Meatless Mondays: ‘Nikita’s Maggie Q Kicks Meat to the Curb

TVRage is back again with our Meatless Mondays series, where we showcase some of our favorite actors and actresses who are vegan or vegetarian. For those who don’t know, Meatless Mondays is a worldwide campaign encouraging others to eliminate meat from their diets once a week to improve their health and the planet’s health.

As a relatively new vegan myself, it’s inspiring to hear from fellow plant-based eaters and learn about their healthy journey - the successes and the difficulties. Going vegan or vegetarian isn’t just about eating healthy, but it’s about benefiting the planet, helping animals and treating your body right.

This Monday, I’m focusing on actress, badass, vegetarian and animal lover Maggie Q. 

She is widely popular for her role as Nikita on The CW’s ‘Nikita,’ where she kicks ass, takes down the villains and doesn’t let anyone get in her way. Well, that sort of remains true for her real life, especially when it comes to defending two things she absolutely adores - animals and the planet.

Maggie is a force to be reckoned with in the animal activist world. From posing semi-nude for PETA (on several occasions) to tweeting her thoughts against animal abuse on her personal Twitter account to even maintaining a veg lifestyle, the absolutely stunning actress is constantly teaching others about why she finds abstaining from meat is not only a necessity, but the right thing to do.

She’s been vegetarian for many years, and it’s been one of the best decisions of her life, “I feel better, I have more energy on and off the set, and I have the satisfaction of knowing that I'm doing something to help stop animal suffering,” she told PETA Asia-Pacific.

For some, learning about the meat industry can be a hard thing to face. It’s not easy to read about or to watch videos, and that’s where people like Maggie step in. She doesn’t want to tell other people they’re wrong, but to inform them with facts and to let them see the truth with their own two eyes.

For example, in her most recent PETA campaign titled “Fight Climate Change with Diet Change,” she wanted to show others that not only can you fight the meat industry, but also benefit the environment by eliminating meat from your diet.

As you can see from the video and photo below, Maggie is not shy about getting the message across - just look how the world is painted on her body!

In the video she says, “There’s really nothing tied to this issue that isn’t sort of dark and needs to be sort of fixed, in a big way. There are so many issues tied to the meat industry: social, environmental, humanitarian – all of them. I know that when I’m eating that I’m not hurting the planet; I’m not hurting other people on this planet; I’m not hurting animals; and I’m not hurting nature.

“Truly, the weight of the world depends on us. It depends on our choices and I that wish people would pick up a book, or watch a documentary, and understand that their choices can really make a difference.”

Maggie also exclusively spoke with HuffPost TV about her joint effort with PETA -- talk about passionate! She did not hold back on her opinions, especially about the dairy industry, “The first thing I always say to people ... cows don’t lactate unless they’re pregnant. We are taking milk from an animal that is reserving it in a special state for its child. But instead of the cow being able to feed its child, the animal is born, it gets ripped away from its mother, and gets thrown into a veal box so that whatever restaurant can have veal sandwiches, and this poor cow can get her milk taken from her until she’s dry. Then when she’s dry, what do they do? They artificially inseminate her and keep getting her pregnant for seven years. Seven years.”

For Maggie, “The thought of being a living, sentient being and carrying a child in your body and having someone come and rip it away from you and never seeing it again -– I don’t care what you say, that’s not natural.”

As you can see, being vegetarian is much more than just eating healthy and staying fit for Maggie. For years, she has advocated against the meat and dairy industry, and it doesn’t seem likely that she’ll stop anytime soon.

 Seamus and Juliana Dever < Previous | Next > Milo Ventimiglia