Imagine having a plate full of your scrumptious meal without your daily bowl of curd or buttermilk. Would you be up to avoid dairy products from your diet especially if you could get the right amount of proteins without them? Though the concept of avoiding any kind of animal products was officially established more than 70 years ago in the West, it took some time to become a trend in India. And in Chennai, particularly, veganism has been gaining popularity in the last couple of years.
The city even witnessed a completely eco-friendly vegan wedding recently! “I attended the wedding a few days back. And they served the yummiest butterscotch ice cream. It was made out of cotton seed milk,” recalls Anu Vidya M, who runs the Instagram account @Chennai_vegan_ foodguide.
Vegetarian vs Vegan Although many people tend to confuse vegan and vegetarian, veganism is basically an extension of vegetarianism, wherein the diet includes no food or products from animals. People tend to eat more of beans, lentils, tofu, etc, “Basically no meat or poultry. It is just like how vegetarians do, but also we say no to dairy/ honey/ eggs,” point out Roshni Sanghvi, body transformation specialist. Minal Agrawal who administers the Facebook page Veganennai, says that veganism is popular only in the metros and that too because of social media. “Veganism is yet to reach smaller cities and town.
Whether you’re non-vegetarian and vegetarian, you’re being cruel to animals. Veganism is against all the cruelty towards animals,” she highlights. Indianised cuisine “Food, in general, can be made vegan. It can have anything except for any product derived from an animal. So dairy products, eggs and meat is a complete no-no,” says Sarmishta Baliga, head pastry chef, Ashvita Bistro. The taste and flavours still remain the same as any other cuisine.
Is there a specialised Indian menu in terms of vegan food? “Traditionally, most Indian cooking, especially south Indian vegetarian cooking, is vegan. Barring the popular curd rice and use of a little ghee while tempering for most dishes and desserts, most south Indian food is vegan in itself,” explains Sruthi Harihara Subramanian, owner, Ashvita. Benefits Vegan food has several health benefits, including no risk of heart problems and cholesterol.
Roshni points out that unlike meat and egg, which leads to higher levels of cholesterol and heart diseases, a plant-based whole-food vegan diet has almost no cholesterol. “Dairy has been linked to indigestion, acne, headaches, diabetes, cancer, and a whole range of lifestyle diseases and disorders.
A plant-based diet is also lower in calories and much more nutritious,” she adds. Vegan food also promotes a healthy environment. “You are reducing your carbon footprint, hence reducing damage to the environment,” says Anu.
Feasibility Minal, who became a vegan in 2011, says that cutting costs is easier if you’re a vegan. “People think it is not feasible; in fact, it is the opposite. It’s easy and affordable to make dairy and meat alternatives at home.” Roshni concurs and adds that most food we eat is accidentally vegan and almost everything can easily be customised. “For instance, vegetarian Asian food is almost 100% vegan since they use tofu instead of paneer and no other dairy products. Abroad, the options are much more compared to India, but the Indian market is changing,” she adds. Though awareness and acceptability is growing, it’s slow, claims A Mohamed Zakaria of Veganer restaurant, who had to shut down a couple of places, due to the same reason. “We had formally opened the restaurant in September 2014.
Since the awareness of vegan food is less in Chennai when compared to other cities, we couldn’t get much response as we had expected. Hence, we decided to close the outlets in Anna Nagar, Ascendas Food