Veganism is a rising movement. Whether you are vegan yourself or have vegan acquaintances, people everywhere are choosing to live a cruelty-free lifestyle.

Yet with the amount of vegans in America rising, it seems that the sometimes insensitive, sometimes just naive, questions I hear from non-vegans are also increasing.

Although many of these questions could be answered by a google search (or just not be asked at all), I'm here to answer four of them that I get on a regular basis.

Before you read on, know that this article is not about demeaning non-vegans. It is about addressing the statements and questions vegans get daily.

1.) Where do you get your protein?!??

This is probably the most common question addressed towards vegans. I can't count on my fingers how many times I've been asked this question.

I understand where non-vegans are coming from on this question. We live in a protein-obsessed culture, where people are told they need an excessive amount of protein in order to be healthy. If you would like to know more about how high protein diets can be detrimental, go here.

However, I think this question bothers vegans for two reasons: One, it's not difficult for a non-vegan to research a bit about protein from plant-based sources; two, it's a bit ridiculous to assume protein is limited to animal products.

That just doesn't make sense. How would vegans survive if that were true?

Nearly every fruit and vegetable has protein, but some of the sources of plant-based high proteins include: tofu, lentils, tempeh, soybeans, quinoa, black beans, pasta, rice, nut butters, hemp, flaxseed, chia seed, sprouted grain bread...

(Here's a link to a more complex and full list of plant-based protein for vegan diets)

In short, it's just something you don't need to worry about.

2.) Doesn't vegan just mean vegetables?

This one might be even more ridiculous than the first. While about fifty percent of a vegan diet consists of fruits and vegetables (and raw diets at a higher rate), vegans eat so much more than just "rabbit food."

Being vegan is not limiting whatsoever! Since going vegan, I eat a larger variety of food than ever before.

Every food or recipe you can think of most likely has a vegan alternative. I have still been able to enjoy ice cream, donuts, cake, tacos, pizza, pasta dishes, "burgers" and more.

Granted, I am lucky to be living in Portland as a vegan. Not only are there all-vegan restaurants and bakeries, nearly every restaurant has a few vegan options.

My favorite vegan bakery is Back to Eden, off of NE Alberta. The picture above features their chocolate cream pie.

I do acknowledge that not everyone is as lucky as me, but the notion that we only eat rabbit food is outdated.

3.) But, BACON!

Ahh, the typical response people give me when they find out I'm vegan.

People that say this don't seem to understand veganism. Living a vegan lifestyle isn't like a constant restraint on my apparent "craving" for meat.

I have chosen this life because I believe it's the right thing to do. I don't want to harm or eat animals and I don't want to take anything from them. So you thinking bacon is a reason not to be vegan does not slide well with most of us...

You're allowed to like bacon, no one can stop you. But please don't use that as a response to someone being vegan. It belittles our lifestyle choice.

4.) Plants have feelings too!

This one always makes me laugh a bit. I know people are making a joke out of my lifestyle, so it used to offend me. Then I began to find it funny too.

It comes down to basic science and common sense. Plants do not have brains, therefore they do not have the capability to think and/or feel pain as animals do.

As Oliver Sacks explains, "The calcium ion channels that plants rely on do not support rapid or repetitive signaling between cells; once a plant action potential is generated, it cannot be repeated at a fast enough rate to allow, for example, the speed with which a worm 'dashes … into its burrow.'"

To try and say that plants have the same experience on earth as animals do isn't valid.

Perhaps the people that make this statement know this and just want to bother vegans, but either way, it comes off as ignorant and silly.

This list doesn't include all the things I hear on a day to day basis and it wasn't made to smite non vegans or make them uncomfortable.

It's a little shoutout to the people who don't understand to help them understand.

Being informed is important. So here's to the people who didn't know statements like these bothered vegans, and here's to the vegans that deal with these statements every day.