[Vegetarianism (A look at a dietary choice)]

[Guest guest]

Good Day Brothers and Sisters,

Its Monday, 22nd March 2010

 

 

 

 

 

Hello My dear Brothers and Sisters,

Good Morning and a Great New Day full of laughter,

joy and peace to you all,

 

An article on Vegetarianism ..

If I may so myself, an excellently composed article that encompasses

most aspects of vegetarianism without prejudice ...

 

A must read and worth forwarding and saving article ....

 

 

 

 

HEALTHY

BYTES

 

(An excellent writeup on Vegetarianism and its various aspects

This article posted to a by Ms Saraswati (many good articles

have been posted by her .. This too is here with her permission ...

Do read it .. Its an eye opener of sorts ..Although a vegetarian myself,

I am not averse to logical and sound arguments even in favour of

meat eating .. For now, its vegetarianism ...)

 

Vegetarianism

 

 

A variety

of vegetarian food ingredients

 

 

Vegetarianism is the practice of not consuming the flesh of any animal (including sea animals) with or without also eschewing

other animal derivatives, such as

dairy

products or eggs.

Some vegetarians also choose to refrain from wearing clothing that has involved the death of animals, such as leather, silk and fur.

 

Veganism excludes all animal

products from diet and in some definitionsfrom attire also, whether or not the production of clothing or items has involved the actual death of an animal (dairy, eggs, honey, wool, silk, down

feathers, etc.).

 

Vegetarians have varied motivations including religious, cultural, ethical, aesthetic,

environmental, social, economic, health, political, and personal concerns.

Main varieties

There are a variety of different practices of vegetarianism.

The following table summarizes the most common types of

vegetarian diet: Other dietary practices commonly associated with vegetarianism

 

Fruitarianism is a diet of only fruit, nuts, seeds, and other plant matter

that can be gathered without harming the plant.

Macrobiotic diet is a diet of mostly whole grains and beans.

Not all macrobiotics are vegetarians as some consume fish.

 

 

Natural hygiene in its classic form recommends a diet principally of raw

vegan foods.

 

 

Raw

veganism is a diet of fresh and uncooked fruit, nuts, seeds, and vegetables.

 

 

Freeganism — argues all commodities produced under capitalism,

not only those from animal sources, contribute to exploitation and avoid buying

anything, including food. Freegans thus focus on acquiring foods and other

commodities by means other than purchasing, including foraging for wild plants

and gardening with intent to cause as little violence and ecological destruction

as possible through their consumption. While many freegans are vegans or

vegetarians, others will eat animal products that would otherwise go to waste

on the belief that doing this does not encourage further animal exploitation.

 

 

Dietary

veganism - where vegans don't use animal products of any kind,

dietary vegans restrict their veganism to their diet

Some terms for non-vegetarian diets are neologisms derived from the word "vegetarianism" , used to describe a diet that accepts some subset of meat in addition to vegetarian diet:

Pescetarianism — A diet in which the only animals consumed are

fish or other seafood.

 

 

Pollotarianism — A diet in which the only animals consumed are fowl.

 

 

Flexitarianism — A diet that consists primarily of vegetarian food,

but that allows occasional exceptions.

 

Vegetarian cuisine

For lacto-ovo vegetarians, this generally means food that excludes ingredients

derived directly from the death of animals, such as meat (including fish),

meat broth, cheeses that use animal rennet, gelatin (from animal skin, bones,

and connective tissue), and for the strictest, even some sugars that are whitened

with bone char (e.g. cane sugar, but not beet sugar) and alcohol clarified with gelatin

or crushed shellfish and sturgeon.

 

History of Vegetarianism

The earliest records of Vegetarianism as a concept and practice amongst

a significant amount of people concern ancient India and the ancient Greek civilization

in Southern Italy and in Greece in the 6th century BCE.

 

 

In both instances the diet was closely connected with the idea of nonviolence

towards animals (called ahimsa

in India) and was promoted by religious groups

and philosophers. Following the Christianization of the

Roman Empire in late antiquity,

Vegetarianism practically disappeared from Europe[.

 

Several orders of monks in medieval Europe restricted or banned the consumption of meat

for ascetic reasons, but none of them eschewed fish. Vegetarianism was to re-emerge

somewhat in Europe during the Renaissance.

It became a more widespread practice in the 19th and 20th centuries.

 

In 1847 the first Vegetarian Society was founded

in England;

 

Germany, the Netherlands and

other countries followed.

The International Vegetarian Union, a union of the national societies,

was founded in 1908.

In the Western world, the popularity of vegetarianism grew during the 20th century

as a result of nutritional, ethical, and more recently,

environmental and economic concerns.

 

Today, Indian vegetarians, primarily lacto vegetarians, are estimated to make up

more than 70% of the world's vegetarians. They make up 20–42% of the population

in India, while less than 30% are regular meat-eaters[.

Surveys in the U.S. have found that roughly 1–2.8% of adults eat no meat,

poultry, or fish.

 

Motivations and benefits

People choose vegetarianism for various reasons:[

 

Religious and spiritual

Vegetarianism and religion

The majority of the world's vegetarians are Hindu.

Hinduism and Jainism teach vegetarianism as moral conduct while

Christianity and Islam generally do not.

Buddhism in general does not prohibit meat eating,

while Mahayana Buddhism encourages vegetarianism as

beneficial for developing compassion.

 

Hinduism

Most major paths of Hinduism hold vegetarianism as ideal, for a variety of reasons

based on different beliefs. For many Hindus, it is a textually-advocated belief in

ahimsa

(nonviolence), to avoid indulgences (as meat was considered an indulgence),

and to reduce bad karmic influences.

For others (especially within Vaishnavism and the bhakti movements), it is because

their chosen deity only accepts offerings of vegetarian foods, which the follower

then accepts as prasad.

 

Christianity

Christian vegetarianism

 

While vegetarianism is not common in Christian thought, the concept appears periodically.

 

According to the Bible, in the beginning, men and animals were vegetarian.

After the flood, God permitted the eating of meat. Some

Christians believe that

the Bible explains that, in the future, men and animals

will return to vegetarianism.

 

Some Christian leaders, such as the Reverend Andrew

Linzey, have supported the view

that Jesus was a vegetarian. Some people believe that the Book

of Daniel specifically

promotes vegetarianism as beneficial. However, common theology argues that

in this instance Daniel is rejecting food that is considered to be unholy by his faith

(eating food that had been sacrificed to pagan gods), not strictly meat.

Specifically, some believe that the New Testament of the Bible says that a person's

dietary choice is of small consequence and should not be a point of confrontation.

 

Therefore, some modern Christians consider vegetarianism as a perfectly acceptable

personal choice that has many of the same implications as fasting.

 

Islam

Islam allows consumption of meat, if the meat is "halal," which is meat

slaughtered by the Islamic standards, and disallowed meat is haram,

 

which is non-permitted meat or meat not slaughtered according to Islamic standards.

 

Muslim vegetarians are very rare as the consumption of meat is intertwined with

religious sacrificing of animals (namely caprids, bovines and camels) in Eid ul-Adha.

Moreover, according to Islamic jurisprudence it is wrong to forbid that which is not forbidden. When travelling to locations where it is difficult to get halal meat,

Muslims might eat fish or vegetables but they must be sure that the vegetarian food

does not contain wine or other alcoholic taste enhancers.

However, meat-eating is not compulsory and one may abstain from it if they do not like

the taste or need to abstain for health reasons.

 

Health

Many people who choose a vegetarian diet do so as a way

of improving their health.

The possible benefits include improved health for nutrition reasons

and improved food safety.

 

Vegetarian nutrition

American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada have stated:

"Vegetarian diets offer a number of nutritional benefits, including lower levels of

saturated

fat, cholesterol, and animal protein as well as higher levels of

carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium, folate, and antioxidants

such as vitamins C and E and phytochemicals."

 

Some studies suggest that vegetarian food helps keep body weight under control

and reduces risk of Heart diseases . American vegetarians tend to have lower

body mass indices, lower levels of cholesterol, lower blood

pressure, and less incidence

of heart disease, hypertension, some forms of cancer, type 2 diabetes, renal disease,

osteoporosis, dementias such as Alzheimer’s Disease and

other disorders

that may be diet-related.[citation needed]

 

The health of a group of 27,000 vegetarians is currently being followed at a UK centre

of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC),

the largest study of the long-term effects of vegetarian diet.

 

Although potentially diet related, most studies do not control for other lifestyle variables

that typically coexist with vegetarianism, for example increased exercise as part of

a general concern for physical wellbeing that often accompanies the adoption of a

vegetarian lifestyle

 

Other food scares

 

Various animal food safety scares over recent years have led to increased

numbers of people choosing a semi-vegetarian or vegetarian diet.

 

These scares have included

 

Avian flu in poultry,

 

foot-and-mouth in sheep,

PCBs in farmed salmon,

mercury in fish,

generally high dioxin concentrations

in animal products, and

artificial growth hormones, antibiotics or BSE in cows.

 

According to various organisations, vCJD in humans is strongly linked with

exposure to the BSE agent that has been found in beef. Toxins such as lead

and mercury can bioaccumulate, such that animal products can have higher

concentrations of them then plant products.

 

However, vegetables and fruits have a risk of being contaminated by

pesticide residue, or due to banned chemicals being used to ripen fruits,

 

because they are consumed directly.

 

Medical

Sometimes patients of alternative medicine are advised to adhere to a

vegetarian diet. These patients are asked to continue such a diet either for

the course of the treatment or for longer durations.

 

Ayurveda and Siddha medicine are examples of medical treatments

that prescribe such a vegetarian diet. In such

cases, the patient either follows

vegetarianism for the defined period or sometimes continues long after

the treatment is over.

 

Physiological

There is considerable debate over whether humans are physiologically

better suited to a herbivore, omnivore, or carnivore diet.

The Vegetarian Resource Group and others however, have concluded

that humans are naturally omnivores.

 

The intestines of carnivorous predators are relatively short compared with those

of plant-eating animals and human beings. Since meat is more easily digested

than plant matter, the elaborate digestive system found in plant-eaters is

unnecessary. Herbivores need a much longer intestine to allow sufficient time

for the digestion of vegetable fibers. However

humans, like most omnivorous

and carnivorous mammals, produce the enzyme pepsin in their stomachs,

which is mainly of value in digesting animal, not plant, proteins.

 

Others study statistical information, such as comparing life expectancy with

regional areas and local diets. Examples include looking within countries

themselves. For instance, life expectancy is considerably greater in

southern France, where a semi-vegetarian Mediterranean diet is common

(fresh fruit, vegetables, olive oil, goat cheese and fish), than northern France,

where an omnivorous diet is more common (also including pork, beef, butter,

cows cheese and cream).

It must be noted that national life expectancy

is affected by many factors,

which include access to adequate healthcare and medicine.

This makes it difficult to conclusively prove any correlation between

regional diets and life expectancy.

 

Ethical

 

Ethics of vegetarianism

Many vegetarians consider the production, subsequent slaughtering,

and consumption of meat or animal products as unethical.

Reasons for these beliefs are varied and may include a belief in animal rights,

an aversion to inflicting pain or harm on other living creatures,

or a belief that the unnecessary killing of other animals is inherently wrong.

 

Other vegetarians believe that although production and consumption of meat

may be acceptable on its own terms, the methods by which animals are reared

in the commercial industry are unethical.

 

The book "Animal Liberation" by Peter Singer has been

very influential

on the animal rights movement and specifically

ethical vegetarianism and

veganism. In developed countries, ethical vegetarianism has become popular

particularly after the spread of factory farming, which has reduced the sense of

husbandry that used to exist in farming and which has led to animals being treated

as commodities. Many believe that the treatment that animals undergo in the

production of meat and animal products obliges

them to never eat meat

or use animal products.

 

Saraswati

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your comments and feedbacks always welcome .. Rahul, at Cybugle as well as at bruntno1 ============ ========= ==================

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Love you all

 

(bruntno1 (AT) (DOT)

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