SO when Kate Moss said "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" does anyone actually believe she said it to encourage girls not to eat, to be a size zero?
No, of course she didn't. She was echoing a sentiment felt by millions of women - especially women who're forever battling obesity - that being healthy and looking good is better than a date with a bag of doughnuts.
Anyway what does "skinny" mean? And who says it means size zero?
For me being "skinny" is getting into size 12 jeans.
For a woman who's size 22 skinny is being a size 16. It's totally subjective.
And while it's a first for me to be defending Kate Moss, I can't believe the hysteria surrounding the comment she made to a US fashion website.
As for all those harpies - wailing that because Kate's a role model for young girls, millions will now starve themselves to death and it'll all be her fault - clearly they're talking nonsense.
Virtually every woman who's ever lived has been on a diet but that doesn't mean we're all hurtling down the road to anorexia.
The fact is no woman, no teenager, wants to be fat and anyone who says they're fat and happy is a liar.
Because being thin - i.e. the right weight for your height - means you look better, you feel better. Oh yes, and you'll live longer.
I've been on a drastic diet for three weeks now - having recently piled on two stone.
And the only thing that's stopped me chewing the windowsill is the thought that nothing tastes as good as getting back into my slinky black trousers or getting rid of the spare tyre that's attached itself to my waist these last three months and made it impossible for me to run up the stairs. What's keeping me going is that I want to feel healthy again. I want to feel good about myself and I want to feel attractive again.
And you can't feel any of those things if you're fat.
And while the phrase Kate used might have been hijacked by anorexia websites, it's not where it started. It was said to me years ago when I was struggling to lose weight and I've never forgotten it. But I'll tell you what's a damn sight more dangerous than the spectre of anorexia. It's a nation of chronically obese teenagers - and there's a whole heap more of those than anorexics - who will die BEFORE their parents because of fat-related diseases.
There are 700,000 obese schoolchildren in Britain - as opposed to the 300 anorexic teenagers currently being treated in hospital - and of those 160,000 are already showing signs of developing heart disease and another 160,000 have high blood pressure.
All of those kids might just get to live longer if they get to grips with the notion that nothing tastes as good as being the right weight feels.
The fact is, girls who starve themselves aren't doing it because of what Kate Moss says - and I don't believe that's what she was advocating.
Anorexia is a psychiatric disorder triggered by many factors. It's not just about being thin - it's about control.
A recent global study of anorexic teenagers says 40 per cent of them also suffer from one other psychiatric disorder - usually obsessive compulsive disorder. Is Moss responsible for that as well?
It's ludicrous to blame her for encouraging kids to starve themselves. But if we're talking blame then blame a society obsessed with image, the body beautiful and vacuous celebrity.
Blame the mothers who let their daughters have breast ops at 15, give them Botox for their 18th birthday and teach them that looks are everything.
Blame the teen magazines obsessed with sex and perfection. Blame the retailers who make the trendiest clothes in Sizes 4-12.
Blame movies and TV for subliminally transmitting the message that only thin, beautiful women get the rich, gorgeous men.
Kate Moss - who incidentally doesn't look the vaguest bit anorexic - was stating the obvious. No bar of chocolate, no cream cake, no bag of crisps tastes as good as being able to slip into those jeans that make your bum look fantastic.
And instead of us obsessing about the kids who don't eat, we should be concentrating on those who eat too much.
Because that's our big problem.
And, hand on heart girls, who would you rather look like - Heidi Klum or Beth Ditto?
