You are what you eat. In earlier times, the importance of a nourishing meal cooked by the loving hands of a mother was emphasized upon to ensure long life and health since it was believed (and modern science confirms) that an important ingredient of food is the thought and emotions with which it is prepared. Utmost care was taken to ensure that all the ingredients that go into the meal are pure and health-promoting and that they have been derived from and cooked in a hygienic environment. The satisfaction and taste derived from such a meal is unparalleled.
With times, our tastes have deteriorated as have the quality of foods and the conditions in which they are prepared. In this epoch of fast-food burgers, colas, tinned foods and genetically modified vegetables, our food menu has come to include pesticides, toxic chemicals, plastics and contaminants, the recipe for a perfect dish being trauma and suffering to innocent beings, deterioration of environment and natural resources, not to mention the wide-scale damage to our own health and systems…a far cry from the idea of a good meal as proposed by our ancestors. Take for example your favorite beef burger. Beef is a cow served on a platter. The cheese in that burger is rennet, the intestines of that cow. And the taste that you enjoy is the pain and suffering that the cow had to go through so that you could have a ‘good’ meal.
You would be surprised to know that cattle are exposed to harsh living conditions, rough handling, and often outright abuse and cruelty throughout their short lives. Cattle are routinely castrated, dehorned, and hot-iron branded without anaesthetics. Cattle released on the open range must fend for themselves for several months, often succumbing to weather extremes and other dangers. Animals transported to feedlots and slaughterhouses are often shocked with electric prods, beaten, kicked, dragged and deprived of food and water for long periods. Overcrowded trucks cause broken limbs; injured and sick animals are routinely dragged out of trucks and onto the kill floor where slaughter techniques remain primitive and brutal.
It was due to atrocities such as these that are being inflicted on animals that the High Court ordered a ban on Goa Meat Complex to slaughter animals. Apart from a stringent step by judiciary there is another good that came out of this ruling – it unfathomed a very dark, deeply embedded side of what human beings have come to be. Because of the acute shortage of beef due to the ban, the animals were being slaughtered “behind” the GMC, out in the open, with complete disregard to any law, hygiene or humanity. The dogs were seen running away with fresh cut meat dripping with blood. There is no check on the health and hygiene of the cattle slaughtered or the disease and infection that they carry, not to mention the host of heavy heavy emotions that get packed into their meat, all of which finds its way into our food and plays havoc with our health.
The study ‘Animal Stress Results in Meat Causing Disease’ by Irwin H. Putzkoff (PhD, MD Schmuckintush Professor of Nutritional Physiology) confirms that the stress, fear and pain when animals are being slaughtered or waiting to be slaughtered results in several disease processes in the humans which eat the meat, most notable are cardiac problems, impotency and general fatigue. Putzkoff conducted experiments for domestic farm animals (cattle, pigs and poultry), and for laboratory animals (dogs and rats) and found in all cases elevated levels of steroid hormones, generally associated with adrenocortical secretions. Primary substances included adrenalin, cortisone-like secretions, and steroids which stimulate fear pheromone production. All of these are known to result in poor health and poor vitality. The study confirmed this link in food consumed by humans. That is why our ancestors insisted upon the love and care of a mother as ingredients to our food.
So the next time you grab that burger, be aware of the cry of the cow or chicken that made it for you and know that it is going to get transferred to you…then eating or not eating is your choice.
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Ashwini Guru ji is the guiding light of Dhyan Ashram and an authority on Vedic Sciences. His book, ‘Sanatan Kriya: The Ageless Dimension is an acclaimed thesis on anti-ageing. Log onto www.dhyanfoundation.com or mail to dhyan@dhyanfoundation.com for more
