14 DAY TRIAL // Last week saw the release of a new nutrition / diet book from Marco Borges, the nutritionist, lifestyle guru and good friend of Beyonce and Jay Z, who also takes credit for Jennifer Lopez’s new banging body. The book is called “The 22-Day Revolution” and it’s just a first step in a partnership that will hopefully make the richest couple in showbiz even richer.
Beyonce, Jay and Borges are partners in a new deal that aims to bring the vegan diet they developed together to people from all over the world, through a catering service called 22 Days Nutrition. The service is available only in the US right now, and here too it’s not getting the best reviews possible just yet, but that’s only because it’s work in progress.
But first things first: the word “vegan” has such a dirty connotation that it simply has to go.
Beyonce is not vegan
“First it’s important that you know I am not a vegan,” the diva writes the New York Times in an email that poorly substitutes a phone interview that had been booked one month in advance. The NYT reporter is visibly upset that the actual interview didn’t go through despite promises from camp Beyonce, saying that turning vegan clearly didn’t give the singer enough energy to chat.
Beyonce wrote the foreword to Borges’ new book, saying she’d lost 65 pounds (29.5 kg) on the diet, which cuts out dairy, meat and overprocessed stuff. The diet is vegan, but the trio is quick to add that they’re looking to reinvent the term because it has a very negative connotation.
As Borges puts it, when you say “vegan,” you imagine someone who’s unkempt and unwashed and stinks, and they want to put the focus back on being healthy and fit and brimming with energy. They would rather they used the term “plant-based.”
So Beyonce takes the first step towards distancing herself from the word.
The benefits of a plant-based diet, as told by Beyonce
In the same email, the singer, who is now at her thinnest and who has a history of yo-yo dieting because of taking up fads (like the infamous Master Cleanse, consisting of lemon water with cayenne pepper), says she got to see the results of the new plant-based diet immediately - and not just in terms of the weight she lost.
“At first it’s the little things I noticed: I had more energy. The benefits of a plant-based diet need to be known. We should spend more time loving ourselves, which means taking better care of ourselves with good nutrition and making healthier food choices,” she says.
“[I saw] a noticeable glow to my skin without having to deprive myself of carbs,” Beyonce adds. “I even slept better.”
She was the one who convinced Jay to take the 22-day challenge and see if he liked it, and once it was done, they were both hooked on this new lifestyle. After a bit more time, Borges came to them with the idea of going into catering, thus bringing this plant-based diet to the fans and, in the process, expanding their business empire.