Duchess of weight loss can have the last laugh

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Long before Valerie Bertinelli, before Kirstie Alley, even before Jared the Subway-sandwich guy, there was Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York.Once derided in the British tabloids as the "Duchess of Pork" for ballooning to 200 pounds after her divorce from Prince Andrew in the late 1990s, Fergie took America by storm 12 years ago as one of the first celebrity weight-loss spokeswomen.And all this time, Ferguson, 48, has kept the weight off and changed the way she is perceived. What hasn't changed is the culture of fetishizing -- nay, ridiculing -- celebrities and their body types.In a cruel twist last May, the British tabloids found a new target -- Ferguson's 19-year-old daughter Beatrice, whom London's Daily Mail dubbed "Pampered Miss Piggy."We talked with Ferguson about body image, weight loss and how to be healthy.Q: You had a lot of bad press back in the day about your body. Do you think there's an inordinate amount of attention by the media even now about celebrity women having "flawed" bodies?A: My children have had a huge problem with this subject, because everybody expects you to be a tiny size 0. But what about just being regular? Why is it everyone is so fixed on the idea you have to be tiny to be healthy and well? You can be a good size and still keep your body mass index right and keep your heart right. It's time for everyone just to be heart-healthy, instead of being jeans-healthy.Q: I read about the swipes British tabloids took at your daughter's weight last May. That almost had to be deja vu for you, right?A: It was very troubling for her -- to be accused of that and (have a reporter write) that 'What the country needs to be protected from is the attack of the killer doughnuts from Beatrice.' It is a very cruel thing when she's a perfectly good size 10 and healthy. It caused her great distress.Q: You've been a Weight Watchers spokeswoman in the United States now for 12 years. Is this something you've been asked about everywhere you go?A: Yes. I'm known as the Weight Watchers lady in America.Q: What do you think of that? Gratifying? Or tiring?A: No, it actually always keeps me very well balanced and makes me realize I must keep running and keep fit and not dropping that mantle, really. I feel very good because of it.Q: What is your weight-control maintenance like?A: Big-time exercising. Running. It's really the key to everything. But it's about not viewing food as your success.Q: When weight is concerned, it's not all about food, right? There are emotional components.A: Food can become a reason for celebration. And the reason for everything. But it's not. Food is simply a vehicle to get us from A to B.(Contact Sam McManis at smcmanis(at)sacbee.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)