Our unhealthy fixation with being thin, by Nigella Lawson
SHE made a name for herself as the curvaceous domestic goddess and has never shied away from indulgent treats.
And so perhaps it is no surprise that Nigella Lawson has expressed concern about ‘the fixation our culture has with thinness’.
But the celebrity chef, 55, has revealed very personal reasons why she prefers to eat a little bit of what she fancies. Miss Lawson opened up about her late mother’s battle with an eating disorder and said that seeing three loved ones die of cancer means ‘you do not equate extreme thinness with healthiness’.
She said: ‘When people come to my house for supper, I would never expect anyone to eat something sweet if they didn’t want to, but I’ve noticed how all the people who say, “Oh no, nothing for me” – and, sadly, this is nearly always women – get a fork out and start picking at the cake. In the end, they’ve eaten much more than everyone else! So, if I feel like chocolate cake, I’ll have a slice.’
She told Australia’s Sunday Telegraph Sunday Style magazine: ‘You know, my mother had an eating disorder, so I felt very strongly that I was not going to be tyrannised in that way. Also, if you’ve known three people you love very much die of cancer, you do not equate extreme thinness with healthiness.’
Miss Lawson’s mother Vanessa died at 48 in 1985, her sister Thomasina died in her early thirties in 1993, and her first husband John Diamond died aged 47 in 2001.
‘I have an emotional relationship to food, but I don’t use food as emotional ballast,’ she said. ‘If something isn’t right, you can’t make it right with food, but certainly it improves the quality of my life to eat well. And that, for me, is an intrinsic part of living well.’
Miss Lawson, who has a daughter Cosima, 21, and son Bruno, 19, added: ‘ I’m my children’s only parent, I’m getting older and being healthy is important to me. Feeling that I should be in a smaller dress size would involve going against my nature in the sense of what my physique is. I would have to undereat and I think that’s incredibly bad for you.’