By Savannah Lawrence, VRG intern<\/p>\n
As someone who enjoys socializing over food, I often get unsolicited questions about my choice to be a vegetarian. Be it dining at someone\u2019s home where there are no meatless options present, attending a holiday dinner at a distant relative\u2019s home, or dining out and having to inquire about meatless options not listed on the menu, it\u2019s hard to conceal that I\u2019m a vegetarian when it\u2019s time to eat. Sometimes I want to hide it because I know that I\u2019ll be peppered with questions regarding my diet once people find out or are reminded. However, I\u2019m there to enjoy my friends and family, not start a debate about animal welfare, the food industry, or the health benefits of a meatless diet. <\/p>\n
While other vegans and vegetarians may take different approaches when asked questions about their diets, I don\u2019t wish to discuss my reasoning, and I like to make that known from the start. I treat my diet like I treat my political opinions \u2013 neither are something I\u2019ll willingly discuss at any time. While I don\u2019t want to counter with, \u201cWhy do you care? It\u2019s not like I ask why you eat meat?\u201d when questioned about my diet, there are a few responses I use that are polite and understanding but still firm. Try one of these non-confrontational phrases to shut down comments you may not wish to engage:<\/p>\n
\u00b7 \u201cI\u2019d like us to have the chance to enjoy our meal without going into detail about our dietary choices, but maybe we can talk about them later.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00b7 \u201cWhile I\u2019d be happy to discuss my reasoning for choosing a vegetarian\/vegan diet at another occasion, it\u2019s not something I wish to do right now. Let\u2019s set up a separate time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00b7 \u201cI appreciate your interest in my lifestyle choices, but my reasons for choosing a vegetarian\/vegan diet are personal, so I typically don\u2019t discuss them OR I\u2019d rather not discuss them right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps the person isn\u2019t so polite and understanding. When attending an Easter dinner at the home of my fianc\u00e9\u2019s grandparents, his grandfather loudly proclaimed in the middle of dinner that a vegetarian diet was stupid. If caught in a similarly uncomfortable situation, try responding with, \u201cI respect your choice to eat meat, and I hope that you could respect my choice not to.\u201d As the saying goes, kill them with kindness. Responding with an equally brash comment will get you nowhere; I would\u2019ve only solidified the opinion that a vegetarian diet was stupid!<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re willing to discuss your reasoning, consider the setting and company before deciding how detailed a response to give. For example, if sitting at a restaurant with a group of friends, it\u2019s probably not appropriate to give detailed horrors about the meat industry with the insights from the latest PETA videos you saw. A better response may be, \u201cI\u2019ve learned some sad details about how animals at most factory farms are treated, so I decided to stop eating animal products.\u201d If asked for details, consider saying no until people are done eating or ensure that everyone at the table wants to hear the details. <\/p>\n
Unfortunately, it\u2019s almost impossible to avoid questions about your diet as a vegetarian or vegan, but there are ways to manage the questions and put yourself in control of the conversations. Maybe you have all the information you need and would love to start a debate, but if you\u2019re just trying to eat your dinner in peace, approach the questions by considering the setting, company, and a respectful yet resolute response. You don\u2019t have to stay silent, but you also don\u2019t have to respond defensively. Take a minute to step back and think before responding, and you\u2019ll create a positive image for vegetarians and vegans everywhere!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Savannah Lawrence, VRG intern As someone who enjoys socializing over food, I often get unsolicited questions about my choice to be a vegetarian. Be it dining at someone\u2019s home where there are no meatless options present, attending a holiday dinner at a distant relative\u2019s home, or dining out and having to inquire about meatless […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9861"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9862,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9861\/revisions\/9862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}