Spilling the beans on a healthy obsession
After battling anorexia, pop star Marilou blogged her way back to eating well
Food is culture. Food is nutrition. Food is friendship.
Increasingly, food has also become an obsession, with many of us photographing and posting our pretty plates, proselytizing about “eating clean” or the health benefits of hemp seeds, kombucha or sacha inchi — examples of my own recent fetishes.
For Marilou, a French-Canadian singer and blogger whose cookbook, Three Times a Day, has just come out in English, food used to be something to fear.
“Food was kind of an enemy because it would make me become fat. It was the only thing I could feel around food,” says Marilou, who battled anorexia for about five years. Her eating disorder started when she was 16 and left her physically and emotionally spent.
“I loved eating, but I couldn’t enjoy it. I was really obsessed. I was only thinking about that, even if I was at a movie or with friends or with family,” says the 25-yearold, who goes only by her first name.
“I knew that I wanted children and so I knew that I wouldn’t be able to continue my life like that and be the woman that I wanted to become.”
Marilou is now expecting a child with her husband and collaborator, Alexandre Champagne, 30.
Together they started the blog TroisFoisParJour.com on the heels of Marilou’s recovery, in part as a way to share her experience with the thousands of young women who started reading. Since its launch in 2013, the blog has attracted 400,000 followers and last year’s Frenchlanguage print of the cookbook has sold 200,000 copies.
Champagne’s background as a portrait photographer translates into the esthetic of the cookbook, where the meal is his muse. He combines his love of vibrant colours with an earthy backdrop — meaning the meals are pictured against distressed wood, burlap placemats and chipped vintage china.
Diversity is a strong point, with recipes that range from the economical (a simple Pulled Pork Tacos and Almond-Crusted Trout) to the more involved (a gorgeous Cream of Beet and Almond Butter Soup and My Favourite Chocolate Cake.)
“I was inspired by my condition. And while it’s good to eat healthy food, (it’s also OK) to eat desserts once in a while.” MARILOU SINGER AND CO-AUTHOR OF THREE TIMES A DAY
In this book, food is a gift — and can be made into one. Seventeen of the recipes are categorized as such. The Spiced Lentil and Barley Soup can be assembled in a pretty jar with a ribbon tied on, as can six different kinds of pesto.
Marilou says she just wanted to include recipes people will want to cook. “That’s the only thing I was thinking about.”
Even with a new appreciation of food — and less fear — Marilou admits she is still influenced by her past.
“I’m a different person because of what I’ve been through. So, yes, I was inspired by my condition,” she says. “And while it’s good to eat healthy food, (it’s also OK) to eat desserts once in a while.”