At the moment it feels like energy balls, avocado and quinoa are taking over. The concept of clean eating is taking the food world by storm. But are our minds too obsessed with what we put on our plates?

“You thought quinoa was a fish?”

Gone Girl 2014

So what is all the fuss about?

In modern society, our relationship with food has become a complicated one. With both obesity and eating disorders on the rise, it seems we are struggling more than ever to find the middle ground of what is good and bad for us. But It’s no wonder it is still happening.  Having 5 fruit and veg a day all of a sudden leaps to 10. Wine is a sin, but it’s also good to drink a glass a day (my own grandma believes water should only be used to wash your hair – and she’s in her 80s!).

Yet as a result of this happening it seems that judging one another’s eating habits is also occurring more and more. If you aren’t an avocado eating, wellness junky you are fat-shamed, and if you are the prior you’re probably vegan-shamed, whether you are one or not!

To put it plainly food-shaming is criticising someone for eating something that doesn’t match their own definition of good food. Yet the shame game keeps growing, and not in the way you’d expect. Instead of being towards those eating a triple cheeseburger every day for lunch, that sort of shaming has been and gone. Instead, it’s the shame that your smashed avocado on rye bread toast and spinach, spirulina, kale, and cucumber green sludge of a smoothie is putting everyone else off in the office, and doesn’t look as wholesome and ‘dreamy’ as Deliciously Ella’s did on her Snapchat story that morning. The clean eating world is certainly setting the bar high when it comes to standards. Perhaps so high that when someone achieves them we shame them for this, and ourselves for not being able to resist that last doughnut. 

Creator of Deliciously Stella, Bella Younger,  believes that the clean eating trend is going too far and isn’t improving self-love. Her parody version is not a malicious attempt to shame the stars successfully living this way.  Instead, it shames the clean eating revolution itself and how quickly social media users are conforming to simply accept these new dietary expectations.

 

Many celebrity chefs including Heston Blumenthal and Nigella Lawson have also exclaimed their disgust for the clean eating food revolution. Lawson said “I think behind the notion of ‘clean eating’ is an implication that any other form of eating is dirty or shameful” during an interview with the Independent (October 2015). Showing that even though the diet’s ideology is positive and aims for good outcomes, it’s causing shame itself. 

Avocado fact attack…

Oh and by the way I’m not even joking with the title of this post… there are 5,049,557 hashtags of avocado on Instagram at this current moment in time (4:15 pm) and I’m sure that number will creep up at breakfast time tomorrow!