Bollywood Star Kareena Kapoor Is A Cheese-Eating Vegan????

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by Michael Parrish DuDell March 10, 2009
Categories: Eats
Tags: .

kareena4I’m a little confused!

So I just finished reading an article from The Times Of India where they interviewed Bollywood star Kareena Kapoor  who was recently voted PETA’s Sexiest Vegetarian. In the interview, Kapoor says:

“I love cheese and I feel it is a good source of energy especially when I’m burning fat with exercise. You don’t need meat to build muscle. Vegetables have a lot of variety for building muscle. It’s cool to be a vegan.”

She then goes on to say that most of the Hollywood actresses like Madonna and Jennifer Aniston are also vegans. Whoa! 

Firstly, I have my PhD in Celebrity Vegetarians and Madonna and Aniston are DEFINITELY not meat-free…let alone vegan. Secondly, also? Also implies that Kareena herself is vegan. WTF?

While we totally support our vegetarian friends, it’s important that people in the public spotlight understand the difference between vegan and vegetarian. Vegan = meat/dairy/egg/animal-product free! What do you think about Kareena’s blunder? Chime in and share your thoughts! 

thanks to Erin for the tip


Categories: Eats
Tags: .
  • http://nothoney.com sheryl

    I think she and PETA are confused about the definition of a vegan.

    s.

  • conde

    The word “vegan” in India is basically unknown, though I’m surprised that an educated, rich movie star would not know it (she is, after all, lacto-vegetarian). While lacto-vegetarianism is widely practiced and accepted in India, the idea of excluding other animal products is still a fringe idea. PETA would do well to actually talk to Kapoor (and any other confused person on their list) to tell her what “vegan” means.

  • http://thevibe.socialvibe.com Sarah Townsend

    Girlfriend needs to get a clue… and a copy of Skinny Bitch.

  • http://embritadesign.blogspot.com Emily

    I’m actually wondering if there is a bit of Lost In Translation happening here. Not with the celebrity diet statuses, but with her sentence. She says Vegetarian and Vegan in the same breath – surely that’s a lack of knowledge about the term/lack of the word in her native language.

  • VeggieTart

    Maybe she means soy cheese?

  • Aelys

    Either she confused veganism and (lacto-)vegetarianism, or she meant soy cheese. I’d rather give her the benefit of the doubt than bury for for a potential blunter or mistranslation

  • http://www.devidoll.com SV

    Definitely agree with conde…veganism is pretty unknown in India, even among rich/celeb types. Being super-skinny, thinking about food in terms like ‘fat-burning’ and ‘muscle-building’ are pretty much only w/in worldview and frame of ref of someone who is both rich and a celeb, ie, Kapoor. Having said that, veganism as a dietary concept is alien in India (except among those indians who, at an extreme, become fruitarians etc but usually this is a sign of huge renunciation….nothing to do with rich/celeb/politics) even among those of Kapoor’s economic/celeb stature. I am sure she’s heard the word, assumed (rightly for some cases) that its ‘hip, cool, important-for-celebrityhood’ but then just assumed its same as vegetarian. To assume it means something more along the lines of what veganism actually is would probably be too weird for most Indians (remember we’re talking about a 5000 yr old agrarian culture).

    I don’t even think Kapoor would know what soy cheese was.

  • DI

    The majority of people in India can’t afford beef & dairy products or eggs/chicken or fish – therefore everyone eats rice, ruti, and vegetable curries or whatever veg/fruit that happens to be available-and everyone outside thinks Indians are fashionable, slim, & healthy vegetarians when it’s not a lifestyle choice at all. The avoidance of beef is a religious choice in some sects of Hinduism as the cow is considered a god.

  • steph

    I think mistakes like this are just TERRIBLE. I hope someone politely clarifies this to her.

    Soon vegetarians will be eating fish, vegans will be eating cheese, and they will need a NEW definition for people that don’t eat any animal products lol.

    I think i read somewhere that the term vegan was coined cause vegetarians started eating dairy and such, and that wasn’t always the case, and vegetarian USED to be vegan…ect.

    Her and Gweneth Paltrow should hang out and cook tasty vegan food like turkey XD

  • http://blog.miamivegan.info Inga Ambrosia

    She means vegan cheese, I think … Otherwise she’s a dum dum…

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  • http://www.veganjapan.net herwin

    Madonna is/was mentioned on various Famous Veggie lists on internet, so her “misstake” is easy to understand, she might have read that (wrong)information.
    second, it might be well that the confusing about eating cheese and her being vegan comes from the editor who edited the interview. everybody who has been interviewed knows that interviews are not very accurate sometimes.

  • Heather

    Obviously this is a language issue, and publicly humiliating someone on this point is faintly racist. Moreover, there are a lot of poor people in India who are lucky if they can catch a rat to eat – seriously. This piece is in poor taste and not very culturally sensitive.

  • http://elainevigneault.com Elaine Vigneault

    At least she’s on the right track. It’s not like she thinks vegans come from Vega.

  • carnivorous_jester

    She should probably be told what Vegan really means, otherwise she’s only a Vegitarian. I firmly believe she’d be better off and a lot healthier if she were the latter, but this is from an American viewpoint. As DI said, this is NOT a lifestyle choice for them; it’s an economical thing that isn’t a choice at all. I would hope she means soy cheese, but I doubt that’s very widespread in India…

  • http://www.veganjapan.net herwin

    why is this not a lifestyle choiche for “them” ? at least its a choiche for Kareena Kapoor and other famous indian people.
    many indians and many asians are strict vegetarians and not because they are poor but simply because a “meat egg milk” diet just isnt an asian diet.
    there are many vegetarian restaurants all over the world that prove that indians DO have the choiche and DID make the choiche to stick to a vegetarian diet even when they didnt get pressure from”economic reasons”.
    its kinda of “we are vegetarians out of choiche but THEY are veggies simply because they dont have a choiche.”
    as a good reminder, it was the vegetarian influence from india that sparked structural vegetarianism in england in the late 19th century.
    and the country with the most vegetarian restaurants and veggie people is Taiwan. we seem to become quiet arrogant sometimes, by thinking that we invented “vegetarianism” and to trash anybody who makes a small misstake, even if a sincere person makes a good and positive statement about vegetarianism or veganism.
    so one famous people says “cheese” and “vegan” in the same sentence i really couldnt call that a “blunder”.

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  • http://www.remyc.com RemyC

    Makes me wonder if there’s a vegetarian society in Korea, and if maybe we shouldn’t try to make headway in that part of the world where monkey and dog are still on the menu.

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  • Rachel

    Sheryl’s comment was great… :)

    I do remember reading somewhere that in India, they use the terms “veg”(vegetarian) and “pure veg( vegetarian plus no eggs…not sure about dairy). Either way, vegans definitely don’t eat cheese! It’s the cause for spontaneous human combustion!!!!

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