Madeeha Syed

Navigate vegetarian dining in Pakistan with Meri Sehat. Discover tips, restaurant recommendations, and cultural insights for a satisfying meat-free culinary experience

Eating Out As A Vegetarian In Pakistan

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Non-Meat Alternatives For Vegetarians

Overview

Vegetarians are people who abstain from consuming meat and meat-related products. There are all kinds of motivations behind this choice ranging from religious and political to environmental and ethical considerations. It also impacts the individual&rsquo;s health and many vegetarians, if not careful, might be running deficient in essential nutrients. Ensuring that you get your fill of all these nutrients might seem like a massive undertaking but it&rsquo;s not the toughest thing you&rsquo;ll ever do.&nbsp; 
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Benefits

Going vegetarian comes with all kinds of benefits. Such as:&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>Reduced <a href="https://merisehat.pk/disease/hypertension-57">risk of hypertension</a> and<a href="https://merisehat.pk/disease/congenital-heart-diseases"> coronary heart disease</a></li>
	<li>Prevents type-two diabetes</li>
	<li>Great for weight loss (and keeping it off!)</li>
	<li>Reduced saturated fats and cholesterol intake</li>
	<li>Reduced risk of osteoporosis</li>
	<li>Reduced risk of colorectal, prostrate, pancreatic and stomach cancer</li>
	<li>No exposure to harmful hormones and bacteria</li>
	<li>Reduced risk of dementia and Alzheimer&rsquo;s</li>
	<li>Good for the environment</li>
</ul>

These are just some of the ways a vegetarian diet can overhaul your system to perform better. How can you go ahead and reap these benefits? What do you eat? How do you make sure you are still strong, happy, healthy and most importantly balanced in your approach?&nbsp; 
Let&rsquo;s look into this:&nbsp;

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<ul>
	<li>Proteins And Amino Acids: Proteins are the building blocks of our bodies and amino acids construct these proteins. There are nine essential amino acids and our bodies can&rsquo;t manufacture them all on their own.&nbsp;On a vegetarian diet, you can obtain your protein from foods such as tofu, soy beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, cereal grains, whole grain bread, soy milk, quinoa, peanut butter, nutritional yeast, broccoli, lentils and veggie burgers made from stuff like soybeans, tofu, nuts, grains, seeds or fungi such as mushrooms or mycoprotein.&nbsp; 
	&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Vitamin B12: Vitamin B12 is important for your red blood cells to be healthy and perfect. It also plays a role in your nervous system functioning optimally. Vegetarians tend to fall behind when it comes to consuming sufficient quantities of this. However, it has been established that even the B12 that we get from eating meat comes bound to protein; hence, it&rsquo;s hard for our bodies to process it. Therefore, vitamin B12 supplementation is necessary. A weekly supplement of at least 2,000 micrograms or a daily supplement of at least 10 micrograms is the recommended dosage.&nbsp;It can be obtained from having dairy products; milk, cheese, eggs. Foods that have been fortified with B12 are also helpful in this regard. These are vegetable stocks, veggie burgers, soy milk, vegetable and sunflower margarine, soy beans, barley seeds and breakfast cereals. There is even a patent method for growing plants in a solution containing Vitamin B12.&nbsp; 
	&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Omega-3 Fatty Acids: These play major structural and functional roles in the body and also help the immune system. It&rsquo;s worrisome; therefore, that this is another major component that a vegetarian diet runs low on.&nbsp;In order to ensure adequate amounts of omega-3 fatty acids in your diet, add hempseeds, flaxseeds, chia seeds, walnuts, hempseed oil, flaxseed oil, olive oil, canola oil, and avocados. A daily dose of 250-500 milligram of this supplement is recommended. This can also be taken in the form of pills.&nbsp; 
	&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Other Nutrients: Some other important considerations here are your iron, zinc, and iodine. Iron deficiency anemia is a common issue that has been observed in some vegetarians. Similarly, zinc is an enzyme activator and needs to be available in adequate amounts for most functions to proceed normally. And last but not the least, Iodine is required for your thyroid to function normally. A dysfunctional thyroid can wreak havoc on everything from your metabolism to your menstrual cycle and even your mood.&nbsp;In order to ensure things do not go awry, we need to assimilate foods that contain these nutrients into our diet. These could be breakfast cereals, chickpeas, beans, tofu, chia seeds, hemp seeds, cashews, kale, apricots, eggs, figs, and legumes, soy foods, peas, lentils, whole meal bread, green beans, courgettes,&nbsp;and quinoa. You can also take supplements for these nutrients. For iron, daily requirement is 8.7 milligram (14.8 milligram for women aged 19-50), for zinc you need at least 15 milligram per day and for iodine, 140 micrograms per day is recommended. 
	&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

Bottom line

A vegetarian diet doesn&rsquo;t necessarily need to leave your body undernourished. We have much more data and resources now than we did 10 years ago. Hence, it&rsquo;s possible to practice compassionate and healthy food practices and still ensure that your health doesn&rsquo;t suffer as a result of this. The first step on this journey is to educate yourself on what nutrients your body needs and how you can obtain these.

Dr. Safia Mehmood

Disclaimer: Vegetarianism here is defined as only avoiding meat. I still eat eggs, dairy and honey because come on, it takes a lot of money and effort to be vegan in Pakistan.

When I went vegetarian in March 2018, the first comment I would get is &ldquo;It must be so hard to be a vegetarian in Pakistan.&rdquo; Then I would launch into a well-rehearsed answer illuminating the subcontinent&rsquo;s long history of vegetarianism and how much of our culture is plant-based with many foods being completely vegetarian, even vegan. I have seen many expressions change over time because it is a slow realisation that it is actually pretty easy to be a vegetarian in Pakistan.

For the last few years I have seen many small businesses&rsquo; and restaurants include vegetarian food on their menus. From Neapolitan wood fired pizzas to good old street food of paani poori, samosas and channa chaat, there is no end to the variety of vegetarian foods to make this lifestyle choice work for you. 
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top tips for vegetarian

Below are my top tips for eating out when you are a vegetarian:

<ul>
	<li>Read The Menu Ahead Of Time: It may seem like nagging but planning ahead is the best way to make sure that you will have a good time if you and your friends are eating out. Spontaneity is only fun if you are prepared and reading menus of the cafes and restaurants your friends want to check out is a way to stay ahead and ensure that you will not be nibbling on bread while everyone is digging into their entrees. Reading the menu ahead of time also lets you bring attention to the fact that a menu isn&rsquo;t vegetarian friendly and course-correct way ahead of time. 
	&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Ask The Restaurant To Adapt An Item For You: One time I was at a work dinner at a steak house and I used the above tip. I read the menu and saw that they had a mac-and-cheese topped with brisket beef. I was glad it was just topped with the beef as opposed to being mixed into the mac-and-cheese. At the restaurant I asked them to just get me the mac-and-cheese, no brisket with their parmesan wedges. They complied and it was a very filling meal. Places like POMO, Test Kitchen and Cote Rotie (the writer is based out of Karachi) have plenty of vegetarian options on their menu and their waiters and chefs are more than happy to adapt items for you. I also ask if Asian sauces have oyster and Worcestershire sauces and then look for options which don&rsquo;t. This may feel fussy but being firm and polite about your choices goes a long way. 
	&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Be Adventurous: Home-based food businesses on Instagram are much likely to adapt to your <a href="https://merisehat.pk/article/non-meat-alternatives-for-vegetarians">vegetarian</a> needs than a restaurant. I once asked a bespoke Asian food chef to make vegetarian dumplings and she went all out and made them vegan! They were so delicious that everyone ate them. Small home-based food businesses also directly supply to local restaurants and you now have a way to buy directly from them. Bread, cheeses, condiments and desserts are all fun to try from small businesses and while it may seem like a vegetarian lifestyle is restrictive it makes you a more adventurous eater. 
	&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

Conclusion

So, these are my tips for eating out when being a vegetarian in Pakistan. It has opened up a world of culinary delights for me and there is always something new and exciting to discover. More people in the restaurant business are open to the idea of vegetarianism as a sustainable model in light of the recession, climate change and the pandemic. 
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