06/24/2009 08:52
What the?
I enjoy watching TV shows about food issues, obesity, health, fitness and all that good stuff. But I have to say there's a really annoying trend that I've noticed and that I've shouted at the TV about for all these years. I just can't understand it, and it's one of the things that winds me up more than anything else I see on TV.
Every time a dietitian or a nutritionist (or whatever title they happen to be calling themselves) appears on a morning television programme or one of those food and nutrition evening specials, it's almost always a FAT woman. I don't mean just a little tiny bit toward the top edge of a normal weight. I mean fat. As in, FAT.
There she is, tugging her blazer uncomfortably over her big belly, sitting on the couch next to a slim and healthy presenter on breakfast television, spouting statisics about how many British people are overweight, how we need to have at least 5 fruits and veggies a day and get more whole grains. The slim presenter is listening and nodding earnestly and I'm shouting at my TV, 'Who is going to listen to you when you're so FAT! When was the last time you took your own advice, lady?'
Then another one pops up on one of those fat-celebrity-tries-a-diet programmes. Standing in a kitchen beside an overweight B-list celeb, she's at best only marginally slimmer than the so-called 'obese' celeb whose 'bad lifestyle' is going to kill them, supposedly teaching them about proper portion sizes. And I'm yelling, 'Hey, lady, we might believe what you're saying if you weren't so big and FAT!'
'A serving of rice is about the size of a tennis ball,' she says, ladling one onto a plate. And I yell, 'How many tennis balls do you usually eat then, Krispy Kreme?'
Last night on a show called 'The Best Diet in the World,' a fat nutritionist, this time a man, whose gut and man-boobs were at least equal to the celeb he was counselling, asked the celeb to serve himself what he would consider a normal portion of lamb hotpot. The celeb proceeded to put enough for probably 4 people on his plate. 'Well, that is just gluttony,' said the nutritionist, and put a proper portion on a plate to compare them. But I could only yell, 'Yeah, like you don't do the same, Pork Pie!'
I have to admit, I hurl the most vile abuse at these people when I see and hear them. They make me so angry, because how can they have the gall to get on TV and give 'textbook' advice on food and nutrition and, yes, even exercise, when it is so patently obvious they don't practise it themselves? And what is worse, what if the people listening think that they DO take their own advice? Won't they just conclude that obviously healthy eating and exercise won't make that big a difference in the way they look and feel, because the people giving the advice don't look much different from the 'overweight' people they're counselling.
It makes me SO MAD.
I don't think a nutritionist should be allowed to counsel patients if they can't keep their own weight under control. I mean, good night, even Weight Watchers won't let their staff counsel people if they can't maintain goal weight, and those people don't have degrees and aren't giving what is considered medical advice.
They most definitely should not be allowed on telly if they haven't got their own weight under control.
Ugh!
Hey, if you like your pie and chips so be it, if you're a 'foodie' and decided to get a degree in 'nutrition' so you could do food demonstrations all day, whatever, but don't go around advising people about how to lose weight, and for corn sake, keep yourself off the telly, please!
Every time a dietitian or a nutritionist (or whatever title they happen to be calling themselves) appears on a morning television programme or one of those food and nutrition evening specials, it's almost always a FAT woman. I don't mean just a little tiny bit toward the top edge of a normal weight. I mean fat. As in, FAT.
There she is, tugging her blazer uncomfortably over her big belly, sitting on the couch next to a slim and healthy presenter on breakfast television, spouting statisics about how many British people are overweight, how we need to have at least 5 fruits and veggies a day and get more whole grains. The slim presenter is listening and nodding earnestly and I'm shouting at my TV, 'Who is going to listen to you when you're so FAT! When was the last time you took your own advice, lady?'
Then another one pops up on one of those fat-celebrity-tries-a-diet programmes. Standing in a kitchen beside an overweight B-list celeb, she's at best only marginally slimmer than the so-called 'obese' celeb whose 'bad lifestyle' is going to kill them, supposedly teaching them about proper portion sizes. And I'm yelling, 'Hey, lady, we might believe what you're saying if you weren't so big and FAT!'
'A serving of rice is about the size of a tennis ball,' she says, ladling one onto a plate. And I yell, 'How many tennis balls do you usually eat then, Krispy Kreme?'
Last night on a show called 'The Best Diet in the World,' a fat nutritionist, this time a man, whose gut and man-boobs were at least equal to the celeb he was counselling, asked the celeb to serve himself what he would consider a normal portion of lamb hotpot. The celeb proceeded to put enough for probably 4 people on his plate. 'Well, that is just gluttony,' said the nutritionist, and put a proper portion on a plate to compare them. But I could only yell, 'Yeah, like you don't do the same, Pork Pie!'
I have to admit, I hurl the most vile abuse at these people when I see and hear them. They make me so angry, because how can they have the gall to get on TV and give 'textbook' advice on food and nutrition and, yes, even exercise, when it is so patently obvious they don't practise it themselves? And what is worse, what if the people listening think that they DO take their own advice? Won't they just conclude that obviously healthy eating and exercise won't make that big a difference in the way they look and feel, because the people giving the advice don't look much different from the 'overweight' people they're counselling.
It makes me SO MAD.
I don't think a nutritionist should be allowed to counsel patients if they can't keep their own weight under control. I mean, good night, even Weight Watchers won't let their staff counsel people if they can't maintain goal weight, and those people don't have degrees and aren't giving what is considered medical advice.
They most definitely should not be allowed on telly if they haven't got their own weight under control.
Ugh!
Hey, if you like your pie and chips so be it, if you're a 'foodie' and decided to get a degree in 'nutrition' so you could do food demonstrations all day, whatever, but don't go around advising people about how to lose weight, and for corn sake, keep yourself off the telly, please!