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The Conversation
The Conversation
Lifestyle
Dan Baumgardt, Senior Lecturer, School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol

From chain-smoking to binge-drinking, Bridget Jones’s habits would have been terrible for her health

She chain-smoked her way through romance and heart-break and binge-drank Chardonnay until it went out of fashion (and then came back in again) – and now Bridget Jones is back.

Mad about the Boy is the fourth and final film in the Bridget Jones series. It’s almost 30 years since Helen Fielding hit the bestseller lists with the accident-prone, self-deprecating eponymous heroine of Bridget Jones’s Diary. Tales of “emotional f-ckwits” and “really bloody enormous pants” resonated with readers and the film adaptations cemented Bridget Jones’s status as a well-loved character.

Fans of the original Bridget Jones’s Diary will remember her daily log of statistics. Many will have read the entries, listing calories, cigarettes and alcohol units consumed, with a nod of recognition. The alcohol-free diet that’s started with fierce determination one day descends into hungover calorific chaos the next. But is Bridget’s lifestyle as loveable in real life as it is on the page and screen?

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