Is the cookbook any good?
I would say it's misguided and irresponsible. She talks about how she how became vegetarian and attributes it to having less colds, sore throats and acne. Then she says she cut out dairy and that milk gave her a blocked nose after she reintroduced it. She talks about the nutrition course (I use that term lightly) and says she was 'shocked' at what she was learning about the effects of excess dairy and animal protein in our diets. The narrative is basically cut out all these things if you want to 'beat the bloat' and have long shiny hair and good skin. She admits that her diet consists of fruit, veg, nuts and nut butters. She says you should avoid refined cards as much as possible and includes white pasta, rice and bread in this. While these are not the best thing to eat all day long they are certainly not to be avoided. They can still be enjoyed in moderate quantities as part of a healthy diet. There is also a section called 'say goodbye to gluten'. She talks about going to see a dietician who made her eat dairy and thus made her unwell. She refers to her own 'clinical training' and says dairy is a problematic food. Nowhere in this book does it advise the person to seek the support of a trained professional when deciding to effectively eliminate entire food groups out of their diet. These changes may well have worked for her and the experience she refers to may well be true for her, but it is very irresponsible to imply that would be everyone's experience, and at the time she wrote this book she did not have an M.Sc in Nutrition, only some Mickey mouse diploma. I would say a big part of the reason she stays so slim is the sheer fact that she eats such an unrealistic and restrictive diet. As I mentioned before, pasta and potato's are good for you in the right quantities and are vegan yet the only starches she recommends are sweet potato, pumpkin and squash
She goes beyond the vegan protocol. Sorry for the rant, I just can't stand self-righteous bullshit. I actually went to see a registered dietician in The Hermitage a few years ago who told me about a new eating disorder which is emerging where people are obsessing over eating 'clean' and doing things like going dairy and gluten free for no reason other than they think it's 'bad', that was someone with an actual medical background, not Miss World.
I also think it's ironic that someone who claims cutting all these things out will give you clear skin, long shiny hair and a flat tummy when they themselves haven't been seen a day without hair and eyelash extensions or a full face of make-up for the last 10 years, have their own P.T, get all their facials and cosmetic tweakments in The Beacon, and eat next to nothing. Even the title of the book - 'Eat Yourself Beautiful' is so wrong.