Jamie Oliver's Eat to Save Your Life
Wednesday 16 January at 10pm
As millions of Britons recover from their Christmas excess and make resolutions to eat more healthily, Jamie Oliver reveals what is really in the Great British diet, and how it could be killing us.
Using a series of dramatic demonstrations – including the autopsy of a 25-stone man who literally ate himself to death – Jamie, physician and fitness expert Dr Catherine Spencer-Smith, nutritionist Jane Clarke and anatomist Dr Gunther von Hagens show 18 volunteers exactly what harm their terrible diets are doing to them and, most importantly, what they can do to change their ways and get healthy.
The programme is part of Channel 4's The Big Food Fight, a season of programming which aims to raise awareness and encourage debate about food production, animal welfare and healthy eating.
With the worst diet in Europe, two thirds of Britons are overweight, and treating obesity-related diseases costs the NHS more than £3 billion a year. Experts fear that today's children could be the first generation to die younger than their parents if nothing is done.
Jamie and the team reveal how a diet high in fat, sugar, salt and empty calories, and low in nutrients and vitamins, is a major risk factor for life-threatening conditions such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. And Dr Gunther von Hagens conducts an autopsy to graphically reveal the terrible damage the volunteers' poor diets are doing to them, from straining over-sized hearts and damaged livers, to clogged arteries and organs smothered in fat. Meanwhile Jamie offers hope and shows the simple, effective steps we can all take to eat better and live longer. But can the volunteers ditch their bad diets and stop killing themselves?