‘Be a vegetarian, to live within your means and be healthy’

Dr. Telli C Rajaratnam

It takes a little planning once you have set your mind to becoming a vegetarian. There is nothing too complicated to deal with but there are some important things to remember to ensure that the transition goes smoothly.

These days life is a lot simpler to have a vegetarian diet plan so that you have a healthy, nutritious and exciting diet. Vegetarian diet plans do not need to be tasteless.

Of course before you get to that point you really need to identify what sort of vegetarian you are going to be because there are many different types of vegetarians and depending upon what type of vegetarian you are you will have to have different products eliminated from your diet/lifestyle. It is not a religion but it is a major lifestyle change that takes your system a little while to get used to. That is why you need some help and advice along the way.

“A fully divine person is a full human being. A full human being is fully divine. Right now we are only half a human being. We do things with hesitation, we do things with ego. We don't believe that it is God who arranges all this for our enjoyment, for our experience. We separate sin and virtue. We make a big deal out of everything, and accordingly judge ourselves and other people. We suffer from our own limitations about what God should do. Understand? Actually, God is inside us and we limit Him. We like to enjoy ourselves and play, but we don't know how. We just say to others, ‘Ah! You shouldn't do that,’ and to ourselves, ‘I shouldn't do that. I must not do this. So, why should I be vegetarian?’ Yeah! I know. I am vegetarian because the God inside me wants it.”

“When we are pure in our deeds, speech and thought, even for a second, all the deities, the gods, and the guardian angels will support us. At that moment, the entire universe belongs to us and supports us, and the throne is there for us to reign upon.”

A lifetime commitment to a vegan or lacto-vegetarian diet is a prerequisite for initiation into the Quan Yin Method. Foods from plant sources and dairy products are permitted on this diet, but all other foods from animal sources including eggs should not be eaten. There are many reasons for this, but the most important comes from the First Precept, which tells us to refrain from taking the life of sentient beings, or “Thou shalt not kill.”

Not killing or otherwise harming other living creatures is of obvious benefit for them. Less obvious is the fact that refraining from harming others is equally advantageous for ourselves. Why? Because of the law of Karma. “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.” When you kill, or cause others to kill for you, in order to satisfy your desire for meat, you incur a Karmic debt, and this debt must eventually be repaid.

So, in a very real sense, the keeping of a vegetarian diet is a gift which we give to ourselves. We feel better, the quality of our lives improves as the heaviness of our Karmic indebtedness diminishes, and we are offered entrance into new subtle and heavenly realms of inner experience. It is well worth the small price you have to pay!

The spiritual arguments against eating meat are convincing for some people, but there are other compelling reasons for being a vegetarian. All of them are rooted in common sense. They have to do with issues of personal health and nutrition, ecology and the environment, ethics and animal suffering and world hunger.

Health and nutrition

Studies of human evolution have shown that our ancestors were vegetarian by nature. The structure of the human body is not suited for eating meat. This was demonstrated in an essay on comparative anatomy by Dr. G. S. Huntingen of Columbia University. He pointed out that carnivores have short, small and large intestines. Their large intestine is characteristically very straight and smooth.

In contrast, vegetarian animals have both a long small intestine and a long large intestine. Because of the low fiber content and high protein density of meat, the intestines do not require a long time to absorb nutrients; thus, the intestines of carnivores are shorter in length than those of vegetarian animals.

Humans, like other naturally vegetarian animals, have both a long, small and large intestine. Together, our intestines are approximately 28 feet (eight and a half meters) in length. The small intestine is folded back on itself many times, and its walls are convoluted, not smooth. Because they are longer than those found in carnivores, the meat we eat stays in our intestines for a longer period of time. Consequently, the meat can putrefy and create toxins. These toxins have been implicated as a cause of colon cancer and they also increase the burden on the liver, which has the function of getting rid of toxins. This can cause cirrhosis and even cancer of the liver.

Cardiovascular disorders

Meat contains a lot of urokinase protein and urea, which add to the burden on the kidneys, and can destroy kidney function. There are 14 grams of urokinase protein in every pound of steak. If living cells are put into liquid urokinase protein, their metabolic function will degenerate. Furthermore, meat lacks cellulose or fiber, and lack of fiber can easily create constipation. It is known that constipation can cause rectal cancer or piles.

The cholesterol and saturated fats in flesh also create cardiovascular disorders. Cardiovascular disorders are the number one leading cause of death in the world.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death. Experiments indicate that the burning and roasting of flesh creates a chemical element (Methylcholanthrene) which is a powerful carcinogen. Mice given this chemical develop cancers, such as bone tumors, cancer of the blood, cancer of the stomach, etc.

Research has shown that infant mice fed by a female mouse having breast cancer will also develop cancer. When human cancer cells were injected into animals, the animals also developed cancer. If the meat which we eat daily comes from animals that originally have such disorders, and we take them into our body, there is a good chance we will also get the diseases.

Non-vegetarian diet

Most people assume that meat is clean and safe, that there are inspections done at all butcheries. There are far too many cattle, pigs, poultry etc. killed for sale every day for each one to actually be examined. It's very difficult to check whether a piece of meat has cancer in it, let alone check every single animal. Currently, the meat industry just cuts off the head when it has a problem, or cuts off the leg which is diseased. Only the bad parts are removed and the rest is sold.

The famous vegetarian, Dr. J. H. Kellogg said, “When we eat vegetarian food, we don't have to worry about what kind of disease the food died of. This makes a joyful meal!”

There is yet another concern. Antibiotics as well as other drugs including steroids and growth hormones are either added to animal feed or injected directly into the animals. It has been reported that people eating these animals will absorb these drugs into their bodies. There is a possibility that antibiotics in meat are diminishing the effectiveness of antibiotics for human use.

There are some people who consider the vegetarian diet not sufficiently nourishing. An American surgical expert, Dr. Miller, practiced medicine for 40 years in Formosa. He established a hospital there, where all the meals were vegetarian, for staff members as well as the patients. He said, “The mouse is one kind of animal which can support its life with both a vegetarian and non-vegetarian diet. If two mice are segregated, with one eating flesh and the other vegetarian food, we find that their growth and development are the same, but that the vegetarian mouse lives longer and has greater resistance to disease. Furthermore, when the two mice got sick, the vegetarian mouse recovered quicker.” He then added, “The medicine given to us by modern science has improved greatly, but it can only treat illnesses. Food, however, can sustain our health.” He pointed out that, “Food from plants is a more direct source of nutrition than meat. People eat animals, but the source of nutrition for the animals we eat is plants. The lives of most animals are short, and animals have nearly all the diseases that mankind has. It is very likely that the diseases of mankind come from eating the flesh of diseased animals. So, why don't people get their nutrition directly from plants?”

Protein foods

Dr. Miller suggested that we only need cereals, beans and vegetables to get all the nourishment we need to maintain good health.

Many people have the idea that animal protein is ‘superior’ to plant protein because the former is considered a complete protein, and the latter is incomplete. The truth is that some plant proteins are complete, and that food combining can create complete proteins out of several incomplete protein foods.

In March 1988 the American Dietetic Association announced that: “It is the position of the ADA that vegetarian diets are healthful and nutritionally adequate when appropriately planned.”

It is often falsely believed that meat eaters are stronger than vegetarians, but an experiment conducted by Professor Irving Fisher of Yale University on 32 vegetarians and 15 meat-eaters showed that vegetarians had more endurance than meat eaters. He had people hold out their arms for as long as possible. The outcome from the test was very clear. Among the 15 meat-eaters, only two persons could hold out their arms for 15 to 30 minutes; however, among the 32 vegetarians, 22 persons held out their arms for 15 to 30 minutes, 15 persons for over thirty minutes, nine persons for over one hour, four persons for over two hours, and one vegetarian held his arms out for over three hours.

World Health Organization

Many long distance track athletes keep a vegetarian diet for the time preceding competitions. Dr. Barbara More, an expert in vegetarian therapy, completed a one hundred and ten mile race in 27 hours and 30 minutes. A woman of 56 years of age, she broke all the records held by young men. “I want to be an example to show that people who take a whole vegetarian diet will enjoy a strong body, a clear mind, and a purified life.”

Does the vegetarian get enough protein in his diet? The World Health Organization recommends that 4.5 percent of daily calories be derived from protein. Wheat has 17 percent of it's calories as protein, broccoli has 45 percent and rice has 8 percent. It is very easy to have a protein rich diet without eating meat. With the additional benefit of avoiding the many diseases caused by high fat diets such as heart disease and many cancers, vegetarianism is clearly the superior choice.

The relationship between over consumption of meat, and other animal source foods containing high levels of saturated fats, and heart disease, breast cancer, colon cancer and strokes has been proven. Other diseases which are often prevented and sometimes cured by a low fat vegetarian diet include: kidney stones, prostate cancer, diabetes, peptic ulcers, gallstones, irritable bowel syndrome, arthritis, gum disease, acne, pancreatic cancer, stomach cancer, hypoglycemia, constipation, diverticulosis, hypertension, osteoporosis, ovarian cancer, hemorrhoids, obesity and asthma.

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