Nigella Lawson Thinks Clean Eating Is 'a Way to Hide an Eating Disorder'

Nigella Lawson is not down with the clean eating trend. The British chef and author, famous for such decadent recipes as her Chocolate Guinness Cake, does not mince words when it comes to the healthy eating craze. At the JW3 Speaker Series in London earlier this week, Lawson said, “People are using certain diets as a way to hide an eating disorder or a great sense of unhappiness and unease with their own body.”

Lawson continued: “There is a way in which food is used either to self congratulate — you’re a better person because you’re eating like that — or to self-persecute, because you’ll not allow yourself to eat the foods you want.” According to People, this isn’t the first time she’s criticized the lifestyle. In October, she told the BBC she thinks “the notion of ‘clean eating’ is an implication that any other form of eating is dirty or shameful.”

Lawson, whose most recent cookbook is titled, Simply Nigella, believes in moderation when it comes to eating whatever you want. “There are times when you need a slice of cake,” she said. “You don’t eat it every day but life has to be balanced and not too restricted.”

Lawson shared her personal experience with eating disorders on a recent episode of The Late Late Show. The chef described how she only realized her mother had suffered from one after her death. “I kind of put two and two together. I knew she had a thing about thinness but I worked it out later,” Lawson said. “When she was dying she allowed herself to eat. To wait until you’ve got a terminal disease to enjoy eating is an awful thing.”