W

hen it came to eating vegetables as a child, Nelly would suddenly turn her back and stay as far away as she could from the green food.

"I was an antivegetable-eater. I avoided all kinds of vegetables," Nelly told The Jakarta Post recently.

Her parents kept telling her the advantages of eating vegetables, but she would not change her mind.

"I did not like them at all. I did not even know why," she said.

But that was years ago. Now, Nelly is a vegetarian.

"I had never thought of being a vegetarian, but I'm a vegetable junkie at the moment," Nelly said.

When she was a teenager, Nelly decided to stay away from meat. Religion was the reason for her change in direction.

"Our religion believes that eating meat can bring bad karma because the animals have feelings and spirits," she said.

"I thought about it over and over again. I finally realized that it was not right to kill and eat animals. They deserve to live," she said.

She decided to be a vegetarian in 1989. Although she used to hate vegetables, it was not difficult for her to start eating them and avoid meat.

"There was a time when my parents and friends did not stop questioning me about becoming a vegetarian, but slowly they understood my mindset," she said.

Nelly is a lacto-ovo vegetarian. She avoids eating meat, but still consumes milk and eggs.

She is now on the way to becoming a vegan, someone who does not consume any animal products, including eggs and milk.

She said she felt fresher and healthier since becoming a vegetarian. "I feel like my body resistance has increased. I rarely get sick."

Nilawati, another vegetarian, agreed. "I used to have problems with my stomach, but the disease went away when I started to be a vegetarian," said Nila, who has been a vegetarian for about 20 years.

The 47-year-old woman added that eating meatless dishes was also good for your skin. "Vegetables are the perfect for fresher and healthier skin. You don't need all of those skin supplements," she said.

Nila decided to become a vegetarian for health reasons. She read books and found out that animal foods were bad for the human body. She started to change her eating behavior on step at a time.

"First, I avoided red meat, like beef, before I stopped eating white meat, like fowl and fish," Nila said.

"It took me almost a year to stay away from animal foods altogether" she said, adding that she still consumed milk, butter and eggs.

When she was a novice, she admitted it was rather hard for her to fight the temptation meat dishes.

"Your surroundings, friends for instance, is the biggest influence. It also happened to me, but I always tried to fight temptations and stick to my decision," she said.

"It is important to be strong-willed so your mind will never be distracted."

Some people asked her, "Aren't you afraid of suffering malnutrition? Where will you get protein and fat if you don't eat meat?"

Nila denied public assumption that eating vegetables would make our body weak. "That's not true. Vegetables will make you healthier and feel younger than before. My body stamina is even better than before," Nila said.

"I don't feel weak even though I exercise, like aerobics, five times a week. On the contrary, my meat-eating friends sometimes complain that their bodies are not as fit as mine.

"The most important thing is to be creative in cooking and serving different meals so you don't get bored," Nila said.

Susianto, a nutritionist who is also a vegetarian, concurred.

"Many people think that vegetarians tend to suffer from malnutrition just because we don't eat meat. That is so wrong," Susianto said.

"You can get protein from foods made from beans and soy, such as tofu and tempeh. They contain more protein than any meat products," he said.

Saptawati Bardosono or known as Tati, a nutritionist from the Faculty of Medicine at University of Indonesia said the eating patterns of vegetarians were the same as nonvegetarians.

"Besides soy and beans, they *vegetarians* can get protein and energy from rice, noodles, breads, and vegetable oils," Tati said.

"You can create any kind of cuisines from tempeh and tofu to avoid boredom," she added.

Susianto said food made from vegetables were healthier than animal food products.

"Soy, as well as vegetable oils, is good to avoid degenerative diseases like cancer, while meat and animal fats are high in cholesterol and can trigger dangerous diseases," he said.

He currently conducted a survey of 148 toddlers, consisting of 75 lacto-ovo vegetarians and 73 nonvegetarians, to see what group was the healthiest.

The results showed that the vegetarian toddlers received as good and enough nutrition as the non-vegetarian kids. They were actually healthier than the non vegetarians, with only few of them suffer obesity.

"So, you, especially the novice, should not worry of suffering from malnutrition once you become a vegetarian," Susianto said.

He suggested for novices to search for vegetarian communities to get information and some advice.

"There are many vegetarian groups and mailing lists on the Internet. These are very helpful for novices. They can consult them before becoming vegetarians," said Susianto, who is also the head of the Indonesia Vegetarian Society (IVS).

One of the NGO's goal is to promote vegetarianism throughout the country.