Vegetarianism Scientific And Spiritual Basis

Author(s): Jashwant B Mehta
Publisher: Jashwant B Mehta

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The International Conference on Vegetable Nutrition, a major conference on the subject held in 2002 at California has included some encouraging findings of the beneficial effects of vegetarian diet: that a predominantly vegetarian diet may have beneficial effects for kidney and nerve function in diabetics, as well as for weight loss; that eating more fruits and vegetables can slow, and perhaps reverse, age-related declines in brain function and in cognitive and motor performance - at least in rats; that vegetarian seniors have a lower death rate and use less medication than meat-eating seniors; that vegetarians have a healthier total intake of fats and cholesterol.1
Studies have shown that vegetarians are healthier than meat eaters and vegetarians visit hospitals 22% less often than the meat-eaters and when they do visit, they trend to spend a similarly reduced time at the hospital.
The vegetarians run lesser risk of contracting bacterial infections like salmonella, listeria, cambylobacer and E-coli. Ptomaine poisoning is a type of food poisoning which is a result of highly toxic substances due to putrefaction or metabolic decomposition of animal proteins.
As soon as an animal is slaughtered, its flesh begins to putrefy, and after several days it turns a sickly grey. The meat industry masks this discoloration by adding nitrites, nitrates, and other preservatives to give the meat a bright red color. But research has now shown that many of these preservatives are carcinogenic (cancer causing). Although these drugs will still be present in the meat when you eat it, the law does not require that they be listed on the package.
The Mad Cow Disease in Britain was caused by consuming contaminated beef because the source of meat was from the cattle who were fed unnatural diet of meat. The Bird Flu was transmitted from infected chickens to humans due to which over a million chickens had to be destroyed in Hong Kong.
Meats are frozen for long period of time. Some meats (especially poultry) are frozen upto 2 years. Cold temperatures do not kill all species of bacteria. Worst than this, as it is shipped and stored, meat frozen is thawed and refrozen many times. This is almost unavoidable.
One study of 25000 Californians carried out over a 20-year period showed that meat consumption was associated with higher incidence of heart attacks in both men & women. This was mainly due to the high cholesterol and fat found in animal flesh. An elaborate statistical analysis has indicated that
1 'Should you be a vegetarian?' Time magazine - July 15, 2002.
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