Vegetarianism

The attitude of medical science towards vegetarianism has changed dramatically in recent years from concern about nutritional adequacy to exploring its health benefits. Recent evidence nails red meat as a major health hazard of modern times, and recognizes the virtue of plant based diets.

Although the proportion of vegetarians in Europe and America is still small, constituting 1 -6% of the population, the group seems to enjoy healthier and longer lives than their meat eating counterparts. Studies have shown that mortality from ischaemic heart disease was 30% lower among vegetarians.

Vegetarians tend to have lower body mass index, lower levels of cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and less incidence of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, renal disease, metabolic syndrome, dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders.Further, the risk of three common cancers, that of the large intestine, breast and prostate, partly attributed to red meat consumption, is substantially less.

The American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada have stated that a properly planned vegetarian diet is "healthful, nutritionally adequate, and provides health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases". Necessary nutrients, proteins, and amino acids for the body's sustenance can be found in vegetables, grains, nuts, soymilk, eggs and dairy. Vegetarian diets offer lower levels of saturated fat and cholesterol and higher levels of carbohydrates, fibre, magnesium, potassium, folate, and antioxidantssuch as vitamins C and E.

There are a number of types of vegetarianism, which exclude or include various foods.

·    Ovo vegetarianism includes eggs but not dairy products.

·    Lacto vegetarianism includes dairy products but not eggs.

·    Ovo-lacto vegetarianism (or lacto-ovo vegetarianism) includes animal/dairy products such as eggs, milk, and honey.

·    Veganism excludes all animal flesh and animal products, including milk, honey, and eggs, and may also exclude any products tested on animals, or any clothing from animals. Perhaps the only ingredient lacking in his form of “pure and strict” vegetarian diet is vitamin B12 and iron.

·    Buddhist vegetarianism (also known as su vegetarianism) excludes all animal products as well as vegetables in the allium family (which have the characteristic aroma of onion and garlic): onion, garlic, scallions, leeks, or shallots.

·    Jain vegetarianism includes dairy but excludes eggs and honey, as well as root vegetables.

·     Pescetarianism, which includes fish and sometimes other seafood. This diet is associated with longest life span.

Vegetarianism started from ancient India and ancient Greece in the 6th century BC. The diet was closely connected with the idea of nonviolence towards animals (called ahimsa in India) and was promoted by religious groups and philosophers. Emperor Asoka decreed “One animal is not to be fed to another”. It practically disappeared from Europe during the Roman Empire.

The International Vegetarian Union was founded in 1908. In the Western world, the popularity of vegetarianism has grown considerably in the last century as a result of nutritional, ethical, and more recently, environmental and economic concerns.

It is time we Indians re-discovered the virtues of a practice that was once ours.

As published in HT City ( Hindustan Times) dated 3 July, 2011.