well as satisfying one's daily nutritional requirements. On a total of 1,000 calories a day, one should lose 4 lbs of weight a week provided that one takes a bit of exercise and is not totally sedentary

The other way to lose weight comfortably is to increase the amount of exercise one takes. A brisk walk for twenty minutes a day will burn off excess calories and stimulate body biochemistry so that it works at a higher level of activity. For a normal healthy diet one should not need the advice of a dietician. Anorexic patients should certainly not turn to dieticians for advice. They need no specific dietary advice other than to eat normally. By becoming obsessed with dietetics, they take themselves further away from normality. The proper function of dieticians is to help people who have diabetes or kidney failure or other medical conditions that require special diets. Anorexia does not require special diets other than inital vitamin supplements and high calorie drinks. Otherwise it requires a normal diet.

The concept of "health foods" is bizarre. There is in fact nothing particularly unhealthy about "junk" food if it is eaten occasionally rather than exclusively. To reject it on the grounds that it does not taste very special is fair enough, but to attack it on the grounds of nutritional inadequacy shows very little understanding of the actual needs of the stomach and body in general. By and large, vitamins, minerals and trace elements have very little to do with health except in absolute deficiency states which are clinically rare. Premature babies, isolated old ladies, prisoners of war or vegan diet fanatics may have a problem but the rest of us do perfectly well even if our diets occasionally contain various forms of "junk" food. In any case, if people are so worried about their health, they should focus primarily upon stopping smoking cigarettes. "Junk" food would, by comparison, be a very long way down the list of appropriate concerns.