Diet Considerations, Health, Obessity, Part-II

[Guest guest]

In continuation with earlier post, todays post discusses farming of

food. One may argue that this topic falls outside ayurveda, but we

must know the way our foodgrains are harvested. The reasons for poor

health and obessity lies in the method of crop production. We also

discuss food suppliments, genetically engineered food.

 

Manures, Pesticides

 

Nature has provided adequate resistance to each specie to fight

against diseases to which it is vulnerable. Same resistance they

transfer to humans, when consumed. While scientists created chemical

fertilizers and altered the gene structure in chase for materialism,

they ignored the fact that when production increases, the quality or

health decreases. The hybrid seeds gave increased crops quantity but

it lacked the basic Jeeva shakti and therefore resistance. Organic

manures, being made from live material like cowdung, wastage

containing cellulose, transfer the Jeevashakti present in them to

plants/crops. Organic manures created by us are not artificial ones,

they just mimic the process going on in the nature for millions of

years. Chemical fertilizers, on the other hand, have no Jeevashakti

at all. Hence low resistance of crops to pests, diseases. And what

happens in reality? The pests develop resistance to pesticides, they

learn how to live in threatening situations. They develop tolerance,

just as human body develops drug tolerance. Nature has given this

kind of seasoning capability to every specie. Hence more poisonous

pesticides needed slowly. And they finally enter in the body of same

scientist, through food. Why all this genocide for materialism?

Today, the richest country in the world has no industry other than

dairy and agriculture. Dairy provides organic manure for agriculture.

Due to chemical fertilizers, in developing countries, while food

production has increased, per hectare production has decreased, even

with hybrid seeds. This is due to reduction in fertilization power of

land with this chemical attack. Many lands have grown infertile. Now

they cant produce anything useful even with fertilizers. Indian

farmers in Maharashtra, through cow urine, cowdung, etc., have found

a process by which the land can be brought back to yielding, taking

three years. See the connection between dairy and agriculture.

 

An American scientist, Dr. Noel Wit Mayer has found that pesticide

created using neem can save crops from nearly 200 different pests.

Furthermore, the grains can be preserved for nearly ten months from

insect attack. Apart from being a safe pesticide, Neem, unlike other

pesticides does not cause any side effects on humans or other

animals. He has a ten year research to back his claims. Dr. Robert

Larson, found that neem pesticides can protect all crops from 470

different species of pests. He has obtained global patent, and sold

the rights to a drug multinational. This multinational, whether it

will make more profits through selling neem pesticides or drugs which

may become essential to save people from traditional pesticides it

sells, it is difficult to say. In India, there is one district in

Maharashtra, where chemical fertilizers and pesticides are replaced

by organic manure and neem+cow urine pesticide. This being

development of last four years, will spread to other districts and

states very rapidly.

 

Food supplements, Genetically modified Foods

 

Questions about safety of genetically engineered food, currently

estimated to affect up to 70 percent of food supply, fuel hot

debates in the news every day. The scientists, health workers,

environmentalists, and consumer advocates are concerned about this

new technology - namely, that it poses risks to the environment and

to human health and economic well-being. But while it doesn't often

make headlines, the ancient science of ayurveda offers a unique

perspective on the issue, one that suggests greater spiritual

ramifications than even most critics will acknowledge.

 

As psychiatrist Byron P. Rigby, president of the Australian

Association of Ayur Vedic Medicine explains, genetic engineering

actually poses not a crisis of biological science, but "a crisis of

consciousness." The technology involves inserting genetic material

from animals, insects, viruses, and other organisms into the DNA of

food products such as corn, soybeans, and tomatoes - a practice that

goes against the sacred fabric of life. Nature's organizing power is

Jeevashakti. It is this intelligence in the DNA that determines the

characteristics of different species. By splicing foreign genetic

material into the DNA of a plant, the plant's fundamental connection

with the wholeness of life is damaged.

 

This damage gets passed on to us at the dinner table as well as when

we use cosmetics, where many animal products are mixed with herbal

cosmetics also. The ayurvedic texts define the source of all disease

and suffering as "the mistake of the intellect." This occurs when

individuals (or even single cells) "forget" their connections with

the wholeness of life and believe themselves to be isolated entities.

Creating, and then eating/applying, genetically engineered

foods/cosmetics exposes us to the mistake. If you physically injure

someone, it is usually possible to repair the damage. However, if you

damage someone spiritually, it destroys the Jeevashakti. Because

nature's fundamental intelligence has been damaged in genetically

engineered food, eating it causes spiritual damage.

 

We are all threads in the fabric of creation, says ancient ayurvedic

texts. To believe ourselves to be the weavers, capable of

successfully manipulating nature's intelligence, is a symptom of

mistake and the assumption reveals our ultimate naiveté. Says Steven

Druker, J.D., executive director of the Alliance for Bio-

Integrity, "The genetic program of a living organism is vastly more

powerful and more complex than limited human intelligence." This can

be easily understood by just one example. When scientists created

more and more powerful pesticides, the insects and pests also

developed their intelligence to survive, or increased their

Jeevashakti. This is also evident in India, where, mosquitoes are no

more absent in the presence of fluorescent lamps, while in the child

hood days of author, if you did not have repellant, just leave lamp

on and sleep peacefully. They now bite even when fan is ON full

speed. The instinct to survive is the intelligence provided by

universe to all.

 

Analysts use many different phrases to describe genetically

engineered foods. The biotech industry rarely uses the

phrase "genetically engineered foods," sticking with the more bland

(and less controversial) phrase "biotech foods."

In Europe, genetically engineered foods are more commonly referred to

as genetically modified foods, genetically altered foods or GMOs

(short for genetically modified organisms). But scientists generally

agree that "genetically engineered" more accurately represents the

process than "genetically modified."

 

Supporters of biotech foods often try to argue that we have been

genetically modifying our foods for centuries, through a process

known as hybridization, or inter-breeding. But that process is far

different than the recombinant DNA splicing used in modern

agricultural biotechnology. Hybridization occurs in nature as a

result of attraction forces, chemistry between species, especially

where reproduction is sexual. By providing attraction only where

needed, Nature ensures useful hybridization. Strong, intelligent and

healthy babies are generally born out of intercast, inter-religion

love marriages in Indian societies, as seen by this author. The lack

of a signle marriage with nadi-dosha in such marriages made him

believe, that nature does not cause attraction if progency is likely

to suffer. This is experience, not provable in laboratories or

measurable quantity.

 

It is interesting to note that the new eleventh edition of the

Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary added the word "Frankenfood" as

another term to describe genetically engineered food.

 

The arguments by those fighting against this hybridization can be

checked up at

http://www.newswithviews.com/Smith/jeffrey1.htm

 

Due to the high complexity and scientific nature of genetic

engineering, people aren't aware of this topic. However, the spectrum

of genetic engineering reaches beyond the realm of science, as it is

part of each area of general education. For example, it affects

globalization because it could have an impact on population rates,

provides nutrition, affects people differently and have social and

economic impacts. Biotechnology crosses the area of pluralism as it

has an effect on public policies and opinions. It is part of the area

of aesthetics as it could change the landscapes and food appearance.

Mathematics is involved in the use of forecasting future trends and

profits. New genetically engineered products have the potential to

drive a large amount of businesses out of business. For example, a

genetically engineered product called BgH can increase milk

production by 40% and would tend to force about 30% of all dairy

farms in the US out of business once introduced into the market. In

the case of new genetically engineered `golden rice' which contains

high level of beta-carotene (Vitamin A) to combat blindness in

malnourished Asian countries. Instead however, Asians experienced a

Vitamin A toxicity which resulted in abdominal pains, nausea,

vomiting, dizziness and deformities of the body as well as problems

with the depletion of its scarce water resources by using more then

the traditional amounts (www.purefoods.com). Genetically engineered

products have the potential to be highly destructive creating gene

mutations, superweeds, health risks, and unknown effects from lack of

research and evidence on safety issues. Consumers should be aware of

the foods that they are eating and possible long term effects.

Iodized salt was introduced to take care of damage to thyroid glands

that may occur due to low Iodine percentage in sea salt. But after

eating iodized salt for last twenty years in India, obessity cases

increased ten fold. Body does not accept chemical combination which

does not naturally occur in environment.

 

In 1997, the United States Patent Office received 289 applications

for patent approvals for genetically altered plants. In 1999, 65

million acres of cropland were used to produce genetically altered

crops, 50 million acres of which were on United States soil. There

are no statistics or studies done to determine is given the choice,

whether American consumers would chose genetically engineered crops.

Many European countries are against these types of crops because of

moral, environmental and food safety reasons. In addition, Austria

and Luxembourg have banned all biotech crops. Currently, the United

States Food and Drug Administration does not require a label that

identifies how a crop was developed or grown.

 

In India, movement is on, to create genetically altered medicinal

plants, so that they give more outputs for export to western

countries where demand is far exceeding the supply. Already many

dense forests in Himalayas stand denuded in search of rare species of

medicinal plants.

 

Author believes that the damage to our health in the form of all

Vatic disorders, diabetes, hypertension etc is caused by eating

this "extra production but low resistance to diseases" food. Many of

the chronic cases which allopaths attribute to genetic defect, shoudl

be the result of genetically modified food eaten by parents. Nature

gives an instinct to each specie to know what is food what is poison.

What was food so far, has become poison now, and the intelligence to

know that itis poison is missing!

 

Pesticide residues, pollution entering through water and air have

just added fuel to fire. The original Indian food grains which are

not "hybridized" are not only tasty, but easy to digest and give

satisfaction. Moreover, they require very little organic manure and

grow very rapidly. Village people, tribals who are using such grains,

rarely get any problems. Normal deliveries is very much "Normal" with

them.

 

And by eating "seedless" variety of grapes, papaya guava, and similar

other fruits, we city folks have become seedless, as the falling

figures of average sperm counts over last forty years show. The seeds

which produce heavy grains can give more money to farmer, but can

also make the consumer obese, as his Sapt Dhatu process gets

disturbed. In nature, every higher specie has lower specie as food.

But reproductive power built into each specie is the fundamental law

of nature. And it grows stronger and stronger as one moves from lower

to higher (more intelligent) species. Then what is the reason for

decreasing fertility of humans? The early menopause, puberty, hormone

imbalance, large proportion of diabetics, premature ovarian failures

are result of chemical attack on our endocrinal system by these

engineered/chemical laden foods. Increase in the births with spinal

and brain disorders can not be linked to any other reason.

 

With these conclusions, this is second post in this "Food for Health

and Obesity" series. Tomorrows post will discuss Obesity issues fully.

 

Dr. Bhate