IT'S PILATES AND BIG DINNERS FOR NIGELLA

Friday April 18,2008

WITH HER womanly hourglass figure she never looks less than stunning but Nigella Lawson has hit back defiantly at speculation over her weight and claims that she has hired a personal trainer to trim down.

She is, she says, very happy with the way she looks and won’t be going on any slimming regime. But she does do gentle Pilates exercise to keep fit and also to enable her to indulge in the odd blow-out.

Says the cookery queen: “Far from going on a diet, I undergo Pilates training not just to help my bad back but to enable me to eat what I want. I have no desire to lose weight but have nothing against being fit and strong.”

But as her fellow TV chefs Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall go frothy at the mouth for all things green and organic, Nigella, 48, takes a rather more sceptical approach to saving the planet.

“I think it’s easy to get caught up in all the hype,” she explained at the launch of her father, former Chancellor Nigel Lawson’s book, An Appeal To Reason: A Cool Look At Global Warming, at the Garrick Club in London.

I can be good one day, then incredibly wasteful the next.

“Let’s be realistic. I’m not saying we are or aren’t to blame for global warming, I just think it’s more complicated than people make out.”

So is TV’s domestic goddess really an eco-sinner? “I can be good one day, then incredibly wasteful the next,” she giggles.

“I don’t have a car but that’s only because I live in London – I take taxis all over the place so what does that say?”

But with her promise of a range of indulgent goodies in the pipeline, surely all can be forgiven?

“I’m working on a number of food products at the moment,” Nigella added.

“I’m a perfectionist so I’m not putting my name to anything until it’s absolutely spot on.”