Why are some women so obsessed with their appearance? Is the media to blame? Certainly, the images of women we see on TV and in magazines are not representative. The average female fashion model is 23 per cent thinner than the average woman. If shop-window mannequins were real women, they would have 10 per cent body fat.

To have a normal menstrual cycle, a woman typically needs at least 17 to 22 per cent body fat.

The reality gap is widened by make-up, lighting, photographic effects and computer enhancement which all combine to present a flawless piece of art, rather than a true representation of the human body.

But millions of women are still longing to meet these impossible standards. In a US university study conducted in 1996, 33,000 women said that they would rather lose 10-15 pounds in weight than any other life goal.

With that in mind, is it any wonder that women are not achieving as much as they could? Women earn more money than men in only two job categories; modelling and prostitution. The cosmetic surgery industry makes $300 million a year. The pornography industry makes $7 billion a year. The cosmetics industry makes $20 billion a year. And off the scale of earnings is the diet industry, reeling in $33 billion a year.