A few days ago, I was standing in a shop sending a parcel when I realised I was surrounded by walls of brightly coloured vape liquids. All lined up like sweets, with flavours from mint to bubblegum to strawberry milkshake. 

And it got me thinking… Governments have worked so hard to make smoking less appealing. It’s hidden behind shutters, wrapped in plain packaging with grim warnings, yet vapes get to sit front and centre looking tempting.

While I was mulling this over I realised that dieting is treated in exactly the same way – except the difference is, we rarely talk about the health risks of dieting.

So in this episode I’m comparing vaping and dieting – how they’re sold as “better” choices, the industries behind them, the addictive cycles they create, and why one gets public health warnings while the other gets praise. 

I’m digging into the physical and psychological effects of dieting, from metabolism slowdown to hormone disruption, disordered eating, and long-term weight cycling.

I’m talking about:

• The parallels between vaping and dieting as “healthier” alternatives
• Why both rely on repeat customers to survive
• The hidden harms and health risks of dieting, backed by research
• Why weight stigma, not body size, costs the NHS more
• How different things could look if dieting got the same treatment as smoking

If you’ve ever wondered why dieting still gets the cultural gold star when it can be so harmful, this one’s going to make you think.

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A quick heads up - my transcriptions are automatically generated. For this reason there may be errors, incorrect words, bad spelling, bad grammar, and other things that just seem a little 'off'. You'll still be able to understand what is being said though, so please just ignore that and enjoy the episode.