Sunday, February 1, 2015

The Malaysian anxiety on Vegetarian food...

I take vegetarian food during weekends and sometimes at night. Yes, I know what comes into every Malaysian thoughts. 

"Eat vegetarian food, no energy lar".
"Vegetarian food, bad lar, too much gluten".
"Too oily lar".
"Vegetarian food, huh, why lar?".

These are the five primary concerns when I tell people I am having vegetarian food for the night. Sometimes, I find it freakish that Malaysian are apprehensive against vegetarian food. I started vegetarian about a year ago during my time looking for a good source of protein and trying to get as lean as possible. So I found out vegetarian and organic source. For a start, those 5 primary scary concern is not true at all.

"Eat vegetarian food, no energy lar"
It is all in our mind and how we were all brain-wash by our parents and school that food must consist of fish, chicken, vegetables, rice and fruit. That is what we had during our growing up years. Our family had fed us these throughout our growing years and we have grown used to it. "Ah boy, eat your rice otherwise you won't grow", ever remember how your parents tells you this? Yes, we all do. These are all your mindset which have been auto feed into us by our parents when we were growing up. Then comes the commercialized food on the other hand, commercialized food like KFC, McDonald's, Nasi Kandar and others has more exposure to us than a vegetarian meal menu. It's true. Do you ever see a vegetarian advertisement on the television programs. No and none will ever go there. That's why, people who started to eat vegetarian food will suddenly find themselves not being able to adapt and digest food that is non-meat based and hence, they feel weak. However, it's all how we were brought out. You need fish, chicken, beef and other meat based product. 

"Vegetarian food too much gluten"
Almost everything we eat from a piece of white bread to that ever glorious perfectly deep fried golden brown chicken thigh has gluten. Yes, I am telling the truth. If you are chewing a cracker or enjoying a nachos, you are swallowing a bit of gluten into your body. In theory, we all have been eating or digesting gluten for a very long time. So, does that make any difference if we suddenly change our meat based diet to a vegetarian diet? No, it does not make any difference. In a vegetarian based diet, we can always opt to have organics that is gluten-free. How's about that? Good right? This one thing I am always amaze why Malaysian harps on gluten when throughout their life they are already eating gluten. 

"Vegetarian food too oily"
Isn't the oil used to deep fried your bacon, fried chicken or beef from the Steak House, KFC, McDonald's, Pizza Hut or even your usual Chinese hawker stall oily? How bad is vegetarian using vegetarian oil like canola oil? I bet you won't know that vegetarian or organics shop uses canola oil and olive oil to cook your vegetarian meals right? Okay, olive oil will be expensive but canola oil? Canola oil or sunflower oil are mainly used in cooking vegetarian meals. So, I am wondering how oily can it be comparing to a chap fan stall cooking all those dishes for a hundred mouths on a day? I bet they don't even change those oils in the wok. Moreover, you have been eat those non-vegetarian oils for a lifetime... especially your favorite dish of char-koay-teow. 

"Vegetarian food, but why?"
My introduction to vegetarian was a number of reason. One, my girlfriend challenged me into a month's of vegetarian food. Two, i saw some benefit in it when I was doing my weight training, swim training and cycling training. As a matter of fact, there are whole lot of reasons for one to avoid vegetarian but so few are encouraged to start being a vegetarian. It is all a matter of choices due to personal beliefs, personal preferences, medical conditions or even religion. So before you go asking why someone is having vegetarian meal, the same you should ask yourself, "Meat, why?". 

williamwilstroth... vegetarian diet...

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