Are you a meat addict?
By Maneka Gandhi
The Pioneer
Any stranger who wants to start a conversation with me
believes that he has to concentrate on one of these three
things: Asking me about the health of the environment (as
if I am the only person who has eyes to see the
devastation and a nose to smell the air), to complain
about stray dogs (even if he has never seen one in his
life), or to tell me that he/she hardly eats meat; in
fact, he/she is almost a vegetarian.
The last is mere self delusion: The way a smoker tells
you that he can give up cigarettes any time. If I tell
them to take the final step into vegetarianism,
immediately I get the strangest excuses: "If we didn't
eat, these animals would proliferate and there would be
no space for humans beings."
Are you suffering from a meat addiction? This is, in many
ways, similar to a liquor addiction. Answer this simple
test.
a) When the doctor told you not to eat meat because of
your heart condition, did you immediately ask, "Can I eat
fish and chicken?"
b) Do you feel insulted or unfulfilled if you go to a
person's house for a meal and they don't serve meat?
c) Do you grumble when you are asked to a vegetarian's
house for a meal and ask, "keval ghaas-phoos milega?"
d) Do you believe that eating meat is a sign of wealth or
being socially upwardly mobile (khaata-peeta khandaan)?
e) When you are told about the suffering of the animal
you are eating do you respond with: "I didn't kill it?"
f) If your children do not want to eat meat, do you force
them saying, "How will you become strong otherwise?"
g) Do you think that vegetarians are eccentric?
h) Do you believe that you can be a vegetarian at home
but if you entertain, you must serve meat to your guests?
i) Do you take medicine for high cholesterol but continue
to eat meat?
j) Do you feel hostile, resentful or guilty in the
presence of vegetarians?
k) Do you enjoy cooking and food travel programmes on TV
that are exclusively about killing and eating meat/fish?
l) Do you buy your chicken yourself from a shop that has
live chickens in cages watching you take
the body of one of theirs. Have you ever noticed them?
m) Do you treat meat as the main dish in your house and
vegetables and dal as secondary?
n) Do you believe that meat eating is good?
o) Do you claim to love animals but continue to eat them?
p) Do you openly say, "You only live once. What is wrong
with making the best of it?"
q) Do you say, "Even animals kill each other. It is the
survival of the fittest?"
r) Do you say, "It is a cultural thing with us. We have
been doing it for centuries. We cannot change now?"
s) Do you worry about what people will think of you if
you become vegetarian?
t) When your child tells you he wants to become
vegetarian, do you immediately say, "We can't cook
separately for you?"
u) Do you think that hunting animals is "macho" - the
thing that men do?
v) Do you think that alcohol cannot be enjoyed unless you
are eating meat?
w) Do you think that vegetarianism is meant only for
women while all men should be fed meat?
If you have answered yes to any of these questions, you
are a meat addict. The effects of meat addiction are, to
name a few: Ecoli infections, high cholesterol, heart
attacks, strokes, cancer, impotence, obesity and many
more. It means high acidity because that is what the
animal secretes into its meat when it dies. It means that
whatever disease the animal has, is likely to find root
in your body.
For instance chickens regularly get cholera. It also
means vegetarians get ecoli and other diseases because
meat shops are usually next to vegetable shops and flies
spread the deadly infections from the rotting meat to all
other foods.
For India, it means less drinking water, no forests,
polluted lakes, a high oil import bill and less money for
all. I will explain those another time. All addictions,
drugs, nicotine, meat, alcohol harm not just the user but
everyone around him. And all users have one thing in
common, they try to get other people to become as
habituated so that they do not feel isolated. Examine
yourself. Are you one of them?
Read the complete news at:
http://www.dailypioneer.com
News Plus
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Jai Maharaj
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti
Panchaang for 22 Ashadh 5104, Sunday, July 20, 2003:
Shubhanu Nama Samvatsare Dakshinaya Nartana Ritau
Kark Mase Krishna Pakshe Bhanu Vasara Yuktayam
Revati-Ashvini Nakshatr Sukarm-Dhriti Yog
Bav-Balav Karan Saptami-Ashtami Yam Tithau
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