Will.i.am, 42, has transformed his diet in the past year, following concerns over his health. The Voice coach, whose real name is William James Adams Jr, became vegan last year after his doctor told him he had high blood pressure and high cholesterol. He told The Mirror in January 2018: “I weighed 15 stone. After we finished filming in December I went home, I became vegan, I biked to work and I lost 15lb. “I decided to do it as I was heavy then. I went to the doctor because I had this cough I couldn’t kick.
“They said I had high blood pressure and high cholesterol. I was like, ‘Why am I having that?’.
“It is because I work and work and work and travel, travel, travel. I eat whatever I eat, I had no regiment in what I was eating.”
Will.i.am now works out more regularly and changed his diet to become more plant-based, which isn’t as strict as a vegan diet.
He added: “I thought, ‘OK, I have to get this under control’. So I changed my diet, started working out more and lost the weight.
“The cholesterol is down as well but it runs in my family, and diabetes. So I want to get it under control now so I don’t have to worry about it later on.”
Will.i.am also revealed how his lifestyle had a major impact on his health.
At one stage, the rapper was only having two hours of sleep per night.
He told Loose Women last year: “The high cholesterol was a wake-up call, then I had bronchitis for a month and a half and I didn’t know why I couldn’t beat it.
“My immune system was weak and I was eating whatever I could eat for energy, my sleeping patterns were really off, I’d have two and half hours, wake up, go to work, have a nap. So I really had to get my life in check.
“My blood pressure and cholesterol came down without having to take medicine, my nasal drip has gone, both my nostrils are working – as I always had one nostril that didn’t work! No more nasal drip no more acid reflux.”
Speaking about his plant-based diet to Arianna Huffington on her Thrive Global podcast in August last year, Will.i.am said the lifestyle change also boosted his energy levels.
He said: “I switched my regimen, went plant-based and it changed my life. I lost 20 lbs.
“My cholesterol came down, my high blood pressure came down. My stress levels came down naturally. I have more energy. My sleep regimen is awesome.”
“It changed my life, and I would encourage everybody to have a plant-based regimen,” he continued.
“You don’t need the meat, you don’t need to have decaying flesh in your body.
“The more I think about it I was like, ‘Ew.’ I was just, I had death in me. Decayed flesh and crazy chemicals I can’t pronounce. You wouldn’t put that s**t in your car.”