this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2026
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if you're "craving for meat" after becoming a vegetarian, go see a dietitian. You must be missing something
I get cravings for various foods/meals I’ve had before that have nothing to do with being deficient in vitamins or amino acids.
For example, I’m quite certain the cornmeal pancakes my dad would make don’t contain any vital nutrients not satisfied by my current diet. But I occasionally get cravings for them anyway.
Furthermore, when someone gets hungry it’s normal for their minds to start thinking of foods they liked, and lots of people were probably raised on meat heavy diets. So when they get hungry or nostalgic for food their mind will likely think about non-vegetarian food.
Maybe that will go away if they find a wide selection of vegetarian foods they like, but again I doubt that’s the case for everyone, and it definitely won’t overwrite any childhood memories of favorite foods/meals.
I watched Dominion and Earthlings. I can't think about food made out of meat without thinking of the animals.
Some people literally just don’t have that connection automatically brought up in their brains. Speaking of, why is that the case? Why is it some people don’t have those kind of responses?
Like, unrelated to the original topic, I recently realized many people I know are able to be rude/hurtful towards others despite the fact that if they witnessed that same interaction as an outside observer it would have made them feel angry or feel empathy for the victim.
I’ve realized it’s not really a choice. Like I bet you didn’t have to purposefully decide “Everytime I think about meat I want to think about the slaughter that made it” your brain just started doing that automatically.
But its not the same as empathy (or at least it’s a different kind of empathy).
You feel bad via empathy for the animal cruelty that likely went into the meal, but that’s only because seeing the meat brought back memories of those movies or other knowledge about meat production. The feeling bad is empathy, but the automatic connection between meat and the slaughter is just a memory association. It’s the automatic memory association that kicks off the empathy, without it, even if one can feel empathy for others, the reaction wouldn’t happen.
I feel like that negative association is the part that’s more lacking in society than empathy itself. I feel like if you took a random person and made them watch someone kill a cow, chances are high they would feel bad for the cow. But if the association between murder and meat doesn’t form in their heads they’ll probably not feel bad eating beef because their brain didn’t bring up the connection.
Do you know if there is a word for that sort of automatic memory recall or a way to try and create those in people? Because I feel like discovering how to make those associations stick would be extremely useful in many circumstances.
I can tell you that it was really hard to make that connection for me. 5 long years since I was first introduced to vegetarianism, a shroom trip, watching Dominion and Earthlings multiple times, the book "Tender is the flesh", and a course on generating compassion. I really made an effort to make the connection happen because I was convinced that it was the right thing but still I loved meat and couldn't say no to it, and the memories of the slaughtered animals were there too.
When my brain finally clicked I couldn't see meat as food anymore and went vegan, but meanwhile I couldn't stop wanting it, and not thinking too much about the issue while eating was easy.
I feel there's more to it for the whole issue. A strong attachment to the taste of meat is one. I have a friend that stopped being vegan and I'm sure the reason is this attachment too. And it is really hard to see it because there are a lot of mechanisms trying to convince you that it is not attachment. And I feel that this attachment kills the compassion/empathy.
I'm not 100% sure about it but I think my brain finally clicked when I was doing this compassion course. So maybe it was having a low empathy for animals the problem after all. But that was something hidden for myself, if you asked me back then about animals, I would tell you the typical bullshit about me loving animals and so forth. It was a lie that I believed myself. And that's something to be aware of because I think most of the people are on the same page.
have you heard of the book Animal Liberation by Peter Singer?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Liberation_%28book%29
Yes! I haven't read it yet but it is on my list. Is the book relevant about what we were discussing here?
it, of course, is
breaking "that connection" was a conscious choice for the industry
it's just a lump in a colourful package, not a piece of another sentient animal that was tortured and killed
i too miss some meals from my childhood (hello grandma), but i don't "crave" for them.
you don't need to "overwrite childhood memories" (though it's exactly what you do every time you remember), if your reasons to become vegetarian/vegan are well thought through and through. Your responsibility is not to please every craving but to avoid unnecessary suffering. (preaching to the choir in this community?)
nowadays i only have cravings for steam cooked broccoli 🙃
sugar is a very particular and charming monster :)
Yeah, missing that delicious flavor!
I'm "craving for pumpkin pie" because I thought of the slice I had in November and it was yummy. There's the "I need nutrients" hungry and the "I want a lil treat" hungry