Actress Drew Barrymore has been on our radar for years, ever since she starred in the movie E.T. as a small child. She’s been known for many things, among them her on and off vegetarian lifestyle. In 2002, she gave up on being a vegetarian in order to wear fun clothes, telling IMDB “…Dressing is like an art form – it’s so much fun.” She was back on the vegetarian bandwagon in 2024 and then blamed the diet for making her a picky eater.
Now that she’s dating Will Kopelman, she’s back to eating meat. She says that she finds vegetarianism simply too difficult to do on her own. She loves to cook for her boyfriend and finds it easier to make the same foods for both of them. Barrymore follows a list of celebrities who are “on again, off again” with vegetarianism, including Natalie Portman, who famously gave up her vegan lifestyle during her pregnancy.
People choose to become vegetarians for many reasons, but more choose it for the health benefits than any other reason. According to the American Dietetic Association, vegetarians tend to weigh less, have lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, as well as reduced rates of cancer and type 2 diabetes compared to meat eaters. Despite these benefits, many people who try to follow a vegetarian lifestyle don’t stay with it long term.
People give up a vegetarian lifestyle for a number of reasons. Often they may lack support for their choice, they may not have believed in it 100% from the beginning, or they may struggle with finding enough foods that they feel comfortable eating. Limiting your diet can be difficult for anyone and many say that they struggle with family members who don’t eat the same foods and that it’s often easier to eat like the rest of their family.
Women who are following a vegan diet and are pregnant may find that they crave meat and return to a meat eating diet – Tiffani Thiessen, Brooke Shields, Alyson Hannigan and Jennifer Connelly are a few notable examples. It can be difficult, although not impossible, to get enough iron and B vitamins during pregnancy if you are not eating meat.
Time will tell if Barrymore switches back to vegetarianism yet again, but until then, beef is what’s for dinner.