There are more people has started to consume vegetarian diets and interesting to know more about vegetarian diet around the world, according to Google Trend. However, it is not a popular trend in Malaysia.
A poll is conducted to understand the public’s attitude towards a vegetarian diet in Malaysia but not limited for only Malaysian, this poll is opened for the people who are living in Malaysia.
Interestingly, there are not many participants illustrated they are vegetarian; however, 76.1% of participants are positive about vegetarianism. Nonetheless, some participants feel annoying if their vegetarian’s friends force them to take such diets.
The major reasons for becoming a vegetarian are religion, animal ethics, and preference for vegetables over meat. Only a few reveals that they want to get better health or nutrition and they were affected by their family or friends. However, a poll conducted by the Vegetarian Resource Group discovered that people consume plant-based diets for health, which is inconsistent with this result. This is because the previous poll was directed only at Americans, and this poll was directed only at people who live in Malaysia. This shows different cultures in different countries.
Most of the participants disclosed that they are Lacto-ovo, which means that they will consume dairy products including milk products and eggs. 22.2% indicated that they are vegan, who only consume vegetable and no products of the animal organ. People who choose to become Lacto-ovo are to maintain the protein for everyday needs. However, this does not mean that vegan cannot receive protein from vegetables. Jolene, a writer who discovered that vegans could obtain the protein from a variety of other sources. “One prime example of a protein-packed veggie would be broccoli”. She mentioned that when people consume 100 calories of broccoli, they can receive 11.1 grams of protein, while beef only received 6.4 grams of protein.
The current result shows that Malaysians are not sufficiently knowledgeable in this field, as more than half of the participants believe that only consume plant-based diets is not enough, whether vegetarian or non-vegetarian. Thus, some vegetarians choose to take vitamin or mineral supplement for health. Research conducted by Gan, Boo, Seik, and Khoo found that “the lack of some nutrients seems to be more of a concern in vegetarian diets and these nutrients include protein, n-3 fatty acids, calcium, iron, zinc, vitamin D and vitamin B.”
Public opinion on plant-based diets
Almost 100% of the participants are not vegetarians, but they believe that plant-based diets are healthy. They found that vegetables are always healthier than meat. Moreover, plant-based diets contain fewer calories which will lose weight. In addition, a participant pointed out that “What the health” documentary had changed her perspective towards vegetarian diets with shocking facts. The documentary discovered the reality that society always trying to manipulate. She found that human could obtain enough protein from the plant. Instead, meats would cause various disease. Therefore, she started to become a vegetarian when she was 19 years old.
However, there is only 7.1% of participants think that plant-based diets are unhealthy because it is lack of nutrition that human needs. A participant believes that eating meat is the nature of human beings, “if people know that eating vegetables is healthier, why do people will have the desire to eat meat?”
There are various opinions on this topic. A zoologist, Matan Shelomi, shared his point of view, “the best evidence is our teeth, we have biting, tearing, ripping incisors, and canines (like carnivores), and chewing molars (like herbivores).” While People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) used a quick-test to expressed their opinion, which was “When you see dead animals on the side of the road, are you tempted to stop and snack on them?” If your answer is no, then you are totally herbivore. They took stomach acidity as an example, the acids in human stomach are weaker compared to carnivorous animals.
People who consider plant-based diets might be healthy accounted for 40.7% of the total participants. They believe that vegetables do not provide sufficient nutrition for humans, but they are healthy; therefore, they cannot make the decision which side to stand on. Other think that plant-based diets can be healthy or unhealthy, depending on how the plants grow. Researchers Springmann, Godfray, Rayner, and Scarborough pointed out that the foods people consume would definitely affect their personal health.
Public opinion on animal-based diets
Most of the participants think animal-based diets might be healthy, with only 29.2% of them think these diets are healthy. People who think these diets are healthy is because meats are high in protein. To contrast, people who think the diets are not healthy at all is because it has zilpaterol, which can increase the size of livestock. Moreover, few of them realize that people no need to consume too much nutrition from meat, they can obtain enough nutrition from plant-based diets.
On the other hand, the animal-based diets might be healthy because people who only consume meats or vegetables are unhealthy, it is necessary to consume both to maintain a balanced nutrition. However, previous researchers had done the research to compare the nutritional status of vegetarians and non-vegetarians in Kuala Lumpur, and the result indicated that non-vegetarians had unhealthy body compared to vegetarians. “Vegetarians had significantly higher intakes of vitamins C, D and E, calcium, potassium and folate,” they said.
In fact, Springmann and other researchers showed that people could not live without meat, they only “diets low in fruits and vegetables, and high in red and processed meat, are responsible for the greatest health burden globally and in most regions.” This research is in line with the current result, most non-vegetarians choose to eat meat because they preferred meat over vegetables, and one expressed that “I am not a rabbit”. Therefore, they choose to eat meat.
Is Malaysia a vegetarian-friendly country?
As a result, a fair balance has been struck between Malaysia is or not a vegetarian-friendly country. There are different reasons to explain the participants’ thoughts. Some illustrated that there are limited vegetarian restaurants for vegetarians to choose. Interestingly, participants who are vegetarian find it easy to search for vegetarian restaurants in the rural area. Moreover, some participants revealed that although it is not as many as normal restaurants, some normal restaurants can provide vegetarian foods, which satisfied both parties. Nonetheless, one participant who is non-vegetarian expresses that it still needs improvement compared to other vegetarian-friendly countries. From this result, we can see that people who live in Malaysia care for each other, no matter they are vegetarian or non-vegetarian.
Nevertheless, some vegetarians illustrated that it is not easy to find vegetarian restaurants outside; therefore, they need to cook by themselves. Similarly, several participants noticed that Malaysians are not aware or cannot accept vegetarianism, and Malaysians like to eat meats. One participant expressed that “most of the people in Malaysia eat nasi lemak need ‘ayam’ to make it more delicious.”
But a result in 2017 showed that Malaysia was the 3rd most vegetarian-friendly country in the whole world. A writer, Vythilingam found that there were about two million vegetarians in Malaysia which were only less than 5% of the overall population. He believed that this country had the potential to become a “vegetarian hub”. According to his article, Malaysian Vegetarian Society (MVS) asked the government for supporting the organization “to promote the vegetarian diets and lifestyle to the public and schools.” This intended effect is to increase the awareness of vegetarian diets; however, the organization seems to need to put more effort on it.
Would you try to become a vegetarian for one week?
More than half of the participants are willing to accept this challenge, with only 31% of them are not interesting to participate in this challenge. Because 31% of them revealed that they can’t imagine if they cannot eat meat for one week. Furthermore, there are few participants shared that they had tried this before, but it is really difficult. And one participant shares that only consumed vegetables are too boring. Some of them preferred to have the freedom to eat whatever they want; therefore, they choose not to become a vegetarian for one week.
To compare, people who want to try this challenge because they want to know that becoming a vegetarian will become healthier or less healthy, and some of them said that they actually preferred to eat vegetables than meat; therefore, it is not a problem for them. The past studies illustrated that if people change their diets will benefit society and also the individual. They found that the advantage of becoming a vegetarian could prevent “5.1 million deaths per year by 2050”.
Is that good if everyone becomes vegetarians?
Nearly half of the participants disagree with this view, while 37.2% think it might be a good thing, only a few people revealed that they agree with this opinion. Dissidents believe that this will damage the ecosystem. A participant gives an example, if everyone becomes vegetarians, it will cause various dangers, he explained, “this will disrupt the ecosystem, potential negative health effect, inequality among organism, implied animal more than plant, discriminate against plants that can’t react rapidly to danger (human/animal consumption), domesticated animals that lose their values (due to no market demand, little people will spend money on animal and get nothing physical return).”
In addition, some participants think it is unnecessary and useless for everyone to become vegetarians. For instance, animals will still be slaughtered for their hide, fats, and hair to produce our household items; thus, the remaining meat and innards will be wasted.
However, there are still some people think this opinion is good for animals because the number of livestock will be decreased. People do not need to slaughtered animals for their own desire. On the other hand, the livestock sector is the main reason to increase “greenhouse gas emissions, which in turn contributes to climate change,” said Yusup, a writer from New Straits Time. Other than that, the resources (land and water) that required to feed livestock are much more than agriculture planting.
To conclude, Malaysian’s first impression of vegetarianism is that it cannot receive enough nutrition; therefore, they can’t imagine if they live without meats. Moreover, most female believe that eating vegetables can keep fit and consume meats will make them become fatter. From the overall point of view of male, they think that meat can provide protein to their muscle; therefore animal-based diets are necessary. All of these stereotypes are the result of lack of information and the news framework on this topic. Therefore, people can gain knowledge on various platforms thereby avoiding prejudice.
Everyone has a personal preference for eating meat or vegetables, no need to judge others if they are not having the same diets as you. Respect each other and the world will become better.
References
Gan, W. Y., Boo, S., Seik, M. Y., & Khoo, H. E. (2018). Comparing the nutritional status of vegetarians and non-vegetarians from a Buddhist organization in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Malays J Nutr, 24, 89-101
Jolene (2017). Malaysia ranked 3rd most vegetarian-friendly country in the world. Retrieved 3rd December, 2019, from https://www.worldofbuzz.com/malaysia-ranked-3rd-vegetarian-friendly-country-world/
Springmann, M., Godfray, H. C. J., Rayner, M., & Scarborough, P. (2016). Analysis and valuation of the health and climate change cobenefits of dietary change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(15), 4146-4151.
Vythilingam, P. (2016). Benefits of being vegetarian. Retrieved 3rd December, 2019, from
Yusup, A. R. M. (2018). Veganism and the traditional Malaysian diet. Retrieved 3rd December, 2019, from https://www.nst.com.my/lifestyle/heal/2018/11/434969/veganism-and-traditional-malaysian-diet
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