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When you eat, do you see food as fuel or as a pleasurable comfort? Some believe that looking at meals via the latter lens creates an unhealthy dependence on it, while eating for fuel encourages us to be more aware of what goes in our bodies.

Danielle Brooks vegan

WENN

For Orange Is the New Black actress Danielle Brooks, she has decided to go vegan in an attempt to go from living to eat to eating to live. In a recent visit to ABC’s The Chew, the 28-year-old revealed that she’s been maintaining a vegan diet for a few months now.

“I’ve just been vegan for about two months,” she told the hosts. “It’s my anniversary!”

When asked what prompted her to change the way she eats in such an extreme way, the Greenville, South Carolina native said that while she’d been raised on Southern comfort food, she wanted to enjoy a more balanced and “proper” diet.

“I like to eat. I’m from the South. You know, big mama’s mac and cheese, greens, chicken and all of that stuff,” she said. “But I was never taught how to eat properly, how food is fuel. So this is my way of teaching myself how to eat properly, how to eat to live I guess.”

And while it’s been an adjustment, it hasn’t deterred the star from trying new recipes and enjoying cooking. Some of her recent staples have included vegan mac and cheese (she cooked some with the chefs of The Chew), pad Thai and a vegan gingerbread cake.

“Oh, I’m cooking!” Brooks said. “I’m cooking and I’m here to learn from you guys.”

Brooks is balancing her healthy eating with consistent workouts, and the results clearly show:

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