Is Zooey Deschanel a Vegetarian? Unpacking Her Dietary Journey

December 12, 2025 •

3 min read

While she was once famously vegan, the question "Is Zooey Deschanel a vegetarian?" is complicated by her shifting diet over time. Her culinary journey has been shaped by food sensitivities, a passion for food education, and a changing perspective on sustainable eating.

Quick Summary

Actress Zooey Deschanel has not maintained a consistently vegetarian or vegan diet due to food sensitivities, including allergies to eggs and dairy. Her evolving approach to eating has led her to become a pescetarian, focusing on sustainable choices.

Key Points

Current Diet is Pescetarian: Zooey Deschanel currently follows a pescetarian diet, which includes fish but no other meat.
Previously was Vegan and Vegetarian: She has explored both veganism and vegetarianism at different points in her life before her latest dietary shift.
Veganism Ended Due to Food Allergies: Her attempt at a strict vegan diet was ended due to severe food sensitivities to soy, wheat, eggs, and dairy, which made it difficult to get sufficient calories.
Sustainability Influenced Her Changes: Her food journey was heavily influenced by a growing interest in food sourcing and sustainability, prompting her vegetarian phases.
Food Advocate and Educator: As the host of the series What Am I Eating? and co-founder of The Farm Project, she actively educates the public on making informed food choices.
Sister Emily is a Long-Time Vegan: Her older sister, Emily Deschanel, maintains a committed vegan diet, a point of contrast often mentioned by Zooey.

The Short-Lived Vegan Experiment

For a period, Zooey Deschanel embraced a vegan lifestyle, joining the ranks of other celebrities advocating for plant-based diets. This was an attempt to maintain a healthy and clean diet. However, her time as a strict vegan was brief, lasting only about six months. The primary reason for ending the diet was her significant food sensitivities. Deschanel revealed she is allergic to eggs, dairy, and soy and has sensitivities to wheat. These restrictions made it nearly impossible for her to get enough calories and properly sustain the vegan diet. As she told Health magazine, adhering to a gluten-free and soy-free vegan diet was "the most difficult thing you could possibly be".

The Shift to Vegetarianism and Pescetarianism

Following her vegan experience, Deschanel returned to eating some animal products. In a 2020 interview with alive magazine, she stated that after developing a deeper understanding of food sourcing, she chose to become a vegetarian again for a time. This was largely driven by her realization of how much more sustainable a plant-based diet could be. However, she has since shifted her diet once more. By 2023, interviews revealed that she and her family now eat fish, classifying her as a pescetarian. A 2025 interview confirms this, with Deschanel noting that she eats fish as a sustainable protein source. Her decision was based on the difficulty of reliably sourcing sustainably and humanely raised meat.

Zooey Deschanel's Food Advocacy

Deschanel's focus on healthy and sustainable eating goes beyond her personal diet. It has become a significant part of her public advocacy. In 2014, she co-founded The Farm Project, an organization dedicated to reconnecting people with their food sources and promoting local, sustainable food production. As part of this, she hosted a web series called Your Food's Roots with Zooey Deschanel and later a Max series, What Am I Eating?. These projects aim to educate the public on food origins and encourage healthier, more informed choices without shame.

Zooey's approach to food advocacy emphasizes:

Knowing where your food comes from.
Making sustainable and responsible choices.
Empowering individuals with information rather than shaming them.
Exploring food from a place of joy and curiosity.

Personal Allergies and Their Influence

Her lifelong struggle with food sensitivities has fundamentally shaped Deschanel's eating habits. Unlike her sister Emily, a committed vegan, Zooey’s body cannot tolerate the dietary restrictions required for a long-term, purely plant-based diet. Her allergies are extensive:

Eggs: A common allergen that restricts many food options.
Dairy: Eliminates cheese, milk, and other dairy-based products.
Soy: A frequent protein source in vegan diets, making her vegan period particularly difficult.
Wheat: A key sensitivity that forces her to avoid gluten-containing foods.

A Tale of Two Sisters: Diet Differences

While Zooey has followed a winding dietary path, her sister, Emily Deschanel of Bones fame, has maintained a steadfast vegan diet since high school. This contrast highlights the individuality of dietary choices, especially when factoring in personal health and sustainability concerns. Emily's ability to maintain a vegan diet has been a point of comparison in many interviews, with Zooey acknowledging her sister's commitment while explaining her own limitations.

Comparison of Zooey Deschanel's Diets


Diet Phase	Timeline	Primary Reason for Change	Key Challenges	Current Status
Vegan	Approx. 6 months (pre-2011)	Ethical and health motivations	Difficulty obtaining enough calories due to wheat and soy sensitivities	Abandoned
Vegetarian	2011 to early 2020s	Sustainability concerns	Hard to maintain long-term due to personal food philosophy	Transitioned to Pescetarian
Pescetarian	2023 - Present	Difficulty of sourcing truly sustainable meat	N/A	Active

Conclusion: A Food Journey of Discovery

So, is Zooey Deschanel a vegetarian? The answer is no, not at present, but she has been one in the past. Her diet has been a continuous evolution, moving from veganism to vegetarianism and now to pescetarianism, driven by her specific dietary needs and a desire to eat sustainably. Her personal journey has also fueled her work as a food advocate, using her platform to encourage others to question the food system and make informed, healthy choices for themselves. Her experiences show that a singular dietary label may not fully capture a person's evolving relationship with food. For more information on her work, you can visit The Farm Project.

Frequently Asked Questions

No, Zooey Deschanel is not vegan. While she did try a vegan diet for a short time, she stopped due to difficulties getting enough nutrients with her additional food sensitivities to wheat and soy.

Zooey Deschanel currently follows a pescetarian diet, which means she consumes fish and other vegetarian foods but no other meat.

Yes, Zooey Deschanel has several food sensitivities. She is allergic to eggs and dairy and has sensitivities to wheat and soy.

She stopped being vegan because her food sensitivities to wheat and soy made it nearly impossible to get enough calories while adhering to the diet.

Becoming more aware of the food supply chain and the difficulty of sourcing sustainably raised meat motivated her to change her eating habits toward more sustainable options like vegetarianism and, eventually, pescetarianism.

Currently, as a pescetarian, Zooey Deschanel eats fish but avoids other types of meat, such as poultry and red meat.

No, while Zooey has explored various diets, her sister Emily Deschanel has been a committed vegan for many years.

Her approach to food is centered around being informed, sustainable, and joyful. She encourages people to learn about their food's origins through her advocacy projects.