“It comes back to the fact that things are changing; we know now that diets don’t work. So they’ve got to alter their approach while still preaching that you have to be thin.”The move towards “healthy eating” rather than dieting is reflected in other areas of the market. According to Mintel market research, the growth rate for sales of slimming foods continued to slow steadily since 1993. This year sales reached pounds 88.4m – only an 8 per cent increase compared to 58 per cent in 1992. Which may explain why Lean Cuisine relaunched its range last year to shift the brand’s focus away from dieting to a more general “low-fat” market niche.It’s a similar story in the publishing world where punishing diets like the Cambridge or the Scarborough would now be viewed as positively medieval. That doesn’t mean books about weight-loss don’t proliferate, but they’re dressed up in a different way.

Rowena Webb, editor at Hodder and Stoughton, explains: “It would be almost impossible to publish a straight diet book which gives you recipes or tells you how to lose 10lbs in 10 days because they’re so thoroughly discredited. There’s much more now coming from a psychological angle.” This is mainly because the attitude towards dieting has shifted, although, as Webb says: “The message to be happy with the weight you are is a very slow one.”Others would argue it’s non-existent, especially among younger girls. According to a recent survey carried out by Dr Andrew Hill from Leeds University, 41 per cent of 9-year-old girls he interviewed placed their preferred body shape at slimmer than their own. He also found that over half the 8-year-olds he spoke to were consciously eating less or missing meals, even if they weren’t overweight.The irony seems to be that while the message “thin equals happy” has never been so all-pervasive, the marketing of actual dieting has never been less popular. Balance this against recent statistics that nearly a third of all adults are trying to slim and that last year 39 per cent of women were on a diet and it’s clear there’s some large-scale denial going on.

And this is the vein that advertisers, publishers and editors are tapping into – pretending a diet is anything but.It’s a dilemma that’s reflected in the health and beauty pages of many women’s magazines. Where there were once calorie-controlled diet tips, three-day de-tox regimes now take their place; nothing but water and lemon juice to “purify the system”. It may sound like a severe weight-loss technique but nobody cares to admit it. Then there are the features on new-fad health diets like food-combining which typically consist of fruit for breakfast, baked potato for lunch and grilled chicken for dinner – surely the old- fashioned diet in disguise. Eve Cameron, editor of Zest, a health and beauty magazine, says: “We never publish diets – they have a naff image among younger women.” But she admits: “Yes, it is a contradiction.

People say, `Oh they’re jolly bad for you’ but everyone is on one.”Charlotte-Anne Fidler, Elle’s health and beauty director, also says that diets are deeply unfashionable. “I never want to write about losing weight because I think it’s unhealthy. I’d much rather give people exercise to firm up their tummy.” In response, slimming product promoters approaching her for editorial are shifting their angle. “If people are promoting diets we won’t talk to them”, says Fidler. “If I say I’m not into diets, they’ll argue, `Well actually, we’re doing it as a healthy supplement.’”The glossies may eschew calorie counting but it’s hardly a credible message when their female readers are confronted with images of pre-pubescent- looking models within the same magazine.As Mary Evans Young says: “It’s the bind that women now face Dieting is uncool but everybody still wants to be thin.