[Buddha-l] The magic of vegetarianism

[JKirkpatrick]

On the topic of strange facts about vegetarianism. I was told by
a lady who made a living of sorts out of treating infertile women
that the surest way to fertility was not vastly expensive courses
of medical drugs or even viagra (for men that last bit) but
simply a few months of fresh fruit and vegetables. She cited
experiments in the US that backed her ideas up. She swore by it. 

But don't buy your groceries from Supermarkets because they will
do anything to their foods like radiate it, spray it with deadly
pesticides, wrap it in deadly plastics that make you lose your
sexual identity and so on... but just shop in the corner shop,
the little fruit and veg shop that is near you but being put out
of business by those poisonous supermarkets.

It sounds wacky I know but she cured me of a shingles type rash
in ten minutes flat with a spoonful of baking powder!

There is also the interesting fact that birth rates apparently
rose by 30% in India when they changed their diet from meat and
dairy products to meat, home grown vegetables and brown rice.
Round about the time of the Buddha...or perhaps a bit before.

Dave Living
 _______________
Dave,

All very interesting (I'm a health food nut myself but not a
vegetarian or vegan), but as for fertility in India, the most
poverty stricken women in poor villages continue to be incredibly
fertile, yet their daily food is usually only a little rice  or
roti (Indian bread) if they are lucky. Their poverty and poor
physical condition doesn't interefere as much as one would expect
in their ability to produce children.

Whether many or most of the progeny survive is of course a
problem, depending on the poverty or not status of any given
family.  See, e.g.:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_planning_in_India  While
large fertility declines have been observed, these are based on
aggregated figures:  India: " the fertility rate has more than
halved (from 5.7 in 1966 to 2.7 in 2009). Bangladesh: 2.74
children born/woman (2009. 
The fact remains that those with the highest birthrates per
woman/family are those in dire poverty.

I wonder about your claim of a 30% rise in birth rates for the
time of the Buddha. How would anyone know? Any documentation?

Cheers,  Joanna