"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."
― Hippocrates
The word vegetarian has been in existence since 1842 when the British Vegetarian Society was established. This word comes from the Latin word "vegetus", which means "unharmed, healthy, clean, strong". The Latin "homo vegetus" can be interpreted as a person in wonderful physical and mental health. The original meaning of the word implies correct philosophical and moral views of life, which is far more than a vegetable-fruit diet.
Vegetarianism is a diet that excludes all kinds of meat. This is not just a diet or lifestyle, but also a way of thinking, living. Vegetarianism can be:
- Lacto-vegetarianism (egg-based vegetarianism) - Foods of vegetal origin are mainly taken and meat is not eaten, but milk, dairy products and eggs are consumed.
- Lacto-vegetarianism (dairy vegetarianism) - meat and eggs are not eaten, but dairy products such as sour or fresh milk and cheese are allowed
- Vegans - strict vegetarianism, where the meat, eggs, milk and dairy products are excluded from the diet.
- Raw foodism - followers of this diet consume raw plant foods that are not heat-treated. Allow food to be pasted, pureed or dried.
World famous vegetarians are: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Pythagoras, Plato, Socrates, Seneca, Leonardo da Vinci, Leo Tolstoy, George Bernard Shaw, Charles Darwin, Lao Tzu, Mahatma Gandhi, Dalai Lama
World-famous Bulgarian vegetarians are: Vladimir Dimitrov - The Master, Assen Zlatarov, Peter Deunov(Beinsa Douno)
Most vegetarians are people who have achieved their self-awareness and whether the reason to become such kind of people is moral, religious, ethnic, economic or even environmental, contribute to building a more peaceful society. It is considered that ethical considerations are the most important to become a vegetarian. In ethical vegetarianism, the underlying assumption is that other living beings have feelings, and that their feelings are similar to ours. This prompts people to realize things more clearly and to understand that when we lose respect for animal life, we lose respect for human life.
