Do Not Touch: Forbidden Foods

Taboos

The Chinese so famously eschew food taboos, it’s said they eat anything that flies but a kite, anything with four legs but a table. Yet everybody else has one thing or another they flatly refuse to eat. Islam says: "A man can not be truly pious until he has come to be pious in a way he approaches the dining room... .” The disparity in what to eat or not has made it difficult to understand why what’s sacred to one religion is vile to another. Determined to tackle the mystery, anthropologist Marvin Harris studied the varying taboos and detected a universal logic that seems to unite them. The ancients, it seems, were as environmentally and economically conscious as we are. Out of respect for the survival of the world and its humans, what they found neither efficient, effective nor sustainable, they codified as “thou shalt not eat.”

Sandra Garson is the author of Veggiyana, the Dharma of Cooking and How to Fix a Leek and Other Food From Your Farmers’ Market. As a longtime student of Tibetan Buddhism and well-known cook for Dharma centers from Maine to Mongolia, she became the first food historian to explore the Buddha’s influence on how the world now eats. This led to exploration of more religious beliefs about food.

Beef

In India, it’s a crime to injure or kill a cow, so Hindus don’t eat beef. “Why the cow was selected for apotheosis is obvious to me,” Mohandas Gandhi said 2,500 years after the Buddha made it sacred. “The cow was … the best companion. She was the giver of plenty.” The native bovine pulls a metal plow too heavy for humans, and gives dung to fertilize both fields and fuel cook stoves. It also magically transforms scrubby weed into milk used by vegetarians to make protein-rich yogurt and cheese, butter and ghee. And despite all this, the docile creature subsists, even half-starved, on shockingly small amounts of scrub and no attention. In 1947 when India became independent, the cow was still pulling plows through mud that mired costly tractors and providing fuel, so its Constitution specifically prohibits “the slaughter of all cows and calves and other milk and draft animals.”

Pork

Jews and Muslims prohibit pork. The Bible says of pigs: “of their flesh you shall not eat and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean… .” The Qur’an says: “These things only has He forbidden you: carrion, blood and the flesh of swine.” Since both religions permit other meats, one taboo theory is pork was “unwholesome” because it sickened people. Science later confirmed undercooked pork purveys trichinosis. Since this doesn’t excuse fully cooked pork, another rationale is pigs are filthy creatures that wallow in mud and eat excrement. But this is reactive behavior to adverse conditions humans force on them. Pigs have no sweat glands so naturally live in densely shaded forests. The theory also ignores that dogs, camels and chickens will resort to eating dung, yet their meat is okay to eat.

Logically, pigs are unsuited to the hot, treeless Middle East. They’re impossible to herd and compete with humans for the same foods, consuming more per pound than cows or sheep. Thus the discovery that keeping pigs was not economical, ecological or efficient became a ban on eating them.

Shellfish

Tibetan Buddhists will not eat shellfish because far too many creatures—shrimp, mussels, clams, scallops, crabs-- must die for one person’s meal, a “holocaust on every plate.”

Kosher Jews do not eat shellfish claiming these, like pigs, are scavengers and thus unclean. Islam forbids eating shellfish as “vile things” although a debate continues on whether shrimp, non-scavengers abundant in the southern waters of the Mediterranean and arguably more fish than shellfish, are halaal (permitted) or haraam (forbidden). It’s a sect-by-sect, person-by-person decision.

An unorthodox explanation for the Jewish and Islamic taboo is: at the time of its creation, shellfish were such inefficient calorie producers for the foraging work involved, they had to be disparaged.

Garlic

Buddhism forbids monks and nuns from eating garlic and sometimes other members of the Allium genus (onion, chives, shallot, and leek). Pungency seems to be the problem, for cut or pressed garlic releases smelly sulfur which is not digested in the stomach. It heads straight for the bloodstream and lungs, then exits the body through breath and perspiration. Thus the Chinese Brahma Net Sutra cautions: “The breath of the eater, if reading the sutras, will drive away the good spirits.”

Mohammed warned Muslims who ate garlic to stay away from the mosque. Ancient signs still visible at the entry to Zen Buddhist monasteries in Japan warn: “No fish or garlic is allowed within.” The Indian Mahaparinirvana Sutra says: “People who dislike the smell of garlic turn away from those who eat it. What need is there to mention the disadvantages of such food?”

Alcoholic Beverages

Buddhists and Muslims prohibit alcoholic beverages because they can cloud the clarity of the mind and lead to behavior that pollutes the purity of the soul. A Buddha is one who is awake and a drinker of alcohol gets dulled, so one of the five precepts taken at dawn everyday is to abstain from alcohol. The Qur’an says: “O you who believe! Do not go near prayer when you are Intoxicated until you know (well) what you say…” and “O you who believe! Intoxicants (all kinds of alcoholic drinks), gambling, al-ansāb , and al-azlām (arrows for seeking luck or decision) are an abomination of Shayṭān's (Satan's) handiwork. So avoid (strictly all) that (abomination) in order that you may be successful.”

Horsemeat

Horsemeat is forbidden by all religions for the reason the cow is sacred: it is worth more alive than as steak. It gave nomads mobility for herding, fighting, fleeing. It was the war weapon that pulled chariots and cannon, and made fast moving cavalry possible. The Book of Job praises God for creating horses: “Hast thou given the horse strength?...The glory of his nostrils is terrible. …He goeth on to meet the armed men. He mocketh at fear and is not affrighted….”

The Romans needed horses for their military triumphs, and in 752 AD when Christians were repelling the advance of Muslims beyond Spain, the Pope decreed a ban on eating them. Since the horse was the “most crucial instrument of production and most prized possession” of Genghis Khan’s legions who conquered Asia and half of Europe, the Mongols fed their horses before themselves, wrote them love songs, and never beat them. We also believe the horse to be too noble to eat, our word chivalry deriving from chevalier, man on horseback.