Shailene Woodley on How She Got Into Making Her Own Medicine

It’s no secret that Shailene Woodley lives life on her own terms. From eating clay to sunbathing her nether regions, the actor has a pretty distinct health and wellness routine. Woodley heavily relies on nature to keep her health in tip-top shape. This includes everything from foraging her own foods to making her own medicine out of herbs. But how did she get into natural healing to begin with?

Shailene Woodley started learning about natural medicine back in high school

Though Woodley was technically a child actor, she still attended normal school. In fact, one of the conditions that her parents set for her was that she had to perform well in school in order to continue acting. While in high school, the Endings, Beginnings star learned about environmentalism, agriculture, and the American food system. This would serve as a catalyst for her personal journey of leading an alternative lifestyle and embracing natural medicine. While speaking with Vanity Fair, she reflected on her journey.

“When I was 15, I became an extreme activist and getting into environmentalism,” Woodley explained about how she got into making her own medicine. “I started learning about the agriculture system in America and how corrupt it was. And then I began questioning what is healthy. Some people say veganism, some people say meat-eating. Then I started studying indigenous cultures and that made the most sense to me. They were connected to their ecosystem. They healed themselves from the plants around them. They built their shelter with their own hands. Their shampoos came from fruit. Their soaps came from cacti or other plants depending on what regions of the world they lived in.”

What are some of the actor’s health and wellness practices?

The more Woodley learned, the more she started incorporating her knowledge into her everyday lifestyle. She started doing things like eating bone broth to promote gut health. To replace traditional mouthwash, she embraced oil pulling with sesame or coconut oil to whiten her smile. She also started learning about the natural properties of herbs, fruits, and veggies, to keep her health in tip-top shape. For example, Woodley swears by garlic as a way of warding off viruses and bacteria.

Woodley has a backup plan for acting that involves using food as medicine

Woodley is so enamored with natural healing that she would consider it as a career path if she wasn’t an actor. She could see herself owning a type of apothecary that sold fruits, veggies, herbs, adaptogens, and more. While speaking with Into the Gloss, Woodley talked about her interest in helping heal maladies by using food as medicine.

“If I wasn’t an actress, I’d probably do something with food,” Woodley shared. “Finding seeds, planting seeds, watching them grow, harvesting the fruits, cooking the fruits, eating them, seeing how my body reacts, and even digesting. I’m fascinated with the entire process. I would open a place like Moon Juice and have an elixir bar where people could come in and say, ‘My tooth aches,’ or, ‘I have a sinus infection,’ and I would be able to help them.”