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MEDIEVAL JAINSM: CULTUREAND ENVIRONMENT
great amongst non-vegetarians than vegetarians apart from viruses and other causes being responsible for it.
One of the most convincing reasons why flesh should be left out of the diet is the fact that it is often a carrier of disease germs. Diseases of many kinds are on the increase in the animal kingdom; flesh foods are becoming more and more unsafe as source of human food. We exclude the flesh of dead animals because it doubles the work of vital organs, liver and also the organ of elimination, viz., the kidneys and is much more energy consuming to eliminate the waste matter of animal carcass than the end products of plant kingdom.
It is now well understood that emotions of worry, fear and anger actually poison blood and tissues. The animal's instinctive fear of death when driven to slaughter pans, augmented by the slight and odour of the blood shambles is beyond human imagination. Animals when being slaughtered release some hormones, in the midst of their struggle for living, which are full of painful vibrations and affect the flesh of the animals slaughtered. To eat such surcharged vitiated meat has own unseen and unknown effect on those who feed on the flesh. Apart from realizing the importance of the vegetarian diet from the health, disease and aesthetic points of view, it is necessary to study the design of the body and specially the working of the digestive system.
Physiologically anatomically carnivorous animals have certain characteristics which are absent in man. Biologically human beings are different in the scheme of nature, because we have a mind with which we reason. The human hand, without strong claws, is not well adapted to killing and dismembering other creatures. The teeth, the so-called canine, are not designed for tearing the flesh or ripping when compared with those of carnivores. Besides human saliva is alkaline containing
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