‘I can have as many chips as I want, and they’re delicious,' model, stylist, and one of Karl Lagerfeld’s many muses Tallulah Harlech gleefully tells The Debrief, mid-manicure.
We’ve caught up with her to find out how she got through London Fashion Week as a ‘low-fat vegan’, when the food on offer at the shows and parties tends to be a little bit more palatable than what you might expect to consume, living this fat, meat and dairy free lifestyle. The crab donuts, wild mushroom tacos and sweet little chocolate ice-creams that we scarfed at the Topshop showspace (not to mention all the free popcorn and midnight pizzas we packed in mid-schedule) are presumably not in her plan.
‘I get it, food’s a celebratory thing, but I’m much more interested in film and fashion and art. That gives me more of a kick than lamb chops and buttery mashed potato’, she says, of her decision to go vegan. ‘I never wish I could eat the canapés at parties. Never, yuk! No way do I miss that, and do you know why, it’s because I’m satiated’. What satiates the woman who like Carrie Bradshaw, probably feels like Vogue, ‘feeds me more’, you say? And when do we get to the bit about chips being on the plan?!
‘I am a low-fat vegan, so that means unlimited seasonal fruit, unlimited vegetables and unlimited rice, potatoes, and other starches - of all types,' she explains. ‘I keep my fat intake low - even the 'good' fats - nuts, nut milks, seeds, avocados and oils are minimal.' Said chips, it’s worth noting here are steamed and then chipped potatoes, baked on parchment without using oil. But still like, actual, potatoes – when did you last see one of them on Goop?
‘I make amazing spaghetti with tons of vegetables and everyone goes crazy for it and thinks it’s the best thing ever,' she proudly explains when asked how she convinces her calorie restricting mates, who live off ‘half an avocado on some rye bread and then a tiny bit of fish four hours later’ that eating this way is the way forward.
And now for the science bit: ‘Our body runs on sugar, every cell in our brain and body needs it. When you eat fat, you block that process from happening’. Or to put it bluntly: ‘The fat you eat, is the fat you wear. I think everyone wants to be fit and healthy and thin. Everyone’s kind of kidding if they say they don’t want that, apart from like, 3% of the population who say they want to be curvy’.
So instead of restricting sugar and carbs like loads of other diets tell you do, Tallulah goes bananas for them – literally - focusing on eating shitloads of fruit and vegetables with plenty of carbs thrown in, albeit without the salt and fat with which they so lovingly combine. ‘Anyone who says rice and vegetables makes you fat is just moronic,’ she says. ‘Sod having a couple of soaked almonds and a carrot stick – I want to be able to eat as much as I want and be fit and healthy, that’s why I do this’.
You can’t really argue with that, and it’s advisable not to, because Tallulah’s got plenty to say to anyone who does. ‘Look at Henry VIII – he was fat and unwell and everything was definitely organic in his day, thank you very much’, she says of the current vogue for everything organic. And as for author of Sugar: The Bitter TruthSugar: The Bitter Truth, Dr Lustig? ‘He’s fat and he’s unhealthy. How can you listen to him when he looks like that?’ That’s him told.
But what does she do at the shows when between travelling, partying and schmoozing, when there’s no time to attend to your Bullet Blender? ‘If I was stuck in an airport with nothing, I would probably go and get a peppermint tea and put as much sugar in it as possible to keep myself going,' Tallulah tells us.
Here’s some more of the low-fat vegan highlights that got her through London Fashion Week…
**Thursday night - Chanel dinner at Chiltern Firehouse **
'There were tons of delicious vegetables and risotto. All you have to do when you're out for dinner is ask!'
**Saturday lunch - grabbed on the go
**
**'**I had things to do and so only got this mixed salad from Planet Organic's salad bar and a wholegrain bread roll. I eat bread as a vegan as long as it is proper bread, it has to be stale with a couple of days - that way I know it hasn't got tons of chemical in it to keep it fresh'.
**Sunday breakfast - Fresh fruit overload
**
**'**I was up and about doing things, and so got lots of fruit - the last of the summer peaches, berries and coconut water'.
**Monday lunch - Not quite a packed lunch
**
**'**I ate two freshly made sandwiches that were full of sprouts and grated vegetables with the thinnest layer of hummus. I carry rice cakes to snack on. Although there's salt in bread, I try to find places where they use a small amount, I aim to keep it limited as salt is a natural puffer - it holds onto water in our bodies making us look more bloated than we are. I never add salt to my food, I bathe in it instead'.
**Tuesday snack - Juice O'Clock
**
**'**I was out of rice cakes so I took myself to a certain kind of guy's heaven over on Peter St where I get juice and skate wear. I got a couple of juices and some ginger/cayenne/lemon shots to knock back from The Juice Well, and bought myself some menswear from Supreme all within minutes'.
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**Follow Tallulah on Twitter **@TallulahHarlech@TallulahHarlech
Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.