A lot of people want to look like Beyoncé. Her beautiful face and perfectly toned curves make her one of the most lusted after female celebrities around - and who doesn’t want to be lusted after?
As a successful multimillionaire businesswoman, Bey has used the influence afforded by her star power and stunning appearance to advertise a variety of products that promise to make consumers look a little bit more flawless, like her. The vegan diet programme she’s currently promoting is no exception.
The singer doesn’t seem keen to inform fans of her financial interest in the 22 Days Nutrition Programme, but it will come as no surprise to most of us that both her and her husband, Jay-Z, are shareholders in the company.
A lot of fans are feeling let down by the segment on yesterday’s Good Morning America, in which Bey, inexplicably standing on a roof, explained that the diet plan she has shares in really, really does work, you guys! Especially as it has been trailed as ‘amazing news’, rather than a commercial endorsement they knew about two months ago anyway.
Still, exploiting your fanbase’s devotion for commercial gain is a lot of what being modern celebrity is about. Many stars’ Instagram accounts contain more dubious product endorsements than sincere posts. If Beyoncé did anything especially wrong in this case, it was a tactical rather than a moral error.
What’s more, the diet does at least seem to be practical and healthy. Not everyone can afford the prices charged for official 22 Days Nutrition products, but those who do fork out up to £20 a day for the meal delivery service can be sure they’ll be left adequately nourished. There’s also hard scientific evidence to back up the claim that switching to a vegan diet could be good for many people.
All of this makes it a massive improvement on the last diet plan Beyoncé lent her support to. Interest in the ‘Master Cleanse’ soared after Bey revealed she used it to lose weight before starring in the movie Dreamgirls. Essentially, she told an army of fans, including teenage girls, that the way to look more like she does is to effectively starve yourself - subsisting on nothing other than lemon juice, cayenne pepper and maple syrup.
For Beyoncé, using this extreme diet as a short-term emergency measure was probably fine, though doctors do advise it’s dangerous even for short periods. She can afford to pay experts to monitor her health and she eats sensibly most of the time. For ordinary people aiming to imitate her, the effects could be much more damaging.
That’s why, vested financial interests aside, it’s great to see the singer promoting a realistic and healthy eating plan. Hopefully other stars will follow her lead, and celebrity endorsements of scary starvation diets will become a thing of the past.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.