“Are you eating enough?”

The typical mother’s question and one which always results in giggles from my assistant , who knows that despite my slim physique my appetite is far from small. My response that actually I never stop eating, thank you very much, is usually met with gentle protests that perhaps I don’t eat the ‘right’ foods, by which she means lashings of lasagne and bread pudding.

For various reasons I have spent the past 12 eating exactly what I want - so long as it is natural and unprocessed and doesn’t contain starch, added nasties or, with the exception of essential oils, too much fat. This means I never eat rice, bread, potatoes, or other starches and yet - much to the confusion of my dietician - I have boundless energy, never get sick (not even a cold) and never feel hungry at all.

Given that I weigh less than I did when I was 18 - and having watched another friend lose 15kg and change shape completely after I told him I thought a similar eating plan would work for him - I have long suspected that I am onto something. So I was more than a bit smug to see this article written in the Times yesterday, extolling the virtues of a low-starchy carbohydrate diet for a long and healthy life. The writer’s only mistake was to travel from London to Utah to find out about it - he could have popped over to my flat in Chelsea for a nice cup of tea instead.

The interesting thing that he forgets to mention or perhaps has not considered, is that even if you tell most people that there is a way of eating which is tasty, filling, keeps you slim and healthy and allows a 70-year old woman to maintain the figure of a teenage girl, they still won’t follow it. Some people just like their sandwiches too much!

Jackie