January-March, 1998 Vol. 2, No. 1
| April – June | July – September | October – December |
Inside This Issue
READERS Write
Dear Narendrabhai,
Congratulations on your first anniversary of four issues of Jiv Daya Digest. Thank you very much and please keep up the good work. Such pro-active work is THE need of the time here in North America as well as for the development of Jainism. I sincerely appreciate your and others who are helping you in this work.
I bring to your attention an item I read in this issue of India Abroad (Toronto Ed.). It reads: Low-fat Indian food guide cuts heart disease risk. As part of Project LEAN (Low-fat Eating for Americans Now), the Dept. of U.S. Public Health asked an Indian American dietician, Anita Verma, to develop an “Indian Food Guide Pyramid” which helps people of Indian origin to revise their diet. The pyramid not only confirms to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, but also takes into the ethnic and geographical diversity of Indian food.
Further, while I appreciate and support your October 2 as Vegetarian Day, I feel that as a Jain, we should observe Mahavir Jayanti as AHIMSA DAY in April. On this day try for MEATLESS DAY by getting the slaughter houses closed (once in a year) and get restaurants and hotels (public eating places) do not serve meat (non vegetarian items). This is similar to the one observed in India with the support of the Central as well as state governments (though India is a secular country). You can get support of other Humane Societies, Vegetarian Associations too.
Prakash Mody — Toronto, ONT.
(We have already developed an Indian Food Guide Pyramid, with guidance from Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and North American Vegetarian Society. We printed it on cover page of the book that we published last year, “Jainism and Animal Issues,” a Handbook for Compassionate Living, through JAINA. Not only it is low fat, it also is vegan/Ahimsak. We have seen several Indian dieticians, whose definition of low-fat is still too high-fat for us! And, many still do not accept dairy less diet, because it is too new a notion.
Federation of JAINA has already been now celebrating October 2 as “Ahimsa Day” for several years. Most animal right and/or vegetarian groups have established two annual events on their calendars — March 20 as “Meatless Day,” and October 2 as “World Vegetarian Day.” As Jain, we would prefer to do those activities on Mahavir Jayanti, but the outside organizations would need a stronger motivation! However, let us feel free and happy to celebrate each and every day a “Meatless, World Vegetarian, Ahimsa Day.” — Editor)
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Dear Narendrabhai,
Your publication has very good information, and we use the material in our Jain pathshala. Can you publish a weekly diet plan starting with breakfast and portions? That will help a lot.
Pravin Mehta — Clarksville, TN
(Thank you for using the material in Pathshala. Children, when young, are very kind and they absorb the compassion very easily. Regarding your suggestion, we will try to get some weekly plan, as soon as possible. Right now majority of our readers are Gujarati Jains, but there are many non-Gujarati, non-Indian, non-Jains, so we would need something very universal. — Editor)
*I was very pleased to read your issue of Jiv Daya Digest (July-September) issue, especially the information under “Cruelty Free.” But, I was disappointed, not to find where to look for my make up. Please can you help me find a Mall or Shop that sells the particular brands you have quoted as being cruelty free products in fashion? I feel guilty every morning using the “Clinique” Product I currently have purchased, in ignorance.
Nina Shah — Edison, NJ
(I am glad you asked these questions, and I am proud of your compassion for the animals. The Shopping Guide section of the JAINA book, “Jainism and Animal Issues,” contains answers to many such questions. If you haven’t seen the book, send me your address for it. When you go for shopping, always look for some words, or symbols to indicate so, that clearly signifies that the product has not been tested on animals, and it does not contain any animal ingredients. New products and manufacturers enter market every day, so we can never have a totally up-to-date listing! That is why such a vigilance is needed from caring shoppers like you. All the animals will appreciate that. — Editor)
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Protein and a Health-Supporting Diet
John McDougall, M.D. (From New York Times Best Seller “The McDougall Plan”)
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Are Americans among the most malnourished people in the world?
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Are the meat and dairy industries brainwashing us?
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Is the medical profession ignorant about our nutritional needs?
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Has our government given us faulty information on proper diets?
Yes is the answer to all of the above…
Proteins provide important materials to build and maintain our hormones, enzymes, muscles, and many other body tissues. Accurate estimates of human adult protein needs determined by careful studies show that as little as 2.5 percent of our daily calorie intake can be safely provided in the form of protein. This amount is equivalent to a little less than 20 grams — two thirds of an ounce — for an adult man. The World Health Organization (WHO) has established a higher minimum daily requirement for protein to be approximately 5 percent of the daily intake, but many populations have lived in excellent health on less than this amount. (Protein requirements for pregnancy set by the WHO are 6 percent, and for lactation 6.7 percent of the daily calorie intake.)
An average working man consumes 3,000 calories a day, so 5 percent of the total would be 150 calories from protein. Since each gram of protein is equal to 4 calories, this would represent 37 grams of protein. An average woman consuming 2,300 calories a day needs 29 grams of protein. These minimum requirements provide for a large margin of safety that easily covers people who theoretically could have greater protein needs. This quantity of protein is almost impossible to avoid if enough food is consumed to meet daily calorie needs. For example, 3,000 calories of rice alone would provide 60 grams of highly usable protein.
The building blocks of protein are called amino acids. Varied combinations among twenty amino acids form the proteins found in all kinds of living creatures. All sources of unprocessed foods, including meat, dairy, fish, shellfish, plants, and microorganisms contain all twenty of these amino acids. However, the amount of each amino acid that is present varies among different foods. Plants make all of them from carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and water. Animals, including humans, can synthesize some of the needed amino acids, but others must be obtained from their food. The amino acids that cannot be synthesized and which must be provided by the diet are known as essential amino acids.
Protein Studies on Rats
Many people believe that animal foods contain protein that is superior in quality to the protein found in plants. This is a misconception dating back to 1914, when Osborn and Mendel studied the protein requirements of laboratory rats. They found that rats grew better on animal sources of protein than on vegetable sources. Investigators at that time suspected that the vegetable foods had insufficient amounts of some of the amino acids essential for the normal growth of rats. Because of these and other animal-based experiments, flesh, eggs and dairy products were classified as superior or “Class A” protein sources. Vegetable proteins were designated inferior or “Class B” proteins.
Studies in the mid-1940s found that ten amino acids were essential for a rat’s diet. If the level of anyone amino acid was low, the rats could not efficiently utilize the protein and failed to grow normally. Animal products, such as meat, poultry, milk, and eggs, were found to contain these ten essential amino acids in just the right proportions for rats.
Based on these early rat experiments the amino acid pattern found in animal products was declared to be standard by which to compare amino acid pattern of vegetable foods. According to this concept, wheat and rice were declared deficient in lysine, and corn was deficient in tryptophan. It has since been shown that the initial premise that animal products supplied the most ideal protein pattern for humans, as it did for rats, was incorrect. Therefore, the idea that vegetable foods were deficient in certain amino acids for our needs was inappropriately based on a standard diet ideal for rats. At that early time no one knew the actual protein or amino acid requirements for humans.
In 1952 William Rose completed a long series of experiments to determine the amino acid requirements for human males. He fed his subjects a synthetic mixture of corn (maize) starch, sucrose, butter fat, vitamins, and highly purified amino acids, and then gradually eliminated one amino acid at a time.
The study used a chemical measurement called nitrogen balance to determine whether the subjects were getting enough usable protein from the mixture. When an essential amino acid was given in insufficient amounts for approximately two days, all subjects complained of similar symptoms: a clear increase in nervous irritability, extreme fatigue, and a profound failure of appetite. The subjects were unable to continue the amino-acid-deficient diets for more than a few days at a time. From his experiments Dr. Rose found that only eight of the ten amino acids essential to rats were also essential to people. Arginine and histidine, the two other amino acids that were found essential in the rat’s diet, were not essential to human adults. (However, histidine is essential in diets of young children, and aginine is made slowly by infants. Plants are excellent sources of both of these amino acids and easily satisfy these amino acid needs of growing young children.)
Through these studies, Rose determined a minimum level of intake for each of the essential amino acids. He found small amounts of variation in individual needs among his subjects, but these differences did not seem to correlate with their weight or metabolic rate. Because of these unexplained differences among people, he included a large margin of safety in his final conclusion on minimum amino acid requirements. For each amino acid he took the highest recorded level of need in any single subject as his minimum requirement, and then doubled that amount for a recommended requirement described as “a definitely safe intake.” It is important to realize that even his higher requirement is easily met by a health-supporting diet centered around any single starch. In all but very young children, as long as energy needs are satisfied by unprocessed starches, protein needs are automatically satisfied in almost every situation because of the basic and complete design of the food. Infants less than two years of age have difficulty consuming enough vegetable foods to meet their calorie needs because of the immaturity of their digestive systems and the bulky nature of some starches. Therefore, as commonly practiced before modernization of societies, infants should obtain at least 25 to 50 percent of their diet from breast milk (or the best milk substitute available).
The results of Rose’s study are summarized below, under “minimum requirements.” From the chart, is it clear that even single vegetable foods contain more than enough of all amino acids essential for humans.
ESSENTIAL AMINO ACIDS OF SELECTED FOODS
Rose’s Rose’s Beef
(Grams per day) Minimum Recom. Brown Oatmeal Wheat White Broccoli club
AMINO ACIDS Require. Require. Corn rice flakes flour beans Asparagus Tomatoes steaks Egg Milk
Tryptophan 0.25 0.50 0.66 0.71 1.40 1.80 1.80 3.90 3.80 1.40 3.10 3.80 2.30 Phenylalanine 0.28 0.56 6.13 3.10 5.80 5.90 10.90 10.20 12.20 4.30 11.20 13.90 7.70 Leucine 1.10 2.20 12.0 5.50 8.10 8.00 17.0 14.60 16.50 6.10 22.40 21.00 15.90 Isoleucine 0.70 1.40 4.10 3.00 5.60 5.20 11.30 11.90 12.80 4.40 14.30 15.70 10.30 Lysine 0.80 1.60 4.10 2.50 4.00 3.20 14.70 15.50 14.80 6.30 23.90 15.3.0 12.50 Valine 0.80 1.60 6.80 4.50 6.40 5.50 12.10 16.00 17.30 4.20 15.10 17.70 11.70 Methionine 0.11 0.22 2.10 1.10 1.60 1.80 2.00 5.00 5.10 1.10 6.80 7.40 3.90 Threonine 0.50 1.00 4.50 2.50 3.60 3.50 8.50 9.90 12.50 4.90 12.10 12.00 7.40
Total Protein 20.00 37.00 109.00 64.00 108.00 120.00 198.00 330.00 338.00 150.00 276.00 238.00 160.00
(WHO)
Many investigators have measured the capacity of plant foods to satisfy protein needs. Their findings show that children and adults thrive on diets based on single or combined starches, and grow healthy and strong. Furthermore, many investigators have found no improvement by mixing plant foods or supplementing them with amino acid mixtures to make the combined amino acid pattern look more like that of flesh, milk, or eggs. In fact, supplementing a food with an amino acid in order to conform to a contrived reference standard can create amino acid imbalances. For example, young children fed diets based on wheat or corn and supplemented with the amino acids tryptophan and methionine in order to conform to the standard requirements set by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) developed negative responses in terms of nitrogen balance (the body’s utilization of protein.)
Many books popular among vegetarians today place great emphasis on combining vegetable foods to create an amino acid pattern that resembles that found in animal foods. This emphasis is unnecessary and implies that it is difficult to obtain complete sources for synthesizing proteins from vegetables without detailed nutritional knowledge. Because of this complicated and incorrect idea, people are frightened away from vegetable-based diets. Nature has designed vegetable foods to be complete. If people living before the age of modern dietics had had to worry about achieving the correct protein combinations in their diets, our species would not have survived for these millions of years. Humans have related to the world of food with primarily one drive — hunger — and in response to this one basic drive our needs for calories, proteins, amino acids, essential fat, fibre, vitamins and minerals have been satisfied. In fact, one who follows the advice for protein combining can unintentionally design a diet containing an excessive and therefore harmful amount of protein by including too many high-protein legumes.
As the many amino acid studies have shown, the foods that provide correct nutrition for rats are not necessarily the same for humans. The diet of a rat is considerably different from that of a human. Based on weight, the adult rat requires three and a half times as much protein as a human, and the individual amino acids required are considerably different. Because a rat grows rapidly into adult size compared with a person, the rat’s requirements for protein are much higher. This difference in need is especially clear when the breast milk of the two spices is compared. The protein of rat breast milk is ten times more concentrated than that of the milk intended for human babies.
The pictures one often sees of “protein-deficient” children in areas of famine in Asia or Africa are actually pictures of starvation, which is more accurately described as calorie deficiency. When these children come under medical supervision, they are nourished back to health with their local diets of corn, wheat, rice, and/or beans. Children recovering from starvation grow up to eighteen times faster than usual and require a higher protein content to provide for their catch-up in development. This exaggerated protein need can be met by a variety of starchy foods.
Calcium Loss Caused by Excess Proteins
Eating excessive amounts of proteins can seriously damage our health. When our diet contains more proteins than we need, the excess is broken down in the liver and excreted through the kidneys as urea. This protein breakdown product is called BUN, or blood urea nitrogen. Urea has a diuretic action, which caused the kidneys to work harder and excrete more water. Along with water, minerals are lost in the urine, and one of the most important minerals lost in this manner is calcium.
On the average, Americans take in a little more than 100 grams of protein and 800 milligrams of calcium daily. In general, studies have shown that young men consuming diets containing more than 95 grams of protein daily developed a negative calcium balance, even with very high calcium intakes. However, in one long-term study, investigators measured calcium balance in adults and found that when subjects consumed as little as 75 grams of protein a day, even with daily intakes as high as 1400 milligrams of calcium, more calcium was lost in urine then was absorbed into the body from the diet (a negative calcium balance). This would mean that most westerners have a net loss of calcium from their bodies every day. The deficit must be made up from the body stores of calcium, which are primarily the bones. The end result of this continuous process is calcium-deficient bones that break with the slightest provocation, such as a sneeze that can crack a rib or a normal step that can break a hip. This condition is called osteoporosis, and in affluent societies it occurs in about 25 percent of women over the age of sixty-five. By the time of diagnosis, 50 to 75 percent of the original bone material has been lost from the skeleton. Observations of various populations worldwide show that the higher the protein intake, the more common is osteoporosis. Bantus living in Africa on low-protein vegetable diets, consuming 47 grams of protein and 400 milligrams of calcium, are essentially free of osteoporosis. Genetic relatives of Bantu, a population of blacks investigated in the United States, consume a rich diet with plenty of meat and dairy foods, yet have osteoporosis nearly as commonly as do whites. An excellent example of the effects of excess protein is seen in native Eskimos who consume a diet very high in protein — 250 to 400 grams a day from fish, walrus, and whale, along with a high calcium intake of more than 2,000 milligrams from fishbones. Yet these very physically active people have one of the highest rates of osteoporosis in the world.
The effect of protein on calcium metabolism suggests a benefit from a low-protein diet in the treatment of osteoporosis, because lowering the protein content of the diet is the most effective means of restoring a positive calcium balance. So it would follow that one of the measures of preventing this condition should also include a low-protein diet. Other factors are also involved in this condition, including physical activity and hormone status.
Kidney Damage
The calcium lost in high-protein diets ends up in the urine and results in high levels of calcium in the kidney system. This contributes to the formation of painful calcium kidney stones. Calcium stones are the most common type found in persons in affluent societies. So, a health-supporting diet that emphasizes low-protein foods would also prevent the formation of calcium kidney stones in most people and would be of particular benefit to those who suffer from recurring stones.
For certain individuals, limiting the intake of protein can be essential not only for improving health but for staying alive. Protein consumed in excess of our needs causes destruction of kidney tissue and progressive deterioration of kidney function. By the eighth decade of life, people in affluent societies commonly lose 75 percent of their kidney function. In someone with normal kidneys this loss rarely becomes significant because of the tremendous extra capacity the healthy kidney possesses. However, when a person suffers from an additional disease of the kidney, such as diabetes, surgical loss, or injury from toxic substances, the damage caused by the protein becomes critical. People with partial loss or damage to their kidneys, when placed on a protein-restricted diet, are able to preserve much of their remaining kidney function. Those unfortunate patients left on high-protein diets show progressive deterioration of their kidneys to a point where all too soon most will end up needing help from kidney machines.
The body’s capacity to store protein is minimal, at most. Protein consumed in excess of the amount needed for growth and tissue replacement is excreted. The liver and kidneys enlarge from the added work load of protein metabolism. Osteoporosis and kidney stones are common consequences of prolonged consumption of high-protein foods.
Protein is broken down in the liver, and the waste products are excreted through the kidneys. Failure of either these organs to function normally will result in a buildup of protein breakdown products. Accumulation of these products will make a person extremely ill. On a low-protein diet, people with kidney or liver failure improve dramatically. There are other dietary restrictions placed on kidney and liver patients. For example, it is extremely important for the sodium, potassium, and phosphates in the diet to be kept low with most kidney disease. Dietary and medical management of people with these and other serious ailments require the strict supervision of someone trained in this type of care.
High-protein foods are generally high in purines, which are the primary building blocks of our generic code material, DNA and RNA. Purines break down to form uric acid (not urea). The collection of uric acid in the joints leads to gout, a painful and deforming type of arthritis. Uric acid concentrated in the kidney system also leads to formation of uric acid kidney stones in susceptible people. Kidney stones are prevented and gout is easily cured with a low-protein, low-purine diet.
Protein Content in Various Foods
Most animal products are inherently high in protein content. When the fat is removed from a food, the percentage of calories present as protein proportionately increases. For example, when the fat is removed from whole milk to produce skim milk, the relative protein content doubles. Therefore, removing the fat from a food is not without adverse nutritional consequences.
Vegetable products are usually lower in protein content than are animal products. The most important exceptions are the legumes, which include beans, peas, and lentils. These foods can be consumed easily in amounts large enough to yield a diet containing excessive protein. If you are in good health, legumes should be used in no more than one meal per day. The amount should not exceed one cup of cooked legumes per meal. Other high-protein vegetable foods, such as asparagus, lettuce, yeast, and spinach, usually are consumed in such small amounts that they don’t have to be consciously limited by healthy people. Those who are placed on severe protein-restricted diets should avoid all high-protein vegetable foods from the table below.
Misunderstandings about calcium and protein by lay persons and professional nutritionists have led to the inclusion of excessive amounts of flesh, dairy foods, and eggs in the western diet. Fortunately, the scientific studies performed during the last half-century clearly demonstrate that a starch-centered diet, with the addition of fruits and vegetables, supplies an excellent protein source and is thereby one of the foundations for excellent nutrition.
Percent of Calories in Selected Foods
Low-protein vegetable foods
apple 1 mangos 4 dates 3 coconuts 5
pineapple 3
Medium-protein vegetable foods
chestnuts 6 corn 12 oranges 8 spaghetti 14 rice 8 oatmeal 15 honeydew melons 10 whole wheat bread 16
almonds 12
High-protein vegetable foods
celery 21 lettuce 34 artichokes 22 asparagus 38 navy beans 26 tofu 44 peas 28 spinach 49 lentils 29 tempeh 49
soybeans 34 yeast 57
Animal Foods
human breast milk 5 milk (skim-0% fat) 41 milk (whole–3.5%) 21 turkey 41 cheddar cheese 25 chicken (light-skinned)76 yogurt 28 cottage cheese 79 milk (low-fat-2%) 28 shrimp 84 hamburger 34 tuna in water 88
mackerel fish 37
The important points to remember are that except for a diet based on low calorie fruits, unprocessed plant foods easily meet protein needs for adults and children, and that excess intake of protein is the real potential for trouble. Protein-depleted starches and simple sugars are sometimes added to the diet of people with kidney and liver disease in order to lower the protein content of the diet even further.
Adapted with kind permission from New York Times Best Seller, “The McDougall Plan,” by John A. McDougall, M.D. & Mary A. McDougall, printed by New Win Publishing, Inc. Dr. John A. McDougall graduated from Michigan State University Medical School, received certification from the American Board of Internal Medicine and the National Board of Medical Examiners and is Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of Hawaii School of Medicine. Mary A. McDougall, L.P.N., specializes in nutrition.
Dr. McDougall’s Right Foods, is a mission-orientated company that has made great health effortless. The McDougall Program at St. Helena Hospital in the Napa Valley, is a live-in experience, that assures success with the McDougall Program (the professional staff locks you up for 12 days of summer camp). At The McDougall Wellness Clinic, you will feel like the most important person in the world, when you call for help. If you have any questions, or ideas you would like to share, please write or call.
The McDougall Wellness Clinic PO Box 14039 Santa Rosa, CA 95403 Telephone: (707) 576-1654 FAX: (707) 576-3313 Book orders: (800) 570-1654
http://www.drmcdougall.com
Dr. McDougall’s Right Foods 101 Utah Avenue San Francisco, CA Telephone: (415) 635-6000 FAX: (415) 635-6010 Food Orders: (800) 367-3844
http://www.rightfoods.com
The McDougall Program St. Helena Hospital 605 Sanitarium Dr. Deer Park, CA 94576 (707) 963-6365
Reservations: (800) 358-9195
Other Recommended McDougall Books:
The McDougall Quick and Easy Cookbook The McDougall Program — Twelve Days to Dynamic Health The McDougall Program for a Healthy Heart The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss The New McDougall Cookbook McDougall’s Medicine — A Challenging Second Opinion
The McDougall Health-Supporting Cookbooks — Volumes I & II
Most natural food stores already stock healthy and delicious, low-fat “McDougall’s Right Foods.” If not, you can ask them to order.
NATIONAL:
Whole Foods
CANADA:
Loblaw
CALIFORNIA: Albertson’s Lucky’s Raleys Safeway Vons/Pavillion Food 4 Less Wild Oats Mothers Hughes
Food for Thought
COLORADO:
Wild Oats/Alfalfa’s
King Soopers
CONNECTICUT:
Haymarket
WASHINGTON DC:
Sutton Place
FLORIDA:
Publix Markets
ILLINOIS:
Byerlys Dominick’s Finer Eagle 90 Franklin Foods Hyde Park Co-op Jewel Food Stores Treasure Island
Sunset Foods
IOWA:
Cub Foods
KENTUCKY:
Valu Markets
MASSACHUSETTS
Nature’s Heartland
Wild Harvest
MICHIGAN:
D&W Food Center Busch’s Valueland Farmer’s Markets Felpausch Harbor Town Meijer Oak Ridge
Vics World Class
MISSOURI:
Marsh
Schnuck Markets
NEW YORK:
Hay Market
Food Emporium
OHIO
The Andersons Chereh Hills Dorothy Lane Heinens Jungle Jim
Meijer
WISCONSIN:
Copps Nutrition Gold’s Pick n Save Fleming-Sentry Kohl’s Magic Mill
Sentry Super Saver
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My Visit to a Dairy Farm
Two years ago (May 1995), I visited a dairy farm located on Route 2 about 20 miles north of Burlington, VT. The dairy owns about 150 cows and supplies all its milk to Ben and Jerry for ice cream. Ben and Jerry Company is considered to be an ethical company in the dairy industry. I do not know whether they owned the dairy or not.
Here is the summary of what I saw and learnt:
It was milking time (5:00 p.m.) and the machine was milking the cow at 3.5 minutes per cow, without regard to how hard it was on the cow.
It was extremely difficult for me to watch the cows’ sufferings during the milking. To extract the last drop of milk, sometimes traces of blood got mixed with the milk.
Every morning hormones are injected into the cows to increase their milk yields. Since cows produce the most milk during and after pregnancy, they are kept pregnant for their entire fertile life through artificial insemination.
The pregnant cow delivers a baby after nine months (same as human does). If a male calf, of no use to the dairy industry, is born, he is shipped to the veal industry within two or three days of birth. The evening I was there, the farm was shipping three baby calves in a truck to a veal factory. The mother cows were crying when their babies were separated from them. I cannot forget the scene and can still hear the cries of the mother cows.
The veal industry is the most cruel meat industry in the world. It produces very tender meat for delicacy meal. The baby calves are raised in the darkness in a very confining crate, which allows practically no movements, and are fed an iron-deficient diet. This way the meat stays very tender and properly textured. They slaughter the baby calves after six months. There is enough literature available about the cruelty in the veal industry.
Within two months of delivery, the cows are made pregnant again. I did not have the stamina to watch the process of artificial insemination that the farm was showing off to us.
About four to five times a year, this farm would take the cows outside for a walk. Otherwise, the cows are tied in one place and they have no choice but to defecate where they are confined. It badly stunk when I was there; the farm would wash the confinement areas once or sometimes twice a day, and the remaining times the cows would then live in their own waste.
The life expectancy of cows is about 15 years. However, after 10 years, their milk production drops significantly so these cows are sent to the slaughterhouse for meat.
Last year (Nov. 1996) I visited India and also visited a dairy farm near Bombay. I observed similar things; overall, things were actually probably worse because there are few enforced regulations.
In the past (before the birth of a high-tech dairy farm) in India, cows were treated like a part of the family, and after feeding the baby calf, leftover milk was consumed by humans. However, as my daughter Shilpa always says, cows’ milk is for baby cows and not for humans or their babies; no other animal consumes the milk of another species. We do not have the right to consume cow’s milk for our benefit, and furthermore milk and its products are not essential for our survival.
As I learned about cruelty in the dairy industry, I at first found it hard to believe. On a personal level, I feared that it would be impossible for me to become vegan. How could I eliminate milk, yogurt, butter, ghee, and cheese from my diet? To become vegan means that I cannot drink tea, eat any Indian sweets, pizza, milk chocolate, ice cream, eggless but dairy-containing cake, and many other items.
However, needless to say that the dairy farm tour made me an instant vegan.
Look at my Health Report: I was 55 years old when I became vegan. I had a concern that my health may suffer if I stop using dairy products. However, after becoming vegan I feel more energetic. I do not have any calcium deficiency. However, one should monitor his or her own body chemistry after becoming vegan. My doctor is very pleased with my results and has not put me on any vitamins or calcium substitutes. Following is the summary of my health data after I became vegan:
Before Vegan (1995) After Vegan (1997)
Cholesterol 205 160
HDL 34 42
Triglyceride 350 175
Religious view:
Nonviolence is the highest principle of our religion. However for our survival, the religion permits certain violence only by the lay people.
Our scriptures clearly indicate that:
For our survival, the survival of our ascetics, and the survival of our religion (scriptures, temples, libraries, upasrayas etc.) limited violence to one sensed (Ekendriya) souls such as vegetables, water, fire, earth, and air are allowed only by the Jain lay people (sravaks and sravikas).
However, under any circumstances violence to two to five sensed (Tras) souls such as animals, birds, and humans are not allowed even by the lay people.
Ascetics should be totally nonviolent.
The cow is a five-sensed (Panchendriya) animal and cruelty to a Panchendriya animal is considered the highest sin and is totally prohibited even by the Jain lay people (Sravak and Sravikas).
In today’s environment I do not see the difference in cruelty between meat and milk production. In the production of meat, cows are killed instantly. However, during milk production the cows are not killed instantly but they are tortured badly during their prime life and ultimately slaughtered before the end of their natural life. The dairy cows have no chance to escape from this cruelty.
Usage of Dairy Products in Jain Temples:
Both Swetambar and Digambar sects use milk and its products in temple rituals. This is an old tradition and as I mentioned above that in the past the milk was not produced using the modern day dairy technology which tortures the cows and ultimately slaughters them.
One should reevaluate the usage of milk in the temple rituals under the new technological environment. The tradition should not be followed blindly. The highest Jain principle of nonviolence should not be compromised under any circumstances.
With regards to Swetambar tradition I can definitely say that no scriptures support the usage of milk in the temple rituals.
When we consume dairy products for our personal use, we are personally responsible for our actions and the resulting karma or sins. However, when we use and allow others to use dairy products in the temple, the entire community is involved in committing the highest sin.
The intention of our rituals is to inspire us to grow spiritually and become more religious. The net outcome of the rituals should result in the reduction of our ego, greed, anger, lust, and attachments. Dairy products are not essential in the rituals to accomplish the above result. We can substitute the regular milk with simple water or soya milk, and sweets with various types of dry nuts and grapes.
Our youths will appreciate such changes in our rituals.
If you would like to further discuss with me, please call me at 919-469-0956 or send me E-mail with your telephone number.
Pravin K. Shah President, Jain Study Center, Raleigh, NC 401 Farmstead Drive, Cary NC 27511-5631 USA
E-mail — [email protected]
My Visit to a Sugar Factory…
Last month I visited the Domino Sugar’s Baltimore Refinery. I was shocked to see that they use bone-char (it is actually roasted animal bones) to decolorize and to remove the unwanted color from the organic, inherent in the sugar syrup. Spent bone-char is regenerated by roasting in kiln, to remove the organic. The clear liquid sugar is then evaporator concentrated and sent to be crystallized in large vacuum-pan vessels. I am sure, there are other processes to remove organic, which do not involve animal organs or animal extracts. I was not aware that the raw sugar is refined using animal-bones. (We discussed this sensitive issue in-depth in April-June-1997 issue, page 14. — Editor)
Apparao T. Lengade — Ellicott City, MD
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Guide to Healthy Eating
Questions & Answers
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) — P.O. Box 96736 — Washington, D.C. 20077-7541
A healthy person is a blessing on animals. Most sicknesses in western society are cured with drugs made from animals, and/or tested on animals, by the doctors who very likely have acquired their skills by experimenting on lab-animals. Under the circumstances, a compassionate vegetarian must learn how to remain healthy.
Q. I have been following a diet recommended by my doctor to lower my cholesterol. It is a 30 percent fat diet with no more than 300 milligrams of cholesterol a day. The diet helped to reduce my cholesterol from 250 to 220. I think that it is still too high, but I can’t seem to get it any lower. I’ve read that adding polyunsaturated fats to my diet, such as vegetable oils, helps to lower cholesterol. Do you think that this would help me? I’d like my cholesterol to be below 200.
There are a number of changes you can make in your diet to lower your cholesterol further, but adding more vegetable fat isn’t one of them.
Since saturated fat raises cholesterol more than anything else in the diet, replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fat will help to lower cholesterol. However, the best diet for lowering cholesterol levels is to reduce all the fat in your diet. The reason for this is that most fat is a combination of saturated and unsaturated fats. Animal products and some vegetable fats such as coconut oil and chocolate are very high in saturated fat. And while most vegetable oils are higher in polyunsaturated fat, all vegetable oils do contain some saturated fat. If you consume significant amounts of these oils, the amount of saturated fat in your diet begins to creep up.
Some scientists believe that our blood cholesterol levels should be below 150. Most people cannot achieve this optimal level of cholesterol on a 30 percent fat diet. A diet that is 30 percent fat will result in some reduction in blood cholesterol levels, but by lowering your fat intake more, you can achieve much better results. To achieve a significant decrease in your cholesterol it is probably necessary to reduce fat intake to between 10 and 20 percent of your calories. That means that for every 1,000 calories you eat, you should consume no more than 11 to 22 grams of fat. Since saturated fat and cholesterol both raise blood cholesterol levels, it is best to keep them both as low as possible in your diet. Saturated fat is found primarily in animal products, coconut oil, palm kernel oil, and chocolate. Cholesterol is found only in animal products. This may be one reason why vegetarians have lower blood cholesterol levels than people who eat meat.
HDL and LDL Cholesterols
Q. I have never been very worried about my blood cholesterol level since it has always been between 140 and 150. The last time I went to the doctor, however, he told me that my HDL cholesterol was 32 and that this was too low. Why is it bad for some kinds of cholesterol to be low? What type of diet will raise my HDL cholesterol?
The cholesterol in your blood stream is ferried around by compounds made of fat and protein, called lipoproteins. There are several different kinds of lipoproteins and each has different functions in the blood. High Density Lipoproteins, or HDLs, remove cholesterol from the tissues of your body and take it to the lever to be degraded. They also might protect against the development of atherosclerosis in other ways. Therefore, a higher level of HDL-cholesterol, which is commonly referred to as “good cholesterol,” is associated with a lower risk of heart disease. Low Density Lipoproteins, or LDLs, carry cholesterol to the body tissues. Elevated levels of LDLs are associated with higher risk of heart disease. The best case scenario is a high HDL level relative to the LDL level.
HDLs can be low for a number of reasons. To a certain extent they tend to be controlled by genetics. Obesity and smoking both depress HDL levels. Low-fat diets result in lower levels of both HDLs and LDLs. Replacing saturated fat in the diet with polyunsaturated fat also will lower both of these lipoproteins. However, replacing saturated fat with monounsaturated fats, such as olive oil, seems to lower LDL cholesterol without having much effect on HDL cholesterol.
The level of HDLs in your blood is less important than the ratio of total cholesterol to HDLs. Your ratio of total cholesterol to HDL-cholesterol appears to be the best indicator of your risk of heart disease. Just divide your total cholesterol by your HDL. Ratios that are higher than 4.5 are often seen in people with heart disease. To significantly lower your risk, your ratio should be 3.5 or lower.
Scientists suggest that the reason that HDL levels drop on low-fat diets is that we don’t need high levels of HDL to protect us from incoming cholesterol and saturated fat. So the drop in HDL cholesterol seems to be perfectly normal. Vegetarians tend to have very low levels of HDLs and also have low levels of heart disease. In countries where heart disease is rare, people tend to have very low levels of HDLs also.
A number of studies show that moderate consumption of alcohol raises HDL levels, although it isn’t clear that this, in fact, has any real effect on heart disease risk. The disadvantages of alcohol consumption may outweigh any advantages. For women, this may be an especially inadvisable approach since even small amounts of alcohol may raise risk for breast cancer. Losing weight if you are overweight and giving up cigarettes if you smoke will also help to raise HDL cholesterol.
Two Harvard researchers suggest that the best approach to keeping LDL cholesterol low without lowering HDL cholesterol is to consume a more Mediterranean-style diet — one that is very low in saturated fat and uses moderate amounts of the monounsaturated fat olive oil.
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“Ahimsa”
A Paradise for Animals in Texas
Founded by Ratibhai and Bonny Shah, and operated by Kat Chapin, with wonderful kindred spirits, the sanctuary is located on land more than 10 acres, dedicated to the animals they’ve rescued.
Ratibhai is a Jain, and they all have given their hearts and a life long commitment to saving and caring for these animals, most of which were scheduled for death. Currently the “Panjarapol” population includes 14 goats, 4 horses, 2 llamas, 3 pigs, 8 donkeys, 13 dogs, 12 cats (one of which has only three legs), 12 chicken, 15 bunnies, 18 geese, 50 to 100 ducks, 2 parrots, peacocks, finches, birds, etc. etc. over total 200 lives.
The most amazing thing about this sanctuary is the quality in which these are served. Not for dinner, mind you! They are served as if they really were in heaven. All are kissed and caressed daily. They ALL come at the sight of Bonny. She is greeted at the gate and followed by all. Such an incredible sight! Such is the harmony among all the animals, that none fight… Cats sleep with pigs, rabbits fall in love with doves, doves fall in love with chicken, and so on.
The Shah’s support all these animals with their own resources and funds. If you like to join them with your tax-deductible donations, here is the address:
“AHIMSA” e-mail: [email protected] 1875 Ottinger Road Roanoke, TX 76262-9136 Phone: 817-379-0969 Fax: 817-491-4030
Finally, if you own any pets, AHIMSA will highly recommend to SPAY & NEUTER them!
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Alcohol, Drugs, & Ethics
Don Lutz, author of “The Weaning of America,” The Case Against Dairy Products
I’ve attended scores of lectures, seminars, workshops, conferences and conventions, addressing issues such as organic farming, natural healing and environmental ethics. Most of these have promoted veganism or ethical vegetarianism: a philosophy that includes all the inhabitants of this planet, as opposed to only human interests. It has disturbed me that organizations of many of these events have served alcohol beverages to attendees.
A vegan is, of course, not just a ‘strict vegetarian,’ but is someone who is aware of and concerned with all ethical issues from racism and sexism to conservation of resources and respect for the environment. Alcohol, therefore, is not vegan.
All of us, even those who are alcoholics, are aware of the ethical problems associated with alcohol. Most domestic violence has an alcohol component. A high percentage of auto accidents are related to alcohol. Exact figures are difficult because of many factors, including drug combining.
The alcohol industry, of course, is quick to remind us that not all alcohol users are irresponsible. But the insidious effects and addictive qualities of alcohol make it a high risk habit for anyone. Alcohol is a major contributor to problems with pregnancy, childbirth and birth defects. Alcohol inhibits digestion, and compromises the immune system, contributing to a host of problems including cancer, heart disease, ulcers, diabetes, and of course, sclerosis of the liver.
The notion that a little bit of alcohol is good for you, is little more than a popular myth promoted by the alcoholism industry. Even if it were true, how many drinkers do you know who can limit their consumption to one ounce or less per day?
But vegan philosophy involves more than just human health. Few of us consider that land that is used to grow grain for the alcohol industry could be better used to grow food for starving people. That ‘social’ beer shared daily by millions of Americans adds up to a tremendous waste of resources, including water and fossil fuels used in the creation, storage and distribution of alcohol beverages. The pollution generated by the industry is another story, not well documented or publicized because of the power of the polluters.
The problems associated with alcohol can generally be evidenced with another American institution, the use of nicotine. Responsible health professionals, such as Dr. Agatha Thrash, consider alcohol and nicotine, poisons. A hangover is evidence of alcohol poisoning, the most common form of ‘food’ poisoning. Most drinkers also smoke, and are vaguely aware of the seriousness of their problem, made substantially worse by combining the two drugs. By causing rapid changes in blood sugar levels, alcohol and nicotine, especially in combination, may actually create “addictive personalities” in otherwise “normal” people. Nicotine and alcohol are among the most addictive of all known drugs.
And, of course, tobacco, like the grain used for alcohol, is not a food crop, it is a cash crop. Valuable resources are wasted so that the tobacco conglomerates can maintain their control over the minds of nicotine addicts. Some thirty years ago, I was brought to tears by a 30-minute movie made by actor Richard Boone. Boone, a lifelong smoker was dying of lung cancer. He played himself in the movie, designed to expose the pain and suffering caused by nicotine addiction. The movie was apparently aired only once, early on a Sunday morning. Few people saw this heart-rendering story; it had no significant effect on industry profits.
When the horrors of DDT were made public in the 1950’s, environmentalists pushed hard to ban the pesticide. It was eventually banned in the U.S., but the process took years because of industry lobbying. The production of DDT, however, didn’t decrease. By the time U.S. ban went into effect, the DDT market had been successfully transferred overseas, especially to China. This was one of the great accomplishments of Nixon and Kissinger, as part of their acclaimed new ‘rapport’ with our former enemy.
A very similar process is happening with nicotine. Cigarette sales are dropping in the U.S., but industry profits continue to rise because of foreign markets. At one time it was illegal to advertise cigarettes in many southeast Asian countries. These laws have been repealed as part of the wonderful “shuttle diplomacy” deals. Weapons, fuel, food and drugs are the stuff of international treaties. Poor nations with massive debts have little choice but to accept the deals orchestrated by multinational corporations. This is our real foreign policy.
Alcohol and nicotine are two of the three most seriously abused drugs in the world. By this we mean the total damage done to the most people. The third drug of this unholy trinity is caffeine. Surprised? While the problems with booze and cigarettes are fairly obvious, this is not yet the case with caffeine.
Caffeine offers many of the same benefits as the other two. It is also very addictive, but much more insidious, because it is part of such innocent-appearing pastimes: drinking coffee and tea. Tea, it’s important to note, can be made from countless plants. Some have risky components such as caffeine and tannin, others do not. Commercial teas, with few exceptions, are high in caffeine. It’s no accident: it’s addictive, so it sells.
I’ve heard people say, “I don’t have a problem with caffeine, I don’t drink coffee!” while they guzzle their fifth can of Coca-Cola for the day. Caffeine is found in most ‘soft’ drinks, as well as in ‘diet’ pills, ‘energy’ pills and many prescription and non-prescription drugs.
There aren’t a lot of studies on caffeine. We know it has similar health risks to nicotine, though it affects the digestive system more than the lungs. But many studies to date are questionable, because they attempt to study drugs as if they were always used independently. Most people who use one of these drugs, use at least two of them, and typically, all three. So the studies desperately needed are those which look at the combined effect of the three, which appears to be dramatically more profound than the effect of each, were they used independently.
Statistics, therefore, can be misleading, and if anything, the risks of combining the ‘big three’ are much higher than previously suspected. It should be obvious, even to the most defensive, close-minded, that combining a lot of drugs is dangerous. A person who uses alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, prescription drugs, and any of the illegal drugs, will eventually destroy his or her immune system and exhibit the classic symptoms of AIDS, without necessarily being infected by a virus at all.
So, it’s difficult to put numbers on deaths or disease caused by individual drugs. A minimum or reading, however, if only statistical almanacs, will disclose that the disease and suffering caused by legal drugs may outweigh the damage from illegal drugs by 50 to one.
A physician friend, who asked not to be named out of fear of recrimination, showed me a list of drugs which he rated as causing the most damage to human health, worldwide. His list, worst first, is as follows:
Nicotine Alcohol Caffeine Non-prescription drugs Prescription drugs Cocaine/crack Illegal amphetamines Illegal barbiturates Heroine Morphine Opium
Marijuana
He was quick to remind me that few people use only one of the above, and it is the combinations that are the most dangerous.
Are all the above drugs then, not vegan? By ethical definition, anything that causes suffering is not vegan. Abusing any drug is not vegan. Using some of the above intelligently, may be considered vegan.
For example, the commercial marijuana that comes into the U.S. by the megaton, is not vegan. It is grown primarily for profit, may be dangerous (pesticides, molds, fungi, bacteria) and as it is currently marketed, is a sad waste of resources.
You may have noticed that the top five of the above ‘dangerous’ drug list are legal (with some restrictions). This situation exists because the legality or illegality of drugs is determined by the profiteers, not by health professionals, economists or environmentalists. The current sad state of affairs offers incredible profits for both legal and illegal drug pushers.
Perhaps the most important attribute of vegans, perfectly in tune with the principles of Jiv Daya and Ahimsa, is a thirst for knowledge, which, when tempered with compassion, yields wisdom. An open mind and an open heart permit objective assessment of subjective knowledge. An objective look at mortality stats exposes legal drugs as the real drug problem in American society. And drug abuses are not compatible with vegan living.
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From Lipstick to Marshmallows, It’s Got Some Cow in It
Where Some Parts Wind Up
Dr. T.J. Salgia (Columbus, OH) submitted following information. It reveals very clearly, how careful an Ahimsak shopper needs to be in the western world.
Where’s the beef? Just about everywhere, it seems. When the British beef scare peaked, it caused plenty of headaches for consumers and manufacturers of a multitude of products.
Processed cow fats are many times used to make cookies and salty snacks taste rich and to make lipsticks glide smoothly. Cow proteins show up in shampoo. Collagen, extracted from the inner layer of cattle hide, is used to balm wounds and cosmetically puff up lips. Gelatin, refined from cattle hide and bones, is found in such foods as ice cream, gummy candies and marshmallows — as well as the capsules encasing drugs.
When the European Union voted to ban imports of British beef, citing fears it could cause a rare human brain disease, the ban went beyond steak and ground beef to include anything else made from processed cow parts. And as public concern about mad-cow disease grew, British grocers were fielding worried questions from shoppers — and not just in the meat department.
But the hunt for cow byproducts was tedious and time-consuming. The European Cosmetic, Toiletry and Perfumery Association had tough time assuring that association members weren’t using the cow parts that were suspected of carrying mad-cow disease: the brain, eye and central nervous system.
Part of consumers’ anxiety stemmed from the fact that Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, that is linked to mad-cow disease (BSE), may take 10 years after exposure to show up. British processors faced fewer restrictions before studies narrowed in on the cow organs suspected to harboring BSE. Before 1990, renderers simply carted away whatever was left of the cow carcasses from slaughterhouses and cooked the goop into fatty tallow. “It’s a bit like cooking lard,” says Alan Sadler of the U.K. Renderers Association. The process also produces more powdery gelatin, which would be fed to livestock.
The gelatin that winds up in cosmetics and drug-capsule casings goes through more extensive processing, according to Croda International PLC, the U.K.’s largest gelatin maker. They say that the bones are degreased, soaked in hydrochloric acid, cooked to the boiling point, left in a “vacuum evaporator” and then flash-sterilized. The British beef gelatin is limited to uses like photographic film. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration continued allowing the use of cow parts from England in pharmaceutical-grade gelatin.
Another beef byproduct of concern is the insulin for diabetics that comes from cows. Still, developing a vegetable-based alternative to gelatin for pills has proved tricky. And food companies are reluctant to give up animal fats. “It adds to the flavor and eating quality,” according to England’s United Biscuits PLC.
For a while, the U.K. became very wary about meat in all its forms. England’s Vegetarian Society distributed a list of products that may contain beef products, and a list of ingredient names that vegetarians watch for (stearate, stearic acid, oleic acid, rennet, glycerol). The group’s phone kept ringing for a long time.
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Animal Demonstrations and Non-Animal Techniques
by Donna Hurlock, M.D. (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine)
Dr. Donna Hurlock here discusses instruction in laser surgery technique. The use of live animals in these courses has been of concern to many physicians, and alternative training methods are readily available. Dr. Hurlock is a gynecologist in Alexandria, Virginia. She received her MD degree at the University of Maryland and completed her residency at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C.
Several years ago I took part in a laser surgery training course designed to teach laser laparoscopy in the field of gynecology. Part of this training course included a laboratory session performing surgical procedures on “anesthetized” live rabbits. What I experienced during this course has played a great role in my attitudes toward animal use since that time.
The course was designed to teach laser techniques while performing laparoscopy on human beings. There have been hundreds of other similar courses in the last several years, many of which have also used rabbits to “enhance” the surgical training experience. The organizers of these courses charge fees, frequently over $1000 for a weekend course.
After a slide presentation, the attendees of the course were taken to a room where approximately a dozen live rabbits were laid out on tables, supposedly under anesthesia. A veterinarian was present to monitor the anesthesia. We were broken into groups and instructed to make incisions in these rabbits’ abdomens and place a telescope-like instrument called a laparoscope into their abdominal cavities. The cavities were inflated with gas and then laser was used through this telescope to essentially burn any tissues that we desired to burn. It was expected that these animals would be sacrificed at the end of the procedure, therefore whatever damage we caused was not problematic — not problematic to us anyway.
However, all did not go as planned. During this session a number of rabbits began to come out of anesthesia. As they woke up, they began to cry out as their internal organs were burned with the laser. The veterinarian did not even seem to notice the cries, nor do much to help the animals. Listening to the cries of these animals screaming in pain was one of the most horrible experiences I have ever had. Many of the animals died during the training session and rest died at the end.
They claim that this laboratory teaching experience is an integral part of teaching laser laparoscopy. I disagree. Throughout my eight years of medical school and Ob/Gyn residency training, I learned dozens of surgical procedures. Like all residents, I learned by first watching and then assisting on operations being performed on living human beings. At no time during these eight years did I need to participate in an animal laboratory in order to learn a procedure. I have also done extensive laser training aside from this live animal course, and have learned all of these techniques under supervision on living human beings. Like other surgical experiences, the fine points of techniques are learned by repeatedly using the laser in the operating room while doing surgical procedures on patients. There is little difference between using a laser and using a scalpel when it comes to learning how to make an incision. Learning how to burn holes in rabbits’ intestines certainly did not help me be a better gynecologist.
If one wants to see the effect of a laser on tissue, one can do this easily by aiming the laser at an orange or a vegetable. In fact, some training courses that do not use live animals do use tissue such as beef tongue, chicken parts or other meat products that would be obtained in a grocery store. Although I do not feel that even that is necessary, it would certainly be preferable to subjecting living animals to such a painful death.
Yet another alternative is to use artificial human torsos that have been specifically constructed by various companies to simulate the organs of real human body. These torsos, similar to sophisticated mannequins, can be custom designed and reused many times.
These training courses are repeated on almost a weekly basis throughout this country. I would hope that they would utilize teaching methods that conform to a more ethical standard.
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