My best friend was a vegetarian for quite a few years. She is now a semi-vegetarian. Her vegetarianism was a springboard for my exploring some non-meat dishes. It's definitely made me a more imaginative cook.
Some relatives have become vegan just a few months ago. After dealing with them being (respectively) coeliac (hence no gluten), lactose-intolerant (hence either lactose-free dairy OR dairy-free products), egg-intolerant (or more likely egg-disliking), and then fructose-intolerant (developed from the coeliac condition), and another relative being diabetic (hence no sugar as well as avoiding high GI foods), it feels like the last straw. Once restrictions allow families to meet up again, I'm going to be at my wits' end trying to cook and bake with these new dietary requirements in mind.
So... I have no issue with people being vegetarians.
If the question were about vegans, I want to stamp my feet, scream, and smack them while shouting despairingly, "Why? Why? Why? Wasn't it enough that I learned to make GF pasta? Wasn't it enough that I made low-fructose apricot jam with my own lemon-peel pectin? Was it not enough that I placed a GF chia-seed egg substituted sponge cake with whipped coconut cream in front of you? Now you tell me you've 'decided to become vegan'? Why? In the name of holy sauerkraut, why? And are you expecting us to share Christmas with you (because it's your turn) with your offering us roast something-or-other that isn't duck or goose or turkey or indeed anything thath falls into the meat or fish category?"
