People want vegetarian recipes
for many reasons. Ayurveda offers reasons that many might
not have considered.
Vegetarian
recipes have always been at the core of the Ayurveda
and of the Hindu living principles. Ayurvedic wisdom
provides a deeper insight into the reasons why you really
should stick to vegetarian recipes, even if the meat-industry
would ever get rid of mad cow disease, antibiotics and
other horrifying stuff. Take mental health for example…
The nature of meat
Flesh is a dead food, often days old by
the time it reaches the supermarket meat counter. Dead
food from whatever source is tamasic in nature, removing
vital energy from the organism. Fill two glasses with
tap water and add a slice of fresh vegetable to one
and a bit of steak to the other - keep at room temperature
and observe at the end of the third day.
Foods and digestion
Carnivorous animals possess powerful stomachs
and short simple intestines, allowing foods to be processed
and expelled within a 24-hour cycle. This short digestive
cycle minimizes both decay and the absorption of toxic
chemicals. Even so, most carnivores sleep for 10 to
24 hours following a full meal, so that all energy may
be concentrated on food processing. And most carnivores
only eat freshly killed meat. Humans have a very different
digestive tract than carnivores.
Anxiety and meat
Animals experience strong states of fear
during the process of shipping and slaughter. Such fear
will create a dramatic production of stimulating biochemicals
such as adrenalin and dopamin within the animals' flesh,
that produce similar reactions in human beings. The
body of a meat-eating individual is continually in a
state of drugged hyper-arousal, creating chronic tension,
anxiety and feelings of insecurity and confusion. One
simply looses touch with the true inner feelings and
urges. Vegetarian recipes are a way out of such madness.
Carnivores and vegetarians
Compare the difference in breath smells
of a cow and a cat. This smell is not only produced
by residual particles in the mouth, but also by waste
products discharged in the lungs.
Cat stool is probably the most unpleasant
of its kind. Cow dung has been burned for millennia
and forms the basic binding material in most of the
forms of incense sold anywhere, also in the West.
The breath rate of carnivores is fast
and shallow, a pattern associated in humans with anxiety,
tension and pain. Herbivores breath deeply and slowly,
breathing peace and relaxation.
Diet and choice
Carnivorous animals, because of their
specialization that has ecological origins, have no
choice. They must eat flesh or perish. Man however can
very well survive without meat. The fact that millions
live on vegetarian recipes alone should be ample evidence.
Plants become suitable foods for man in
two basic circumstances : at the end of the reproductive
cycle or at the end of the life cycle. Plants rely on
the consumption of their fruits and seeds for reproduction.
Most other vegetable foods are mostly eaten only when
ripe, that is at the end of their life cycle.
The source of life
All vital energy on the planet ultimately
comes from the sun. Vegetarian recipes provide the most
efficient nutriment for the human system, because plants
form the basis of the food chain, closest to the source
of life itself, which is solar energy. Carnivores rely
on second-hand photosynthetic energy, first converted
to the flesh of the herbivorous prey. Very few people
have tasted the flesh of carnivores because it is tough,
stringy and difficult to digest.
What to do ? Fire and digestion
A comparison of the digestive tracts of
man and carnivores reveals man to have a considerably
longer intestinal system - yet shorter by an almost
equal proportion than the viscera of herbivores. The
human system is not geared for eating meat, but neither
for eating
raw
fruits and vegetables. Man however has mastered
the element of fire, thus reducing the expenditure of
energy required by the intestines. One who is seeking
to raise his energy level must inevitably conclude that
digestion is one of the single greatest demands on the
system. That much less energy is available for meditation,
concentration and enjoyment. The obvious path of least
resistance is well cooked vegetarian recipes.
