More and more celebrities are deciding to go vegan these days and it has been rumored that American actress Kristen Bell might have joined them.
Kristen Bell has been a vegetarian since she was 11 years old and has also tried veganism. However, the actress does not call herself a vegan anymore. Even still, she does support clean eating and says that she is “conscientious” about where her food comes from.
Read more below about Kristen Bell’s decision to go vegan and her eating shrimp as Eleanor Shellstrop on television show, The Good Place.
Forks Over Knives
According to multiple Internet sources, Kristen Bell has been a vegetarian since she was 11. However, in 2012 her and her husband, actor Dax Shepard, decided to go vegan after watching a documentary called, Forks Over Knives. The documentary was made in 2011, directed by Lee Fulkerson and produced by John Corry. It is available on Netflix and explores the miraculous benefits of plant-based eating, along with displaying some frightening scientific evidence that degenerative diseases, such as cancer and diabetes, are closely linked to our consumption of animal-based and processed foods.
The show clearly had a deep effect on Kristen, as it did on thousands of others who watched it. Over recent years, documentaries that demonstrate the benefits of plant-based eating to both the consumer and the planet have become increasingly popular. Netflix appears to be the front-runner in such, creating Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret in 2014, What The Health in 2017, The Game Changers in 2018 and the documentary series Rotten, also in 2018.
Why Kristen Stopped Being Vegan
Kristen was vegan for a year or so in 2012 but admitted that it was too difficult to find the calories after falling pregnant. “During my first pregnancy, I was working and it felt like I needed more calories. I was pretty conscious of it,” she told TODAY. Bell gave birth to her first child, Lincoln, in 2013, and her second one, Delta, the following year. Whilst the actress did not remain vegan, she does support environmentally friendly eating. “I, personally, very much believe in being a conscientious eater, so when I’m eating dairy and eggs, I like to know they’re coming from a place that has humane treatment,” she said, finally adding, “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.”
Eleanor Shellstrop
Despite Kristen being vegan, her character Eleanor Shellstrop in Netflix television show The Good Place infamously loves shrimp. Eleanor even asks Janet, a magical fairy Godmother type figure, to make her a shrimp-dispensing machine with various different flavors. The flavors on Eleanor’s shrimp machine include, from left to right, Mountain Blast, Circus Funky Mustard, Sriracha Sunrise, Garlic, Mystery Flavor (white chocolate), Cool Ranch, Cajun and Margarita Mix. The actress even posted a tweet on May 10 2019 captioned “Happy National Shrimp Day, my Benches!!!!!!” Accompanied by a gif of her using her machine.
However, Kristen told Buzzfeed in 2018, “I have never actually had seafood of any kind because I grew up in Michigan, which is not exactly the fresh fish capital of the world. We’ve got Lake Erie and those fish have three heads. Our prop department [makes] these little vegetarian shrimp that are essentially rubber nuggets.” Which means that Bell didn’t have to break her veggie diet for the part.
So, although Kristen Bell isn’t vegan, she is vegetarian and claims that a plant-based diet has positive effects on both the planet and the person eating it. Documentary, Forks Over Knives convinced Bell for a short while – but ultimately a vegan diet just wasn’t for her.