Vegan singer-songwriter Lizzo has used her massive platform to promote plant-based food once again. The Truth Hurts artist took to TikTok in recent weeks to share two vegan recipes with her more than 21 million followers. 

The three-time Grammy Award winner has been vegetarian for more than a decade. Then in June 2020, Lizzo went vegan. 

The musician, known for her iconic flute solos during her performances, recently headed to TikTok to rave about her vegan cheesy Takis creation. 

It features Japanese yams, “high protein” tofu, onion, garlic, nutritional yeast, dairy-free parmesan, vegan smoked gouda, hot sauce, and salt and pepper. Once blended, Lizzo pours the cheesy sauce over a bowl of Takis Fuego chips, which are plant-based. 

“EAT YOUR FEELINGS WITH ME,” Lizzo captioned the post. 

Two days later, Lizzo again sang the praises of vegan food on TikTok, which has around one billion active monthly users. 

This time, the recording artist whipped up vegan chicken Alfredo. Lizzo said it was the first time she had made the creamy dish, which tasted like “heaven.”

It’s certainly not the first time Lizzo has celebrated plant-based food with her fans; she’s been publicly doing so since she first went vegan nearly two years back. She’s also used conversations about veganism to tackle fat shaming.

In response to fat-phobic comments on TikTok, Lizzo filmed herself in her underwear eating a vegan egg sandwich. “[Shout out] to all my fat vegans – we look as good as we feel… And to the haters, good luck chasing that narrow beauty standard,” she wrote.

Power of celebrity influence

Sharing pro-vegan content online can help normalize the lifestyle and introduce people to new ideas surrounding food and consumption. Combine that with the significant reach of celebrities and other high-profile individuals, and that impact intensifies. 

In 2015, a Harvard review looked at the influence of celebrities on people’s attitudes and behaviors. 

The author, academic researcher Julie Doyle, said celebrity dialogue around veganism “offers the potential for a previously stigmatized practice … to achieve mainstream credibility.”

This could, in turn, have an effect on the planet, she notes.

“Celebrities can act as important intermediaries to help make the complexities of climate change more accessible and relevant to our daily lives. Food is one such area where celebrities can help link the impacts of climate change to our consumption habits,” Doyle wrote. “Indeed, as one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, the production and consumption of meat and dairy …  is a crucial social practice that requires further interrogation.”

Along a similar vein, a 2009 survey found that one in four teenagers admit to being more influenced by celebrities than people they know.