Is becoming a vegetarian/vegan worth it?

[palou]

scrapking said:

 Sure you can eat meat in moderation, but that's like smoking in moderatio...  you can do it, and you might even get away with it, but it's probably not ideal, and it's definitely not an evidence-based decision. 

There is a distinction to be made here.

 

Smoke contains substances that are have a slight chance of modifying DNA. So, each cigarette adds to the probabilities of getting the likes of cancer. The substance also depositis on alveols, each time killing off a few cells, making breathing just a bit harder.

 

Diseases related to the consumption of meat (heart, mostly) appear due to an imbalance. The substances are NOT inherintly harmful to human cells, and are naturally produced by our body. There IS a certain range of concentration in which our systems function perfectly normally; more or less inside this range is not better/worse. Going above (or below) is what creates problems. 

 

This is the same as any other substances. Example: saturated fats in a cell membrane reduce the cell's exchanges with its environnement, while unsaturated fats increase it. Both too much or too little exchange can create problems. There is a range where these problems do not occure. The body does have a cerain flexibility on the ratios between essential nutriments.

 

If it's the first piece of meat you are eating in your life, eating a chicken has straight up no consequences on your cardiac health. It's a slight shift in the balance. As long as it doesn't exceed any threshold, there is no reason to believe it to have any negative consequences, at all.

This is a case where poison is in the quantity.

 

 

Another thing: I think you might be overstating the dangers of bird flu/salmonella. Both can be detected and treated fairly quickly. In a modern western society, they can cause big dammage, but that's purely monetary. It gets detected (10-100 cases, at worst, and as said, after a week of modern medication, they are all fine) and the producers consequently are forced to get rid of all their livestock.