1.7 million viewers tuned in to see Beyonce’s promotional video on the singer’s YouTube channel last month for her new fad diet. While the singer holds a large following, nutritionists speculate whether the singer’s diet holds any concerns. Celebrities, especially women, are put under usual pressure to represent a healthy lifestyle and be comfortable with their bodies. The problem with emphasizing diets that retain most nutrients could be harmful not only to Beyonce but to the young audiences elsewhere that look up to the singer.
The whole food and plant-based diet were to help prepare her for her upcoming Coachella performance. Some say the singer’s dedication to give her all for the performance outshined any worries at all, since that was her sole intent. According to BBC News, NHS requires a 2,000 calories-a day diet for men and 2,000 calories-a day diet for women. Beyonce’s diet only requires 1,400.
Originally created in 2013, “Beyonce’s Kitchen,” was set to help reach the singer’s goals by eliminating “no bread, no carbs, no sugar, no meat, no alcohol,” while the singer adds, she’s “hungry.” Beyonce’s trainer 22 Days Nutrition founder, Marco Borges, devised the plan for her. One of the recipes contains a “veggie sandwich” with only 24 grams of protein and a green smoothie containing eight teaspoons of sugar.
Nutritionist Daniel O’Shaughnessy comments that excluding all animal products can become “problematic” since there are many vitamins held in dietary meat. For anyone exercising, only eating 1400 calories can become exhausting. The singer’s YouTube promotion shows her standing on a scale and purportedly saying her weight is “every woman’s worst nightmare.” The singer had given birth to her twins and was set to make a Coachella come back in 2018, which she did.
So, was the diet done in vain or necessary? Perhaps this could be viewed in two ways.
Beyonce had a goal in mind and wanted to fully commit to it. Her love for entertainment shines in her Coachella performance, letting us forget she barely had twins at all. Instead, we are focused on her performance, which is what I believe she was aiming for. Unfortunately, we live in a day and age where appearance matters most, so she sacrificed what she could in order to fully commit to her show flawlessly.
On the other hand, for long-term effects, everything in moderation is required to maintain a healthy lifestyle. You definitely need a stable amount of proteins, sugars, and whole foods to help keep your diet and exercise up. Staying on an extreme diet for a long period of time could almost definitely be harmful to your health the same way staying on an unhealthy eating binge can as well. Being a role model to an impressionable audience is always a great deal of pressure, but perhaps there can be a cautionary way to handle the promotion of said diets, so that the younger audiences are not harming themselves at a crucial time in their life, especially.
Hopefully, we can all manage to learn how to balance our own lifestyles with what works for us and what doesn’t.