[zacinbusiness]

There is a pretty strong anti-vegetarianism sentiment where I'm from (the Southeast U.S.). I see it (as a vegetarian for almost 5 years now) when I visit the grocery store and, annoyingly, from my family.

At the grocery store I am often asked "What, are you some kind of vegetarian or something?" when I buy tofu, tempeh, lots of vegetables, and no meat products. And when I say yes, people are often flabbergasted. "I could never do that, I love bacon too much!" That's fine, I'm not asking anyone else to change their diet, and I've never been a "judgy" vegetarian - I honestly don't care what other people eat, it doesn't bother me. But it's annoying when people get all up in my business.

My family is worse, though. Every time I ever have a health issue, they attribute it to being a vegetarian. Get a cold? I need more beef. Sinus infection? I need more chicken. And now my wife's family are blaming me for a health issue that she's having. It's madness.

[finleye]

I'm also from the Southeast, and had the same issues. Ridicule from family and sometimes even strangers. I've been vegan now for 5 years. I've never had so many people concerned about my protein intake.

Moving to NYC changed all that though. It's not unusual here, and the food is a lot better.

[zacinbusiness]

Yeah the whole "but where do you get your protein" thing gets old after about 30 seconds. I have answered many emails and Facebook posts with this: http://bit.ly/1nQx8EQ

[PerfectElement]

I usually answer with this: http://veganbodybuilding.com

[VLM]

"It's madness."

Its just conformity. Try to change the topic to religion, anything other than vanilla Evangelical Protestant Christian, and see how much they like it. Or, "I don't like large pickup trucks/SUVs".

(edited to add, tell them their prices are too high, if you want to tweak them back. I'm not a vegan but our family has a relationship with an organic farmer who provides us with almost all the meat we eat (other than fish), so in the very rare event I get questioned at the market my trollish side often comes out and its sometimes pretty funny)

[zacinbusiness]

Religion is another hot topic. My wife may need (minor) brain surgery (minor as far as brain surgery goes) and her family believes they can pray it away instead. It's a whole thing here.