MEGA YES!+ with BAWA !!

The Yes!+ workshop was filled with fun and celebrations !! It was a mix of great teachers to guide us through this beautiful process .. it was Bawa,Dinesh, and Rashmin bhaiya . The enthusiam of the group was awesome .We were aroung 340 souls completely immersed in bliss!! It was a journey of love,joy,entertainment and a light of knowledge .









Here are some of the memories of the workshop :
























Love,
santhu

Introduction to my Guru !! My Inspiration !! His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar !!

• Born in 1956 in southern India.

• Often found deep in meditation as a child. At the age of four, astonishes his teachers by reciting the Bhagavad Gita, an ancient Sanskrit scripture.

• Starts lessons with his first teacher, Pandit Sudhakar Chaturvedi, a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi.

• Becomes a scholar in Vedic literature and obtains an advanced degree in modern science by the age of 17 from St. Joseph’s College, University of Bangalore.

• In his early twenties (1978-81), delivers lectures on Vedic sciences and literature all over the world on invitation from the Maharishi Europe Research University (MERU).

• Establishes the Art of Living in 1981.

• Cognizes the Sudarshan Kriya in 1982.

Conferred with:

• Doctor of Literature Honoris Causa, Kuvempu University, Karnataka, India, 2004

• Doctor of Philosophy (Holistic Medicine) Honoris Causa, Open International University for Complementary Medicine, Sri Lanka, 2006

• Doctor of Science Honoris Causa, Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, India 2007

• Doctor of Letters Honoris Causa, Maharaja Sayajirao University, India, 2007

• Doctor of Letters Honoris Causa, Nagarjuna University, India, 2008

His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a universally revered spiritual and humanitarian leader. His vision of a violence-free, stress-free society through the reawakening of human values has inspired millions to broaden their spheres of responsibility and work towards the betterment of the world.

Sri Sri is a multi-faceted social activist whose initiatives include conflict resolution, disaster and trauma relief, poverty alleviation, empowerment of women, prisoner rehabilitation, education for all and campaigns against female foeticide and child labour. He is engaged in peace negotiations and counselling in conflict zones around the world. His expertise in bringing opposing parties to the negotiating table in areas such as Sri Lanka, Iraq, the Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Kashmir and Bihar is widely acknowledged.

In 1981, Sri Sri established the Art of Living, an educational and humanitarian Non-Governmental Organisation that works in special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. Present in over 140 countries, it formulates and implements lasting solutions to conflicts and issues faced by individuals, communities and nations. In 1997, Sri Sri founded the International Association for Human Values (IAHV) to foster human values and lead sustainable development projects.


Sri Sri has reached out to an estimated 300 million people worldwide through personal interactions, public events, teachings, the Art of Living workshops and humanitarian initiatives. Not since Mahatma Gandhi has one person united people of different traditions and faiths into a spiritual communion across the length and breadth of India. Amidst various threats to India by the misguided Naxalite and Jehadi forces, there is one name that emerges as a universally accepted ambassador of peace. To the Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Dalits, Sikhs and the minorities alike, Sri Sri is the only Hindu spiritual leader in whom people have reposed faith and confidence.


He has brought to the masses, ancient practices which were traditionally kept exclusive and has designed many self-development techniques. These practices can easily be integrated into daily life to calm the mind and instil confidence and enthusiasm. These techniques have helped thousands overcome depression and violent and suicidal tendencies. One of his most unique offerings to the world is the Sudarshan Kriya, a powerful breathing technique that facilitates physical, mental, emotional and social well-being.


Sri Sri travels to nearly 40 countries every year, exemplifying his call to globalise wisdom. His universal message is that love and wisdom can prevail over hatred and distress.

Jai Gurudev

Love ,

Santhosh

Health Benefits of Vegetarian Diets !!

A Short Historical Perspective on Vegetarian Diets

In the past, many viewed vegetarianism as strange and faddish but appropriately planned vegetarian diets are now recognized by many, including the American Dietetic Association, as being nutritionally adequate, and providing healthful benefits in the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases .

Choosing a nonvegetarian lifestyle has a significant health and medical cost. The total direct medical costs in the United States attributable to meat consumption were estimated to be $30-60 billion a year, based upon the higher prevalence of hypertension, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, gallstones, obesity and food-borne illness among omnivores compared with vegetarians .

A large body of scientific literature suggests that the consumption of a diet of whole grains, legumes, vegetables, nuts, and fruits, with the avoidance of meat and high-fat animal products, along with a regular exercise program is consistently associated with lower blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, less obesity and consequently less heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, and mortality . In African-Americans, the frequent consumption of nuts, fruits and green salads was associated with 35-44 percent lower risk of overall mortality .

Distinguishing Feature

A vegetarian diet is distinguished from an omnivorous diet by its content of dry beans and lentils. These take the place of meat and fish as the major source of protein. And there are so many different kinds of beans you can choose from - kidney, lima, pinto, cranberry, navy, Great Northern, garbanzo, soy beans, and black-eyed peas. These can be served with rice, added to soups, stews, and salads or a variety of casseroles, and made into different ethnic dishes.

Tofu, or soy bean curd, can be used in dips and spreads, or served with pasta or stir-fried vegetables. Soy protein contains isoflavones, such as genistein and daidzein, that act as phytoestrogens and inhibit tumor growth, lower blood cholesterol levels, decrease the risk of blood clots, and diminish bone loss. These benefits clearly translate into a lower risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer and osteoporosis .

Cancer Protection

A major report published by the World Cancer Research Fund in 1997 recommended we lower our risk of cancer by choosing predominantly plant-based diets rich in a variety of vegetables and fruits, legumes and minimally processed starchy staple foods, and to limit the intake of grilled, cured and smoked meats and fish. These methods of preparing meat produce polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heterocyclic amines which are carcinogenic .

Over 200 studies have revealed that a regular consumption of fruits and vegetables provides significant protection against cancer at many sites. People who consume higher amounts of fruits and vegetables have about one-half the risk of cancer, especially the epithelial cancers . The risk of most cancers was 20-50% lower in those with a high versus a low consumption of whole grains .

About three dozen plant foods have been identified as possessing cancer-protective properties. These include cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower), umbelliferous vegetables and herbs (carrots, celery, cilantro, caraway, dill, parsley), other fruits and vegetables (citrus, tomatoes, cucumber, grapes, cantaloupe, berries), beans (soybeans), whole grains (brown rice, oats, whole wheat), flaxseed, many nuts, and various seasoning herbs (garlic, scallions, onions, chives, ginger, turmeric, rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage, and basil).

These foods and herbs contain of host of cancer-protective phytochemicals such as carotenoids, flavonoids, isothiocyanates, isoflavones, ellagic acid, glucarates, curcurmins, liminoids, lignans, phenolic acids, phthalides, saponins, phytosterols, sulfide compounds, terpenoids, and tocotrienols. These beneficial compounds alter metabolic pathways and hormonal actions that are associated with the development of cancer, stimulate the immune system, and have antioxidant activity .

Heart Disease

Regular fruit and vegetable consumption reduces the risk of ischemic heart disease. A recent survey of 47,000 Italians found that persons in the highest tertile of vegetable consumption had a 21and 11% reduced risk of myocardial infarction and angina, respectively, compared with those in the lowest tertile of vegetable consumption .

A British study found that daily consumption of fresh fruit was associated with a 24 percent reduction in mortality from heart disease and a 32 percent reduction in death from cerebrovascular disease, compared with less frequent fruit consumption. Daily consumption of raw salad was associated with a 26 percent reduction in mortality from heart disease .

In another study, lifelong vegetarians had a 24 percent lower incidence and lifelong vegans (those who eat no eggs or dairy products) had a 57 percent lower incidence of coronary heart disease compared to meat eaters . Healthy volunteers who consumed a vegetarian diet (25% of calories as fat) that was rich in green, leafy vegetables and other low-calorie vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, bell peppers, celery, green beans, etc.), fruits, nuts, sweet corn and peas experienced after two weeks decreases of 25, 33, 20 and 21 percent in total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and total/HDL cholesterol ratio, respectively .

Various factors exist in fruits and vegetables that provide possible protection against cardiovascular disease. These factors include folic acid, dietary fiber, potassium, magnesium, carotenoids, phytosterols, flavonoids, and other polyphenolic antioxidants. Typically, vegetarian diets are also somewhat lower in saturated fat and cholesterol. Vegetarians typically have lower blood cholesterol levels. Plant diets rich in soluble fiber (such as found in dry beans, oats, carrots, squash, apples, and citrus) are useful for lowering serum cholesterol levels.

The many flavonoids in fruits, vegetables, nuts and whole grains, have extensive biological properties that reduce the risk of heart disease. Flavonoids are among the most potent antioxidants. They protect LDL cholesterol from oxidation; inhibit the formation of blood clots; and have hypolipidemic effects and anti-inflammatory action . European studies found that those who had the highest consumption of flavonoids had 60 percent less mortality from heart disease and 70 percent lower risk of stroke than the low flavonoid consumers .

The yellow-orange and red carotenoid pigments in fruits and vegetables are powerful antioxidants that can quench free radicals and protect against cholesterol oxidation. Persons with high levels of serum carotenoids have a reduced risk of heart disease. The recent EURAMIC study found that a high intake of lycopene (the red pigment in tomatoes, pink grapefruit, and watermelon) was associated in men with a 48 percent lower risk of a myocardial infarction compared with a low intake of lycopene . Cholesterol synthesis is suppressed and LDL receptor activity is augmented by the carotenoids beta-carotene and lycopene, similar to that seen with the drug fluvastatin .

Berries, Beans and Grains

Anthocyanin pigments, the reddish pigments found in fruits, such as strawberries, cherries, cranberries, raspberries, blueberries, grapes, and black currants, are very effective in scavenging free radicals, inhibiting LDL cholesterol oxidation and inhibiting platelet aggregation. Various terpenoids in fruits and vegetables, and tocotrienols in nuts and seeds facilitate lower blood cholesterol levels, by inhibiting HMG-CoA reductase (21). Garlic, onions and other members of the Allium family, contain a variety of ajoenes, vinyldithiins, and other sulfide compounds that have antithrombotic action and may lower blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

A number of studies have shown that legumes lower blood cholesterol levels, improve blood sugar control, and lower triglyceride levels. Since beans are good sources of soluble fiber, vegetable protein, saponins, phytosterols and polyunsaturated fat, consuming a diet rich in legumes will lower risk of heart disease.
In the Nurses' Health Study, the highest consumption of whole grains was associated with about a 35-40% reduction in risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. In the Adventist Health Study a regular consumption of whole wheat bread was associated with a 40 to 50% reduced risk of fatal and non-fatal heart disease.

Nut Studies

Epidemiological studies have consistently reported that frequent nut consumption is associated with a 30-60% reduction in the risk of coronary heart disease . A number of clinical trials have demonstrated the effectiveness of diets containing almonds, pecans, peanuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, macadamia nuts, or walnuts to significantly lower LDL cholesterol levels by 7 to 16 percent, without much change in HDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels .

While nuts are high in fat, they are naturally low in saturated fat and most are quite rich in monounsaturated fat. Nuts also contain a number of vitamins, minerals and other substances important for cardiovascular health, such as potassium, magnesium, vitamin E, folic acid, copper, and dietary fiber. In addition, most nuts contain phytosterols, tocotrienols, and protective polyphenolics such as ellagic acid and flavonoids .

Stroke and Diabetes

Data from two prospective studie supports a protective relationship between fruit and vegetable consumption and risk of ischemic stroke . Cruciferous and green leafy vegetables and citrus fruits were the most protective. Data from the NHANES study revealed that consuming fruit and vegetables three or more times a day compared with less than once a day was associated with a 27% lower incidence of stroke, a 42% lower stroke mortality, a 27% lower cardiovascular disease mortality, and a 15% lower all-cause mortality . In the Adventist Health Study, non-vegetarians had a risk of fatal stroke that was 20-30% higher than the vegetarians. Data from population studies and human trials provide evidence that vegetarian dietary patterns lower blood pressure . Lower systolic blood pressures in elderly vegetarians has been reported to be best accounted for by their lower body weight . Vegetarians living in northern Mexico, were found to have lower body weights, higher potassium and lower sodium intakes, and lower mean blood pressures than non-vegetarians .

Higher consumption of nuts and whole grains has been associated with lower rates of diabetes. In a large prospective study, fruit and vegetable intake was found to be inversely associated with the incidence of diabetes, particularly among women . Men and women who reported seldom or never eating fruit or green leafy vegetables had higher mean HbA_1C levels than those who had more frequent consumption . An increased consumption of fruit and vegetables appears to contribute to the prevention of diabetes.

Summary

The consumption of a generous supply of whole grains, legumes, nuts, fruits and vegetables provides protection against chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. A plant-based diet is rich in its content of health-promoting factors such as the many phytochemicals.



love,
santhu

Why VEG -II ?

(I)Factory Farms

Many people believe that animals raised for food must be treated well because sick or dead animals would be of no use to agribusiness. This is not true.

The competition to produce inexpensive meat, eggs, and dairy products has led animal agribusiness to treat animals as objects and commodities. The worldwide trend is to replace small family farms with “factory farms”—large warehouses where animals are confined in crowded cages or pens or in restrictive stalls. Bernard Rollin, PhD, explains that it is “more economically efficient to put a greater number of birds into each cage, accepting lower productivity per bird but greater productivity per cage…individual animals may ‘produce,’ for example gain weight, in part because they are immobile, yet suffer because of the inability to move…Chickens are cheap, cages are expensive.”

Birds

In the United States, virtually all birds raised for food are factory farmed.Inside the densely populated buildings, where they are confined their entire lives, enormous amounts of waste accumulate. The resulting ammonia levels commonly cause painful burns to the birds' skin, eyes, and respiratory tracts. As reported in “Settling Doubts About Livestock Stress,” published in the March 2005 issue of Agricultural Research magazine (USDA ARS), "Farmers trim from a third to a half of the beaks off chickens, turkeys, and ducks to cut losses from poultry pecking each other." This causes severe pain for several weeks.⁸ Some, unable to eat after being debeaked, starve.² Professor John Webster, of the University of Bristol’s School of Veterinary Science, has said: “Broilers are the only livestock that are in chronic pain for the last 20% of their lives.

Egg-Laying Hens

Packed in wire cages (the industry average is less than half a square foot of floor space per bird),hens can become immobilized and die of asphyxiation or dehydration. Decomposing corpses are found in cages with live birds. Tens of millions (approximately 14%) of egg-laying hens die during production each year.

Those who survive are removed from the farms when deemed no longer economically viable. Some of these “spent hens” (the industry term for layers who have completed their egg production cycles) are sold for slaughter; the rest are rendered, composted, or destroyed by other means . By the time spent hens are removed for low production, their skeletons are so fragile that many suffer broken bones during catching, transport, or shackling.

Pigs

In the September 1976 issue of the industry journal Hog Farm Management, John Byrnes advised: “Forget the pig is an animal. Treat him just like a machine in a factory.” Today’s pig farmers have done just that. As Morley Safer related on 60 Minutes: “This [motion picture Babe] is the way Americans want to think of pigs. Real-life ‘Babes’ see no sun in their limited lives, with no hay to lie on, no mud to roll in. The sows live in tiny cages, so narrow they can’t even turn around. They live over metal grates, and their waste is pushed through slats beneath them and flushed into huge pits.”

On September 17, 2008, the Associated Press reported on a cruelty investigation performed by PETA at a pig farm in Iowa. The report stated in part:

The video, shot by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, shows farm workers hitting sows with metal rods, slamming piglets on a concrete floor and bragging about jamming rods into sows’ hindquarters.…

At one point in the video, workers are shown slamming piglets on the ground, a practice designed to instantly kill those baby pigs that aren’t healthy enough. But on the video, the piglets are not killed instantly, and in a bloodied pile, some piglets can be seen wiggling vainly. The video also shows piglets being castrated, and having their tails cut off, without anesthesia.

Dairy Cows

From 1940 to 2004, average per-cow milk production rose from 2.3 to 9.5 tons per year; some cows have surpassed 30 tons. High milk production often causes udder breakdown, leading to early slaughter.

It is unprofitable to keep cows alive once their milk production declines. They are usually killed at 5 to 6 years of age, though their normal life span exceeds 20.

Dairy cows are rarely allowed to nurse their young. Many male calves are slaughtered immediately, while others are raised for “special-fed veal”—kept in individual stalls and chained by the neck on a 2–3 foot tether for 18 to 20 weeks before being slaughtered.


(II) Transport

Crammed together, animals must stand in their excrement while exposed to extreme temperatures in open trucks, sometimes freezing to the trailer. Approximately 200,000 pigs arrive dead at U.S. slaughter plants each year; many of these deaths are caused by a lack of ventilation on trucks in hot weather.

Workers shock the animals with electric prods, which increases the incidence of “downers”—animals too sick or injured to stand. Downers are hauled from the trucks with skid loaders and forklifts.

fig :-Animal Protection Institute photographed this sheep in 108-degree weather.













Fish

Many fish are long-lived, have complicated nervous systems, and are capable of learning complicated tasks.Guyton & Hall’s Textbook of Medical Physiology (1996) states, “The lower regions of the brain [which all vertebrates have] appear to be important in the appreciation of the suffering types of pain because animals with their brains sectioned above the mesencephalon to block any pain signals reaching the cerebrum still evince undeniable evidence of suffering when any part of the body is traumatized.”

By far the most common farmed fish in the U.S. are catfish, around 2 billion of whom live in farms at any given time . In some catfish cage systems in the United States, one can find stocking densities as high as 17 pounds per cubic foot . As the average catfish weighs 3.4 pounds at slaughter , that’s 5 fish per cubic foot. As with other farm animals, increasing the stocking density of fish increases profitability but can reduce welfare. High stocking density in fish farms is associated with stress, aggression, injuries, and disease due to poor water quality and collisions with other fish or barriers , with mortality rates of up to 35% . Each year hundreds of thousands of dolphins and thousands of other marine mammals are snagged in fishing nets worldwide. Most die. Industrial fishing depletes marine food webs, seriously damaging ocean ecosystems



Wild Life

USDA APHIS Wildlife Services and livestock producers kill wildlife to protect farmed animals. Having eliminated native populations of wolves and grizzly bears,⁴ federal government hunters now kill about 100,000 coyotes, bobcats, feral hogs, bison, and mountain lions each year.¹⁵ They are shot, caught in steel-jaw leghold traps or neck nooses, or poisoned with cyanide



(III) Slaughterhouses

If they survive the farms and transport, the animals—whether factory-farmed —are slaughtered.

Animals in slaughterhouses can smell, hear, and often see the slaughter of those before them.

As the animals struggle, the human workers, who are pressured to keep the lines moving quickly, often react with impatience towards the animals.

Federal law requires that mammals be stunned prior to slaughter (exempting kosher and halal). Common methods of stunning:

Captive bolt stunning

A “pistol” is set against the animal’s head and a metal rod is thrust into the brain.Shooting a struggling animal is difficult, and the rod often misses its mark.

Electrical stunning

Current produces a grand mal seizure; then the throat is cut. According to industry consultant Temple Grandin, PhD, “Insufficient amperage can cause an animal to be paralyzed without losing sensibility.”

For ritual slaughter, animals are fully conscious when their carotid arteries are cut. This is supposed to cause unconsciousness within seconds, but because of blood flow through the vertebral arteries in the back of the neck, some animals can remain conscious as they bleed for up to a minute. Additionally, Temple Grandin, PhD notes “Unfortunately, there are some plants which use cruel methods of restraint such as hanging live animals upside down.” This can cause broken bones as the heavy animal hangs by a chain attached to one leg.

An article in The Washington Post noted: “Hogs, unlike cattle, are dunked in tanks of hot water after they are stunned to soften the hides for skinning. As a result, a botched slaughter condemns some hogs to being scalded and drowned. Secret videotape from an Iowa pork plant shows hogs squealing and kicking as they are being lowered into the water.”

Resources and Contamination

It takes more land, water, and energy to produce meat than to grow vegetarian foods. It’s several times more efficient to eat grains directly than to funnel them through farmed animals. According to the Audubon Society, roughly 70 percent of the grain grown and 50 percent of the water consumed in the United States are used by the meat industry. A Minority Staff of Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry report states the beef in just one Big Mac represents enough wheat to make five loaves of bread

“The typical North American diet, with its large share of animal products, requires twice as much water to produce as the less meat-intensive diets common in many Asian and some European countries. Eating lower on the food chain could allow the same volume of water to feed two Americans instead of one, with no loss in overall nutrition.”



The Hunger Report 1995 from the Alan Shawn Feinstein World Hunger Program at Brown University illustrates that a vegetarian diet can feed significantly more people than a meat-centered diet:

Populations Potentially Supported by 1993 Global Food Supply with Different Diets

Almost purely vegetarian diet 6.26 billion people

15% of calories from animal products 4.12 billion people

25% of calories from animal products 3.16 billion people

World hunger is a complicated problem, and becoming vegetarian in the United States will not necessarily alleviate it in the short-term. However, being vegetarian is a positive step towards saving resources that can be used to feed people in the future.

According to Livestock & the Environment: Finding a Balance, a 1996 report coordinated in part by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations:

The industrial [livestock] system is a poor converter of fossil energy. Fossil energy is a major input of intensive livestock production systems, mainly indirectly for the production of feed.

As Michael Pollan reports in “Power Steer” (New York Times Magazine, 3/31/02):

[I]f you follow the corn…back to the fields where it grows, you will find an 80-million-acre monoculture that consumes more chemical herbicide and fertilizer than any other crop. Keep going and you can trace the nitrogen runoff from that crop all the way down the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico, where it has created (if that is the right word) a 12,000-square-mile “dead zone.”

But you can go farther still, and follow the fertilizer needed to grow that corn all the way to the oil fields of the Persian Gulf.… Assuming [a steer] continues to eat 25 pounds of corn a day and reaches a weight of 1,250 pounds, he will have consumed in his lifetime roughly 284 gallons of oil. We have succeeded in industrializing the beef calf, transforming what was once a solar-powered ruminant into the very last thing we need: another fossil-fuel machine.

Also from “Power Steer”:

Cows rarely live on feedlot diets for more than six months, which might be about as much as their digestive systems can tolerate.…

What keeps a feedlot animal healthy—or healthy enough—are antibiotics.… Most of the antibiotics sold in America end up in animal feed—a practice that, it is now generally acknowledged, leads directly to the evolution of new antibiotic-resistant “superbugs”.…

Escherichia coli 0157 is a relatively new strain of a common intestinal bacteria…that is common in feedlot cattle, more than half of whom carry it in their guts. Ingesting as few as 10 of these microbes can cause a fatal infection.

Most of the microbes that reside in the gut of a cow and find their way into our food get killed off by the acids in our stomachs, since they originally adapted to live in a neutral-pH environment. But the digestive tract of the modern feedlot cow is closer in acidity to our own, and in this new, manmade environment acid-resistant strains of E. coli have developed that can survive our stomach acids—and go on to kill us.

“Dioxins have been characterized by EPA as likely to be human carcinogens and are anticipated to increase the risk of cancer at background levels of exposure.…

“Most of us receive almost all of our dioxin exposure from the food we eat: specifically from the animal fats associated with eating beef, pork, poultry, fish, milk, dairy products.”

A vegan diet can be very healthful. In fact, many people initially stop eating animal products to benefit their health.

Photo courtesy of USDA ARS.

“It is the position of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada that appropriately planned vegetarian diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.…

“Well-planned vegan [pure vegetarian] and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Vegetarian diets offer a number of nutritional benefits, including lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein as well as higher levels of carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium, folate, and antioxidants such as vitamins C and E and phytochemicals. Vegetarians have been reported to have lower body mass indices than nonvegetarians, as well as lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease; vegetarians also show lower blood cholesterol levels; lower blood pressure; and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer.”

Simply avoiding animal products, however, will not ensure optimal health. Like everyone, vegans should eat a well-balanced diet. Protein, vitamins B12 and D, omega-3 fats, calcium, and iodine are important.

Fortunately, there are plenty of nutritious and convenient options for vegans today, including various high-protein meat substitutes and fortified dairy alternatives.

love,

santhu

Why go VEG!!

Why go veg ???
 
Switching to a vegetarian diet is arguably the most effective way to 'go green'. Not only does livestock production require more land, water, fossil fuels and other resources than the production of edible crops, the U.N. has also identified the livestock industry as 'one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems.', including global warming, loss of fresh water, rainforest destruction, spreading deserts, air and water pollution, acid rain, soil erosion and loss of habitat.1
That's not all—70% of the deforestation in the once mighty Amazon; 64% of all the acid rain-producing ammonia; and 15 out of the 24 global ecosystems that are in decline can be attributed to the effects of livestock production.


Global Warming

The global livestock industry is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than all the planes, trains and automobiles in the world combined. Most of these emissions are in the form of methane from livestock—a gas that is 21 times more harmful than CO2. In fact, senior NASA Climate Change modellers now think that controlling methane could be a critical first step in attacking climate change.
According to experts, 1Kg of beef is the equivalent in green house gas emissions as driving roughly 170Km in a large family vehicle.!!

Water

More than one billion people worldwide already 'lack enough safe water to meet minimum levels of health and income'. And worldwide water shortages are a growing threat.

The average meat eater's diet requires fifteen times more water than a plant based diet. That means that switching to a plant based diet can save roughly 5 million litres per year. That's more water than you'd use for showers in two lifetimes!

Land Destruction & Deforestation

In Australia, 58% of the land is used for agriculture and principally for grazing animals and the production of crops used in animal feed. Worldwide, livestock now use 30% of the earth's entire land surface. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), 'the number of people fed in a year per hectare ranges from 22 for potatoes and 19 for rice down to 1 and 2 people respectively for beef and lamb'

To create grazing land, trees and vegetation must be cleared, and habitats must be destroyed. Livestock trample or eat any remaining native vegetation

According to many experts on desertification, the Sahara Desert—a once lush and fertile region—was caused by slashing and burning, primarily for animal grazing—the same method used throughout the world today, and now being used in the Amazon.


Waste

Globally, livestock now produce 130 times the amount of waste that humans do. This waste is usually untreated and unsanitary, bubbling with chemicals and disease-bearing organisms.

A farm with 5,000 pigs produces as much waste as a town of 20,000 people and yet this waste remains untreated. This in turn pollutes the soil, surface water, runs off into oceans and pollutes underground drinking water.


Dead Zones

It's not only land that livestock effluent pollutes. This waste runs off into oceans and can destroy entire ecosystems, creating 'dead zones'.

Dead Zones are areas in the world's oceans where marine life cannot be supported due to depleted oxygen. They are primarily caused by increases in chemical nutrients in the water, such as from chemical fertilisers and livestock effluent. The U.N. has identified 146 dead zones in the world's oceans. A dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is 22,126Km2 in size and can be seen from space. This dead zone is at the mouth of the Mississippi where waste from most of the U.S.'s western agribusinesses waste drains off. The largest identified dead zone is 70,000Km2 (larger than Tasmania)

Emptying the Oceans

Trawling is one of the most common forms of commercial fishing in the world. As large trawling nets grind over the sandy ocean floor, hundreds of different sea animals are killed, including the destruction of hundreds of year old coral.

Non-target animals caught in indiscriminate trawling nets called 'bycatch' are simply tossed back. Of those that aren't already dead, many will die.

Over fishing can lead to a dramatic reduction in marine populations, destroying the balance of marine ecosystems, the effect of which can be devastating. The CSIRO expects fish catches to drop by 70,000 tonnes per year (around 35%) by 2050 due to overfishing in the 1980's and 1990's.11 Fish farming or 'aquaculture' is having a similarly devastating affect, due to the need to catch masses of fish from the oceans to feed captive fish in farmed enclosures

World Hunger

The World Health Organisation estimates one in three people are affected by malnutrition—a factor in at least half of the 10.4 million child deaths each year. Yet, between one third to one half the world's edible harvests are fed to livestock.

Worst of all, land in developing countries that could be used for production of crops for hungry humans is instead used to produce and export crops to feed to farmed animals in developed countries. At the height of the 1984 famine in Ethiopia, they were still exporting feed crops to Europe. During severe food shortages in North Korea in 1997, they still exported 1,000 tonnes of maize to Japan for poultry feed.4 And Brazil (the world's main agricultural exporter) clears vast expanses of rainforest to grow soya beans to feed to chickens in Europe and Japan. Meanwhile the FAO reports that 16.7 million people in that country are undernourished.

Conservative estimates predict that a 50% reduction in meat consumption in developed countries could save 3.6 million children from malnutrition.When these estimates are projected to all people in extreme poverty (not just children) it is estimated that 33.6 million people could be saved from malnutrition


love,
Santhu