Channel 4 Countdown star Rachel addressed her health woes with the MailOnline.

Rachel Riley says she was “ill for 10 years” and has opened up about a secret health battle. Channel 4 Countdown star Rachel addressed her health woes with the MailOnline.

She told the publication: “We are all vegan in the house, and you just try and do small things. In 2018, Pasha and I went vegan and there were loads of reasons but I was ill with food, so I cut eggs and diary and I started eating in vegan restaurants and realised the food was really good and we didn’t have to eat meat and then we gave up fish.

“When I got pregnant, I just took a few food supplements, and it was all good.” She added: “I was ill for over ten years and the doctors were quite useless about it and I gave up some foods and was literally so much better overnight.

“I didn’t realise how bad I was feeling until I wasn’t feeling bad.” Rachel switched to a vegan diet in 2018, and has been very vocal in the benefits of it easing her long-term health issues.

She said she stopped eating eggs and dairy a few years ago before embracing a fully vegan diet. Though Rachel said she had a minor slip-up when she went to Russia with her beau Pasha Kovalev. In an interview with BT Home in 2018, she explained: “A few years ago, I stopped eating eggs and dairy and I’ve gradually gone vegan. As soon as I stopped eating a lot of foods, many of my symptoms went away almost overnight.”

Rachel often gives fans an insight into her vegan diet. Earlier this year she shared her haul for Veganuary, posting Knoops hot chocolate, Montezuma’s giant chocolate buttons, chocolates from the English Cheesecake Company, Jim Jams chocolate spread, Love Raw’s cream filled wafer bars, and truffles from Booja Booja.