Being a vegetarian or a vegan in India

Whether you are a vegetarian or a vegan and you are planning on travelling to India, let me tell you that you will have absolutely no problem at all. 

As vegetarians/vegans, one of the things that we worry about before visiting a foreign country is its cuisine and whether there will be many options for us or not. Sadly, in many European countries, their main dishes all have either fish or meat (or both) and we cannot eat many things in regular restaurants without reducing our diet to a basic salad made with lettuce and tomato - sometimes without even a single drop of oil. I have personally faced this problem many times in Spain... going to a mainstream restaurant and finding out that you either eat some undressed lettuce or you go back home with your stomach empty. 

Luckily for us, vegetarian and vegan people have increased in number and we now have more options everywhere in the world - vegan restaurants, vegetarian restaurants with vegan options, regular restaurants which are vegetarian-friendly, etc. It was about time!

When I first came to India, I was so enthusiastic about the idea of being a volunteer for one year that I didn't even wonder what I would eat. I didn't check whether the Indian cuisine had a lot of vegetarian/vegan dishes or not, but I simply came here expecting that it would. In this case, I must say that, as a lover of Indian food that I am, I had already explored many options before even setting foot in India and I had had the chance of checking how veg-friendly they are. 

What I found when I came here, though, surprised me - not because of how little vegetarianism is spread throughout this country but just the opposite: because of the huge amount of people who are, indeed, vegetarians or vegans (the latter referred to as 'pure vegetarians' in India). Vegetarian people in India are mostly so because of religious reasons - having the younger generations inherited the custom from their parents. 

For that reason, whenever you travel around India, you are very likely to get vegetarian dishes at non-vegetarian people's homes as well as a wide range of vegetarian dishes in every single restaurant you visit. There are so many vegetarian people here that even multinational chains known for their hamburgers, such as McDonald's, serve vegan burgers in their franchises. 

The good news is that vegetarianism and veganism do not get restricted to food, but they also extend to any other product that you buy in supermarkets or elsewhere: cosmetics of all sorts, beverages, packaged food and eatables, etc. That means that if you are a vegetarian/vegan and you are currently travelling around/living in India, you simply have to look for the green symbol (see below). 

The normal way to interpret this symbol is that the products including it are vegetarian. However, are they vegan? The answer, from my own experience, is that it depends on the brand. Nonetheless, I will dare make the following general statement: in India, products that contain milk are considered to be vegetarian and they hence include the green spot. On the other hand, those containing egg are considered non-vegetarian and they include the same symbol but red (the red symbol is used for non-vegetarian food). Vegans must therefore be careful, as even though a product has the green symbol, it might include milk or milk derivatives - the only way to know that is by reading the list of ingredients. In other cases, products might make our lives easier by including the green symbol and mentioning "100% vegetarian" next to it (which means they are vegan) or having a red symbol and mentioning "contains egg", which makes us know that it would be suitable for vegetarians but not for vegans.

Now I come to the question I always ask myself: "Is it healthy to be a vegan in India?". In my everyday life, I would say "of course it is, why wouldn't it be?". However, that might change in India. In Spain, I complete my vegan diet with lots of legumes and vegetables which are high in protein, but here some of these vegetables are scarce (especially in poorer, more rural areas) and legumes (unless cooked at home) are always cooked in very spicy sauces that don't allow you to eat the right amount so as to consider them 'nutritional enough'. In order to increase the low amount of protein shown in the results of my first blood analysis in India, I decided to start eating paneer (Indian cheese), which has not got many calories and yet is high in protein. Now that I live in a bigger city, I can buy tofu and I no longer have that problem. So, basically, it all depends on the areas you visit and on how long you stay there - if you're a passer-by, you will not have any problems, but if you come to stay for a long time, you will have to decide what is best for you. To eat or not to eat paneer and/or eggs? That is the question - and the answer is absolutely up to you after seeing the conditions in which you have to live. I have even seen vegetarians eating chicken due to the same reasons why I started eating paneer... it's just a matter of your own principles. 

I believe this is all the advice I can give on being a vegetarian/vegan in India. I hope this is useful to all those people who follow those diets but still want to visit India. As usual, if you have any doubts/comments, leave them down below and I will do my best to provide you with an answer.

All the best and... have a good day!