The Food Philosophy will show you how to lose weight, feel genuine choice and control around food and set yourself free from overeating for the rest of your life.
I watched The Great British Body last night. I didn’t want to watch it really as I knew what it would be like – another dumbed down piece of nonsense aimed at the ‘uneducated’ British public (the TV people’s seeming opinion, not mine). And I was right.
It was mostly just meaningless hot air. Apart from the bit about the fat gene which was astoundingly ignorant and bizarre.
Hundreds of people took part in the programme and everyone gave a saliva sample which was taken to a lab and tested for the fat gene. Then all of the women were herded into three groups: those with no copies of the fat gene, those with one copy and those with two.
They were all showing nervous anticipation about finding out whether they had this gene or not. The whole outcome was based on the premise that if you've got the fat gene it isn’t your fault if you're fat, but if you haven't got the fat gene, it is your fault. So all the ‘overweight’ women were hoping they had it so that they could explain the reason for their weight and all of the thin people were terrified that they would get fat later in life because of this gene.
Bear in mind that scientists don’t yet know anything about this fat gene or how it contributes to body shape. The presumptions in the programme were based on guesswork and hearsay but, as usual, they were fed to the public as fact.
Trinny and Susannah both took part in the test and it turned out that Susannah doesn’t carry the fat gene, but Trinny does. Susannah called Trinny ‘my fat friend’ and said she felt elated about the result. She looked like she was going to wet herself in her gloating self-satisfaction.
All this loosely based presumption and mis-education of the public was bad enough but the worst and most offensive part of this programme by far was when Susannah turned to her fat-gene free group, some of which were overweight, and aggressively and accusingly shouted at them: “That just shows you that we get fat because we’re basically greedy and lazy.”
They looked humiliated and the group fell silent and serious and their eyes turned on Susannah for a moment that lasted just a bit too long. The utter raw and painful shame on the face of one woman made me want to cry.
And this from a programme that is supposed to get the British public to ‘Love your body shape’. The ITV website says: “Trinny and Susannah explain why they want YOU to feel better about your body and rejoice in your differences.”
No, that's just the programme's politically correct angle - what they really think is very obvious indeed.
If you know nothing about The Food Philosophy you might not see the point of my rant, but believe me when I tell you that the result of their programme and their shaming of these women and coercion into more guilt, more self hatred, more blame, will only mean more overeating and Trinny and Susannah’s ignorance has dug them further into the overeating trap than they ever would have been. AND it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the thin women who have never cared much about their weight will now gain weight in their attempt not to! And none of this harm that has been done to these women will be anything at all to do with the fat gene!
2008-06-03 @ 11:17