Dr Gillian and the obsession with weight

The fact that three major newspapers can trash her qualifications doesn't stop her from continuing to be a major celebrity. The public keep buying the book (it's still number one in the paperback non-fiction bestsellers), and while they do, the media will fall over themselves to court her. Hence the newspaper that ran a whole page on her 10 days or so ago, is now organising a 'chat' with her for readers. This straight off the back of the Mirror serialising her book.

Why? Because people are obsessed with losing weight. They have been desperate for years on the basis of vanity, which is why no self-respecting woman's magazine could be without a new diet or other. And in recent years, lifestyle magazines for men have gone the same way. But the obesity panic has ratcheted this up to another level.

Moreover, having successfully persuaded the population that 'obesity is your own fault', and that the food we eat is lethal (with the campaigns against saturated fat), we are left with a substantial chunk of the populace who are prepared to put up with any kind of humiliation, and believe any kind of mumbo-jumbo, if it shifts the pounds. If it's not Gillian McKeith, it's Dr Atkins. What a sad state of affairs that people are prepared to stop enjoying food, one of the great sensuous pleasures, in their desire to be a bit thinner.

Not that I can talk, having just weighed myself and fretted...

Chat to TV doc Gillian McKeith
(thanks to Ray Girvan for the link)