Vegan K-pop and K-drama stars: 4 Korean celebrities who follow a plant-based diet (well, mostly) – Lee Hyori, Im Soo-jung, Claudia Kim and Lee Ha-nui
Korea isn’t the most vegan-friendly place in the world, with its big signature dishes being barbecues, sea food and bone broth-based soups – but the food scene is slowly changing and veganism is gaining interest among the younger generation, especially women. Recently, the regional fast-food chain, Lotteria, released its vegan menu option featuring a “miracle burger” on the Korean market.
Doubtless many new plant-based converts are taking inspiration from the small but growing number of Korean stars leading this fresh wave of “green” eating.
Im Soo-jung
The most famous vegan celebrity in Korea, Im Soo-jung started her plant-based ways when she discovered she was allergic to animal protein five years ago. Although a vegan diet was a necessity for her, she came to enjoy it and now she is at the forefront of promoting veganism in Korea, sharing information on good vegan restaurants and meal options on her Instagram.
Some of her favourite dishes are pizza made out of brown rice with vegan cheese on top and vegetable chobap (Korean sushi) with mushrooms and bell pepper as toppings.
Lee Hyori
She is Korea’s answer to J.Lo, and recently made a comeback as part of the group Ssak3 with emcee Yoo Jaesuk and Rain. Having settled down in the interim on Jeju Island, a one-hour flight from Seoul offering a greener space for her pets, she also chose to become a pescatarian, or a pesco-vegetarian, out of her love for animals, as she explained in the talk show Healing Camp back in 2012, saying, “Nowadays people are eating meat more than ever and to meet up to the demand animals are suffering being caged, and I wanted to start making efforts on what I could do.
And she did bring on the change. When she posted her breakfast including lentils in 2014, the demand for the legumes on the market grew by 4,115 per cent compared to the previous year, which people called the “Lee Hyori effect”.
Claudia Kim
Claudia Kim – who played Nagini in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald – is also a pesco-vegetarian in real life. Last year, she appeared on the reality show Point of Omniscient Interfere, a show which closely monitors K-stars’ busy daily schedules, and she introduced the term “pesco-vegetarian”. After she finished recording the podcast with the actor Dan Fogler, they visited a Korean restaurant together and she explained on the show that they are both pescotarians – so she’s vegetarian but eats seafood and dairy.
Lee Ha-nee
Lee Ha-nee, the Korean actor also known as Lee Ha-nui or simply Honey Lee, recently played a role in Korean hit film Extreme Job and is a 2006 Miss Korea beauty pageant winner. What else? She’s also a pescotarian. After reading the book Beyond Beef by Jeremy Rifkin in college, she decided to ditch meat. Also because her brother is lactose intolerant and vegan, as a family they decided to live on vegetable-based dishes, especially as her mother underwent surgery for cancer.
However, bad news green army – Lee did admit in an interview last November that she is now eating meat from time to time for health reasons, but her philosophy on vegetarianism did not change and she still emphasises the importance of it.
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