If you continually diet, you are putting your body in a quasi-famine situation. It slows your metabolism down and breaks the thermostat. Diets don't work. They don't help you understand why you're eating more than your body wanted in the first place.

We know that ever woman wants to be thin. Our images of womanhood are almost synonymous with thinness.

I'm a therapist and that fascinates people because they think I carry secrets.

Not that it was Twiggy's fault, but the ubiquity of her image created a sense in young women that to be stylish meant to be skinny, flat-chested with an ingenue face and straight hair.

Bodies are becoming our personal mission to tame, extend and perfect.

Skinny is only one body type.

Beauty has been democratised. No longer the preserve of movie stars and models but available to all. But while the invitation to beauty is welcomed, it has become not so much an option as an imperative.