News Piece – New Beyonce ‘Homecoming’ Documentary sparks debate about promotion of unhealthy lifestyle

This month saw the release of Beyonce’s Netflix documentary: ‘Homecoming; a film by Beyonce’, which demonstrates the relentless creative process it took to prepare for her debut Coachella performance back in 2018. The mother of twins (Rumi and Sir) had a short 11 months to bounce back from a complicated birth and speaks about pushing her body to limits she ‘never knew existed ’. The 2 hour jubilant celebration of Black excellence pays homage to the stars African-American forerunners whilst sparking controversy surrounding the extremely restrictive lifestyle she adopted in training for the strenuous performance.

Beyonce was very candid when revealing her postpartum diet of ‘no carbs, no bread, no sugar, no dairy, no meat, no fish, no alcohol’ which was edited over a clip of her eating an apple during a 15 hour rehearsal. ‘I and limiting myself…and im hungry!’ she claims after reporting to have weighed 281 pounds at the beginning of the process. It has caused divided opinion as to what the star ‘did’ e at and if she should have been allowed to talk about her extreme measures to achieve her desired physical goals.

Some argue that her methods proved effective and did not seem to have a detrimental effect on her body during the performance. Different bodies can sustain on contrasting diets and therefore she can’t be criticised on what chooses to consume. However, will this have a negative effect on the young generation with record statistics of eating disorders? Could this lead to dangerous outcomes for people with body issues? Will fans who don’t have easy access to nutritional advice attempt to emulate their idol?

Beyonce claimed to be satisfied with her ‘fuller’ arms, shoulders, breasts and thighs since giving birth to the twins and confessed to have pushed her body ‘too hard’ which many believe negates the idea she was promoting her limited diet.

Nevertheless, the question remains to be: should world-wide music stars, such as Beyonce, with the tremendous amount of influential power they hold, be allowed to divulge certain parts of their lifestyle being as extreme as they can be?