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Vegetarianism: Impact of Asian Religions
Appears in
Published 2004
From the late 1960s to the present, the influence of Asian religions has played a key role in orienting many Americans toward a vegetarian lifestyle. One of the earliest manifestations of this trend was macrobiotics, a quasi-religious food-reform movement with dietary principles based on a yin-yang dichotomy derived from Taoism.
Indian religions, with their time-honored taboos against harming animals, have been especially active in persuading Americans to forswear meat eating. Notable for their culinary prowess have been the Hare Krishnas from the Vaishnava sect of Hinduism. There are Hare Krishna restaurants and vegetarian food carts in every major city in the United States. The Krishnas also have produced the definitive book on Indian vegetarian cookery, Lord Krishna’s Cuisine (1987), written by Yamuna Devi (née Joan Campanella), the American secretary to Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the Krishna movement in America.