Why Are Vegetarians More Popular in The U.S.?

When I first came here, I misunderstood the meaning of vegetarians. I thought vegetarians mean people who like vegetables. Most Japanese people have the same idea as me. However, it was not true. Vegetarians don't eat meat! I'm also surprised that there are many vegetarians in the U.S.. On the other hand, my image of America was eating beef, pork and turkey! Why are vegetarians more popular in the U.S.?

First, vegetarianism has a longer history than we imagined. In 1847, the first vegetarian community was established in Britain. At that time, that community made the word "vegetarian" from "Vegetus", which means lively in Latin, and vegetable. However, there were already vegetarians from Ancient Greek because of one of religious reason which stated, "Humans and animals must be equal." That's why vegetarians has about 2000 years of history that is as old as Chinese history.

There are 2 big reasons of vegetarianism. One is a religious reason. In India, about 30% of the population are vegetarians because India is the origin of Hinduism. In this religion, people should not eat meat because they are taught, "Don't kill living things.", so eating meat means invoices killing animals. In the U.S., there are lots of ethnicity, so these religious people bring the idea of vegetarianism. The second reason is health. As you know, the original meaning of vegetarianism is lively. In the U.S., the obesity is the big social problem now. People who don't often exercise and eat greasy or salty food get this disease easily, so becoming a vegetarian is one of the ways to avoid the risk. According to a study, 20 years long vegetarians have 3.8 years longer average life expectancy than non-vegetarians.

The image of vegetarians in Japan may cause a big trouble. In Japan, priests in temples eat vegetarian meals to devote themselves to their God. However, we also think it is a kind of unbalanced diet. Moreover, we don't have much knowledge of religion, so we are not clear about food taboo. For instance, several years ago, one Japanese recommended the noodles including beef for a strict Indian vegetarian man. After eating, the vegetarian noticed that, and he threw up noodles and got mad. We should have the correct image of vegetarians

In conclusion, American vegetarianism has the religious and health background, but Japanese people mostly have no religion, and Japanese people have eaten healthy food for a long time, so we have misunderstood the idea of vegetarianism. Japan must understand what is the global standard even if Japan has never had that idea.