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Parenting

07th Jun 2020

Alicia Silverstone says eating a vegan diet has made her son kind, calm and perfectly behaved

Trine Jensen-Burke

Alicia Silverstone

There is no denying that there is a link between food and moods and behaviour.

Anyone who has ever experienced a child who has had too much sugar will be able to tell you that.

In fact, scientists are only beginning to understand the gut-brain connection, and just how much of our physical- and mental health originates in our gut, which, in turn, is heavily influenced by the food we eat.

Actress Alicia Silverstone is a well-known vegan and was an advocate for extended breastfeeding, nursing Bear Blue until he was a toddler, and from then on feeding him a vegan diet ever since.

Now, Bear is nine, and Silverstone claims she never has to discipline her son, because his vegan diet means he ‘doesn’t ever misbehave.’

Speaking at SHE Media’s #BlogHer20 Health event, the 43-year-old actress spoke about her son’s diet, crediting Bear’s good behaviour to his plant-based diet. She said Bear’s healthy lifestyle kept him calm and gave him “grounding energy”.

“He’s got more energy than anything,” Silverstone said of son. “He’s jumping all over the place and he’s so wild.

“But there’s a calmness to him, a centred-ness that he’s not off the charts. I don’t have to yell or scream or, like, discipline. None of that is necessary,” the Golden Globe nominee said. “All I have to do is say, ‘oh, Bear, no thank you,’ and he goes, ‘OK, mum’.

“He’s got it. We just can talk like that because he’s not feeling crazy.”

The actress shares Bear with her ex-husband Christopher Jarecki, whom she divorced in 2018. She also follows a vegan diet, saying it helped cure a series of health issues she was having, such as asthma, allergies, cystic acne, and weight gain.