FORBIDDEN BY GOD. THE FOOD TO DESIST

                                THE FORBIDDEN FOOD


What is a food chain? How it works?
What are primary, secondary, tertiary consumers?
What food is forbidden by the holy scriptures?

1. Food is essential to all species on this earth whether plant or animal. No wonder ‘Food’ as a topic is dealt in great details in, almost, all the books of religion; be it Geeta, Koran or Bible. 

2. It is true that words of wisdom contained in all the holy books are food for thought and deal with abstract topics like heaven and hell. But all of these scriptures have, thoughtfully, dealt with Food, as a subject. What to eat and what is forbidden, has been explained in details. All scriptures tend to agree that food you consume has to be pure, unpolluted and health giving.

3. Modern Science tells us that we are part of food chain originating from Sun, the eternal source of energy. The food chain has following performers.

    (a) Producers of food. [All plants can safely be  included  in this category]
    (b) Consumers.          [All plants eating animals are primary consumers] 
                                    [ All the flesh eater animals are secondary consumers]
    (c) De-composers.      [All types of fungus and algae.]

4. Plants make food by photosynthesis in presence of sunlight. Only 1% of solar energy used by the plant gets converted into food that is stored in it and is available to any animal that consumes it. If 1,000 Jules of sunlight(energy) is used by the plant, energy worth 10 Jules ( i.e. 1% of 1,000 jules)  will be stored as food in the plant and will be available to the animal (say deer) that consumes it.The plant is producer of food while the deer is the primary consumer because it is using the food producer (plants) as food.. If a lion consumes the deer only one Jules (10% of last stage) worth of energy will be available as food to the lion. 9 Jules would have been used by the deer for its body functions and released into environment as heat. The lion  will be called  a secondary consumer. Anybody who decides to consume the lion will get food having energy worth 0.1 Jules only, i.e 10% of what was used as food by the lion. 0.9 jules of energy will be used by the lion to maintain its body functions and will be released as heat into the atmosphere. So, we see that at tertiary consumer level, energy available is only 0.1 Jules. Only 10% of the energy consumed at any stage ,in a food chain, is stored as food in the body and is available to its consumer up the chain.

5. Tertiary consumer means the one who eats 'flesh eating' animals. For example, rat eats grains (plants) and thus will be known as primary consumer. Snake eats the rat and will be called the secondary consumer. Hawk eats snake and it will be called a tertiary consumer. The meat of tertiary consumers is not only bad in texture and taste but is difficult to digest. Apart being a low energy food, It is highly contaminated and carries lot of disease. Nature has tertiary consumers by way of vultures, eagles and hawks etc. Nature has given them protection against disease. They act as scavengers.

6. Man has the distinction of being a primary as well as secondary consumer. It can eat plants as well as animals. But being a secondary level consumer is not an easy task. See how many complications it faces in the name of poisonous fish, mad cow syndrome, Bird flue and Swine flue etc. Man has no respite from culling and annulling to get past these issues. Assume if the man decides to be a tertiary level consumer, what the volume of his problems would be?

7. It will not be out of context to mention that there are plants those are secondary consumers. They eat insect and small birds. Nature is a great equalizer. Have you heard of 'Pitcher Plant' and plants alike?

8.  When God turned out Adam from the heaven, He was kind enough to placed all plants and animals of this earth at Adam’s disposal, as food.  All ruminants with split hooves are allowed as food. Ruminants but having single hooves, like horses and donkeys, are forbidden. Similarly, animals who have split hooves but are not ruminants (who do not cud their food), like pigs etc, are also forbidden. Similarly; monkeys, serpents and snakes are forbidden. All animals and birds that eat flesh of other animals (tertiary consumers) are also forbidden. God also forbade man to cook a goat in its mother's milk. The guide line,only, being, ”Lest the man consume dirty and impure”.

9. Bible deals in detail with the subject.

10. Islamic teachings, as per Holy Koran, also advocate exclusion of forbidden food from your table.

11. In chapter (Prakran) 5, Shaloka 28 of ‘Manu Samriti’; an Hindu scriptures, Lord Brahma; the creator; pronounced all plants, cereals and creatures as 'food'. List of forbidden food as given in  Manu Samriti; is no different than what is given in Bible and Koran. Swine, serpents, tertiary birds and animals having single hooves (donkeys and horses) are forbidden.

12. The point that this article is trying to make is that ancient wisdom as passed down in our scriptures is in no way inferior to what modern science says. On the contrary we are forced to think as to how all the scriptures are in unison over the issue of forbidden food.

13. This shows that all the religions aim at keeping the mankind healthy and strong. If that be the wish of God than, let the sons of Adam thrive on this earth. The fight for superiority among various  religions is not only childish but also futile.

14. Our religious leaders may try to split us on the basis of what we eat. But they as well as we; forget that we are one as far as forbidden food is concerned.
A thing bad  for one is bad for all. Our 'likes' may be different, but our 'dislikes' are same. And that is the power of unity. Our intake may be as per bounty; but our bane is universal. Let us take this divine cue to bridge the gaps of the gobs and pronounce our selves as holy children of holy god who desist 'the forbidden food'.