When you first became vegan (or vegetarian) how did people respond to you?!
Answers: My husband and I are both vegetarian. I've been thinking about veganism for a few weeks and jumped ship about a week ago. It was so easy for me. I don't miss anything. My husband is supportive but I haven't told anyone else...I got a lot a negativity when I first became vegetarian...I felt attacked. What was it like when you first switched over and told people?
For some reason people think that they need to defend themselves and what THEY do because of what your choices are. Unless you are "preachy" meat eaters should leave us alone. If you are preachy, then they have a right to attack.
I didn't tell anyone except my parents. It was 12 years before I told non-family, my friends were ok about it, they never said anything bad.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/ask-rac...
people responded negative too...
they said mean things and teased me but I don't care it's not going to stop me from being vegetarian...........
:)
o they acted normal the only bad thing is that if u r a vegan what do u eat? salad and thats about it. u will start to get super skinny. sometimes that can be unhealthy thing about this before u make any thing final. also when ur a vegan u cannot eat things like eggs and milk!yogurt! nothing! so u tell me what u would eat! ur friends will probaly be taken back but nothing 2 drastic but when they or if they invite u over to dinner they probaly wont have anything 4 u to enjoy. so i would stick to vegitarian. o and for how they would react SO WHAT! if they dont like the way u eat say deal with it. its ur body and u can do basicly anything u want with it! enjoy eating leaves and erbs!!!
The e will be quite a lot who will repond positively
Ah, yes. Lets see if I remember correctly:
"Your hair will start falling out!"
"It's just a phase you're going through!"
"What do you eat?!"
"You'll change your mind when you start dating/marrying and your partner wants you to cook meat"
"But the bible says _____!"
"Your mom told me you're a vegan, so I made salmon for you!"
"My cooking's not good enough for you?"
"You're just doing this to be difficult"
"Do you have severe allergies or something?"
"Humans are made to eat meat"
My mother and father were actually very cool about it. At first they were scared for me and thought it was an eating disorder, but it became clear within a year that it actually helped make me healthier (I used to have anorexia as a teen).
My brother was a little weird about it from the get-go and dug up some weird article online about some vegan parents that starved their baby to death because they only fed it apple juice and soy milk (like, not soy formula, but soy milk). I explained to him that it's a case of abuse and neglect, just like an omnivore parent can abuse/neglect a child and starve it to death. He has since buried the hatchet because he's now a doting uncle to my little girl and he can personally attest that she's healthy and thriving on a vegetarian diet.
My husband was very open to it. When I met him he was a US Marine and I thought he'd be a macho man and get offended or laugh at me and lose interest in me if he knew I didn't eat meat, dairy or eggs. He was actually incredibly cool about it and even went vegan for two years (probably trying to impress me, but still!). He ultimately decided to eat meat occasionally (social events, or when he has cravings for KFC)... but we are now married and 85% of the time he eats the same diet as I do.
In high school it was not a big deal, people didn't understand it so ignorant or bully-type people would laugh at it, but then again those types will find ANY reason to make fun of you. They were the same people who called my Asian friends "slanty eyes" and who beat up the nerds, you know? The majority of my friends and people thought it was fine. I did hang out with the non-preppy kids at school though, the goth and punk, skater, nerd, etc. type kids.
I'm sure that the preps would have been less accepting because they seemed all about status-quo and being carbon copies of each other, and designer this or that... I went to school in a VERY rich suburban neighborhood and about 30% of the school was the crazy, Mean Girls-style popular prep stab-you-in-the-back stuff, 40% nerds and kids that were just super-smart and wanted to get into Ivy League schools, and 30% smart, cool, laid back alternative kids.
As an adult it's hit or miss, it depends on the person I meet. Usually if someone reacts negatively it's just ignorance, "Well you'll waste away! You don't eat any meat, meat is protein!" blah blah, nonsense like that. Once someone knows more about it their misconceptions are swept away... other times someone just doesn't want to know more about it and is sort of a jerk, and as usual I don't need negative, hateful people in my life so I don't let it bug me.
I know what you mean about feeling attacked
I still get people saying things like " Ill do X for you.... but only if you stop being Vegetarian"
One of my friends still tells me ( and other people, to my great annoyance) that I'm the most unhealthy person he knows- because I am Vegetarian.
The first day was the worst. My mom made chicken and I refused to eat it and she said "You always used to eat my chicken" and there was a bunch of unessesary crying. With my friends, they pretty much thought I was joking an it was another one of my nutty phases and that I was just placing a bet not to eat meat and they're like "But we'll let you on thanksgiving" and I was like "ok no".
However this weekend (I turned vegetarian Wednesday) I went on a shopping raid with my mom and we had a lot of fun buying all kinds of new and yummy foods and my friends don't really care I guess. I just won't really bring it up often unless need be. I also have a close friend who is a vegan (in a higher grade than me) and I told her and she was really happy for me and me and her and her friend who is also a veggie are going to exchange recipes and such. :)
No one said anything, I only told people that I liked.
Well people seemed a little disappointed that I wouldn't eat "Maw Maw's Famous Chicken Soup" or "Shelly's old time pork chops" Nobody believed me and i felt a little hurt when people said it was dumb to not eat meat because I respect animals. But now everybody is ok with it, they understand, and many of my friends are doing it too!
My brother said I was a freak. My mother asked if it was because of her that I won't eat meat. A lot of people at my new job have said I was the first vegetarian they met then asked me what I did eat.
"OMG SO WHAT DO YOU EAT?!?!?!?"
and when food is brought up in the future they will teasely say "oh what did u eat..a salad?
"
ANNOYING.=[
i come from a pure vegetarian family...i started eating meat at the age of 8.....i loved meat....but i have stopped eating meat for the past 7 years.....i m fine....my parents supported me....forget about everyone i have a feeling that i dont depend on animals(directly) for food...some animals are alive bcoz i m nt eating meat....and i m happy being a veggie....coz i know wil never suffer from bird flu that easily!!!!!!
People get defensive about their own eating habits for some reason, when I say that I'm vegan. It's like, what the ****? That, and people try do to the whole 'mmmm, beef' thing. Way to be mature!
my parents thought i was mad and goign to turn anorexic
no one had faith in me and bet that i would nly last a month if that.
its been a year and a half now and i have no intentions of going near another animal again :)
some of my friends started saying that i wasn't black bcuz i didn't eat chicken or anything.
and my aunt thought i had an ating disorder bcuz i didn't eat meat.
those jerks
All my family and friends just laughed at me and totally thought I was full of s***. It's been almost 4 months, and now people are starting to take me more seriously. So, now, I make really tasty veg food and feed it to everyone to influence positive attitudes toward the veg lifestyle.
That's because some people are just morons and don't like anything they aren't used to.
I've been vegetarian for three years, and I could care less what people think/say. It's a personal choice and i'm glad i made it.
People are so imformation deprived that they assume we are unhealhy and stupid...
Kind of irritating, considering the vegetarian lifestyle is very healthy and has many benefits.