Beyonce's Lemonade Diet Drink
Beyonce's pre-Coachella diet cut out all carbs, sugar, dairy, meat, and fish. The star's dieting history has included veganism and the Master Cleanse.
- Beyoncé recently launched a nutritional plan for her fans, based on her intense pre-Coachella diet, which nutritionists have said could be "dangerous."
- This isn't the first time the star has made headlines for her eating habits. She's previously marketed a vegan diet app and promoted fads like the Master Cleanse.
- Here's Queen Bey's dieting history.
- Visit INSIDER's homepage for more.
From her start as part of a hip-hop trio to her rise to solo megastardom, Beyoncé Giselle Knowles is one of those powerhouses who needs only one name. In more words, she's a critically acclaimed singer, songwriter, and actress, and regularly topping lists of influential people.
She's also become a nutritional icon, perhaps tracing back to her profile in "Rolling Stone," in which she's eating Cool Ranch Doritos.
Here's a history of Beyoncé's eating habits, from common sense to downright risky, and what nutritionists have to say about them.
Read more: 25 famous people who've tried outrageous diets, and what the science says about their eating patterns
Beyoncé reportedly ate 1,200 calories a day while filming "Austin Powers."
One of the first reports of Beyoncé's eating habits noted she ate only 1,200 calories during filming for 2002's "Austin Powers in Goldmember." In the movie, she plays the sly and slender Foxxy Cleopatra, a 1970s funk fantasy that pays tribute to classic strong Black female characters like Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones.
"I like to eat and that's a problem in this industry," she said of the pressure to be thin for music and movies alike.
It's also a potential health problem: Most active women need at least 2,000 calories a day, according to dietary guidelines.
Beyoncé told the Daily Mail in 2003 she ate tomatoes and cucumbers for lunch.
While still active in Destiny's Child, Beyoncé told several news outlets about her "lunches" of six slices of tomato and four slices of cucumber — nothing else.
Beyoncé also discussed back then the pressure of the media industry to stay thin.
"I am a natural fat person, just dying to get out. I go through agonies to keep my stomach as flat as possible – though it is never flat enough for me," she has said.
While tomatoes are good for you, full of lycopene, vitamin C, and tomatoes, and cucumbers are high in vitamin K , they're not enough on their own for a nutritional lunch. A generous estimate puts Beyoncé's "lunches" at around 28 calories.
Sentiments, too, about never being satisfied with your body can indicate disordered eating habits.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z have been power-couple advocates of plant-based eating for years.
In 2013, both Beyoncé and her partner, rapper Jay-Z, decided to go vegan for nearly a month as part of a 22-day-challenge. They also encouraged their fans to do the same, although they prefer to use the term "plant-based" instead of "vegan."
Since then, both have gone back to eating meat but tried to stick to more plant-based foods and incorporated things like Meatless Mondays into their routines, Beyonce's trainer told the New York Times.
Beyoncé went on a crash diet to prepare for Coachella in 2018.
Beyoncé kept a strict diet for 44 days to prepare for Coachella in 2018. She said in a video she was motivated to do it after she stepped on the scale ("every woman's nightmare") to find her weight had "a long way to go." She had recently given birth to twins.
That announcement alone was enough to invoke criticism. "She is irresponsibly stoking an evil diet culture – but is also a victim of it," wrote one columnist for The Guardian.
The diet itself raises red flags for health professionals: It cut out all bread, carbs, sugar, dairy, meat, fish, and alcohol, according to a clip from her behind-the-scenes documentary. Too much restriction can be harmful, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Beyoncé and her trainer Marco Borges announced the "Beyoncé's Kitchen" feature of their meal-planning app so fans can mimic her diet.
In July 2019, Beyoncé posted clips of her preparation for Coachella, and her rigorous diet, to generate hype for the 22 Days Nutrition meal planner, a collaboration with her trainer Marco Borges.
For $14 a month ($99 annually), users get customized meal plans provided by an app, wherein users can select their portion sizes and peruse menus by prep time, cooking skill, and ingredients.
While the plan is slightly less extreme than Beyoncé's crash prep for Coachella, it doesn't provide enough calories for most people to stay healthy — the BBC reported that a typical day on the plan is just 1,400 calories, compared to the 2,000 to 2,5000 recommended by most dietary guidelines.
Dietitian Dana Hunnes told VICE it's "overly aggressive" in cutting calories, even for weight loss . She added that the plant-based recipes themselves are "nothing special."
Read more:
Beyoncé gave fans an intimate look into her pre-Coachella weight-loss journey with a new video documenting her plant-based diet and intense rehearsals
The worst fad diets for your brain and body, from the Bible-inspired Daniel Fast to the werewolf diet
Jillian Michaels thinks the keto diet is a horrible idea. She recommends a more 'common sense' eating style instead
Source: https://www.insider.com/beyonce-diets-22-day-master-cleanse-vegan-coachella-2019-8