Mumbai, Dec 14 (IANS): Bollywood actors Shahid Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor have been named Hottest Vegetarian Celebrities for 2016 by animal rights organisation PETA India.

Shahid and Sonam beat out a strong group of competitors, including megastar Amitabh Bachchan, Alia Bhatt, Kangana Ranaut, Vidyut Jammwal, R Madhavan and Sunny Leone. This was decided via a poll wherein visitors to PETAIndia.com cast their votes.

"Sonam and Shahid are fit, hot, and compassionate, and they're setting a great example for their fans and millions of people who want to fight climate change with their forks", said Sachin Bangera, PETA India's associate director of celebrity and public relations.

Talking about it, Shahid said in a statement: "What has happened now is that I've stopped taking milk and milk products. I am lacto-sensitive. A lot of people are lacto-sensitive. But they don't realise it. I love chicks, pigs, cows, fish, and all the other animals, too. That's why I turned vegetarian."

The actor, who welcomed his first child with Mira Rajput in September, says he is "very happy being a vegetarian".

"I believe that it is the best way to be," Shahid added.

As seen in PETA's exposé "Glass Walls", in today's industrialised meat and dairy industries, chickens' throats are cut while they're still conscious, fish suffocate or are cut open while they're still alive, pigs are often stabbed in the heart as they scream in pain, and calves are torn away from their mothers within hours of birth. At the slaughterhouse, animals are often killed in full view of one another and even dismembered while they are conscious and can feel pain.

In addition to causing animal suffering on a massive scale, eating meat has been conclusively linked to heart disease, strokes, diabetes, cancer, and obesity - and a United Nations report concluded that a global shift towards a plant-based diet is necessary to combat the worst effects of climate change.