Jennifer Lopez has been on the publicity warpath to promote her return to American Idol as part of the “dream team” judging panel. The other members of the panel are Keith Urban, and Harry Connick Jr. Don’t ask me how Harry became part of the dream team. I know Keith has the personality and the Idol cred for multiple seasons, but Harry confuses me. He’s adorable, but he’s past his pop-culture prime. Correct me if I’m wrong.
JLo has gone on a tangent to talk about her brand new diet. She’s decided to go vegan, which is shocking. The vegan stance is really hardcore and rules out all animal products and byproducts from one’s diet. Most vegans even refuse to wear leather, but the emphasis with JLo is on her diet. She says she feels so much better these days, but she misses butter like crazy:
Jennifer Lopez has decided to go vegan.
The 44-year-old singer, who was a vegetarian for a brief period some years ago, has completely changed her diet by removing all animal products in an effort to stay in shape but admits she’s missing butter.
Earlier this year Beyonce and Jay Z also decided to go vegan for 22 days, although Jennifer seems to be sticking to her diet longterm.
The star told New York radio station Z100: “Being vegan, it’s basically no diary, no meat, everything is plant based and from the ground. Butter is the one thing I miss!”
The I “Luh Ya Papi” hitmaker claims she would encourage others to go vegan and cut out meat, eggs, dairy products and other animal-derived ingredients all together, because it makes her feel good.
She said: “You do feel better. I do recommend the vegan diet because you wake up and feel great!”
[From Daily Mail]
There’s always that “one thing” that anyone on a special diet misses. Vegans are so restrictive, so it’s amazing that Jennifer only has one big void (butter) in her diet. Most of us would miss the eggs, the cheese, and the ice cream. I’m a vegetarian, and my “one thing” is bacon. That’s mostly because bacon was the last thing I gave up, and the world is so busy telling me how amazing bacon is. Meat eaters love to tell vegetarians what they’re missing, so I can only imagine what omnivores say to vegans. I wonder how Casper Smart feels about JLo’s new diet? We haven’t seen photos of them together in a few months.
In related news, the vegan diet has kept JLo’s backside in great shape.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN
Great body
Agreed, but as a fellow curvy, athletic girl, JLo, you need to size up on that dress. That much sideboob and crotchal region is just trying too hard. A little more drape and it would look so much classier.
That last picture of her smiling is so weird! She looks do different
Yes, what is that last pic?! More “fillers” or ‘tox, or just bad make-up? Herr eyebrows appear to be trying to leave her face or something.
I agree, she looks like the Koookie Monster.
She always looked great but it’s too restrictive for me and I like meat once in awhile. Don’t like cheese so that wouldn’t worry me. Sam L Jackson started in August and very slim now.
Um wow that must hard from her Puerto Rican background. I remember her interview w Ben Affleck and Barbara Walters where she was frying up rice beans and chicken cutlets with butter!!!!
I’m a vegetarian too but I could never go vegan. It would be way too difficult for me because I LOVE cheese. I don’t miss meat, it’s been 22 years.
+1
I would lose my mind if I didn’t have cheese
I’ve been vegan for about a year and a half and cheese is the food I miss most still. Milk, eggs, even milk chocolate was relatively easy for me to give up. But cheese, I still crave it sometimes.
J-Lo looks good though. Amazing body.
Eggs are what I miss. I find I can get my cheese craving fixed with any number of vegan/soy cheese products… but there’s just no replacement (a literal one) for eggs! #youaremissed
That is very common. I remember saying, “I could give up everything but cheese!” and here in France that’s particularly tough. That said, I’ve been vegan for six months now and trust me, once you give up the dairy you’re body will thank you (plus, after a while you stop missing it and find much comfort in plant-based creamy alternatives).
I used to be a vegetarian but couldn’t go all the way because of cheese and ice cream. I tried the alternatives but really struggled with them.
Now I raise beef cattle (oh how life changes!) but I do maintain that Morningstar veggie corn dogs taste much better than real ones.
I don’t believe in restricting myself because even though it seems to work for others, I know how I am. Restrictions set me up for failure and then I spiral out of dietary control. Everything is consumed in moderation now with smaller portions. That philosophy has definitely helped.
I watched a couple of early episodes last season and Harry was actually really funny and a really good judge. I don’t know how he did when they got to Hollywood.
But he was good enough to make me a fan. Before he was just meh for me… The cheating doctor from Will and Grace.
I haven’t watched AI but Harry came to fame as a great musician–at the time notable because few people his age were as interested in or talented at the kind of music he was doing. He’s the real deal in the music world, even if he’s so so as an actor.
I know I had such a crush on Harry growing up. He’s completely adorable and I LOVE his voice. I’ve been watching AI for the first time in years because of him. I think he is a great judge, is thoughtful and honest with the contestants.
He actually was a mentor last year and became a judge this year. As @Birdix said, he’s the real deal. He knows music inside and out from the technicalities, to the nuances etc. He’s the best judge in my opinion, and funny as well. Keith is nice, and easy on the eyes. JLo looks great, but her partisan judging is really annoying me. She may as well have crowned Jena Irene the winner last week when she incredibly got up on stage and hugged and kissed her after her performance.
Isn’t Vegan also about the lifestyle change as well? Can you really say you’re vegan if you’re rocking leather booties? Serious question. I always thought it was a lifestyle commitment.
Technically, yes. Vegan refers to a person who attempts to limit animal cruelty in all aspects of life. If Jennifer still wears leather (or fur, she always gets in trouble for furs), she isn’t vegan. Most AR people would say Jennifer is eating a “plant-based diet.”
No, you cannot call yourself vegan if you are wearing leather and other animal products. She can say she is following a vegan diet but she should not call herself a vegan. I have been vegan for six years now. I don’t eat, wear or use anything with animal products. Sure when it comes to buying a new purse it can be restrictive b/c it’s hard to find a cute purse that is vegan. But when it comes to the diet I don’t find it restrictive at all. I eat a pretty varied diet and I don’t have a hard time finding vegan things to eat.
Right – sometimes the diet part of the vegan lifestyle is the easiest. Purses and shoes can be trying.
Even devout dietary vegan Russell Simmons admits to wearing leather shoes. As for what people can and cannot do, one can say whatever one feels but preventing someone else from having their own interpretations is impossible. Some people eat fish & call themselves vegetarian.
Aren’t purses nowadays made mostly of PU fake leather? I’m not sure what’s your price range but there isn’t a single leather purse in shops like H&M, Forever 21 and stuff like that.
Some people follow a vegan diet solely for health reasons, unmotivated by animal welfare, so they still continue wearing leather and/or fur. Plus there are some vegans who no longer buy animal products, but continue wearing the clothes and shoes they already own so that the animal’s death isn’t wasted.
If someone tells me they’re following a vegan diet, I figure it just means their food is plant-based but I don’t make any assumptions about what they wear unless they tell me they’re avoiding animal products for ethical reasons (which would not just include leather, but all sorts of cosmetics and such, since many contain animal products and/or involve animal testing).
Thanks all!
Vegan can just mean a way of eating. People can eat mainly vegan, for instance, meaning most of their meals are vegan. People eat vegan for many reasons, mainly because they feel better with that approach, it doesn’t require feeling that other animals shouldn’t be killed for making clothing or for food. Some people will insist otherwise, but it really refers to not eating animal products. Obviously ethical/religious beliefs can also push someone into vegan eating. But such beliefs are obviously not the impetus here- she just thinks vegan eating will help her stay in shape, although it partly helps her because it gets her out of the food rut she may have been in. Change can be helpful that way.
Also even when there is a religious/ethical aspect, people draw their lines differently. Some may object to fur because of how the industry works, for instance, but figure that leather is just finding a use for something that otherwise would be a wasted byproduct of the food industry. Vegans often stay away from honey because bees can be killed in the process, or from silk because the silkworms die. Others hang looser. Life can be rather complicated. I have to deal with my four-footed obligate carnivore roommates, for instance, and the ethical quandaries that causes (we obviously have serious religious differences). I’ve waved dead cow in a can to distract my feline friends from a very live chipmunk they brought home, for instance. Ironic at the very least.
Vegan is so restrictive. Nothing works in my coffee except for real milk or cream. And then there’s butter….
Not really. I went vegan full-stop a year ago, and olive oil and almond milk are working just fine for my coffee and my pasta dishes, etc.
Have you tried coconut milk? I switched to that for my morning lattes and use it in my greens smoothies. It doesn’t taste coconutty to me at all. I get it unsweetened.
I didn’t care for almond milk.
I adore coconut milk! Plus it makes great vegan whipped cream if properly chilled. I bake with it a lot too and you can’t detect the coconut flavor so much.
I like using Silk soy creamer in my coffee 🙂
People with milk problems usually have only tried soy milk or maybe rice milk. But there are so many other options available: almond, coconut, millet, barley, spelt, oat, cashew, hemp, hazelnut, etc. You can make milk from practically every grain or nut/seed and usually one of these option tastes quite okay in coffee. Theoretically it’s also possible to make sesame milk (which I don’t like as much as it tastes slightly bitter) and white bean milk (which I haven’t tried but is supposed to taste quite… beany. Soy beans are rather neutral in comparison.)
JLO: See the Earth Balance line for delicious vegan butter substitutes.
Preach. I love the soy free type.
Nothing to do with her diet — I saw pictures of her hanging out with her mom. She dressed casually and low key in jeans and t-shirt, and she looks fantastic!
Stunning woman.
Leave Harry alone!!!! He’s brilliant and funny and genuinely talented (much more so than Jenny from the block btw). He’s classic talent among 2 pop culture gimmicks (I’m being a bit hard on urban, but he does have a shtick), So yes, Harry is worthy and awesome and . . . obviously I have an unhealthy attachment to a celeb I “met” on Will & Grace. He’s perfect leave ‘im alone!!!!!
jlo is gorgeous and she gets more gorgeous every year!
how does she DO that???
vegan is a huge commitment, but i believe it is healthier.
plant based eating is best – did you know that ROMAINE LETTUCE has more protein pound for pound than STEAK?
amazing.
there’s a book – Eat to Live – that is full of info on how to eat.
when we eat this way, we eat lots and the weight falls off, almost effortlessly.
we feel energized.
it’s a huge adjustment, but worth it.
I could never do it, I can live without red meat, actually I already do that, but I love fish and seafood.. I could never live without my curry with crab… sorry…
Actually, Romaine lettuce has 1 gram of protein per 85 grams of lettuce, and beef has 22 grams of protein per 85 grams of beef.
Yes. I think bella meant per kcal. Like you could eat 200 kcal of beef and 200 kcal of salad and have more protein from the salad. The only problem is that 200 kcal salad is a HUGE amount. I think that should be roughly 4 pounds or something.
I’ve been a vegan for a year now (after being a vegetarian for 13 years), and I can honestly say there’s nothing I miss. Sometimes I wish I could share a certain meal with friends or family because everyone’s enjoying it so much, but on the rare occasions that I accidentally eat something with cheese or butter, my body knows before I do. It’s crazy. I could go through several pints of ice cream a day, no problem, and I’m a Chicago native who loved deep dish pizza… yet after a few months, my body pretty much accepted that plants were the only thing on the menu.
It’s very liberating… not restrictive at all. Of course, I’m doing it primarily for ethical reasons, which I suspect makes it a lot easier. When I hear about people like Beyonce or J. Lo “going vegan” for dietary reasons, it feels like more of a trend or a phase they’re trying on for size. So of course they focus on the craving and what they’re missing… it’s not a permanent solution.
I too would miss bacon, my vegan co worker tried to get me to try “fakin bacon” or something last year.
I was just telling my bestie, if they could come up w/a mouth spray–I just love the taste so much but I limit it to a couple of times a month on the weekends.
I wish I had the willpower to go vegan — food, shoes, clothes, cosmetics, everything. From the reading I’ve done, aside from needing B12 supplements, it’s a much healthier way of eating than the standard American diet. Plus I really do feel badly about how most livestock is mistreated.
At this point, I am eating vegan at home but still have dairy and eggs — and, yeah, sometimes bacon — when I go out. It’s a start, anyway. (Incidentally, my parents raised me to eat meat morning, noon and night so this involves putting aside a lifetime of habits and familiar foods.) Baby steps, baby steps.
I’m usually the other way round because at home I have a certain amount of control where my animal products are from (like organic dairy from a small farm a few miles away where the sheep live on a nice pasture or something like that). And restaurants usually buy the cheapest/most convenient stuff.
Someone please tell me how to get a body like that! Specifically her legs/booty. Argh!!
Have her genetics?
The dude behind her in the first photo seems pretty impressed with her assets.
I think she’s beautiful! She’s in great shape but I can see where she could have a weight issue if she didn’t exercise religiously.
she looks A MAZING!!
She looks gorgeous! Amazing body, so whatever works for her…
Are you sure that’s her in he white pant suit? Her face looks jacked. Doesn’t even look like her.
I don’t know about jacked face, but I think part of the reason is that we never see her teeth smile/full mouth smile like that…It’s usually a partial/controlled smile or mouth open/agape red carpet look, or the zoolander ‘model’ look.
Ghee is an alternative to butter. Its “almost” vegan, because they take out the milk part of it and leave the fat. It is also healthier than butter.
I don’t know why nearly pure animal fat should be “almost” vegan? Most vegans for health reasons want to especially avoid the animal fat. And vegans for ethical reasons are against the horrendous way (factory) farmed animals are treated nowadays.
Ghee is free of lactose which isn’t the same (and hardly an issue because only REALLY sensitive people react to the miniscule amount of lactose in butter).
It’s also not healthier than butter, it’s more processed. The only thing is that when cooking with Ghee it doesn’t burn as easily and burnt butter really is bad and unhealthy. So in that regard it could be considered “healthier”. But I mean… cook with coconut oil and all of that isn’t an issue. Plus coconut oil has a fatty acid that’s rather uncommon and part of human breast milk among other things. So I’d say it’s healthier than both butter and Ghee.
Eating vegan isn’t really restrictive- there are so many foods out there with no animal products. Fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, grainy things, legumes, etc etc etc. I certainly have a much more varied diet now than I ever did as a carnivore, and often go for long periods without even a little cheese (am allergic to eggs and most dairy). I can have a different nut or seed or legume butter every day of the week with just my small collection. I track food often enough to know that even when eating vegan, it is no problem getting enough protein (and you don’t have to eat soy every day either). Our culture is just so centered on animal products that it can be hard to realize while immersed in it that simple and complicated meals are quite possible without them. I can barely boil water and manage. Today there are even convenience foods that are vegan and very tasty. I can especially recommend Gardein and Tofurky and Field Roast (the last two have a variety of deli slices also, and Tofurky has a nice line of pockets in addition to things in patty and hot dog shapes). A lot of Amy’s Kitchen is suitable for vegans as well as vegetarians (they have a really good rice pasta based dairy free lasagna). Loma Linda has canned stuff that I like: Redi Burger (just slice it) and veggie sausage links and veggie dogs. My aunt made her usual meat load recipe with some Loma Linda Vege-Burger and the diehard carnivores (astonishly) liked it. I couldn’t have any because I’m allergic to egg, which was part of her recipe…
Anyway, you don’t have to be a good cook. My only cooking tends to involve tossing together whatever I can find by rummaging through the fridge or freezer. Frozen veggies are my friends. I might toss in some peanuts or nuts/seeds if there’s room in the pie pan (I get disposable ones because I’m not good at cleanup either, so if it’s too hard I can trash it; but vegan food isn’t generally hard to clean up after). I even get precooked rice or quinoa when truly disorganized. When I actually (gasp!) make something like millet or pasta, I make enough to freeze in individual portions for another day. Same with canned beans – part for today, another two parts in the freezer. Fruits and raw veg just have to be washed before eating. Unless I get Mann veggies in bags…(well, they’re good).
Since we’re not a vegan culture, people understandably have cravings for foods eating during their carnivorous days. Tofurky and Loma Linda have products with that in mind, so similar recipes can be used. But generally the taste we remember comes from spices or smoke etc. or, in the case of cheeses, the microorganisms involved in their production.
I’ve seen recipes for veggie bacon using properly fried tofu strips as a base, with appropriate tangy additions. For a bacon taste with no cooking: try Coconut Bacon by Phoney Baloney, made with coconut chips. They can be eaten straight out of the bag or any way that keeps them crisp (I thought they lost their taste somehow when cooked in something that in crisped them). Upton’s seitan bacon stuff is my current favorite otherwise. And as for butter – try coconut oil, the really good stuff (extra virgin etc). I’ve lost any desire for butter since using coconut oil.
Other than Daiya cheese in dishes made by other people (not me), I’ve never found a vegan cheese that I really liked except for Parma!, made from ground walnuts, sunflower seeds, and hempseeds plus loads of nutritional yeast. It is great on pasta or veggies or sandwiches and probably on pizza and popcorn, and has a lot of protein. Recipes are available on the net for the DIY crowd, any nut or seed can be tried (the original Parma! was made with just ground walnuts and nutritional yeast and salt, and was wonderful).
SoDelicious has a Purely Decadent line of nondairy ice creams that live up to their name, soy or coconut based. There are others and of course you can go homemade. Coconut milk makes an excellent ice cream base; so does almond milk. Cashew milk would probably be good also, has a very creamy taste. There are many commercial nondairy yoghurts now, and you can make them at home with your usual procedures. There are even nondairy starters for sale.
There are even really good vegan chocolate and caramel candies today as well as pre packaged cookies. Just browse through VeganEssentials online, especially pre-holiday, for an idea of what’s out there now.
As jwoolman said: a vegan diet isn’t as restrictive as people think or make it out to be. Yes of course, there are certain adaptions. But nowadays there are so many recipes and vegan options available, you can get by. The only thing is that you should probably start cooking because it’s not that easy to eat every day at McDonalds and be vegan.
And JLo… well, she won’t be vegan for long. Why? Because people who go vegan to “stay in shape” hardly ever do. I mean, it’s not like meat or diary products taste bad, they are very yummy. So most people who don’t eat them need a strong reason for this – stopping the horrendous cruelty against animals is a strong reason. Maybe for JLo a nice bum is a strong reason. Only that it doesn’t necessarily work that way because a vegan diet isn’t usually a calorie restricted diet. In fact you eat far less calories when cutting out carbs and going for the meat/salad options. Vegan protein most often has some carbs and/or fat too – like legumes, soy products, nuts, etc. Plus you shouldn’t eat like a bird as a vegan to get all the needed nutrients.
So in the end I would say eating vegan is great, but it’s not necessarily a programme to lose weight (although it’s of course possible to lose weight with a vegan diet and a good sport programme). You lose weight if you burn more calories than you eat – no “restrictive” or non-restrictive special way of eating will change that.
This, exactly. I had a friend who went vegan, but she was young and didn’t have the time and money or know how to cook and shop properly for vegan foods. She’d end up eating stuff like broccoli and ketchup on white bread and crap like that. Her skin and hair were terrible. She initially lost weight due to less options, but then quickly gained it back and then some.
When she went back to eating meat, but made healthier choices, she lost weight and her hair and skin were much better.
There is an initial learning curve that can be challenging when making such a lifestyle change, particularly if you are young and lack financial and social resources.