ESL Discussion

   Here's  a  familiar  version  of  the  boy- meets-girl situation. A young man has  at  last plucked up courage to invite a dazzling young lady out to dinner.She  has  accepted  his  invitation and  he is  overjoyed. He's  determined to  take  her  to  the  best  restaurant in  town, even if it  means that  he will have  to live on  memories and hopes during the month to come. When they get to the restaurant, he  discovers that this etherial  creature is on  a   diet.She mustn't eat this and she mustn't drink that.Oh, but of course , she doesn't want  to spoil  his enjoyment. Let  him by all means eat as much fattening as he wants. It's  the  surest way to an early grave. They  spend  a truly memorable evening together and never see each other again.

What a misearable lot  dieters are! You  can always recognise them from the sour expression on their faces.They  spend most of their time turning their noses up at food.They are forever  consulting  calorie charts; gazing at themselves in mirrors; and leaping on to weighing- machines in the bathroom. They spend a lifetime fighting a losing battle against spreading hips,protruding tummies and double chins.Some wage all -out war on FAT. Mere  dieting is not enough. They exhaust themselves doing exercises, sweating in sauna  baths,  being pummelled and massaged by weird machines. The really wealthy diet- mongers pay vast sums for "health cures". Don't think its only  the middle- aged who  in for these fads either. Many of these bright young things you see are suffering from chronic malnutrition: they are living on nothing but air,water and the goodwill  of God.

Dieters undertake to starve themselves of their own free will so why are they so miserable?Well, for one thing, they're always hungry. You can't be hungry and happy at the same time. All  the horrible  concoctions they eat instead of food leave them permanently dissatisfied. "Wonderfood is a complete food,"  the advertisement says."Just dissolve a teaspoonful in water..." A complete  food it may be,  but not quite as complete as a juicy steak. And, of course, they're always miserable because they feel  so guilty. Hunger just proves too much for them and in the end they lash out  and devour five huge guilt -inducing cream cakes at sitting. And who can blame them? At least three  times a day they are exposed to temptation. What utter  torture  it is always watching others tucking into piles of mouth- watering food while you munch a water biscuit and sip unsweetened lemon juice!

What's all this self -inflicted torture for? Saintly people deprive themselves of food to  attain a state of  grace. Unsaintly people do so to attain a state of misery. It will  be a great day when all the dieters in the world abandon their slimming courses; when they hold out their plates and demand  second helpings!