Vegetarians, Vegans & Healthy Eaters
It was circa mid 1980s I had a biology teacher who was partly vegetarian (Partly because he ate fish.) - his reasoning for being a vegetarian wasn't a love of animals - it was entirely for health reasons - there was a science to it.
Life as we know it on earth depends on energy from our sun & water - so its best to get it at its most direct source - plant life get their main energy source from sun & water directly, (unless its a domestic home plant or grown in a farm - in which case its also fed or nurtured by humans.), live stock get energy indirectly by eating plants (In some cases other animals), we humans get our energy from eating plant life & unfortunately other animals.
So my teacher would always say he liked his 'food energy' to be from a more direct source - which is plant life, meaning solar food energy he was referring to wasn't re-sampled by another animal - why have a copy of a copy, when you can have a copy from an original food source in a healthier vegetarian format? (Although his reason behind eating fish, wouldn't make sense - as you can also get vegetarian sea food.).
For me my reasoning behind not eating meat, has always been 'karmic', I don't eat meat because its funding mass slaughter of animals - so it's wrong for me to even buy meat for another person to fund the slaughter of animals in any way. I don't eat eggs regardless of whether they are infertile or not because it's funding imprisonment of chickens & other farm animals - it's taking something away from a chicken that doesn't belong to anyone else - there is an emotional attachment to that egg for that sentient being which further tortures it. I'm also trying to come off cow's milk + I'm using it less in my diet - purely because of my reasons described - A cow may give you its milk freely but what happens to a cow after it finishes giving you its milk? Its still imprisoned - Your milk money goes towards further funding of imprisonment & slaughter of cows.
In other cultures such as those with people who follow 'Jainism', their vegetarian diet goes further as to them choosing not to eat food grown in the earth such as potato, onion & garlic - roots are considered higher lifeforms (where as if you eat something thats not 'root' based like an apple you are not killing the tree - similar to fruitarian diet but not as strict as milk is allowed) also in farming and extracting the food you are killing other lifeforms such as earth worms & a variety of other creatures. Jains will drink milk but wont eat yogurts as again it contains microlife.
I'm one of those people you see in super-markets checking ingredients on the back of food cartons. I have been a strict vegetarian all my life, absolutely no animal products other than a dash of milk in my coffee or tea - Over a long time I have also developed a respect of a more pure sort of vegetarianism, diets such as vegan or fruitarian as they are healthier for our environment too.
Live-stock Farming leads to more greenhouse affecting gas emissions than all existing vehicles on our planet. This has got many people passionate about becoming vegan & vegetarian. I recall meeting a friend a few years back at university who went away on a trip to America & he came back a vegan. It was because of his passion for saving our planet, not purely for animals, it was not only scientific but also non-extremist - He was passionate when he spoke about his thoughts, what he had seen in his travels; I listened intently as this was someone who was previously a non-vegetarian but someone who had now become a vegan - Our conversation was initiated when we were having coffee, he chose soya milk instead of dairy - The idea that you can save lives or our world just by becoming a vegan or vegetarian is a very powerful thought, a profound gesture to mankind & nature; something anyone can do very easily these days as there are so many healthier substitutes to meat, eggs, fish & milk.
I myself would love to explore a more fruitarian diet, to me it is probably a most fun diet & also least 'karmic' of diets - i.e. Fruitarian diet is eating just fruit products etc. Now eating fruit believe it or not does not kill the plant itself - fruit is from a bigger plant source such as a tree, we take the fruit which carry seeds - you eat the fruit, throw away the seeds onto fertile land - nature in its wonderful way creates new plants from those seeds - so in a sense you are helping to create or preserve life if you are on a fruitarian diet, whereas if you eat a vegetable such as a potato or a carrot, you rip it out of the ground for it to end its life to your dinner plate - fruitarians wont drink milk but can get those same nutrients from other drinking sources as do vegans, like soya & almond milk.
So maybe - just maybe - I will try a fruitarian diet in future - Coming off milk in my coffee is hard but not impossible, to stop eating snacks containing potato is very hard but I see a lot of people doing it who certainly benefit from health improvements. I'm thinking many years into the future where most of the world will be on this kind of diet purely because it is so healthy (Remember the movie Demolition Man?).
For now I'm off to have some coffee with soya milk.
VEGETARIAN RESTAURANTS SPAIN
some useful links in relation to this article:
Peta's World Vegetarian Week
Vegetarian Centre
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