Tuesday, February 15, 2022

VEGETARIANISM IN AYURVEDA

 

Going Vegetarian is a new trend all over the world. There are several factors that has contributed to the rise in number of vegetarians.

 In some countries like India being vegetarian comes as part of their culture and cuisine. Many Indians are vegetarians mostly because of their faith.

Coming to Ayurveda the situation is bit ambiguous. Ayurveda does not endorse 100% vegetarianism. There are chapters in old classical ayurvedic books where there is explicit description about meat and alcoholic beverages. It was not a taboo in ancient India.

But coming to the current day practice most ayurvedic doctors ask their patients to follow a vegetarian diet. This is due to the fact that when a patient is on ayurvedic treatment the decoctions and medicated ghee are given to patient enterically. Especially in detoxification treatments like panchakarma procedures. If we eat nonvegetarian food, which in turn are complex proteins and fats can impede with the absorption of medicines. In some situations, they combine to form toxins.

Moreover, the meat might contain chemical toxins which might get lodged in deeper cells of our body, mostly in liver and kidneys, but if the amount goes higher it can even be stored in other parts of the body like bones and muscles.

The purpose of Panchakrma procedure itself is detoxification and this is why meat and  panchakarma procedure do not go hand in hand.

In many cases doctors insist the patients to on a vegetarian diet even for ‘shamana’ (symptomatic or palliative) treatment. Especially if they prescribe you medicines that contain shilajith or gulgulu.

There is also statistical evidence to prove that incidence of many diseases like coronary artery diseases, hypertension and various types of cancer are more prevalent among meat eaters.

 Being vegetarian is a noble idea, but one must do that with care because sometimes avoiding meat altogether can derail the nutritional and absorptive capacity of people. Some even may end up in malnutrition and poor immunity. Some may feel bloated and more gas formation in our gastrointestinal tract; especially while trying to eat lentils instead of meat as a suitable protein replacement.

But some people are able to shift to a vegetarian diet overnight without any problems, especially if they have a spiritual  inclination.

Even though milk and milk products do not come strictly under vegetarian food, it is widley accepted as a 'Satwik' food (the food that nourish our saitly qualities) and this can be a good replacement for protein and fats. Milk products like cheese, yoghurt, butter milk and curd contain probiotics. Probiotics contain many food materials normally milk does not have, this is due to fermentation and other microbial activities. Ayurveda says milk products like curd must not be eaten at night or on a daily basis.

We are facing unprecedent global warming and climate change; one contributor to excess carbon to atmosphere is large scale cattle farms, more and more forests are cleared for grazing and also cattle is the biggest contributor of methane gas which also adds to carbon in the atmosphere.

So be a vegetarian for your health and health of our planet Earth.

 

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