Bijou Phillips: Being a vegan kept me sick, I’m going ‘back on Atkins’

December 17, 4:30 PMLow-Carb Lifestyle ExaminerJimmy Moore

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Actress Bijou Phillips goes back to low-carb

Something you probably won’t hear much about in the press is the fact that many Hollywood actors and actresses know if they need to lose weight in preparation for a role or after portraying a heavier character in a movie, their preferred method for doing so is by cutting the carbohydrates in their diet. It’s no secret that livin’ la vida low-carb is effective and the stars know this fact despite all the bellyaching about low-carb diets such as Atkins, Protein Power, and the like being a “fad.”

But it’s nice to attach a famous name to the promotion of low-carb diets because in the eyes of many that gives legitimacy to the plan so that others may decide to give it a try for themselves. Such is the case when actresses Jennifer Aniston and Gerri Halliwell as well as former President Bill Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore hailed this way of eating for how it helped them shed the pounds and Academy Award winner Halle Barre has used low-carb to manage her Type 1 diabetes for years.

Today I have a new famous name to add to the pro-low-carb camp: Bijou Phillips. The daughter of John Phillips from the 1960’s music group The Mamas and the Papas and half sister of actress Mackenzie Phillips (”One Day At A Time”) and singer Chynna Phillips (Wilson Phillips), Bijou is an actress and singer in her own right (she released a CD in 1999 and has made several appearances on both television and in movies including roles in the CBS-TV hit “CSI” as well as the movies “Almost Famous,” “Tart,” and “Bully”). Although she may not be as well known as her siblings, she’s definitely gonna make a name for herself to all of us who support the low-carb way of life after what I’m about to share with you.

Did you see this Los Angeles Times interview with Bijou Phillips on Sunday about her current diet? Despite being on a vegan diet for the past six months, she decided to have an eggs Benedict (ham or bacon, poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce) for breakfast to effectively end her vegan streak. Obviously she was STARVING on that nutritionally-deficient vegan diet she was on.

“My body was like, ‘What happened? Did we just recover from a famine?’” Phillips said referring to the low-carb meal that she ate bidding a fond farewell to veganism.

And she revealed “I feel good” about this decision to eat low-carb again because “I’m sick” from sticking to a diet consisting of no animal foods or byproducts.

“I’ve been sick four times since I’ve been vegan and I hadn’t been sick for five years before that,” Phillips explained. “I need to eat food because this isn’t working. Every vegan I know gets sick all the time.”

Although she does admit she lost weight on her vegan diet which she describes as “the only blessing,” Phillips says it only made her “sick and thin.”

“‘Bijou Phillips: Sick and Thin,’ in theaters near you,” she joked.

Now Phillips is ready to “go back on Atkins to lose weight” she gained because she knows cutting out the carbohydrates is the key to her success.

“When I was on my no-carbs, and I was like a rail,” she said.

Although she smokes, Bijou is “eating regular food” as part of her new dietary choice and she realizes this is “a war…a battle” that must be fought.

“I’m like the only actress in Hollywood that’s honest about it,” she retorted. “Everyone else is like, ‘Oh, I just work out a lot and drink a lot of water.’ Yeah, right. Shut it.”

HA! I LOVE that! Way to go, Bijou. You tell ‘em like it is and eat healthy the low-carb way. THANK YOU for sharing your forthright answers in those questions about your vegan experience. From vegan couples starving their babies to the general wacky behavior many vegans engage in, we need a voice of sanity like yours every once in a while to remind us that up is up and down is down. Keep up the great work on your healthy low-carb lifestyle!