'Exercise produces a lot of endorphins which make people feel good about themselves - it is like a self-esteem drug.
'But the problem is that it is only a prop and it can mask some serious problems. And the better it makes you feel, the more you want to do it. It is a bit like obsessive-compulsive disorder because people also start imagining all sorts of things will happen if they stop doing it.
'The best way of stopping the addiction is, like any drug, to go cold turkey and stop exercise.
'It is only then that you will realise that the world won't fall apart and you won't all of a sudden become fat.'
After relationships with England coach Sven Goran Eriksson and footballer Stan Collymore, Miss Jonsson insists she is happier than ever with her husband of two years, Lance Gerrard-Wright.
The couple met when she hosted a TV show in which he was looking for the perfect woman. He recently started work as a life coach.
Her four-year-old daughter Bo, from her relationship with German hotelier Markus Kempen, recently had a third operation to tackle a heart complaint and appears to be on the mend.
Miss Jonsson is about to return to TV on two reality programmes - BBC2's Art School in which she joins an intensive two-week art course and Channel 4's Come Dine With Me in which celebrities make meals for each other.
