Jain Study Center NC Raleigh 1997 11 YJA Regional Convention

Author(s): Jain Study Center NC Raleigh
Publisher: USA Jain Study Center NC Raleigh

Page 99

ave the most osteopoa much less of a calcium.
I think you have a new respect for my thoughts, deserved or not, now that I've completed medical school. I can now counter with medical studies that show excess protein leads to more calcium excretion and calcium from kale is more bio-available than milk. The populations that consume the most dairy have the most osteoporosis and those that consume the least dairy have the least osteoporosis, and vegans likely have much less of a calcium requirement than the US RDA. I make a strong effort to eat calcium rich broccoli, kale, spinach, fortified orange juice and soy milk and take calcium supplements just for insurance. I could get a bone densitometry test to show how strong my bones really are.
orange juice and soy
I try to articulate my dietary advice to my patients; not in terms of nonviolence, but in terms of health benefits. Almost everyone has heard about the benefits of decreased cholesterol, but few understand that only animal products contain it, and that eating soy protein rather than animal protein has actually lowered cholesterol in some studies. The National Cancer Institute's 5 a day promotion for fruits and vegetable consumption is easy on a vegan diet. Many diseases benefit from weight loss, which can follow easily on a vegan diet that is low in fat.
I'm concerned about both you and Dad, with his elevated cholesterol and diabetes. Indians, in particular, are susceptible to heart disease because of an abnormally elevated lipoprotein (binds to cholesterol). The cardiologist, who presented these findings, said that the traditional vegetarian diet, high in dairy fat, is not protective. He didn't think people would choose to become vegan, but he admitted that the vegan diet would be far more protective! Some studies show that diabetics have better-controlled sugars on a vegan diet. I wish you both could become vegan, too, for your sakes, but I will not try to make you change.
Mom, you've given me no easy answers to the problem of how much medical research involves the killing of animals and how I participate in this. I have decided that I will not kill animals in research.
I have not yet protested other's doing this research, and in fact made it a point to try to get through medical school incognito. Animal products are used everywhere in medicine, and I can only control so much. This is a constant struggle.
Karma philosophy leaves us Jains in an unusual stream of thought, and I am trying to figure out how to use it in my advice to you and my patients about health. I think that we can control some elements of our lives and we should avoid the foods and other lifestyle choices that are known to be associated with disease. I also believe, though I don't think I could say this to a non-Jain patient, that the less suffering that one inflicts on other life, the less suffering one may have to face. However, even a non-smoking, non-drinking, exercising vegan who works and rests adequately, lives in a healthy environment, and does not engage in unsafe sexual practices may get a disease. Why? I accept the possibility of past life misdemeanors, but have not experienced this as truth.
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