Animal protein
We have said before that animal protein is superior in quality for the building of the body. To secure this it is not necessary to take to non-vegetarian diet. There are other means of getting this. The grain protein though numerically high cannot compare to the animal protein. The grain protein when actually transformed into amino acid takes numerically lesser index. Hence the necessity to supplement by animal protein. Milk completely do away with the necessity of a non-vegetarian diet as the protein it contains is only animal protein. We have already mentioned that the hand-pounded unpolished rice has got a great quantity of amino acid.
The League of Nations research committee has also recommended that:
“During adolescence, pregnancy and lactation, animal protein supply becomes very important. During growth this protein has to be preponderant.”
This is the substance of their recommendation. According to Coonoor Research results, it has been found necessary that out of the total protein consumed at least one-fifth part should be animal protein. If the children’s diet does not contain this animal protein, it should be considered a poor diet.
Research at home
To go to Coonoor may be to suffer intense cold! To march to the League of Nations, there are no means! This research we can easily make in our own homes. Why not even borrow at least some money and spend it for milk at home. At the end of the month it would be found that the skin and bone are being covered by a thin blanket of silky flesh and the pigeon chest lowering in height under an ascending layer of flesh! What more proof or research is required than this? Why simply depend on what others say? Many have tested this by experience in their homes. From the reduced doctor’s bill even the milk loan could be repaid with interest!
Forgotten facts
We forget that we worship the cow as a divine creature. She is the protector of the human race! It saves life by yeilding the essential milk. The death of a cow is really equivalent to the destruction of the health of nine persons. With the absence of cows, disease will take the ascending scale. The National health will become poor. Prosperity will shrink. Happiness cannot be had in life. The inner secret of the workship of the cows is to be found in its milk and the human dependance on that!
We forget the truth. Let us talk of us Hindus. We feed the cow on the sacred day with the sacramant. That is all. The significance of its worship in reality lies in its protection, and consumption of its product. This is forgotten. This is not the only sacred rite we have reduced to meaningless external symbolism. Take the Upanayanam, or the Sacred Thread ceremony, indispensable for the Dhwijas. Everything gets finished in ostentatious adumbration and the Purohit’s Dakshina (Fees).
The secret of Praanaayam and the performance of the Gayathri, they are knocked aside and reduced to worse than a formality. Not even the officiating purohit, knows their significance or their method. Marriage is a sacrament with us. What happens? The essence, significance and holiness are lost. The ceremony begins and ends in the exacted Dowry and the uneconomical feasting! Who cares for the Eternal witness symbolised in the Lord of Fire, God himself, Unity in married life, the marital vows or their weight, inner meaning or binding nature?
With the smoke arising out of the sacrificial fire before the bridal pair, these truths and principles ascend away into the skies! The parties remain untouched! One may take any of the essential prescriptions or rites of our great ancestors-the external chaff with us! The kernal and the inner meaning and secrets, nobody knows who owns these!
Unreasonable Arguments
Today the begging bowl (poverty) seems to be our main asset! Whose is the blame? Every ancient practice is found fault with. When one enjoins drinking milk, we mix in that some blackish, brackish, evil smelling coffee or tea decoction. If rice is asked to be eaten, it is high-polished in the machine and its life is taken away. Sports and Games are considered too brutal, but playing cards and the Race Course are adopted instead.
When one is asked to do Suryanamaskar for physical and spiritual benefit, we pour money and ‘Vadais’ to the Purohit and ask him to do it. For every work someone is given the Vakalath! The first Vakalath-power of attorney is given to the spoilt tongue! That has to judge what should be taken in and how and not the dictates of health and nutrition!
Abandon
My fellow countrymen, please abandon this type of mentality! Which country on the face of this earth has retained Independence with degenerate health and man hood? Why cry that there are not enough hospitals? But so long as we continue to be slaves to the tongue, the ultra fashion, undignified boosting and bombast and show, not even the birth of thousands of Mahatmas in this land can save us! We can never be uplifted!
Dairy Milk
Some have got a habit of discarding the milk from the Dairy as the cream is removed in the cold state. But even this milk has got much food value. Even if the fatty contents disappear, there are other ingredients in good quantity. This is to be preferred next to fresh drawn milk. The animal protein is not taken away. This milk is in fact cheaper than pure milk. The poor can afford to purchase this. Health can be improved by purchasing and consuming even this milk.
Cows’ protection and increase
The question has arisen as to whether hospitals are to be increased first or herds of cows. Those who walk with Nature, Research Experts and Health Authorities declare that ‘Cows are more important than hospitals!’ The Government will do well to allot a sub-head in the Medical Budget, under the Heading “Cows, protection and increase”. One-third of the expenditure under medical relief could be earmarked for this purpose, Milk and hospitals go together. Next to medicines, that which is prominent in hospitals is milk.
Increase the herds of cows and green pastures and the milk yield available to the people also increases. This will somehow find a place in the stomach of the people. Health as a whole of the people will increase. Some may think that with the increase in milk yield, only coffee and tea merchants will be benefitted more. Perhaps this may also happen in a degenerate society. With political renaissance, comes the Health Renaissance. The great quantity of milk which becomes available will somehow get to the people.
Dictator of Health
We want a Dictator in the domain of Health. Fishy wishy rules and administration will not meet the purpose. People who have become enslaved to the bad tongue and the senses will not yield to argument. The peacock will certainly not shed a feather for the mere asking. After intense propaganda against drink how many did really give up drink? In obedience to the wishes of Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress Ministries introduced prohibition in some districts. People gave up drink and improved because they could not help it. Drink may kill then and there. But coffee and tea will kill slowly, piecemeal. Our society has degenerated. The medicine of Reform has to be administered by force to cure the patient against his will.
What can a Dictator do in the Domain of Health? He will with one stroke of the pen backed by the entire executive machinery, introduce many essential reforms:
Reforms
The cow and buffallo census must be taken and its adequacy to meet the needs of the population. Milch cattle must be increased. Milk Dairies under Government supervision must be established in large numbers to supply pure pasteurised milk. Increased acreage of grazing lands must be allotted in every place for the grazing of the milch cattle. Killing of these for their skin or flesh must be prohibited by suitable legislation. The ill-treatment of such cattle, maintaining them under insanitary and half starved conditions, draining all milk without leaving anything for the calf, and inflicting cruel practices against these most useful and innocent creatures should be prevented and proper treatment enforced, by heavy penalties.
To increase the consumption of milk by the people, many devices and ingenuities could be adopted. The greatness of milk and the utter necessity of consuming it in adequate quantities could be preached, advertised and propaganda could be done, through Newspapers, Radio, pamphlets, books, Exhibitions, school lessons, big street posters, Provincial and District Health Conferences. The Health and Local-Self Government authorities must take enthusiastic and important part in all these. Baby shows and competitions could give opportunities for this propaganda. Free milk could be arranged to be given at least once a day to school children by the District Board and Municipal Authorities.
It may be made a condition when licenses are issued to the Hotels and Restaurants, that milk and cows milk should be made available in reasonable quantities for consumption by the customers. These hotels, should have huge posters praising milk and its qualities hung prominently.
When a Hitler could persuade millions of good human beings though of his own country, that Jew baiting and killing is a necessary past time for admission into heaven, cannot our Government and Public men persuade the people to drink milk?
One may purchase milk. Doubts may arise as to how this should be taken in. There is the question whether the milk should be cooked or drunk raw. For some reason or other in many homes, due to poverty or ignorance, milk is diluted heavily with water and then it is stirred and boiled for a long time. The lord of fire dances more merrily in the coffee hotels. The benign boss of the Hotel, will be pouring water and sometimes milk into the milk boiler, and it would be bubbling all the time! This is the taste and the substance most preferred by the customers.
When boiled, milk loses certain essential substances. There is no doubt about this. The best method is to drink the raw milk soon after milking. But there are some difficulties and some danger. The cow may have some illness likely to be transmitted with the milk. The milkman will never leak this out. Those who take this milk will contract this disease. Under present ignorant conditions and laziness the cowherd does not even wash the cow once a week. The udder also is not properly cleaned. The man who milks must be free from infectious or contagious diseases. Who is to examine this cow and the milkman every day through a doctor? This man’s dirt and disease will surely contaminate the milk. Some cannot digest raw milk. Uncooked milk is not digested by these. All these and other defects the fire-god is capable of removing.
It is possible to cook the milk without spoiling the essential ingredients and consume the milk. It is to add a few small spoons of water, to heat at a fairly good temperature, without boiling it, for a long time and when the foam forms on the top, to get it down when it is about to overflow. When cooled sufficiently and taken, this milk is comparatively full of its original substances. If one can be sure of the health of the cow and the man who milks and his cleanliness, and the strength of the stomach, then milk is best consumed while raw and fresh drawn.
Method of drinking Milk
Those who are not habituated, should not drink raw or undiluted cooked milk in an empty stomach. They must have their stomach slowly accustomed to this. It may cause wind for some who are not habituated to this. It is better to take milk along with other varieties of food. To take a little lime squash after taking milk will be to get rid of the wind cawsation. A little butter milk or curds will serve the same purpose. The milk gets quickly curdled.
Many have their drinks in one breath. Milk should not be drunk thus. Five minutes at least should be taken to drink a cup of milk. Each mouthful of milk should be kept in the mouth for a few seconds and then swallowed. This is the best method to take in the milk. The milk thus swallowed bit by bit will get curdled quickly and not cause windy troubles.