Asia’s vegetarian culture fuelled a global trend. But is going meatless good for your health?
- Saving the world, and its animals – there’s a lot to be said for going vegetarian.
- But sceptics, Chinese medicine practitioners among them, say without a balance, your body may pay the price
Anil Battinapati, 35, has been Hindu vegetarian for 32 years. The Hyderabad, India, resident might eat dosas with palli chutney for breakfast and rice with vegetable curry for lunch, and does so both because of his religion and because it is healthy. Since Battinapati does not eat meat, the R&D engineer said he ate dishes with many alternative sources of protein such as beans, nuts and eggs to ensure he had the right mix of nutrients.
In Malaysia, Eileen Lew is Buddhist and has tried to avoid eating meat since she was seven years old. She followed in the footsteps of her parents and became vegetarian not just for religious but also ethical and environmental reasons.
“I had been sent to a school which only provided vegetarian meals, so this is where I formed the habit. Our teacher educated us on the ways vegetarianism can help save the earth and also taught us the heart of compassion,” she said.
Lew, 20, who studies mass communication at UCSI University in Kuala Lumpur, occasionally eats meat when she dines out with friends because not all restaurants in Malaysia have vegetarian options.
“If I have a choice, I will eat vegetarian,” she said.
Hinduism and Buddhism have influenced vegetarianism in Asia for many years, and that influence has spread – there are now 1.1 billion Hindus and nearly 500 million Buddhists globally. More than 90 per cent of Hindus live in India, and half of the world’s Buddhist population lives in China, according to the Pew Research Centre.