Nutrition, Health & Necessity of Meat

Many times the mention of vegetarianism elicits the predictable reaction, “What about protein?”

Nutrition Without Meat

The ideas that meat has a monopoly on protein and that large amounts of protein are required for energy and strength are both myths. Of the twenty-two amino acids, all but eight can be synthesized by the body itself, and these eight “essential amino acids” exist in abundance in non-flesh foods. Dairy products, grains, beans and nuts are all concentrated sources of protein. Cheese, peanuts and lentils, for instance, contain more protein per gram than hamburger, pork or porterhouse steak.

The primary energy source for the body is carbohydrates. Only as a last resort is the body’s protein utilised for energy production. Too much protein intake actually reduces the body’s energy capacity. In a series of comparative endurance tests conducted by Dr. Irving Fisher of Yale, vegetarians performed twice as well as meat-eaters. Numerous other studies have shown that a proper vegetarian diet provides more nutritional energy than meat. A study by Dr I. Iotekyo and V. Kilpani at Brussels’ University showed that vegetarians were able to perform physical tasks two to three times longer than meat-eaters before exhaustion and were recovered from fatigue in one fifth the time needed by the meat-eaters.

Health and Meat Eating

The human body cannot deal with excessive animal fats in the diet. As early as 1961, the Journal of the American Medical Association stated that ninety to ninety-seven percent of heart disease, the cause of more than half of the deaths in the United States, could be prevented by a vegetarian diet. Many studies have established the relationship between colon cancer and meat eating. One reason for the incidence of cancer Is the high-fat, low-fiber content of the meat-centered diet. The result is a slow transit time through the colon, allowing toxic wastes to do their damage. Meat, while being digested, is known to generate steroid metabolites possessing carcinogenic properties.

Chemicals and Diseases in Meat

Numerous potentially hazardous chemicals, of which consumers are generally unaware, are present meat and meat products. In their book, “Poisons In Your Body”,Garry and Steven Null give an inside look at the production techniques used by corporately owned animal producers, “The animals are kept alive and fattened by continuous administration of tranquillizers, hormones, antibiotics and 2,700 other drugs,” they write, “the process starts even before birth and continues long after death. Although these drugs will still be present in the meat when you eat it, the law does not require that they be listed on the package.” Because of the filthy, overcrowded conditions forced upon animals by the livestock industry, vast amounts of antibiotics must be used, but such rampant use of antibiotics naturally creates antibiotic-resistant bacteria that are passed on to those who eat the meat. 

The US FDA estimates that penicillin and tetracycline save the meat industry $1.9 billion a year giving them sufficient reason to overlook the potential health hazards. In addition to dangerous chemicals, meat often carries diseases from the animals themselves. Crammed together in unclean conditions, force-fed and inhumanely treated, animals destined for slaughter contract many more diseases than they ordinarily would. Meat inspectors attempt to filter out unacceptable meats, but because of pressures from industry and lack of sufficient time for examination, much of what passes is far less wholesome than the meat purchaser realizes.

Cow Milk is the Nectar of Immortality

In modern civilisation milk is not thought of as being important, therefore people are not living very long. Although in this age anyone can live up to one hundred years, the duration of life is reduced because people do not drink large quantities of milk. Instead of drinking milk, they prefer to slaughter an animal and eat it’s flesh. The cow should be protected, milk should be drawn from the cows, and this milk should be prepared in various ways. One should take ample milk, and thus one can prolong one’s life and develop the finer tissues of the brain

The Misery of Cow-Killing

Ample food grains can be produced through agricultural enterprises, profuse milk, yogurt and ghee can be arranged through cow protection and abundant honey can be obtained if the forests are protected. Instead of a simple lifestyle modern civilisation is busy killing the cows that are the source of yogurt, milk and ghee; they are cutting down all the trees that supply honey and they are opening factories to manufacture nuts, bolts, automobiles and wine instead of engaging in agriculture. This is creating so many problems in the world. How can the people be happy? They must suffer from all the misery of materialism.

“Their bodies become wrinkled and gradually deteriorate until they become almost like dwarfs, and a bad odour emanates from them because of unclean perspiration resulting from eating all kinds of nasty things. This is not human civilisation.” Srimad Bhagavatam

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