Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith Held an Intervention for Son Jaden Over Concern About His Diet

"He was wasting away," Pinkett Smith said on Red Table Talk.

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Jada Pinkett Smith's Facebook series Red Table Talk is back, and in a recent, characteristically candid episode, Jada and husband Will Smith discussed their fears for son Jaden after his diet began to affect his health. In fact, the couple staged "a bit of an intervention" for him, fearing his newly adopted veganism was compromising his wellbeing.

"Will and I had a bit of an intervention with Jaden because he’s a vegan now, but we realized he wasn’t getting enough protein," Jada said, as Hollywood Life reports. "So he was wasting away. He just looked drained, he was just depleted, he wasn’t getting the nutrients." According to Will, Jaden had deep circles under his eyes, while "there was even a little grayness to his skin," he said. He told his son, "We got really nervous. But you’re definitely looking better now."

Jaden explained it was skipping meals that proved the biggest issue. "I was just eating like two meals a day…maybe one," he said. "Maybe just that one big meal and I’m like, ‘Oh, you know, I didn’t get around to it.'" And he shared an update about his current diet, saying, "I’m vegetarian, you know, I’ve tried to eat vegan meals. I’ll go vegan for a week or so but for the past year I’ve been vegetarian."

Jaden dedicates a pretty serious proportion of his life to activism and environmentalism, in case you're not aware. For one, he created a free-to-use water filtration system in Flint, Michigan, as Teen Vogue reports, as well as sending cases of his own sustainable water brand, JUST Water. "Very early on I realized I wanted philanthropy to play a central role in my life," he told the magazine.

Jaden's also encouraged his followers to reduce their meat consumption like him, tweeting earlier this month, "Dear Meat Eaters Let’s Start Doing #MeatlessFridays Where We Don’t Eat Meals That Include Meat For The Entire Day." Plus, he joined New York City's climate crisis strikers with sister Willow last week, writing on Instagram, "The #climatestrike Today In NYC Was So Inspiring. #History." Looks like extremely impressive parents = extremely impressive kids.

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Emily Dixon
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Emily Dixon is a British journalist who’s contributed to CNN, Teen Vogue, Time, Glamour, The Guardian, Wonderland, The Big Roundtable, Bust, and more, on everything from mental health to fashion to political activism to feminist zine collectives. She’s also a committed Beyoncé, Kacey Musgraves, and Tracee Ellis Ross fan, an enthusiastic but terrible ballet dancer, and a proud Geordie lass.