By breaking the silence on an increasingly popular method, the artist asks an essential question: to what extent can we constrain our body without putting it in danger?
“It’s an addiction“: a woman’s intimate struggle with food
Sitting opposite Anne-Élisabeth Lemoine, alongside Marine Ltemporel, general practitioner, Marianne James plays no role. She talks about herself, unvarnished. Of his strength, well known on stage, but also of his flaws.
“It’s an addictionshe confides, evoking her relationship with food, with this painful lucidity that so many people faced with eating disorders experience.
The jury of France has incredible talent presents himself neither as a victim nor an example, but as a witness. That of years of diets, of restrictions, of disappointed hopes. And one method in particular, which had a profound impact on her: the ketogenic diet.
The ketogenic diet: dazzling effectiveness, silent danger
In his story, one memory dominates, almost chilling.
“The most dangerous for me because I almost stayed there is ketogenic, it’s the one where you only eat proteins and meat“, says Marianne James on France 5.
The weight loss is rapid and spectacular. Too much, perhaps.
“What does it work. That’s the problem. I wanted to lose 20, 30, 40 kilos, they go like that!”she explains, before adding, bluntly: “We screw up a lot of things in the body.”.
But what is really happening in the body?
The ketogenic diet is based on a virtual elimination of carbohydrates – sugars, starches, fruits – in favor of fats and proteins. Deprived of glucose, the body changes fuel. According to INRAE, “as sugar is no longer available as a source of energy, the body will draw on fats to produce ketone bodies which will be used in its place to provide energy. This process is called “lipolysis”.
Concretely, the diet consists of 70 to 90% lipids: butter, cream, oils, fatty meats, eggs. Bread, pasta, rice, most fruits disappear from the plate.
This state of ketosis, which profoundly modifies metabolism and brain functioning, is not trivial. Historically, it was developed in 1921 to treat certain severe forms of epilepsy, under close medical supervision.
A high-risk diet, far from health recommendations
Faced with the keto craze, health professionals are calling for caution. Dietician Vanessa Bedjaï-Haddad declared to True Medical :
“There is no point in following this diet, neither from a health point of view, nor from a “weight loss” point of view: it leads to frustration and does not allow us to work on satiety and nutritional balance.”
The adverse effects are now well documented:
- Cardiovascular riskdue to high consumption of saturated fatty acids, “associated with a risk of cardiovascular events” ;
- Common digestive disorders : nausea, severe constipation, persistent bad breath;
- Kidney damagelinked to the acidification of urine and the increased risk of stones;
- Nutritional deficienciesdue to the elimination of fiber, vitamin C and many antioxidants.
Professor Antoine Avignon, diabetologist, is just as clear:
“Undeniably, this diet should improve blood sugar levels, but treating diabetes also means preventing cardiovascular risk, which this diet does not do at all. It is a restrictive diet that is restrictive and contravenes all nutritional recommendations for healthy eating.”
Same analysis from the dietician Aurélie Guerri, who underlines a “frustrating and desocializing” diet, difficult to reconcile with a balanced social and family life.
Beyond the kilos, reconciliation with your body
Today, Marianne James says it bluntly: she no longer wants to fight that battle. She says she is more peaceful, more in tune with her body, far from injunctions to be thin and misleading promises.
His testimony resonates well beyond his person. It reminds us of something too often forgotten: a diet is never trivial. And when science is diverted from its therapeutic framework, the body always ends up presenting the bill.
The ketogenic diet retains a specific place in medicine, within very regulated indications. But for weight loss, it remains a major risk. The story of Marianne James, both modest and courageous, is a powerful reminder: listening to your body remains, again and always, the first act of health.