Why is it that women have such a complicated relationship with food? Years of dieting and up and down dress sizes have reinforced the idea that we have to be slim to be acceptable to others and to be successful. Our self-worth is determined by the number on the scales and we only feel validated when we hit that magical figure
Christine M Thomas was that serial dieter. She lost and regained a total of 10 stone over 20 years – herweight was the one thing she could not conquer. A health economist and visiting professor, she has now written a book for everybody who wants to get off the diet treadmill, accept themselves and learn to live in harmony with food.
The Elephant in the Room: Is Weight Loss Worth it? is a personal deep dive into why diets fail and why we feel shame around our weight.
“When we’re constantly told our bodies are a problem to be solved, it’s no surprise that four out of five women are dissatisfied with their size,” says Christine.
“We’re surrounded by celebs who buy into the ‘being thin is best’ lifestyle. Rarely do we see real women enjoying a healthy relationship with food.”
One woman who does is celebrity chef Nigella Lawson. Her passion for preparing and eating food is evident in everything she does on TV.
“We should all try to be more like Nigella. Her raw enthusiasm for everything to do with cooking and eating is a refreshing counterpoint to the usual diet of thinness thrown at us every day,” says Christine.
“Nigella is voluptuous, healthy, beautiful and comfortable in her own skin. We all need to find that freedom to just be like her, without the tyranny of the diet machine working against us.”
Nigella famously practises Iyengar yoga and lifts weights to help keep her body in shape. Christine too has been an advocate of Iyengar for 20 years and credits it with her gradual acceptance of her body.
As a serial dieter, her wake-up call came when she realised how much her dissatisfaction with her body and weight was rubbing off on her teenage children and shaping their attitudes to food and self-worth.
She began to questionwhy women believe that fixing their bodies will change their lives and why we measure our value by our size, andso decided to write The Elephant in the Room.
Powerful, evidence-based and deeply personal, the book calls out the unspoken truths around weight, dieting and why we don’t trust our own bodies. It invites us to stop trying to fix our bodies and start listening to them.
The Elephant in the Room: Is Weight Loss Worth it?is published by Troubador and is released on 28 October 2026.
Notes to editors
Christine M Thomas is a health economist and a visiting professor at the University of Sunderland.
She has spent more than 30 years in the pharmaceutical industry, evaluating whether the benefits of healthcare interventions promised in research actually materialise in reality.
She has published in peer-reviewed journals on the cost of illness, including research on obesity-related depression.
The Elephant in the Room is her first book, born of decades of dieting. It’s a fusion of practical evidence, lived experience and the candour to say what everyone knows, but no-one says.