Diet Junkies
BBC2 Tuesday, 17 February at 8.00pm

Diet Junkies tells the story of 50 years of dieting.

The series hears from the doctors who first faced up to the obesity epidemic, the pharmaceutical companies searching for the miracle diet pills, the "diet gurus" and the men and women who've looked to all of them for help in the battle with their weight.

The programmes trace the cultural history of the movement from the Fifties housewives who took amphetamines, through the rise of Dr Atkins and the fat-free food craze of the Eighties, to the future of dieting at the start of a new century.

This is the first time British television has taken such an in-depth look at the subject, and it is the definitive history of a phenomenon that has touched us all.



First programme (of 3):

Gurus: Fifty years of the diet industry and we are fatter than ever. This is the story of our obsession with slimming, and the people who've made a fortune out of it, beginning with the diet gurus.

Workout guru Jane Fonda, the Beverly Hills Diet's Judy Mazel and Veronica Atkins - wife of the late Dr Atkins and guardian of his low-carb legacy - discuss their methods of shedding pounds.

right now I'm fuming what a load of c""p from BBC2,

Dr atkins was a good altruistic man And
I for one will be E-MAILING BBC2 when I calm down,

Lez

To be honest, I didn't think that the program showed Dr Atkins in a bad light. I was much more pleased after watching this than I was watching Horizon a few weeks ago.

I appreciated that it concluded by focusing on the lady who had tried all the other diets and had found real success with Atkins, no matter what her "low-fat" thinking friend said. While it touched on the "no long term studies have proven that the diet is safe", I felt that it didn't attack it indiscriminately, and the other diets it was being compared to (grapefruit?? Aerobics being taught by a bulimic?) were much more unhealthy than our WOE could ever be. I felt that it showed how much he went through - all of the naysayers critisizing him over the years, and how he "laid low" during the low-fat 80's. We all know that he was a good man, and despite the latest media attack on him after his death, I think his message is FINALLY reaching people.

In all, I thought it was much more positive than recent programs, and I didn't receive any late night phone calls afterward from "concerned friends and relatives" who are usually trying to warn me off of a LC lifestyle after watching the drek that the BBC usually produces on this subject.

It wasn't perfect, but they've come a long way.

Dawn

Problem is the media.

Didn't Dr Atkins die at like 18 stone...therefore obese...therefore his diet must be wrong?

Thats what the media will have you believe.

The truth is in each of us, how we are, are we healthy etc....

I agree with you Dawn, I thought there was a lot of positive comments and Atkins got off very lightly compared with most of the other diets and I couldn't help but feel that there is a great distancing from low fat is good for you, hope there is more of this in the next two programmes.

Felt the programme was much better researched than Horizon even though they couldn't resist the fat naked flesh in the showers scenes - I could have done without those! Will be setting the video for the next two episodes.

Would be wonderful if the media finally admitted that research does back up Dr. Atkins as they sort of finished of with.