Sometimes there is nothing quite like a good rant. So I suppose I ought to be thanking the BBC for the unhelpful programme they put out this week under their (and this is what riles me even more) so-called science strand Horizon, since it has spurred me on to write a post on something that bothers me.
Yes, I’m talking about The Restaurant That Burns Off Calories which entailed feeding a bunch of people in one room whilst others worked off the calories consumed on gym equipment in another. The over-riding premise seems quite clear: to teach us all a jolly good lesson about not being greedy over-eaters. Heaven forbid even more of us should become a 'burden' on the health service.
This is a message that pervades our society and causes enormous harm. It comes just when I thought we had started to develop an understanding of the prevalence of mental health problems and the need for greater sensitivity in programming.
And what appalling timing, when the majority of their viewers are limited in the amount of exercise they are able to do and social media is already peppered with references to fears of weight gain during our confinement.
In a bizarre home goal manoeuvre they speak in the programme about our physical activity only accounting for a percentage of our total calories used each day. They also mention the growing evidence that both our genes and our gut microbiota play a role in deciding how hungry we feel and what size we'll be. In this they are correct and it makes a mockery of the whole calories in and calories out 'experiment' which appears to be the cornerstone of the programme and undoubtedly the message that people will retain.
Here are the facts:
We never need to exercise to justify eating. We need to eat to live and we need to eat to be able to exercise – not the other way around.
Millions of people struggle with poor body image and relationship with food. This type of programme sends exactly the sort of message that can trigger the types of behaviour these people have spent years battling to overcome.
Fluctuations in our weight are a lot more complex to understand than simply calories in and calories out.
Our weight does not denote our health (except at the extremes).
The experience of weight stigma is a determinant of mental and physical health.
Weight stigma is at the very basis of our Western Society. If we are honest about the prejudices we carry around as a result of a life-time of brainwashing, we can begin to see beyond them.
Rant over.
I don't know about you but, rather than poison my mind with trash TV, I'm looking forward to a Zoom pizza party tonight followed by a long sit down to digest.