Vegetarianism

It has been generally considered that the early prehistoric man was a meat eater. He learnt from carnivorous animals that meat of other animals can be consumed as food. He must have eaten raw meat in the beginning like animals. Sooner he also found that some animals also survive on grass, leaves, fruits and tubers. He must have realized that this is a more sober way of quenching the hunger than hunting and eating other animals. After he learnt the art of cooking food, as well as the agriculture, he had ample choices among meat and vegetarian food and combination of the two types.

In the last million years, the man has evolved in several directions. As far as the preference of food is concerned, I think the basic attitude of the individual mattered most. Those societies with ebullient, rash and raw habits went after the meats and those with considerate attitudes who felt humane towards other animals preferred and adopted vegetarian way of life. According to many opinions, even the Vedic communities, considered to be about 1700 BC old, were a meat eating groups by general choice.

Thus, vegetarianism is a way of life by choice, like Mahatma Gandhi’s ahimsa or nonviolence. And with hundreds of years of practice of vegetarianism we have found that it is better and safer way of living style than that of meat eaters who are generally more prone towards cholesterol related problems.

But human attitude is a peculiar thing. It can often be biased, chauvinistic or partisan. It can conveniently forget the original principle driving behind a life style.

I read an interesting article on vegetarianism today. The author cautioned vegetarians about foreign chocolates and sweet meats that may contain, obviously, very small amounts of non-vegetarian material. Cakes should be avoided, he advised because they may contain products of egg. He said that even the unfertilized farm eggs, which many people advocate as vegetarian food should be classified as non-vegetarian food. Some scientist has reported that these eggs require oxygen for growth. Since it consumes oxygen while growing, it should be treated as living animal and should be shunned by vegetarians!

At this point I stopped here, to breathe my quota of oxygen! What a great thought! The gentleman thinks that a farm egg should be classified as non-vegetarian food since it consumes oxygen for growth!

I felt shocked at his discrimination but consoled myself that he may not be aware of the fact that all plants, the basic stuff of vegetarians, are also living beings which breathe and grow like animals. He thinks that a farm egg is a living being but is ignorant that all those vegetables, fruits and potatoes also contain living and breathing cells!

But this is nothing; I consoled myself, compared to certain individuals who carry vegetarianism to the extremes. These vegetarian extremists avoid onion, garlic and some other vegetables, possibly under the pretext that they were introduced by foreigners! Probably these extremists are not aware that most of our vegetables including the ubiquitous chili are introduced by the Portuguese only five decades ago.