Not surprised. Vegetarianism has been the default in India for ages.
They’ve greatly explored the spice palette and can make pretty much anything taste amazing.
EDIT: some clarification. I did not mean to imply that majority of Indians are vegetarian. No. Majority do eat meat.
But in most parts of India they do not eat meat on a daily basis. It’s typically a once a week kind of thing. And yes, I’ve observed this among friends and colleagues from practically all parts of India. Even the most fierce non-veg fiends will typically do a weekend bash, but eat regular roti sabzi, dal chawal rest of the week.
But they also have one of (probably the) highest levels of food insecurity, for kids and adults.
Most can’t even afford beans, very few could afford meat if they even wanted to.
they also have world’s biggest food security program. nutrition is improving and they also lifted huge percentage of their population from below poverty.
Yeah, no. 70% of Indians are non-vegetarian. Rice &/ rotis are the important part of the meal and stuff like dal & vegetable are standard being both cheaper & easier to cook. Meat, fish, eggs, etc. being more expensive are curried or fried as side-dishes to make a little go a long way.
A dish like pot roast or meat loaf would just be too expensive as main course for most. And we do love to get creative with our spices.I merely said that vegetarianism was the default. I’m not saying that majority are vegetarians.
What i meant was that most families do not eat meat on a daily basis. And not because they can’t afford it. Most average families eat chicken once a week, while the rest of the week is all vegetarian food.
All what i said still stands. Even though 70% of people do eat meat, they don’t do so on a daily basis.
Source: am Indian, with dozens of friends and colleagues who do eat meat. They do not eat meat daily.
Makes absolute sense after you’ve tried paneer.
I am a meat eater extraordinaire.
But Paneer is love. Will absolutely demolish it.
Man I had Indian food for the first time a few months ago. Had some cauliflower that tasted like chicken. Changed my life.
I wonder what percentage is a choice or social pressure or affordability
Probably not that high. From experience, it’s just that you’ve been eating vegetarian food all your life, it’s really weird to eat non vegetarian. In fact, there are many of my friends who’ve turned non vegetarian due to peer pressure from their friends.
4 out if 5 people in India are also protein-deficient. Meat and diary consumption will only increase in India going against global trends.
When I was a vegetarian, Indian food was my go to. Guaranteed to be vegetarian and tasty. It would even be mostly vegan but they use ghee in almost everything, so it’s a big no-no for vegans unfortunately
I’ve been told that Sri Lanka is a popular travel destination for vegans because the food is like Indian food minus the ghee.
Nice tip! Thanks
Vegetarianism is not enough. Cows are murdered at a few hours old if they have the misfortune of being male, or unwanted “stock” if they’re female. Male chicks are killed at a few hours old because they’ll never produce eggs. Vegetarians preach love for animals, but they’re hypocrites. dairy and eggs are so cruel.
I agree. I was vegetarian for 3-4 years and realized that if I was doing it for the animals, I couldn’t keep consuming eggs and dairy, or any other animal product for that matter. Been a vegan for more than 10 years now
got a few years on me, but I’m vegan too. Probably for about 4-5 years
Ye man I could infer that from your earlier comment :D
Just a tip: I agree with everything you say, but if our goal is to change peoples’ behavior, it is detrimental to call the hypocrites (and similar adjectives). That creates cognitive dissonance, and people usually double-down on their old behavior when faced with cognitive dissonance instead of changing their behavior. What I’ve found works best to make people go vegan is instead of calling them out on their behavior, show them positive examples of veganism, and let them do the math.This is true. I was probably a bit rash calling them hypocrites. it just makes me so angry.
Almost a half of world’s population lives in India. Most of everyone will end up there.
For comparison, India has ~18% of the world population.
Half? It’s around 18% of the world’s population.
