Food and Helta

V egetarianism promotes a natural way of ingredients from the vegetable kingdom to

life. But despite its implicit message of
universal love and non – violence it has
make them palatable

spread, as it should have. This may be because In most sports disciplines, vegetarians lead in
it usually is an inward-looking habit and is endurance tests. ” You are what you eat “is an
best cultivated in the mind. old saying and it is a fact that it is the food that
In India a vegetarian is usually a lacto – makes the man. The food we eat, its quality,
vegetarian. In the Western world, vegetarians quantity, its timing and combination is of
are subdivided as “Vegans” (pure vegetarian utmost importance to a healthy life.
who do not take any food Coming from the
animal kingdom), Lacto – vegetarians, who use It is significant to note that in the USA nearly 30 to
dairy products of the vegetable kingdom, and 40 million people have adopted vegetarianism in the
lacto-ova-vegetarians.The last category last decade
includes eggs, in addition to dairy products.
In the UK, surveys have shown that the medical
The western science of food considers food as bills of vegetarians are considerably lower than the
something to sustain only the human body, non-vegetarians.
whereas Indian science considers food as A vegetarian diet is more useful in the treatment of
something which sustains not only the body liver disorders including the last stage of liver
but also maintains the purity of heart, mind, failure when the dietary intake of fat is to be
and soul. reduced. Vegetarians tend to have lower blood
pressure. Lacto-vegetarian diets with their high
Vegetarian food provide an infinite variety of fibre content, low acid and high vitamin and
flavours whereas non – vegetarian foods have minerals prevent and to a certain extent relieve the
hardly any taste of their own. In fact, non – pain felt with the progression of arthritis.
vegetarian foods have to be seasoned with