Being Vegetarian

8 years ago, I started off my vegetarian journey. I was non-vegetarian before and gave up completely on eating chicken, fish or any other non-veg items. Giving up on your favorite non-veg dishes was tougher than you ever imagine. It takes stronger will to continue the journey without being influenced by others. Throughout the journey, I met different kind of people who have different thoughts about vegetarian. Stereotype about vegetarian exists even within my own society or community.

“ It's cool to be different and just be who you are and shock people in a good way.”-Brendon Urie

The most common stereotypes about vegetarians or vegan.

1. What you usually eat? Just dhal and rice?

Often there is misconception that being vegan is boring and have plenty of choices to eat. Vegetarian foods are not all about plain and green food, it's a way more colourful than you thought. Besides mock meat, there are lots of tasty and real vegetarian food to explore and eat.

2. Eating vegetarian food won't get enough vitamin.

Vegetarians can obtain vitamins from variety of foods including fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy products, soy products, nuts, seeds and this foods are falls under category of vegetarian items. Nowadays, vegan supplements are available in the market. Basically, it doesn't matter either you are vegetarian or non-vegetarian, one need to make sure to have healthy food habit to get adequate nutrients or vitamins.

3. Where do you get your protein from?

We tend to forget that we are living in planet where there is nothing almost real. Most of the foods including fish, chicken, vegetables or even fruits are being produced in non-ecofriendly environment. The lesser known fact is the fish available easily at market might have been treated with antibiotics. Almost all the chicken being injected with hormones just to increase their bulk in short span of time. Not forgetting the vegetables and fruits being sold at market are pesticide laced. There is no guarantee that we are consuming the fresh and healthy food to get adequate protein unless we grow the plants and feed the chicken by ourselves in our own farm or shopping organically produced food. Coming back to the question, most of plant-based protein are rich in protein comparing to animal protein. One doesn't have to eat meat in order to get protein. Vegetarians can get their protein from chickpeas,lentils,beans,tofu,soyamilk,quinnoa,nuts(peanuts,walnuts,hazelnuts),seeds(sunflower, pumpkin),cereal or grain (bread/rice/oats) and dairy products like cheese/milk as well. This food has proven to bring benefit for our health. As simple as that.

4. Are you vegan or Vegetarian?

The frequently being asked questions by those non-vegetarians when comes about veg and vegan. A small fraction of difference departs one from each other. Well, coming to the point. What is vegan? How does it differ from vegetarian? Vegan avoid all animal products while vegetarians do not eat animal but tend to consume dairy products like butter and milk. Some vegetarians do consume eggs.