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From 2013 to 2019, Cyrus was on “the strictest [vegan diet] you’ve ever known,” she said in a September 2020 interview on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. But in 2019, she decided to expand her diet. “I was vegan for a very long time, and I’ve had to introduce fish and omegas into my life because my brain wasn’t functioning properly,” Cyrus said. She described performing at the Glastonbury music festival and feeling like she was “running on empty.”
While vegan diets work for many, Cyrus says she felt better once she started eating animal products again. “I’m so much sharper than I was, and I think that I was, at one point, pretty malnutritioned,” she explained. For her first nonvegan meal, Hemsworth (who was also vegan for a few years) cooked her some fish on the grill, and Cyrus said it was a difficult moment. “I cried, like, for a long time. I cried for the fish . . . it really hurts me to eat fish,” she told Rogan.
Cyrus initially chose to go vegan because she’s an animal-lover at heart, not necessarily for health reasons. “I have 22 animals on my farm in Nashville, I’ve got 22 in my house in Calabasas, I’m doing all I need to do for the animals,” she told Rogan. “But when it comes to my brain . . . you can’t be vegan and be this quick.” (Editor’s note: Following a vegan diet can sometimes lead to nutrient deficiencies, but you can work with a doctor, dietitian, or nutritionist to make sure you’re getting what you need.)
She was still a pescatarian as of 2020, but Cyrus seems fairly open about changing her diet, depending on what her body needs. “I’m experimenting a lot with my diet, and my body, and my routine and my exercise right now,” she said.