It was with a heavy heart that I sat down to watch Supersize vs Superskinny this week (E4, 10pm, 24 November).
I was expecting the freak show format that seems so ubiquitous these days (and I wasn't reassured by the C4 website encouraging me to tune into Embarrassing Bodies, Embarrassing Illnesses or My Great Big Fat Diet if I enjoyed the programme). But against all the odds I found it pretty thought-provoking.
In the feeding clinic this week were two brides-to-be: scrawny six stone eight Jenette and corpulent 21-stone Rosemarie. Both desperately wanted to look good in their wedding dresses. But neither could even fit into one because and here's the twist Jenette was subsisting on junk food (albeit of bird-like proportions), while Rosemarie ate wonderfully nutritious food (just far too much of the stuff indeed, she needed to lose Jenette in weight!)
Clearly, each had something to learn from the other though, of course, they initially resolutely refused to acknowledge this... in the manner of sulky schoolgirls. Things came to a head when Rosemarie spat out a piece of cheap sausage from her takeaway sausage and chips, proclaiming she wouldn't feed it to her dog. Jenette attempted to go one better, poking disgustedly at her gargantuan mushroom risotto and pronouncing that "it looks like something a dog would throw up".
The pair eventually bonded in a bridalwear shop, where it dawned on them that they shared the same goal. Aaah (or if you're a bloke aarrghhh... ) From then on, it was plain sailing. Jenette learnt to enjoy decent cooking and Rosemarie a former slimmer of the year accepted she shouldn't really be eating twice as much as a normal woman. It was all rather heart-warming unlike the segment featuring (Dr) Gillian McKeith.
Her mission to reduce the size of the nation's rears this week took her to Birmingham where, in a mighty peculiar transatlantic accent, she addressed a room full of ladies baring their bums. "Instead of the black country it looks like the back country," she intoned like some fanatical and unfunny preacher though I think she was trying to be cheeky. Ahaha.
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I was expecting the freak show format that seems so ubiquitous these days (and I wasn't reassured by the C4 website encouraging me to tune into Embarrassing Bodies, Embarrassing Illnesses or My Great Big Fat Diet if I enjoyed the programme). But against all the odds I found it pretty thought-provoking.
In the feeding clinic this week were two brides-to-be: scrawny six stone eight Jenette and corpulent 21-stone Rosemarie. Both desperately wanted to look good in their wedding dresses. But neither could even fit into one because and here's the twist Jenette was subsisting on junk food (albeit of bird-like proportions), while Rosemarie ate wonderfully nutritious food (just far too much of the stuff indeed, she needed to lose Jenette in weight!)
Clearly, each had something to learn from the other though, of course, they initially resolutely refused to acknowledge this... in the manner of sulky schoolgirls. Things came to a head when Rosemarie spat out a piece of cheap sausage from her takeaway sausage and chips, proclaiming she wouldn't feed it to her dog. Jenette attempted to go one better, poking disgustedly at her gargantuan mushroom risotto and pronouncing that "it looks like something a dog would throw up".
The pair eventually bonded in a bridalwear shop, where it dawned on them that they shared the same goal. Aaah (or if you're a bloke aarrghhh... ) From then on, it was plain sailing. Jenette learnt to enjoy decent cooking and Rosemarie a former slimmer of the year accepted she shouldn't really be eating twice as much as a normal woman. It was all rather heart-warming unlike the segment featuring (Dr) Gillian McKeith.
Her mission to reduce the size of the nation's rears this week took her to Birmingham where, in a mighty peculiar transatlantic accent, she addressed a room full of ladies baring their bums. "Instead of the black country it looks like the back country," she intoned like some fanatical and unfunny preacher though I think she was trying to be cheeky. Ahaha.
More from this column
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