World Vegetarian Day 2020: Anushka Sharma to Shahid Kapoor, These Bollywood Celebs Endorse Plant-based Diet

October 1 is celebrated as World Vegetarian Day to create awareness about the benefits of a vegetarian diet. Vegetarian and plant-based diets offer a wide variety of health benefits including weight loss. However, vegetarianism is not to be confused with veganism where no dairy products are consumed.

According to studies, following a vegetarian diet can help reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, bad cholesterol and certain cancers. Vegetarianism also saves the planet as a 2006 study revealed the combined climate change emissions of animals bred for their meat were about 18% of the global total.

There are many Bollywood celebrities who have proudly gone vegetarian, here are some of them.

Shahid Kapoor

The actor is known to follow vegetarian diet for a long time now after his father Pankaj Kapoor gifted him a book Life is Fair by Brian Hines. He has also promoted vegetarianism through several PETA ad campaigns and was felicitated by PETA as Asia’s sexiest vegetarian man in 2011. The Jab We Met actor is also known to have inspired his former girlfriend Kareena Kapoor to become vegetarian.

Kareena Kapoor

Coming from a Punjabi Family where everyone eats meat, Kapoor gave up eating meat years ago. In an interview she said that being vegetarian is far healthier. However, she still continues to be a foodie so she eats everything in vegetarian food. She has also confessed how she enjoys simple, home-cooked meals: veggies, roti, dal, rice and once in a while indulges herself in a samosa or a kachori.

Alia Bhatt

The Kalank actor gave up eating meat in 2017 much to her father Mahesh Bhatt’s delight who is also a vegetarian. The actor ditched the meat in summers to keep cooler and fitter in the summer heat however the habit has stayed since then.

Anushka Sharma

The animal-loving actor has also run several Peta ad campaigns to promote vegetarianism. She calls vegetarianism the only way forward in which she can take care of the world around her and co-exist with the environment.