And when you say vegetarian, do you mean vegan? I don't know what real Indian food is, but the Indian food I have seen (and enjoyed tremendously) always had dairy/butter/ghee in it (maybe with the exception of dal(sp?)). Which is hilarious considering the whole holy cow thing.
> Which is hilarious considering the whole holy cow thing.
I genuinely don't understand what you mean by this. Milk rearing in India is not done in the industrialized fashion that you see in the US, but by small scale dairy farmers who sell their produce to cooperatives. In a country like India where nutrition is scarce, milk and milk based products are an excellent way to supplement diets. And as you mention they are already a substantial part of Indian cuisine.
In my opinion, there is no point in avoiding meat without giving up dairy. With "the whole holy cow thing" I meant that, as far as I know, in one (?) religion that is common in India (Hinduism?), cows are considered sacred animals. Because of that, followers of that religion don't eat them. And in some branches of Buddhism, harming any living being is a no go. I could have gotten all this totally wrong. I didn't even take the time to read up on it right now. I'm not all that interested in religion, barely know anything about Catholicism even though that's the crazy I've been baptized in/on/with/whatever. I exited that club way too late, regrettably, but at least I'm not giving money to child molesters any more.
Sorry, rambling. Back to cows: So eating them is bad, but somehow, perma-raping cows and making them sad by taking their babies away is totally cool. Maybe that not-as-bad-as-in-'murica milk production method avoids this bad karma. That would be great. Regardless of that though, I believe dairy is not healthy at all for adult humans. Cow milk is for cow babies. If you are reading this, you are not a cow baby.
That is called anecdotal evidence and cannot be taken as the basis to making informed conclusions about the whole country. India is a HUGE country and incredibly diverse. How many neighborhoods in India will you go to make a spot check? Statistics is your friend, not anecdotes.
> Sorry, rambling. Back to cows: So eating them is bad, but somehow, perma-raping cows and making them sad by taking their babies away is totally cool. Maybe that not-as-bad-as-in-'murica milk production method avoids this bad karma. That would be great. Regardless of that though, I believe dairy is not healthy at all for adult humans. Cow milk is for cow babies. If you are reading this, you are not a cow baby.
What the fuck? Whatever pain the cows may face is infinitely less than the absolutely disgusting conditions under which cattle are grown and slaughtered in the US (including cow babies as you so cutely refer to them).
Milk is ABSOLUTELY a good source of nutrition for human beings. Especially in a country like India where a significant fraction of the population faces malnutrition, it is a very effective way to provide nutrition. It also has the side effect of financially enriching farmers who are one of the most vulnerable segments of Indian society.
You are right, visiting India and having a look would not provide data to base policy decisions on or anything like that. I didn't mean to imply that. It would be enough for me to form an opinion based on experience, is all.
As I said, I don't know how milk is obtained by Indian dairy farmers. I believe you straight away that it is way better than in "efficient" factories. I assume they leave the babies with the mothers and let them have the milk and take whatever is left over. That'd be dope.
However don't you need even more cows then with the "efficient" method? And do those cows not emit the same amount of greenhouse gases as the poor creatures in factories? Not if they eat seaweed, apparently (https://foodtank.com/news/2017/06/seaweed-reduce-cow-methane...). Do they? Is that their natural diet? If not, is it fine anyway?
If they are treated properly, they won't eat food that humans could use, so that's good.
How much water do they need? Is water scarce around Indian dairy farms?
It's all so complicated. Just eating a plant-based diet is so much simpler. It would also be much easier if all sufficiently wealthy and developed parts of the world finally got the memo that some people want this. Where are you capitalism? Serve the market. Shut up and take my money. Pretty please.
I have no doubt that most of India is not sufficiently wealthy and developed. Obviously I undestand that consuming dairy is better than starving and I would never ever tell someone in that situation what to do. That would be absolutely insane and devoid of any compassion. However, "better than starving" is also a very low bar and not quite the same as "healthy food for adult humans".
It is not just about nutrients. If I mix vitamin C and rat poison, is the result healthy?