Deliciously Ella: I don’t want to be clean-eating queen
HER passion for low-gluten, dairyfree cooking has seen her dubbed the ‘queen of clean’.
But despite being regarded as a leader of the ‘clean eating’ movement, Ella Mills – author of the bestselling Deliciously Ella series – is now distancing herself from the word altogether.
The U-turn follows recent criticism about people promoting the use of ‘food as medicine’, and worries about the health effects of ditching entire food groups.
In her first, best-selling cookbook, Ms Mills credited a plant-based diet for curing her of the debilitating illness she had suffered with while at university. ‘There are some things that aren’t great for any of us, and it’s those things we should try to eat less of, [including] gluten and dairy,’ she wrote.
Yet in her fourth book, Deliciously Ella With Friends, to be published next week, she says: ‘Don’t preach: don’t talk about meals as being “good” or “bad” healthwise, there is no point categorising anything to inflict guilt.’ And yesterday she criticised the ‘obsession with demonising one food group’ – and denied she was an advocate of a gluten-free diet. ‘There’s a slight irony to the whole thing, having never described myself as “clean” and then becoming “queen of clean”,’ the 25-yearold told a radio programme. ‘Anything taken to an extreme is a problem. Obviously people’s interest in being healthier is something I like and I share recipes to make it more interesting.
‘But I don’t agree with how complicated and loaded it has become. I don’t agree that just because you want to share a recipe to make broccoli more interesting means that anyone should think they should only ever eat broccoli again.’
Ms Mills also revealed that the pressures of her success have caused her previous symptoms to flare up again. During her second year at university, she was bed ridden for months due to postural tachycardia syndrome – an abnormal increase in heart rate. She said that while opening her second deli and releasing her latest cookbook, her health declined in the same way.
‘I went into a bad health period for a couple of months. I was so busy. I didn’t really sleep for three months,’ she said. ‘I really need to slow down.’