Ever since I decided to take my son on the GAPS diet to heal
Autism, I have been torn by the apparent conflict with Ayurvedic
principles. The GAPS diet calls for
animal fat to be the basis of healing – including lard, ghee, butter, and fatty
portions of meat. The GAPS book by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride (Dr. NCM
henceforth) goes to the extent of claiming that vegetarian diets are dangerous.
While this statement alone should have pushed me off the book given that I come
from a lineage that has eaten a lacto vegetarian diet for several hundred years
(at a minimum), I stuck to it because the rest of the book made so much sense.
There are several arguments associated with the Weston A
Price Foundation (WAPF) reasoning against a vegetarian diet. Some of them are
based on Dr. Price’s tour of the world visiting native cultures and determining
that all healthy cultures were those that consumed a traditional diet. However
WAPF completely ignores the completely vegetarian populations of India,
spanning several regions, each with its own flavor of vegetarianism [1].
There are several blog posts both for and against WAPF’s
reasoning. My aim here is to simply present the points that strike me as WAPF’s
biggest arsenal against vegetarian diets being healthy.
Low fat
The primary term associated with vegetarian diets is
“low-fat”. In the GAPS community, this is almost a swear word. The concept of
“low-fat” vegetarian diets might have originated with Dr. Dean Ornish [2] but
this was likely in response to a increasingly processed way of eating which did
rely on a lot of animal foods (processed again). There are no traditional
vegetarian diets in India that try to be low-fat. Oil is used liberally in
“tadkas”, where mustard (and other seeds and spices) are burst open in oil at
its smoking point to release trace essential oils.
Vegetable Oils
Also the American vegetarian diet (a response to the factory-farmed
processed meat industry) relies extensively on processed food. Most people
aren’t familiar with a traditional way of cooking vegetables only without meat,
and it is easier for them to eat out. Now processed foods will use cheap oils
such as solvent extracted canola oil, soy oil made from GMO soy beans, etc.
which contain primarily polyunsaturated fats that are not stable at high heats
but are used at high temperatures anyway.
Traditional Indian vegetarian diets rely on ghee, sesame,
coconut, or mustard oil, depending on the local crop. These oils are stable at relatively
high temperatures, and were of course traditionally cold-pressed.
Protein, Iron and Vitamin deficiencies
Any diet that has survived a millennium cannot be anything
but balanced. A population that is chronically deficient will by trial and
error eventually switch to a balanced diet. Having said that, vegetarian
sources of protein iron and B-vitamins are well known and we are not even
talking about SOY here. Protein
intake is very dependent on climatic and soil conditions and on the nature of
local vegetation available. In that context, a traditional vegetarian diet
usually evolves to include all essential nutrients in some form or other.
However there are no exclusive vegetarian diets in the
Himalayan regions on India where vegetables are scarce in winter, and even the
Kashmiri Brahmins eat meat (there are among the only Brahmins in India to do
so, though some other Brahmins will eat fish – also rare).
Fermentation is a known source of probiotics and B-vitamins,
and most regions in India eat some sort of fermented food in moderation.
Lentils are eaten in abundance, typically with a ghee “tadka” to reduce the
gassiness or Vata. In fact meat when eaten is eaten usually once a week, either
as a treat or as a medicine.
Vegetarian diets today
Most of the comparison in the GAPS or Weston Price community
seems to rely on a traditional meat eating diet versus a processed vegetarian
diet (3). Some of it sparingly refers to
high heart disease among vegetarian Indians (3) without accounting for the
onslaught of pesticides, hormones, and processing in current Indian food
(courtesy the Green and White revolutions). This is inherently unfair.
Is a processed
vegetarian diet better than a processed meat diet? Probably, because meat
can bio-accumulate toxins. This also accounts for the popularity of the Ornish
and MacDougall Diets.
Is a traditional diet
better than a processed diet (whether veg or non-veg)? Of course!
Is a traditional vegetarian
diet better than a traditional non-vegetarian diet? The answer is I don’t
know. Physically, perhaps there is no difference. This is where I lean on
Ayurveda, literally “the science of life”, the oldest system of traditional
medicine. Meat is only considered a medicine, and that too only by some
Vaidyas. Meat is said to increase Rajas and Tamas (or passion and inertia, as
opposed to a calm, collected, intuitive stable nature or Sattva). This is now
the realm of the mind, which eventually becomes the realm of the body. Yes, the body has to be addressed before the mind. But once there is health, per Ayurvedic principles, a wholesome traditional fresh vegetarian diet is most suitable for everybody.
Is a traditional
vegetarian calmer than a traditional non-vegetarian? We really have very
little data, except that historically India has not invaded any other country (though there
have been internal invasions between kingdoms), and that India has always
amalgamated all intruders to form a well-mixed accepting society, perhaps among
the most truly secular in the world. All
I can say that you have to experiment on yourself to see if you are calmer
when you don’t eat meat (but eat a balanced traditional vegetarian meal).
We know that every revered (or enlightened) saint (Buddhist
or Hindu or Jain) has espoused vegetarianism and the doctrine of non-violence. And
in eastern religions, it is generally believed that spiritual progress is
difficult through a meat-eating diet.
I think there is some meat to the Sattvic theory (pun intended) and the doctrine of non-violence. But
a vegetarian diet that is primarily non-organic, sourced from distant lands, based
on processed foods and refined oils has violence embedded in the damage done to
the ecosystem and to oneself.
And I will stick to the GAPS diet to see if it heals my son mostly because I haven't found a compelling alternative diet for Autism. But I will also attempt to go back to a sattvic vegetarian diet once he heals.
And I will stick to the GAPS diet to see if it heals my son mostly because I haven't found a compelling alternative diet for Autism. But I will also attempt to go back to a sattvic vegetarian diet once he heals.
References:
- An article by John Robbins: http://www.vegsource.com/news/2009/11/reflections-on-the-weston-a-price-foundation.html
- “The 3 Season Diet” by John Douillard.
http://www.amazon.com/The-3-Season-Diet-Intended-Cravings/dp/0609805436/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331703428&sr=8-1 - http://www.westonaprice.org/vegetarianism-and-plant-foods/myths-of-vegetarianism#7
