Guest guest Posted October 22, 2002 Report Share Posted October 22, 2002 Hi Keval, As I understand it, the Hindu tradition does not recommend vegetarianism across the board. For physically active people, for example, meat is allowed and even recommended. If an individual is uncomfortable eating non-veg, they should try to either stop eating meat or overcome their discomfort. As for the Gita saying that tamasic foods are to be avoided, as I recall, the cause and effect state therein is opposite. In Chapter 14, Krishna says that 'you will crave old, putrid, etc. food if you are in a tamasic state of mind' (paraphrased by myself). Krishna does not say that such foods will MAKE you tamasic. And meat is not listed among the foods that tamasic people crave, anyway. Vallath Nandakumar vallathn >Mike Brooker <patria1818 >Tue, 22 Oct 2002 10:33:52 -0700 (PDT) > >As for posts on vegetarianism -- there's no doubt that >a veggie diet is best for health and environmental >reasons, and it's recommended in the Hindu tradition, >though the Gita never says "Thou shalt not eat meat" >(only that certain foods are tamasic and should be >avoided) ... >Jai Ma! > >Keval > > > >Y! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your web site >http://webhosting./ _______________ Get faster connections -- switch to MSN Internet Access! http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 22, 2002 Report Share Posted October 22, 2002 Most of what's extreme vegetarianism comes from the Vaishnava tradition, of which the Hare Krishna movement follows. Vaishnavas are much different in the way they do things, compared to people of other paths. For example, they place much more importance on "acharyas" (learned teachers), and lineages, while finding a sadguru is acceptable. There's much more importance placed on "properness", which tends to give it an elitist reputation. A non-vegetarian would feel pretty alienated amongst Vaishnavas, while not so among Shakta's or Tantric folk. I have a very old Catholic Bible with extra stuff at the back of it, and I recall it emphasized little meat in the diet unless you did manual labor. In some Catholic monastic orders, you were to eat vegetarian unless sick (weakness) or while traveling since you were expected to beg for your food along the way. There's good reasons and spiritual reasons for being vegetarian, but it's not a be-all end-all aspect of life. Better to be a nice person, of stable mind and eat meat, than to be a flaky, imbalanced vegetarian. tom Ammachi, "Vallath Nandakumar" <vallathn@h...> wrote: > > Hi Keval, > > As I understand it, the Hindu tradition does not recommend > vegetarianism across the board. For physically active people, > for example, meat is allowed and even recommended. If an individual > is uncomfortable eating non-veg, they should try to either stop eating > meat or overcome their discomfort. > > As for the Gita saying that tamasic foods are to be avoided, as I > recall, the cause and effect state therein is opposite. In Chapter 14, > Krishna says that 'you will crave old, putrid, etc. food if you are in > a tamasic state of mind' (paraphrased by myself). Krishna does not > say that such foods will MAKE you tamasic. And meat is not listed > among the foods that tamasic people crave, anyway. > > Vallath Nandakumar > vallathn@h... > > > > > >Mike Brooker <patria1818> > >Tue, 22 Oct 2002 10:33:52 -0700 (PDT) > > > >As for posts on vegetarianism -- there's no doubt that > >a veggie diet is best for health and environmental > >reasons, and it's recommended in the Hindu tradition, > >though the Gita never says "Thou shalt not eat meat" > >(only that certain foods are tamasic and should be > >avoided) ... > >Jai Ma! > > > >Keval Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 23, 2002 Report Share Posted October 23, 2002 > >Mike Brooker <patria1818> > >Tue, 22 Oct 2002 10:33:52 -0700 (PDT) > > > >As for posts on vegetarianism -- there's no doubt that > >a veggie diet is best for health and environmental The health problems associated with eating meat have their basis in what is probably the single greatest change in human nutrition to occur in the past 100 years: large scale cultivation of seed crops (especially, corn and soybeans). The effect it has had is vastly increased use of processed vegetable oil and meat with a poor lipid profile due to the animals having been fed almost nothing but grain. All this results in excessive intake of Omega 6 oils and insufficient intake of Omega 3. Omega 6 oils are metabolized into inflammatory prostaglandins; Omega 3 oils are metabolized into anti-inflammatory prostaglandins. Ideally, the diet should include small amounts of Omega 6 and 3 oils in a ratio of about 3:1; the modern diet has a ratio of about 20:1 or more. That results in the body being in a constant state of inflammation, and inflammation is implicated in both cancer and heart disease. And, even vegans can have this unbalanced intake of Omega 6/3 if they consume lots of polyunsaturated seed oil or a lot of grain. Vegans would do well to reduce intake of polyunsaturated seed oils and supplement with Omega 3 in the form of freshly ground flax seed or high-quality flax seed oil that has NOT yet gone rancid. And, everyone should consume anti-oxidant foods and/or supplements to protect against dietary fat from being turned to heart-stopping gunk by free radicals. Non-vegans should consume dairy from pastured cows. Milk from grass-fed cows has the Omega 3 oils that are lacking in factory milk as well as much greater amounts of healthy conjugated linoleic acid. As for meat eaters, chicken and eggs should be from chickens that have had access to significant amounts of greens (it doesn't count if the birds have been allowed to "free range" in a chicken-wire enclosure that has been scratched down to bare earth). Beef eaters should consume grass-fed beef (or even better, grass-fed bison). One more thing: it's good to include significant amounts of raw food in the diet and not subject cooked food to very high temperatures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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