Veganism deprives necessary nutrients? || Acharya Prashant (2020)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~   Video Information: Interview Session, 18.02.2020, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India  Context: Why should one turn vegan?  What is the relationship between veganism and spirituality? How veganism is related to compassion? Why veganism is necessary for today's generation? What is the relation between veganism and climate change? How could veganism change the world?   Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Transcript

00:00And what about the nutritional aspect, you know, like they say it's rich in tarsium and

00:09it's rich in protein and so it's must for children in a certain age, but most poor people

00:20generally depend on milk and curd for their minimal protein depletion.

00:29This too is a misconception and one does not quite need spirituality to refute this.

00:40So if you look at the weight of nutrients obtained per rupee spent, then the nutrients

00:52that one can obtain from flesh or milk products per rupee spent is either comparable to or

01:06many a times even lower than the weight of ingredients one can obtain from purely vegan

01:19products.

01:21So it is a myth that veganism can be afforded only by the relatively resourceful.

01:36There is enough medical literature now available to conclusively prove that if you want to

01:45live a compassionate vegan lifestyle, it is not only not expensive, it may actually

01:53turn out to be economically more feasible than an animal product, milk-based diet.

02:09As far as nutrients are concerned, you see, today you have top athletes, champions in

02:16tennis, cricket, several other sports, even in physically very very demanding disciplines

02:25like bodybuilding, like weightlifting, like boxing, and these are the people who are not

02:35only vegan but they actually actively ever that their performances raised to another

02:46dimension after they turned vegan.

02:51So not only are they saying that they are able to sustain their performances even while

02:57being vegan, what they are saying is that their top-level world-beating performances

03:04are due to veganism.

03:08Surely this does not point towards a deficiency of nutrients in their body and we have more

03:19and more research and medical material emerging every day.

03:25Obviously there is material to the contrary as well, but let's also remember the times

03:32we are living in.

03:35The vegan movement is still in its infancy and it is pitted against the powerful forces

03:47of animal agriculture, the meat industry, the leather industry, animal products industry,

03:56the beauty products industry.

04:01So there are industries worth trillions of dollars that are threatened by veganism and

04:13obviously these industries would pour money into sponsored research reports that would

04:29rail against veganism, but if you go to credible agencies, you read what they are saying, you

04:38find out it works, it seriously works.

04:44Now coming to Ayurveda, again you see it's a system of medicine and obviously it will

05:01talk of firstly stuff that is medicinal, because its primary concern is not compassion,

05:12but treatment of the ailing individual.

05:20Secondly because Ayurveda has its roots very much in India, therefore it would talk of

05:31its stuff that is locally available and herbs and other ingredients that can be easily sourced.

05:45So these two things have to be remembered.

05:48Ayurveda, I am not saying does not care for animals, but that cannot be its primary concern.

05:58By definition that cannot be its primary concern, its primary concern is heal the human

06:04being and whatever it takes for that.

06:10So many people may not know this, but Ayurveda even for certain ailments recommends flesh

06:17consumption, for certain diseases Ayurveda would say, for example that you must take

06:25pork and boil it and then the rasa that you have, the soup, that has to be taken for so many days.

06:39Now if that involves slaughtering that animal, which it obviously would, so be it, the life

06:46of the man is more precious and that is the defined domain of a medical system of treatment.

06:57So you cannot fault it for that, but one cannot really quote Ayurveda to justify slaughtering a pig.

07:08What Ayurveda is saying is that in that special condition this is what would work, whereas

07:16veganism is a lifestyle.

07:19Also you see now at this point when we are saying that when there is a choice, when there

07:27is a trade-off between one's sense of compassion and a medical situation that requires flesh consumption.

07:39Let's say in the Ayurvedic domain there is a situation that demands that one consumes

07:47the flesh of a pigeon, that too has been recommended in certain situations.

07:53One consumes the flesh of a pigeon or fish or something.

08:01Now is the time when one has to really decide what is it that one values more, his body

08:11or his love, it's a cliched word, but there is no other word available for it.

08:27So I have to ask this and there have been people who have said that they would rather

08:33die than kill others for the sake of their life, but then this is not something that

08:47can be institutionalized.

08:51This has to be an individual call and the individual has to decide as per his level

09:00of spiritual advancement and as per the depth of his heart.

09:07Someone may say fine my life is quite important and if to sustain my life a few animals are

09:14to be slaughtered every day, fine.

09:17Somebody might even go to the extent of saying my life is so important that to sustain my

09:21life if a few human beings are to be slaughtered every day, fine.

09:26We have had such examples in history.

09:29There have been myths prevailing at certain periods of time in certain places where it

09:35was thought that man's flesh or the fresh blood of a young man's heart is very useful

09:48in curing old age related diseases.

09:53So there have been kings who would get young people slaughtered and have fresh blood from

09:58their heart and use them.

10:00Obviously that had no scientific basis, but let's say even if there is actually a factual

10:07and scientific basis and that says that you must have God liver oil, do you really want

10:14to take that and that's a highly personal call because it is not really necessary to

10:27just add a few more years to one's life at the cost of bringing suffering to other people,

10:39other species, other people in any living form or even at the cost of destroying rivers

10:47and mountains and jungles, but then as I said that cannot be mandated or institutionalized.

10:54That is something that one has to decide for himself.

10:58Having said that, I do not want it to mean that veganism implies a reduction in one's

11:08lifespan or a compromise on one's health.

11:12On the other hand, even if one is not driven by compassion, there are strongly medical

11:25reasons and purely medical reasons that should be compelling enough to guide one towards veganism.

11:41Also what is forgotten when we talk of milk and curd is the relation between the milk

11:52products industry and the meat industry.

12:00This is, there is a very strong relation, but people conveniently try to forget it or ignore it.

12:11A religious Hindu or a pious Jain would say, but I take only milk and curd.

12:22I do not take meat and then he would absolve himself of any kind of guilt of animal slaughter.

12:31He would say, no, no, no, I worship the cow and all I draw from her is the milk.

12:37I do not take her flesh obviously, that's sacrilege.

12:43What they forget is that India is not for nothing the biggest beef exporter of the world

12:54or the second largest beef exporter probably.

12:57Where is all that beef coming from?

13:03So why don't we clearly see that the same cow that is used or buffalo, because most

13:11of the beef that is exported is buffalo meat, that the same cow or buffalo that is today

13:18used to extract milk from her is tomorrow slaughtered for the sake of flesh.

13:33You see, after all, if you are looking at the cow or the buffalo as an economic asset,

13:40why won't you want to draw and extract value from that economic asset right till the last rupee.

13:54So when the animal is in the reproductive age, you draw value from her through her milk

14:05and needless to say the process of having her deliver milk is a highly cruel process

14:13which involves forced insemination and all other kinds of cruelties which are not visible

14:21to the final consumer of the milk.

14:23So he gladly consumes it.

14:26So when she can give milk, we take milk from her.

14:30We don't take milk from her, we extract milk from her and when she cannot give milk and

14:38even after that at least 5 to 7 years of her age still remain, what do you do with her?

14:46You cannot, but then you cannot, that's what some people do.

14:54Most of those cattle are not found on roads.

14:57The number of cows that are, or buffalos that are used to give us dairy is extremely, extremely large.

15:08What we find roaming on the roads is probably not even 10 to 20% of them, very small fraction.

15:16Where have the rest of them gone?

15:19They have all gone to the slaughterhouses because to keep such a large animal alive

15:27requires economic resources.

15:30Why would the farmer keep putting in money to bring fodder and protection to a buffalo

15:37that can no more give milk and if the farmer has been trained to look at the animal only

15:45as an economic asset, then it makes quick and immediate economic sense to just sell

15:53off the buffalo to the slaughterhouse and that is what is happening.

15:57So the one who is consuming milk is actually very much guilty of getting the animal slaughtered as well.

16:07The milk industry and the meat industry are hand in glove, they are in tandem and one

16:14really cannot be without the other.

16:17That is the case in India and that is also the case worldwide.

16:22So once that correlation becomes clear to people, once people are in knowledge of facts,

16:31then it would be far easier for them to take decisions.

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