Health and fitness guru: Junk food binges fine if you usually eat healthily
Nutrition and fitness expert Erik Orgu appeared on a broadcast on ERR's Raadio 2 on Friday, responding to media claims he had cut corners on diet and had been partial to junk food, cakes and coca-cola.
A story appeared Friday morning on popular lifestyle portal Kroonika (link in Estonian), where a former girlfriend of Orgu's made the claims. Kroonika said that two other women had previously said similar things about Orgu, who ran in the European parliamentary elections in May, as an independent, principally on a healthy living platform.
The ex-girlfriend also told Kroonika that Orgu had referred to her weight in an unflattering manner, even though she said she can do a large number of repetitions of arduous physical exercises. Much of the rest of the Kroonika piece dealt in revealing supposed details about the relationship.
Appearing on the Reede hommikus broadcast on Friday, according to ERR's Menu portal, Orgu said that the amounts of high-calorie, sweet foods he reportedly consumed are fine over a period of several days, adding that provided a person is eating the right things the bulk of the time, having one 'cheat day' is fine. "If you decide to go crazy [on the one binge day] then go for it," Orgu advised.
Orgu said that he had also sent the former girlfriend interviewed by Kroonika out to get cakes or similar sweet things for him as, given his profile, it would have been difficult for him to buy those things himself.
"No, I don't live in church, I don't pray regularly," he joked on Reede hommikus, adding that he doesn't drink much alcohol, and was not a smoker or drug-user.
"Do you want to take a sample of my blood? Please, go ahead," he said.
Orgu also said that sweet foods were not a sin, and something most people have an appetite for, reiterating that moderation was key.
"I actually have my own curd cake [recipe as part of his healthy living diet plan] as well as another cake and a diet plan full of delicious sweet recipes which are also healthy,"
Responding to another rather lurid charge in the Kroonika piece, that Orgu had watched ISIS-execution style beheading videos and encouraged the girlfriend to do same, he said he had only watched one such video, adding that he had picked up the idea from a podcast by comedian and broadcaster Joe Rogan, who said people could strengthen themselves by placing themselves in unpleasant situations.
Erik Orgu polled 1,442 votes in the May European elections, not enough for a seat, but more than several established politicians, including Erki Savisaar and Viktoria Ladõnskaja-Kubits, and in the top half of the 66-candidate field.
At the time, Orgu told ERR News he was running because: "Children's and adults' eating habits are getting out of control and nobody is doing anything about it, not at least in Estonia. I have the will, passion and energy to make the change, with my team in Estonia I've managed to change thousands of lives for the better." Orgu also appeared in an English-language panel discussion organized by ERR News ahead of the election, together with candidates from most participating parties.
The original ERR Menu article and radio segment (in Estonian) is here.
Editor: Andrew Whyte