One of the biggest controversies in Buddhism is if the Buddha required or recommended a vegetarian diet or not or if it was up to each Buddhist to make up their own mind or if there were any other recommendations regarding diets. A look at the followers finds that nearly half of all Buddhists follow a vegetarian or near vegetarian diet and about half do not. Contrary to some popular beliefs, the Mahayana does not have any significantly higher numbers of vegetarians than the Theravada. Theravadins in the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, Sri Lanka, and others have been adopting vegetarianism in increasing numbers in recent years.