Channel 4 - My Big Fat Diet Show

by Elizabeth
(Healthy Eating Made Easy)

What a disappointment My Big Fat Diet Show turns out to be.

The aim is for a group of women to drop a dress size in two weeks, by sticking to 1200 calories a day.

I am not keen on reduced calorie diets, they're hard to stick to, play havoc with metabolism and are only manageable in the short term - so the weight generally goes back on again quickly.

But even so this could have been an opportunity to demonstrate a healthier way of eating which would be so appetising and delicious that none of these women would want to go back to scoffing mini pork pies whilst they're cooking dinner (also a pie!), or eating nothing but ready-meals.

No chance of that happening though, given the dismally bog-standard food on the week's diet menu. Frozen mixed veg, iceberg lettuce, canned rice pudding...yuk! Why not get the 'dieting divas' cooking up some stir fried shredded cabbage with garlic, roast peppers or baked butternut squash? Give them a hearty homemade soup, a vibrant stir fry flavoured with coriander and lime, a rich tomato sauce rather than an instant gravy and a fluffy baked apple for dessert?

But no. The food on offer reminds me of hospital food - bland, boring and flavourless - I wouldn't blame anyone for breaking that diet...