Transition to Vegetarianism
An Evolutionary Step

By Rudolph Ballentine, M.D.

Himalayan Institute Press, 1987, 1999
Paperback, 307 pages


available from Amazon.com and Chapters.ca

Will the new millennium be the era when humanity finally relegates the mass domestication and slaughter of animals for our dining pleasure into the "what were we thinking!" department?

Rudolph Ballentine thinks so.

"Vegetarianism," the holistic medical doctor writes in the preface to this reprint of his 1987 minor classic, "is likely to be the diet of the future—a logical next step in humankind's perennial search for a better way of living and being."

One of the most thoughtful writers in the field of progressive nutrition and medicine (Ballentine's 1978 Diet & Nutrition is the smartest, wisest book I've ever read on the subject), Ballentine doesn't recommend taking 1000 years to make the transition. But he does recommend baby steps: "Shifting from a primarily meat diet to one that is mostly vegetarian is a drastic move," he counsels. "It should be made in a slow, gradual fashion," for "violent action breeds violent reaction."

Ballentine—who views diet through the prism of Hinduism and Ayurvedic medicine (fuelling his preference for lacto [dairy]-vegetarianism)—sees the process as much as a transition for the psyche and spirit as the stomach and palate.

It's an interesting and novel approach. On the one hand, Ballentine is a rigorous and impartial scientist. He even allows that the chemical residues in meat today are safer in some ways than those of recent generations (the notorious carcinogenic growth promoter DES has been replaced with "naturally occurring hormones [that] are not readily absorbed from the intestinal tract"). On the other, Ballentine is an irrepressible philosopher on the psychospirituality of food. In his discussion of meat, aggression, and consciousness, he speculates that meat eating and the hunting instinct are inseparable. "What," he provocatively asks, "becomes of the hunter's drive to kill when meat comes from domesticated animals?" Without citing such recent aberrations as "going postal" and road rage, Ballentine presciently suggests: "the consumption of meat by those who live quiet, unaggressive lives could create inclinations to inexplicable violence or a pervasive sense of pointless anger and hostility."

(Gimme that burger with a semi-automatic on the side . . .please. NOW!)

Never one to oversimplify or jump to one-sided conclusions, Ballentine next notes that meat today is more apt, in Ayurvedic terms, to be tamasic (less than truly fresh, or overcooked or reheated) than rajasic (fresh killed). Rajasic meat stimulates, while tamasic meat has a sedative or lethargic—even dulling—effect. More ammunition in the war against meat? Not necessarily for Ballentine. "After a hectic day . . . the slowing down produced by tamasic foods and beverages may be welcomed," he observes. A meaty supper could help people wind down after work almost as much as an alcoholic (tamasic) drink.

And that, Ballentine cautions, is something the transitional vegetarian needs to be aware of. "Vegetarian meals that are light and insubstantial, if taken consistently," he warns, "will lead gradually to an increased craving for heavy animal foods and a tamasic 'fix.'"

It's this kind of nuance that makes Transition to Vegetarianism a unique resource among the flashier bestsellers in the field.

Order it from Amazon.com or Chapters.ca