A growing trend

More and more Chinese are adopting a vegetarian lifestyle, particularly young intel­lectuals, office workers and university students. Unlike traditional Chinese vegetarians who say no to meat because of their Buddhist philosophy, China's youth have different reasons.

"These well-educated new vegetarians care more about health, animal rights and global warming. It's a global movement," said Dr. Yu.

Zhong Wei, 28, a stockbroker who has been a vegetarian for eight years, felt a plant-based diet purified his body and mind, enhanced his endurance and immune system. "I seldom fall ill, and even when I catch a cold, I can recover soon," he said.

Also, he said he will have a vegan-wedding feast in the coming spring. "We want to spread the word to our relatives that plant-based diet is a healthy lifestyle," Zhong told ChinAfrica.

Chen Lingwei, a college student from Sichuan University, gave up eating meat a year ago for animal rights reasons, when she was involved in the school's animal rights protection program. "I saw documentaries how the factory farming works and  found it was too cruel to eat meat. [Being a vegetarian] is a merciful lifestyle, without killing animals," said Chen. "We want to initiate a 'Go Veggie One Day Per Week' program, so that more students can incorporate this in their everyday life."

Good business

Currently, vegetarians in China are an increasingly growing group. The choice is becoming more accepted and understood, particularly in the big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. Vegetarian restaurants are mushrooming, and are becoming fashionable among the urban middle classes. While some vegetarian restaurants can be pricey, catering for the novelty factor of offering "meat tasting" pseudo meat, more are emerging offering good value at low prices.

After benefiting from a vegetarian lifestyle, Li Xin, 35, opened up her Ting Song Organic Vegetarian Restaurant a year ago, in the hope that more people can benefit from the healthy diet. To promote vegetarian food, she has recently launched the "Go Veggie Every Monday" event.

With the 15-yuan ($2.2) vegetarian lunch buffet, customers can enjoy a variety of fresh vegetables, fruits and nuts. "Interestingly, 90 percent [of our customers] are omnivores. They love to give it a try and then became our frequent customers," Li said. "I didn't expect the business to do so well," she added.

Yu is confident that a plant-based diet will become more popular in the changing world. "We need to take our health back and liberate our minds about the food choices we make, and plant-based foods are delicious and healthy. We want to help people get started," he said.

Main types of vegetarian lifestyles

• Strict vegetarian or vegan: A vegetarian diet that excludes all animal products such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, milk, cheese and other dairy products;
• Lactovegetarian: A vegetarian diet that excludes meat, poultry, fish and eggs but includes dairy products;
• Lacto-ovovegetarian: A vegetarian diet that excludes meat, poultry and fish but includes eggs and dairy products;
• Flexitarian: A semi-vegetarian diet with a focus on vegetarian food with occasional meat consumption.

Source: The American Dietetic Association