The Chicken and Egg Question. Could They Be Vegetarian?

Sanjay Raut asked: If we feed chickens Ayurveda-approved diet, could they be re classified as vegetarian?

Can chicken and egg be classified as ‘vegetarian?’

(Photo: FIT)

What came first? Chicken or egg? While the world is still trying to answer that question, we have another one that has left both Ayurveda experts, doctors and scientists baffled.

Can chicken and egg be classified as ‘vegetarian?’

Shiv Sena’s Lok Sabha MP Sanjay Raut threw a googly at the Ayush Ministry in the parliament - If we feed chickens organically grown Ayurveda-approved diet, could they be re classified as vegetarian?

He said that while visiting a tribal village in Maharashtra, he was offered a chicken dish. Upon refusing to eat, he was informed that it was an ‘Ayurvedic chicken.’ He was also told that the diet that the chicken was fed made all the difference.

He also informed the house that a team of researchers at Chaudhary Charan Singh University were looking to make an ‘Ayurvedic egg.’

The chicken will be fed a pure herbal diet and the egg that will come out will be ‘vegetarian.’ It will help fill the protein requirement for those who eat a purely vegetarian diet.

FIT spoke with Ayurveda practitioner Dr Arun Kumar.

“Egg grows inside the ovaries of a chicken. Whether it grows into a chicken or consumed as an egg, it remains non vegetarian. Feeding it a herbal diet will only improve its nutritional value and quality. Food that grows in the ground can only be considered vegetarian.” 

Gauhar Raza, a scientist, calls the logic completely non scientific.

“How you fertilize the egg may have changed, but it certainly doesn’t make it vegetarian.”

Research scientist with Safdarjung Hospital’s National Institute of Pathology, Farah Naaz has this to say:

“An egg is made by a male and female cell coming together. Just like the uterus protects the featus inside the womb of a woman, the egg shell protects the life formed. The only difference is that the egg survives in an outside environment. The very fact that it has potential to bring life makes it non vegetarian.”

So both Ayurveda experts and scientists can’t wrap their heads around this proposal by Sanjay Raut. Over to the Ayush Ministry now.