The celebrities who have gone vegan — and love it
VEGANISM is the hot-right-now trend people around the world are learning to embrace. From Oscar winners to chart toppers like Miley Cyrus, female celebs are leading the dietary charge.
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VEGANISM is the hot-right-now trend people around the world are learning to embrace. From Oscar winners to chart toppers, female celebs are leading the dietary charge.
NATALIE PORTMAN
POSTMAN has been a vegetarian since the age of nine and a vegan for seven years.
The Oscar-winning actor, 37, says that while she’s been a long-time believer in not killing animals, it was reading the book Eating Animals that led her to veganism. She became such a passionate advocate that she produced a documentary based on the book.
“We get to make decisions three times a day about what we do with our planet,” she says. “You can make a difference by, even once a day or once a week, choosing not to eat animals or animal products.”
Her veganism extends to not wearing leather or fur — habits that she admits make her “a parody of political correctness,” but she also says there’s no shame in “trying to be good in all aspects of our lives”.
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Portman and her choreographer husband Benjamin Millepied also follow a vegan lifestyle with their two children, son Aleph and daughter Amalia.
GO-TO FOODS: “We eat a lot of Thai and Italian food,” she says.
“I lean towards beans and lentils, but I love pasta and bread, too.
ROONEY & KATE MARA
ROONEY, 33, star of Aussie film Lion, has extolled the health benefits of veganism: “I lost weight and started feeling much more energetic in the morning when I stopped eating meat.”
Her sister, House of Cards actor Kate, 35, also became a vegan five years ago.
“I decided to go vegan after reading a book called The Beauty Detox Solution by Kimberly Snyder,” she said:
“I’ve always had a pretty sensitive stomach, but when I cut animal products out of my diet, I felt much better.”
GO-TO FOODS: Rooney is a big fan of cucumber noodle salad, while Kate says: “If I could only eat three things forever, they’d be truffle fries, brussels sprouts and pizza.”
JESSICA CHASTAIN
THE actor admits she’s an “accidental vegan”. After being vegetarian for most of her life, she tried veganism in 2007 for free food: “A friend had a two-week vegan food delivery program she wasn’t going to use, so I did instead,” she says.
“Immediately, I had more energy than I’ve ever had.”
The 41-year-old says that being vegan only causes issues when visiting her Italian husband’s family, telling TV host Jimmy Kimmel: “In the beginning, I’d say I’m vegan, which is the worst thing [in Italy]. I’d say, ‘I’m sorry I can’t eat that,’ and [my mother-in-law] would say, ‘No problem, we have fish!’”
GO-TO FOODS: “I do really good poached pears with sweet-potato ice-cream.”
GWYNETH PALTROW
THE actor-turned-wellness entrepreneur has championed a vegan lifestyle for years.
“For me, the big things are [avoiding] processed food and foods that have tonnes of chemicals and pesticides. I try to stay away from that,” she says.
But Paltrow, 45, isn’t 100 per cent strict when it comes to the diet: “I love French fries and cheese and martinis. I mean, kids eat sugar … that’s how it goes. So we have organic snacks and Oreos.”
It was her father Bruce’s battle with cancer that set her on the path to wellness: “[That] was where I started doing research. As soon as you test something and it works and you feel better, you really catch that ‘wellness’ bug.”
GO-TO FOODS: “I’ve got a thing for [buckwheat] pancakes. The combination of nutty buckwheat and sweet banana is just great.”
MILEY CYRUS
CYRUS decided to become a vegan following the death of her dog in 2014.
A year later, the singer announced that she was committed to a vegan lifestyle and would try to bring her millions of social media followers onto the bandwagon.
In one Instagram post that displayed a plate of avocados, tomatoes, and nuts, the 25-year-old declared:
“So many good plants/fruits/ vegies to eat. You ain’t gotta eat dead animals!”
Is it any surprise that animal rights group PETA calls her “the Veganest Vegan to Ever Vegan”?!
GO-TO FOODS: “I’ll eat avocado with almost anything — I love mashing it up and putting it in taco shells along with nuts and red pepper hummus,” she says.
JENNIFER LOPEZ
IT’S hard to believe J-Lo is 49. One of her secrets is periods of eating vegan.
She first tried it in 2008 to shed kilos after having twins Max and Emme.
In 2014, after following a three-week gluten-free and vegan diet with an exercise physiologist, she dropped two sizes and said she felt like a new woman: “I decided to get serious about what I was eating and there are amazing benefits to the way you feel as well as to how your body looks when you eat well.”
Though she goes on and off her vegan regimen, Lopez swears by its dietary virtues, saying: “I didn’t know how good you can feel when you put healthy stuff in your body.”
GO-TO FOODS: “I love sauteed brussels sprouts and baked yams,” she says.