Pamela Anderson, Joaquin Phoenix, Michelle Pfeiffer and Bilie Eilish are three celebrities who have shared their reasons for maintaining a vegan lifestyle.
12 celebs on going vegan in 2022
With the new year offering a fresh start and a chance for healthier habits, many are choosing to take part in Veganuary.
This is partly a result of the growing list of influential figures who have helped to make a vegan lifestyle seem a little less 'alternative' and a little more mainstream over the years.
Here are 12 celebrities who have said no to the likes of meat, fish and dairy and hello to a newer way of living.
Lizzo
Lizzo has gone vegan and she's loving life (even more). (Getty Images)
Loved for her empowering anthems 'Good As Hell', 'Juice' and 'Truth Hurts', 33-year-old Lizzo first officially announced she was vegan on TikTok in June last year.
"So being plant-based and vegan has been pretty easy except for when I am hungover, I used to crave cheesy eggs. So here is my substitute for cravings when you're hungover," she said, going on to showcase her vegan carne asada and and black bean mixture alternative.
Some of the Grammy award-winner's other vegan food hacks have included carrot hot dogs, Brussels sprout nachos, and 'Nature's cereal', went viral. Lizzo began her plant-based journey as a vegetarian for seven years, before making the switch.
Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish wears Oscar de la Renta at the 2021 Met Gala in New York City. (Getty Images)
First achieving stardom at just 14 for her song 'Ocean Eyes' in 2015, the now 20-year-old holds multiple Grammys. But pre-fame, she gained the title of vegan back in 2014, after being raised a vegetarian.
After educating herself about the meat and dairy industry, the singer told British Vogue, "once you know that kind of thing and you see it, it's really hard to go back".
With veganism meaning no animal products whatsoever, Eilish successfully persuaded the Oscar de la Renta team to go fur-free, before she agreed to wear the designer's stunning dress for last year's Met Gala. She described it as "a change that makes an impact for the greater good, not only for animals but also for our planet and environment too", urging all designers to do the same.
Story continues
Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Pfeiffer attends the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards. We'll have what she's having. (Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic/Getty Images)
Being one of the most well-known faces of Hollywood for decades, 63-year-old Michelle Pfeiffer has attributed much of her timeless beauty to veganism.
"Eating a vegan diet – it's just so much healthier – and you avoid a lot of toxins that could age your skin and your body. I really noticed a difference in my skin not too long after switching to fully vegan," she told Urbanette Magazine, when praised about her 'incredible glow'.
Read more: Why Nigella won't go vegan – and the stars who are
She also explained that she was initially inspired to go vegan after watching 'The Last Heart Attack', where Bill Clinton (also now a vegan) talked about the heart attack he experienced. Clinton credited his weight loss and subsequent hearth health to Dr. Esselstyn, spurring Pfeiffer on to buy his book.
"I just felt like the science behind it was irrefutable. I couldn't avoid the truth in it. My father died from cancer, and the older you get, there's a lot of disease," she said.
Bimini Bon-Boulash
Bimini Bon-Boulash at the the UK Premiere Of "House of Gucci" on November 09, 2021 in London, England. (Getty Images)
Known as the nation's favourite of RuPaul's Drag Race, despite placing as a runner-up, Bimini described themselves as "East-London's plant-based princess" when first entering the 'werkroom', where contestants perform mini challenges.
The 28-year-old went on to say "I'm like, the most famous vegan in East London because I don't stop going on about it".
Even before the British drag queen, author and model was seen on the show, viewers had a chance to 'meet Bimini', who joked they "invented veganism about seven years ago", continuing "my nails are great, my teeth are great, my hair is great", hinting at a correlation between the two.
Woody Harrelson
Woody Harrelson is a famousluy outspoken advocate for the vegan cause.(REUTERS)
This 60-year-old prolific actor and playwright has been vegan for more than 30 years, meaning he changed his diet at a time when meat substitutes and accommodating menus were far and few between.
He also considers the way he cooks his food. "I eat vegan, but I eat mostly raw. If I have a cooked meal, I feel my energy drop. So when I first started shifting my diet, it wasn’t as much a moral or an ethical pursuit but an energetic pursuit,” he told InStyle.
When he's not busy campaigning for the public to adopt a vegan lifestyle, it seems he's also offered mentorship to many stars who've tried out veganism or vegetarianism, including Sadie Sink, Thandie Newton and Liam Hemsworth.
Lewis Hamilton
The popular sportsman is a vegan. (Getty Images)
Heard of Neat Burger? The 36-year old formula one race driver megastar was actually the one to announce its launch in 2019, as the first international chain of plant-based burgers.
Investing in the chain, he said at the time: “I’m very passionate about being kinder to our world and also really respect Neat Burger’s commitment to more ethical practices and supporting small businesses, so this is something I’m also really proud to support.”
Lewis himself has been vegan since 2017.
Pamela Anderson
Pamela Anderson is known for her animal rights campaigns (REUTERS)
A true pioneer of veganism, this Baywatch star has ditched animal products for more than 30 years, supporting initiatives to help encourage the public to do the same. The 54-year-old animal rights activist appeared in PETA's 'I'd rather go naked than wear fur' campaign, opened a vegan pop-up restaurant in France and has her own Pamela Anderson Foundation dedicated to human, environmental and animal rights.
"I chose a plant-based diet because I wanted to be healthy, but I think the main reason I did was factory farming and the more I got involved, the more I realised how cruel it is to eat meat.
"People worry about climate change and I think it's our biggest issue and factory farming is the leading cause of climate change," she said in a clip posted by Plant Based News.
Her new Vegan Bags Collection x Ashoka Paris is made not from animal skin, but apple skin!
Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Phoenix is a proud vegan, and regularly uses his platform to campaign. (WireImage/Getty Images)
As a vegan since the age of three, the 47-year-old actor has said he remains so because "I don't want to cause pain to another living, empathetic creature", as well as for environmental reasons. "It's really one of the most important things to me."
Stevie Wonder
The veteran singer 'likes not eating meat'. (Getty Images)
It might be more under the radar that this iconic and influential 25-grammy-award winner is vegan. But he's done what he does best, and sung about it (in a sense) too. Appearing on James Corden's Carpool Karaoke, the pair came up with a vegan jingle after Wonder exclaimed "I like not eating meat", having been vegan since 2016 for health and environmental reasons.
Elliot Page
Elliot Page is also well known for refusing to eat meat or use animal products. (Getty Images)
Actor Elliot Page, known for one of his earlier roles in the iconic teen comedy Juno, has been an ethical vegan for more than a decade. He has previously spoken out about his beliefs on the poor treatment of farm animals, questioning why it is vegans that are made fun of.
Other than doing it for all the right reasons, of course, it also can't have hurt being voted 'World's Sexiest Vegan' in 2014.
Travis Barker
Travis Barker turned vegan after a brush with death. (Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic/Getty Images)
While this Blink-182 drummer might be best known for his very PDA, very Instagram post heavy relationship with Kourtney Kardashian, he also has another surprising story. It was after he survived a plane crash in 2008 that he felt compelled to turn his long with-standing vegetarianism into veganism, in order to fully focus on health.
"Right from the first time that I started to really eat vegan I could feel how much it was affecting me. John Salley is one of the guys who I would run into a lot here in Los Angeles, and he always told me how the players who ate that way outperformed the others. I started to see that results for myself as well," he told Men's Journal. He now has his own ethically made vegan, THC-free cannabinoid-infused wellness product company, Barker Wellness. Perhaps Barker and Kardashian weren't such an unexpected match after all.
Greta Thunberg
Greta Thunberg protests in front of the Swedish Parliament (Riksdagen) in Stockholm, on November 19, 2021. (Getty Images)
Last but not least, it may not come as a surprise that the 19-year-old world-famous climate activist Greta Thunberg lives a vegan lifestyle – and we can almost certainly count on her not having a cheat day.
Speaking to Plant Based News, she even said she managed to convince her parents to do the same, by telling them they were "stealing our [young people's] future and that you can not stand up for human rights while you are living that lifestyle". While her dad achieved this completely, her mum, she admitted at the time, only managed 90%.
Source: Yahoo
