A difficult diet change. Miley Cyrus has been one of Hollywood’s best-known vegans for years, but she recently revealed that she was forced to quit the plant-based eating regimen because she noticed it was having a negative impact on her health.
“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,” the 27-year-old “Midnight Sky” singer told Joe Rogan during a Wednesday, September 2, interview on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. “[The vegans] are going to come for me and that’s OK. I’m used to people coming for me.”
Cyrus, who noted she stuck to “the strictest [vegan diet] you’ve ever known” from 2013 to 2019, said her first non-vegan meal in years was actually cooked by Liam Hemsworth, whom she dated for several years before marrying him in December 2018. The pair split in August 2019.
“My ex-husband cooked me some fish on the grill,” she told Rogan, 53, when he asked about her first dish that wasn’t entirely plant-based. “I cried, like, for a long time. I cried for the fish … it really hurts me to eat fish.”
The Tennessee native, who clarified she’s now eating gluten again as well, said she decided to incorporate fish into her diet after experiencing intense hip pain on a flight to Europe. In addition to helping with joint pain, the diet change has also been beneficial for her mind.
“Now I’m so much sharper than I was and I think that I was, at one point, pretty malnutritioned [sic,]” she explained. “I remember going to Glastonbury [music festival] and that was a show that I loved — I loved my performance — but I was running on empty.”
While the Grammy nominee admitted leaving Veganism was “really terrifying” because of the potential backlash, she’s still doing whatever she can to help animals. “I have 22 animals on my farm in Nashville, I’ve got 22 in my house in Calabasas, I’m doing all I need to do for the animals,” she declared. “But when it comes to my brain … you can’t be vegan and be this quick.”
For now, the Hannah Montana alum considers herself a pescatarian. “That’s where I’m at,” she said, though she did note she’s open to other diets. As she put it: “I’m experimenting a lot with my diet, and my body, and my routine and my exercise right now.”
Interestingly enough, Hemsworth, 30, has also since stopped his vegan diet. “I was vegan for almost four years, and then February of last year I was feeling lethargic. Then I got a kidney stone. It was one of the most painful weeks of my life,” he revealed in the May 2020 “Strength Issue” of Men’s Health. “I was doing press for Isn’t It Romantic. But I had to go to the hospital and get surgery.”
He added at the time: “I had to completely rethink what I was putting in my body.”