Normal Food Users

Blonde Mary's mother is food faddist, as is, in a gentler way, Sebastian's father. They both expect great results from eating the approved diets. Because both are rich, St Tom's is a fee-paying school after all, they are immune from the worst excesses of food advertising, that you become a "healthy" and "natural" and therefore "good" person through consuming the right products.

None of the girls develop feeding problems at St Tom's. That's because the food is fairly horrible - porridge and undercooked sausages. So when they get an opportunity to eat halfway decent food, they lap it up. Cecilia was a faddy eater who had the crusts cut off her sandwiches, but she grows out of that.

In real girls' boarding schools, eating problems are a scourge. Too much pressure is being put on girls to look perfect and to be perfect, and they are told to do that through worldly measures, especially exercise and diet. Anorexia is the result, and it starts with healthy eating messages. Unfortunately, obesity is also a problem. I see children today go to the Indian takeaway to buy kebabs and chips. When I was a child, that would have been impossible, we just didn't have enough money to do that. But times change,, Mum is a work earning money, and junk food becomes everyday rather than a treat.

Food needs to be put in its proper place, You can't become a good person or even a particularly healthy person by eating healthily. You can become too fat by eating too much.