Angry Chef;

Recently, whilst publicising her latest diet book, unbearably smug radio personality and all-round irritant Fearne Cotton revealed that she had secretly suffered from bulimia for around 10 years. She said that she was ‘no longer afraid’, and hoped that in speaking out she would encourage others to do so. I suppose her honesty at opening up should be praised, and certainly the reaction has been generally positive. But in truth, I have struggled with this story and the media response to it.

 
Although listening to Cotton on the radio generally makes me want to lance my eardrums with a hypodermic syringe, I understand that she has astonishing popularity and reach, giving her the ability to spread a positive message that might just remove some of the stigma surrounding these conditions. But I cannot get over the fact that she is just one of a troubling succession of diet book authors who have disseminated prescriptive food advice whilst suffering from an eating disorder. She may not be the worst offender, but she is perhaps the highest in profile, which makes writing critically about her full of risk. When friend of the blog ‘Not Plant Based’ covered the story in less than glowing terms, the author received a torrent of abuse on social media. […]

 

So great, let’s have a fucking conversation. Let’s talk openly about our problems. But if we are going to do that, let’s not shy away from discussing the huge dietary revenue stream that feeds on the food insecurities of others. The lucrative rhetoric that drives people towards disorder, and keeps them held within its grip. The restrictive diets and magical food thinking that Cotton and others in the industry have spent years encouraging. The eating patterns that can prove fatal if they take hold in vulnerable minds.

 
Let’s also talk about the concerns of dietitians and eating disorder professionals that are so often blithely dismissed by the authors and publishers of these books. The people that work for months with patients only to have their hard work overturned by a dismissive comment from an influencer that a packet of crisps or a chocolate bar is toxic and doing them harm. Let’s talk about the books and articles that Cotton has written about food, telling countless young people exactly how to eat and what to restrict. Let’s explore her back catalogue, and talk about which parts of it should be immediately withdrawn from sale if she really cares about people’s mental wellbeing. Let’s have a conversation about the pointless, tortured and restrictive food mantras she has spent years preaching. Although she should never be judged for what her illness drove her to, perhaps she should be judged for not looking back and considering the harm this might have done to others.

More.

The woman who invented ‘I Quit Sugar’ had an eating disorder for a decade. Struggled writing this as it feels v uncomfortable to expose another woman but I felt someone has to in aid of the thousands of followers who replicate her eating 1/2 https://t.co/kBHBCxKVXx

— Eve Simmons (@EveSimmns) September 22, 2019