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: | The Fight For Our Bodies |
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In the first of a new series called the BBC News Interactive Essay, the writer Susie Orbach sets out her controversial view that dieting is a waste of time and effort.
Did it work? Likely as not, it didn't.
In the six-minute multimedia presentation, Ms Orbach explains why slimming is not only often a waste of time, but also harmful. In extreme cases, it can even be deadly.
Everyone's body, she says, has a natural "set point" weight. Fighting that with a diet can be counterproductive, actually causing the body to gain more weight in the long-term.
Ms Orbach wants to hear your views on the topic:
Click on the icon at the top of the page to see the multimedia essay and to e-mail the debate. Ms Orbach will respond to the key issues you raise.
Who is Susie Orbach? Susie Orbach is a psychotherapist, author, activist and expert on eating disorders and women's issues.
She is widely known as a counsellor to the late Diana, Princess of Wales, who publicly admitted to suffering from an eating disorder.
Ms Orbach initially made her name as the author of Fat is a Feminist Issue. Published in 1978, the book set out the radical theory that body weight is more a state of mind than a physical condition.
Women had become enslaved to the diet industry and were harming themselves through repeated dieting.
Her latest book, On Eating, is published by Penguin.