Million dollar actress Hilary Swank has recently admitted to Marie Claire that she cried over her plate of food a few years back when she was forced to give up her vegan diet. The 35-yeard-old Oscar winner says she had to make the switch two years ago for health reasons.

“I just started withering away. I wasn’t getting enough vitamins or protein. (It was) very emotional,” she told the monthly magazine. “I sat over my plate and cried. I really had to work through it. It still makes me emotional.”

The actress says that even though it’s been 2 years, she still has difficulty eating animal flesh.

“I don’t know if you have ever looked into a cow’s eye, but it is so soulful. So I don’t like it – but it’s something I have to do.”

It’s pretty ironic that Hilary finally decided that veganism just wasn’t working for her, especially since she is a self-confessed vitamin junkie and such a health nut. Previously, Hilary attributed her slim figure to her high metabolism and power Pilates, but now she releases that she desperately needs as much protein as she can force herself to eat.

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Alicia Silverstone is on the cover of this month’s Health magazine. A few years go she raised quite a stir with her naked PETA PSA back in 2007 and since then she has continued to be vocal about the benefits of vegetarianism and veganism. In the interview she talks about her new book that hits stores this month, The Kind Diet, and also her new line of cruelty-free beauty products. Alicia is very excited about the release of her book because she believes that when we are more gentle and kind to ourselves and the planet we receive gifts of ‘mental clarity and vitality.’

The actress is now 32 years old and she became a vegan when she was 21 and since then she feels and looks younger than she did back when she was a meat eater. She explained,

“Yet when I look at those pictures from back then, I can see the puffiness in my eyes. It’s weird to be 32 now and feel and look younger. What saved me was my love of animals. Right after I first made the switch to a plant-based diet, people were literally telling me, ‘What have you done? You’re sparkling.’”

When it comes to her weight, she is considerably slimmer than she was as a curvaceous teen movie star and she credits that to her diet. She said,

“Diet first, exercise second. Exercise is fantastic, and when I need to be a certain way quickly, I amp up my exercise by walking the dogs and doing yoga.”

Silverstone’s book will be out in the fall. Her beauty products line includes makeup bags and brushes by EcoTools which are made from recycled materials, bamboo, and hemp.

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Emily Deschanel stars in the role as Dr. Brennan in the crime-solving TV show, Bones.  In the real world, Emily is a down to earth devoted crusader for environmental causes.  She advocates the use of organic cotton and hemp clothing, cruelty-free makeup, and you will never see her without her nontoxic SIGG water bottle.  In a recent interview with Health Magazine she revealed some secrets about her Vegan Diet and why she is so passionate about the environment.  She said,

“I’ve been vegan for 15 years, and it turns out it makes a very big impact on the environment to eat fewer animal products, which cause more greenhouse gases than all of transportation combined. The United Nations did a study just over two years ago, and that blew my mind. I started thinking that if people are vegetarian for one day a week, that makes a huge difference!”

Emily also opened up about her own eating habits as a Vegan.  Some people think that being a Vegan means you can’t eat yummy foods, but Emily explains that she too has her up and down days but that her diet is still vegan-centered:

“Oh my god, I’m not a perfect eater by any means, and I don’t believe in starving yourself. I believe in eating healthfully and being balanced—and being balanced in your mind as well as in your body. Because I think you can become obsessed with being a certain size, but what is being healthy? It’s exercising and eating well, but also not obsessing about those things!”

What’s so admirable about Emily is that she practices what she preaches.  She tries to eat right the best she can, she’s not advocating ‘lose weight quick’ diet plans, and she instead focuses on doing what she can to promote environmental awareness by being a part of the solution.

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Heather Mills, the 41-year-old former model and also former wife of Sir Paul McCartney has recently purchased an East Sussex restaurant in England and intends to turn it into a vegan eaterie.  Last week, she signed the deal to take over the Big Fish Cafe, a popular place located in Hove.  A spokesman told the Sunday Mirror,

‘She has been a local resident for nearly ten years and is looking forward to giving the cafe a much-needed renovation.  Heather has wanted to buy the cafe for many years to create a fun place serving great tasting healthy plant-based foods for kids, their families and the locals.’

Vegan diets are stricter than vegetarian diets in that no animal products are eaten such as cheese, milk and eggs.  On a vegetarian diet, dairy products are still eaten for example because the cow was not slaughtered in the process.  As for Heather’s new restaurant, it will be interesting to see if she calls upon any famous British chefs such as Gordon Ramsay or Jamie Oliver to help with setting the menu.

I’m sure you’ve heard it before, animal protein is “complete” and plant protein is “incomplete.” Protein is made up of amino acids and 9 amino acids are considered “essential” because they cannot be synthesized by your body and must be derived from the food you eat. Animal protein has been referred to as “complete” because it contains all 9 essential amio acids. Because it is widely believed that plant protein is deficient in some essential amino acids, it has been referred to as “incomplete.”

This “incomplete protein” myth was popularized by Francis Lappe’s book, Diet for a Small Planet, in which she advocated the practice of “food combining” for vegetarians, such as eating rice with beans, so that the essential amino acids from different foods would combine to form a complete protein. She later retracted her belief in “food combining” stating in subsequent editions of the book,

“In 1971 I stressed protein complementarity because I assumed that the only way to get enough protein … was to create a protein as usable by the body as animal protein. In combating the myth that meat is the only way to get high-quality protein, I reinforced another myth. I gave the impression that in order to get enough protein without meat, considerable care was needed in choosing foods. Actually, it is much easier than I thought.

With three important exceptions, there is little danger of protein deficiency in a plant food diet. The exceptions are diets very heavily dependent on fruit or on some tubers, such as sweet potatoes or cassava, or on junk food (refined flours, sugars, and fat). Fortunately, relatively few people in the world try to survive on diets in which these foods are virtually the sole source of calories. In all other diets, if people are getting enough calories, they are virtually certain of getting enough protein.”

Here’s where it gets interesting. The idea that plant based foods were deficient in certain amino acids was based on studies of the growth of young rats done in the early 1900’s. A subsequent study done in 1952, looked at human requirements for essential amino acids and found them to be very different from rats. Additionally it showed that the requirements for all the essential amino acids in humans could be met by many unprocessed plant foods, without combining, in excess of the recommended levels. The bottom line is that plant protein is “complete.” Vegetables and grains contain all essential amino acids and non-essential amino acids in varying proportions, and will supply in excess of what is necessary for your daily needs.

The Peta ad featuring a naked Alicia Silverstone promoting a vegan/vegetarian lifestyle was axed at the last minute by Comcast as it was set to air in Houston on E!, Lifetime and Food Network. Even though it had already been approved to air, Comcast says the reason it was pulled was because of nudity.

Peta had chosen Houston to air the ad because it has the dubious distinction of having some of the most unhealthy eating habits in America. Houston was also ranked by Men’s Fitness Magazine as the 6th fattest city in America. The ad implied that a vegan/vegetarian lifestyle can give you a beautiful body, although it obviously seemed to rile up a few feathers in the Lone Star State.

Here’s the ad that is causing such a stir:

Celebrity Diet Doctor Weigh in…
Wow, less than 24 hours and this ad is making news again! Remember just because a food is vegan or vegetarian does not mean it’s healthy. A vegan and vegetarian diet loaded with white flour and sugar is junk. The key is fill your diet with as much unprocessed fruits and veggies as possible.

As far as this controversy is concerned. Someone should tell these Houston Comcast guys to lighten up!

Alicia Silverstone is in a sexy new ad for Peta promoting a Vegetarian/Vegan Lifestyle. Peta is taking a page out of Madison Ave and banking on the adage “sex sells.”

Alicia alternates labeling herself as a vegetarian and vegan in her statement on the Peta website:

“Like most people, I wasn’t always a vegetarian, but I’ve always loved animals. If you ever have a chance to meet a cow, pig, turkey, or goat, you will see that they are just as cute and funny as your dogs and cats and that they, too, want to live and feel love. They don’t like pain. Now when I see a steak, it makes me feel sad and sick because right away, I see my dog or the amazing cows I met at a sanctuary. I’ve been vegan for 10 years, and it’s the single-most important and helpful decision I have ever made. Physically, the effect has been amazing. Once I went vegan, I lost the weight I wanted to lose, my nails were stronger, and my skin was glowing. I feel great, and I look better now than I did 11 years ago.

Being vegan truly is the secret to my life’s joy and peace. I feel physically and spiritually better than I could have ever imagined knowing that I am doing everything I can to reduce animal suffering with simple lifestyle choices like being vegan, never wearing any products made from animals (like wool and leather), and buying only from companies that NEVER test their products or ingredients on animals.”

Celebrity Diet Doctor Weigh in…
Provocative ad to say the least. Alicia is clearly taking an ethical stance on her decision to go vegan/vegetarian.

From a nutritional perspective we clearly need to get more unrefined fruits and veggies into our diet. However, remember there are junk vegan and vegetarian diets. Refined carb products full of sugar and white flour are technically vegan and vegetarian. A vegan diet can be a very healthy diet when it consists of unprocessed fruits and veggies, but it is deficient in B12 vitamins and the Marine form of Omega-3. While the plant form of Omega-3 has shown some health benefits, the majority of cardio-protective and neuro-protective benefits have been with the marine form.