- Meat as an impure food choice
- The case of Seventh-Day Adventism
- The case of the 'Indian diet'
The religious origins of Vegetarian Societies
Following prior historical examples of dietary asceticism and mysticism, the avoidance of meat was propagated by religious sects and temperance movements in England, the USA, and Australia during the 19th century [Spencer 2009; Barkas 2014; Shprintzen 2015]. This led to the establishment of the first Vegetarian Societies, which had a long-lasting influence on dietary views and theories in the West and beyond [see elsewhere]. By rejecting earthly life, Cowherdites, Bible Christians, Grahamites, and Seventh-Day Adventists began promoting a Garden-of-Eden diet, which was occasionally also connected to a romanticized interpretation of Hindu vegetarianism, especially by Theosophists. By symbolizing richness and sensuality, red meat was fully at odds with a world-renouncing vision of restraint, and therefore portrayed as sinful compared to the blandness of 'virtuous' whole grains.
Vegetarianism in the Anglosphere
Even now that such religious teachings have become less relevant, their lasting influence on dietary beliefs is noticeable. It may be no coincidence that vegetarian movements are especially influential in the urban areas of English-speaking countries. In addition to the influence of Hinduism during the period of British rule over India, the Anglosphere witnessed an omnipresent wave of religious liberalism (Calvinistic or Anglican) and worldly utilitarianism. Such worldview emphasizes the concept of self-ownership of the body. When self-preservation becomes the aim, 'death' becomes a target for domination and a site of individual (rather than shared) salvation, even in liberal vegetarian atheists. Since, crusading vegetarians have been referring to meat eating as a morally deficient and unnecessary perversion in terms of 'corpse consumption' [Plumwood 2000]. Notions of temptation, individual fall, personal virtue, and righteousness are often still at the heart of militant forms of vegetarianism.
The case of Seventh-Day Adventism
The Seventh-Day Adventist church has had considerable impact on nutritional advice, including the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics' position papers on vegetarian diets. According to its beliefs, a plant-based diet is the diet chosen by the Creator, while meat eating is sinful and linked to poor health. The church's involvement in the food industry, particularly in the development of vegetarian food products, has led to powerful alliances with non-profits and corporate food platforms to promote plant-based foods and discourage meat and dairy consumption. Overall, both economic interests and ideological motivations play a role in its efforts to shape dietary choices and influence public health and nutrition guidelines.
Further reading (summary of the literature):
Whereas economic interests either promote or discourage the consumption of animal source foods [Leroy et al. 2018; see elsewhere], ideological agendas mostly do the latter [Leroy & Hite, 2020]. This may be due to anti-speciesist philosophy [see elsewhere] or religious motives, as for Hindu or Jain vegetarianism [see below]. More recent examples include Seventh-Day Adventism (SDA) and beliefs within the New Age complex. Historically, the latter largely traces back to 18th-century Swedenborgian mysticism and to 19th-century Bible Christians and Theosophists [Shprintzen 2013; Bates 2017].
The ideological angle is far from being irrelevant, as the SDA church is a particularly impactful promoter of vegetarianism [Banta et al. 2018]. According to the church's prophetess, Ellen G. White, its duty is to 'actively engage in public-health education to control desires and baser passions'. Its dietary evangelism is mostly framed as health advocacy and 'Lifestyle Medicine', referring to the so-called 'Adventists studies' performed at the SDA-owned university of Loma Linda [e.g., Orlich et al. 2013]. Originally, however, the matter was one of dietary abstinence and purity [see elsewhere; Leroy & Hite, 2020].
While a Garden-of-Eden diet of 'grains, fruits, nuts, and vegetables constitute[s] the diet chosen for us by our Creator', meat eating is condemned as sinful as it 'enfeebles the moral and spiritual nature'. SDA beliefs relate 'flesh eating' to impure thoughts, 'animal propensities', and 'self-vice' (onanism). This was also linked to a series of health issues, especially after White's 1864 Vision from God revealing that 'meat causes cancer' [Fettke 2018]. Health and 'biological living' were then firmly connected to SDA evangelism by John H. Kellogg in his Battle Creek Sanitarium [Wilson 2014; Markel 2018].Since the Kellogg era, the SDA church has exerted a non-negligible influence over nutritional advice in the US and beyond [Banta et al. 2018]. The influential position paper on vegan/vegetarian diets by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) [Melina et al. 2016] is largely a product of SDA activity and ethical vegetarianism, as is also valid for its older editions [see Southan 2012a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h]. The AND was formerly known as the American Dietetic Association (ADA), co-founded in 1917 by Lenna Cooper (a Kellogg protégé). The church also set up partnerships with the World Health Organization (WHO) [PAHO 2011; ANN 2015]. One SDA member contributed to both the Giessen Declaration, kick-starting the Planetary Health Diet concept [Cannon & Leitzmann 2006; see elsewhere], and 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans [DGAC 2020].Besides its ideological motives, the economic interests of the SDA church also need consideration. In support of his beliefs, John H. Kellogg initiated the industrial development of vegetarian foods of his own invention, such as breakfast cereals, analogue meats, and soy milk [Mansky 2019]. As such, this was the first step to what has become today's interest of food corporations in the market of mock ASFs [see elsewhere]. The early development of ASF imitations by SDAs [WorthingtonMemory 2016] led to the current legacy of >20 SDA-owned food industries worldwide, producing >2,000 products with sales estimated at $0.7 billion. It has resulted in influential alliances with non-profits and the corporate food industry, to promote cereals and soy products while discouraging meat and, increasingly so, dairy [Fettke 2018]. In 2020, the Church also purchased the Blue Zones® concept [Adventist Health 2020; see elsewhere].
Further reading (summary of the literature):
The Indian diet holds a unique position globally, being part of the Global South but at the same time shaping Western dietary views. Its ‘vegetarianism’ is often idealized by those promoting plant-based food interventionism [see elsewhere]. The EAT-Lancet Commission, for instance, presents India as a global model despite its rampant malnutrition situation [Karpagam 2022]. In its 'Diets for a Better Future' report, the EAT foundation claims: 'If the global population followed current consumption patterns in individual G20 countries or adopted their NDGs only India and Indonesia would have food consumption patterns that are within the planetary climate boundary for food' [Loken & DeClerck 2020]. Meanwhile, religious organizations of Indian origin [e.g., ISKCON] aggressively promote vegetarian sattvik diets, both domestically and internationally. Such diets, which consider all ASFs but dairy as inferior and catering to baser instincts, are enforced through government-funded school midday meals, in spite of a majority of children coming from ASF-eating homes [Siddharth 2019].A Western view on the Indian diet was first created in the mid-19th century in the context of famine relief. Hindus were portrayed as protein-deficient non-flesh eaters [Arnold 1994], and wheat eaters of Northern India were seen as physically superior to the rice eaters of the South [Walker 2002]. Building on a developing scientific paradigm of adequate essential nutrition as a universal need [Sathyamala 2010], British scientists set up various interventions (e.g., enrichment of rice diets with skimmed milk, calcium lactate, or soybean milk). Although initial research emphasized superior bioavailability from ASFs, the effort was underway to push for a cereal-based diet as ‘almost as good as’ ASFs, and more economically viable.
Gandhi [1959] and others began to challenge the ‘undue emphasis on animal foods such as meat and milk’ by the West, complaining that the ‘unlimited capacity of the plant world to sustain human beings’ had not been explored by modern science [Arnold 1994]. In parallel, a spiritual role for vegetarianism had been developed by Theosophists (with whom Gandhi interacted) [Barkas 2014]. This not only reinforced its symbolic value within India but also exported it to the West, where it entered New Age religion and became influential in Food Reform circles of the Anglosphere.
As a result, mentions of ASFs are almost erased from the dietary guidelines for Indians [NIN 2011], in spite worrying nutritional indicators [NFHS4] and high rates of child undernutrition [Headey & Palloni 2020]. Several Indian states have excluded eggs from school menus, on the grounds of religious sentiments [Trivedi 2018]. Yet, several micronutrients that are best obtained from ASFs are currently lacking in the Indian diet [Venkatesh et al. 2021]. As a result, less than 10% of the 6 to 23-month olds are adequately fed and there is 38% stunting, 40% undernutrition, and 56% anaemia in children younger than five; one of four adults has a BMI <18.5, which is associated with inadequate food quality and quantity [NFHS4]; 62% display subclinical vitamin A deficiency [Laxmaiah et al. 2012]. About one on two Indian women is anaemic [Rai et al 2018]. Taken together, the vast majority of children and adolescents in India have at least one micronutrient deficiency [Stevens et al. 2022].
Within India, the idea of vegetarianism as an expression of purity became increasingly a matter of nationalist discourse, even if only 20% self-reports as vegetarian and 15% (180 million people) identifies as beef eaters [Natrajan & Jacob 2018; Trivedi 2018]. Although eaten by Hindus in ancient India [Jha 2010] and by early Indus civilization [Suryanarayan et al. 2020], beef has become the hot bed of politics and religious ideology, especially since the nationalist rise to power in 2014 [Trivedi 2018]. While the government imposed laws prohibiting the slaughter or sale of cows, an exponential rise was seen in mob violence, harassment, and lynching of (predominantly poor) Muslims and other meat-eating communities by vigilante groups [HT Correspondent 2016; Mander 2018; Frayer 2019; Karpagam & Joshi 2021]. Such aggressions, reinforced by bans and calls to boycott the sale and consumption of meat, may have serious social, economic, and nutritional consequences if not countered [HEaL 2022].
