Celebrity magician, actor, and TV personality Penn Jillette has explained why he no longer describes himself as an ‘unethical vegan‘.
In a recent podcast with host Joe Rogan, Jillette, who credits losing 100 pound to a plant-based diet, says he originally eschewed from animal products for health reasons.
“I wrote in my book a lot of stuff about ‘I am an unethical vegan, I’m not doing this for any sort of animal, or lack of cruelty. Strictly health, that’s why I’m doing the plants,” the star says.
An ’emotional change’
Jillette goes on to say after several months of not consuming animal products, he experienced a ‘real emotional change’ – which he attributed to changes to his gut health.
“People are guessing like three months or four months of no animal products [and] those little critters eating sh*t in your guts die, that like the meat stuff, and they’re not giving that feedback loop.
“All of a sudden I went ‘I don’t want to be part of the suffering’,” he added. “It was really strange how that changed.”
Last year, Jillette tweeted: “Happy Thanksgiving, Y’all. This will be my first one that’s cruelty-free. Not just vegan for health anymore … this is not a holiday of healthful eating anyways.”
You can listen to the full podcast here