Brahmins are one of nature’s most fascinating, most bizarre, most diabolical creatures.
Obsessed with weird rituals, an abiding fondness for in-breeding, an unquenchable thirst for Cow-ca-Cola, a sneering contempt for eating meat and a diet limited to plant products, the scheming Brahmins are a tiny group geographically restricted to the barbarous land mass designated in atlases as India, the mountain nation of Nepal and parts of the New World a.k.a. United States (rumors of Brahmin sightings in New Zealand are increasing lately).
A Brahmin Diet – All Vegetables and No Meat
In lexicographic terms, a Shudra may be considered the antonym of Brahmin.
A numerically large group confined mostly to India, Shudras find it impossible to resist eating anything that moves, swims, crawls or flies.
All is grist to a Shudra stomach, badly starved as it often is of nutrients.
The endearing quality of Shudras is their enormous delight in life’s little blessings and how they live for the day.
Shudra Diet – Meat & More Meat
It would be no exaggeration to say that a sight of any non-human creature induces a Pavlovian fit of drooling in a Shudra.
The Kshatriya diet is similar to the Shudra meal except that the better-off Kshatriyas prefer meat not crawling with maggots. Alas, the economically distressed Shudra has not the luxury of choice!
For those not familiar with India, Kshatriyas are the equivalent of Bollywood’s Chulbul Pandey.
While the devilish Brahmins tend to think with their Chanakyan (vulpine) minds and the starving Shudras with their bellowing stomachs, the Kshatriya is mindful only of his iron hands and elephant-trunk sized legs. In the Kshatriya weltanschauung, all creatures, be they human, animal, amphibious or avian, exist only as prey for the exercise of his meat-fed six-pack muscles.
Now that you have an idea of India’s various communities and their dietary practices, let’s get to the meat of our subject.
Oh, wait! There’s one more group in India known as Vaishyas, a community where males are so obsessed with counting coins and notes they have no time for eating, drinking, screwing and sleeping, leaving their women folk prey to the repeated depredations of Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Shudras.
Longevity – Brahmin vs Shudra
Given my advanced perception skills, it has not escaped my attention that the fiendish Brahmins tend to live longer than Shudras and Kshatriyas.
I always suspected the key reason behind longevity of Brahmins vis-a-vis other Indian communities a.k.a. castes was their abhorrence of meat.
Now a new American study has confirmed my suspicion of why Brahmins outlive their Shudra, Kshatriya and Vaishya peers.
A study by Valter Longo and his associates finds that animal-derived proteins are associated with higher mortality rates.
People in the age group 50-65 consuming a high animal source protein diet were 74% likely to die sooner and at four-times higher risk of dying from cancer than those who abstain from such a diet.
Longo is Director of the Longevity Institute, a Professor of Gerontology and Biological Sciences and the Edna Jones Chair of Biogerontology at the University of Southern California and so his findings cannot be easily dismissed.
The findings of Longo and his team were based on a study of 6,381 U.S. men and women aged 50 and above.
Here’s an extract from their study:
Notably, our results showed that the amount of proteins derived from animal sources accounted for a significant proportion of the association between overall protein intake and all-cause and cancer mortality. These results are in agreement with recent findings on the association between red meat consumption and death from all-cause and cancer (Fung et al., 2010,Pan et al., 2012). Previous studies in the U.S. have found that a low carbohydrate diet is associated with an increase in overall mortality and showed that when such a diet is from animal-based products, the risk of overall as well as cancer mortality is increased even further (Fung et al., 2010,Lagiou et al., 2007). Our study indicates that high levels of animal proteins, promoting increases in IGF-1 and possibly insulin, is one of the major promoters of mortality for people age 50–65 in the 18 years following the survey assessing protein intake.
Cow – Pray or Chop?
Now I understand why Brahmins fall before the cow, pray to it and gulp down Cow-ca-Cola unlike the Shudras who fall upon the cow, chop it to pieces and feast on its meat.
In other words, my hypothesis on human longevity and meat consumption was correct after all.
The important takeaway from the Longo et al study is that while proteins matter, the source of proteins matters more if you want to live longer.
Other scientists concur with Longo’s findings.
According to Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center:
Having enough high-quality protein in your diet from whatever source is important….The evidence is overwhelming and incredibly consistent that people who eat plant-based products have a reduced risk of death…..If you shift to a diet more about plant-based foods, you are likelier to live healthier and experience less chronic disease.
Now keep in mind that research studies like the one done by Longo et al are complicated.
We know animal-derived proteins reduce life spans and heighten the risk of dying from cancer but do plant derived proteins increase the chances of living longer?
Here’s what the Longo study says:
When we controlled for the effect of plant-based protein, there was no change in the association between protein intake and mortality, indicating that high levels of animal proteins promote mortality and not that plant-based proteins have a protective effect.
Makes my head spin! Such “If, But” conclusions.
Live Longer
Idli, Vada, Sambar, Salad (Proteins from Plant Sources) – Live Longer
Live Shorter
Chicken Dum Biryani (Proteins from Animal Sources) – Live Shorter
Starting today, I shall never look in the direction of Chicken Dum Biryani, Whopper Sandwich or McDonald’s Bacon Clubhouse Burger with anything but distaste.
You may count on me to confine my eating to Indian vegetarian delights like Navratan Korma, Idli-Vada with three Chutneys and Sambar, Bagara Baingan and Dum Aloo.
Henceforth, your favorite blogger will Eat Like a Brahmin and Live Like a Shudra! 😉
Sources for Brahmin vs Shudra Diet:
Low Protein Intake Is Associated with a Major Reduction in IGF-1, Cancer, and Overall Mortality in the 65 and Younger but Not Older Population
Deli Dilemma: Meat and Cheese Linked to Earlier Death
Brahmins Live Longer, Shudras Shorter added by SearchIndia.com on
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This is soo funny 🙂 .
You made my day 🙂
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Howdy Sweetie!
Long time no hearing and all. 😉
Don’t put too much trust in these studies.
They have been going back forth on how good or bad some food items are for a long period of time now. Eggs were bad, now they are good. Coconut oil was bad and now it is good. Full fat milk is now good. Don’t be surprised if red meat becomes good again. Latest findings, fat on the whole is good but sugar is bad. Coffee is good. Even alcohol is supposed to be good some times. This is not a complete list. Lots of contradictory stuff like that.
I recently read an article by some lady who drank Kale Juice, ate lots of greens etc and found she had hypothyroidism because she was a vegan or something like that.
I suspect Shudras die younger because they are careless about health, may be poor hygiene which makes them more susceptible to infections.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: Don’t put too much trust in these studies.
Sweetie, the only trust I repose in is the near freezing bottle of Guinness Extra Stout in front of me right now ($2.99 at the Tibetan liquor store near my place). 😉
Japanese, are the people with longest lives in world; with an average age of 76 years or so.
They consume a lot of fish, because they have no other food source available. naturally.
Try to examine articles beyond USA or India. They will give an ample knowledge of what is wrong with two biggest democratic nations in the world.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Fish (if that’s what is contributing to human longevity) will prove to be Japan’s undoing.
Japan’s longevity is its curse.
The nation is aging but does not easily accept immigrants.
Death rate is higher than Birth rate.
Japan is in serious trouble.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-07/japanese-birth-rate-plunges-record-low-death-rate-hits-record-high
http://japandailypress.com/japans-birthrate-drops-to-1-03-million-number-of-deaths-keep-increasing-0730181/
Check out this. All nations mentioned are full of meat eating people.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy
Hygiene. food. is the most. important. correlation. factor to life expectancy age.
In India, most of suicide cases are from Higher Castes. They cannot cope with way Human values are degraded in Society, for money and booze.
Shudras and Uneducated morons are more influential, powerful than Brahmins in current Indian Scenario.
An uneducated guy accused of rape and murder will get away easily, while an Engineer or Professional Graduate will find it difficult to be get accepted in Love Marriage.
@ msveda An uneducated guy accused of rape and murder will get away easily, while an Engineer or Professional Graduate will find it difficult to be get accepted in Love Marriage.
huh?? What in the hell does this mean?
Can someone remove the keyboard/laptop/smartphone from msveda’s sight? Then if possible inject him to sleep so that he could get over with his sleep-deprivation/hangover and get his brain’s chemical balanced ??
SearchIndia.com Responds:
I’m hoping someone will put a gun in msveda’s hands.
The fireworks are bound to be remarkable since he’s much more of an angry young man than Amitabh Bachchan ever was in all his films from 1972-82. 😉
Amitabh Bachchan’s Angry Young Man of Bollywood – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pyB1QwStg0
What happened to StrYngLad?
Do you ever see him/her online these days?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
One of many I booted out.
Of course, I was one among them too – List of People who got kicked out.
He was one of the few who made stronger cases of arguments. Just asked because he/she did not show up for few interesting debates in the comments section.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: Of course, I was one among them too – List of People who got kicked out.
Sweetie, in your case it was accidental.
A savant like you is an asset, a blessing to any forum!
What is so incomprehensible about what msveda said?? He didn’t make himself very clear or is shy of making it fully clear…. he means to say there is an unspoken bias in the existing social milieu in India towards the uneducated guy=Shudra or lower caste guy who is usually uneducated which makes it easier for him to get away easily even with the most heinous of crimes such as rape whereas an Engineer or professional graduate=Higher caste guy who is usually educated struggles to be socially accepted even for something as natural as a love marriage which is considered as a ‘crime’…….. well, the point is fine except that it is too subjective that needs some objective backup……
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: he means to say there is an unspoken bias in the existing social milieu in India towards the uneducated guy=Shudra or lower caste guy who is usually uneducated which makes it easier for him to get away easily even with the most heinous of crimes such as rape whereas an Engineer
I don’t think the explanation lies in society’s bias toward uneducated/Shudras.
I’d say members of the Indian Middle Class/Non-Shudras are socialized from a young age to expect criminals/certain patterns of behavior to come from lower classes/Shudras….which inevitably leads to the “what else can be expected from these people” attitude when lower classes/Shudras are found engaging in any crime/unaccepted behavior.
So there’s not much surprise when lower class/caste members commit a crime (rape/murder/theft). Au contraire, there’s astonishment when a middle class/educated person commits a rape or murder or engages in some supposedly unacceptable behavior.
It’s the low gap between expectations and reality that explains the uneducated guy/Shudra “getting away with crimes” socially but the educated guy paying a heavy social/economic/legal price (that msveda was perhaps referring to) because of the huge chasm between expectation and reality in the latter’s case.
My hypothesis is that similar crimes appear magnified in the case of the educated guy/upper castes because society/law finds it hard to reconcile the huge gap between expectations and reality.
All that said, I doubt if Indians still see love marriage as a socially unacceptable practice. Seems too far fetched except in some odd groups/situations here and there.
It would be interesting to have a data driven discussion around what sections of society gets punished more for a particular crime.
I agree with SI on the topic of love marriage. I think it is becoming all too common especially during the last decade.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
It’s safe to hypothesize that the lower classes everywhere account for the bulk of prison population.
In the U.S., Blacks and Hispanics account for 58% of prisoners but only 25% of population.
Source: http://www.naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet
In India, the lower classes often coincide with lower castes.
A Scheduled Caste Devyani (of stripped & searched fame) is more the exception than the rule.
What category does Chettiars like me fall in? 😉
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Depends if you are Nattukottai Chettiar, 24 Manai Telugu Chettiar, Devanga Kannada Chettiar, Pattukottai Chettiar, Suthukottai Chettiar, Maramandai Chettiar, Azhagana Chettiar, Singapore Chettiar, Vanniya Chettiyar, Ennai Chettiar or …….. 😉