Diet

Now be honest. What was the first thing you thought about? Was it along the lines of “healthy diet”, “balanced diet” or did you think “Oh my God, I’m so fat. I just have to diet”? If what we read in the newspapers is anything to go by it was the latter “Oh my God” response.

How is it that so many people can make so much money out of diets and dieting? There are books, pills, snacks and drinks all offering the road to eternal slimness. Writers and celebrities are minting money from the gravy (*sorry*) train that is the diet industry. Why doesn’t anyone get it? The only way to lose weight is to eat less? If you can throw in a bit of exercise all the better.

In the good old days, and I remember them well, Mother used to cajole us into eating up everything on our plate because we had to “think of all the starving children in India”. We didn't get fat on this advise because we were served just the right amount of food in the first place. Maybe this is too simple a solution for the people of today!

At lunch time in the office kitchen, we were discussing the food issue when Linda volunteered this story. A neighbour’s child, when prompted to eat up and think of all the starving children, deliberately picked up her plate, went outside and along the road where she proceeded to empty the remaining food from her plate in to the letter box. She was “posting the food to the little children far away”. Mmmm, I wonder!