Dishing The Dirt on Clean Eating
Grace Dent discovers what has made Anthony Warner into the Angry Chef and unpicks the role that social media plays in spurring people towards diet plans and 'healthy-eating' regimes Anthony set up a blog last year to vent his fury at what he describes as bad science in his quest to reveal the truth behind so-called 'healthy eating'. He believes we're bombarded by false messages and claims about food. In his quest to find out if Anthony's claims are justified, we meet Helen West, a registered dietician, and asks how damaging 'fad-diets' are. What happens if you cut out carbohydrates, dairy and gluten from your diet and we meet Eve Simmons. Eve became seriously ill with anorexia and blames the array of glossy websites featuring perfectly sculpted bodies, in part, for her illness. We'll meet Dr Judy Swift who has been studying the link between social media and Orthorexia: eating disorders brought on by obsessing about eating certain foods. But is Anthony's anger justified? James Duigan is the man behind 'Bodyism'. He's developed a plan of eating healthily whilst exercising regularly, but encourages detox plans. But what exactly is wrong with wanting to exercise and make yourself feel better? We'll discover if Anthony has every right to be angry, or whether he should simply calm down.