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There are lots of reasons to be vegetarian or vegan, so asking if it's 'that bad' could mean many different things!
- Is it because you believe it to be morally wrong to eat living creatures? Then where do draw the line? Plants are technically alive, so Jainists only eat things derived from living things (ie. nuts, fruits, milk). Some people draw the line at some level of brain capacity; Fish don't actually have emotions and chickens aren't that smart (even though they do have emotions).
- Is it because you don't believe in mistreatment of living creatures? Then you should definitely not eat milk or eggs. What about honey? Do you care about "abuse" of bees?
- Is it for environmental reasons? Because raising livestock in the modern day has a much higher carbon footprint than growing crops, so you should especially not eat beef, but chicken and fish isn't quite as bad, and milk or eggs is kind of OK (it's still not efficient as a purely vegan diet).
- Is it for health reasons? Because studies do show that lower meat and animal product consumption is actually healthier, and recently people are making a big deal about Patrik Baboumian who is the world's strongest man - and a strict vegan!
According to all the points, eating fish is not as 'bad' as eating cow flesh and arguably it's not as bad as drinking milk.
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