My Korean Relatives...

I've been a vegetarian for a while now and it used to be that my mother would constantly ask me to eat fish. (but I never actually did because I'm not really a fan.)

And then this past weekend my mother's Korean friends found out I was a vegetarian and was like "Oh my goodness that is so unhealthy." One of them called my mother and told her "You better tell her to eat meat, she may look good on the outside right now but what about in the future???."

Oh and yesterday when I was coming back inside from getting the mail all I said was "geez it's cold." So my mother decided to give a speech to me saying "See you need to eat meat, that's why your body is cold and you're gonna mess it up if you don't."

MAN I just got back from walking outside when it was windy, snowing and FIVE degrees (we live in Colorado.) Why can't that be the reason why I'm cold? ANd I never even get cold viruses, the flu, infections, etc.

I have no problems with people who do eat meat, but what's the big deal if I don't? There's nothing wrong with filling up on veggies, fruits, whole grains, nuts, etc.

 Anyone else have this issue? WHat did you do in this situation?

P.S. I'll be moving to a new UNiversity (where my dining hall is vegetarian friendly) so I just have to deal with this until the end of JUly.

I am so sorry you are getting the eat meat speach to be healthy.  My daughter informed me when she was 12 that she no longer was going to eat meat.  Ok, well I didn't deal with it very well at first, but over time I have come to understand her reasoning.  My daughter set her foot down and absolutely refused to eat meat no matter what, so I decided for her welfare to become better educated on my own. 

Since it doesn't seem that your mother is of the mind set to become educated on the subject, you might want to help her out.  Literature is out there, you just need to do the research and print off whatever you think will be a logical argument.  Both the pros and cons and how you will effectively combat the cons.  Usually parents will be so proud in that fact that you are making a logical decision it might make things easier for you.

Well good luck!

I've done that for my folks. My father has no issues with it as long as I make sure to eat enough in general and take vitamins everyday until I get used to everything. He's even digusted by jell-o now lol. My mother always askes "how can you trust what these sources say?" or " but what about the millions of people out there who become vegetarians and then after a few years eat meat and get sick?" and then I always ask her "...Maybe it's because they're not used digesting it anymore?"

I really don't want to disrespect my mother, but I am in my early 20s and can make this decision for myself. I'm not trying to have a child, sell drugs or join the circus. I just don't feel like eating meat that's all.

I find my body temp recovers slowly after being out in the cold, but this is my first winter as a pesco-vegetarian (with very little dairy, and almost everything organic) and every winter I usually get very sick and can't get out of bed for around a week or more- high fevers etc  once or twice a winter and this is actually the first year I can remember that I haven't had a flu yet- There is something to be said for not eating cows.