Princess Diana Followed This 1 Food Trend Before It Was Even a Trend

People all over the world have constantly been looking for ways to improve their health. Celebrities, especially, often promote new food trends and share their apparent benefits with fans. There are many food trends going on at the moment, though Princess Diana already tried one of them a long time ago before it many people did.

Princess Diana started juicing before it became a trend

Juicing is the process of extracting juices from various fruits and vegetables. It has been around for centuries now, but it was not until recently that many health gurus began to promote it as a wellness strategy. According to Harvard University, the sales of juicers increased significantly in the early 2010s.

However, Diana was already interested in juicing in the 1990s. Her personal chef, Darren McGrady, who worked for her from 1993 to 1997, revealed how she got him to user a juicer in her kitchen.

“Another time she came in and said: ‘I need a juicer. I want to start having fresh juices,’” he told USA Today. “So I was dispatched in a taxi to Selfridges (a fancy London department store) to get a juicer, and I started making juices for her with carrots, celery, parsley, spinach.”

McGrady also recalled an incident in which Diana drank beetroot juice against his suggestion. He shared, “One time she wanted one with just beetroot in it. I advised her against it, but she insisted. A few hours later she came back into the kitchen and said, ‘Oh my God, Darren, you poisoned me.’ Her face had gone all blotchy from the beetroot.”

Princess Diana ate a low-fat diet and avoided red meat

Diana tried to maintain a healthy diet, and she had certain food she would often avoid.

McGrady shared with Hello! that, unlike Queen Elizabeth, Diana did not eat many dishes with a lot of fat. He revealed, “When I was cooking for her I had to change my style of cooking. I had to move from cooking food for the Queen – heavy sauces, rich sauces and creams – to start cooking lighter food again, cutting out the fats, cutting out the carbs.”

Additionally, Diana did not eat much red meat.

“She never ate beef, never ate pork, occasionally she’d have lamb when she was entertaining guests but for the most part it was chicken, fish or vegetarian options,” McGrady said.

Princess Diana famously battled bulimia

In the 1990s, Diana opened up about her personal struggles with journalists like Andrew Morton and Martin Bashir. In these interviews, she revealed that she had dealt with bulimia during her time in the royal family. According to her talk with Bashir on BBC’s Panorama, Diana attributed her bulimia to her low self-esteem, anxieties related to her marital problems, and her need to use food as a way to comfort herself.

According to McGrady, he did notice that Diana had abnormal eating habits, though he did not feel it was in his place to comment on them.

“I always questioned why on earth she wanted all of this food, any of this food, but there was nothing I could do. I was there as a chef, my job was to cook and to prepare food,” he told Hello!. “I wasn’t a psychologist, or a doctor, who could say you shouldn’t be eating all of this. I knew something wasn’t right but I didn’t know or understand what bulimia was.”

How to get help: In the U.S. call the National Eating Disorders Association helpline at 1-800-931-2237.