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American actor Kristin Bauer has described the positive impact of vegan diets on animals, the planet, and human health as “brilliant.”
Bauer, the star of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Seinfeld, True Blood, and 2020’s Sacred Lies is a longtime animal advocate and a vegan, and regularly encourages people to make more sustainable food and lifestyle choices via social media.
Read more: Vegan Metal Icon Derrick Green On The End Of Sepultura And Why He Stopped Eating Meat
Bauer spoke to Plant Based News (PBN) on a video call earlier this week, where she discussed spirituality, health, empathy, talking veganism with Alicia Silverstone, and backing up Billie Eilish. You can watch the full-length interview on YouTube here.
Animal welfare: ‘Deciding that I wanted to know’
Bauer described her journey from vegetarianism to veganism as “so gradual,” encompassing a range of moments and decisions over the last two decades.
“I only remember a few pivotal moments, because I think it was a real combination with deciding that I wanted to know,” she told PBN. “I feel like right there we lose a lot of people because it’s a challenging thing when every single person, 99 percent of the world, is doing something, to say, ‘wait, what is it that we’re doing?’”
Bauer noted that when people share images of animals experiencing harm within the meat industry, others often do not want to be exposed to that information.
“I remember thinking, if it’s hard for me to look at, how hard is it to experience it? How hard is that? If I’m having physical sensations watching the cow in the chute as it has terror, it’s experiencing terror,” she continued. “If I’m really having a reaction here, can you imagine? So, it took that kind of, ‘so am I someone who wants to know the suffering I’m causing or not?’ That was a continual spiritual choice.”
‘There is one way to eat that will save your body, save your soul, and save the planet’
Baur said that there were “many factors” that led up to her going vegetarian, but she specifically recalls thinking about the reality of meat-eating on Thanksgiving.
“I can just remember it, cutting through the turkey meat, and past the table, I could see my leg, and I realized I’m cutting through a thigh [and] four inches away is another thigh, and I just had this image of like bodies consuming bodies.”
Bauer also said that the decision to adopt a vegan diet “came from all directions,” and was inspired by the lifestyle’s various human and planetary health benefits.
She described eating animal products and junk food as “taste bud dopamine,” and “not thinking about, are we feeding our mind or are we feeding our body?”
Bauer said that watching her father “suffer horribly” and die of cancer, and seeing her mother experience dementia, prompted her to think, “I’m going to start learning what I have to do to reduce my risk of that.”
She said, “It turns out that the same way to eat and consume that is best for your body is best for the body of Earth, is best for labor, is best for forest, is best for the sixth extinction event that we are living right now. There is one way to eat that will save your body, save your soul, and save the planet. How brilliant is that?”
‘I don’t want to have this conversation’
Bauer has noticed how a lot of ex-vegans just “fell into” the diet while it was trending. “They did it for health reasons,” she said, “But, you know, a liter of Coke and potato chips are vegan.” She noted that a lot of people are “literally addicted” to cheese.
To give cheese and dairy up, however, Bauer was quick to add that it doesn’t take long for your body to adjust. “It’s like two weeks,” she said. “Two weeks and then you don’t have to kill babies. You can reduce your risk of dying.”
Bauer linked other social and environmental issues to veganism, and said, “Women who are for reproductive rights. Is it only for your species, or are you for reproductive rights for nonhuman animals? These are the questions I ask myself, because I was vegetarian for a long time, and I’m so grateful, but it wasn’t comfortable.”
She said that while working with Alicia Silverstone, a longtime vegan and fellow animal advocate, Silverstone addressed the conflict between Bauer’s vegetarianism and her ethics by asking if they could talk about it. “I’m like, ‘Oh, okay,’ because I liked her. I could feel my mind fighting it, ‘I don’t want to have this conversation. I know where this conversation is going,’ but it did start a conversation within myself.”
Read more: Changing Your Diet Is ‘Number One’ Way To Help The Planet, Woody Harrelson Says
Being a vegan vampire in ‘True Blood’
Bauer, who starred in True Blood as Pamela Swynford, told PBN that she did a podcast with her co-star Deborah Ann Woll called Truest Blood, where they interviewed other members of the cast and crew.
“I’ve thought about the show a lot in the last few years,” Bauer said.
“It was absolutely fascinating, because I didn’t really know anything about the show I was on,” she added. “I knew my lines, I hit my mark and I knew that I was in the vampire world, but I had no idea what it was like to design the sets, or write the show, or envision the show. I mean, it was absolutely mind-blowing for me doing this show.”
Bauer noted that the format of the show allowed its creators to examine “all sorts of rights issues.” She added, “Here and there, people would ask me about playing Pam and being a vegan. And I was like, I never ate animals on the show, and I only ate bad people. […] I think Pam resonated so much with fans because she was just saying what we’re all thinking, and she didn’t have any f**ks she had to give, and she liked one person. How fabulous.”
Billie Eilish and standing up for animals
In May, musician Billie Eilish described eating meat as “inherently wrong,” and said that you can’t eat meat and love animals, adding “you can’t do both.” This prompted a mixture of criticism and support, with Bauer falling firmly in the latter camp.
“She’s so wonderful and so giving and so compassionate, and her tour is so remarkable because she does it sustainably,” Bauer said. “She’s given away millions of free meals, she’s donated millions, […] she’s remarkable.”
Bauer notably described the backlash against Eilish as “a good sign,” because it means that her comments “landed,” and that people are “wrestling with themselves.”
She said, “You know, Billie Eilish clearly has a different mission because she’s arranging her entire tour to create less trash. She’s arranging her entire tour to feed people. So when she says, ‘Yeah, you can’t really love an animal and then hire someone to kill it,’ she didn’t lie.”
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