Mens Health Blog. Medical Blog

Various foods have symbolic meanings in religion. Likewise, most religions place certain restrictions upon the use of food. Although the regulations for fasting placed upon Roman Catholics have been liberalized, many Catholics still abstain from meat on fast days; to them fish and cheese may be associated with denial and penitence. Muslims abstain from eating pork, whereas Buddhists are vegetarians and will not eat the flesh of any animal. Seventh Day Adventists are lacto-ovo-vegetarians; that is, they do not eat meat but they use eggs, milk, nuts, and legumes as sources of protein.

Orthodox Jews adhere to dietary laws based upon tradition and the Bible. Animals and poultry are slaughtered according to ritual, and the meat is soaked in water, salted to remove the blood, and washed. This is known as koshering. Pork and shellfish are prohibited.

Milk, sour cream, cottage cheese, and cream cheese are widely used, but no dairy foods are served at a meal with meat. Usually two meals each day are dairy meals, and one meal is a meat meal. Separate utensils are used for the cookery of meat and dairy products. Fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, cereals, and bread may be used at all meals; however, no milk or butter may be used with these foods if they are included in the meat meal.

No food preparation takes place on the Sabbath. Religious festivals are celebrated with special dishes, and much symbolism is attached to food. For example, only unleavened bread is eaten during the Passover. Separate sets of dishes are used during the Passover week. On Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), the most solemn day of the religious year, no food or drink is taken for 24 hours.

Among the foods widely used by Jewish people are borsch (a soup), gefullte fish, blintzes (thin rolled pancakes filled with cottage cheese or ground beef) knishes (pastry with ground meat), lox(salted, smoked salmon), challah (a braided white bread), matzo (flat unleavened bread), bagel (doughnut-shaped hard yeast roll), kuchen (coffee cake), leckach (honey cake served especially at Rosh Hashana, the New Year), and strudel (fruit-filled pastry).

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GENERAL HEALTH

A recent American research done under the direction of Dr. Lennart Krook, shows that overindulgence in meat leads to a mineral imbalance in the system – too much phosphorus and too little calcium (meat has 20 times more phosphorus than calcium) which leads to severe calcium deficiency and resultant loss of teeth or pyorrhea.

A recent study, made at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Nutrition Laboratory in Denver, Colorado, demonstrated that the more meat you eat the more deficient in vitamin B6 you become. A high protein diet causes severe deficiencies of B6, magnesium, calcium and niacin, or vitamin B3. Mental illness and schizophrenia are often caused by niacin deficiency and have been recently successfully treated with high doses of niacin. Russian researcher, Dr. Uri Nikolayev, has been extremely successful in treating schizophrenia patients with a low protein diet.

Extensive studies made in England showed a clear connection between a high protein diet and osteoporosis. And doctors at the Vascular Research Laboratory in Brooklyn conducted research which indicates that excessive meat-eating can be a cause of widespread arteriosclerosis and heart disease. To the same conclusion, came researcher Dr. С D. Langen, from Holland, and Dr. A. Hoygaard, from Denmark.

Dr. Ph. Schwarz, of Frankfort University, in Germany, and Dr. Ralph Bircher, a famous biochemist from Zurich, Switzerland, report that the aging process is triggered by amyloid, a by-product of protein metabolism, which is deposited in all the connective tissues and causes tissue and organ degeneration – thus leading to premature aging. This explains why people who traditionally eat low protein diets – Hunzakuts, in Pakistan, Bulgarians, Russian Caucasians, Yucatan Indians, East Indian Todas – also have the highest average life expectancy in the world, 90 to 100 years! And, why the people who live on high animal protein diets, such as Eskimos, Greenlanders, Laplanders, Russian Kirgiz-tribes, etc. have the lowest life expectancy in the world – 30 to 40 years. Americans lead the industrialized world in per capita meat consumption – and they also are in 21st place in life expectancy among industrialized nations!

Recently, Dr. Willard J. Visek, of Cornell University, implicated a high protein diet in the development of cancer. Ammonia, which is produced in great amounts as the by-product of meat metabolism, is highly carcinogenic and can cause cancer development. A high protein diet also breaks down the pancreas and lowers resistance to cancer, as well as contributes to the development of diabetes.

These are just a few examples of recent research and overwhelming scientific evidence which show that a high animal protein diet is a very dangerous course to follow.

Not only animal proteins but all proteins should be consumed in moderation. Excessive protein consumption, even if from such sources as milk or concentrated protein powders of vegetable origin, can be dangerous.

A good rule regarding proteins should be: Enough, but not too much. By eating the three basic foods of the Airola Diet – seeds, nuts and grains; vegetables; and fruits – supplemented with milk and brewer’s yeast, 80% of which are consumed in their natural uncooked state, you can be assured of obtaining all the vital nutrients you need for vigorous and vibrant health and prevention of disease, including adequate amounts of complete proteins, in a natural balance and in proper combination with all the other vital nutrients.

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GENERAL HEALTH