THEY'LL ALL BE AT IT WHEN THE SUN COMES OUT!

July 3 2006: It was the hottest day of the year so far yesterday - and it brought them out in their droves. The diets, that is. You couldn't but open the Sunday newspapers but be encouraged to "shape up" or "slim down" for forthcoming sun holidays.

The pseudo-science of the Slimming Industry surpasses even the hyperbole (and that word's putting it kindly) of the Cosmetics Industry. Yesterday alone we were promised diets which are "the most advanced", "the most dynamic" and "revolutionary".

May I invite dieters to read what they are being flogged. Desperation will always tend to suspend reason unless one deliberately brings healthy skepticism to bear. The above words are complete and utter nonsense when applied to the art of weight control.

Again, let's remind ourselves of some of the only facts that matter. When you eat fewer calories than you use up, you will lose weight. When you crash-diet your body will go into starvation mode and bounce back with a weight gaining flurry as soon as you stop the crazy fasting. The more obsessed you are about what you eat and dieting, the more you are likely to mess up your mind, your metabolism and your healthy eating patterns - all of these things tending to make you heavier. When you cease to make a big issue about food, treating it largely just as nutrition, in harmony with your natural body rhythms and hunger, your weight will tend to settle back to something lighter.

Keep it simple. Keep it gentle. Keep it gradual. And keep it low-key. Don't let yourself get suckered in to the nonsense any more. There's one born every minute - a diet, that is - and they all come out when the sun shines on gullibility and neuroses.