Food is irresistible. Be it an Indian, Italian, African or Arab, everyone wants to delve into the delicious dishes. But you cannot generalise the food habits. Every nation, every caste, every community or every individual will have distinct food habits.
For example, many say that Indian cuisine is largely of vegetarian and the use of various spices and herbs make it different from that of other countries. But a recent survey on the food habits of Indians has revealed that the image of India as a vegetarian country has been changing fast. Most of the respondents to the survey were non-vegetarians irrespective of their gender, caste and region. Though the survey found that 55 percent of Brahmins are still vegetarian, there are indications that there will be a considerable decrease in this number in the near future.
Observers say that there is also a growing trend towards non-vegetarianism even among the members of South Indian Brahmin community, who were once strictly vegetarians, `Though I was a strict vegetarian during my childhood, now my food habits have changed and I love to eat fried fish daily,’’ says Harikrishnan, who is a software engineer in Kochi. He belongs to the Namboothiri community of Kerala, ``I leave my favourite non-vegetarian dishes only once in a year when I go for therapeutic massage in the month of Karkataka in an ayurvedic resort’’ he adds with a smile. All these facts show that the image of India as a predominantly vegetarian country is no longer true.
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