British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman has been vocal about her view on the fashion industry’s relationship with body image in the past – criticising the miniscule sample sizes designers send magazines for shoots – and now she’s taking a swipe at fad diets.

In an interview with food blog The New Potato, Shulman said she thought food crazes were unhealthy and unsociable.

“I think it’s relatively bad manners, all of the excuses people make for not eating.

“We had a nutritionist in and she was saying that things like chia seeds are really not good for you because they just make you feel full – that’s why people have them – but they have no nutritional value.

“I think it’s good to be healthy. I don’t think you should sit there stuffing croissants into your mouth. I just wish people could take a bit more pleasure – real pleasure – in food, without eating and then self-flagellating about it immediately afterwards.”

Shulman also said she thought diets were a bad example to set for children.

“I’ve watched contemporaries of mine and the way they behave around food. They’ve got teenage girls – are they then surprised if their children have eating disorders?”