by barryoilbegone » Thu Feb 09, 2023 6:59 am
Yep, TV cooking shows have a lot to answer for in terms of health.
The Great Bake Off shows for example have been a huge hit here in the UK where I am, and elsewhere - but unfortunately normalise whole new generations, as well as the older ones that they need animal products, oils, and refined sugar in their lives and it's normal. Even vegan friendly baking uses typically the latter of those two. Ditto for MasterChef, or Saturday Kitchen here too.
If cooking shows did WFPB recipes a lot, I'd suspect the public would be a lot more willing to try them - YouTube is then the camp of these, and there are some good channels there - like Cooking with Plants, and The Whole Food Plant Based Cooking Show are fantastic faves of mine - but they're far from mainstream.
If we could get a TV celebrity chef with pizzaz and mass media appeal, they'd probably ironically make more converts of people to healthier eating in a year than Dr McD and colleagues have managed in 40. And that's no disrespect to Dr McD or the rest either - they've likely saved my life, and might again.
"All people are made alike - of bones and flesh and dinner. Only the dinners are different.”
Gertrude Louise Cheney