I saw HH on CNN. My interpretation of his description of his jaundice was that he was becoming more like "butter" and was making a pun because with his accent Buddha and butter sound alike.
He most certainly was not making a racist joke.

There are plenty of protein alternatives to meat. You can get enough protein in a veggie burger/dog or two as you can in regular burger. On the BBQ, they are just as satisfying as the real thing, only better because they're easier for your system to process than fatty flesh full of nitrates.
If he really was only consuming a diet of milk and nuts, then that's just absurd. Humans are the only creatures to consume milk past babyhood. We just don't need it. A wholesome diet of veggies, fruit, whole grains and legumes is a certain path to a long life and inner peace.

If one cannot maintain health without murdering, the perhaps one should not maintain health.

HH Dalai Lama has not stepped in Tibet since 1959 - he lives in exile in North India. Millions of Indian people live long healthy life - being vegetarians through out their life. Even if a Doctor were to advise a 75 year old vegetarian Jain lady in India to eat meat, she would rather die than eat meat. With no disrespect to HH, It seems quite obvious HH could not control his desire to eat meat and had a Doctor prescribe meat as "medicine" - as suitable excuse.

Whether you eat animal or plant, is the same. Both are living, both have a consciousness, feelings, nervous system and so feel pain. The only diff. is that plants live in a different time frame, so we do not notice them move, or hear them.
Please watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFByy8QVwrM
Is another I would like to show but have not found it yet.
It would seem that whilst we live on this planet, in this dimension, we have to kill to survive. I suppose the kindest is to eat fruit and nuts and maybe leaves without killing the plant, but this does not give our bodies all the nutrients it needs. The best we can do is what many native Indians do, before you pick, gather, kill (eat the flesh incl. plant flesh) - thank the plant, tree, animal for giving it's life in order sustain yours.

Re: Ruth
"Whether you eat animal or plant, is the same. Both are living, both have a consciousness, feelings, nervous system and so feel pain. The only diff. is that plants live in a different time frame, so we do not notice them move, or hear them."
Plants are not sentient. They lack both a brain and central nervous system. Animals do experience the world through consciousness which is why it is wrong to harm and exploit them.

i go with-better to be kind while consuming 10/20 % meat than be vegetarian n 100% cruel.....but why eat a gentle herbivore?....monarchy?

The doctors who advised him to eat meat are ignorants, we can live a completely healthy life as vegans, now days we don't need at all mean to survive with some supplements a vegan protein is more than enough. Doctors now days only know what they were told most of them have no idea of how the body world in terms of nutrition

He ain't heavy...he's my Buddah !!
Raymondo

Traditionally Tibetans don't eat a lot of veggies. Grains, dairy and meat account for most of their caloric intake. Tibet is not the best environment for growing vegetable. There is no prohibition against eating meat in Tibetan and many other forms of Buddhism. It's primarily the Mahayana form of Buddhism that prohibits meat, and then only for priests, monks and nuns.

Ahimsa .... one can define Ahimsa anyway one want, but an enlightened person would and should know what it stands for.
If you cannot cut out meat, you'll find all sort of reason for it and perhaps even define ahimsa the way you like to suit your need.
There are buddhist who believe in ahimsa but due to karma are not able to cut out meat from their diet despite of their will and effort. However if they make excuses to support their leaning towards eating meat, this will further charge karma to take them into a lower life form after death. For those who do not make excuse and know very well that is against ahimsa they would still have to suffer the consequence but the suffering in the next life will not be as severe. It is not to say that a buddhist cannot decide to eat meat for whatever reason, but just understand that there are karmic debt to be paid and the more excuses one made the greater the debt will be.
As a buddhist (that is if you were a buddhist) one would and should understand that health and death is not dictated by one effort, it is due to karma.
This is not to say that one should not make an effort to maintain good health and just wait for karma to take care of things. The middle path meant make an effort for your good health at the same time do as much as you can to sustain ahimsa. One ultimately have to decide for oneself which is more important but hope one will stop making excuses for going against ahimsa.
Perhaps in the older days in India the doctor do not know enough about nutrition as we do now. We now know through development of science that it is possible to eat a well balanced vegetarian meal. If HH still insist he is following doctors order then only HH knows what is really going on.
Namaste

No one seems to mention the devastating effect of animal production on our enviornment. The sad thing is the Dalai has the opportunity to lead on this issue, but he leads with his belly instead of his heart. Besides, the worst thing you can do is burden your liver with urich acid when you get jaundice. He got bad advice and he leads by bad example.

From the age of 26 to 59 I was an ovo-lacto vegetarian. Much of the time I was vegan and did not use leather goods or eat honey. My belief in avoiding killing anything was the central organizing principal of my existence.
I realized that humans are anatomically designed to eat most anything not poisonous and can be healthy on an omnivorous diet, native Americans being one example.
I began eating meat again in 2010 for reasons that seem petty to me now. One was that my life changed.I went from living around people who were of vegetarians to those who ate meat everyday. It was much easier to eat omnivorously and it actually tasted good. Some aspects of my health may have improved, but in general, I can say that my health is not as good as it used to be. I am older and my life in general is not as active as before, so there are other reasons that my general health may not be as good as before.
I decided that while it seemed immoral to eat animals and use their skins, etc, the Indians were not vegetarians and the Dali Lama is not a vegetarian so it must be okay for me to eat meat.
I do not really believe that. If I killed my own food in the wild,
it would be better, but I still question it. If I cannot kill something, skin it,
gut it, and cook it, I should not eat it.
I am considering going back to a non meat diet, but with the realization that I cannot escape killing. Driving a car kills insects.
All of us have to make these decisions for ourselves.

The problem is nowadays that our meat is tainted, unhealthy and no longer an option for those that knows how they are prepared to die. Filled with every kind of poison to plump them up so they can no longer even stand on FOUR feet and besides that, then "cleansed" with ammonia...no thank you!

I have to agree to this. If you are an environmentalist, the first thing you know is you can no longer eat meat and contribute to the devastation!