Are a Majority of Indians Veg or Non-Veg?

cheer · Oct 23, 2006

Hi Ladies,

I read this article in "times of india". So just wondering how many ladies in Induslady are veg/non-veg? Let me know ur opinion abt this poll.

India is a land of vegetarians, right? Wrong, says a recent study by the National Institute of Nutrition. A majority 64% of Indian households are meat-eaters. The South, at 92.2%, more than the North, at 40.4%, another surprise.

The study on "Knowledge, attitude, beliefs, practices study on food and drug safety in India", covered over 20,000 households in 82 districts in 28 states.

Do you think the NIN got it right? Or is it too small a sample to be an accurate representation of over a billion people. Is India largely vegetarian or non-vegetarian?

Kamla · Oct 24, 2006

It doesn't surprise me.

Dear Cheer,

I did not vote as I don't see how it matters how many of us IL'ites are veg and non-veg.
But you have brought up an interesting topic to our notice. Thanks
I have often thought about this. Being abroad and being amongst foreigners, it has been an issue for me personally because I am a veggie and was surrounded by meat eaters. There has been frustrating times for me because I would attend a full blown party and return home still hungry because there was really nothing much for me to eat. Also, it was tough to find veggie food when travelling. Things have changed in recent years because vegetaraianism has caught up with the west. But it was not like this all the time.
It was at such difficult times that I pondered over our eating habits in India and realised that we Indians as such are not a vegetarian country. There might be a huge number of vegetarian people amongst us and maybe even the highest as compared to other nations. But in ratio to our non-vegetarian fellow Indians, the number of vegetarians is small. I used to even talk about this in my Indian cooking classes that I conducted in Germany. All the same, I did not realise that South India had an higher percentage! It might be because area wise, S India forms a smaller part, as compared to the rest of India.

L, Kamla

Eljaype · Oct 24, 2006

Veg or Non-veg

Dear Kamala,

That is because most of us are fish eaters and not actually meat eaters. That puts most of the keralites in the non-veg section.
Latha

cheer · Oct 24, 2006

Ladies please participate in the poll

cheer · Oct 25, 2006

ladies here are some views i collected frm TOI-

The result is clearly wrong. In many households men eat meat whereas women are vegetarian. By calling such households non-veg, the results shows a wrong picture. If instead of households, the data were collected on individuals, one would find that majority of Indians are vegetarians

I very much feel that our country is going through a transitional phase. While the west prefers going back to veg for better health, our country is turning to non-vegetarianism.

I believe that a majority of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:country-region><st1lace>India</st1lace></st1:country-region> is vegetarian. Recently, by that I mean in the last 20 years, the impact of globalisation has changed even our nutrition habits. We have gotten more carnivorous. Also, due to globalisation, <st1:country-region><st1lace>India</st1lace></st1:country-region> is slowly turning more capitalist than democratic (note that I consider a democratic society different than a capitalist society, where money is really the power). This change in turning capitalist has been too soon making it greedier. These impacts are really changing our cultural values and in turn changing our nutritional values too. Even a lot of Jains have started eating non-vegetarian food so that they would blend in and be trendy.

More than the quantity of sample, the location of sample is important. Like if the sample is from metros, we have a lot of cosmopolitan population. A mix of all....plus every city has areas of certain community of people. For E.g. Ghatkopar suburb of Mumbai is predominantly Jain/Gujratis/Marwaris/Kutchies who don't eat meat, whereas Kurla is predominantly Islamic population who eat meat. But here in US, most of the Indians I see eat meat. Their households in <st1:country-region><st1lace>India</st1lace></st1:country-region> probably don't eat meat but they do. So this can also be the case i.e. people eat meat out of their homes but don't cook meat at homes. I & my family are complete veggies.

I think majority of Indians are vegetarian. This is reflected by the fact that pork, steak, and chicken are not being readily available in restaurants and other food places.

It really depends on a lot of factors. If upper middle class to rich houses were surveyed then the figures could be accurate. The lower middle class and the poor are usually always vegetarians, guaranteed. Another factor could be the higher number of Christians and Muslims surveyed as compared to the Hindus. And last but not the least, please count out Kerala. In Kerala they eat anything that moves. And the percentage of Christian population from Kerala who eat meat is very high. Christian and Muslim populations are on the rise in <st1:country-region><st1lace>India</st1lace></st1:country-region> which contributes to meat eating. And also the introduction of KFC, McDonald's. And also the number of IT people who go abroad and have to survive on meat, come back to <st1:country-region><st1lace>India</st1lace></st1:country-region> and follow the same diet in <st1:country-region><st1lace>India</st1lace></st1:country-region> too. So the NIN should ensure that they mix different communities during a survey. Thanks.

Do U agree or not???

Eljaype · Oct 26, 2006

Meat eating in Kerala

Hi,

I do not agree. you can't count out Kerala just like that.
Who told you that all in kerala eat anything which moves ?
I don't agree with that. May be some people do but you cannot term everybody like that. We are basically fish eaters, that much I can tell you.
One thing I have to agree with you is that Christian s in Kerala eat meat regularly and that too as you said all kinds. But not all.
I am also from Kerala ie a Kollam and Palghat combination. My husband is from Palghat.
Regards
Latha

cheer · Oct 26, 2006

Dear Latha,

I was just posted some people views frm "Times of India", those are not my view. But do u think eating fish is coming under veggie????

Eljaype · Oct 26, 2006

fish -a veggie???

Hi,

No. surely fish is not a veggie. I just wanted to tell you that it is not right to say that'all keralites eat anything which moves'.
You cannot generalise like that and I don't mind saying that I am a non-veggie either.
Latha :wave

cheer · Oct 26, 2006

Latha as i told U this is not my views. U can't blame me. Here is the link, whatever is ur concern, write there.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2207526,curpg-4.cms

safa · Oct 26, 2006

It is a single view

Oh, God! Keralites eat everything that moves! Is Kerala a part of China? Have heard Chinese eat like that..

I am a Keralite and so sad to hear that.Here most of the people I know eat fish. I can say, all the neighbouring houses of mine everyday cook vegetable. we have no Christian neighbours so don't know about them.