“Isn’t it natural to eat meat?”

Maybe it was. But the real question is whether we need to — and we don't.

You don’t have to win an argument about our ancestors. Humans have eaten animals for a very long time — that’s true, and you can say so.

Natural isn’t the question

Plenty of natural things are things we choose not to do, and plenty of good things — glasses, medicine, heating — aren’t natural at all. Whether something is natural doesn’t tell us whether it is right.

Needed is the question

Today, most of us can choose what we eat. The NHS says that with good planning a vegan diet can give you all the nutrients your body needs, and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the largest organisation of nutrition professionals in the United States, says the same about appropriately planned vegan diets at every stage of life.

So the question isn’t whether eating animals was ever natural. It is whether we need to — and if we can live well without it, the animals are better off if we do.

Saying it at the table

“Maybe it was, once. But I can be healthy without it, so for me the question is whether I need to — and I don’t.”

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