After completing her degree at Bristol University, Isaacs went on to study acting at the Oxford School of Drama and, afterwards, created a successful two-man show called Mush and Me, which took her from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival all the way to the mecca of wellness - Australia. It was here that she started becoming hyper-aware of the way she felt physically.
"I can track the date that I fell down this wellness hole on my Instagram account," she admits. "The first morning I woke up [in Australia], I was like: 'Well, I don't know what to do, I don't have any friends and I've got two months here to perform this show that I've done already for a month.' I had lots of free time so I thought I should go to the gym.
"I then started googling online what food would make me feel even 'better'. I read the 'rules' and I lost weight, which as a by-product meant I was healthy. But then I started getting compliments and validation - and when you're not really getting validation from elsewhere in your life, it becomes a very addictive thing to cling on to."
Even though Isaacs claims she wasn't sporty as a child - in fact, when she was at school she would hide in the locker rooms and pretend she had a period every time there was a swimming lesson - she suddenly became addicted to going to the gym and how she looked.
"I was obsessed," she confesses. "There wasn't a day where I wouldn't run. So when I came home [to London] a few people - my sister, especially - were like, 'You're too thin, what are you doing?' And, I'd be like 'I'm well - this is wellness.'"
Ruled by when she should eat and exercise - "If you had said to me, at the time, 'Daniella, we need to meet at 8 o'clock', I would freak out, worrying about when I'm going to have breakfast and when I'm going to go to the gym" - Isaacs cut gluten out from her diet (because she's coeliac), then she cut out dairy, sugar and, finally, meat.
Before leaving Australia, Isaacs dipped her toe in lifestyle journalism and started writing a couple of hotel reviews. The last place she reviewed was a glamorous resort in the Whitsunday Islands, off the coast of Queensland. "I thought I found my place in the world," she says. "So I got in touch with the wellness brand and they called me in and asked me if I could write recipes. I've always been really into food. In fact, I was obsessed with what I was eating.
"They wanted all their recipes to be gluten- and sugar-free, so they ended up paying me quite a lot of money - this un-trained chef - to write 175 recipes. So I became their copywriter, and they've now got books filled with my recipes, my words, my advice - and what's so sad is that no one checks the facts. There's no responsibility that's taking place within the wellness industry."
Isaacs slowly started to question where these brands were getting their information from - Google? Food bloggers? Influencers? "It took me quite a long time, but once I realised their information is not founded on medicine or science and no one actually has an answer, I thought, 'God, no one knows what they're doing'. We've been absorbed like a religion, looking for answers."
From the front line of wellness, Isaacs says that taut abs and glowy skin just didn't bring her happiness. If, God forbid, she went out with her friends for dinner, she would always choose the restaurant in order to have complete control over the situation. "I got to a point where I'd ring the restaurant beforehand and tell them that I had someone coming - I wouldn't say it was me - and explain they can't eat this, this and that. I knew I was doing something wrong because why would I do that on the phone and not in public? There was a sense of shame around it," she says.
The truth is, Isaacs isn't alone in this wellness obsession. I have friends that can't order a normal cheeseburger off a restaurant menu - they have to swap the bread bun in for an avocado and replace the French fries with a salad. I, too, feel guilty if I devour a delicious bowl of pasta knowing that I haven't gone to the gym that day. The term "clean-eating" has become so loaded and negative. Food should be nourishing and enjoyable, not regimented and moralised to exercise.
"What scares me about this whole thing is that loads of people don't go to the extremes I went to," says Isaacs, who was told she was anorexic by her doctor. "Late at night, I would Google: 'No period, now what?' and I started reading about orthorexia, which is an eating disorder characterised with an unhealthy obsession with healthy living."
As a term, orthorexia - coined by Dr Steven Bratman in 1997 - isn't officially recognised by medical bodies, "but it's thriving", says Isaacs.
So when does healthy eating, or rather "eating clean", become an eating disorder? And how can we change the sentiment that eating healthy will make you "good"? While there is nothing wrong with eating local, wholesome food or being a vegetarian or vegan, fixating on certain foods and crazy exercise regimes just because someone on Instagram said it will make you healthy should not be condoned.
Isaacs summarises it perfectly with a make-up bag anecdote, she says: "What's in my make-up bag is different to what's in yours - we have different skin tones and skin care routines, we have different personalities and like different make-up brands. So what we eat should also be different, because we have different muscle mass and different DNA. No two people should be eating the same diet just because it's branded as making you 'well'."
What is clean eating?
While clean eating is a huge phenomenon, particularly on social media, there is no universally applicable definition of the term. However, the lifestyle tends to follow these general principles:
• Avoiding processed foods
• Eating lots of vegetables (preferably organic), seeds and whole grains such as barley, amaranth and quinoa
• Relatively little carbohydrate, instead preferring protein and "healthy fats" such as coconut oil
• More frequent, but smaller, meals
• Cooking at home, with good ingredients
How to help someone with an eating disorder
Here are a few tips on how to approach someone who you think or know has an eating disorder.
• Get some help for yourself first by talking to a friend or professional about your concerns
• Prepare what you want to say, and how you're going to say it
• Choose a place where you both feel safe and won't be disturbed
• Choose a time when neither of you is angry or upset - avoid any time just before or after meals
• Don't be disheartened if you're met with a negative reaction. Understand that the illness affects how someone thinks and can prevent them from being able to truly believe there is anything wrong with them
• Be aware that they're likely to be feeling guilty, ashamed and very scared
• Be prepared for them to be angry and emotional, or even to say hurtful things
• Don't label them or attempt to trick them into saying they have an eating disorder
• Use "I" sentences ("I am worried as I've noticed you don't seem happy") instead of "you" sentences ("you need to get help")
• If they can acknowledge that they have a problem, offer to help them by going to see their GP with them for example
• Have some information about eating disorders to hand - refer to them if the person is able to talk about it, or leave resources behind for them to look at on their own
• If they are not ready to talk about their problem, reassure them that you'll be there when they are. Don't leave it too long before broaching the subject again
• Get young children into treatment. Be persistent and don't give in or wait until they are ready
