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I had the same trouble with my family when I had to leave meat (flesh) out of
my diet for medical reasons.  I was raised in a culture where meat is
supreme, where a meal without meat is not only inferior, but dangerous...
 Needless to say, I had to change my own views when my meat consumption
became a life-threatening activity.  But it hurt when people who professed
love for me (please--no e-mails criticizing definitions of love...;-) would
castigate me for avoiding meat, or for heeding my doctors' advice, doctors
whom they considered idiots.

After struggling for two years with the meat-free diet my doctor and
nutritionist recommended, I found that I was still plunging periodically into
excruciating medical crises, especially when I visited certain family
members.  After a particularly dangerous crisis, I discovered that one family
member had occasionally pureed (sp?) bits of chicken or beef--the one she
selected depended on the light or dark color of the dish in question--and
sneaked it into my food.  She had decided that it was her mission to "save"
me from myself and the evil doctors.  When I found out about it, I boycotted
future family visits--and I let them know why.  I missed them, but it gave me
a new lease on life.   I traveled, visited friends, attended conference on
self-care, went back to school, etc. etc. etc.

After two years, I made a tentative holiday visit.  By then, the airlines in
the States were sponsoring Christmas/New Year's Day round-trip airfares for
$99, and it was the perfect excuse to visit, enjoy their company for a few
hours, see the changes in the family, TAKE MY OWN FOOD, and enjoy them
without worrying about food.  I had spent enough time learning about myself
to know how to say "no" and mean it.  By then they were able to see the
positive physical changes in me to know that there were benefits to what I
was doing for myself, that I wouldn't starve to death without meat, that my
meat prohibition was serious business and not the latest fashionable dietary
whim.  When I had to go GF a couple of years later, no one complained when I
passed the bread dish or gravy boat along.  They were actually eager to see
what I would bring to the dinner table, and sample freely.

Anyway, I now have a great time with my family.  We respect each other--I
don't try to inflict my food needs on them, and they don't try to inflict
their foods on me.  The holiday tables look more festive now, because there
are beautiful and colorful GF vegetarian dishes to join the traditional
dishes (also beautiful), and they all have the same respect.  The beloved
sister who was an expert in meat pureeing now experiments with vegetarian
foods, my brother keeps track of the vegetarian restaurants that open in his
community, and my mother--who before, never met a fruit or veggie she
liked--bought a juicer and makes "championship" fruit and veggie concoctions
for herself.

Of course, not everyone can do this, and not everyone has the same craziness
as my family.  And it's a *very* different issue when the different diets all
have to co-exist under the same roof.  But change is possible...

Hope this helps.

Sue