Often people ask me if they should be vegetarian. There is no simple answer I am afraid. The way you eat is a very personal matter and a rather important one, to me at least. Certainly not one that can be so easily discounted with a yes or no answer. Whatever you decide to do with your nutrition, I advise you to read and research and listen to your body. Should most people eat more vegetables and fruit? Yes. But that’s a different question.
What you eat has an immediate effect on your hormones and neurotransmitters and thus the way you feel and your state of consciousness. Food has such an impact on your level of awareness, from when you smell or see it to when you introduce it in your mouth and start the digestion process to the time you eliminate it. It’s not fun being bloated right? So that’s an example where food has a sizeable, negative impact on your wellbeing. Are you feeling a little tired, maybe grumpy? A piece of chocolate or a coffee might sort you out, temporarily but very effectively. Food is nourishment but also comfort and pleasure.
Learning about food and looking to improve upon the way you eat is worthy. Not just because you might push back chronic disease and live longer, also because high quality macronutrients and a ton of vitamins and minerals will strengthen your physical fitness today. High energy levels, a fit body and a clear mind are signs of success, in my model of the world at least.
Human history is one of survival in a rather hostile world of famine, long cold winters and scarcity. The smart looking, vegan hypster in London or San Francisco seems a different specie compared to the poorly fed, lowly serf of the Middle Ages. Because of the centuries of starvation we all share, the idea of following a diet, a regime where food intake is limited or restricted, seems odd and eccentric.
Yet vegetarianism has a very long history among elite thinkers and scholars, and can be traced back to India and even the ancient Greece of Pythagoras. Once man’s (and woman’s) basic survival needs are fulfilled, ethics, philosophy and inner development become more important and with those the question: should I be eating meat?
Religions were probably the first institutions to widely preach certain limitations on eating. No pork, no beef, no shellfish, no meat on Fridays, or no meat at all, Halal or Kosher! Devotees across cultures and geographies were asked to respect various eating rules, to observe holy days and spare sacred or unclean animals.
There might have been some wordly reasons for not eating pork, pigs farming potentially being a source of disease. There are various theories and the only reportable fact I can mention is that the ban of pork meat is stated in the Koran and the Jewish Bible, and thus law for Muslims and Jews. Cows are a valuable, long term source of milk. In many Indian scriptures cows are associated to divinities and so highly respected if not venerated.
Most people that choose to be vegetarian in the West do so because of perceived health benefits or because of ethics and animal welfare.
What are the health benefits of being vegetarian?
Vegetarians tend to live longer and have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. We all know that saturated fat and cholesterol are not the evil current official dietary guidelines want you to believe and contributing factors to heart health include not smoking and exercising, which vegetarians tend to be better at than meat eaters. Fibre is great to help the body clean and also hinders absorption of LDL cholesterol and a healthy plant diet includes lots of fibrous food, also useful to protect you from type 2 diabetes.
Antioxidants are also key and smart vegetarians eat a lot of fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds regularly, beans, lentils and whole grains. These also help the body defences against cancer and there is evidence non-meat eaters do better on this front too, if marginally. The real culprit here seems to be red and processed meat and particularly stuff like hams and sausages and bacon should be eliminated or greatly reduced, no matter what’s your diet like.
Veg tend to be better at keeping a healthy weight and if you eat dairy products, which sometimes get a bad rap and often for good reasons, you will get Vitamin B12, calcium, potassium, Vitamin D, and quite a bit of valuable protein. It is always advisable to combine acid forming foods like dairy with alkalising vegetables and fruit, also to ensure higher calcium retention.
Unprocessed, natural dairy products can be well tolerated by people of European descent but quality and quantity is important and I know many people who don’t do well with lactose or casein. Organic bio-live yogurt is wonderful and so is kefir and buttermilk (popular in India). I was born in the Alps and local farmers have wonderful free range cows they move to higher planes in summer to feed off the grass up there. They produce a medium-hard local cheese which is wonderful and can be enjoyed in moderation. Bear in mind though that young, soft dairy tend to be better digested than hard and mature. You can also try goat or sheep milk.
Eggs are sometimes eaten, if you are lacto-ovo-vegetarian as some of my friends are, and organic, free range eggs are a wonderful source of protein and nutrition in general.
A well balanced plant based diet will start with a lot of vegetables and fruit and will include pulses, some nuts and seeds and whole grains, as good sources of protein. Vitamin B12 deficiency is only a problem for vegans, and vegans take it in supplement form. The best Vitamin D source is the sun and if you don’t get enough sun, come on holiday to Koh Phangan or you should be on supplements too.
There are two types of iron, heme from animal products and non-heme from plants. The first type is much better absorbed. Good sources of non-heme iron include green vegetables, pulses, nuts and seeds and whole grains and these should be enough iron for the average person. Some ladies in menstruating age will need more and I know at least two vegetarian ladies who struggle with iron deficiency since a very long time. At the same time, high intake of heme and meat iron were associated with increased risk of esophageal and stomach cancers: too much iron is clearly damaging to the organism.
Low quality commercial meat and fish may carry contaminants, antibiotics and heavy metals in fairly high amounts. The problem can be solved if you source high quality, grass fed animals or even better, if you go wild. Sardines for instance represent a wonderful food, small in size and thus cleaner than bigger fish, high in Omega 3, plentiful and low cost. Omega 3 fatty acids are powerful anti-inflammatory and hugely beneficial against depression and anxiety, to support brain and heart health and much more. So if you go veg make sure you eat flaxseeds, chia and walnuts, or you could take an EPA and DHA supplement, such as Opti3.
There seems to be a lot going for vegetarians and maybe you want to move towards that direction?
Start adding more vegetables to your current diet, like a side salad with every main meal and at least a piece of fruit with breakfast. Then add beans and pulses, make sure you wash, soak and boil them well to eliminate phytates and start reducing meat, eliminating any processed version first!
Remember to add something for anything you remove from your table. You want to reach a balance of macronutrients, so better doing this slowly while taking the opportunity to source food and ingredients smartly. Please go whole! Listen to your body see how it is changing, for the better or worse? How are your energy, bowel movements, sleep, general appearance? You might do wonderfully well as a veg, or not. What appeals intellectually, sometimes the body doesn’t like. So you might not be suited for plants only or you might have moved to an unbalanced, unhealthy veg diet.
One of the risks you could be facing is that of substituting the high protein, filling and grounding calories of meat and fish with processed white grains. That would spike your blood sugar levels, create inflammation and all sort of issues. Remember, the only plant based diet which is truly healthy is low glycemic index and whole. Be very careful with soy products, “fakes” and substitutes, often very processed or high in added sugar and refined oils.
A chicken breast, packed with protein, fills you up a lot more than most plant food will. It could take up to two days to digest a Sunday barbeque and the body expends quite a bit of energy to break down protein, about 30 or 35% of calories in fact. If you eat 200 protein calories, you’ll burn off 60 calories digesting it and a lot more than for carbs (5-15%) and fat (maybe 5-10%). It is called the thermic effect of food.
This feeling of fullness could be a boon or a hindrance, depending on what you are looking to achieve. You might have heard of the theories of the 5 Elements in Chinese Medicine or the 3 Doshas in Ayurveda. A similar theory looks at metabolic typing: each person has a unique metabolism, and the proportion of macronutrients which are optimal for one person may not be for another.
Delving into Ayurveda, there will be days or phases in life when you want to balance your air element or Vata, and earthy, filling foods are advisable. Of course it doesn’t necessarily be meat and earthy plant foods include pumpkin, sweet potatoes and root vegetables, porridge and lentils.
Should you feel sluggish, heavy and slow, you’d probably do better with light, vital foods such as raw plants, also depending on lifestyle and environmental variables like the weather. Cold and wet outside? Comfort, warming, heavier food is required. Hot and feeling irritable? Cool down with a green juice, please.
A couple of ethical and esoteric considerations.
On a meditation retreat, or seeking to achieve a higher state of consciousness through Yoga, you might want to eat lightly. This is also one of the reasons why many spiritual practitioners are vegetarian. As an expert of fasting, I can surely tell you self inquiry and contemplation come more easily on an empty stomach.
Ethically speaking, the concept of Ahimsa or non violence is one of the key precepts of Yoga and Buddhism. Eating meat, alongside drinking alcohol and taking recreational drugs is a direct or indirect act of violence (to the animals and to yourself). This doesn’t mean you can’t reach a very high level of spiritual development eating some animals, as the Dalai Lama (a non-veg) demonstrate.
I already mentioned commercial meat and fish generally aren’t good quality and as a whole food advocate, quality matters a lot to me. Same goes for dairy products. I spare you the details around animal cruelty in abattoirs and across the whole supply chain.
And the environment? We all know of the problem of rapid population growth and most people love the taste of animals, hence an increased need for intensive farming. It is clear that reducing meat consumption, if not eliminating it completely, will have a positive benefit on the Earth.
And how about a plant based diet with reduced but regular and high quality animal food intake? Eating eggs and fish 3 times a week definitely doesn’t qualify as vegetarian, yet might be a better option for some of us. Have you heard of the Blue Zones populations? They eat real food, not too much and mostly plants. I do the same.
Society and the individual progressed enormously, from feudalism and the struggle for material survival, to relative freedom and increased awareness today. Once liberated from the day to day effort to survive, human beings look for greatness in art, literature, spiritual development. More love for oneself, nature and everyone around are worthy pursuits. And being vegetarian could be part of it.
And the vegans? Ah…. Many of my neighbours are and some look amazing. And the fruitarians? Mmm…
Let’s end this with a tribute to the ancient Jain religion of India. On top of being vegetarians and some vegans, Jains don’t eat any vegetables grown underground and obtained by killing the plant, like onions, potatoes, carrots, garlic and fruit or vegetables with lots of seeds, seeds being a form of life too. Some cover their mouths to avoid ingesting (and killing) small insects and Jain saints do not wear clothes. This to return to their child like natural condition, to feel free and be open.
Nutrition is prone to fads. Might neo-Jainism take on in some liberal parts of the world? California, or maybe Ibiza or Koh Phangan? Minimalism and simplicity are wonderful things and as the as Jain scholar Virchand Gandhi wrote: “The universe is not for man alone, but is a theatre of evolution for all living beings. Live and let live is its guiding principle. ‘Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah’” !