One of the most basic need to live and to stay alive is food. But modern lifestyle has brought many changes to the food we eat on a daily basis, these changes are starting to affect us adversely. For example: young kids are getting affected by Blood Pressure, Obesity, Acidity, and many other health conditions. If you can just take a back seat and analyze the main reasons for these health conditions, it all condenses down to the food we eat and artificial flavors, colorants, and preservatives added to these foods.
If you can just look back at our ancestors, most of them are believed to be vegetarians. They thrived by eating fruits and vegetables that are naturally found in the forest. It is only during times of disaster such as forest fires, tsunami, volcanos did we developed the habit of hunting down the animals and eating their flesh for food. This has become a regular habit as we evolved. If you can pay attention to our teeth structure and position of different teeth, you will notice it is more similar to herbivore animals. But carnivore animals, on the other hand, has a different tooth structure that is mainly designed to tear down the flesh.
But the similarity doesn’t just end with the teeth, our digestive system is similar to herbivores as well, we have really long intestines. On the contrary carnivores have small intestines which are more favorable to digest meat and flesh. When we eat meat, our naturally long small intestines takes more time to digest it, when foods stay in the intestines for a long time duration, it can lead to many digestive problems.
But many of us believe that non-vegetarian foods are indispensable for good health. Additionally, meats taste better with added spices and flavors, so most people love to have meat over veggies. Though vegetarian foods may not taste as good as meat, they really do have all nutrients, minerals, carbohydrates, and proteins that are needed for good health. Fats present in the meat will get deposited as bad cholesterol in our body, which paves way for many diseases. Level of Vitamin-D which can be sourced from a goat’s liver can easily be sourced through 10 minutes direct exposure to sunlight. Which is better and more healthy? You be the judge.
Our digestive system spends more energy and time to digest non-vegetarian foods. This leads to many diseases and health conditions at a very young age. Meat is relatively more expensive than vegetables, additionally, cooking meats require spices, masalas and other ingredients which will further increase the overall cost of the preparation. On the contrary, vegetables are easy to cook and doesn’t require many add-ons to make it taste better. While goats, cows, chickens are being killed for meat, its body secretes certain emergency hormones, these hormones will become the part of the meat, and consuming these meats will lead to many health complications.
If you think proteins cannot be sourced from vegetables and vegetarian foods, think about giant animals like elephants, bisons, camels etc.. which thrive only on plants and plant-based foods, where do they get their supply of proteins? According to Ayurveda meats belong to rajas food type, which is known to induce aggression and restlessness. But Most vegetables and vegetarian foods are said to belong to satvik food type, which makes us feel more balanced mentally and physically. It also increases our overall productivity at work.
So if you want to prefer vegetarian diet over meat, have no second thought about your decision.
