I am a Uni student, now in my last semester. That sure is exciting. The last week, I was helping out the new students who have just come in, giving out directions, answering questions etc. During down-time, all of us senior students were chatting when the topic of food came up. Now, now, food is my passion for sure.
While chatting about it, the focus turned to the different types of food and cuisines. A girl practically screamed when I informed her that I am a vegetarian. "What!!! I can't believe it! How can you stay without meat?" and then the exclamation was even louder when I told her that I had never ever tasted meat of any sort in my life.
It is quite understandable. I was born into a family that has been vegetarian for ages. And then , quite surprisingly, there is a state in India which is completely vegetarian. How does that sound?? Despite being vegetarian, I still enjoy a variety of food and the diversity of vegetarian foods that India offers is anyway quite amazing. If you have ever been to India, you would know that a large population of the country is vegetarian and there are restaurants which cater exclusively to that.
As for me, although I now live in Melbourne, yet I have never been tempted to try meat. I have still stuck to my vegetarian diet. And coming to a different country has been absolutely great for me since I now cook my own food and can be as experimental as I like. My mother, although quite a good cook herself could not be labelled 'extremely experimental' although I do remember recipes that she had invented. So now my repertoire of vegetarian recipes is not only limited to Indian cuisine but I make food from all over the world, experimenting, adding and deleting things and giving it my own unique touch.
Reflecting back on my colleague's comments, it's easy to see why she was shocked. The Western diet has predominantly consisted of meat, in some form or the other. However, it has been proven that a non-vegetarian diet is not great because:-
a) Raising animals for meat puts immense stress on the environment and is contributing to global warming.
b) Some meats are quite rich in fats and can lead to obesity and other health-related problems.
c) Meats are expensive than veggies, lentils etc and imagine how much you would save if you stopped eating meat.
d) Most importantly, eating a non-vegetarian diet is cruel to animals.
So because of all the above reasons, I thought of the idea to host a 30-day experiment for all of you. I am going to post everything I eat during the day for the next 30 days, starting today 11th of March and ending on the 10th of April. You would see that even though I am a vegetarian, there is a huge variety in my diet. There is not a chance that I would get bored. I do eat out moderately but mostly cook at home with ingredients that are easily found in the local supermarket and things that are in season. My aim is to show how easy it is to be a vegetarian. Now I might/might not post recipes for each of my meals but if there is any specific recipe you want, simply ask me for it. I am more than happy to post it.
Beginning today, I have already started clicking photographs of what I ate. As I said, it will now continue till the 10 th of April. You can join me in this and post your ideas, comments and encouraging words. I look forward to reading and responding to them.
So here's a toast to the modern vegetarian diet, which is colourful, diverse, easy to adopt and cruelty-free.
Love
S
p.s. I will now report tomorrow with what I had today.
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