Celery, what celery? (Was Re: Celery)

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 92801

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "quigonginger" 
<quigonginger at y...> wrote:

Ginger:
> This is one of those stupid, nagging things that probably has no 
> relevance to the plot, but bugs me anyway.
> 
> In GoF, the Smeltings nurse gives Petunia a diet for Dudley which 
> includes cottage cheese with grated celery (p. 40 US).  Isn't the 
> point of eating celery on a diet a combination of the fact that 
> celery is largely water (which would be lost in the grating 
process) 
> and the fact that it is all stringy (also lost in grating) and has 
to 
> be chewed much more than is worth one's time, thus burning calories?
> 
> Any dieticians out there?  This has been grating on my for years!

Geoff:
This looks like another of these odd little items, like Sirius's 
motor bike.....

Consulting my GOF, I can't find a reference to celery unless I have 
gone cross-eyed or something. The relevant bit reads:

"The diet sheet that had been sent by the Smeltings school nurse had 
been taped to the fridge which had been emptied of all Dudley's 
favourite things - fizzy drinks and cakes, chocolate bars and 
burgers - and filled instead with fruit and vegetables and the sorts 
of things that Uncle Vernoncalled 'rabbit food'."

(GOF "The Invitation" p.30 UK edition)

The only specific things I can see mentioned are grapefruit and 
carrot sticks.

The thick plotens......  :-)