Mens_Health_UK_March_2017

S CO U MEN’S HEALTH 89

routinely dismissed as ‘fake’ or labeled

‘Frankenfood’. To some, anything that

hasn’t been plucked from a tree or

dug out of the ground – whether we’re

talking Wham bars or artisan pastries –

is deemed ‘unnatural’. And while once

upon a time the food you ate might have

been regarded as being either good for

you or bad for you, nowadays sustenance

has taken on a moral quality: it is either

#clean or, god forbid, #dirty.

This is not, many contend, an especially

helpful advancement. “‘Clean eating’ is

a broad term that ultimately means little,”

‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ can lead to an anxiety

around food. At the other end it can turn

into a full-blown eating disorder. Clean

eating is obsessed with the notion that

there exists an idealistic food pyramid,

and if your choices fall outside of that,

somehow you’re not clean, not worthy.”

Part of the problem is context – or

a lack thereof. On social media, people

are presented with images removed from

their environment, without knowledge

of the poster’s background, yet feel

confident commenting in ways that

reinforce their insular worldview. “Take

someone who is training hard,” says

Miller. “If he is ‘eating clean’ – that’s to

say cutting out carbs or grains or gluten –

then he may well be suffering from fatigue

because he’s not getting the calories

and nutrients he needs. But within the

wellness community, no one is going to

comment on his Instagram posts and

say, ‘You’re not eating enough potatoes,

mate.’ More likely he’ll be quizzed on his

intake of ‘toxins’ or ‘heavy metals’ and

encouraged to cut more foods from an

already nutrient-deficient diet.”

This sort of dubious diagnosis by

committee is prevalent in the world of

wellness. The social-media-appointed

queen of clean eating herself, Deliciously

Ella, shot to fame after using dietary

changes to treat a rare and debilitating

autoimmune disease known as postural

tachycardia syndrome, which left

says Rick Miller, a clinical nutritionist

for the British Dietetic Association. “To

some it can mean cutting out perceived

‘toxins’ such as gluten and dairy; while to

others it’s about going as far as restricting

themselves to raw food.” Putting aside

for one moment the merits of such

approaches to your physical health, Miller

warns that this ambiguity, coupled with

a culture of restrictive eating, can have

a profoundly detrimental impact on our

mental health. Orthorexia – the morbid

obsession with eating healthily – is on the

rise. “At one end of the scale, labels like

2013

Avocados’ wellness

cred is given a boost

with the publication

of a Journal of

Nutrition article

claiming “avocado

consumption is

associated with

better diet quality

and nutrient intake.”

2015

The revelation that

fats might not be so

bad for you after all

• and that many are
  even beneficial –
  thrusts avocados
  even further into
  the limelight.

2016

A study in the

Journal of the

American Medical

Association found

that, whether you

Instagram it or not,

one avocado per

day is proven to

significantly reduce

LDL cholesterol.

2017

At time of going to

press, the #avocado

Instagram hashtag

has been used

almost five million

times – and its

popularity shows

little sign of waning.

2007
The Hass variety
reigns supreme as
king of avocados,
not just because
of its creamier
high-fat content,
but also because its
slow-ripening and
thick skin makes
it an exemplary
international export.

THE

WELLNESS

DELUSION

“Food now

has a moral

quality. It is

clean or, god

forbid, dirty”

her exhausted and

struggling to get out

of bed. Having found

conventional medicine

to be of little benefit,

Mills cut sugar, gluten,

dairy, meat, plus

anything processed or

refined from her diet.

Within two years, as she tells it, she was

able to manage the symptoms of her

illness without drugs, and all because

of a bit of home research and a cleaned-

up diet. Whether intended or not, the

implicit message is inescapable: listening

to medical professionals is not necessarily

as important as listening to your body.

And if you still can’t work out what that’s

telling you, well, just listen to a wellness

guru and stop eating bread.