Meat requires digestive fluids that has high hydrochloric acid content to be digested properly. Our anatomical structure of body is different from the carnivores. Our stomach produces twenty times less hydrochloric acid that the meat eating animals. You can well imagine yourself how difficult it would be for the meat to be completely digested in our stomach.
The intestinal tract of human beings is twelve times the body length. It means that food is digested a many times while passing through our intestines. Meat rapidly decays inside the body hence it needs to be passed away quickly from the body. Thus, the intestinal tract of carnivorous is only three times their body length. Imagine the harm caused by toxins in the decayed meat to our body.
Animal flesh is made up of the most complex type of protein that exists and requires quite an amount of uric acid to break it. Uric acid is released by the body in amounts necessary to break proteins down into amino acids. Uric acid is a toxic substance responsible for the ageing process and must be flushed out quickly. That is one of the works of the liver. In relative terms, a carnivore's liver is a tool designed with the capacity to eliminate ten times as much uric acid as the liver of man or other plant eater.
You can yourself conclude that our body is not made to eat meat.
Now the question might be that plants are also living beings, so, is killing them for consumption also a sin?
Yes, indeed. Plants also have a soul. So should we stop eating them? Is it? Then what shall we eat? As we are eating sin. Isn’t it?
Hence, we offer our food to Krishna (God) before eating. When we offer our food to Krishna with love, He accepts it and takes over the reaction and sin of killing the plants, and this offered food to Krishna becomes prasad. This prasad becomes incredibly potent for spiritual advancement.
Also, the consciousness level in plants is not very much. When you pluck it’s leaves, it doesn’t feel pain. But for animals, they experience huge suffering when subjected to killing.
yat karosi yad asnasi yaj juhosi dadasi
yat yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat kurusva mad-arpanam
Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 9, Text 27, “All that is eaten by you, and all the work you are doing, simply offer it to Me”
Hence when we offer our food to Krishna, He takes the reactions of killing the vegetables and fruits.
Now somebody may ask, “Why not kill the animals and also offer it to Krishna?” Isn’t it? Very true. What do you think about this? Krishna will take the sin of killing the animals too? Let us study about this.
Krishna gives us a solution to this. He tells in Chapter 9, Text 26 of Bhagavad Gita.
patram puspam phalam toyam, yo me bhaktya prayacchati
tad aham bhakty-upahrtam, asnami prayatatmanah
Krishna says, “Simply offer me a leaf, flower, fruit or water with mere love and warmth. I will accept it happily.”
A leaf, a flower, a fruit and water. Krishna only talks about a leaf, vegetable, water and fruits. Thats it. These stuffs are meant to be eaten. Only a person can tell you what he likes or not. Krishna here is referring to just leaf, flower, fruits and water. Does meat come in that? No! So, He doesn’t accepts meat.
There are three kinds of food. They are in mode of goodness, mode of passion and mode of ignorance. Krishna tells that offer Him only the food in mode of goodness. He doesn’t like food in mode of passion and ignorance. Take for example, onion and garlic. Food in mode of passion and ignorance stimulate your brain with negative thoughts. It will consistently bombard you with negative emotions and disturb your spiritual life. Krishna doesn’t accepts that. He wants just a leaf, flower, fruit and water with pure love. As simple as that. Isn’t it?
The food prepared by your mother tastes the best to you in this world. Isn’t it? You know why?
Consciousness! It is due to consciousness. But what is consciousness? We have literally been hearing about this term since ages. But what exactly is it?
What differentiates we humans from the animals? You can pinpoint many differences. True. Agreed. Now let us focus on the similarities. I will put all possible similarities in four words. Eating, Sleeping, Defending and Mating. Animals eat, so do we. Animals sleep, so do we. Animals defend, so do we. Animals mate and so do we. It’s just that they are doing all these activities in a slightly different way than other. Then what is the difference between them and us? How are we different from animals? There is something which differentiates us from them. And what is that?
Consciousness! The ability to judge, the ability to decide between right and wrong and take to spiritual path. That is consciousness.
You mother makes food for you. It tastes heaven. It’s because she is making it with that consciousness. Your mother cooks the food to please you, to make you happy. She thinks, “My son is going to have food. He must relish the preparation.” The food is an object of love. It is nothing but the consciousness of mother. You are eating the loving consciousness of your mother. It will nourish you. Do kindly check this article on how food is programmed by the consciousness of person who prepares it (explained scientifically)!!
Now imagine eating meat. The animal gets killed by the butcher ruthlessly. It is crying for life. Just imagine the consciousness you are eating while having meat or flesh. You are eating the aggressive and brutal consciousness. How it will affect you subconsciously? Hence, it should be absolutely be avoided at all costs!
When you are making food for Krishna, you are making it out of loving devotion for Him. You want to please Krishna with the food. Your loving consciousness gets transferred to the food. Hence food offered to Krishna becomes prasad and is a treat to the tongue and helps in spiritual advancement!