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Why Are Yogis Vegetarian?



Last week our resident yoga expert Cynthia Drake looked at yoga for pregnant women. This week she asks 'why are yogis vegetarians?'

Why are yogis vegetarians? I could easily answer, because it's easier to clean up in the kitchen after cooking. No animal grease coating on the walls and other surfaces after a fry up.  No use for strong detergents for pots and pans.  No scouring at all, really this is true, unless you happen to burn the rice or something. There is also a huge decrease in the use value of gigantic cleavers, which are in any case awkward to store if you have a small kitchen.

Clearly a yogic diet leads to reduced hypertension. That same sticky grease that makes cleaning up in the kitchen difficult behaves the same way when it is metabolised. More than a nuisance to arteries, animal fats literally clog them. This explains why some health conscious people resort to meals of boneless skinless chicken, however vegetarian is considered by vegetarians to be even better. Although it used to be thought impossible, it has been proven that a yogic diet leads to a reversal of heart and cardio-vascular diseases. It doesn't just prevent them and so can be taken up at any time.

Yogis tend to go in more for the grains and veggies, beans and fruits. These foods are more than easy to clean up after. They are also optimal for building strength. There is also the great taste variety that healthy foods naturally offer without being spiced or added to.

If you ask someone who is ill if they think there is something that might have prevented their illness, it will often be that they mention something they ate. Fats, sugars and high animal product content in the diet cause physiological tension throughout the body as they cause digestive havoc.

Many people know that they should have improved their diet long ago, but don't get around to it unless it catches up with them in painful or near fatal ways; ulcers, arthritis, heart failure, stroke etc. Digesting meat creates a lot of acid in the stomach. The body can't find a way to throw these acids off and so they get deposited in the joints. This is one of the many reasons why doctors and nutritionists caution against high levels of meat consumption and explains why yogis, who like to be flexible and tend not to get arthritis, are vegetarian. A life of proper diet and proper exercise greatly reduces the risk of arthritis developing. An accumulation of poor movement habits and a diet which causes too much acid in the system greatly increases the risk.

One of the other main reasons a yogi wants a vegetarian diet is the aim to lead a life that is free of cruelty. This means not needing veal crates or cooped up chickens, and less worry about feeding the world population since a vegetarian diet takes less acreage per capita than an animal based diet.

Light meals are in general more comfortable for movement. For many people this makes the yoga postures easier. Light meals are easiest to arrange when using lots of fresh produce.

"Ramana Maharshi also had a wonderful relationship with animals. Many wild animals such as Tigers and snakes roamed the mountain side but the Maharishi never showed any signs of fear and often befriended animals who came in contact with him. A disciple recorded that on one instance a black cobra entered a hut where the Maharshi was staying, the snake stopped and stared into the eyes of Ramana, after a while the snake retreated. A realized soul maintains a close oneness with all of God’s creation and this compassion can sensed by the animals themselves. The ability to befriend animals is somewhat reminiscent of St Francis of Assissi who had a similar touch with animals."  From Richard Pettinger.

I remember once seeing a large Blue Racer the snake also stopped and stared at me until i finally left it.

The change in my health when I switched from a carnivorous and unbalanced diet to a vegetarian balanced one was dramatic.

I was 16, and had a cronic cold, plus frequent fever and other mishaps. Suddenly, I decided my diet was not a good one. My family stressed the consumption of meat, fried food, sweets, little fresh fruit and vegetables. I reversed all that. In 6 months I was cured from chronic cold, which no medicines could cure. I enjoyed perfect health, did not get ill at all even though I started to practice extreme titikhsa, endurance to cold weather (and hot weather in the summer).

All it took was eliminating fish meat and fish, eliminating refined cereals, substituting honey and unrefined sugar to White sugar, eating plenty of fresh fruits, nuts and fresh and cooked vegetables. I also practiced hydroterapy, with application of cold water.

I got ill a few years later though when I went to the extremes. Cycles of fasting and overeating, extreme raw vegan diet. The Prana in my body was drained away.

Yoga is the path of moderation and discrimination.

my sister is going on being a vegetarian for almost 10 years now. she is a geophysicist and part time nutritionist. she thought learning about nutrition would ensure she would be securing a proper vegetarian diet, eating all the right foods and proteins.
after a recent doctor visit she was informed that if she continued to be a vegetarian long term that she may develop mental deficiencies because of a lack of certain nutrients found only in meat, fish and eggs.

read on here http://authoritynutrition.com/5-brain-nutrients-in-meat-fish-eggs/

believe it or not there are yogis that eat meat, even raw meat.
i do not believe being vegetarian it is a standard that must be met in order to achieve something greater

i'm taking away from the original thread too, if you need to create a separate space for this topic feel free to do so...
the problem for me is the lack of compassion, tolerance and respect in the way we mass produce foods

we may not even be the smartest species on this planet.... we're pretty damn ingenious though

the planet has much to teach us... i realize my beliefs differ dramatically to some of us here.
just my opinions.

Eric did she ask the doctor if he ate meat and enjoyed it? .... perhaps he had become so aggressive from eating meat that he scared her! It sounds more likely that she acquired mental abilities from being vegetarian since she became a geophysicist!

I was told these type of things since i was very young when i became a vegetarian. Fortunately i did not listen to such ignorance and remained healthy when many eating meat have died off. These people have nothing but WRONG advice. Ofcourse you may notice that I have mental deficiencies. Thank God for those deficiencies they were just to much mental baggage that weighed me down.

And by the way... if it is vitamin B 12 you are after it is found in: soy beans, soy products, eggs and dairy products including nuts, lentils and beans and soya and synthetic forms are widely available and added to many foods like fortified cereals .Light Plain Soymilk contains (50% DV) of Vitamin B12 per cup drinks. Vitamin B12 is also found in yeast, mushrooms and seaweed. So don't let an ignorant Doctor tell you otherwise! Forget the meat!!!! Save the animal that can feed you! I'm a vegetarian and get more than 100% daily needed vitamin B 12.

Love you friend,

Steve

Why yogis don’t eat meat –
Posted by shanmugananda

Meat contains a high percentage of toxins.
It lacks vital minerals and vitamins.
Meat contains more proteins than we need.
Animal protein contains too much uric acid. When consumed in high quantities,
the uric acid cannot be eliminated properly and is deposited in the joints. The
result: stiffening of the joints, gout, rheumatism, headaches, cramps and
nervousness.
Meat can be infested with dangerous pathogens such as trichinae and
intestinal worms.
Ahimsa, or non-violence, is one of the highest tenets of yoga philosophy.
For the yogi all life is sacred. Every creature is a living, breathing entity
with thoughts and feelings.
A yogi knows that when a person consumes meat, they are also absorbing the
fear and pain of the slaughtered animal. Hence they will have a more difficult
time gaining control over their emotions.- Sri Swami Sivananda

 https://teachingsofmasters.wordpress.com/2012/08/16/why-yogis-dont-eat-meatWhy Are All Yogis Vegans?


Why are so many yogis vegetarian?

The Answer

In yoga practice Ahimsa is one of five of Patanjali’s Yamas, or restraints, that help make up the classical meaning of yoga. Simply, Ahimsa translates to the absence of violence. For different people, this word means different things (eliminating physical violence, or self-shaming, or emotional hate, for example), but for others, it literally means no killing and no harming, helping them to bring a specific meaning onto their plates and into their bellies./

Remember: when you eat meat you willingly let someone chop the head off an animal.

Eric, good to know your sister is a geophysicist, that's pretty close to what I do!!

I read the link you provided. One important animal-derived food they did not mention explicitly, but it is implied all around that article. The food is: bullshit.
Most things they say is contrary to my (and Steve's) direct experience, also contrary to modern dietary science.
There are more and more conventional doctors that are convinced that meat is a cancer-producing food.
The article really sounds like a very biased one.
When I was 30 years younger I used to pump iron. I pumped so much Iron that I looked like Rambo.
People used to ask me what I ate and when I told them that I was vegetarian they didn't believe me, because they ate meat and they were far, far less impressive than I was. I didn't took steroids nor hormones.
I remember it was the days of the omega-3 fad. The gym owner, a professional bodybuilder, asked me how would I take in the necessary omega threes. Actually, i never worried about omega 3s but I answered him that I ate brazilian nuts, since they have this fishy smell.
Recently, I heard a well researched report that most nuts and many vegetable foods contain substantial doses of omega 3s.

I wasn't a vegan, I ate liberal amounts of dairy products and when I worked out heavily I ate up to 10 raw egg yolks as a snack.

Today I don't work out, I eat very little dairy products, no eggs, lots of fruits and vegetables and nuts and a little cereals.
My brain luckily doesn't seem to have degenerated, I sure couldn't do the work I'm doing with a brain dulled by lack of meat., my job implies heavy conceptualization and abstraction, like the job your sister does.
What I found instead is that my father, who was a huge meat eater, started to display signs of mental degeneration very early, around the age of 50. He later developed heart problems which almost killed him, because he wouldn't go to doctors. Had he had a more natural diet he probably would be still doing heavy work today, at 90.

B12 is no probs with dairy products and since many eastern populations do not eat dairy products nor eggs but lots of soy products, evidently, like Steve says, it is enough, otherwise there wouldn't be so many people in China and South east Asia.
 
My bottom line: meat and fish are absolutely unnecessary to human beings.
Hi quality Dairy products and organic eggs are healthy and necessary to many people
A vegan diet is possible if you can eat enough food and can digest beans, soybeans and soy products. you should also study nutrition, otherwise it may be dangerous. Presently I eat little and can only digest small amounts of beans, so I avoid a vegan diet. although 90% of my diet is actually vegan.
At a certain age, past 50, proteins are needed in very small amounts (unless we practice hard labour or heavy physical activity). Meat eaters older than 50 are almost inevitably intoxicating themselves and jeopardizing their physical and mental health.

Odey

You are man of imperturbable  distinctions. That is why you would make such a good addition to my horror films. i would come back from the grave to include you.   :P

What I have in mind is you playing the Lone Ranger. In this episode Tonto would be an obsessed vegetarian who dislikes sharing campfires with meat eaters. His unusual determination to stay away from meat eaters leads to the mysterious death of the Lone Ranger near a small village in central Texas. In this final episode it would be unclear as to who was the real outlaw-since Tonto sticks to his story that he had nothing to do with the mysterious death and that it was actually the Lone Rangers meat eating that led him to his own mysterious demise.

A glimpse into the world proves that horror is nothing other than reality. I have a feeling that deep inside you there is someone no one knows about.

(http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=JN.gcFEwWVpeRkRHrYwN1xyaQ&pid=15.1)

Alfred, that sounds like a good plot indeed!

You young  whipersnappers just don't make a pea eye worth of sense. There is nothing like possum stew  or catfish salad or crayfish soup.  I don't kill those buggers all I do is relieve them from an extended stay in their suffering on this here devils earth paradise. It's just the work of the devil living on this earth. That is what we a see a brewin' here. I give those critters a chance to revolve quickly. Revolve or evolve it makes no damn difference they'sa be gone and that's all they care about. Relieved from their misery.

                                                   Beatrice Landcaster 

Why are yogis vegetarian ?    Well, meditation spiritualizes us, and as we become more spiritualized we become more compassionate, and more loving to all of life.   Our consciousness goes beyond our own little egos and we start caring about others, and all of life which includes animal life.  We become more conscious, and therefore more thoughtful about where our food sources are coming from.   

I think it was Abraham Lincoln who said "I care not for a man's religion if his dog and cat are not the better for it".    I would extend that to include all animals we interact with …. which includes the animals we use as our food sources.     

Here are two videos which I just posted on the other board, which show how we are duped into complacency by the false advertising of Big Ag.   I know many SRFers are vegetarian, but if you're still eating eggs and dairy, it's important to be aware of false labelling.  Apparently  "Free Range" is not all it's cracked up to be ……. !


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rPqTOi9ym0 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKTORFmMycQ

Dear one

I was not able to get these videos working with telephone internet so I will have to wait till I am at a computer. i have already decided to forgo buying eggs and dairy products unless they are from a farm that i am familiar with their treatment of animals. The only time i buy any dairy products is on the road or at a restaurant where i am limited to food choices and I usually avoid such places when possible.

Pranams to you, Steve !!!

I can understand how the glutinous and grotesque ways in which our current market handles, creates and mass produces our nourishment would cause most any rational human to want to be vegetarian. Does there need to be a change within these systems? Absolutely. We, as in people of the United States and probably people of other similarly "advanced" countries, don't reflect a spiritual understanding or compassion to life when it comes to mass production regardless if that life is an animal, plant, or the environment itself.

I also understand that a yogi would want to practice vegetarianism for this very reason. From an outside perspective, it would seem this practice resonates with the individual and that the individual hopes to promote awareness and change for the better. So yes, I agree you can cultivate compassion through exercising a moral decision or belief.

I don't agree however, that being vegetarian makes one more spiritually attuned then a non-vegetarian. To think of the countless tribes that exist to this day, where little is known about their existence, who preserve humanity and commune with nature deeper then your every day millennial. Their structures, which are emerging in documentaries and other unpopular sources eat meat but do so with reverence. We are all human. To say we are more advanced then a native tribe is perspective. What happens when our own advances as a society collapse? Who is better off then?

The shaman, hunter, gatherer, these are people who understand the laws of nature more so then I. Their respect for the natural world has cultivated a deep spirituality in their community and in themselves. I don't have the answer to the original question of this thread other then to speculate that practicing being vegetarian is a way to deepen ones own spirituality but I wanted to comment that simply being vegetarian does not make one person more spiritual then the other.

Of course not, Oddang, I agree, vegetarianism is sometimes a consequence of a spiritual Outlook, sure not a cause.
Although a fit body may improve mental fitness, it is told.

I turned veggie for health reasons, not for spiritual reasons. I suddenly realized that meat was the wrong food for me and my health improved dramatically when I switched.

I also remember I loved fishing but eventually quit to catch and eat fish because I couldn't stand the expression of the eyes of the dying fish. That fish did nothing to me and I did not really need it for survival.

We all have done things for various reasons. Yes though... initially i did become a vegetarian for spiritual reasons. I did not believe that "simply being a vegetarian/vegan would make one person more spiritual then another". Rather; i believed it would make me more spiritual and less restless so I could open up to more spiritual experiences. Which for me has proven to be true. Diet does affect your mental states, emotions and physical state. Over the years it has become very apparent to me by watching people with different diets and their health, attitudes and behavior.

I think you're right about that, Steve.    If it's true that everything has vibration, then food also has vibration.  I'm sure Master talks about that, as we all know.    I would rather take in the vibrations of healthy plant based food than the fear, frustration, anger and pain vibrations that must emanate from animal products.   It must affect us on some level.   

IDF
laila

Laila, to be honest, as Jagadi Chandra Bose first pointed out, even plants have feelings and consciousness.

So we cannot rule out that there are some vibrations of fear, pain  and anger in the plant food we consume. Not in most fruits of course, but some vegetbles have to be killed before being eaten.

Even the essene diet, which eliminates vegetables which are killed to be eaten, suggests a bread made out of sprouts.

Sprouts are the newborn babies of the vegetable realm. So, by eating sprouts, we eat newborns. Let's face it.

Even if we eat seeds and legumes, we are goign to kill a potential plant. Even when seeds are toasted, we partecipated to the Killing of a potential plant.

Plants are creatures of God, so they should be given guarantees.

To bring it to the extreme, mantaining the same logic, even by being pure fruitarians, we cannot but eat some germs and bacteria. These are living creatures and we would kill them at times, at least those who cannot survive inside the digestive tract. We inflcit suffering to them poor critters.

Bottom line: In this imperfect dimension, it is not possible to mantain the body without inflicting some suffering to other creatures.

:D I was expecting the "plants have feelings" argument to come along any minute.   ;)     It's a bit of a desperate argument really, isn't it ?   Do you honestly feel the same way about killing a dog, a cat,  or any other animal as you do about cutting into a cucumber or a carrot ?    With all due respect to Dr. Bose, there is no way that a vegetable feels the same pain and emotional stress as an animal.    Plants are alive, but they are not sentient.   There is a big difference.    Here's what Dr. Will Tuttle, author of The Peace Diet, said in response to the same question ……

http://gentleworld.org/plants-feel-pain-too-whats-a-vegan-to-do/

Like it Laila i was looking for this and you handed it to me:

"Right now, for example, we are destroying about an acre per second of Amazonian rainforest in order to grow soybeans to feed imprisoned animals for meat, dairy products, and eggs that are consumed right here in this country. Cutting down an acre of rainforest is not just killing trees; it is also destroying webs of life that took millions of years to evolve, resulting in loss of habitat for both animals and plants, and driving the largest mass extinction of species in 65 million years. The oceans are similarly being overfished for fish for both human and livestock consumption, similarly driving extinction, climate destabilization, and environmental destruction.

With more research, I began moving toward a vegan lifestyle, and I learned that forests throughout the entire world have been, and continue to be, destroyed in order to grow corn, soy, alfalfa, and other feedstock for enslaved animals. I discovered that people who research the impact of animal agriculture on forests estimate that a person who switches from a standard western diet to a vegan diet saves at least 100 trees every year! It takes a small fraction of land, water, and petroleum to feed someone eating a plant-based diet, compared with someone eating a typical meat- and dairy-based diet. So it became crystal clear to me that anyone who professes to love plants and trees is unequivocally called to practice vegan living."

Will continue reading.... i think we must remember that we came from the mineral kingdom and then the plant kingdom to the insect and then the animal kingdom before having the ability to express divine consciousness as humans. With this succession in mind it is easier to understand that fruits and vegetables should be our food of choice. We are encouraging our pets and animals to move up in the evolutionary scheme. This is not too possible if we are eating them. Need more time to digest so much wonderful info u are submitting here... thanks Laila

Steve

Laila, first of all, it is definitely true that animals are above plants in the evolutionary scale. As it is true that some animals are more evolved than Others, and that some humans are more evolved than Others.

But that just sounds like a fake, even Dangerous  argument. If I should inflict 'suffering', in a general context to the less evolved souls, then, if faced with the possibility to inflict pain or Death to a primitive native of an African tribe just out of the paleolithic and to a Citizen of the USA with a phD, I should choose the primitive African.

This because:

1) He's very likely in the first stages of human reincarnation, so by definition he's less evolved, spiritually, mentally, socially.
2)He's much less sensitive to pain than the civilized American with a Ph.D. I'm speaking from a little personal knowledge here, I was interested in anthropology in my Youth and I personally met the tribes of the highlands in Papua New Guinea. Just out of the paleolithic.

So, by the same your reasonings, the life of a primitive man is less Worth than the life of a civilized man and, taken to the extreme, slave trade was justified because it entailed a sacrifice of the less evolved Africans to benefit the more evolved westerners.

Fact is that, by the same token you say lactarians partake of the cruelty inflicted to cows, I can say that vegans partake to the cruelty inflicted to plants. Of course lactarians accumulate  more sins (cows+plants) than vegans, but then it is a quantitative reasoning, not a qualitative one. Not to say that eating sprouts to me feels like eating babies. I had this very definite insight once, when I was eating sprouted corns. I was suddenly put in tune with their very elementary consciousness and I was able to connect their state to newborn babies. I've never eaten sprouts since then.

Who eats sprouts, conceptually is a baby killer. As I, who drink milk, partake to the Killing of redundant baby calves. Only I don't see the calves, whereas I see the baby sprouts when eating them.

Lactarians and vegans partake of the same sins.

i thought the issue here was the treatment of animals not whether we are lactarians or vegans. Did i miss something? To give an example: yesterday i bought eggs from a local farmer.  She showed me the chickens running in the yard. i do not feel as though i was being cruel to these animals. i think using the excuse that you do not see the cruelty is tantamount to what the Germans said about the Jews in WWll. Many of them claimed they knew nothing about those atrocities. i found a quote by Sri Yukteswar in the Holy Science.

As an SRFer i have been exposed to the evolutionary progression of the soul from mineral to plant to animal and then to the human kingdom. With this model in view it becomes apparent eating for instance sprouts would be preferable to eating dogs.
To mccoy; i will say though if u had a spiritual experience with sprouts i can respect your view.

i found a quote by Sri Yukteswar in the Holy Science in which he spends many pages discussing observing and drawing conclusions as to what is the natural food for humans. "Hence by these observations the only conclusion that can be  (must read his conclusions) reasonably drawn is that various grains, fruits roots and-for beverage milk, and pure water openly exposed to air and sun are decidedly the best natural food for man."

i ate a couple small bowls of Raisin Bran this morning with some coconut almond drink and was amazed how many vitamins were packed in that cereal.

i just read something by Sri Yukteswar; ..."men gain a calmness of mind which every psychologist knows is the most favorable to mental activity and to a clear understanding, as well as a judicial way of thinking.... this is done by natural living on a non-irritant diet.

Eric i do not think we have a historical corollary to compare too as a whole group of people living in a spiritual manner. So in this sense you are drawing conclusions about native tribes who live close to nature without considering highly evolved civilizations. We are unable to presently study (with accuracy) these highly evolved civilizations as readily as some of your examples. However that does not mean they did not exist. So... we must also keep in mind that there were very high civilizations on this earth at times in the past and there will be again who express an ability to rise above their tribal and hunter tendencies.  We presently live in a period of rapid change-the dwapara yuga- when we pass thru this period we will enter much higher periods in which natural living of the past will have little or no relevancy to the spiritual evolution in those higher millennia.

Steve, I think that Laila's insistence against milk and cheese is due to the fact that today it is difficult to find animals-friendly sources of dairy products. Difficult but not impossible. As you say, almost everywhere there are small family-run businesses which raise free-ranging chickens in a very friendly environment. In the mountains close to my place, sheep herding is presently little different from what it was 2000 years ago. Sheep browse around in the meadows, with big sheperd dogs who are pretty scary, to protect them agaisnt wolves. The milk from such sheep is totally natural. The lamb is either raised or killed for meat. It's never, I think, thrown away.
After all this discussion I'm goign to try and found such sources. In teh meanwhile I'm having biological products, which at least give a guarantee of a minimum of consideration toward the poor cows.

Sprouts and dogs: you should say 'puppies', lol, and alive. Yes, nobody but the most Vicious geek would think about eating puppies alive. Although I know they eat gold fish and frogs alive in contests.

 It's so true what you say about WW II, Steve.   We can't ignore these atrocities, even though Big Ag does everything in their power to hide the truth from us.   Thank goodness for the brave animal rights activists who are willing to risk going undercover to expose the horrors that are going on.   And now that we know, we can't in good conscience ignore it.

Have you tried Quoinoa with almond milk ?   That's what I had today.   Quoinoa is a perfect protein, and is great as a cereal, in soups and stews, salads, etc.    There are so many interesting vegan foods that most people never try.   It's given me a renewed interest in cooking, which is good.    :)

I was happy to find your diet routine throughout the years mccoy. I understand your last paragraph about fasting and overeating. It took me quite awhile to get use to fasting - as the Master recommends once a week or three days a month. And I admittedly also went from fasting to over eating. Although over the years, I’ve had to talk to myself and remind myself when coming off a fast to slow down and take it easy with the food. Somewhat like talking to ourselves during meditation and reminding the mind to settle down. I have found it much easier when I can take a day off from a routine working schedule. The mind is less occupied with its usual source of energy and you can for instance just lay in bed and practice a mantra or take a beautiful nature walk that fills your senses with wonderful thoughts apart from the addiction to food. Then when you come back to eating you discipline your mind and thoughts with a slower intake of food but something that fulfills your minds ravishing behaviors. For instance, I’ll start out again with a smoothie or cottage cheese with Avocado or something that delights my watering mouth (lol). In all our activities we gain the ability to slow down and eventually control our appetites through the constant practice of meditation which gives us more patience with others which also starts with patience with ourselves.

Sure it is a result of moderation but from where does moderation spring? I have found that it comes from a constant reminder to say to ourselves, “come on little boy you can do it … just rest a little and get up after a bit and see that you have avoided binging and now you may get something light to eat or perhaps lay there and practice a mantra while you enjoy your new found discipline.

Mccoy in the discussion I feel like I’m talking to myself over the years. Attempting to cure my ravishing appetites. Just having moderate success now before I drop off and this body decays and is forgotten by me and everyone else. Quite an irony in the end of the story.

I too noticed a similar behaviour, I gained control and moderation only after a few decades of practice.

Presently, my diet and lifestyle behaviour has changed, I adhere to credible scientific evidence from researchers who probably managed to attend to the right spheres of God's thoughts and were successful in grasping the causal blueprint of a narrative. There si a whole field now with scientific protocols on healthspan and longevity. And I'll say many things are basically similar to what we know from Raja Yoga as preached by the great masters.

For example, the science of fasting has evolved and now I adhere to the 5 days fast mimicking diet elaborated by Dr. Valter Longo, an eminent biogerontologist.

Through ample research, he determined that the beneficial effects of a water-only fast can be achieved, in great part, by drastically decreasing the caloric intake and especially protein in a five days period.

In a few words, you are reaping the benefits of fasting but with much less effort, since you eat 750 kcals per day. I tried that multiple times and with me, it works very well.

The above is an example of how an improvement of traditional medicine by guys who are able to attune to the causal world of ideas, by repeated focus and concentration, and by rigorous experimentation.

Steve, I did not explain myself clearly.

I used to do water-only fasts, but I could only reach a max of 5 days and with exceptional effort and weight loss. And often binge refeeding, which is deleterious.

Presently Valter Longo devised a 5-day regime that yields similar biological results as a water-only fast while eating a very modest amount of food (750 kcal per day) and very little protein. This latter strategy, called a Fast Mimicking Diet, is the one that I'm following.

I also follow closely the fora and podcasts on longevity. There are a few people who have the discipline to go on 5-10 days of water-only fasting, continuing to work. These are pretty rare examples though, underlining the fact that there are, among non spiritual aspirants, very stoic, tough, disciplined people.

The 9-day cleansing diet of Yogananda is pretty good as well.