What do Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Charles Darwin, Charlotte Bronte, Leonardo Da Vinci and Sir Isaac Newton all have in common?
You guessed it! (Or perhaps you didn't...) They were all vegetarians!
As far back as the 6th century BC the famous Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras was advocating vegetarianism and many great minds since, including Wordsworth, Tolstoy and Mahatma Ghandi, have opted for a vegetarian diet.
George Bernard Shaw was particularly vocal about his sentiments, famously proclaiming, "A mind of the calibre of mine cannot derive its nutriment from cows".
So just what drove these mega brains and many others since to ditch their meat pies?
The answer will probably encompass one or more of the following: because of religious beliefs, because of the health benefits, because of the environmental impact of rearing meat, because it's economical and because of ethical reasons.
Vegetarianism is the practice of eating products of the vegetable kingdom, with or without the use of eggs and dairy products, but excluding the consumption of any part of the body of an animal. It is heavily linked to a number of religions that originated in ancient India, such as Hinduism and Buddhism. However, in Sikhism and Christianity there are also certain groups that promote vegetarianism on religious grounds.
The Seventh-day Adventists encourage a vegetarian diet and it is a little known fact that John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church, was a vegetarian. "Thanks be to God!" he once wrote to the bishop of London in 1847, "Since the time I gave up the use of flesh-meats and wine, I have been delivered from all physical ills!"
According to the American Institute of Cancer Research (AICR), the best strategy to promoting overall health is to eat a balanced, predominantly plant-based and nutritionally dense diet, with most daily calories coming from vegetables, fruit, whole grains and beans.
For health-conscious people, products like tofu, soya milk, tempeh and textured soya protein (such a Nutralla, found in most local supermarkets) can be excellent and complete alternative protein sources when consumed as part of a healthy diet.
Many researchers suggest a look at the typical East Asian diet for inspiration, which is high in fruit, vegetables, rice, green tea and soy.
In contrast, the average Western diet, and the diet of many urban dwellers in Fiji, is high in meat, dairy, starch, sugar, fizzy drinks and junk food. Beef, pork, lamb and poultry are the main sources of protein. This type of diet is generally low in fibre and loaded with saturated fat and cholesterol.
Experts point to an array of physiological and anatomical evidence showing that the human body is designed for a vegetarian diet and highlight scientific studies which reveal that vegetarians suffer much less from illnesses like heart disease, high blood pressure and other common health problems. According to the British Medical Journal, vegetarians are 40 per cent less likely to die from cancer than meat-eaters.
Research has also shown that vegetarians live an average of seven years longer than their meat eating counterparts (while vegans, who do not eat any animal products at all, can expect to live 15 years longer) and many of the record holders for the title of "world's longest living person" have been vegetarians.
Albert Einstein, an adamant advocate of the cause, once said, "Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet".
Environmentalists are quick to point out just how much water is required to raise beef to maturity and how the methane produced by cattle is a major contributor to global warming. Meat eating also contributes significantly to deforestation, with millions of acres of land being cleared to grow grain to feed and to raise cattle.
Vegetarianism is also an option that's less likely to tug on the family purse strings; meat products cost 5-6 times as much as the equivalent amounts of vegetable protein.
Additionally, many more people are now questioning the ethics regarding contemporary meat rearing practices. They see that today's farms aren't like the ones most of us learned about in school. They are mechanised factories where an animal's welfare is of little concern compared to profit.
The majority of these creatures are raised intensively by the modern agribusiness method of factory farming. Deprived of their natural environment, their basic instincts and needs are totally controlled or even denied by human manipulation. The suffering of these animals is weighing on the minds of many.
The Dalai Lama echoed the sentiments of like-minded compassionate people when he remarked, "Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not die, so do other creatures."
October was Vegetarian Awareness Month, so there was no better time to try and reduce meat consumption and experiment with a few vegetarian meal ideas.
With a little research, you'll discover that vegetarian food offers culinary delights that are limited only by the imagination. Far from restricting the variety of foodstuffs, many who have opted for this lifestyle choice insist that a vegetarian diet can open up a whole new vista of tasty, wholesome and creative food, drawing inspiration from all over the world.
With careful attention paid to planning meals, and drawing on the large variety of locally available fruit and vegetables, the vegetarian diet can more than cater to the needs of a healthy, growing family.
So get adventurous and do your health, your wallet, the planet and the world's animals a big favour ...Veg out!
