MenU; Vegging About

(..that's a tongue-in-cheek reference to an Aussie-ism... to 'veg' is short for 'to vegetate' which as you may imagine, is something slothful... and let me tell you, it has been anything but slothful round the YAMster's hutch the past month... but that's a story to be told very soon...)

Once again I was impressed by the response to last week's MenU post, for which 'thank you' to all commenters. Joanne remarked on a vegan friend having to 'go vegetarian' and I was reminded of once being asked 'What's the difference'... this ties in to some degree with Jennifer's comment also.

I feel that most of my readers will know much of the following; but it is part of the 'flow' of the subject, so here it is;
VEGAN; the complete removal of food from one's diet which pertains in any manner to animal source. Thus, no milk, cheese, eggs or items which may be tracked back to insects and such like.
VEGETARIAN; the non-consumption of meat products or their derivatives, (lard, tallow, food additives...)

Put like that it can look oh so simple.

Anyone who has any knowledge of this at all, though, will understand that it is surprisingly troublesome. For example anything which contains food colouring - which a lot of commercial cakes and biscuits do. If there is pink present, then it needs to be checked that it is not from cochineal. (A beetle whose wings are crushed for the colour.)  Double check that strawberry milk or pink-iced cupcake next time...

Now, the vegan diet can be intense. Particularly in the West, veganism is taken up as an ethical living choice and such folk will not even wear wool, or leather, and are against any form of animal exploitation whatsoever.  This is highly laudable, if somewhat impractical in some parts.  Although the term 'vegan' (first three and last two letters of the larger sister word) was coined in London at the end of the war, the tenets of the diet and its associated purpose probably owes some dues to the Jain religion. (British Imperialisam imported and adapted more than just the foodstuffs!)

Jainism is, like Buddhism, seen as a separate faith to Hinduism, but in fact both are 'branches' of that tree. Whilst many Buddhists remain meat consumers, Jains adhere to a very strict form of vegetarianism  and work on the key principal of अहिंसा /ahimsaa, non-injury. Whilst the 'rules' actually permit dairy (but not eggs), many Jains avoid dairy also due to the awful ethos of modern milk production (more on that later.....) Their argument against eggs is that these are the offspring of a species which has all the five senses. The more senses available to a species, the higher up the scale of sentience. Veges are one-sense species. Now, it doesn't take too much logic to work out that the eggs, per se, are not the offspring, but have the potential to provide an environment within which offspring might grow. In traditional settings, of course one could not ensure an unfertilised egg, so this was proper exercise of caution. Nowadays, provided the eggs are ethically produced in every other way - i.e. organically fed, free-range hens without presence of cockerel - then there is no real concern.  Even vegetables are not all approved by Jains. Root veges are off - removing them from ground is not only destroying the whole plant, but endangers micro-organisms around them. Tomatoes and watermelon are off - their flesh resembles meat and the colour of blood. Sprouts of any type are off, as these are the 'babies' of a potential full plant.... etc and so forth. Such conscious awareness of the preciousness of ALL life is highly commendable, but extremely difficult to adopt if one is not born to it - and also outside of a given community. Jains overseas have adapted and will in fact take 'forbidden' vegetables because it is just not feasible to maintain diet otherwise, though most do retain veganism.

Vegetarianism as a more general approach to diet is somewhat less stressful. Not without its trubs, as you have been reading here! On the whole, though, something can usually be managed when eating out, albeit unimaginative. Majority vegos do take eggs and dairy - though preferring organic, ethically produced items where possible.  For many it is a health option and also an ethical lifestyle choice. Taking cheese may seem fine under this label, but when it is considered that the vast majority of cheeses have been traditionally made with rennet (by-product of cow stomach).......well, thank goodness that many now are made with microbial agents similar to that for yoghurt! It just means lots of checking of ingredients listings when out shopping.

For the record, being brought up in a standard Scottish family, with farmers on one side and foresters on the other, there was no avoiding the meat and two veg meals. It has to be said I was never a big meat eater - especially red meats. I ate them because that was what was put in front of me; and is was 'you don't leave the table until...' kind of thing. Mother, though, was a bit left of field in this regard, that quite often we got non-meat meals. It could have been a thrift thing - but I believe she genuinely loved and possibly preferred her bean bakes and lentil pilafs and such like.

She it was who introduced the egg curry and it remained a firm family favourite.  As did her lentil lasagne - which recipe I have inherited. It is one of those dishes which truly amazes confirmed carnivores.

As a teenager, from conscience, I made an attempt at vegetarianism. Mum did her best to support it. It faltered, as most teenage things must. Not completely though. For several years in my twenties I ate very little meat - though couldn't claim to be vegetarian as such. Once I moved to Australia though, that began to right itself and the meat got less and less and the veges more and more. Helped by the fact this was a well-established diet choice there and several of my new friends were disposed to it.

To be frank it wasn't from any huge philosophical shift that this happened for me.  It just felt better and I had the added impetus of finding a food balance which didn't aggravate the arthritis. At one point, whilst studying for my Homoeopathic Medical degree, I attempted the full vegan choice. That lasted all of 18 months. My general health was impaired by the lack of dairy. Soy just doesn't carry the same oomph for this body. Returning to dairy, things got better.

Early in my forties, meat crept back in. Mainly chicken, sometimes lamb or beef. Never pork. Then, some eight/nine years ago, a firm decision was made to return to vego. This was furthered by having found Hinduism..... or it finding me. Either way we suit each other and when I began researching the concepts of diet according to that faith it immediately made a lot of sense as my own experiments with how food felt in the body were borne out by the principles there. A good deal of it had extended and has being taken up by nutritional scientists globally. It is now very widely recognised that, if for no other reason, taking a more vegetable and grain based diet will improve health. Making two or three days of the week meat free would be doing a lot of favours to the body.

Next week, an overview of diet from the perspective Sattva, Rajas and Tamas.... (I've started, so I'll finish! &*>)

What's to hear........????????????????

HAVE YOU HEARD..??????.........