14 Celebrities Who Ditched Meat to Go Vegan or Vegetarian

Kristen Bell, will.i.am, and Lea Michele are three celebs who don't eat meat.

Celebrities That Are Vegetarian | Celebs today dish about their diets about as often as everyday folks discuss the weather, so it’s not surprising that Hollywood eating preferences can influence fans’ nutrition habits. And with vegetarianism on the rise — according to polls from the Vegetarian Resource Group, about 3.3 per cent of the U.S. population was vegetarian in 2016, up from 1 per cent in 1994 — we can’t help but suspect that the growing crop of outspoken celeb meat shunners is having an impact on the trend.

Some choose to go on a vegetarian diet or vegan diet (which means passing on any animal products) for health reasons, while others commit to the meat-free lifestyle for ethical or environmental concerns, says Lauren Manaker, RDN, owner of Nutrition Now, who's based in Charleston, South Carolina. No matter the reason, it’s generally a healthy move, Manaker says. According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, vegetarians tend to have healthier weights, lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and reduced rates of cancer and type 2 diabetes compared with meat-eaters.

But vegetarians (and especially vegans) need to be careful not to fall short on key nutrients, such as vitamin B12, iron, omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, and zinc, Manaker says. “Many of these micronutrients are derived from animal products, but with sufficient knowledge, can be obtained from plant-based sources,” Manaker says.

1 Ariana Grande


The newly engaged songstress has been vegan since 2013. As told in an interview published in December 2014 in The Mirror, she made the switch because of her love for animals. “I love animals more than I love most people, not kidding,” she said. She’s admitted that eating out can be complicated but says her usual move is to order what she knows is vegan — fruit, veggies, salads — and then fill up on other things once she’s home. She has also spoken out about animal rights, as PETA noted, and against using animal products, according to MindBodyGreen

2 Kristen Bell

The Good Place actress has been a vegetarian since she was 11 years old, according to an interview published in October 2017 on Today.com. She briefly dabbled in veganism (along with husband, Dax Shepherd), reportedly after watching the 2011 documentary Forks Over Knives. But she was concerned she wasn’t taking in enough calories and switched back to vegetarianism when she was pregnant with her first child, who was born in 2013.

3 Liam Hemsworth

The youngest Hemsworth brother, Miley Cyrus fiancé, and The Hunger Games star reportedly went vegan in 2015. The impetus? "My own health, and after all the information I gathered about the mistreatment of animals, I couldn't continue to eat meat,” he said in an interview published in November 2015 in Men’s Journal. “The more I was aware of, the harder and harder it was to do.” He’s said that eating this way has helped him both mentally and physically, so much so that he’s encouraged his oldest brother, Chris Hemsworth, to give it a try, too.

4 Will.i.am

The Black Eyed Peas frontman and judge of The Voice kicked off 2018 in a big way: by swearing off meat and other animal products. He took to Instagram Stories to announce his new veganism — or, as he put it, he joined the “V.Gang.” “I am tired of being pimped by food companies and then eating bad, poisonous food, and feeling bad in the morning,” he reportedly said, according to an article published in January 2018 in VegNews.

5 Paul McCartney

When the beloved Beatle posed for an ad for PETA in 2008, he described the moment he turned vegetarian, ABC News reported: “Many years ago, I was fishing, and as I was reeling in the poor fish, I realized, ‘I am killing him — all for the passing pleasure it brings me.’ And something inside me clicked. I realized as I watched him fight for breath that his life was as important to him as mine is to me.”

6 Natalie Portman

The Oscar-winning Black Swan actress loosened her formerly strict vegan diet to include eggs and dairy while she was pregnant. "If you're not eating eggs, then you can't have cookies or cake from regular bakeries, which can become a problem when that's all you want to eat," she revealed to Atlanta's Q100 Bert Show. "I actually wanted eggs at the beginning and then they grossed me out after a while."

7 Russel Brand 

Brand was crowned the sexiest celebrity vegetarian (along with Kristen Wiig) by PETA in 2011, many years after he ditched meat at age 14. “Even as a junkie I stayed true” to vegetarianism, the comedian wrote of his time as a drug and alcohol addict in his memoir, My Booky Wook, according to Goodreads. “I shall have heroin, but I shan’t have a hamburger. What a sexy little paradox.”

8 Kristen Wiig 

She may have binged on unidentifiable meat in her 2011 summer hit Bridesmaids, but the actress and comedian stick to a meat-free diet offscreen. In 2011, she was named one of PETA's Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity winners. According to PETA, Wiig attributes her fit body to her diet choices, yoga, and running.

9 Alicia Silverstone

The Clueless star is very clued into the health benefits of a vegan lifestyle. Since she stopped eating dairy, meat, and eggs, the actress says she has more energy, clearer skin, and a healthier attitude toward her weight. In 2010, Silverstone penned a cookbook titled The Kind Diet to inspire others to go vegan. “The kindness is about being truly kind to yourself first," she said on The Oprah Winfrey Show, according to Oprah.com. "Letting yourself have the best health and look your best and feel you're most vital."

10 Lea Michele

The Glee star credits her meat-free diet for keeping her feeling “really good and bright,” she told OK! Magazine. In an interview in June 2018 with Bravo, she said, “I don't eat meat. I keep my home almost completely vegan. I make sure that I have the best, most healthy ingredients available to me all the time at home.” One of her go-to breakfasts is a stir-fry packed with spinach, broccoli, carrots, and topped with salsa and avocado. 

11 Forest Whitaker

The actor described his decision to become a vegetarian as one of the best choices of his life in a video for PETA. Whitaker also credited a meatless diet for helping him lose weight after his Academy Award-winning role in the 2006 film The Last King of Scotland. “I gained a lot of weight to play Idi Amin, and afterwards I got a little more serious about diet and exercise. Also, I don't think to be a vegetarian hurt,” he said in an article published in Parade magazine.

12 Olivia Wilde

This past winner of PETA’s sexiest celebrity vegetarian title tries to be aware of where her food comes from. “Often we forget the power of each of our purchases. We are the consumer, the demand, and the fuel for every industry we choose to support. Therefore, I try to be mindful about where my dollar votes go, and this is a huge reason I have chosen to adopt a vegan diet,” she wrote in a since-removed post on her website, CBS News reported. “Beyond my desire to boycott the torture factories, I am way happier when I eat a plant-based diet, and I feel about thousand times more energetic.”

13 Carrie Underwood

The American Idol winner and Grammy Award-winning country singer quit eating red meat after watching her parents castrate a cow, according to an article published in October 2012 in Taste of Country. These days, she sticks to a mostly vegan diet. “I want to be vegan so badly, all the way, 1,000 per cent,” she said in an article published in January 2017 in Self. “But travelling and stuff, it just kind of gets hard. Sometimes I may have to do some egg whites or something for breakfast.”

14 Bill Clinton

The former president, famous for his Southern appetite and love of fattening fried foods, switched to a vegan diet in 2010 after two major heart surgeries. Clinton’s diet excludes all meat, dairy, and eggs, and almost all oil. Because of it, he lost 20 pounds and said it changed his life, according to an article published in February 2016 in Politico. "All my blood tests are good, and my vital signs are good, and I feel good, and I also have, believe it or not, more energy," Clinton told CNN.

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