'I had to completely rethink what I was putting in my body.'
Liam Hemsworth had to drastically change his diet after a health scare. The 30-year-old actor covers the May issue of Men's Health and reveals why he made the decision to no longer be vegan after nearly four years on the diet.
"[In] February of last year I was feeling lethargic. Then I got a kidney stone. It was one of the most painful weeks of my life," he recalls. "I was doing press for Isn’t It Romantic. But I had to go to the hospital and get surgery."
While Hemsworth notes that "it's all good now," the experience had a lasting impact on his day-to-day life.
"Once you get one kidney stone, you have a 50 percent chance of getting another one if you continue eating the way you were eating," he explains. "Well, my particular kidney stone was a calcium-oxalate kidney stone. It forms from having too much oxalate in your diet. Oxalates are really high in a lot of vegetables, specifically spinach, almonds, beetroot, potatoes."
"Every morning, I was having five handfuls of spinach and then almond milk, almond butter, and also some vegan protein in a smoothie," Hemsworth continues. "And that was what I considered super healthy. So I had to completely rethink what I was putting in my body."
Though his diet has changed now, Hemsworth initially became vegan for health reasons and "felt great" for the first couple of years when his "body was strong" and his "cardio was high."
"What I say to everyone is, 'Look, you can read whatever you want to read. But you have to experience it for yourself. You have to figure out what works best for your body,'" he says. "If something works well for a period, great, keep doing it. If something changes and you’re not feeling great, you’ve got to reassess it and then figure it out."
Over the past couple of years, Hemsworth has had more life changes than just his updated diet. He lost his house in the 2018 California wildfires, married his longtime love, Miley Cyrus, and split from her less than a year later.
When it comes to the fire, Hemsworth admits that it was "a s**tty thing to live through."
"I was able to appreciate the fact that I got all my animals out, and pretty much everything that I had in my house that burned down is replaceable to a point. There’s a select few things that hold a little bit more sentiment that I’ll never get back," he says. "And I also acknowledge that a lot of people didn’t have insurance, and they don’t have anything else to fall back on. I have insurance and it’s a frustrating process, but I’ll get taken care of, so I’m thankful."
"Life is the most important thing, and hopefully your animals and the people that you’re with got out safely," Hemsworth adds. "I’m more conscious these days of how short life is and how things can change so quickly."
In that regard, Hemsworth says he's learned to appreciate "the little things" after all the changes in his life.
"It’s something I always try to remind myself to do, especially in times that maybe things aren’t going the way I planned or the way I wanted things to go," he says. "Appreciating what I do have and searching for things that make me happy and things that make me a better person."
While Hemsworth doesn't directly address his and Cyrus' divorce, he does speak to the media attention that surrounded him throughout their relationship.
"For a long period of time, it was very stressful, and it really got to me. Yeah, look, there are times when you want to lash out and say something... because from my point of view, the majority of the time things that are written about me are completely false," he says. "There are times when you want to speak up and there are other times when it’s not worth it, because you’re just going to draw more attention to it, and then it’s better to just not think about it and let it all wash away."
"These days I don’t want to invest any more time in worrying about that sort of stuff," he continues. "I remind myself of what to appreciate now and to enjoy every moment as much as possible, whether that be working or with my family or whatever I’m doing. Just trying to find a positive in it all and enjoy life as much as possible."
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