Jaggi Vasudev’s remarks on eggplant and mercury… Is it scientifically correct?
Some videos of Jaggi Vasudev, the founder of the Isha Foundation, are doing the rounds on social media. Among them, mainly the video where he talked about eggplant is viral. The question is whether everything Jaggi Vasudev speaks is scientific, as he recently spoke about the general public’s diet as bad. Come, let’s have a brief analysis as follows;
What Jaggi Vasudev said: “Eating eggplant daily affects the hypothalamus region of the brain with a molecule called `citatine’. If the hypothalamus is affected, our ‘decision-making’ will decrease. Eggplant should be banned in families with growing children”.
What is the truth?
We will always point out if the news circulating on social media is ‘non-scientific’. But, regrettably, there is no basic science in this video and Jaggi Vasudev has misrepresented even scientific facts.
First of all, the chemical ‘citatine’ (as pronounced by him) that Jakki Vasudev said was present in eggplant is not found in any vegetable including eggplant. Because the truth is that there is no such chemical.
Even id we consider the word ‘cytadine’ is misspelt, then it is syrup that has nothing to do with eggplant or other vegetables.
Next, he says that this citatine affects the hypothalamus part of the brain and makes our thinking a little dull. It is the prefrontal cortex part of the brain, not the hypothalamus, which has been a huge advantage for humans in thousands of years of evolution, to ensure our ability to think and reason. The hypothalamus’ function is to regulate appetite, body temperature, sexual attraction, and hormone secretion, not reasoning (1).
Jaggi Vasudev, who talks about eggplant as a vegetable poison and that it should never be given to children, in another video describes mercury, which is scientifically proven to be toxic, as the best medicine.
What Jaggi Vasudev said: “When mercury is ingested, it does not pass through the pipe (Jaggi Vasudev may have referred to the esophagus) and drips directly into the stomach due to its heavy weight. So it can kill you. But when mercury is given by siddhas it becomes medicine. Mercury is the reason I am alive”.
What is the truth?
Any food we eat reaches the stomach through the contraction and expansion of muscles known as peristaltic movement, but it is not a science that heavier foods fall directly into the stomach.
Also, mercury is a heavy metal. Even though it stands alone as elemental mercury; Amalgam emits mercury vapor even when silver is mixed with tin. Ingestion of mercury vapor and continuous exposure to mercury vapor can cause various health problems. Mercury in any form like mercuric oxide, elemental mercury, or amalgam is poisonous.
Most importantly, children and unborn babies are severely affected by mercury poisoning. Mercury is highly toxic, causing not only nervous system damage but also birth defects in the fetus (2).
Scientifically eggplant does not affect the nervous system whereas mercury, a toxic substance promoted by Jaggi Vasudev causes severe nervous system damage in both children and adults.
At this time, we should remember the disaster caused by mercury poisoning in the thermometer factory run by Hindustan Unilever in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu. Even though the factory was closed in 2001 with more than 600 people affected, the effects of mercury poisoning are still present in Kodaikanal areas. The struggle for justice for the victims continues (3).
In the video, Jaggi Vasudev says that mercury from factories is toxic because it is mercuric oxide, but mercury in its solidified form used by the Siddhas is medicinal.
Mercury is an essential element not only in Siddha medicine but also in most traditional medicine in the world. Due to this, it is very common for those who follow these medical methods to suffer from mercury poisoning. (4,5,6)
Mercury, which affects many organs including the nervous system and kidneys, should not be used in any field such as medicine, and the World Health Center and all countries are taking strict measures to reduce the amount of mercury in the environment.
Therefore, it is better for Jaggi Vasudev, who ignorantly speaks about the hazardous poison mercury as a life savior, to research and be careful while delivering public speeches in the future. And it is always better to stick with facts than stories.
At least for the interest of his followers, he should speak scientifically because he has a huge fan following, so it’s good to tell them the truth rather than his own beliefs.
– Dr. Devi (Genetics)
SOURCES WITH LINKS:
2 https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241500456
3 https://kodaimercury.org/poisoned-ground/
5 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.8b01754
