It is a great honour and privilege to contribute a foreword to this excellent monography on "The Role of Vegetarian Diet in Health and disease", a publication of the Bombay Hospital Institute of Medical Sciences. It is one of the first such books written by Medical Professionals of great repute. The book is remarkably complete as it deals with the role of a vegetarian Diet in Health as well as in a very large number of disease conditions, with each chapter contributed by the medical experts in their fields. Further it is heartening to learn that the vegetarian diet by itself can be balanced and complete if scientifically observed. This fact has a great bearing in our country where the poor masses cannot afford expensive non-vegetarian food.

The preface should be read with care as it emphasises the evolution of the vegetarian diet in our hospitals. It further stresses the fact that vegetarianism is gaining great popularity in the western countries where such trends are adopted after prolonged observation supported by extensive research.

It is also gratifying to note that contributions are made by the members of the medical faculty of the Bombay Hospital and Medical Research Centre as well as outstanding scholars from other hospitals and abroad. I have no doubt that this volume will not only be beneficial to the public but would also be appreciated by the members of the medical profession. Since primarily the book is published for the general public, the simple language in which most of the chapters are written makes the contents easily assimilable and the book easy to read

To my knowledge, this book is the first of its kind to be compiled by medical experts and I have no doubt that it will serve to promote the cause of vegetarianism in our country and abroad.