Vege diet's affect on the liver

[raw-al]

I was in Chinatown today on some business and I decided out of curiosity, to see a Doctor in Traditional Chinese medicine.

He mentioned that my liver was a bit puffed up. I knew this from Ayurveda assessments, so no news there.

When I told him I had been a long term vege and the last year I was eating a raw diet with meat, he explained that the liver issue was a result of being a vege. He said that the lack of iron and vitamin d is the cause.

Interesting indeed, because all of the modern Ayurvedic docs (that I have met) highly recommend being a vege. The original texts are not even vaguely vege as they are full of meat references. They suggest meats by using their properties as an antidote to the excesses of the opposite issue in the body.

In other words if a person has a condition where there is fluid build up, (oedema) then a dry meat is prescribed. In a case of a wasting disease, the meat of a very heavy solid animal is prescribed. Etc. etc.

This was a fascinating discovery and has blown away the remaining doubts I have about this diet.

[turkish]

I was in Chinatown today on some business and I decided out of curiosity, to see a Doctor in Traditional Chinese medicine.

He mentioned that my liver was a bit puffed up. I knew this from Ayurveda assessments, so no news there.

When I told him I had been a long term vege and the last year I was eating a raw diet with meat, he explained that the liver issue was a result of being a vege. He said that the lack of iron and vitamin d is the cause.

Interesting indeed, because all of the modern Ayurvedic docs (that I have met) highly recommend being a vege. The original texts are not even vaguely vege as they are full of meat references. They suggest meats by using their properties as an antidote to the excesses of the opposite issue in the body.

In other words if a person has a condition where there is fluid build up, (oedema) then a dry meat is prescribed. In a case of a wasting disease, the meat of a very heavy solid animal is prescribed. Etc. etc.

This was a fascinating discovery and has blown away the remaining doubts I have about this diet.

Vegan/Vegetarians have tried hijacking ayurveda too. My sister is deep into ayurveda - but refuses non-veg, even though she is having more issues than her hubby (who actually loves/thrives on SAD).

[raw-al]

I think that historically vegetarianism is one of those things that came on gradually and then out of necessity become the norm. This is a guess but I would say that at some point in history, possibly through overpopulation in an area or the discovery that grains could be eaten to stave off starvation or any number of other reasons people gradually became hooked on cooked and or grains.

Life was more predictable if you could grow and then store food and thus populations grew, then people discovered that if you grew more than you needed, you could barter and then the financial prominence of the smarter bargainers or the biggest bullies started up and who knows how that devolved.

Bearing in mind that unlike nowadays where food is a block or two away wrapped in plastic wrap, in olden times food was an immediate and constantly pressing problem.

Vegans have completely hijacked Ayurveda here in North America and I suspect Europe due to the various spiritual groups that have sponsored it's spread. If these groups had not hijacked Ayurveda, I and everyone I know would not have heard of Ayurveda and thus it would be a quaint local custom like the Tibettan medicine etc.

So from that point of view I cannot complain. It has been very useful to me. One of the first things that I got from it was the source of the problem that did my dad in.

Once again I suspect that the lower cost of grains may be a factor in it's popularity as India is not exactly the premier example of a "rich" society.