GETTING STARTED

Vegetarian diets entail more than just fruits and vegetables. In your discussion you speak about that going vegetarian is similar to donating to a arbitrary developing world charity because it relieves the suffering of the impoverished child more than foregoing $5 rises your suffering.” To make the analogy with vegetarianism more appropriate, you would also need to be the frustrating reason behind that child's misery if you don't provided the $5. For instance, you're already paying a lot of people to keep some children in cages, and you simply could choose to spend $5 more, so one less child is placed in a cage.

Nothing more strongly arouses our disgust than cannibalism, nothing so surely unmortars a world; nothing, we would plausibly argue, will so harden and degrade the brains of these that practice it. Yet we ourselves make quite similar appearance in the eye of the Buddhist and the vegetarian. We consume the carcasses of creatures of like appetites, passions, and organs with ourselves; we prey on babes, though not our own; and the slaughter-house resounds daily with screams of pain and fear. We separate, indeed; but the unwillingness of many nations to consume the dog, an dog with whom we go on terms of another intimacy, shows how precariously the distinction is grounded.

In fact, studies show that vegetarian (including vegan) populations tend to be less obese and undergo less from diabetes, heart disease, some cancers plus more - living longer as a result. Whether that is from steering clear of animal products specifically, or developing a generally healthier lifestyle anyways, is difficult to make sure of, but good nourishment almost certainly plays a major role.

As much as i can tell the actual fact that lots of EAs are not vegetarians is surprising to some because they think 'pets or animals are most likely morally relevant' essentially implies 'we shouldn't eat pets or animals'. To my hearing, this seems about as absurd as if Givewell's explanation of these suggestion of SCI discontinued after 'the developing world is available, or at least has a higher probability of doing so'.

D. Enette Larson-Meyer: In general, vegetarians are healthier, with less risk for heart disease and obesity, although there are obese vegetarians. Many people inform me once they start a vegetarian diet plan that they feel better, but again, most of them - and I believe this was the case with Scott Jurek - were eating a pretty poor diet before, so of course they feel better. They could have switched to a healthier meat-based diet and they would probably have believed better.