Many Westerners have health issues that medicines and treatments cannot effectively treat. They feel much better after changing to a vegetarian or an almost vegetarian diet because many of their symptoms go away. Then they think that the vegetarian diet works, or even works better than any of their medical treatments.
A vegetarian diet may “work” for some of us but not for all of us. Many healthy people who become vegetarians eventually begin to have health problems, like low energy and headaches. Because of this, they add meat to their diet and the symptoms go away.
Why does a vegetarian diet “work” for some but not for others?
Vegetarian diets originated in tropical and semi-tropical areas.[i] People from very warm areas receive more yang from the sun. They do not need as much yang from foods as people in polar and temperate climates who receive less yang from the sun.
However, if you live in a cold region, you receive less energy from the sun. The cold weather also drains your life energy. A vegetarian diet cannot provide enough energy to meet your needs and will only result in an early death. In fact, even vegetarians from tropical areas do not always fare well. In the 1920s and 1930s, Dr. Weston Price traveled around the world investigating native diets. He found that the Hindus of South India (mostly vegetarians) suffered from malnutrition and had the shortest life span in the world. He also found, without exception, a strong correlation between diets rich in animal fats, robust health, and athletic ability.[ii]
Vegetarian diets typically have too many cooling foods that deplete life energy. Most vegetables are cool or cold according to Traditional Chinese Medicine. A vegetarian meal without suitable spices and other high-energy ingredients may result in a serious energy deficiency and poor health.
Most vegetables have downward movement or sinking energy that drains the accumulated waste in the Liver and the digestive tract out of the body and helps cleanse. After cleansing, you feel better and many symptoms disappear. You may lose a great amount of weight, quickly. The more vegetables you eat, the faster you lose weight. Thus, a vegetarian diet appears to work. A vegetarian diet drains your life energy, as well as extra weight and impurities. The weight loss comes with a lack of energy and malnutrition.
In addition, a vegetarian with time:
- Becomes pale, withered, and sickly.
- Has thinner hair, brittle nails, and wrinkly skin.
- Is prone to anxiety, insomnia, and depression.
- Has fertility problems, food cravings, and loose stools.
The more nutrition foods contain, the more difficult it is to digest, and the more yang is needed to process these nutritionally-dense foods. When we cannot absorb cold foods, we waste more energy on processing them than we receive for our efforts. When too much digestive energy has been expended, we may become lethargic and lose any desire for food. These symptoms start showing up after 10 years, just as many illnesses typically take over 10 years to develop.
Some people add a little white meat, like skinless and boneless chicken breast, to their vegetarian diet. White meat is good for building bodily fluid, but it is only indirectly good for building blood. A long-term semi-vegetarian diet with only white meat may lead to a blood deficiency. The human brain needs a great deal of blood to function and to be adequately nourished. Headaches are a common result of an undernourished brain caused by a blood deficiency.
What if I use just vegetable oils?
Many vegetable oils are highly processed and are cooler than animal fat. Vegetable oil more easily accumulates in your arteries. Vegetable oil is high in unsaturated fat. The fatty acids found in artery plaque, which causes heart attacks, are full of unsaturated fat.[iii] Cold vegetarian or other similar diets contribute to high cholesterol and atherosclerosis.
What If I am still young and a vegetarian?
If you are still young, you may not feel much of an effect on life energy because of your plentiful prenatal energy or you never know what an energetic person feels like. The brain needs a lot of qi and blood for intense intellectual labor like studying. Because the brain is farther from your energy center (the Kidneys and the lower abdomen) than other organs, you may get headaches because of having less qi and blood reaching your brain.
What if I am over 40 and have followed a vegetarian diet for 10 years?
If you are over 40 and have followed a vegetarian or vegan diet for 10 years, you should start to feel the effects, especially, if in your diet there are no blood building and high-energy foods such as jujubes, spices, and alcohol, and if you have no other strong source of energy from Nature. You may start to go bald or have gray hair and have reduced sexual desire because of a lack of energy. Women may have weaker periods or even stop having periods altogether.
We will not get sick from eating fewer vegetables and less fruit. We will get sick from not eating enough grains, beans, nuts, and meat, the basic foods essential for an active life.
If you are a vegetarian
For good health, do not follow a strict vegetarian diet. If you have to be a vegetarian,
- Select relatively warmer foods and high protein foods. Cook with spices to add more energy to yin food. But be careful not use too much spices, which easily causes energy imbalances.
- Live in a natural high-energy environment, such as a warm, sunny region, a region with hot springs, in the mountains, or where there is higher than average geothermic activity.
- Master and practice energy exercises every day to obtain energy from your surroundings to make up for the yang lacking in a vegetarian diet. Chapter 13 of my book, The Total Life Energy Plan, will provide many energy exercises.
- Pay special attention to strengthening the blood. If you are a vegetarian, you may have a blood deficiency. The symptoms of a blood deficiency are discussed in Chapter 3 of the book. Follow the Life Energy Diet in Chapter 11 of the book for strengthening your blood.
[i] Cited in https://www.vegsoc.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=830
[ii] Cited in Stephen Byrnes, https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/vegetarianism-and-plant-foods/myths-of-vegetarianism/ (The Weston A. Price Foundation), 12/31/2002
[iii] The fatty acids found in artery clogs are mostly unsaturated (74%) of which 41% are polyunsaturated. (Lancet 1994 344:1195). Cited in https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/abcs-of-nutrition/myths-truths-about-nutrition/