Last time we published, an Ayurvedic doctor from Chelyabinsk. In this publication, Andrey answers questions from readers.
If you have questions about Ayurveda, please send them by e-mail, our experts will try to answer them.
Sergei Martynov. Hello, Andrey Sergeevich, a big fan of meat writes to you. I am very interested in what can replace animal products so as not to bring the body to exhaustion? Is it possible to abruptly stop eating meat or is it better to do it gradually?
It is best to do it abruptly – this, again, from a psychological point of view, because if you maintain any residual attachments, then feelings will pull back. At first, feelings will say: “Well, eat chicken,” you want to eat chicken, buy it, fry it. Then they will say: “Eat pork,” for example, you will cook and eat pork … Then beef, and so it is very easy to go astray.
Leaving himself a loophole, leaving himself the possibility of reversing, a person falls into the hook of his own feelings, his own ego, which strives for pleasures, pleasures. So it is better to refuse at once. The taste of meat can be replaced with something similar, for example, you can use garlic. Although it is not recommended for vegetarians for permanent use, because it disrupts the intestinal flora.
Why do meat eaters love garlic? Because it crushes the putrefactive intestinal flora and allows you to “maintain” health in relation to such nutrition. Why is a large amount of onion and vinegar added to kebabs? To crush the flora that decomposes this meat.
I would recommend focusing on foods such as lentils, peas, and possibly soy products at first if they are digestible to you. As for legumes, they need to be able to cook them correctly, because not everyone knows that when legumes are cooked, ten minutes after boiling, you need to drain the water and continue cooking in new water. Because it contains a large amount of antimetabolites, which are difficult to digest. And if this “number” with lentils passes, then it does not work with peas, beans. I would not advise using any “pickled peas” from a can, it is better to cook it yourself – fresh products are very well absorbed.
It is very useful to cook khichri, a mixture of rice and lentils. Very satisfying, very balanced, very healthy, easy to digest. After eating this food, there is usually a desire to fight with someone, hammer piles, dig a garden, shift bags – that is, a man who eats rice with lentils has a passionate desire to do something physically, this is a very powerful energy food that immediately absorbed and provides energy. If a piece of meat makes you be an amoeba for at least two hours after dinner – you fall asleep, turn off the process, then the use of such powerful plant foods is the opposite.
It’s better to eat whole grains, not switch to some obscure cereals, pouring them with milk of questionable quality, jam with butter and snacks – this food is not really vegetarian, really vegetarian – this is a fresh, healthy, whole grain, bean food that should include everything that the sun gave to the seed. Then it energizes. I would also recommend using spices that give an intense taste, for example, asafoetida, it gives the taste of garlic, spices, onions can be stewed, black pepper is added. They give food a taste that for a man will be pleasant, rich. And gradually move on to such food.
But meat should be abandoned immediately, just learn to pay attention to the products that I mentioned, learn how to cook them. You don’t have to be radical about anything. No need to get carried away with protein substitutes that bodybuilders eat, this is completely optional. Just the products should be whole, fresh and consumed immediately or at least within three to six hours after preparation. If, for example, you have to dine somewhere in a roadside cafe, ask for a side dish of buckwheat, vinaigrette, in general, something that cooks quickly. Do not snack on sandwiches, semi-finished products.
Reader. I was surprised to learn that Ayurveda forbids eating onions and garlic, that these vegetables are allegedly toxic, is this true? It is proposed to replace with Indian spices, are they useful?
It is necessary to distinguish between such concepts as food and drugs. Ayurveda says that onions and garlic can be consumed, but they are more likely to be medicines, help get rid of respiratory diseases, indigestion if you ate something “wrong”, or get rid of intestinal diseases with garlic. But you need to understand that you will get dysbacteriosis, since garlic is the strongest herbal antibiotic. And this is the first mechanism of action.
Another component is the so-called prabhava, the subtle effect of the product on the body. Foods that grow closer to the sun, such as fruits, have an uplifting power that is more pronounced than foods that are “born” underground or have a pungent, corrosive taste, such as onions and garlic. They are best used in a certain season – when there is a transition from autumn to winter, when you feel that you can get a cold and during the transition from winter to spring, this is also the time of colds.
Moreover, raw onions and garlic are advised not to use. Onions can be sautéed, stewed, steamed, and they are softer in effect than garlic, which is best excluded from the daily diet. Even fried or stewed, the taste of garlic can be unbearable for a vegetarian, as it resembles the taste of meat and causes irritation.
If you like the taste, you can imitate it with spices, for example, asafoetida. It works differently from onion or garlic – it stimulates the digestive organs, has a rejuvenating effect, and spices such as turmeric, ginger and black pepper help enhance digestive function. You need to understand this issue, try it, not all spices are spicy, many just have a spicy taste.
Julia Boykova. Good afternoon! Why shouldn’t people eat meat? I read somewhere that the human intestines are not designed for digestion. How to feed a child, because all doctors recommend eating meat when a new organism is just being formed?!
I watch my children, the children of those around me. I have two sons growing up, the eldest is five years old, the youngest is one and a half. At home, they eat vegetable and dairy foods, we never have meat products. True, when the eldest son goes to his grandmother, they offer him both dumplings and meatballs, and he often eats them, he is pleased. Although, by and large, the child’s body does not need meat products. It has been noticed that when for the first time grandmothers try to give a child who was on plant foods something meat, rejection, vomiting occurs, you have to salt, season, mix with something so that the child eats. Since it is a pure organism, it naturally rejects all this. The baby in the period of formation of the body feeds on mother’s milk, but it does not contain meat! Why do we think that it is necessary to give this little creature products that are not in women’s milk, that he needs them so that he grows and develops further. Such logic does not withstand simple criticism. And there is no such data that would indicate that a person really needs to eat meat. Understand simply that the majority of the world’s population are vegetarians, among them there are children and the elderly, this happens for a reason. And if somewhere people continue to eat meat and feed it to their children, this does not mean anything.
Olga Kalandina. Hello, is there any average period to noticeably feel the result of the benefits of vegetarianism on your body?
It depends on organs and systems. The gastrointestinal tract is cleansed first. After about two weeks, you will feel that your stool has changed, the stench specific to people who eat meat will go away, the smell from the mouth changes, the state of health changes – it becomes easier: it is easier to wake up, it is easier after eating. Then the blood gradually begins to purify, the blood purifies all other organs. In spring, the liver is best cleansed, in winter – the kidneys. The skin is cleansed in the first months, many notice that some kind of velvety appears, the skin glows with energy. The lungs are also cleared in about three to four months, if there were any coughs and bronchitis, all this returns to normal, the amount of mucus decreases. But, of course, smoking must be abandoned if you are trying to adhere to such a lifestyle, since vegetarianism and alcohol, tobacco, are incompatible things. Although alcohol “gets along” very well with meat-eating, these are things that complement each other in many ways. Then deeper structures are cleared, these are muscle and adipose tissue (approximately the first six months), internal organs (several years), bone tissue (up to seven years). If there are diseases of the joints, the spine, genital organs, diseases of the nervous system, and generally quite serious illnesses, the improvement of the condition can take many years, especially if, apart from changing the diet, nothing is done.
Past illnesses may return through exacerbations. If the body is balanced, if the body has turned on the mechanisms of regulation, then, as a rule, it begins to open the foci of old infections, but there is no need to panic. It happens that the temperature rises, old sores appear – usually in time, as they were observed in your life: for example, two years ago there was a sore throat – the sore throat can open, and ten years ago the knee hurt – the knee will hurt a year after vegetarianism. This indicates that the purification mechanisms have turned on. And through local inflammation, fever, pain, the body gradually recovers. As a rule, an exacerbation of the disease occurs half the strength of the last attack, and a person easily tolerates it, the main thing is not to “throw” synthetic anti-inflammatory drugs. It is better to use aspen bark, willow, raspberry leaf and root as natural accumulators of salicylates.
The effect of vegetarianism will be immediate, but it will be extended over time, depending on the organ or system we are talking about. The most important thing is the impact on consciousness, it is observed immediately in the first two or three days, a state of peace is observed, finally, many people “exhale” after many years of running around and claims to the world and themselves, lightness and calmness are observed, it becomes possible to look at the world with clear, clear eyes. This is a very powerful effect, which is observed in the very first days, then it smoothes out a little, but accompanies the vegetarian all his life.
Novel. An athlete cannot do without meat, vegetable protein is not able to give the body everything it needs, the substances contained in one chicken breast are the equivalent of a bag of beans.
In general, it is very difficult to eat beans, I would not recommend a bag of beans to anyone, even to my worst enemy. Seriously, most of the world’s marathon runners and endurance athletes in their own right are vegetarians – some even vegans and raw foodists. These are athletes who demand the maximum from their body, maximum endurance. And only a plant-based diet can give you maximum endurance.
Look at these athletes, study in detail how they eat, go into it, and you really understand from this data why people who do marathon sports are vegetarians. As for power sports, there are a fairly large number of athletes who are also vegetarians, they were in Russia in the past – the famous circus strongman Poddubny, who juggled weights, over which trucks moved, a whole orchestra danced on him. He possessed these properties and was a vegetarian. Many athletes of the past were vegetarians. The gorilla is often cited as an example – the most powerful monkey, but eats only green leaves. Meat can give a feeling of some kind of explosive power, rage, when you need a release of energy – to run a hundred meters, the first few seconds, when the so-called anaerobic metabolism is observed without oxygen. But with a balanced milk and vegetable diet, when the body has rebuilt (of course, at first there is a transition and something is difficult), after about six months, you can notice a positive effect even among security athletes.
Prepared by Maria USENKO (Chelyabinsk).