Beef Patty:100% pure beef.
I’m so thrilled that McDonalds is capable of having an item on the menu with only one ingredient. Hurrah!
According to Edward Bourne, PHD:
“How can a vegetarian lead a calmer disposition? Earlier in this chapter it was mentioned that steroid hormone residues in red meat can exert an effect not unlike the body’s own steroid hormones, activating natural defense against stress and suppressing immunity. Another reason, however, is that meat, poultry, dairy and cheese products, and eggs – along with sugar and refined flour products – are all acid forming foods. These foods are not necessarily acid in composition, but they leave an acid residue in the body after they are metabolized, making the body itself more acid. This can create two kinds of problems:
When the body is more acid, the transit time of food through the digestive track can increase to the point where vitamins and minerals are not adequately assimilated. This selective under-absorption of vitamins – especially B vitamins, vitamin C, and minerals – can subtly add to the body’s stress load and eventually lead to low-grade malnutrition. Taking supplements will not necessarily correct this condition unless you are able to adequately digest and absorb them.
Acid-forming foods, especially meats, can create metabolic breakdown products which are congestive to the body. This is especially true if you are already under stress and unable to properly digest protein foods. The result is that you tend to end up feeling more sluggish, tired, and may have excess mucous or sinus problems. Although it’s true that this congestion is not exactly the same thing as anxiety, it can certainly add stress to the body, which in turn aggravates tension and anxiety. The more free your body is from congestion due to acid-forming foods, the lighter and clear-headed you’ll be likely to feel.” (342-343)
Okay, so we understand how meat can stress the body and contribute to tension and anxiety (which often accompany depression) physically. What else?
In the book, Chi Gung: Chinese Healing, Energy, and Natural Magick, Liv Carnie writes:
“First of all, you should eat a low-fat diet. Eat plenty of complex carbohydrates, fruits, and vegetables. You don’t have to become vegetarian, but the less meat you eat, the great your chi (life energy) will feel. If you eat meat, try to eat naturally killed animals rather than slaughtered ones. The reason for this is simple. When animals are killed in a slaughterhouse, they are often extremely stressed prior to their death because they detect the suffering from all the other animals. This negative energy carries into your meat. Therefore, if you must eat meat, try to obtain it yourself and kill the animal as naturally and quickly as possible.” (151)
Whaaa? Negative energy? What does this have to do with anything?
Technically, what Carnie is saying, is that you are consuming the negative energy. I know all this sounds flaky, but hear it out…
The holistic approach to dealing with depression takes a look at every contributing element, not just your psychology, but also the emotional, physical, and spiritual factors that influence and affect you. Which is why holistic practitioners are far more inclined to alter your diet and encourage you to meditate and exercise and find a creative outlet to express your feelings and thoughts than immediately pump you full of meds.
Every moment and experience we have helps to shape and define who we are and how we feel – but there are also a number of factors that can happen on a subconscious level that we rarely are aware of. There are millions of possibilities, all which can most certainly be addressed and dealt with in ways that are personal to you. Sometimes depression and anxiety can be linked to past life experiences, sometimes we are dealing with soul lessons that continue to challenge us, and very often we are affected (both positively and negatively) on an energetic level by the people, objects, events, and practices that surround us every day. When someone walks into a room in a bad mood, immediately you can feel it. When you’re in love, you can often feel the energy and feelings and moods of the other person without even touching them. A mother might intuitively begin to panic when her child is experiencing some kind of distress, even if they are separated.
Is it not possible then, that the meat on your plate carries the stress and fear that the animal experienced when it was slaughtered, and that by consuming it you are allowing that energy to be a part of you? Just because the animal is dead on your plate does not mean it doesn’t carry any energetic properties.
If you tend to be a fairly empathetic, sensitive, and intuitive person, and feel stressed or depressed frequently, and also consume a lot of meat… I would wonder about this possibility (not that cutting meat out is the final cure... but it may help you address other issues without added, unnecessary stress).
If we have the ability to feel and connect with the energy of the people around us, or grow to love and feel empathy for our pets, or can feel anxious in a messy room and calmed in a peaceful meadow, I don’t see why we would suddenly be immune to the energy of the animals we consume.
Just an interesting thought.
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