In Support of Vegetarianism
`You are what you eat’ is an old saying. It is a fact that it is the food that makes a man. The food we eat, its quality, and quantity is integral to a healthy life. In keeping with one’s tastes, inclination and social conditioning, one may be a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian.
In India, vegetarianism has more supporters than detractors, and rightly so, because food is regarded as something which not only sustains the body, but is also important to maintain the purity of soul and heart.
Indian food science lays emphasis on food that increases the strength of the body and its vitality. Vegetarian food is sattvic in nature i.e., it is conducive to developing a good moral character. If an item of food is injurious to the mind, it is not considered fit for consumption, even if it is rich in protein and satisfies the taste buds.
Vegetarianism promotes a natural way of life. Leading a vegetarian way of life helps the animal kingdom to co-exist peacefully with man. The animal supplies milk, manure and energy. This has been central to the Indian culture for a number of years.
Vegetarian diet provides an infinite variety of flavours, whereas, non-vegetarian food hardly has any taste of its own. These have to be seasoned with ingredients from the vegetable kingdom to make them palatable. Surveys have shown that the medical bills of vegetarians are considerably lower than those of non-vegetarians. Medical research has further shown that vegetarianism offers protection against coronary diseases. It prevents and helps effective management of gastrointestinal problems. A vegetarian diet is most suitable for diabetics. The nephrologists use vegetarian diet as a major part of therapeutics. Besides, a vegetarian diet is more useful in the treatment of liver disorders, particularly in the last: stages of liver failure, when the intake of fat must be reduced. A vegetarian rarely suffers from high blood pressure. A vegetarian diet is often very beneficial in arthritis because of its high fibre content. In India, vegetarians are usually lacto-vegetarians, i.e. they use milk products as well. The other variations include pure vegetarians who do not consume anything coming from animal kingdom and lacto-ova-vegetarians who include the egg-consuming population.
It is significant to note that in the USA and other western countries, thirty to forty million people have adopted vegetarianism in the last decade. More and more people are trying to adopt a vegetarian diet, not only on ethical and humanitarian grounds but also for health or ecological reasons. Despite its message of universal love and non-violence, vegetarianism has not spread, as it should, because vegetarianism is a way of life that is best cultivated in the mind before it can be put to practice.
