Читать книгу Edgar Cayce's Everyday Health - Carol Ann Baraff - Страница 16

With vegetarianism and veganism (no animal products at all) on the rise, this is probably a good time to revisit the matter of meat in the diet. As with many other issues, the Cayce readings take a solidly middle ground with strong qualifying positions expressed on matters such as times to refrain, appropriate amounts, preferred varieties, and methods of preparation.

The vast scope of this topic can be illustrated with some statistics. Many thousands of readings offer dietary advice, so it is not surprising to find that well over one thousand mention specific sources of meat such as lamb or mutton, ocean fish, fowl or chicken, and beef or beef juice. Crisp bacon, strangely enough, has over two hundred endorsements, wild game almost as many and tripe (ruminant intestine) over one hundred. Other delicacies advised at least from time to time include liver, goat, kid, pig knuckle, and blood pudding.

In other words, it is clear beyond a doubt that for most people under most circumstances the readings approve of eating meat (a broad term meant here to include fish.) At the same time, frequent advice regarding smaller portions is coupled with a relentless push toward healthier choices. The end result is a revised diet that supplies more vital nutrients while being lighter, less acidic, easier on the digestion, and better balanced.

Meat is an especially reliable source of protein, iron, and B vitamins, and many readings reflect this by advising it for its strengthening and nourishing properties:

Use or eat those foods that are body and blood building. Hence, once or twice a week we would have broiled liver, broiled fish . . .

357-12

In the digestive system, and for the building in the system . . . it is necessary, with the conditions as at present exist, to meet these with sufficient of the vitim [vitamin] and of protein forces to create sufficient heat, and to give the supply of vitim [vitamin] to the blood through the hemoglobin constituent. More iron and vegetable forces. Meats, only those of sufficient quantity to meet the needs of system, never using hog meat of any character. Small quantities of beef, fowl and fish especially.

341-2

Fish, fowl, and lamb are typically regarded as the most digestible kinds of meat, although a strong, active system can certainly handle a little beef now and then. If the blood needs some extra nourishment, then it might be advisable to expand one’s options:

Evenings—the whole vegetable dinners, which would include meat; and, at least three times each week, include among the meats those of calf’s liver or of tripe—and pig knuckle. These may be altered, you see.

274-2

. . . Then we may combine those of a little meat, provided same is of the character that makes for blood building—as tripe, pig knuckle, liver, blood pudding, and such . . .

295-4

Wild game is also preferred in many cases for its superior nutritional content:

Eat what the body calls for; more proteins at first; never very much meat, unless game or wild meat of fowls and birds.

294-3

Pig knuckle is a rare exception to the ban on pork, which is usually either not mentioned or very specifically and emphatically to be avoided. This is presumably one of the main offenders in Cayce’s repeated injunctions against eating “heavy meats.” Another pork exception that apparently acts as a digestive stimulant for some is a little crisp bacon now and then—cooked long enough to get rid of the fat.

Regardless of the types of meat involved, the preparation methods most often endorsed are stewing, roasting, or broiling in their own juices. Deep frying is not advised under any circumstances nor is eating meat raw in most cases (sorry, rare beef lovers.) Thorough cooking is repeatedly advised and is the basis for Cayce’s often misunderstood warnings against eating “red meat.” Many have puzzled over this apparent color distinction in readings preferring lamb to beef when the real issue was probably one of digestibility. Warnings such as “. . . no red meat, either beef, mutton or fowl” (295-4) make this quite clear, as do the 257 readings, which repeatedly advise against rare beef in particular. The one exception found to this rule is a reading for a professional boxer suggesting that small easily stomached amounts of raw beef or beef blood be taken for strength, endurance, and energy.

This brings us to the health giving properties of concentrated juices created by thorough cooking of various kinds of meat. Beef juice is especially praised here, but so, to a lesser degree, are the juices and broths of mutton, chicken, and even liver and fish. Meat juice is regarded as strengthening, blood building, and body building to any system but is especially important for those who require liquid or semi-liquid diets:

The juice of beef may be given as strengthening, but not the meat itself—no! Just the meat juice—not broth—but the juice, and that given in very small quantities.

154-1

. . . Not much meat, but sufficient to give weight with the reaction in digestion, and enough to build on. Chicken broth is good, see?

147-30

Although all are beneficial, meat juices are carefully distinguished in the readings from broths, stews, and soups that are water based and much more diluted. Where a cup or more of the latter can easily be consumed in a sitting, a teaspoonful or two of the juice is just about right. One reading recommending pure meat juices notes that they can be derived from various sources, including beef, mutton, and liver. When asked about proper dosage, Cayce’s response was:

Sufficient to retain the strength and vitality . . . Tablespoonful of meat juice represents near about a pound of meat!

275-27

A simple recipe for making beef juice based on the readings is as follows: Cut one pound of lean round steak into half inch cubes. Place in a one quart Mason jar with the lid on loosely and set it upon a cloth in a saucepan of water. Simmer for two to three hours, adding more water to the pan as needed. Then thoroughly squeeze or press juice from meat and refrigerate, discarding the remains. Sip juice one teaspoonful at a time several times daily.

Anyone with digestive issues would do well to keep in mind that including juices and broths in the diet is a way of providing the nutritional benefits of meat without overtaxing the intestinal system:

Let the diet be those that add building forces to system without giving too much strain on digestion. Rather the juices or broths from meat, than the meat itself.

192-1

A repeated precaution to observe when including any meat in the diet is to make sure it is as clean as possible and comes from a high quality source. Recurrent issues with E coli bacteria and other hazards make these warnings obvious.

Lest vegetarians, raw food proponents, and metaphysically minded folks become too alarmed by all this focus on meat, it must be noted that many readings do approve of meat-free meals, days, and even diets, at least for periods of time. However, if vegetarianism is to be embraced as a superior path, this usually means adding a lot more vegetables and fruit than most people are used to eating. Those with enough self awareness are advised to simply monitor their food cravings and include meat a couple of times a week, or whenever it seems to be needed. Ideas about eliminating meat in order to become more spiritual are shot down in short biblical order with the warning that this could do more harm than good:

Q. Does meat affect one’s spiritual understanding?

A. If there is that consciousness in self that is affected. But rather, as the conditions, the experiences, the surroundings of each soul become spiritualized; for “It is not that which goeth into a man that defileth him but that which cometh out.” But to attempt, where the bloodstream—where the body-building forces of the nature’s warriors within self have been builded for generations, those that have required the stability or stamina of meat—to relieve self of same entirely is to take from the revivifying influences of that body. For, spirituality by the flesh is as the spiritual life in its essence, a growth.

443-6

In other words, removing meat from the diet too quickly could cause a drastic loss in energy and stamina. So although less reliance on animal protein just might be an evolutionary trend, or even an ideal, we blood type O’s, in particular, sure need our daily protein, and it’s hard to get enough from the vegetable world alone. Would anyone care for some organic beef juice?