Yogesh Ashok Powar

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    • Becoming a Vegetarian

    Switch to Vegetarian Diet for sustainable planet.

    Tags: Vegetarian Diet

    Becoming a Vegetarian

    I ran Hyderabad Marathon in 2019’s august end and was hospitalized for dengue in the first week of September. Doctor advised me to turn vegetarian for a month before I get fully recovered. During this time, I also watch The Game Changers and decided to remain vegetarian little longer.

    veg

    Trust me, I was a seasoned non-vegetarian from my childhood. My family is from Kolhapur and we know why it’s famous as far as food is concerned. Non veg is so deep inside our culture that it’s also one of the conditions while match-making. Every celebration, hotel-ing, guest’s hospitality and even many religious festivals have non-veg in the top position. As that was not enough, I had opportunity to travel USA, couple of countries in Europe, China and Japan where the default meal is non-vegetarian. So was quitting easy?

    Quitting it completely was never in my mind and I began to just do it for a month on doctor’s advice. But then I started reading about the vegetarian diet and its benefit and hence extended its tenure. Luckily, my wife wanted to switch to vegetarianism for a long time and pushed me further.

    It’s now 3 years since we switched to a pure vegetarian diet and my body has no complaints whatsoever. In last 3 years, apart from surviving three covid waves and 2 lock-downs, I prepared for two full marathons and another 4 month preparation is currently on. Except couple of months of complete rest a year; I rather love to hit the road for running

    Recently I did my full body checkup; 90+ blood and urine tests and all the tests were normal. And this is the reason why I am writing this blog.

    Project Drawdown (1) has nearly 100 solutions to bring down greenhouse gases emission. If one sorts this table by maximum reduction possible then the top three entries are not some sci-fi projects or high-tech products but something we knew from our childhood.

    1. Reduced Food Waste (88.50 Gigatons CO2 reduction)
    2. Plant-Rich Diets (78.33)
    3. Family Planning and Education (68.90)

    First two of them are already part of many Indian religions and third could be relatively newer but it is also known to our society from pre-independence era (2). And all these solutions are in the hands of common junta like us; if awareness is spread. Besides, there is huge adulteration in the non-veg industry from plastic eggs(3) to steroids to livestock(4)

    My personal experience with vegetarianism was eye opening. Not a single day in last three years I have complained about acidity or tooth-ache (remember those meat threads in your teeth) and no complaint about stamina.

    Besides, the taste of non-veg food here in India is from the spices. It’s just over-rated by the awesome photographs/slomo from the advertisement.

    Switching to vegetarianism is not hard and anyone can do it without degrading your current performance.

    But above all, its need of the time.

    1. is a nonprofit organization that seeks to help the world reach “drawdown”—the future point in time when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline. ref ↩

    2. See Marathi movie Dhyasparva ↩

    3. Selling Plastic eggs in news ↩

    4. How deadly is your butter chicken ↩

    Tags: Vegetarian Diet
    Updated on: 2022-10-09