Health fads mask disorders, Nigella warns

NIGELLA LAWSON, the television chef, has said healthy eating habits are often a way of hiding eating disorders.

The How To Be A Domestic Goddess author criticised what she called “an age of fads”, and said popular perceptions of which foods are healthy are subject to change.

In a speech to catering students at a college in Toronto, she said: “A lot of so-called healthy eating is a cover-up for an eating disorder, and I think people persecute themselves with what they do eat and what they don’t eat.”

Arguing that dieters can become “a bit extreme” in their eating habits, she spoke of friends who would deny themselves chocolate until eventually giving in to their cravings and bingeing.

Miss Lawson said cutting out whole food groups “doesn’t make sense”, The Independent reported, and added: “You should eat a bit of everything.”

And she said there was a lot of “mumbo jumbo” surrounding modern diets and eating regimens, adding that what is considered healthy changes with time and trends.

The comments echo her attack three years ago on the growing fashion for “clean eating” – avoiding processed food or ingredients – which was increasing being promoted by bloggers and social media stars.

In 2015 she told the JW3 Speaker Series in London: “People are using certain diets as a way to hide an eating disorder or a great sense of unhappiness with their own body.”