The actual extended quote from Alicia Silverstone on her son, Bear’s, veganism is bonkers but it won’t fit in our title format. She said “The centering, grounding energy of that nourishment in his organs has left him such a calm boy.” I get so eye-rolly when people talk like that, but that’s how she is. We’ve previously heard from Alicia that her son, Bear, 9, has “never had to take medicine” due to their veganism. (I’m sure she thinks that protects him against preventable diseases too.) She’s said more benign things about their diet, like that Bear “knows when he eats well, he poops well.” In an interview with US she said that she never has to discipline Bear because veganism makes him calm and compliant or something.
“I can tell you that from the get-go, I think of him as a brown rice baby because I ate brown rice when he was conceived, when he was in my belly and when he was on my boob, and now he eats brown rice,” the Clueless star, 43, told Us Weekly exclusively earlier this month via the virtual #BlogHer20 Healthy at Home event. “The centering, grounding energy of that nourishment in his organs has left him such a calm boy.”
Even though Silverstone noted her little one has “more energy than anything,” his “centeredness” prevails, which she credits to his plant-based diet. “I don’t have to yell or scream or discipline. None of that is necessary,” she explained. “All I have to do is say, ‘Oh, Bear, no thank you,’ and he goes, ‘OK, mom.’ He’s got it.”
The California native added: “We just can talk like that because he’s not feeling crazy. When [kids] feel bad, when they eat unhealthy food and they don’t feel good, then they don’t act good. Same as us.”
Silverstone, who is also vegan, noted that her diet makes her a more attentive and patient parent. “If I don’t eat well, I don’t sleep well, and if I don’t sleep well, I’m a grumpy mama,” she told Us. “Whereas if I’ve eaten well and I sleep well, everything’s a joy … that’s all food.”
So her kid is well behaved because they’re vegan? Some kids are just naturally calmer and more chill. It does sound like they have a good relationship and like they’re close, although I wonder how that will change as he gets older.
A while ago Alicia posted a video where she asked Bear what he would eat if he could have anything he wanted and he said whole foods pizza, a plate of kale and vegan ice cream. Then she got him to talk about how junk food made him feel bad. It was like she was coaching him.
It’s true that eating poorly affects your sleep, as I’ve been experiencing that a lot recently. Over the weekend I watched a video from Buzzfeed on meal prepping vegan foods and it made me want to try it, actually. I think it was the host’s energy because she was so passionate about how veganism had changed her life. Plus she made it look easy and like you could make all your meals in an hour and a half on a Sunday. (I doubt I could do that.) While I’m not going to go meat-free anytime soon, I’m open to cooking more vegetarian meals and to upping my vegetables and grains.
Alicia did a photoshoot with Bear for Peta recreating Paul and Linda McCartney’s famous photo. That’s in the slideshow above. They did a brief video for it which you can see here.
Photos credit: Avalon.red
I kept a vegan home for many years, and I would never knock it because it’s a great way to eat and care for the environment around you.
My daughter ate vegan from age 3-15. She was always a feisty, non-compliant child. Being “calm” is a personality trait and has nothing to do with diet. I find that so insulting. My daughter was a non-compliant child, and she has grown into a wonderful human being with an innate sense of confidence and a refusal to be bullied by anyone. She learned how to regulate her strong personality as she grew up just as shy children learn how to assert themselves as they grow up. Again…diet has ZERO to do with it. /eye roll
I’m sure Alicia is a lovely human being, and her son looks healthy and happy in every photo I’ve ever seen. I just find the whole, “You’ll never be sick again and your children will be obedient, calm, and quiet” BS insulting and stupid and borderline dangerous.
Honestly, if my child was “obedient, calm, and quiet” I’d be very concerned. My children are rambunctious, high energy and loud. I couldn’t be happier when we’re at the beach or park or anywhere outdoors. She’s an idiot. Children really shouldn’t be quiet or obedient.
Reminds me of the childhood educators who spout that if you continue to give your toddler broccoli, they will eventually learn to love it. In my opinion, kids are all different and have different tastes and temperaments. No one size fits all. I doubt veganism is the only reason Bear is “calm”.
Yeah, eating so much brown rice isn’t the reason why her kid is calm. We also have no idea how he’s like when she’s not around… That being said, I wonder if her OBGYN or Doula warned her about not eating too much brown rice while pregnant or giving a lot of it to a very young child. Cuz all rice naturally contains arsenic, which is ok to some extend, but brown rice naturally contains more arsenic than other rice. So, ya know, it’s not because it’s natural that it’s necessarily healthy…
Brown rice is actually pretty high in arsenic (even higher than white rice) and you shouldn’t have it every day.
Yeah no. Some kids just have that temperament and she’s lucky she got a child with that. My husband and I went vegan for about a year after my colicky nicu baby was born because we had zero energy and needed something to change. It was not as easy and I thought it would be to be honest but we pushed through even without access to a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s lol. The worst part though was my in-laws asking us how we got our protein and how the are just meat and potatoes people and could never be vegan, I kid you not. My FIL is also that person who went to Italy for a couple weeks for vacation and said that there wasn’t enough meat in their food and he craved McDonald’s and had to get it over there. Anyway, I think it did help though with health and I still make a lot of the vegan recipes but we aren’t vegan anymore.
I’m sure being a wealthy, white family has nothing to do with being so carefree lol
This. Incredible privilege, wealthy, doesn’t face the stressors that many families face. No doubt lives in a great home, great neighborhood, goes to a school with few kids in the class, no learnining issues, doting mom with lots of time to care for him. I’m guessing he’s not worried about whether his family will have food, a home or medical care. Or whether he’ll be shot in school. It’s all great — all kids should be surrounded by nice things and loving people — but let’s not pretend that his diet is the answer. Keeping stress low for kids is incredibly important to their brain development, physical growth and emotional development. But it’s not a reality for most kids in this country.
I couldnt have said it better myself.
+ 1
Ugh, she also wrote anti vax sentences in a book year ago, not so bright
Ugh, gross, that kind of coaching and prompting makes me feel sad for these kids.
It’s just the spouting of a PETA talking point based on anecdotal evidence.
One interesting thing to note is that there are multiple studies showing a higher rate of depression in vegetarians compared to non-vegetarians. So I mean, if she’s going to believe the good about a particular diet, I think she should be considering the negative aspects as well.
That said, I’m all for increasing servings of veggies and decreasing servings of meat. I do think there are health benefits that come with that, but unfortunately there are a lot of people who shift away from meat and into another unhealthy food because they’re too picky to try well balanced vegetarian meals. And that’s just switching one bad thing for a different bad thing at that point.
At the end of the day, though, Alicia has always been a preachy, kind of obnoxious celebrity who really doesn’t care to look at the science. This is the same woman who says that there’s not enough vaccine studies to prove to her that they’re safe. She’s got a platform, and I find her way of throwing around BS really disturbing.
Nutritional studies are notoriously hard to read though. Overall, vegetarians tend to be healthier but is that because they eat a vegetarian diet or is it because people who are more health conscious overall are more likely to be vegetarian? It’s all very difficult to judge. So I agree that she should be a lot more careful what she reads into things.
I don’t eat meat for many reasons but I know talking down to meat eaters won’t do anything. I say nothing and inevitably they will ask why. Love of animals? Environment? Health benefits? They know all the reasons so me bringing them up is unnecessary.
Also, I was a veg loving toddler, I ate every vegetable my mom put in front of me. I was not always calm. I hated sleeping. My sister was the opposite. Food doesn’t shape your personality.
While we eat our share of vegetarian meals, my kids have always eaten meat. My son is a very chill kid, always has been. He’s a teen now and, like many teens, drinks pop, loves chips, and eats the occasional McD’s burger. His personality has absolutely nothing to do with what he eats, and these statements of hers just kinda make me mad.
I love you for calling it pop.
Yes pop! Midwestern pop sayer here too.
Canadian here — what else do you call it, if not “pop”? Is it soda? Soda to me means Club Soda.
@Mel M – Great Lakes region represented here.
@Jess – In the U.S. a lot of places call it soda. I’ve moved around a bit in the last decade and got used to calling it that. As Nancypants says below, in the south they call any brand of soda pop a coke. I’m back in my hometown now and luxuriate in being able to call it pop again lol.
We call it pop in Nova Scotia too! It’s always weird when I see someone else say it though, because I know a lot of people say soda, or coke.
@sara- me too, grew up in MI and have moved around the Chicago area the last 15 years.
Illinoisan here. I only know it as “pop” too!
I never heard anyone call a coke a pop until I was a teen and a girl from Minnesota moved to our town. She and I became long-time friends. We still tease each other about our accents and coke vs pop. “You want a coke?”- me/born Southern
“I don’t like Coke but I’ll take a pop.” – her (eyeroll)
What if you want to order a Pepsi? Or an orange crush? Would you say “May I please have a Pepsi coke, and an Orange coke? What if you actually want a Coke? Do you say a Coke coke?
I’m in the South, have never said pop or soda. Or called anything other than Coca Cola, Coke. But, my poison is Dr. Pepper and I don’t want anyone giving me Coke by mistake. Maybe my lack of true Southernism is growing up on Army bases for seventeen years, all located in the South, except for two in Germany.
@Jess. You just ask for a Pepsi or Orange Crush or Mountain Dew or RC Cola or whatever.
I’m a huge fan of plant-based eating and its benefits for the planet, our bodies and the animals, but I very much doubt his personality is simply a result of eating vegan.
I fully support living a vegan lifestyle. I think it makes sense to feel better when you eat fresh, whole foods. Her claims are nonetheless BS!
Good Lord, I kind of hate her.
I don’t know what happened but she’s nuts. She fed her baby like a mama bird. That’s bad enough; Disgusting, germy and just bad.
Her kid is rich and spoiled. I’d be a lot chiller too if I were rich.
Here is my problem with vegans: They are very sanctimonious and most of them aren’t true vegans; they cheat and most don’t look very well or healthy because most don’t do it right.
No really, most of the vegans I’ve met don’t mix their proteins and such so they end-up pale and skinny and unwell.
Of course, Alicia has been doing this a long time and with pro hair and make-up she looks good. She also probably has a chef or a place that prepares her meals and ships them or delivers them. Dang, I wish I were rich.
She’s describing his personality, and I really don’t think it’s a food related item! Can what you eat impact how you feel day to day? Sure. But that’s a feeling…not a personality.
But…as a plant based eater, I appreciate that she’s trying to put it out there that her kid is normal and healthy. My kids are mostly vegetarian, and any visit to a doctor, for any reason, they seem to raise alarm bells for no reason, other than the fact that the doctor doesn’t understand and assumes we are deficient in every vitamin and nutrient. Blood tests always come back normal. I resent the way we are treated, honestly. I imagine if I told the same doctor that my kids eat a ton of meat, I would get smiles and nods.
I had one pediatrician try to tell me that my daughter was under weight and protein deficient within 2 minutes of meeting us and conducting no tests. I went to the CDC website, put her details in the kids BMI chart, and she was right in the middle of the range!! Blood tests for protein all normal.
I was vegan for seven years, today I’m borderline. 🙂 I enjoy fish. My children were not, but I did make every effort to keep vegies and fruits available, home made granola and vegan trail mix. I would agree, veganism does not alter personality traits.
Most likely she just got lucky and he’s a calm person.
It’s good and all that she’s focused on health and the environment, but I always get the impression that she’s TOO focused on it, bordering on obsession (I haven’t heard her talk about but that in years) and I hope she hasn’t pushed her son into that obsessive thinking also.
Oh FFS, Alicia you’re a (relatively) working actress. Stop selling your child’s privacy for attention.
(These days that goes for 80% of the medium actresses in Hollywood. Seriously. 🙄)
My kids ate everything lol. From pop tarts to sushi, it’s kind of embarrassing, but wherever we’ve gone, and whatever we’ve done, we’ve pigged out and indulged. I mean, walking Renaissance fairs demand turkey legs as big as your face. And with all our on and off gluttony, two of my boys were never sick. Maybe occasional headaches, scrapes and bruises? I get veganism, and quite frankly, I lean into vegetarian and pescartarian personally week to week. But like this past weekend, my husband was on a steak binge. I ate my teriyaki salmon spinach salad and they pigged on slabs of beef lol.
I never got in trouble and with the exception of apples and grapes, ate nothing but processed foods growing up. And full sugar caffeinated soda! It is just who you are, or aren’t. I can’t believe it has THAT much to do with food.
My three daughters are vegetarian. They have a tremendous amount of energy and are growing like weeds, but are generally well-behaved kids. What I don’t understand is that I serve them all the exact same food, yet somehow they have completely different personalities. It’s almost as though… their diet has no affect on their personality traits at all? Huh.
Winner, winner, (faux) chicken dinner!
Sorry, a diet that requires you to take vitamin & mineral supplements is not healthy, in MY opinion
It’s not a “diet”.
I’ve been plant based for 7 years and I take no vitamins or supplements. I’m not sure what you mean by “required”.
You’re eat vegan and you don’t need B12 supplements?
Jordana, it’s a proven health fact that vegans/vegetarians need to supplement with B12, D3, long-chain omega-3s, iodine, iron, calcium and zinc due to the lack of meat, fish and dairy products in their diet. Of course you know much more than professional nutritionists and dietitians so silly me for believing them instead of you.
Jaded: 100% ^^^
@betsy thats correct.
Fact:commercial feed lots add b12 supplements to the animals food supply. So you eat them and you are getting the supplements they’ve eaten..now who’s getting supplemented?
@jaded
I’m not telling you who to believe or what to do. I’m talking about my own experience and outcome.
Your tone seems angry and harsh and also quite demeaning to me. I don’t think that was necessary.
Well thank you for your oh so fascinating and scientific opinion. The American Dietetic Association differs but don’t let that stop you from having your random opinion Cindy P.
I was listening to a podcast once and the host explained he went off his vegan diet as a try for a week after years of veganism. He said he noticed a shift in his behavior and felt more angry and irritated as a result. Who knows, maybe meat-eating can influence temper? It would be a nice study for sure.
Sounds more like a self-fulfilling prophecy, though. I mean, if he was still into the vegan thing, and wasn’t completely objective about it, of course he’s going to say he felt irritated or whatever. It would also depend on what he’s eating – if he was eating greasy burgers or deep fried stuff and not lean meats, I’d imagine that would also play role.
I think in extreme cases there’s no doubt food can change your mood; the well-known stories of kids going hyperactive after sugar as an example. Maybe three time a year I will have a big packet of potato chips/crisps. I notice I’m a little more irritable EVERY TIME the next day.
My kid eats bacon like chips and he’s mellow as hell.
Whatever makes you feel superior, I guess
I ate like garbage and was a calm and reserved quiet child so whatevs Alicia. This food affecting your personality… I mean sure you get grumpy when you are hungry (eat a snickers lol) or crash and burn on too much sugar but these are temporary. She is exhausting, I just can’t with all the earth mother pseudo science BS granola goop.
My eyes may be permanently rolled back in my head.
I’m a vegan and have been for over a decade, and I am so not calm. As is probably obvious.
Anecdotal reflections aren’t science.
Not knocking veganism itself, but some of the hardcore vegans I know are the most insufferable folks I’ve ever met. I have no problem with eating and living that way, but it doesn’t have to be your entire identity.
I mainlined Taco Bell when I was pregnant and my kid is the chillest, happiest, most creative kiddo on the planet. Therefore, Taco Bell is the ultimate health food and everyone should immediately switch over to an all Diet Pepsi, Bean Burrito and Chalupa diet.
I eat everything as a child and was a super chill and calm child and teen so Alicia makes zero sense in her assumptions.
how long was Linda McCartney vegan yet she died of breast cancer (and all of Paul McCartney’s children, including his son, have to be mindful of their familiar risk coming from both sides of their family despite being vegan)
also, her continued support of PETA, who has a higher kill rate than most “high kill” shelters undermines her moral authority
look I get being passionate about a healthy lifestyle but if you’re trying to convert people, the all out high & mighty approach is not the way to do it
Exactly. Linda probably had the BRCA1/BRCA2 gene mutation in which case a vegan diet would be no help whatsoever in preventing breast cancer. My partner’s daughter was brought up in a mostly vegetarian household but the food was crap – instant mashed potatoes, instant rice, beans, cheese, eggs, bagged salad, bottled salad dressing, frozen fruit and wayyyyy too much sugar and empty carbs. She’s 5’1″ and weighs 175 lbs (in comparison I’m 5’6″ and weigh 140 lbs). Her father is type 1 diabetic, as was his father and uncle, as his sister, so his daughter is in a dangerous situation where if she doesn’t lose weight and drop the chips/cookies/candy/french fries she may be in some trouble.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that being vegan cannot forestall or prevent a lot of maladies and certainly doesn’t affect someone’s personality. Alicia’s always been the preachy, know-it-all about her veganism and her anti-vax stance is truly stupid.
I’ve been vegetarian for 30 years and find that I’m now “unfashionable”. It’s veganism or nothing these days, it seems, and people who go straight from meat eating to veganism can’t maintain it and then claim that a plant-based diet isn’t sustainable. Ugh.
The lady in the Buzzfeed video started showing up in my yt recommends. I have been looking into going vegan a least a couple of days a week to start. I was like google has been listening again.
As for Alicia 🙄🙄
of course I will be blasted or the comment won’t be posted but you can tell my the structure of his face and especially his eyes that this vegan diet has failed to nourish him from conception.
Check out the ice cream guy Robbins and his son Ocean and Ocean’s children should one need more proof of the problems of a vegan diet generationally
I predict he’ll be at McDonalds once the teenage hormones kick in.
Interesting theory (I mean it!), but I don’t see how her kid’s eyes seems similar to those of the two sons of Ocean Robbins. I checked out some pics via google. But I do think that all these don’t seem physically strong.
Not my theory.
not specifically that the eyes are similar from robbins to her son but the physical degeneration is there as evidenced by lack of bone structure. Ideally the cheekbones should be high and the facial plane broad to hold the eyes and a straight teeth line. Certian nutrients are required to create that which is not available in a vegan diet but also a lot of just really bad diets.
Severe deficiencies from a vegan diet generationally can be seen sometimes in females with a very masculine jaw (lack of female hormones firing).
Yes, lots of cute vegan babies on instagram but those are are usually breast fed (so therefore getting an animal product).
We would not have survived this far without animal products but having said that I see a lot of issues with Paleo types just the other end of the spectrum
Whenever she speaks about diet and kids, all I ever think about is when she revealed that she pre-chewed his food when he was little. That will forever be burned into my brain.