The way I see it, one shouldn't have to worry about "obesity" as long as they eat balanced diets, don't over eat, exercise, get enough sleep, etc etc. Meat has NOTHING to do with it.
Even when controlling for other factors, veg'ns are far less likely to be obese or suffer from high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or heart disease. Nothing to do with it?
You'll notice most professional athletes understand the importance of meat (not going into how much better it tastes over nuts and berries). Providing protein, ALL the amino acids, iron, and much much more nutrients, meat is a powerhouse.
It also provides saturated fat, cholesterol,
estrogen, etc. It's a powerhouse in the bad sense, too. It's been shown pretty conclusively that even professional athletes, olympians, and bodybuilders don't need meat, as some of the best of all time have become champions without it.
Sure it contains higher fat count than some vegetarian alternatives, but buy lean meat (I always do) and, as previously mentioned, eat balanced (for example, a burger can provide all food groups (and I'm not refering to some junky burger that you buy in packs of 20 at a store, but home-made burgers from ground beef. I can BBQ a mean burger)).
That mitigates (doesn't cancel out, but does mitigate) one of the problems with meat, but it does nothing against the many others. If you're trying so hard to make a meat-eating diet less like a meat-eating diet, is that really any easier or better than just cutting out the meat to begin with?
Other than the fat contents, another common excuse for vegetarians that I hear is about the "humanity of killing animals". What about the humanity of killing plants? 
I don't think plants can contemplate suffering, agony, or terror. Plants do not scream in pain. Plants do not see their friends and family with their throats cut, thrashing in agony as they die in a pool of their own blood. The animals we raise for food absolutely do. Even if killing plants were unethical, eating meat causes many times more plants to be eaten because it takes up to 16 pounds of feed to produce one pound of edible flesh. Either way, your argument loses.
In all honesty, the animals are raised by humans in careful numbers for that purpose.
You seem to be suggesting that the meat industry regulates itself in a responsible manner. If you'll buy that, I've got some ocean front property in Tibet you might be interested in.
Their purpose is food, and there's nothing inhuman about it.
No, the purpose of an animal is to live, thrive, and reproduce. Everything that is even remotely normal for a cow, pig, or chicken to do in life is completely subverted by farming.
Just basic food chain. It's like how your cat catches that mouse, or how that wolf gets a deer. To put bluntly, it's just life.
You're comparing things that aren't even remotely similar. Your cat isn't causing widespread habitat destruction. That wolf isn't causing worldwide outbreaks of deadly diseases. Crocodiles need flesh to survive. We don't.
That's a very biased site....
What, you think that's rare? Every time someone goes into a factory farm or slaughterhouse with a camera, they find the same kinds of cruelty. This is downright
typical. How would you feel if dogs or cats were treated the same way?
Laws and regulations do not stop people from making poor choices.
I can't really argue with that, I suppose. I'm not sure what else there is to do. It's kind of a no-win situation, it seems.
Pictures of abused animals or aborted bloody fetuses provides insight into the radical elements of our societies but converts very few people - indeed, it turns them away.
My experience tells me otherwise. I don't know about you, but most of the veg'ns I know changed their habits as a direct result of being made aware of the cruelty involved in the meat industry. Most of us already know these things are happening, but sometimes it takes something gruesome to shock us out of our complacency. For me, that moment was when I cut open the package of a pound of ground turkey and torrents of blood came gushing out of it. It wasn't that it was disgusting or that it made me nauseous, as I have an abnormally strong stomach. Rather, it made me realize that what I was doing by funding the slaughter of that animal was the same as if I had cut its throat myself.
I find that the typical story of the veg'ns I know is summed up pretty well by this quote:
It was a video that showed a bunch of guys surrounding an animal, and they were roping it off and the animal was screaming in pain. I couldn't watch it. I stopped three seconds in and in that moment I said, "You know what? I cannot sit here and complain about this animal's suffering when I myself contributed to it." Regardless of how the animal is killed, it's happening because you demanded it, because you paid for it, because you said "I need a supply of this. I need to feed my family, even though I could feed them plenty of other things that wouldn't make us feel so dirty inside."
Why should any industry have to cover up their methods? Why should anyone be afraid to see how their food got to their plate? Why should anyone have to lie to their children about where their food came from? I can't force anyone to eat a certain way, and ethically I wouldn't want to. However, I believe everyone deserves to know the truth about what they're eating, what it does to their bodies, what it does to the environment, the suffering that it causes, and that it is all done so needlessly. Everyone is free to make their own choices, but they have the right to make those choices based on truth instead of blissful ignorance.
Edit: Cleaned up some of the wording.
