You Don't Eat Meat?!

Handling Vegetarian Criticism

By Felicia Hodges

Saeeda Hafiz, a yoga instructor and Health and Wellness Manager at the YWCA in Pittsburgh, Pa., has been a strict vegetarian for about 12 years. Even though she often prepares microbiotic meals for friends, she says she remembers getting flack once from a host when she brought her own food to a barbecue.

Rena Meyer, a case worker for an organization in upstate New York that finds housing and food for area residents living with AIDS, says that even after seven years of being a lacto-vegetarian (she doesn't eat meat or eggs, but does eat milk products), she still is regularly teased by her older brothers who tell her that she should just quit whining, grow up and have a steak.

Vegan Melanie Wilson, editor of Vegetarian Toddler and Baby magazine, recalls eating nothing but plain vegetables and rice during a week-long vacation at a remote resort. The chef of the four-star establishment refused to fix anything else for her after she returned a pasta and veggie with cream sauce dinner he made once she explained her diet.

Has it become open season on vegetarians? Why do people who eat meat seemingly have such a hard time with those who don't?

"It seems that acquaintances, people I don't know very well, more often feel they have the right to question me," says Wilson, who has been a vegetarian "off and on" for more than 12 years. "[But] if someone insists on debating, I simply state that this is right for me and refuse to discuss it further," she says.

Meyer says she usually tries to handle people who feel the need to comment on her vegetarianism with humor. "I end up making a joke with the waiter or chef or meat lover," she says. It usually disarms them enough so that we can get onto something else."

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