Is Shailene Woodley a vegan?

December 23, 2025 •

3 min read

Despite widespread association with environmentalism, actress Shailene Woodley is not a vegan and has stated this explicitly in interviews over the years. Her dietary choices are guided by her commitment to local and sustainable practices rather than strict veganism.

Quick Summary

Environmentalist and actress Shailene Woodley is not a vegan, despite public misconceptions. She follows a diet inspired by indigenous practices, prioritizing locally and organically sourced food, including meat. Her ethical convictions focus on sustainable and conscious living rather than a fully plant-based diet.

Key Points

Not a Vegan: Despite public perception due to her activism, Shailene Woodley is not a vegan and has stated this explicitly.
Indigenous-Inspired Diet: She bases her diet on indigenous cultures, favoring whole, unprocessed, and seasonally appropriate foods.
Prefers Local, Organic Meat: When she eats meat, it is sourced from small, organic farms, reflecting her commitment to local and sustainable food systems.
Supports Plant-Based Businesses: Her environmentalism drives her to support plant-based companies like Good Catch, which offers sustainable food alternatives.
Alternative Lifestyle: Her dietary choices are part of a broader, back-to-nature lifestyle that includes foraging and making her own personal care products.
Broad Ethical Focus: For Woodley, ethical living is not confined to diet but encompasses a wide range of environmentally conscious actions and decisions.

The public often assumes actress Shailene Woodley follows a vegan diet due to her vocal environmental activism. She has consistently championed sustainable causes, from protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline to supporting plant-based seafood alternatives. However, Woodley has clarified multiple times that she is neither vegan nor vegetarian. Her dietary philosophy is a nuanced reflection of her broader, alternative lifestyle, which emphasizes an indigenous approach to health and sourcing food directly from nature.

The Truth Behind Shailene Woodley's Dietary Habits

Shailene Woodley's diet is not defined by a single label but by a set of ethical principles centered on minimizing her environmental impact. She has explained her eating habits in various interviews, highlighting her unique, back-to-nature approach. Instead of adhering to a vegan framework, she seeks out food that is as unprocessed and close to its source as possible.

An Indigenous and Local Approach

Woodley's philosophy on food draws heavily from what she perceives as indigenous practices, emphasizing a connection to the land and a respect for where food comes from.

She prioritizes locally-sourced food, even for meat. In a 2019 interview, she stated that if she eats meat, it is only organic and from small, local farms.
She forages for wild edible plants. Early in her career, she mentioned foraging for things like stinging nettle and mugwort to supplement her diet.
Her cooking often revolves around simple, whole foods. Recipes mentioned in past interviews include homemade roast, meat stew with bone broth, and wild plant-based dishes.
She has also experimented with less conventional health practices, such as eating clay, a practice she learned about from other cultures.

The Impact of Activism on Her Food Choices

While her diet is not strictly plant-based, her environmentalism has led her to support vegan and sustainable options in other ways. In 2020, she invested in Good Catch, a company that makes plant-based seafood alternatives. Her involvement in such initiatives shows a commitment to reducing the overall demand for animal products, even if she has not eliminated them from her own diet. Her activism is more about promoting an overall shift toward sustainability rather than a dogmatic adherence to a single dietary rule.

The Adrift Diet Exception

It's important to note the specific context of her diet while filming the movie Adrift in 2018. To authentically portray her character, a woman lost at sea, Woodley restricted her intake to an extremely low 350 calories per day, consisting of a can of salmon, steamed broccoli, and two egg yolks. This was a miserable and temporary diet undertaken for a specific role and is in no way representative of her normal eating habits or broader lifestyle philosophy.

Shailene Woodley's Diet vs. a Standard Vegan Diet

Her personal food choices and ethical stance offer a unique comparison to a traditional vegan diet. The following table highlights some key differences in their approach.


Feature	Shailene Woodley's Diet	Standard Vegan Diet
Meat Consumption	Will eat locally and organically sourced meat from small farms.	Eliminates all animal flesh.
Dairy/Eggs	Consumes animal byproducts like bone broth and has eaten eggs for roles.	Eliminates all animal byproducts, including dairy and eggs.
Focus	Indigenous-inspired practices, local sourcing, foraging, and overall environmental impact.	Primarily focuses on eliminating animal exploitation and cruelty from diet and lifestyle.
Motivation	Environmental and health consciousness, aligned with her broader "back-to-nature" lifestyle.	Can be driven by ethical, environmental, or health concerns.

Conclusion: A Nuanced Approach to Ethical Living

Ultimately, the answer to whether Shailene Woodley is a vegan is a definitive no, as she has consistently stated herself. However, her dietary choices are deeply intertwined with her values and environmental activism. Rather than following a conventional vegan path, she has created a personalized, indigenous-inspired approach to food that prioritizes local sourcing, sustainable practices, and a low environmental footprint. Her support for plant-based businesses like Good Catch and her public advocacy for reduced meat consumption show her commitment to ethical living extends beyond the binary of vegan or not. Her example highlights that there are many different paths to a more conscious and sustainable lifestyle.

For more information on celebrity dietary choices, AreTheyVegan.com provides a comprehensive overview.

Frequently Asked Questions

No, Shailene Woodley has repeatedly confirmed in interviews that she is not a vegan. She has stated that while she supports environmental causes, her diet includes locally and organically sourced meat.

Her diet is inspired by indigenous cultures and focuses on local, seasonal, and whole foods. She incorporates foraged wild foods and locally sourced meat into her meals, along with practices like consuming bone broth.

The misconception likely stems from her very public and vocal role as an environmental activist, a cause often associated with veganism. She champions sustainable living and has invested in plant-based companies, which can cause confusion.

For her role in the film Adrift, Woodley followed a temporary, restrictive diet that included salmon and egg yolks to accurately portray a character lost at sea. This was not a permanent lifestyle change.

Woodley does not buy meat from conventional grocery stores. Instead, she sources it directly from local farmers, preferring meat that is organically and humanely raised.

Her diet and activism are both rooted in a deep respect for nature and a desire for sustainability. While she eats some animal products, her focus on local, organic sourcing and support for plant-based alternatives demonstrates an overall commitment to a more ethical food system.

Yes. In 2020, she invested in Good Catch, a company that produces plant-based seafood alternatives. She stated that aligning with the brand was a 'natural extension' of her conservation work.

Yes, Shailene has previously mentioned that she incorporates foraged wild foods, such as stinging nettle and mugwort, into her diet, emphasizing her back-to-nature ethos.