Category Archives: Veg Celebrities

Metallica on tour at 60, focus on staying healthy

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Legendary heavy-rock band Metallica used to be known for performances fueled by alcohol and drugs, but these days members of the band (all around 60 years old) are choosing exercise, sleep and plant-based proteins such as tofu as their new habits of choice. They are also careful to make enough time between shows to prioritize family and well-being.

As far as food goes, the band is touring with their own personal chefs who prepare organic meals, using tofu as a key ingredient. Evidence is mounting about the role of soy protein in metabolic health and muscle maintenance. A recent study found a positive association between higher plant-protein intake and muscle mass, particularly among those who consumed higher amounts of total protein. Life on the road when touring can be tough on the body, so Metallica’s use of soy protein in many of their meals makes a lot of sense.

Throughout modern music history, many music stars have promoted meat-free diets, ranging from Moby and Carrie Underwood, to, of course, the most famous vegetarian Paul McCartney. Others have switched to a vegan diet to help them get or stay healthy, including Blink-182’s drummer Travis Barker and rapper Will.i.am.  Whatever their reasons, celebrities choosing plant-based diets and foods are helping to inspire their fans everywhere to make similar choices.

Professional basketball coach JB Blair inspires others to go vegan

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Assistant coach to the Washington Wizards team, Joseph “JB” Blair has been vegetarian since college, and vegan for the past 9 years. His proactive advocacy has made it easier for players and coaches to opt for vegan choices.

At 49, Blair is no longer playing basketball himself, but throughout his career of professional basketball, including 4 seasons of college basketball, participation in several professional teams in Europe, and with the Harlem Globetrotters, he credits his vegetarian diet as helping him keep his weight under control and giving him more energy.  

Nine years ago he was inspired to go fully vegan, after his then-girlfriend told him of the cruelty of the animal agriculture industry. He feels that in addition to improving his physical health, the switch has helped change his mental state:

“Mentally, I have clear thinking and focus,” he says. “And, I truly do believe that the discipline it takes to follow a plant-based diet bleeds over to other aspects of your life, as well.”

The idea that a meal is not worth taking a life has become his guiding principle, a shift that permeates his lifestyle and professional commitments.

As the market for plant-based foods has improved, and many exciting foods that can easily be swapped in to replace their animal-derived counterparts have become available, he has found that post-game nutrition has included many more vegan options. For example, plant-based protein options for smoothies to give the players after a game are always available these days, in addition to whey protein.

Blair said that other NBA stars, such as superstar Chris Paul, going vegan, has helped to open the eyes of the players around him and make teams aware that they needed to cater for those players.  “There’s always some vegan options available now, and it makes such a difference for people to try it,” he says.  Blair makes a point to take players out to his favorite vegan restaurants in the cities where they are playing, to open them up to considering vegan options.

His ultimate aim is to become a stronger ambassador for a plant-based lifestyle, both on and off the court.

Vegan ultrathoner, 66 years old

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Running a marathon is hard enough, but to run a 48-hour ultramarathon in Massachusetts in the heat and high humidity of July takes a special level of fitness and stamina that few can achieve.  To secure first place at the age of 66 years old is particularly impressive, but that’s what Trishul Cherns recently achieved. He ran 142.5 miles during his latest race and credits his vegan diet for his success.  

Cherns is from Hamilton, Canada, but now lives in New York.  His running career, over the past four decades, has covered more than 46,000 miles, sometimes running 1000 miles in a single event.  He has broken more than 110 Canadian ultrarunning records and in 2021 completed his 300th ultramarathon.  

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Never Have I Ever eaten meat!

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“Never Have I Ever” actress, Richa Shukla Moorjani, was raised in a primarily vegan South Asian family living in California, but it was when she learned more about how animals are treated in factory farms after watching the movie Cowspiracy in 2019, that she fully committed to avoiding all animal products.  

In the hit Netflix comedy series “Never Have I Ever”, Moorjani plays the role of Kamala, a cousin staying with her American family while studying for a PhD in Biology at CalTech, who is on a mission to follow her passion and find her voice while balancing her family’s traditional expectations.  In real life, Moorjani has followed a similar path, first moving to Mumbai after graduation from college, to pursue a career in Bollywood, but then returning to California to take on roles in The Mindy Project, NCIS: Los Angeles, and 9-1-1, before responding to a call for Indian actors to audition for “Never Have I Ever”.  

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Tennis Superstar Novak Djokovic follows a plant-based diet

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Novak Djokovic has won an all-time record 23 Grand Slam men’s singles titles in tennis, and has ranked world No 1 for a record total of 389 weeks over a period of 12 different years.  He is the only man in tennis history to be the reigning champion of all four major tournaments at once across three different surfaces. Throughout this period, he has avoided animal foods, although he’s not comfortable with using the term vegan.  

He cut out animal products as a child.  He suffered from allergies that were found to be predominantly related to gluten, dairy, and refined sugar. Once he eliminated these foods he immediately felt better.  Soon after that, he cut out red meat.  He was playing tennis from the age of 4, and as a six-year old he was sent to a tennis camp run by Yugoslav tennis player Jelena Gencic. He began his international tennis career at age 14, winning European championships in singles, double and team competition. He found that animal flesh slowed him down, stating: “Eating meat was hard on my digestion and took a lot of essential energy that I need for my focus, for recovery, for the next training session, and for the next match.”  

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Vegan Olympian Kaylin Whitney

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Olympic gold medalist Kaylin Whitney has found that a plant-based diet enables her to win gold, again and again.  She switched to a plant-based diet during the pandemic, when the Tokyo Olympics were postponed and she had some time to try something new.  As she continued her training, she saw big benefits in how her body worked and felt.  She found a winning formula and it was reflected in her on-track performances.   

“Once I came into that 2021 season, feeling a lot healthier and a lot lighter, my performance in training was going amazing,” she recalls.   She ran a lifetime best of 50.29 seconds for fifth place at the 2021 US trials and that gave her a place in the 400m relays at her first Olympics.  She came away from the Tokyo Olympics with gold in the women’s 4x400m relay and bronze in the mixed 4x400m relay.  She added another gold to her collection as part of the victorious women’s 4x400m team at last year’s World Athletics Championship.  

Beyond the physical benefits she has felt from going plant-based, Whitney is also very candid about the mental benefits too. “I definitely suffer from anxiety and have for my whole life,” she admits. “What you eat gives you energy and that directly affects your mood. So, if you eat junk, you are going to feel like junk…It’s help me feel more stable, more in tune with myself. I never feel like I am lacking anything. I don’t crave the things that I used to crave before. For me, it’s a nice way to live my life.”  

“It was the best thing I ever did,” she proudly declares of her transition to plant-based foods.

will.i.am – vegan rapper

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Rapper will.i.am (William James Adams) is best know as the founder and lead member of the band Black-Eyed Peas, although he is also a songwriter, actor and record producer who has worked with many famous musicians.   He ditched meat, dairy and eggs back in 2017 after his doctor told him that he had high blood pressure and cholesterol. Heart disease and diabetes ran in his family, so his doctor encouraged him to take control of his diet as soon as possible.

Will.i.am admitted that he’d never given much thought to what he was eating before that.  But he recognized that he needed to change his diet and start working out more.  He became vegan, biked to work and lost 15lbs pretty quickly.  He also noticed that he was experiencing other health improvements.

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Vegfest is coming!

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We’re baaack! Join us on Saturday May 13th and Sunday May 14th at our new, larger venue, the Pavilion at the Washington State Fair Events Center in Puyallup, with ABUNDANT FREE PARKING. There will be special FREE gifts for all mothers on Mother’s Day, Sunday May 14th including chocolate and cookbooks, so make it a special treat and bring your mom! Buy tickets online and skip the ticket booth line!

Start with delicious plant-based food from the moment you get there. You’ll experience the flavors of the world as well as those from here at home. Taste what happens when cultures merge. Have you ever tried Mex-Indian fusion? You’ll find delicacies along with stick-to-the-ribs foods. And yes, there’s chocolate too! Bring an appetite.

Chef Miyoko Schinner

The adventure doesn’t stop there. Meet our chefs and cookbook authors and watch their magic as they show you how to make everything from Indian to Cajun. We are especially excited to bring you a cooking demonstration by Miyoko Schinner – a legend in the vegan world, who has written 4 vegan cookbooks. Meet Internal Medicine doctor turned chef, Dr Jyothi Rao, who’ll be cooking recipes from her book “Body on Fire – Anti-Inflammatory Cookbook.” Meet popular cookbook authors with loyal followings, including Chef AJ and Krimsey Lilleth, and watch spices come alive with our authentic Indian chef, Sunita Shastri.

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Help Wanted – Vegan Chef to cook food fit for a king!

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Help wanted – Vegan chef – Location Buckingham Palace – Job description: cook vegan food fit for a king – Employer King Charles III

Great Britain’s King Charles III is seeking an experienced vegan chef to live in and help the head chef prepare food for the royals, staff members and guests.  King Charles avoids meat, fish and dairy at least one day a week, and ensures that he eats vegetarian meals on two other days due to environmental concerns.  He has a rule of no garlic or shellfish, and has added the duck liver delicacy, Foie Gras, to that list due to the cruel way that ducks are treated to produce it.  He requires his food to be in season and grown on their own estate where possible, rather than having it shipped in from elsewhere. Evidently he prefers to eat just breakfast and dinner and skip having lunch, and is not a fan of sweets and chocolate or coffee, but he does like a nice cuppa tea!

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Jane Velez-Mitchell builds a Vegan Media Empire

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Jane Velez Mitchell

Over the past 9 years, journalist and CNN media host Jane Velez-Mitchell has developed a new media channel, UnchainedTV, focused on bringing veganism to the general public.

Jane grew up in a pescetarian household, and she had already become vegetarian when she interviewed fourth-generation cattle farmer turned vegan Howard Lyman, who gained notoriety after appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1996. She had developed her career working as a TV news reporter and news anchor in various TV stations around the country, and was working on a show called Celebrity Justice.

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