podcast episode 014: Ayurveda, Yoga & Vegetarianism

spartan mind strength podcast

Brought to you by Raja Ayurveda – Ayurveda for the Mind.

  • Does Ayurveda say you should be vegetarian or vegan?
  • What are the three parameters that Ayurveda uses in terms of nutrition?
  • Ayurveda’s definition of Wholesome Food
  • The truth is personal, contemporary and relative
  • Who should be a vegetarian and who should be a vegan according to the Ayurvedic texts
  • The meaning of Itadakimasu
  • Can certain foods help you thrive?
  • Consider the source
  • Nutrition has history
  • Ahimsa coming up next week

Resources

The Materia Medica of Ayurveda can be found here: https://amzn.to/2CBbh4j

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Gear Mentioned or Used on our Videos and Podcasts

Until next time much, much love from both of us!

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Na’maste kala! Which in Greek means: May we all be well!

Audio Transcript

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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The Spartan mind strength podcast the
podcast for mental grit and resilience

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hosted by Vie Binga and Tim Ganley

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hello everyone this is Tim and this is Vie
and we welcome you to another episode of

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our Spartan mind strength podcast
today's episode is going to be on yoga

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Ayurveda and vegetarianism we'll be
right back stay tuned

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today we're going to be talking
about ayurveda yoga vegetarianism

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mm-hmm
we've been teaching now well we owned

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the studio for almost 20 years -- yeah -- and
we've been teaching Yoga ayurveda for a

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very long time actually even before we
owned the studio -- yes -- and every teacher

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training that we've gone through not
gone through that we've done the question has

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always come up
-- what does ayurveda say about nutrition what

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type of food does ayurveda
advocate and we are going with ayurveda

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because ayurveda talks about nutrition
more than yoga -- actually Yoga really

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doesn't Yoga pushes it off to ayurveda -- 
exactly yes -- so what does ayurveda say do

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I need to be a vegetarian or a vegan if
I am practicing yoga and I'm following

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an ayurvedic lifestyle -- okay that that
question has several paths -- good -- ayurveda says

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just so we are all on the same
wavelength pun intended

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ayurveda says that there is no black
and white everything is gray

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therefore ayurveda doesn't say you
need to be a vegetarian you need to

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be a vegan you need to be a carnivore
you need to be an omnivore -- what about keto -- yeah

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that would yeah that fits somewhere in there whole foods raw foods plant-based

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ketogenic all that stuff ayurveda
unfortunately doesn't use fashionable

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terms like that and I say unfortunately
because it would sell better if it was

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packaged prettier but I digress ayurveda says look at three parameters who

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the person is -- what's that mean -- in terms
of physical mental emotional composition

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and activity do you have any diseases or
do you have any tendency towards

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diseases how old are you what is your
gender how mentally stable or deranged

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are you what are your emotional
tendencies -- deranged -- yes yeah truly yeah

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what are your emotional tendencies what
is your daily lifestyle what is your

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level of activity do you sit all day do
you climb mountains all day are you a

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priest are you working in the garden
stuff like that what -- your activities -- your

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activities yeah what does your day
mostly consist of -- what does your work what

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does your play -- exactly yes and the very
importantly what stage of your life are

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you that's very important are you a
woman who's gonna have babies things

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like that then the second parameter is
what food are you talking about how is

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the food prepared where is it coming
from

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do you know the source of the food is it
clean and when ayurveda was formulated

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clean was a lot simpler than it is today
-- no term as organic -- exactly yeah

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they didn't have to everything was
organic -- and also you had you didn't eat

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leftovers because they didn't have
refrigerators -- exactly so that's what you

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look at is your food wholesome in terms
of the source and the cleanliness

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-- so ayurveda doesn't -- and also how it's
prepared --- so ayurveda doesn't say

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that you throw away your leftovers -- no --
because I've heard that many times that

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you should never eat leftovers -- no that's again that's based on

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superstition and folklore and arbitrary
personal opinions -- okay -- so you think in terms

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of wholesome food in terms of did this
food actually follow the path of least

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harm for the environment getting to your
table and then the third parameter is

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what is the context in terms of what
time of the year are we talking about

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what time of the day are we talking
about what type of climate what type of

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weather you're gonna have different food
when you are on a high altitude versus

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sea level -- okay so you shouldn't be eating
raspberries every day for 365 days --

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unless you are in a magical place that
grows raspberries every day 365 days a

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year -- I would like to be in that magical place --

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yeah absolutely -- so if you look at ayurveda says you look at the person you

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look at the food and you look at where
you live -- yes the context -- okay -- in terms

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of time and space -- okay so now that
you've said all that mm-hmm

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what does that mean -- that means that
there is no one-size-fits-all the way I

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like to explain it the truth is personal
contemporary and relative in terms of

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nutrition in terms of what you as the
particular individual should eat you

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decide for yourself what every person
eats is not going to be the same or what

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every person should ideally eat
according to ayurveda is not going to be

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the same with another person you cannot
have two people there is no chance on

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earth you cannot have two people
that according to ayurveda should be

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following the same diet everyone is
unique that's the beauty of ayurveda

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then when we get into being a vegetarian
or vegan or a carnivore each person has

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to see how they feel under some of those
circumstances so some people would do

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great -- yes --
some people will do terrible --  exactly -- so

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saying that you have to be vegetarian
if you're an ayurvedic lifestyle would

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be actually hurting possibly a good
percentage of people out there and it

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would be helping a good percentage of
people out there because some people

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might be doing really good on that type
of diet -- exactly it's like the South

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Beach diet or the Atkins diet or
whatever -- Mediterranean -- Mediterranean diet

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-- which is completely different now -- yeah yeah
yeah that's another podcast -- that's a long podcast -- so yes some people

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are gonna do great and some people are
gonna suffer and that is so egotistical

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and that is so silly and that is that
shows so much ignorance to say that you

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have to follow this it's nowhere on the
texts the main Ayurvedic texts do not

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say anywhere to be a vegetarian or vegan
and we are going with that because

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that's what most people believe -- so the end
there is actually a book in the

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Ayurvedic Texts and it's called -- the
materia medica of ayurveda -- say that again

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slower -- the materia medica of ayurveda -- and
we'll put that in writing in the notes

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-- yes -- that actually talks
about what -- that that talks about what

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type of meat to eat based on the seasons
and the diseases or the health

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situations you are addressing and it
goes into extreme detail it talks about

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types of animals and birds and fish that
I haven't heard of -- and so we're not

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saying that you shouldn't be vegetarian -- no absolutely not -- but we're also not saying that you should

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not be or should be actually I should
say that better you can be if it's good

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for you -- yes -- but you don't want to be if
it's not good for you -- exactly exactly ayurveda

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says that Mother Nature gave us the
animal kingdom the plant kingdom and the

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mineral kingdom and and then it's us the
human Kingdom and eating food is all

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about energy exchange between the
kingdoms as long as that energy exchange

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takes place with respect and with
knowledge you're good -- and I like the

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term from Okinawa itadakimas -- yes --
and it basically gives thanks to

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everything that's on the plate
believing that plants also have energy

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just like animals have energy -- life yes
exactly yes yeah everything has life yes --

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so saying that you're eating salad and
you just cut it and put it on the plate

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is the same thing in this term as eating
some other type an animal  -- yes everything

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yeah -- everything has energy -- everything
has energy everything has everything is

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life whether we realize it or not so so
when we eat no

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matter what that comes from plant
kingdom animal kingdom mineral kingdom

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no matter what we are causing an energy
exchange you can call it harm breathing

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we are causing harm walking we are
causing harm as long as you take the

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path of least harm and you do it with
reverence -- okay I want to take a quick

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break and we'll be back in two seconds
stay tuned

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-- do you like what you hear the Spartan
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forget to leave a comment and any

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questions you may have Tim and Vie would
love to hear from you

00:12:53.830 --> 00:12:59.750
-- and we're back again
we're talking about does ayurveda say

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that you should be vegetarian or vegan
and you're saying no it's each person's

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own preference -- preference -- where do we
take this for thriving then does

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thriving make you -- depend on being a
vegetarian or vegan or is that what you're asking -- yes can you thrive

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with this or what does that mean -- okay
thriving means having the best human

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experience according to your own choices -- okay --
because thriving for me may be different

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well it is different than for somebody
else that's what ayurveda says in order

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to thrive you need to take in the energy
that is best for you it's part of the

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economy of action right you need to take
in the energy that is best for you for

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your own thriving goals that energy may
be coming only from the plant kingdom

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which is perfect -- so if you're going and
you're meditating and you --it depends it depends

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like we said it depends on the factors -- okay -- 
right it depends on your

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physical mental and emotional
disposition activity level then can you

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get wholesome food from the plant
kingdom -- and some people will say yes --and some

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people will say yes and some people will
say no it depends and then is that

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within the context is that energy
change going to be the best based on the

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economy of action for someone else that
may not be the case so that's all -- what

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about and this is going to annoy
probably a few people what about that

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person that says I am vegetarian and
I am or I'm vegan and I'm 24 mm-hm

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and I am a bodybuilder or I am this and
it's working perfect for me

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I don't need meat and you shouldn't have
meat because you should follow what I'm

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doing -- and that is perfectly fine so you
look at how old are you right now

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you are certainly not 24 -- I am 53 -- so how old are
you is what you're doing anywhere close

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to what that person is doing and also
where do they get their information from

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they say that it has worked for them
that person that food that context is

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there any time-tested evidence is there
any science like real science not fake

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science evidence where is that
information coming from -- and history -- and

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history
I like to say consider the source so

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who's telling you this because 24 is
pretty young when you're comparing 24 to

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53 I hate to break bring that to you but
  so consider the

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source and also study what they say
based on science and history like you

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said that is major we forget the aspect
of history when it comes to nutrition

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it's not just for Wars and all 
statues and all that nutrition has

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history and that's the time-tested
aspect -- and you want to look at the if

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you're wanting to thrive you want to
look at cultures that thrived -- exactly and

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and also look at cultures that have
thrived and look at the information is it

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true because unfortunately
a lot of the information we receive

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today is false data the fact that it has
been repeated from mouth to mouth from

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guru to student and guru to student and
so on doesn't make it true -- but if you

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say it enough times -- yeah exactly if you
if you say a lie enough times then

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unfortunately it may become truth
that's propaganda actually I call that propaganda -- it doesn't become truth

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it makes people believe it's true -- yes exactly in
people's minds

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yeah yep that's that's propaganda -- and
we're going to be because we're trying

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to keep these at twenty minutes or less
we're gonna be cutting this one now and

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I want to talk next week about the yogic
aspect of--  ahimsa -- yes -- also known as

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non-violence -- and I want to get into the
food aspect in that also because I've

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been told a lot of times that that vegan
vegetarian is ahimsa and I want to

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actually go into that information with
you also --

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yep and see what part is false data and
what is not -- exactly -- until next time much

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much love from both of us namaste kala
may we all be well -- if you found today's

00:18:50.970 --> 00:18:56.160
show helpful please give us a rating a
review or both and subscribe to the

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podcast and never miss an episode
as always namaste kala which in greek

00:19:02.490 --> 00:19:08.370
means may we all be well
this program copyright true fitness

00:19:08.370 --> 00:19:12.230
incorporated all rights reserved

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