In regards to eating meat

[thefool]

Can you imagine if I was all snooty and holier-than-thou like you?

(This is an inside joke.)

It is an open secret now

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You holier than thou ? Who knew...:-/

...and he directed me to the Vedas (Yogic scriptures):

http://www.yogaindailylife.org.au/Articl...Gunas.html

A Sattvic diet is pure vegetarian nourishment and includes fresh fruit and vegetables, fruit and vegetable juices, wholemeal bread, pulses, grains and sprouts, nuts, seeds, honey, herbs, milk and dairy products which are free of animal rennet. These foods will raise our consciousness, inspire us to positive action, deeper meditation and unleash our hidden potential and creativity. Sattvic food is cooked with love and eaten with full awareness and gratitude.

A Rajasic diet is one which is overly spicy or hot, includes food with onion and garlic, coffee, fizzy soft drinks, tea, sugary foods and too much chocolate. These foods may give us a lift in energy but ultimately we experience a low or increased stress. A Rajasic person will eat on the run, rush food and experience poor digestion and health as a result.

A Tamasic diet consists of dead food such as meat, fish, poultry, eggs, stale food, processed food full of chemical additives, take away fast foods, reheated food, alcohol, cigarettes and drugs of addiction. A sattvic food can become tamasic when processed, old or fried.

These foods and substances do nothing to lift our energy and consciousness, if fact they pull us downward into laziness and inertia. Living on tamasic food and substances will lead to complaints such as obesity, diabetes, heart and liver disease. We will feel unmotivated, be careless, unaware of ourselves and others.

Yogis are vegetarian for several reasons. Apart from the health aspect, the main reason being the principle that “all living beings are my Self” therefore all creatures need to be treated with respect and love.

You will always find information that you are looking for. If you are looking to support your vegetarian life style then there are sites that promote that. But then there is always this balancing view, like here on the Ayurvedic food concepts and Meat:

http://altmedicine.about.com/cs/2/a/ayurveda.htm

The first step towards eating for your Ayurvedic constitution is to find out what your constitutional type or dosha is. If you haven't done so already, please take this quiz.

Once you know what your Ayurvedic dosha is, you can balance it by learning what foods support you and what foods can further aggravate your dosha.

The following general guidelines can help you get started. An Ayurvedic physician can help you further tailor your diet towards your individual constitutional type.

VATA
Balancing Foods
Fruit - Apricots, Avocado, Bananas, Berries, Dates, Fresh Figs, Grapefruit, Grapes, Kiwi, Lemons, Mango, Melon, Oranges, Papaya, Peaches, Pineapple, Plums, Strawberries. Sweet fruits are balancing. No dried fruits.

Vegetables - Artichoke, Asparagus, Beets, Carrots, Cucumber, Green Beans, Leeks, Mustard Greens, Okra, Olives, Onion, Parsnip, Potato, Squash, Watercress, Zucchini. Cooked vegetables are most balancing. Avoid raw vegetables.

Grains - Amaranth, Oats, Rice, Wheat, Wild Rice

Legumes and Nuts - Adzuki beans, Almonds, Black lentils, Brazil Nuts, Cashews, Flax, Hazelnuts, Mung beans, Peanuts, Pecans, Pine Nuts, Pistachios, Pumpkin, Red lentils, Sesame, Soy cheese, Soy milk, Sunflower, Tofu, Walnuts

Meat - Beef (occasionally), Chicken or Turkey (white meat), Duck, Eggs, Freshwater Fish, Seafood, Shrimp

Herbs, Spices, Condiments - Brown Rice Syrup, Honey, Maple Syrup, Molasses, other sweeteners than White Sugar, Allspice, Almond Extract, Anise, Basil, Bay Leaf, Black Pepper, Caraway, Cardamom, Cayenne, Chamomile, Cinnamon, Cloves, Coriander, Coconut, Cottage Cheese, Cumin, Dill, Fennel, Garlic, Ghee, Ginger, Mustard, Nutmeg, Onion, Oregano, Parsley, Peppermint, Poppy Seeds, Rosemary, Sage, Spearmint, Spirulina, Tamarind, Tarragon, Thyme, Pickles, Salt, Seaweed, Soy Sauce, Turmeric, Vanilla

Dairy - Buttermilk, Cow's Milk, Cheese, Goat's Milk, Goat Cheese, Yogurt. All is moderation.

PITTA
Balancing Foods
Fruit - Apples, Avocado, Berries, Dates, Figs, Grapes, Mango, Melons, Pears, Pineapples, Plums, Pomegranate, Prunes, Raisins, Watermelon. Sweet fruits are balancing. Sour fruits are aggravating.

Vegetables - Artichoke, asparagus, bell pepper, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cucumber, celery, green beans, leafy greens, mushrooms, okra, parsley, parsnip, peas, potatoes, squash, sprouts, zucchini. Sweet and bitter vegetables are balancing.

Grains - Barley, Cooked Oats, Basmati Rice, White Rice, Wheat, Wheat Bran, Wheat Granola are balancing. Amaranth, Buckwheat, Millet, Oat granola, Quinoa, Brown Rice and Rye are aggravating. Legumes and Nuts - All beans except black and red lentils are balancing, such as adzuki beans, chickpeas, kidney beans, soy beans, split peas and tofu. Coconut, psyllium, pumpkin and sunflower are balancing. Almonds, Brazil Nuts, Cashews, Chia, Filberts, Flax, Macadamia Nuts, Peanuts, Pecans, Pine Nuts, Pistachios and Sesame are aggravating.

Meat - Chicken white meat, turkey white meat, egg white, freshwater fish, shrimp (in moderation) are balancing. Beef, egg yolk, duck, lamb, pork, venison and seafood other than shrimp are imbalancing.

Herbs, Spices and Condiments - Maple Syrup, Fruit Juice Concentrate, Barley Syrup, Brown Rice Syrup, and other sweeteners except for honey and molasses, Coconut, Coriander, Cumin, Dill Fennel, Ghee, Mint, Orange Peel, Peppermint, Saffron, Seaweed, Spearmint, Sprouts, Turmeric, Wintergreen are balancing. Chili peppers, Garlic, Ginger, Horseradish, Ketchup, Mustard, Lemon, Mayonnaise, Onions, Pickles, Salt, Sesame Seeds, Soy Sauce and Tamari are aggravating.

Dairy - Butter (unsalted), Cottage Cheese, Mild Soft Cheeses, Ghee, Cow's Milk, Goats Milk are balancing. Salted butter, Buttermilk, Hard Cheese, Feta Cheese, Sour Cream and Yogurt are aggravating.

and more.......

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this is even better. Here is some more on Ayurvedic diet, meat and ancient texts----

http://www.dharmaayurveda.com/article/2306.html

All vegetarian diets are not Ayurvedic and all Ayurvedic diets are not vegetarian

Against the popular belief and as preached by the new age gurus, an Ayurvedic diet neednot essentially be vegetarian. Ayurveda doesn�t preach vegetarianism. There are several Ayurvedic formulations in classical literatures - internal and external medications - which are not vegetarian. There are numerous conditions where non vegetarian food is suggested for healing purpose. At the same time there are a wide range of conditions were non vegetarian is contraindicated. The classical texts of Ayurveda explain the qualities of various meat including including fish, chicken, duck, lamb etc. just like that of herbs and trees.