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"I had a piece of salmon and my brain felt like a computer rebooting."
Keeping up with a vegan lifestyle can take a lot of dedication! While completely cutting out animal products can have positive impacts on the environment and a person's health, it's not the right fit for everyone. For some celebrities who have tried committing to a plant-based diet, they've realized over time that it just doesn’t work for them. Whether it had negative effects on their body or it just didn’t fit into their lifestyle, these stars decided that veganism wasn’t for them.
Find out why these celebrities stopped being vegan…
1. Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus had been a vegan for six years when she realized she needed to incorporate more foods into her diet in order for her body to function properly. While she says it was not easy for her to make the change and she cried "for a long time," she has noticed a big change in her body.
"I was vegan for a very long time and I've had to introduce fish and omegas into my life because my brain wasn't functioning properly," she said on The Joe Rogan Experience, later adding, "Now I'm so much sharper than I was and I think that I was at one point pretty malnutritioned."
Anne Hathaway was a vegan for several years until she made the switch while filming Interstellar. She explained that she and her husband had joined Matt Damon for dinner one night at a Michelin-star restaurant and Matt agreed to eat whatever the chef wanted to serve. When Anne's husband also agreed, Anne was left trying to figure out what to do.
"So then I was the only chick and I'm the vegan and everyone's just going with the flow. So I asked, 'Is your fish local?' And they said: 'Do you see that fjord?' So I had a piece of salmon and my brain felt like a computer rebooting," Anne told Tatler.
Ellen DeGeneres was a vegan for eight years but during her 2018 Netflix special, Relatable, she revealed that she had recently changed her dietary restrictions. While she didn't explain why, she shared that she now occasionally ate fish and eggs.
"I was vegan for eight years and I really believe that it’s great for you. I was healthier than I'd ever been, I loved being vegan," Ellen said during her stand-up routine. "But just in the last year or two for no reason really, I started eating a piece of fish once in a while. And I'll eat eggs from chickens I know -- if they are in someone’s backyard and they're wandering around and they're happy."
4. Kristen Bell
Kristen Bell has been a vegetarian since she was a preteen but in 2012, she decided to go vegan after watching Forks Over Knives. Then, during her first pregnancy, Kristen says she wasn't getting everything her body needed and she decided to incorporate more foods into her diet.
"During my first pregnancy, I was working and it felt like I needed more calories. I was pretty conscious of it. I think being vegan is a wonderful way to live and it has great effects on the body. I also think it has really good effects on the environment," Kristen explained on the Today show.
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View StoryLiam Hemsworth was a vegan for several years and while it was going well in the beginning, he began to experience health issues. He explained that he believed it was due to the high level of oxalates he consumed, which is found in foods like spinach and nuts.
"The first two years, I felt great. I felt my energy was high. I felt like my body was strong, cardio was high, everything felt really good. February last year I was feeling really low and lethargic and wasn't feeling good generally. And then I got a kidney stone," he told Men's Health.
He continued, "If something works for a period of time, great, keep doing it. If something changes and you're not feeling great, then you've got to reassess it again and then figure it out."
Natalie Portman has been a long time vegan but briefly switched to vegetarianism when she was pregnant. She explained that she listened to her body and felt like she should be eating eggs and dairy.
"I actually went back to being vegetarian when I became pregnant, just because I felt like I wanted that stuff. I was listening to my body to have eggs and dairy," Natalie shared in a radio interview. "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. I actually wanted eggs at the beginning and then they grossed me out after a while."
After giving birth, Natalie went back to being a vegan.
Zooey Deschanel once adhered to a vegan lifestyle but says that her various food sensitivities, including wheat and soy, have made it difficult to be completely vegan. Instead, she eats vegan when she can -- and still makes delicious looking vegan treats.
"In the back of my mind, I was like, 'It'll be easy [to be vegan]! I can't have that stuff anyway.' But I didn't realize you have so few options in the end. To be a gluten-free vegan is, like, the most difficult thing you can possibly be. And I lasted, like, six months," she told Vulture. "At a certain point, you just have to go, 'You know, this gets in the way of my living too much.'"
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View StoryQueer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness was a vegan for about four years but ultimately realized that he was doing it for the wrong reasons and was only trying to gain the approval of others.
"So I was really into veganism when I was like 22-26…First of all, I read Skinny Bitch. It was an incredible book. Then I realized the social, environmental implications. But the thing that was really driving it more than that was my desire to be loved and accepted by men, so I thought I needed to be skinnier and, like, lose weight, so I did," he said on the Allure podcast.
When Samuel L. Jackson first became a vegan, he lost a lot of weight -- which unfortunately didn't work well for his career. When he was cast in the movie Tarzan, he was told he needed to gain weight or risk losing the role. He decided to stop his vegan lifestyle and introduced protein back into his diet.
"Then they threatened to fire me from the Tarzan movie if I didn't gain 20lbs. I'd wound up losing 40lbs. So I decided to go eat and now I'm not a vegan any more. I have protein meals two to three times a week and eat vegetarian the other four days," Samuel shared.
10. Channing Tatum
When Channing Tatum's ex-wife Jenna Dewan went vegan in 2012, he was inspired to follow in her footsteps. Unfortunately, Jenna says it didn't work out for him and he was only able to sustain the diet for a few months.
"He really did try to be vegan for six months. The guy doesn't like vegetables, which makes it tough. It was hard in the beginning because you want someone to be on the same page, but you've got to let people be themselves," Jenna explained to Women's Health.
11. Wendy Williams
Wendy Williams was once a vegan but after experiencing numerous health issues, she and her doctors decided it wasn't the best choice for her. On Instagram, she shared a photo of a bowl of watermelon while updating fans on her diet.
"Many are STILL thinking I'm vegan, vegetarian, gluten free etc. I am no longer any of them. I eat what I want, when I want & my doctors feel it's working for ME plus I've lost lots of weight during social distance," Wendy wrote in a post on her now-deleted Instagram account.
12. Derek Hough
Derek Hough says he's always experimenting with new ways of eating and once tried being a vegan. He managed to stick to the diet for six weeks before deciding he wanted to enjoy more types of food -- but in moderation.
"People were like, 'Whoa, is it hard being a vegan?' Like no, not really. Especially living in L.A., it's almost hard to avoid it. Everything is vegan. It was actually fantastic," Derek shared with People. "It was great, but I found for me if I'm craving something -- like if I'm craving meat, then I'll have it. But I don't eat it as often and I will say that. But for me it's about the greens…that gives you the energy."
