Why We Eat Meat

There are certain things that are so automated within us that we barely think about them, if at all.

Take breathing, for example. Unless one’s respiration is challenged, it’s just something the human body does without much awareness. Similarly, the need for food is also hardwired into us as an indisputable requirement for survival. For the most part, when we get hungry, we simply eat. The question of we eat what we eat, however, is somewhat cloaked in mystery. The food choices we make are developed and reinforced by socialization, habit, and the messages we’ve internalized—often without much, or any, awareness. Whether we’re standing in line at a crowded food court, eating at home with the family, or seated at a see-and-be-seen restaurant, what we choose to eat is rooted in opaque and mystifying psychological processes, tightly braided with ideas