What's wrong in being a Meat-eater?

An American cardiologist once visited our institution. The purpose of his visit was to promote Yoga exercises. His son is living in India and heading a foundation that promotes Yoga for a better living. The cardiologist did a lot of research on patients who took to yoga exercises, both aerobic and anaerobic (exercises that do not involve breathing techniques) in the US. Those patients who suffer from heart ailment did show a lot of improvement in the functioning of the heart after they had taken to yoga. The doctor after having shown all statistical details wanted the listeners to adopt to yoga exercises and to switch to Vegetarian diet for a healthy living. One of the participants posed a question to the doctor. His question was that the elephant and hippo both feed on only plants and are therefore absolute vegetarians and they both happen to be the strongest in animal kingdom; hence how come that vegetarian diet does not contribute to the accumulation of fat and lead to stenosis? Unfortunately the doctor could not understand the question (probably due to the very poor microphone) and therefore he gave an answer that was only intended to promote vegetarian diet.


There has been a lot of heated arguments going on between those who consume meat and those who gloat at being vegetarians. I know a person who once commented or rather justified his being a meat-eater that if all the humans were vegetarians then there would not be much food for all to consume, as such there is not much vegetation left out. That was why so many had been fond of meat eating and in turn contributing to the life cycle to go on by not venturing themselves into the food of others. His point is absolutely wrong but there is nothing wrong in his being a meat-eater. Most humans consume goat's meat, veal, venison and beef. All these animals depend primarily on vegetation for their survival. For a meat-eater too, vegetation is essential. If you are lover of fish, then also does come the concept of vegetation as fish consume agar-agar and other under-water plantation.


I know of a few personalities who try to do out of the ordinary to promote vegetarianism. One practitioner of indigenous medicine once threatened the meat-eaters with the ideology that one's stomach was not a burial ground to put flesh in it. He would say, 'Think what happens to flesh that is left out. It rots and germinates bacteria causing stench and diseases. Similar thing will happen to those who consume flesh as that does the same in there'. To this man and to all others who try their best in converting meat-eaters into vegetarians, the humble plea of mine is that please do not make use of such threatening stories to make people stop a habit of theirs. Meat is prepared with a lot of spices, that take care in removing the unwanted from the flesh.

The word 'eskimo' literally means 'one who consumes raw meat'. In Canada and Alaska (a territory of the US), there live Inuits and Eskimos who feed on raw flesh. It is a habit that they have acquired due to their ambiance. It is a white desert where nothing germinates and it is impossible for them to obtain oil to burn stoves and also to heat anything. They extract oil from seal fat and that is used only to burn lamps. There is a vigorous training programme that the American troopers are subjected to. In it, the aim is to survive in any hostile environment; for which the soldiers are trained to feed on insects as they are found everywhere in the world in larger numbers (as the world only belongs to them if one goes by the strength of one species' population). Insects are the source of one hundred percent protein with absolutely no source for any fat. In the two illustrations food habit has been an outcome of the environment and not one of ethics.

There are people who consider meat-eaters as criminals. There are people who look down on those feed on animal flesh. Similarly, there are meat-eaters who could never bear to see the killing of the goats, deer, cows and leghorns but gourmands in meat dishes. For these people, meat has been introduced at a very tender age and they have been addicted to the taste of these dishes having never known the method of preparation of them. There are meat-eaters who do not consider the fellow meat-eaters as humans and consider them cannibals if they consume meat on auspicious days (like Fridays, Tuesdays). There are some devout meat-eaters who choose to abstain from meat on certain days; For example on Mondays (not of course for any valid reason for the temporary relinquishment).

In China, people consume everything on the earth. There are dogs caught, slaughtered and consumed. In famous Chinese cities, road side night stalls are hugely popular that that have a very 'wild' culinary taste. They sell fried snakes, scorpions, lizards and what not!

There are two types of vegetarians: vegetarian by birth; the communities in which they are born or religions that they follow preach vegetarianism; and vegetarian by choice. In the second type, the individuals have opted out of meat food. Among these it branches out that there are ovo-vegetarians and lacto-vegetarians or ovo-lacto-vegetarians ( it also includes vegetarians by birth; as many of them are fond of milk and eggs). Among the later type, people who are born in traditional meat-eating families choose to become vegetarians. Among the first type, there are individuals who love to taste meat covertly, since an open gobbling would attract much criticism. Vegetarianism should come after much rumination and fore thought as the choice of opting out should never be one of aversion towards animal flesh or the stench associated with it. If one happens to be a vegetarian by choice (it also includes those who are vegetarians by birth, whether they abdicate meat because of their forcible up-bringing or a realisation of ideology associated with non-consumption of meat), if it has dawned on him or her after much consideration of life on earth, then that individual never preaches vegetarianism, though a devout vegetarian, and never be 'meatogynist', if i am allowed to use this word in the sense that one who hates meat-eaters. There is no criminality in being a meat-eater and there is no speciality in being a vegetarian, unless one has realised that a human being can survive without meat not unlike a tiger; There is a saying in Tamil, 'a tiger would never consume grass even if it were on the death bed because of lack of food'.