Louise O'Neill: How is Operation Transformation in the public interest?

'Surely public money would have been better spent on addressing the growing rates of disordered eating?'

Photo: Cathal Noonan

When Operation Transformation first aired, my family watched it every week. When the contestants were brought on stage to be weighed in front of the judges, shifting uncomfortably in their skin-tight Lycra, and were either applauded or scolded for their efforts, the message was clear. Fat was bad.

Fat was disgusting. And I thought to myself — I am right to starve myself and I am right to vomit after meals and I am right to think that I would rather be dead than gain weight.