You are what you eat...

A place to discuss casual topics amongst spiritual friends.
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SeerObserver
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You are what you eat...

Post by SeerObserver »

Production line meat is known to be potentially hazardous to health for a myriad of reasons. As a component of our diet it contributes to risk factors for serious disease such as cardiovascular to name one. There are concerns over saturated fat, cholesterol, and hormones. As the farmed animals are raised for mass and efficient production, they are pumped full of hormones. This has occurred more and more with time and is correlated physical developments and ailments that are more prevalent in latter generations than former.
Due to this unhealthy and unnatural diet, the birds’ livers can swell up to ten times their normal size and become diseased (a medical condition called “hepatic lipidosis”), and cease to function properly. The harrowing process and its effects on the birds make it difficult for them to walk or even breathe comfortably. The birds would die from the condition if they were not slaughtered at just three months old. Even so, many die before being slaughtered.
This was taken from a thread I read. It made me think to start a thread on this subject. This issue has occurred to me before, but I never really discussed it with anyone and it just sat in the back of my mind.

Beyond the scientifically known and observable facts aforementioned, in what other manner does our food choice impact us?

Take Foie Gras for example. The paragraph quoted describes the intended result of treatment ducks receive in order to enlarge their liver. Eating a diseased liver or a diseased anything for that manner begs the question of what we are introducing into our system. Break down the word into its two parts. Dis-ease. Sounds like we're putting something into our system that will cause some DISruption. Meat from a slaughterhouse with a mad-cow outbreak would be quarantined and the same goes for bird-flu...just sayin'.

And what about the other dis-ease we are ingesting? The animal you are eating lived in distress. It was not free to roam as would be its natural behavior. Rather it was force-fed, caged/confined, and subjected to several distressful conditions. This caused stress, which is known to offset chemical/hormonal balance in and of itself and all sorts of chemicals and the like are then released into the animal's body. And let's not forget about the final mind state of the animal (an outright Buddhist concept). The meat you are eating is in fact dis-eased. That's not just speaking to the diagnosable health condition of the animal, but the actual equilibrium of the animal's flesh due to various exposures and mind states. If you are what you eat, what are the implications here?

PS - Then of course there's the school of thought of adopting tendencies of the animals or due to certain animals. Certain meats make you aggressive, certain meats give you knee/joint problems, etc.
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SeerObserver
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Re: You are what you eat...

Post by SeerObserver »

Humans and other animals are sentient beings, but what separates us from them is conscience or something along those lines. Yes animals do have feelings and what not this and that, but when it comes down to it they act upon their instincts whereas humans have more discernment in that regard.

If certain components of our diet cause us to somewhat revert to that nature, we give away some of what Buddhist doctrine says is the thing that makes the human form one of the most (if not the most) conducive existences to practice the path.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: You are what you eat...

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Reasons to stop eating meat:

https://citizens.news/717211.html
A study conducted by researchers in Spain revealed that almost half of the meat products in supermarkets could be hiding potentially deadly drug-resistant superbugs. The study found multidrug-resistant E. coli strains in 40 percent of beef, chicken, pork and turkey products for sale in shops across the country.
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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cappuccino
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Re: You are what you eat...

Post by cappuccino »

Nicholas Weeks wrote: Fri May 19, 2023 6:45 pm Reasons to stop eating meat:
:o
dharmacorps
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Re: You are what you eat...

Post by dharmacorps »

SeerObserver wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2009 6:19 am
And what about the other dis-ease we are ingesting? The animal you are eating lived in distress.
I've heard this idea about "ingesting emotions", but there is nothing in the Pali canon which suggests one can consume and subsequently feel or suffer the emotions of another being. There are some diseases people can get from eating meat of course, but there are also diseases people can get from eating plants or anything, really. By that logic, one could claim starving oneself to death is the right thing to do. The Buddha roundly criticized that view.

The entire problem of with being in the process of samsara is one must eat and therefore kill and consume beings of some kind or another to survive, and therefore the best practice to address this is to strive to put an end to rebirth.

There are plenty of reasons to object to cruel treatment of animals, but something like "consuming emotions" doesn't have a basis in science/medicine or dhamma. If one absolutely has to proselytize vegetarianism, this is something to remember. The Buddha also did not do that, interestingly. If thats how you choose to spend your time, then thats up to your own discretion.
Sha Bac
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Re: You are what you eat...

Post by Sha Bac »

It's interesting to think about the mental and emotional changes of ingesting meat.

Notice bodybuilders eat a lot of red meat. I've read that it makes a person aggressive.

Is that true in a mental and emotional sense? I don't know, but meat DOES give a lot of strength and power. Does that mean aggression? It could enable it. I remember when I switched to only fish. I did that for a while and then one day wolfed down 12 chicken wings. I had a TON of energy. But thats not to say I noticed prior to that I was lacking anything. I didn't notice I was depleted; I felt fine. Then after those wings I was able to run a heck of a lot faster the next morning.

But no meat is better for flexibility. Meat makes the muscles rigid. Of course there's people on both sides of this debate, but remember yoga activates energies which enhance vitality. Yogis and meditation practitioners aren't like other folks. I remember when I first stopped eating meat in 2015. My body hurt, but I just contemplated the discomfort and eventually I was fine.
Dhammapardon
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Re: You are what you eat...

Post by Dhammapardon »

While not Theravada, this conversation might have some overlap to Sattvic, Rajasic, Tamasic foods and the types of characteristics which come about from consuming them in Bhagavad Gita.
Just as a bird, wherever it goes, flies with its wings as its only burden; so too is he content with a set of robes to provide for his body and almsfood to provide for his hunger. Wherever he goes, he takes only his barest necessities along. This is how a monk is content.(DN11)
Sha Bac
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Re: You are what you eat...

Post by Sha Bac »

Dhammapardon wrote: Fri May 19, 2023 9:48 pm While not Theravada, this conversation might have some overlap to Sattvic, Rajasic, Tamasic foods and the types of characteristics which come about from consuming them in Bhagavad Gita.
Oh yeah, I forgot about that classification. Yeah red meat is rajasic. I thought it strange how coffee and tea are tamasic. I guess coffee I can see.
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