Being Vegan around Meat Eating Family
Family...how do you deal with them being vegan?
I have been vegan for almost 12 years, and my whole family knows I am vegan. Some of them came upon this very late even if this had been years into veganism. I am not a loud vegan who tells everyone that I am vegan and never will be. People can only take veganism in small bites so I tend to tell people I am vegan or go vegan in small bites.
Back to my family, for the last little while family members have been trying to get me to eat food that has had meat touching this or food that they don't know is vegan or not to eat this. I tend to say to close family members, I can't eat that but to others, I say no thank or take a piece and put this in the fridge later on. Yet, even close family members who were vegan and not anymore, have totally changed and say don't worry about this touching meat.
I am starting to get upset about my family saying I shouldn't worry. I worry all the time about what I eat and this is health even if I was eating meat, you should know what is going in your body. Labels on items are no good, and some food items, no one understands what they are. We should be trying to understand more about our food not less. Yet, some people in my family say, "just eat this, don't read the label." When I read the label, I find out, I can't eat this because there is cow's milk or sour cream or "milk ingredients" in there.
Can I say, living or visiting family members is hard to deal with. Half of my family is from countries in Asia and they don't really understand veganism enough. Yet, people in western countries where the other half of my family is from, are meat eaters too and don't get the veganism thing either. I am not saying everyone in my family doesn't get veganism but finding vegan food is hard.
Maybe being a louder vegan will help me people know I am vegan and the world should know this. I do feel that putting this out there does make younger people more aware of the situation and wanting to know more about this. When I talk to older people about this, they really don't care or say, I am eating more veggies. I don't tend to push people towards veganism but maybe telling people my story will be helpful.
Leaving in the comments, how do you deal with your family members and veganism?
I have been vegan for almost 12 years, and my whole family knows I am vegan. Some of them came upon this very late even if this had been years into veganism. I am not a loud vegan who tells everyone that I am vegan and never will be. People can only take veganism in small bites so I tend to tell people I am vegan or go vegan in small bites.
Back to my family, for the last little while family members have been trying to get me to eat food that has had meat touching this or food that they don't know is vegan or not to eat this. I tend to say to close family members, I can't eat that but to others, I say no thank or take a piece and put this in the fridge later on. Yet, even close family members who were vegan and not anymore, have totally changed and say don't worry about this touching meat.
I am starting to get upset about my family saying I shouldn't worry. I worry all the time about what I eat and this is health even if I was eating meat, you should know what is going in your body. Labels on items are no good, and some food items, no one understands what they are. We should be trying to understand more about our food not less. Yet, some people in my family say, "just eat this, don't read the label." When I read the label, I find out, I can't eat this because there is cow's milk or sour cream or "milk ingredients" in there.
Can I say, living or visiting family members is hard to deal with. Half of my family is from countries in Asia and they don't really understand veganism enough. Yet, people in western countries where the other half of my family is from, are meat eaters too and don't get the veganism thing either. I am not saying everyone in my family doesn't get veganism but finding vegan food is hard.
Maybe being a louder vegan will help me people know I am vegan and the world should know this. I do feel that putting this out there does make younger people more aware of the situation and wanting to know more about this. When I talk to older people about this, they really don't care or say, I am eating more veggies. I don't tend to push people towards veganism but maybe telling people my story will be helpful.
Leaving in the comments, how do you deal with your family members and veganism?
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