Pippa Middleton first stole our hearts at the Royal Wedding in 2011 when her sister married Prince William. As the maid of honor, Pippa wore a sleek, form-fitting dress that suited her frame perfectly, thus making her an object of admiration in the media. This past Saturday, Pippa married hedge fund manager James Matthews at the St. Mark’s Church in Engelfield, England. Suffice it to say Pippa stole our hearts once again when she walked into the church wearing a handcrafted Giles Deacon dress. Unfortunately, Pippa’s wedding day body was the result of a crazy new fad diet called the Sirtfood Diet.
According to E!, Middleton was following this diet in the weeks leading up to her big day. The Sirtfood Diet, created by Aidan Goggins and Glen Matten, involves eating foods rich in polyphenols, which can impact a person’s metabolism, aging, and mood. Some of these sirtfoods are dark chocolate, red wine, kale, and olive oil. The main problem with this diet is that it basically calls for starvation in the first phase of the dieting process; in the first three days of phase one, you can only have one meal and three sirtfood green juices, which only amounts to 1,000 calories for the entire day! To put this in perspective, the minimum number of calories you should consume in a day is 1,200. Anything under that can harm your health.
In an interview with The Cut, registered dietician Brigitte Zeitlin talks about the dangers of the Sirtfood Diet. “In addition to not giving yourself the proper energy and nutrients you need each day you’re on this fad diet, eventually you’re going to go off of it. You’re going to gain all of the weight you lost back, and more often than not, you’re going to gain even more weight back.”
Obviously Pippa Middleton is a grown woman who can do what she wants with her body, but her choice to participate in such an extreme diet sheds a light on another pervasive problem: the culture of losing weight for your wedding day. This custom can be harmful to a woman’s body image and mental health, even if it’s indirectly. Most importantly, your wedding day shouldn’t be about how much weight you were able to lose for the big day; it should be about the love you and your partner share. And if you’re getting married, it’s most likely because your partner already accepts you for who you are, stomach rolls and all.