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| Ella Mills of Deliciously Ella with Dr Giles Yeo in the BBC Two documentary Clean Eating: The Dirty Truth |
You may or may not have noticed that the plant-based diet has come under a lot of scrutiny lately. Journalists, writers and scientists alike are picking up on what has become a so-called 'fad' and are putting it under intense investigation, throwing all of us plant-based eaters into the limelight - and not for the best reasons.
I'm always willing to listen to a counter-argument in any situation and know that everything we learn, hear and read should be met with a critical eye. This is why I have been willing to listen to what these anti-plant-based champions have to say, in order to evaluate their opinion, think about my experience, scientific facts, media bias and what realistically is true and is not true, thus allowing me to come to my own conclusion.
One such investigation into the plant-based diet 'fad' is the BBC Two documentary Clean Eating: The Dirty Truth, in which Dr Giles Yeo, a geneticist who qualified at the University of Cambridge, looks into the phenomenon of clean eating that has swept social media. He focuses on who he sees as key figures in the 'clean eating' world such as Deliciously Ella, The Helmsley Sisters and T. Colin Campbell (author of The China Study), to name a few, and looks at what they are promoting versus scientific fact.
I have to give credit to Deliciously Ella for agreeing to be interviewed for the documentary. It is clear that Yeo's incentive was to emphasise to Ella that what she is promoting in her books is not based on scientific fact; he has found no scientific proof that eating a plant-based diet can cure common ailments. Ella agrees with this and states that she never claimed to be giving medical advice, which is true. She is simply sharing what she found helped her through her illness (POTS); that by cutting out all processed food, sugar, dairy and gluten as well as exercising more she got better and is now able to live a normal life.
In his interview with Ella, Yeo brings up up the #cleaneating label which brings up tens of millions of results if you search it on Instagram. He also suggests that Ella is promoting a certain 'lifestyle' to her followers which he feels is a lot to live up to. It was a tough interview; you could see poor Ella's face glowing with sweat as the curve-ball questions kept coming. It was obvious that Yeo was trying to dig up something but it became clear that it wasn't going to be found through Ella; she seemed shocked when he suggested her lifestyle was just for Instagram and re-iterated that what you see is how she lives. Yes, she selects the best bits for Instagram (she rightly points out that no one would want to see that her dog peed on her bed that morning), but she genuinely lives the lifestyle she promotes in her books. She does not however associate with the term clean eating and has never used it. That is where this investigation gets interesting.
I embarked on a plant-based diet last March after my second operation to treat endometriosis. After feeling traumatised with the results of the operation and what the surgeon found, I decided that I did not want to go under the knife for this condition again. The week before the operation I had actually been sick off work with a chest infection so had a lot of time on my hands. I decided to use this time to read, starting with the Deliciously Ella cookbook my sister got me for Christmas. After a few pages I was captivated. Not only did Ella look glowing, but her story, recipes and the simple ingredients in them made me feel as if this was something I had to try. She wasn't promising me that she could cure my illness, rather she was promoting a positive lifestyle that focused on wellness, eating natural food (ie without preservatives/ not man-made/ non-processed) and healing yourself from within. It had opened up a whole new world for me.
This led me on to other books such as Clean by Dr Alejandro Junger, who emphasises the importance of health starting from within, with a focus on preventative rather than reactive health care via sensible food choices, and a book on managing the symptoms of endometriosis via what you eat (which involved a vast reduction, if not elimination, of meat-based products). All of these books gave me so much determination: if I could adapt my diet to cut out all sugar, dairy (of which I have an intolerance but didn't want to admit to myself), gluten and meat then I could see if I get better. So I gave it all up overnight. I never once thought that these books were the answer to my illness, nor did I grab on to their ideas because I wanted to lose weight; the fact is that they gave me hope inside, which is something I needed to seize when living with a chronic illness that often leaves you feeling hopeless.
Further to this, never once did any of the books I read mention 'clean eating'. As Ella states in the Clean Eating: The Dirty Truth documentary, clean means a very different thing now to when she started on the wellness scene a few years ago. Clean now implies dirty, Ella stated, which is negative, and not something she associates with. I have to agree. There are some people on the plant-based diet who are taking it a bit too far; implying that you are a clean eater brings all sorts of restrictions to mind when in fact the plant-based diet is about still enjoying everything you normally would but in a different way. You only need to scroll through my blog to see that I still make chocolate cake, bolognese and 'cheesy' pasta, only without artificial ingredients, dairy, sugar or gluten. As Ella has emphasised the whole time, changing your diet to plant-based is not about restrictions; rather a focus on products as they are in their natural form. Rather than sugar, you can use maple syrup; rather than wheat flour, try brown rice flour; rather than cow's milk, explore nut milks.
Anyone seeing it as a restrictive diet is doing it for the wrong reasons. I do it because it makes me feel good and because I want to try my best to keep my symptoms at bay. I know for a fact that with a hormone-sensitive condition like mine, animal products will upset the very fine balance which can lead to a resurgence in the endometriosis inside my body, and I very much can do without that. My sister, who had some health problems last year, started to explore the plant-based diet as a means to test whether she felt better or not. At first she was skeptical and felt that she would have to give up everything she loved. Pretty soon, though, she didn't see it as a diet anymore; again, diet implies restriction, and what she learned was that you can imitate all of the tasty, naughty foods we have always loved but through wholesome, natural ingredients. Furthermore, after a few weeks of trying the diet, she said her fogginess had lifted, her pains lessened and she felt much less bloated than before. The sister of one of my best friends suffered for years from severe epilepsy, however once she adopted a vegan, gluten-free, plant-based diet, the epilepsy disappeared and now only resurfaces if she is stressed or extremely tired, which is very rare. Is there science behind that? Who cares! It is working and it is making her feel good, and that's what all of these documentaries and articles are completely disregarding.
This leads me on to the next point in my argument. As mentioned, several journalists have attacked the plant-based diet or so-called 'clean eating' phenomenon by reducing it to a fad diet. They ridicule the Instagrammers, like myself, who share images of their meals daily. One such article to take this position can be found on the Guardian website (click here to view). In the article, Ruby Tandoh takes the stance that 'clean eating' and 'wellness' are fads that are in the process of dying off just like the Atkins diet did in the 80s once everyone got bored of it. She labels all cookbook writers of the current wellness phase as "putting a bright new face on the diet industry" and goes on to say that "although not all of the bloggers used the exact phrase "clean eating", their approaches fell into step with its core beliefs: slimness is health, health is everything." Not once in any of the plant-based cookbooks I have read (and there have been a lot) has an author stated that slimness is health, nor have they included being slim as being a admirable goal that we must work towards. Again, like Yeo, Tandoh is writing this article with an agenda; to debunk the plant-based diet and ridicule the 'fad' that it has brought about, without giving real thought to the reasons why thousands of consumers are switching to eating wholefoods, plant-based diets.
I get that these writers and geneticists-turned-TV presenters want to enjoy meat or indulge in a burger without being made to feel guilty when they check their Instagram feed (which is likely flooded with lots of perfect-looking meals and a range of health-themed hashtags to boot), but to put us all in one basket and completely disregard many peoples' motivations for adopting a plant-based diet is not only ignorant but quite insulting. Yes, there will be some people that change their lifestyle in this way in order to look skinnier, and these are likely the people who give 'fad diet' its meaning because in 6 months down the line, when they haven't lost the weight they had hoped, they will drop the 'diet' and try something new; hence the name 'fad diet'. But for people who, like me, are in this for the long-term, whether to manage a health condition or for those taking preventative measures to avoid a family trait of heart disease, for instance, this is no fad and quite literally it is what is keeping us going. I don't see anything wrong with being positive, eating food that makes me feel good and sharing that with others so that they too can be inspired to try a lifestyle which gives them hope too. Whether it works or not is different for each person, but I have to agree with T. Colin Campbell on this: I have never seen anyone become more poorly from eating more vegetables.
Whether there is science behind it or not, we need to get across to these anti-plant-based voices that we are doing this to feel good and are building a community that wants to feel good too. Those who want to look skinny or beautiful will fall by the wayside eventually, and what's left will be the real people of the plant-based movement; those of us taking preventive healthcare measures for now and the future. When the 'fad' blows over will I throw the towel in and go buy a steak because it becomes trendy again? Absolutely not. And neither will the thousands of people across the world who have changed their lifestyles for the better. No one is dying from eating more vegetables and less meat, and I certainly don't think it's a valuable use of time to try and prove that otherwise.
Here's to many more glorious years of plant-based eating, feeling good, staying positive, and not having to apologise for it.
- Anna
Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jan/23/bad-fad-ruby-tandoh-on-how-clean-eating-turned-toxic
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08bhd29
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deliciously-Ella-Awesome-ingredients-incredible/dp/1444795007
https://www.forksoverknives.com/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Endometriosis-Healing-Fertility-Through-Nutrition/dp/0007133103
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Clean-Expanded-Revolutionary-Program/dp/0062201662
https://www.amazon.co.uk/China-Study-Comprehensive-Nutrition-Implications/dp/1932100660
