Tia Mowry recently revealed in her new cookbook that she took diet pills while on the set of Sister, Sister.
Whole New You: How Real Food Transforms Your Life, for a Healthier, More Gorgeous You, the name of Mowry's new cookbook reveals more than just recipes. She admitted that while filming the '90s sitcom alongside twin sister, Tamera, she used diet pills.
"TV sets are always catered, so I was surrounded by junk food 24/7. To my teenage self, it was like living in a Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Everything I wanted was at my fingertips: Twizzlers, M&M's, Starbursts, potato chips, you name it. And if something I craved wasn't there, all I had to do was ask: 'Chocolate chip cookies, please?' And they simply appeared. It was heaven. If heaven leads to health problems, that is," Mowry wrote in an excerpt of her book acquired by People.
The actress explained that although she "didn't feel fat" the "pressure...[of] wanting to look sexy and beautiful took over." She admitted they helped her to lose weigh, but she knew it was a cost to her health. "The pills caused my heart to race, and I knew in my gut that I was hurting myself."
It wasn't until the Sister, Sister star attended Pepperdine University, when her psychology professor told her to write "give up diet pills" on a piece of paper and watch the paper burn. Mowry says she hasn't used diet pills since that day and hasn't felt the need to go back to them.
These days the 38-year old actress is enjoying a much healthier lifestyle, which includes a vegan diet and refraining from diet pills of any kind. She made the turn towards veganism after her endometriosis diagnosis in her early 20's.