In the November issue of Good Housekeeping UK, British baker and cookbook writer Nigella Lawson dished about her secret to staying fit at 57 — and it doesn’t have anything to do with food trends that look good on Instagram.
Addressing the ever-relevant topic of people posting pictures of their food on social media, Lawson said she doesn’t have a problem with it.
“As long as people are cooking it at home, I don’t mind what they are doing with it on social media,” she continued. “I will sometimes do a brown stew because I can’t resist it and say, ‘Yes, it is brown.’ That is what a stew is! It’s a wonderful thing that lifts the spirit!”
But Lawson added that some of the most popular food trends on Instagram — like smoothie bowls— just don’t seem like things people actually eat in real life.
“The thing about a smoothie bowl is that it’s a nice picture,” she continued. “But I don’t know who eats smoothie bowls…Who?”
So what does the Nigella Feasts star do to stay in shape? Yoga — lots of yoga.
“I do yoga three times a week. I have to do something I enjoy, otherwise I wouldn’t do it,” Lawson said. “The older I get the more I realise I have got to do lots of stretching. So even if I’m not doing yoga, I make myself do lots of stretching.”
But even though Lawson doesn’t eat smoothie bowls, her passion for food hasn’t changed at all — in fact, she just published her 11th cookbook, At My Table: A Celebration of Home Cooking.
“It’s a celebration of home cooking. My books come out of my life. I love traditional food, and I’m never going to complain about having a pie! Roast chicken is my favorite food,” she continued. “I think in this country we are very open to different tastes and cuisines, and looking at fresh ways to eat. And I think that is something to be celebrated.”
And something else she thinks should be celebrated are baked goods that don’t look so perfect.
“We live in a world where there is so much, so glossily done,” Lawson said. “If I am given a cake, I like to see that it has been made by someone and that it’s not even. That is what cooking is. Things can’t look like they come from a factory.”