Do Deliciously Ella’s Cafe Closures Spell The End Of ‘Clean Eating’?

It has been reported that Deliciously Ella, aka Ella Mills, has closed two of her London cafes after the company she runs with husband Matthew Mills posted losses of £724,000.

26-year-old Mills rose to fame on Instagram in 2011 where she posted about food and yoga to complement her blog. She began posting and writing about food after suffering from postural tachycardia syndrome, which is an abnormal increase in heart rate that occurs after sitting up or standing. It causes dizziness, fainting and other more serious symptoms.

In 2016, Mills wrote on her blog ‘two years after changing the way I ate and lived, I was able to get in control of my symptoms and resume normal life, which was amazing and everyday I’m so grateful for it’. She went on to say ‘changing the way that I eat to focus on plant based, natural foods with lots of veg, beans, nuts, seeds etc. made the world of difference. At the same time, I cut out additives, processed food, refined ingredients and white sugar and pretty much stopped drinking, except for a few one offs’.

Mills was one of the most prominent purveyors of so-called ‘clean eating’ and advocates of its supposed health benefits as part of the ‘wellness’ movement. Mills was able to build her entire brand off the back of ‘clean eating’. However, when the backlash inevitably came against this movement which advocates ‘healthy’ but restrictive meals and (often) unaffordable food because of their supposed ‘health benefits’ Mills was quick to distance herself from this particular brand of ‘healthy eating’ which is now generally considered to be dieting by any other name.

Despite bestselling cook books, it seems the Deliciously Ella cafes have not been quite as commercially viable. Last week she posted on Instagram about the closures:

Mills said she was closing the cafes in Marylebone (Central London) and Herne Hill (South London) because it made more sense to have one larger venue than two smaller ones in close proximity. ‘We love our cosy spot on Seymour Place and all of our regulars’, she wrote ‘but as time’s gone on it has become clear that having two delis so close together doesn’t really make sense, and that we’d be better off focusing all of our attention on one deli (Weighhouse Street) and making it the absolute best experience for all of you’.

Writing in The Guardian last year, the author of Eat Up, Ruby Tandoh, wrote that Ella Mills is ‘arguably the most successful fad diet cookbook series in recent years’ after the blogger tried to distance herself from the term on Radio 4’s Today programme ahead of a documentary from Horizon which would air that evening – Horizon: Clean Eating – The Dirty Truth. Speaking on Today, Mills said ‘I’ve never described myself as “clean”.’

Does all of this mean that the backlash against ‘clean eating’ is now well and truly biting even those figures within the movement who seemed the most untouchable? Not quite. While the company Mills runs with her husband has suffered loses, the business though which she channels earnings from her books and associated merchandise has assets of £524,690 and paid her £222,000 last year alone according to Companies House.

For now, at least, wellness is here to stay.

Follow Vicky on Twitter @Victoria_Spratt

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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.