Supersize vs Superskinny

Yeah this show is pretty trashy, but that's the appeal of these types of shows. The same reason people watch 'You are what you eat' with 'Dr' Gillian Mckeith. We love seeing people worse off then ourselves; ooh look how fat that woman is!! Look at her arms.....she eats what!!!

Contestants often stand in their underwear, as there flabby backs, thighs and stretch marked stomachs fill up the screen, followed by some pale, anaemic, emaciated figure that hasn't eaten in a decade. The only difference between the two shows is in addition to a real doctor (Dr Christian Jessen, and his 'feeding clinic',) contestants are expected to swap one terrible diet for another.

The fun begins when were introduced to the super-sizer/skinny's weekly food intake. What you see is absolutely gross. Depending on whose diet it is; if its the super-sizer, all manner of crap falls through this tube; chips, pizza, curry, crisps, coke, pasta, pie etc- all mushed together –if its the skinny tube your lucky if more than a piece of toast and some juice falls through.

During the week we look on as the super-sizer sits opposite the skinny contestant picking at their favourite roast dinner, while narked off because all they've had to eat is a banana, and some tea. Made all the worse by the skinny contestants groaning at the size of the food, coupled by rude comments about the crap they eat.

I know that plenty of people have said why not just put them both on healthy diets? (They do get healthy diets after the experiment) What is the point of these extremes? But then what would be the point of this show? Its premise is to shock and entertain.

This is a show I completely stumbled on by accident. It basically has 2 people 1 too skinny & 1 too fat & they switch diets for 5 days. They seem to live together get to know each other & make the meals they usually eat & serve it to each other. That is only part of the show. They also follow a group of Anorexic's going through therapy. We get to learn about them a little bit more every week which is very informational & entertaining. It's all about the extremely deep issues of their problems w/food. I've learned that Anorexia is so much more complicated then just not eating. It's deep emotional issues that have found a form in controlling their food intake so that they can feel they have control of something. I am currently watching Season 3 & this year has a journalist named Anna Richardson trying to get her body in shape by any means necessary. She is not only a excellent journalist, she's also quite funny & has no shame which really makes you gravitate towards what she's doing from week to week as well. She really let's you in on all the things she's unhappy about w/her body. She has no qualms about showing you what she can't stand about her almost 40 year old body. The truth is she really is an attractive woman that just wants to look younger. Even if you aren't interested in this sort of program, you will still be entertained by the excellent stories presented in each program.

Roll forward a few years, and witness the health crisis that's facing the country, I don't mean Covid, I mean insulin resistant diseases, such as diabetes.

Britain is catching America up, you only need to walk the Streets of a town centre to see what's going wrong. This series should have been compulsive viewing, it's very hard hitting, I love how Christian makes things very real.

What amazes me here, how nice all of the men tend to be, it's surprising, they seem to be more compassionate and empathetic with one another, some of the women here are so catty.

I hope my future self reads this one day, I'm six months on keto, and 8 stone off, this series helped me realise a lot of things.

Revealing, and thought provoking, 9/10.