The Be Well Collective: Interview with Sarah Ann Macklin

Sarah Ann Macklin is a model and registered associate nutritionist. Her business, The Be Well Collective is a charitable initiative that aims to combine and celebrate nutritional, mental and educational wellbeing to the world of fashion and the individuals within its industry. 

Sarah is promoting positive changes within the fashion industry by witnessing, and also highlighting that there is a long way to go when it comes to wellbeing. It should be celebrated that we are now in a time that is embraces a multitude of ways to be ‘beautiful’. The world that celebrated and defined beauty as being synonymous with size zero is still only a very recent memory. However there are positive steps of progression out there. We are living in a time where the best loved fashion show, the iconic Victoria Secret fashion show, is no longer. The ideals it celebrated and endorsed are out of tune with the modern world’s perception on how a women’s beauty should be exhibited or represented. 

The negative connotations and implications that such pressures and dysmorphia have put upon young girls has resulted in the shocking statistic that 1.9% of women every year suffer from Anorexia, and 20% of women suffer from Bulimia in their lifetime. The unrealistic, unattainable expectations that the industry used to promote are being rectified by initiatives and work such as Sarah’s. The images of this ‘perfection’ were only ever going to result in disappointment for 99% of the population.

London Fashion Week has wellbeing summits which create forums with the people at the heart of the industry, at such a pivotal time, Sarah is giving them the best stage for these messages to heard. 

She is working to educate an industry that has not historically prioritised the understanding of promoting healthy mentally and physically fit models, and instead encouraged eating disorders and malnourished looks. Sarah is making it less taboo for these discussions to be heard and voiced. Combining her medical knowledge on the topic, and her knowledge of fashion and modelling from a first hand perspective, she is the go-to person on this topic.

As the founder of The Be Well Collective, what motivated you to create your own business? Can you tell us a bit more about the business and your USP? 

The Be Well Collective started from my own personal experience within the fashion industry. Being a model since I was 15 years old, I never received any grounding or educating around how to look after myself mentally and physically. Being judged on how you look every day, does eventually take its toll mentally. We all have imperfections, but we aren’t expected to accept that. Every model is always chasing for the ideal body – yet is there really one?! I saw so many of my friends not being able to cope mentally with the pressure, and I was a strong believer that it was due to the lack of good nutrition and lifestyle measures which we were all surrounding ourselves around. 

I was living in New York in my early twenties and during this time, the wellness industry was growing immensely. My social media feed was constantly bombarded with what you should be eating, shame and guilt around not living a certain way – from people who had no education in this area. I wanted to know more about nutrition, how it made us feel and how I could adopted this message in a safe and engaging way to an industry which I loved, but had no support network regarding healthy living. 

My mission since I left, was to come back and ignite a positive change to the fashion industry and ultimately spread awareness to impact social change to engage positive messages of evidence-based nutrition to a younger generation in support of eating well. 

How linked are food and (mental) productivity? What diets can support cognition? 

I don’t use the word diet, as for me that immediately associates people with restriction. We need to fuel our minds as much as we fuel our body. Our brain is made up of 60% fat, and it does a fantastic job every day of getting us through daily events life throws at us. To allow it to thrive, we need to feed it correctly. 

The top line here would be try to reduce processed foods and aim for whole foods, if you can work on this, your brain and gut will thank you! Nutrition doesn’t need to be complex, but the food industry has made it incredibly hard for us to pick up an apple as a snack as opposed to a “healthy breakfast bar” which is full of sugar. 

I speak a lot about the importance of essential fatty acids omega 3, EPA and DHA. These essential fatty acids are found only in oily fish and algae. DHA makes up the cells within our brain and are important for our brain cells fluidity. Increased consumption of oily fish has been associated with a reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety. 

My advice would be to aim for 2-3 portions of oily fish a week, limit processed foods and aim for at least 35 servings of fruit and vegetables a week to improve the diversity of your gut microbiome which a huge role in our mental wellbeing. 

If you haven’t yet signed up to my Great British Veg Out which helps you aim for that important 5 a day through a 74 free downloadable pack of delicious recipes and weekly shopping lists, then do! 

Why is our gut health so important? 

We have seen a lot of strong evidence emerge over the last few years regarding the importance of our gut health and mental health. We know that a large amount of serotonin is made within our guts – which is our happy hormone. 

Our gut microbiome has been linked to many health conditions, such as immunity, skin and even mental wellbeing. 

We have 50 trillion bacterial cells in our body and only 30 million human cells – which means we are more bacteria than human! Over 1,000 of these species of bacteria live within out gut and we know they play as essential part in our health. 

Do you have any favourite, simple tips to fuel our gut health? 

Aim to eat at least 35 different varieties of vegetables a week. Variety and diversity are the two key words when it comes to gut health. Explore new dishes every week – sign up to the Great British Veg Out and challenge yourself! 

Lastly, address your stress levels. Stress highly affects your gut and microbiome. 

What in your view are some strong tools/foods/lifestyles to support our immune system? 

Stress is one of the biggest components within our lives which can weaken our immune system. I recorded a podcast recently with Dr Mithu Storni, who is a neuroscientist and has research the impacts of stress for years. Make sure you take some time our for yourself to reduce your stress levels, whether that is exercise, breath work, meditation, walking or having a bath. Reducing your stress, is critical in supporting your immune system. 

There are no miracle foods which will boost your immune system. This is yet another marketing term, sold to us which isn’t true. We do not want to boost our immune system, as this is when auto immune conditions occur as they become overactive. However, we can support our immune system by eating whole foods, a diverse amount of plant foods every day and reducing the amount of processed and high sugar foods which cause inflammation. 

The best thing you can do to support your immune system is to get enough sleep for your body to recover and repair, reduce your stress levels through implementing meditation, breathing exercise or readjusting certain areas of your life which are causing serve stress. Eat well and drink plenty of water. 

What is a wellness fad or myth that needs debunking? 

Where do I start!!! There are SO many. I would firstly advise to listen to series 2, episode 1-2 of my Live Well, Be Well podcast where we talking about pseudoscience. It was meant to only be one episode, but we had so much to cover, I had to break it down into two episodes. 

Probably celery juice – there is absolutely NO scientific evidence behind any of his claims. Just eat a stick of celery if you enjoy it – but it won’t cure cancer. 

What’s your favourite breakfast? 

I love organic yogurt, with berries, bee pollen and granola! 

Is the modelling world getting more diverse and embracing all body types more so than say 5 years ago?

5 years ago I was quite worried about starting the BWC, yet I feel more optimism now, especially with the BFC and BFMA agencies championing the importance of mental health. There is still a long way to go, but I hope there is much more to come in addressing the importance and support for body types and mental wellbeing. 

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The world we live in today needs to celebrate all bodies and the forum needs to shift to what is going on inside each of those shapes (whatever shapes they are) nutritionally, mentally and educationally.

The focus needs to be more on the clothes being showcased and in *reality* these clothes are going to be worn by a range of sizes and shapes, that’s why they come in multiple sizes. It seems bizarre that in a world where we have 13 year old girls emotionally intelligent enough to preach to the powers that be, seemingly unintimidated about saving our planet, yet other elements of this world are still as backward, regressive and narrow minded as 150 years ago. It is great to see such progressive movements in the fashion industry as Sarah’s - promoting the right initiatives in healthy ways. Sarah talks about how our world bombards us with the shame of not eating or living the correct way and The Be Well collective is working hard to battle this incorrect, archaic pressure.