How Zoe Saldana Strives to ‘Eat Healthy Every Single Day’ — And Passes That on to Her ‘Picky’ Kids
January 30, 2018Zoë Saldana and her husband Marco Perego are lovers of “farm-to-table” eating, and they’re working hard to share that passion with their three sons.
“Consciously we are trying to eat healthy every single day, whereas our children don’t need to have that if we don’t instill that in them,” Saldana told PEOPLE of her kids, twins Bowie and Cy, 3, and Zen, 11 months. “We want them to have a natural instinct of eating healthy. [But] they’re super picky.”
Her latest attempt at getting her boys excited to eat healthy foods? She bought them some chickens.
“For Christmas we got them their own hens so we’re going to have our own eggs!” said Saldana. “We’re growing a lot of our basic things. We’re turning into those parents, but also realizing it isn’t that complicated.”
Saldana knows that healthy eating is all about balance. When the Guardians of the Galaxy star is having a cheat day (we all do!) she opts for a “decadent” choice, like a carefully-crafted cocktail, which she recently became introduced to when she teamed up with Campari to star in the brand’s latest Red Diaries film.
“I was never a big cocktail drinker up until now because I really didn’t understand that in order for you to enjoy amazing cocktails, you have to have amazing hands that put it together,” she said.
Matteo Bottin on behalf of Campari Group
Matteo Bottin on behalf of Campari Group
“I tasted the Americano cocktail that Campari put together which I like best because it’s light and beautiful,” she continued. “I had never really enjoyed a cocktail until it was put together for me with expertise and meticulousness, which blew my mind and introduced me to a brand new world of cocktail drinking.”
Although Saldana admits she didn’t know much about the brand until she collaborated with them for the newly released short film, she says she loved working with “amazing actors and directors [to create] a whole story that showcases not just the Campari products but also the bartenders behind it through their talent of mixing amazing cocktails for us to enjoy.”
And while she wouldn’t call herself an expert mixologist just yet, she’s definitely got a keen eye for cooking.
“Los Angeles is such a progressive community of trying to get back to the roots of how vegetables are truly supposed to be eaten, how meat is truly supposed to be cared for and how we’re supposed to be nurturing our bodies,” she said. “My sisters, along with our husbands, are finding ourselves in this inquisition on trying to get back to the basics and the root of how we were raised to eat.”
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As a first generation Latina—and her husband being an Italian immigrant—food was always an important part of the couple’s upbringing.
“We are very close to our grandparents’ way of eating that everything you eat, you should grow and pick in your backyard,” Saldana said.
Her favorite thing to grow? Lots of herbs. “We love [them], my husband and I,” she continued, “Because we come from cultures that cook with a lot of herbs and spices all the time.”