I read Barry Nirmal's article "In Praise of Vegetarianism" with great interest. But, I have strong disagreements with him on certain points.

1) Protein is very essential to the growth of mind and body at the childhood. Most of the Indian kids suffer from malnutrition and mediocre health and poor gene compared to Europeans and other countries in the world , because they were denied balanced diet with protein as an important ingredient. Vegetarian diets cannot provide that adequate protein necessary for the body and mind to develop.

2) Indians youths lag far behind the other countries in the world in athletic competitions because of inferior genes developed at the onset of childbirth due to lack of protein and balanced diet.

3) I emphasize balanced diet, which not only includes meat, but all other food like green vegetables, fruits, juices and milk, not just meat (beef, chicken, fish etc.) In West Bengal, the secret behind the high population explosion, is fish , non vegetarian food and varieties of vegetables, they eat to be very sexy and potent.

4) Your lever function becomes weak, if you were eating meat all your life and all of a sudden switch to just weak vegetarian diet.

5) Again excessive eating of meat could be very harmful to your health, especially red meat like Beef, Steak and Pork. Many Americans eat these thing more. They hardly have any Vegetarian item in their dishes. As a result, they develop Colon cancer and hemorrhoid. This is because, they lack Balanced Diet and Fiber Foods. I emphasize, balanced diet, which eventually include some Red Wine and alcoholic beverages. It is not because they are Non-Vegetarian. It is because their diet is not balanced and contain mainly meat products and not much vegetarian item.

6) In Bengal, people have to have Sat Pad (at least Seven Items) in our plate which includes several varieties of vegetables and meat or fish to supplement the important protein requirements. We cannot have just our dinner with Sour Water (Imli Pani/Rasam/Sambar) and Rice like the South Indians or just Chole like North Indians as staple food. We have to have real gourmet food to keep our body going. No one can just subsist on just Vegetarian food.

7) Again the emphasis is Balanced Diet. Not the Vegetarian Food. One is apt to develop diseases and malnutrition, if he only sticks to vegetarian food. My father is 90 and mother is 80 and they are non vegetarians and followed balanced diet all throughout their lives.

I strongly advise other Indians, who are vegetarians, to shed their prejudices against meat and alcohol and start eating Kebobs, Caviars, Tandoori Chicken and Red Wine and be competitive with the rest of the world .

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