It’s simple to understand that I should eat which is good for me. One should eat food that is nutritious and easily consumable/ digestible. Little knowledge of chemistry guides us what we should eat and what we can consume easily.
We consume oxygen day and night. Oxygen, O2 is consumed by our body throughout the day and night, 24 hours in a day, 365 days a year. Oxygen takes seconds to consumed by our body. Water, H2O is a more complex molecule. We consume 6 to 7 glasses of water daily and water is also easily digestible. It takes no time to digest by human digestive system. More complex molecule than water is glucose C6H12O6. This also is easily digestible and is consumed by human body in minutes. Glucose contains carbon, oxygen and Hydrogen atoms and is lesser easily digestible than water which contains two different atoms Hydrogen and Oxygen. Oxygen contains two atoms of oxygen which is consumed by our body the fastest.
Glucose is a carbohydrate and more complex carbohydrates like wheat, maize, barley take more time to digest by human body. Fats and proteins are more complex molecules which take more time to digest by human body. Fruits and vegetables take less time to digest wherein staple food like wheat, rice, maize as more time. However vegetarian diet is easy to digest and can not take more than 10 – 12 hours to digest completely in healthy human body.
Now coming on to non – vegetarian food. Non vegetarian food is more complex hence difficult to digest. More complex an animal more complex is its meat to get digested by human body and it may take days to get digested.
It is a known fact that digested food passes through human intestine to the blood stream. If food remain undigested for days then undigested food passes to blood stream giving rise to diseases. Hence vegetarian food is a better option for humans as the human digestion system is also designed for vegetarian food.
“Jaisa Ahar vaise vichar” is a common dictum in Hindu culture. If you take light vegetarian food you will develop more “Satvik” nature whereas if you take non-vegetarian/ heavy and spicy food you develop “Tamsik” nature.
Now I will highlight, darkest days of human civilization on food consumption, the era of Margret Thetcher or the era of Mad Cow Disease*. Margret Thatcher, the then PM of UK (1979 to 1991), ordered to sell dairy products all across Europe. The cows were given brain of sheep to eat during her time. As a result cows got mad and the consumption of their products resulted into this disease to the consumers in European nations. As a result of the disease spreading fast in European nation ultimately Margret Thetcher was forced to stop selling these dairy products and had to order to kill those cows. Unfortunate part is Margret Thetcher did this knowingly.
*Mad cow disease effects nervous system and impair brain function. Native dies in months. One of the feature of mad cow disease is that patient bangs his head against wall. Mad cow disease is also called prion disease and is also found common with people having cannibalism.
Lastly, few lines of on whether one should consume beef or not? Before Humans civilised they used to wander here and there in search of food. When they got civilised they used to have their own farmland and cattle. Of all the cattle, cow is the most sensitive and has affinity to human sentiments. Hindu sanskriti does not allow to consume meat of any animal which has affinity with humans. This is like the act of cannibalism. Cannibalism can result into mad cow disease and is also very complex food to get digested by human digestive system. It can have more bad effects/ side effects etc. than nutritive value.
Om Tat Sat
Umang Taneja
Umang Taneja 