Miriam Margolyes talks body confidence: 'I know what I look like and I hate it'
Miriam Margolyes has revealed she “hates” her body in an interview on This Morning.
The BAFTA winning actress shared her body confidence issues as part of the promotion for her new documentary, Big Fat Adventure.
She hopes the documentary will shed some light on the UK’s “obesity crisis”.
Despite her generally confident demeanour, Margolyes admitted she “hates her body” to presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby.
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She said she was “p***ed off with herself” for being 78-years-old and for not being able to learn to be thin.
During the course of the documentary she filmed, Margolyes realised that her weight is not something she should “blame herself for”, describing obesity as a “disease and an addiction”.
There are many theories behind why obesity is such a big issue in the UK, and Margolyes partly blames junk food advertising.
“People don’t need to be persuaded to eat. We eat. We have to eat to stay alive so why are we having advertisements pushing food at us?”
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During the interview Schofield asked the actress if she’d “done the diet thing” in the past, to which she said she has “done everything”.
The only thing she hasn’t tried is bariatric medicine, which is a way to treat obesity with non-surgical medicines like Metformin.
Metformin is a drug which reduces weight by decreasing the amount of glucose produced by the liver.
Gastric bands are also a type of bariatric treatment, but fall into a range of surgeries available for obese people.
Margolyes said she felt “sad” for women who felt the need to undergo surgery in order to achieve an “acceptable” body.
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Willoughby brought up Margolyes usage of the word “fat”, which typically divides opinions.
“Are we ok using the word fat?” She asked. Schofield went onto say that the pair of presenters would be in a lot of trouble if they used the word “fat”, instead they use terms like overweight and larger.
“Well, I’m sorry but I think that’s very silly,” Margolyes exclaimed.
“We should be kind but everybody should be able to use the word fat and not die when they use it. It’s a real word, it’s what I am. Look at me.
“It’s awful, this belly. I try to disguise it.”
Margolyes went on to say that she wished she could be “as perfect in her body as I am in my soul”, a sentiment that touched This Morning viewers as well as the presenters.
“That breaks my heart.” Willoughby said in response.
