'Pure nonsense' - Doctor calls Virat Kohli out on reason to quit non-vegetarian food
Doctor going by the Twitter handle @TheLiverDoc deemed Virat Kohli's explanation and understanding of the neck injury that led him down the path of vegetarianism as "pure nonsense". This doctor denounced the word from acupuncturist that Kohli echoed in an old interview with Graham Bensinger to explain why he completely cut down meat from his diet midway through 2018 and has followed the routine ever since.
Indian fans would remember it's the same neck injury that forced Kohli out of his maiden County Championship stint with Sussex, which was expected to aid his preparations for the following tour of England. The neck injury, Kohli said according to the acupuncturist, was a result of his stomach becoming extra acidic and requiring to pull of calcium from his neck bone to become alkaline and function properly.
This function inside him led to the development of "couple of bulges" in Kohli's cervical spine, which didn't let him sleep properly all night and could've ultimately affected his game. So the advice from the acupuncturist was to cut down the meat and make his stomach more alkaline with vegetable intake.
But the doctor @TheLiverDoc said this advice from the acupuncturist was not based on any scientific evidence, calling the whole acupuncture exercise "a pseudoscience" that has "no meaningful principles or reasonable action."
Doctor refutes Virat Kohli's explanation to turn vegetarian
The doctor then focused on Kohli's explanation for going completely vegetarian in his diet and refuted it entirely by stating the stomach would always be acidic, which is integral to the digestion process, and that turning vegetarian is not guaranteed to fill the stomach with more calcium and therefore make it alkaline.
"The stomach is acidic and will remain so whether you want it or not," the doctor tweeted with a pertaining study link attached. "Acid production is the unique and central component of the stomach's contribution to the digestive process and also plays a role in protecting the body against pathogens ingested with food or water."
"You cannot make the stomach alkaline, unless you ingest enough alkali - which will of course kill you. Calcium does not leech away because the stomach is acidic. Eating meat does not cause calcium loss. In fact, increasing the protein intake from 1 g/kg body weight to 2 g/kg, given as meat, did not have an adverse effect on calcium metabolism."
The presenter asks Virat Kohli, the star Indian cricketer - "Why did you become a vegetarian?"
— TheLiverDoc (@theliverdr) August 22, 2023
His answer is mind-boggling.
He starts with his source of advice - an Accupuncturist.
Accupuncture is a pseudoscience. It has no meaningful principles or reasonable action. It is not… pic.twitter.com/vQ5lSECIDD
"Going vegetarian does not mean one becomes guaranteed calcium sufficient. Vegetarianism is a culturo-religious factor and not a norm. People choose it because of various personal reasons and it is not one based on strong evidence from medical science."
"It is not superior to other diets, except of course, is better than veganism, which is the most inferior form of diet from scientific standpoint," he added.