combining them into whatever ratio the body needs.  There's also evidence that occasionally eating meals that significantly favours one of the amino acids (doesn't matter which one) can actually have a cleansing effect on the body's systems, wiping it clean of residues from all the others.

You say your vegetarian friends spend a lot of time with doctors and nutritionists, as if omnivores don't have to.  Omnivores *do* have to, they just usually don't choose to, and as a result they suffer and die in the billions.  Heart disease, diabetes, diet-correlated cancers, diet-correlated neurological diseases, and so much more, these are diseases that predominantly and disproportionately hit omnivores.  The diet that's incredibly hard to be healthy on is an omnivorous diet, given all the sick omnivores out there.  The typical vegan is deficient in 3 essential nutrients, whereas the typical omnivore is deficient in 7 essential nutrients.  Since plant-based foods tend to have lower caloric density, you get to eat more of them for the same amount of total calories, and if you eat a wide variety of plant foods you'll come out ahead of any omnivorous diet for nutrient density and variety.

Milk is an absolutely terrible source of calcium.  The United States drinks more milk per capita than any other country on Earth, but has more osteoporosis than any other country on Earth.  That's not a coincidence, we've known for decades that animal protein appeared to actually leech calcium from the body.  For a long time we observed this, but didn't know why it happened.  We now think we know why, and here it is:  https://nutritionfacts.org/video/testing-your-diet-with-pee-purple-cabbage/  And your suggestion that calcium is hard to find in plant-based foods is highly incorrect, I eat a lot of plant based foods with significant amount of calcium (including spinach, and several kinds of seeds).

There are multiple good plant-based sources of B-vitamins, and I consume some of those foods (almost) every day.  Nutritional yeast (a yellow flaky substance that taste kind of cheesy) is my favourite.

As to your point that vegetable protein isn't processed well in the body, another myth.  If you eat a broad-based, whole food diet, you'll actually absorb nutrients better.  Many nutrients are unlocked by having vitamin C, or black pepper, in your diet.  You don't even need to eat them at the same time, or necessarily even the same meal, the body is amazing at recirculating nutrients until it needs it.  You've probably heard that vitamin C is water soluble, and the biggest amount of water in your body is your blood, and your body will keep circulating vitamin C until you need it.  So having plentiful vitamin C in your diet from eating fruit, broccoli, and leafy green vegetables will kick your body's ability to absorb iron, etc., into high gear.  I am on an entirely plant-based diet and I take no vitamin supplements at all.  (I do take vitamin D but, despite its name, it's not actually a vitamin; it's actually a hormone.)

BTW, by eating factory farmed meat you're eating a range of supplements, including vitamin B12, as factory farmed animals are kept in such unhealthy conditions that they feed them vitamins and antibiotics throughout their lives just to keep them alive.  So you're probably taking more nutrient supplements than I am, you're just choosing to filter them through the body's of farm animals first for whatever reason.  Unfortunately, those trace amounts of antibiotics people get from factory farmed animals are also producing antibiotic resistan bacteria, sadly.

I've been doing it this week. Only ate apples, salad, and almonds since Monday. I feel great. Don't even miss it. It's just temporary, though.

I realize I have a lot more energy but I also feel a lot weaker.

Let's see here, you put up a link to a site whose articles are all anti-animal products and all lean pro-vegetarian and using it according to your context as proof that a vegetarian diet is better for you.  

This is akin to putting up a link to a Fox News article about what a great job Trump is doing as president and insinuating that it is coming from an unbiased source.

Not saying that there are not benefits and vegetarianism. Nor am I saying that eating processed meats are good for you either. I am merely commenting on your source of information as being incredibly biased and so should not be considered as 100 %credible.

I have tasted bacon.  I used to eat it almost daily.  Then I went "pescetarian" (no meat other than seafood) and I gave it up.  Then I went fully plant-based.  Then I discovered plant-based bacon that tastes nearly identical to real bacon.  Mind blown.  :)

I'm pretty sure deskpro2k3 is just trolling.  If he's not eating plants himself then he'll probably soon die of scurvy!  Scurvy is a disease we get if we don't eat enough plants.  There's no companion disease that comes from not eating enough meat.  Another reason why we're more herbivorous than we are omnivorous, if you ask me.

And that's a legit approach.  The most important thing is that you've made yourself aware of the current scientific consensus, and are working every day to improve.  That's all we can ask of ourselves.  :)

Yes we need protein, but it's not hard to get.  Heck, 20% of romaine lettuce's calories come from protein!  All plant-based foods contain protein, and some of them have a lot of it.  The average person needs about 35-60 grams of protein a day, and the average vegan in one study was eating about 75 grams of protein a day.  So the average *vegan* may be getting 50-100% more protein a day than they need!  Fascinatingly, vegetarians, pescetarians, and omnivores got hardly any more, usually in the 75-85 gram/day range.  Vegans might be eating foods with slightly less protein, but they're eating more food in total because their foods have fewer calories.  Traditionally we got about twice as much fibre as we did protein.  These days we get 4-5 times more protein than fibre, and that's at the root of many of our diseases.

Though I think looking to the past can help us answer questions about our present, I nonetheless agree with everything  in the second paragraph of your message.