Nikolay Nikolaevich Drozdov — Member of the Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Advisor to the UN Secretary General on Ecology, Academician of the Russian Academy of Television, laureate of many international and domestic awards. “I became a vegetarian in 1970 while working with Alexander Sguridi in India. I read books about the teachings of yogis, and realized that there is no need to eat meat for three reasons, because: it is poorly digested; moral (animals should not be offended); spiritual, it turns out, a plant-based diet makes a person more calm, friendly, peaceful.” Naturally, a great animal lover even before this trip thought about a moratorium on meat, but after he got acquainted with the culture of this country, he became a staunch vegetarian and took up yoga. In addition to meat, Drozdov tries not to eat eggs, but sometimes he allows himself kefir, yogurt and cottage cheese. True, the TV presenter pampers himself with these products only on holidays. Drozdov prefers oatmeal for breakfast, because he considers it very useful, and he always eats pureed pumpkin. And during the day he eats vegetable salads, Jerusalem artichoke, cucumbers, cereals and zucchini. As Drozdov’s wife Tatyana Petrovna says: “Nikolai Nikolaevich simply loves zucchini and eats them in any form.” from the interview “Benefits and harms of meat diets” – With age, meat must be abandoned – this is the secret of centenarians. And so says Nikolai Drozdov. Nikolai Nikolayevich, your opinion is so authoritative, so I ask you to take what you are going to tell us with all responsibility. I know that all your life you have been a person who loves to live, eat delicious food, try everything. But you gave up meat. How did it happen? – Yes! Well, that was a long time ago! A long time ago! In 1970. — Nikolai Nikolaevich, what was the reason for such a refusal? “I felt like I was overloading myself. Eat something and it takes so much energy to digest. It’s a pity to waste time. And here we came with Alexander Mikhailovich Sguridi, the founder of our program “In the World of Animals”, he invited me as a scientific consultant to shoot his film “Riki Tiki Tavi”, a story by Kipling. To India. In India, we travel, we shoot. They traveled everywhere in more than two months. And everywhere I looked at the literature of yogis, which we then had in the corral. And now I see that I myself could have guessed that a person is not adapted by nature to a meat diet. Here, let’s see. Mammals are divided by the dental system. At first, small predatory shrews appeared, with predatory sharp teeth. And now they’re running in the undergrowth. They catch insects, gnaw them with these teeth. This is the first stage. After them came the primates. First, such primitive ones, similar to shrews, then half-monkeys appeared, then monkeys. Half-monkeys still eat everything, and their teeth are sharp. By the way, the larger the monkeys, the more they switched to a plant-based diet. And already the gorilla, orangutan and large gelada baboons that walk the mountains of Ethiopia just eat grass. There is not even tree food there, so they just graze in such herds. — Nikolai Nikolaevich, what product has replaced meat protein for you? How do you think? – There is so much protein in plants, vegetable. Especially in peas, various legumes, in spinach, in beans. This vegetable protein may well be for the construction of our body. There is an old-vegetarian diet, when without dairy products and eggs. So-called pure vegetarianism – Yes. But already young vegetarianism allows dairy products and eggs. And it is better to consume sour-milk products, this is understandable. Therefore, without meat, you can live perfectly. From the interview “In old age, life is fun, interesting and instructive, you learn more and more new things, you read more. Over the years, homo sapiens, that is, a reasonable person, feel more and more spiritual components in life, and physical needs, on the contrary, decrease. Although some people do the opposite. But this does not lead to anything good. Here a man of age does not take care of himself, drinks, overeats, goes to nightclubs – and then is surprised that his health and appearance have deteriorated, he has grown fat, shortness of breath has appeared, everything hurts. Whom to blame but yourself? If in youth excesses can somehow be compensated, then in old age – no longer. Such old age is God forbid, and the person punished himself. I can’t even call him homo sapiens. How do I stay fit and positive? I won’t open anything new. Life is motion. But the twentieth century has given us such civilizational conveniences, from which deadly hypodynamia develops. Therefore, I would advise you to forget about the sofa, soft armchairs, pillows and warm blankets, and get up early in the morning and simply go for a run. For example, I am fond of ice swimming, skiing and horseback riding. And for five years now I have not watched TV, although I myself work on television. All news comes from people. Eat less meat (and I don’t eat it at all). And the good mood is not going anywhere. And speaking from a spiritual, moral point of view, I think my cousin great-great-grandfather, Metropolitan of Moscow Filaret (Drozdov), prayerfully supports me. Of course, my parents gave a lot, they were believers. Not only love for nature, but, more importantly, faith in God, hope and love – these eternal values have become my credo, my philosophy of life.”
2022-11-11