Vegetarian diet that includes dairy products
A
lacto-vegetarian
(sometimes referred to as a
lactarian
; from the
Latin
root
lact-
,
milk
) diet is a diet that abstains from the consumption of
meat
as well as
eggs
, while still consuming
dairy products
such as
milk
,
cheese
(without animal
rennet
i.e., from microbial sources),
yogurt
,
butter
,
ghee
,
cream
, and
kefir
.
[1]
History
[
edit
]
The concept and practice of lacto-vegetarianism among a significant number of people comes from
ancient India
.
[2]
An early advocate of lacto-vegetarianism was the Scottish physician
George Cheyne
who promoted a milk and vegetable-based diet to
treat obesity
and other health problems in the early 18th century.
[3]
[4]
During the 19th century, the diet became associated with
naturopathy
. German naturopaths
Heinrich Lahmann
and
Theodor Hahn
promoted lacto-vegetarian diets of raw vegetables,
whole wheat bread
, and dairy products such as milk.
[5]
[6]
[7]
In the 20th century, lacto-vegetarianism was promoted by the American biochemist
Elmer McCollum
and the Danish physician and nutritionist
Mikkel Hindhede
.
[7]
[8]
In 1918, McCollum commented that "lacto-vegetarianism should not be confused with strict vegetarianism. The former is, when the diet is properly planned, the most highly satisfactory plan which can be adopted in the nutrition of man."
[9]
Hindhede became a food advisor to the
Danish government
during
World War I
and was influential in introducing a lacto-vegetarian diet to the public.
[7]
[8]
[10]
The system of rationing restricted meat and alcohol so the
Danish population
were mostly living on a diet of milk and vegetables.
[10]
During the years of food restriction from 1917 to 1918, both
mortality
and
morbidity
decreased;
[10]
the mortality rate dropped by 34%, the lowest death rate ever reported for Denmark.
[8]
Hindhede's dieting ideas expressed in his scientific publications, along with those written by other Scandinavian scientists, were translated in German and well received amongst the
right-wing political spectrum
in
post-war Germany
.
[10]
Subsequently, lacto-vegetarianism was strongly supported by
German life reformers
(
Lebensreform
) and became influential on some of the leading exponents of the
National Socialist movement
.
[10]
The uric-acid free diet of
Alexander Haig
was lacto-vegetarian. On this diet only cheese, milk, nuts, certain vegetables, and
white bread
could be eaten.
[11]
[12]
[13]
Mahatma Gandhi
was a notable lacto-vegetarian, who drank milk daily.
[14]
In 1931, Gandhi commented that:
I know we must all err. I would give up milk if I could, but I cannot. I have made that experiment times without number. I could not, after a serious illness, regain my strength, unless I went back to milk. That has been the tragedy of my life.
[14]
[15]
In 1936,
Narasinh Narayan Godbole
authored
Milk: The Most Perfect Food
, a book defending lacto-vegetarianism and
promoting the consumption of dairy products in opposition to meat
.
[16]
[17]
Religion
[
edit
]
Lacto-vegetarian diets are popular with certain followers of the
Eastern
religious traditions such as
Jainism
,
Hinduism
,
Buddhism
, and
Sikhism
. The core of their beliefs behind a lacto-vegetarian diet is the law of
ahimsa
, or non-violence.
[
citation needed
]
Hinduism
[
edit
]
According to the
Vedas
(Hindu holy scriptures), all living beings are equally valued.
[18]
[19]
Hindus believe that vegetarianism is vital for spiritual progress.
[20]
It takes many more vegetables or plants to produce an equal amount of meat,
[21]
many more lives are destroyed, and in this way more suffering is caused when meat is consumed.
[22]
Although some suffering and pain is inevitably caused to other living beings to satisfy the human need for food, according to ahimsa, every effort should be made to minimize suffering.
[22]
This is to avoid
karmic consequences
and show respect for living things, because all living beings are equally valued in these traditions,
[19]
a vegetarian diet rooted in
ahimsa
is only one aspect of environmentally conscious living, relating to those beings affected by our need for food.
[22]
However, this does not apply to all Hindus; some do consume meat, though usually not any form of beef.
In India, lacto vegetarian is considered synonymous to vegetarian, while eggs are considered a meat product.
[23]
However, in other parts of the world, vegetarianism generally refers to
ovo lacto vegetarianism
instead, allowing eggs into the diet.
[24]
ISKCON
encourages devotees to adopt a lacto-vegetarian diet and gives agriculture as the ideal economic basis of society.
[
citation needed
]
Many Hindu
wrestlers
are strict lacto-vegetarians and follow a
Sattvic diet
. A large part of their diet is milk, ghee, almonds and chickpeas.
[25]
Jainism
[
edit
]
In the case of
Jainism
, the vegetarian standard is strict. It allows the consumption of only fruit and leaves that can be taken from plants without causing their death. This further excludes from the diet
root vegetables
like
carrots
,
potatoes
,
onions
,
garlic
,
radish
,
turnips
,
turmeric
, etc since uprooting plants is considered as bad
karma
in Jainism.
[26]
Jains also do not consume
honey
since it is considered as stealing food and also because honey collecting destroys
bee hives
and bee eggs and bee larvae inside it.
[27]
Sikhism
[
edit
]
The
Namdharis
, a Sikh sect follow a strict lacto-vegetarian diet and have quoted verses from the
Guru Granth Sahib
endorsing vegetarianism, they also advocate for cow protection.
[28]
[29]
[30]
The
Damdami Taksal
also cite the Guru Granth Sahib and advocate a strict lacto-vegetarian diet.
[31]
[32]
Eating meat is not allowed in any form including eggs,
fish
and
gelatine
.
[32]
Lacto-vegetarians and vegans
[
edit
]
The primary difference between a
vegan
and a lacto-vegetarian diet is the avoidance of dairy products. Vegans do not consume dairy products, believing that their production causes the animal suffering or a premature death,
[33]
or otherwise abridges
animal rights
.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Becoming a vegetarian"
.
Harvard Health
. Oct 2009. Archived from
the original
on 2017-06-09
. Retrieved
18 Nov
2017
.
- ^
Spencer, Colin:
The Heretic's Feast. A History of Vegetarianism
, London: Fourth Estate 1993, p. 69?84.
ISBN
1-85702-078-2
.
- ^
Kiple, Kenneth F; Ornelas, Kriemhild Conee. (2000).
The Cambridge World History of Food, Volume 2
.
Cambridge University Press
. p. 1556.
ISBN
0-521-40215-8
- ^
Beatty, Heather R. (2012).
Nervous Disease in Late Eighteenth-Century Britain: The Reality of a Fashionable Disorder
. Routledge. pp. 103-104.
ISBN
978-1-84893-308-8
- ^
Bergdolt, Klaus. (2008).
Wellbeing: A Cultural History of Healthy Living
. Polity Press. p. 286.
ISBN
978-07456-2913-1
- ^
Puskar-Pasewicz, Margaret. (2010).
Cultural Encyclopedia of Vegetarianism
. ABC-CLIO. p. 116.
ISBN
978-0-313-37556-9
- ^
a
b
c
Treitel, Corinna. (2017).
Eating Nature in Modern Germany: Food, Agriculture and Environment, c.1870 to 2000
. Cambridge University Press. pp. 77-81.
ISBN
978-1-107-18802-0
- ^
a
b
c
Iacobbo, Karen; Iacobbo, Michael. (2004).
Vegetarian America: A History
. pp. 138-140.
ISBN
0-275-97519-3
- ^
McCollum, Elmer Verner (1918).
The Newer Knowledge of Nutrition
. Macmillan Company. p.
52
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Briesen, Detlef (2017).
"What is a healthy diet? Some ideas about the construction of healthy food in Germany since the nineteenth century"
. In Sebastia, Brigitte (ed.).
Eating Traditional Food: Politics, Identity and Practices
. Routledge Studies in Food, Society and The Environment.
London
:
Routledge
. p. 172.
ISBN
978-1-138-18700-9
.
LCCN
2016021306
.
- ^
"Reviewed Work: Uric Acid As A Factor In The Causation Of Disease by Alexander Haig".
The British Medical Journal
.
2
(2483): 263. 1908.
- ^
Whorton, James C. (1981). "Muscular Vegetarianism: The Debate Over Diet and Athletic Performance in the Progressive Era".
Journal of Sport History
.
8
(2): 58?75.
PMID
11614819
.
- ^
Barnett, L. Margaret. (1995).
Every Man His Own Physician: Dietetic Fads, 1890-1914
. In Harmke Kamminga, Andrew Cunningham.
The Science and Culture of Nutrition, 1840-1940
. p. 165. Rodopi.
ISBN
90-5183-818-2
- ^
a
b
Phelps, Norm. (2007).
The Longest Struggle: Animal Advocacy from Pythagoras to PETA
. Lantern Books. pp. 165-166.
ISBN
978-1-59056-106-5
- ^
"The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism"
. Speech delivered by Gandhi at a Social Meeting organised by the London Vegetarian Society, 20 November 1931.
- ^
"Reviewed Work: Milk, The Most Perfect Food by N. N. Godbole, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya".
Current Science
.
5
(11): 600?601. 1937.
JSTOR
24204292
.
- ^
A. C. D. (1938).
"Milk the Most Perfect Food. N. N. Godbole, Benares Hindu Univ., Dipawali, India, 1936"
.
Journal of Dairy Science
.
21
(9): 242.
- ^
Bhagavad Gita 5.18
Archived
2009-09-17 at the
Wayback Machine
"The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater [outcaste]."
- ^
a
b
"Animals in Hinduism, second paragraph"
. Hinduwebsite.com
. Retrieved
2014-03-14
.
- ^
Filippini, Massimo; Srinivasan, Suchita (2019-10-01).
"Impact of religious participation, social interactions and globalization on meat consumption: Evidence from India"
.
Energy Economics
. Eighth Atlantic Workshop on Energy and Environmental Economics.
84
: 104550.
doi
:
10.1016/j.eneco.2019.104550
.
ISSN
0140-9883
.
S2CID
211301067
.
- ^
"U.S. could feed 800 million people with grain that livestock eat"
. News.cornell.edu. 1997-08-07
. Retrieved
2014-03-14
.
- ^
a
b
c
Gabriel Cousens, Spiritual Nutrition: Six Foundations for Spiritual Life and the Awakening of Kundalini, North Athlantic Books, page 251
- ^
"Eggs off menu at schools in Hindu row"
. thetimes.co.uk. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
- ^
Mariotti, Francois; Gardner, Christopher D. (2019).
"Dietary Protein and Amino Acids in Vegetarian Diets?A Review"
.
Nutrients
.
11
(11): 2661.
doi
:
10.3390/nu11112661
.
PMC
6893534
.
PMID
31690027
.
- ^
Alter, Joseph S. (1992).
"The Discipline of the Wrestler's Body"
. In
The Wrestler's Body Identity and Ideology in North India
. University of California Press.
ISBN
978-0520076976
- ^
Natubhai Shah (2004).
Jainism: The World of Conquerors
. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. pp. 249?251.
ISBN
978-81-208-1938-2
.
- ^
"VEGETARIAN-FOOD AND JAIN-CONDUCT, Honey"
.
- ^
Clarke, Peter B. (2004).
Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements
. Taylor & Francis. pp. 425-426.
ISBN
978-1134499700
- ^
"Vegetarianism"
. namdhari-world.com. Retrieved 31 January 2023.
- ^
"A Namdhari Sikh's Testimony"
. ivu.org. Retrieved 31 January 2023.
- ^
Nesbitt, Eleanor (2015). "The Fools Argue about Flesh and Meat': Sikhs and Vegetarianism".
Religions of South Asia
.
9
(1): 81?101.
doi
:
10.1558/rosa.v9i1.22123
.
- ^
a
b
"The Fools Argue about Flesh and Meat’: Sikhs and Vegetarianism"
. damdamitaksal.com. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
- ^
Erik Marcus (2000).
Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating
. McBooks Press, Incorporated.
ISBN
9781590133446
.
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