To veg. or not to veg.?

I don’t really want animals to suffer in my name until it’s a necessity. I want to see if it’s really important for them to die for my food or health or lifestyle needs? And, is vegetarianism an ‘as effective’ alternative?

Primary concerns:

1) Is meat important for a wholesome diet or wholesome growth and development of the human body?
2) Is meat important for optimum muscular growth?

These are my simple conclusions on meat eating:

1) Non veg. food is natural for the humans to eat for several logical reasons like – availability of canine set of teeth, effective digestion of meat, a general preference for the taste, etc. Nature has provided this unique position of an omnivore to humans.
2) The healthiest, most balanced diet is neither about non veg. nor about veg., I think. Anyone who takes care of her eating habits has the biggest potential to be the healthiest and most balanced, I think.
3) Veg. lifestyle takes time, care and efforts. Missing non veg. dietary components like all 9 amino acids and vitamin B 12 need to be sufficiently compensated. Some people are doubtful if vegans (vegetarians who don’t even have eggs and milk) can really fully compensate those components, but lacto-ovo vegetarians (vegetarians who include eggs and milk) can definitely compensate for them.

Now my choice to remain a veggie:

- I don’t really want to or feel like eating animals. I don’t find its taste any tempting.
- I can be as healthy on a veg. diet, if not as muscular or bulky.
- Vegetarianism is gaining momentum around the world, even at cold clime locations. I’m not support less or getting into anything like ‘reserved lifestyle, attitude, trends, etc.’ Also, I live at a warm clime location.
- After getting aware of a fact, I don’t want to remain ignorant. Even if I start eating meat, I’ll never be convinced about it. This is not very logical, but I feel very strongly about this.
- Even many meat eaters are thin. Maybe eating meat will get me fat. But again, maybe I can get almost the same effects in a healthier way if I just quit my unhealthy lifestyle + plan my diet.
- Even if, irrespective of all the logical explanations for vegetarianism, animal protein turns out to be important for humans (for balanced, complete growth and development or at least for adding on to the muscular mass), my egg, milk, additional protein in-take & resistance exercise should take care of that concern. So, I won’t be bereft of animal derived protein. Congrats!

Additionally:

- My decision to remain a veggie has the emotional reason at its core; my conscience is the most intense contributor to taking that decision. But there are some other quite logical reasons involved - the ones I’ve already given. I’ll have to consciously & carefully plan my diet now.
- Being a veggie, I’ll definitely be inclined towards veggie societies and organizations, except for the aggressive, offensive ones like PETA. My personally choosing vegetarianism is not my stand on the subject ‘vegetarianism or non vegetarianism.’
- Veggies have a tendency to fall into the psychological traps of over-sensitivity, impractical-unnatural idealism, social reservations, etc. I’ll never be such an ideological vegetarian.
- I’ll never discriminate against non veggies, in any way.
- I will resort to meat eating (temporarily) in cases like – I’m faced with a ‘starving’ situation or it is presented to me in the name of God.
- I’ll not take any psychological positions (like of superiority, inferiority, being reserved, being too sensitive, being different, being bereft of something important or disadvantaged because of that in some way, etc.) because of this decision. All those things are really just psychological, I think.