Healthy eating pioneers including Deliciously Ella and Hemsley sisters see surge in interest from middle-aged men

Figures have revealed that a high number of middle-aged men are jumping on the healthy-eating wagon
Festival crowd: from far left, Ella Woodward, Russell Bateman, Melissa Hemsley, Irene Arango, Rose Lloyd Owen, Rich Havardi, Shelley Martin Light and Amelia Freer (Picture: Alex Lentati)
Alex Lentati
Miranda Bryant5 June 2015

Leading figures from London’s healthy eating movement today revealed they have seen a surge in interest from middle-aged men being more careful about what they eat.

As it was announced that healthy eating festival Fare Healthy will be held in Borough Market for the first time in September, Irene Arango and Rich Havardi — co-founders of raw food restaurant Nama in Notting Hill — said they have seen a big shift in their clientele.

Arango said: “Before it was just women, now there are more and more men. A  lot of middle-aged men.”

She added: “It has changed from something for hippies to something for everyone.”

The two will take part in the festival alongside Deliciously Ella blogger and author Ella Woodward as well as food writers Melissa and Jasmine Hemsley.

Popular foodies: Melissa and Jasmine Hemsley

Melissa, 29, from Stockwell, said she and her sister had noticed women bringing their fathers or partners to their recent supper clubs.

She added: “The word foodie has become a bit elitist but really it just means you’re interested in where it comes from... All of our world is expanding in an amazing way. It’s not just ‘these are the healthy eating people’, Jamie Oliver has got a healthy eating book coming out, Nigella has got Simply Nigella, we’re going down to Dorset to do a supper club with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in July.”

Healthy eating pioneers - in pictures

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Woodward, 24, who lives in Earl’s Court, said: “People are so bored with waking up and not feeling good with poor diet, stomach problems, yo-yo dieting — it’s so exciting to find a way that makes you feel good, makes you feel amazing.

“Once you realise eating well makes you feel good it’s addictive.

“There was such a stereotype that healthy eating was really boring but it’s not at all. As a group we’re showing it’s not boring, that’s what’s so exciting about it.

“I think everyone feels tired and run down and it is a common problem wherever you are. In London there’s a tendency to ‘go go go go go go’ — you need to fuel the body to give you energy to do that.”

Rose Lloyd Owen, 31, who co-founded Fare Healthy with Shelley Martin Light and runs catering company Peardrop London, said businesses in the capital have caught on to the energising benefits for workers, with many replacing snacks such as croissants in meetings with healthier substitutes.

She added: “Before, for breakfast people were requesting pastries and bacon sandwiches but now nobody wants a pastry any more... Even today I was working on a menu and they wanted healthy sandwiches. That wouldn’t have happened a year ago.

“I don’t think it’s a trend, I think everyone’s doing it. I think people are realising it makes their companies better, healthier.” She said the festival, on September 27, will feature “fun, music, delicious food, cocktails, lots of cool fun demos [and] interactive things they can do.”

There will also be workshops, demonstrations and lectures by experts such as nutritionist Amelia Freer — who has helped Sam Smith, James Corden and Boy George to shed the pounds — and Russell Bateman, who runs Skinny Bitch Collective.

Tickets go on sale next month; peardroplondon.com

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