No Diet Week backs healthy body image

Fitness, not fat, is what's important, says No Diet Week supporter Pauline Gillespie.

The Wellington radio host is promoting the Eating Disorders Services' fundraising event, which begins today.

Ms Gillespie suffered from a severe eating disorder in her late teens and vividly remembers going for days without food and jogging obsessively.

Now she has a much healthier body image and lifestyle. She exercises regularly but eats "whatever I damn well please", including chocolate bars for breakfast if she feels like it.

She gets many letters from teenage girls anxious about their weight.

"They're upset about how they look and getting boyfriends. It's really alarming how young these girls are. I tell them they need to be fit, because if you're fit you're going to be happier and you're going to enjoy life. I tell my 9-year-old daughter that as well."

Eating Disorders Services spokeswoman Gail Teale said No Diet Week aimed to highlight the dangers of fearing fat. Though not everyone who went on a diet developed an eating disorder, almost every eating disorder began with a diet.

"It's helping us get the message out about a healthy attitude to food and exercise, rather than going on a strict diet that's starving your body of everything it needs."

Five per cent of New Zealand women are estimated to have an eating disorder, and one out of every five of these will die from the condition.

No Diet Week will raise funds for Eating Disorders Services in Wellington, which provides preventive and treatment services.

The film Real Women Have Curves will be screened at the Rialto cinema in the capital next Thursday and Miranda Brown-designed "Eat What You Like" T-shirts have gone on sale.

Eateries in Wellington have been challenged to design a healthy dish to mark No Diet Week, to be judged by Gillespie and former Icon restaurant chef Peter Thornley.

- NZPA