Ella is our British blogger and, at only 22 years old, she already has a surprising holistic vision and understanding of health and diet, basically due to the exceptionally serious nervous system disease she had for a long time two years ago, which meant she was in bed 95% of the time, and she couldn’t do anything.

As conventional medicine didn’t offer her any cure or solution, she researched tirelessly and consequently found out about the power our diet has on our health. After two years, and after having stopped eating gluten, dairy products, animal produce, refined sugars and all processed food, she now boasts enviable good health, high energy and motivation!

She has a degree in art history, studies naturopathic nutrition and is the author of the blog Deliciously Ella, which more than seven thousand people follow every day, with vegan, gluten and sugar-free recipes which are always simple and delicious.

From the very start, she was delighted to be part of the Boníssim Europa project and, during our trip to the UK, we discovered some healthy hotspots in London we didn’t know about. She invited us to her house to cook and taste some of her recipes.

HER

Tell us a bit about the disease you had.

I had postural tachycardia syndrome, which is basically a serious malfunction of the central nervous system. As it controls everything, I had extremely bad chronic pain, heart palpitations, numerous stomach problems, constant migraines, and the list goes on… I couldn’t do anything, I couldn’t even move or think. I was in bed for 95% of the time for six months, and was medicated to the max.

And what did your doctors say about it?

For six months they ran all kinds of tests and gave me different treatments, and I didn’t respond at all really…

So it couldn’t be cured by using conventional medicine?

That’s it exactly. After those horrible six months, I just couldn’t believe it; I was only 20 and I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life like that. So I read absolutely all the books I could find on alternative medicine to find a solution.

And what did you find out?

I started to look for alternatives in holistic and natural medicine, and soon saw that everything ended up being based on food one way or another.

So this was when you started changing your diet?

Yes. I immediately stopped eating gluten, dairy products, animal produce, sugars and all processed food and chemical additives, which are basically the main causes of all serious diseases today.

It’s a very drastic change from the conventional diet...

Yeah. And it was very complicated as, well, think about it, I had never eaten vegetables or fruit; I only ate pasta, ice-cream, chocolate, pre-made food… It was very difficult as I didn’t know how to cook and I didn’t know how to get things to taste good. At the start I only ate bananas, strawberries and toast with avocado. But then I started noticing positive effects very quickly, which encouraged me to keep on going.

How did you find out about eating seeds?

Kris Carr inspired me a lot. She had liver, stomach and lung cancer… Her doctors said that she couldn’t be cured, but she decided to leave her life behind, travel the world and read voraciously to find alternatives. She has written lots of books explaining her travel adventures, how she got into vegan cooking and how she was cured. She has incredible recipes. I thought that if she could overcome cancer, I could also overcome my disease by eating food I could enjoy.

If we judged by how you look now, this drastic diet change has worked very well!

Precisely! After a few months I could stop taking all my medication and now, a year and a half later, I really feel better than ever! I never thought I would get so far just by changing my diet; it’s really amazing. Now I only eat food that gives love and health to my body, making me feel really great, but the best thing of all is that thanks to my work, everything I eat is really delicious!

And how do you handle the disease now?

Now I know what causes it, which helps me a lot. I understand it as being a tester to find out if a food is healthy or not. Food that affects or damages anyone’s health in the long term affects me a lot, and very deeply. I am a “health” tester for food.

And how did the blog come about?

When I made this radical change, I decided to write a blog to be strict with myself and force me to follow this diet, and now it helps me to be creative with coming up with new recipes, and doing so constantly. To my surprise the blog has grown wildly and now I get more than seven thousand readers daily and lots of messages from people with similar problems who ask me heaps of questions. I’ve realised that there are lots more people than I thought who have problems with gluten, dairy produce, animal protein and sugar… and they’re looking for healthy alternatives which are tasty and delicious.

COOKING

How would you define your cooking?

Delicious, healthy and very simple, as easy as possible. I want everyone to want to give it a try, when they see it they don’t run away because they think it’s too difficult. The concept is to love pure foods, no processing, no refining, that come from the plant world. If you eat like this, you’ll be able to eat as much as you want as the body loves them and processes them very easily. In no case am I talking about products with strange additives, as the food wouldn’t have such incredible effects.

What ingredients do you always have in the kitchen?

Dates, they’re my number one, I always have some of them; avocados, which I use to make guacamole; and sweet potatoes, they’re great baked with cinnamon.

An ingredient we should discover?

Sweet potatoes in cakes; they’re really sweet and taste great.

What are your favourite dishes?

My favourite sweet dishes are: chocolate cake; raw brownies made only with almonds, dates and cacao –the first recipe I made and I love it; whenever I want to give myself something nice, I make it–; banana ice-cream; carrot cake; green shakes.

Give us a few ideas for healthy snacks.

Dried fruit (figs, dates, apricots) dipped in nut butter. Dates stuffed with almond butter and then frozen are my favourite and they are extremely easy to make and are delicious. Ripe frozen bananas are the perfect base to make a whole range of healthy ice-creams. There are always ways to make your favourite dishes healthy, you just have to learn how to do it.

Do you have any tips for making a good cake without gluten, dairy products, eggs or sugar?

Almond flour, ripe bananas (when they are brown), which replace eggs and the sugar as they stick everything together, and dates (I couldn’t make cakes without them).

What sugar substitutes do you use?
Honey, dates, ripe bananas, date or maple syrup (you need to watch out as supermarkets usually sell it as a concoction of 10% syrup and 90% sugar).

Any advice when cooking?

Just give it a try. I find that it always turns out better than I expected; we tend to think that everything will go bad and it won’t be good, but in the end it works out just perfectly. You just need to give it a shot.

Any recommended inspiring recipes?

It’s been difficult for me to find books that were really inspiring, but one that’s come out now, which I love, is Green Kitchen Stories. Another favourite is Honestly Healthy.

LIFESTYLE

What is a healthy lifestyle?

Living and really loving what you do; sleeping well, relaxing, thinking a lot about what you put in your body, not being stressed, giving yourself time to appreciate what you have every day.

Explain what you mean when you talk about learning how to love food on the blog.

Personally, food is all about understanding what you eat, discovering what is best for you and, especially, appreciating what you like most and enjoying it. In no case is it a punishment or feeling deprived which diets are all about.

What do you think is the main problem with our diet?

I think that people don’t understand about food. Especially in the UK; everyone is obsessed with dieting, but they’re stupid diets that don’t make any sense, and everyone follows them, but nobody really understands them… Especially now, with low fat and low calorie diets, people are obsessed with counting calories and they compare a bar of chocolate with an avocado without understanding how the body metabolises and assimilates these different kinds of food. In general, people don’t know enough; everyone is very confused, nobody knows what is really healthy and that’s why they end up paying attention to the marketing for this kind of diet. People are used to eating animal protein three times a day and they don’t even realise or know that it’s bad for their health and that there are alternatives.

Give us an example of one of these stupid diets.

Before getting sick, I was a model in Paris for three months. I hated it; I saw girls that only ate two apples per day. The most absurd one I’ve heard of now, which you’ll see adverts for everywhere, is the 5/2 diet; it basically consists of eating what you want for five days, then you don’t eat anything for another two. It just doesn’t make any sense. In the UK at the moment, in the newspapers and everywhere else, this is what people think they should do and people follow the diet without thinking. If you really eat well, you don’t have to do such ridiculous things.

Why did you create the blog?

To spread health and happiness! I want to help educate people so that they can tell what is really healthy and what is not. On the other hand, I want to show people that it’s really easy to cook healthy, delicious dishes. Sometimes you read healthy recipes, but they’re so complicated or they use a lot of ingredients, and they’re even sometimes difficult to find. I want to make recipes that everyone can make so you don’t end up losing the plot as you don’t have any idea or you’ve never cooked, just like me when I started. I think there are lots of people who don’t know how to start or how to do it. I want to make it very accessible and friendly. I also want to break the stereotype that healthy eating is only about salads or iceberg lettuce; healthy eating is actually about sumptuous desserts, delicious snacks, all kinds of treats and bowls full of colours from incredible vegetables. And everything made with exceptional natural ingredients.

What would you say to someone who is sick or desperate like you were, who can’t be helped by conventional medicine?

I would tell them exactly what I did: discover how and what to eat, learn to listen to your body, to love your body, and to take care of yourself.

BRITISH CULTURE

Tell us about eco culture in the UK.

London is much more advanced than any other place. In the capital you can find markets, specialised shops and restaurants, but you have to look for them, you won’t find them straight away. There are still a lot of people who don’t understand. And outside the large cities it costs a lot more. I’ve been living in Scotland for the past four years and there’s still a lot to be done there.

Do you adapt British recipes?

Well, to tell you the truth I don’t, because the dishes are always based on meat with some kind of sauce. They’re not healthy at all and everything is mushed together; it’s not even inspiring and is difficult to adapt. I do use a technique from Britain, however: roasting. I roast all kinds of vegetable often.

Do you have a quick roast recipe?

I love sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, red pepper and courgette. Together or alone. I add cinnamon, black pepper and then herbes de Provence, olive oil and salt. I put it all in the oven and go back to it after an hour. Absolutely delicious!

We have seen, however, that there’s quite a bit of raw food culture there.

Yeah, more and more. I’ve realised that it’s come from the need to create radically healthy options in contrast to the exceptionally unhealthy food culture we have here. Starting from zero and making absolutely everything healthy. Probably you don’t have such a need in Mediterranean countries, as you eat a lot of vegetables and you have always had healthy options.

Recommend a place for a culinary trip. 

Toronto. I was there a short time back to visit a friend and I was amazed by the number of vegetarian, raw, healthy restaurants there in general, and they’re always full! I’d never tried eating raw food here before going there, it’s really popular there, everyone eats it and it’s normal. Really worth a trip.

Pau Sabater y Clara Balmaña