ARTICLE / SHORT READ
|
|
BY
|
IT is a lazy Sunday afternoon, nobody has invited you for a roast and you are on the dark side of hungry, scrolling through the TV guide when you come across MAN V. FOOD (Travel Channel 2008- ). A cacophony of chanting ensues, directed towards a pained faced, slightly over weight, Adam Richman. Can he do it?! It appears not. The “regular guy with a serious appetite” has been defeated by a burger “the size of a bar stool cushion”. In this battle of man versus food, food has won and the leftovers go in the bin. Your mouth is watering now and you are craving a cheese burger. The adverts come on and now instead of a sweaty-faced Adam, it is a small African girl’s tear-streaked face on screen. 19-month-old Ferdowsi is “a terrified little girl who knows nothing but pain caused by malnutrition”. Like the 795 million people of the 7.3 billion people in the world, Ferdowsi is starving.
You don’t hear the details because you are on the phone to Just Eat. I too am guilty of indulging in a little MAN V. FOOD food porn from time to time. I would dream about my future trips to America in which I might head to one of the famous pig-out spots Richman visited. But, on one occasion, while watching him attempt to devour 17 hot dogs topped with mustard and homemade chilli, someone pointed out how disgusting it was. “I know” I said, “look at the mess he is making”. But of course what she meant was, how can people find this gluttonous disrespect for food waste so entertaining? Oh. Many have criticised the obscene nature of MAN V. FOOD. Outspoken television host and author Anthony Bourdain even linked the show’s popularity with viewers in countries such as Afghanistan, Libya and Iran, with the rise of the Islamic State: “The show confirms their worst suspicions - that Americans are fat, lazy, slothful [and] wasteful”. The show’s representation of American people is flawed. However, America has flaws of its own. According to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted by The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, more than 2 in 3 American adults are considered overweight or have obesity. Yet the show has earned itself an almost cult status around the world. In 2014 a restaurant of the same name opened in London. On his website restaurant owner Matayo Osmani refers to the show as the inspiration, having had the “dream since he was 13 after religiously watching Adam Richman". Stuart Heritage claimed in an article for The Guardian that the “culinary series has become a cultural touchstone”. He praised the show and its legacy stating “if you ever see a little boy order more food than he can comfortably eat, or a man putting away so many chips that his eyeballs turn yellow and his face starts seeping grease, then the spirit of MAN V. FOOD will have endured”. What this “spirit” fails to take into consideration is the American obesity epidemic or the relationship between television and childhood obesity. For those still enthralled by the “ultimate hunger quest” that MAN V. FOOD is in the pursuit of, fear not. A revamp premiered on August 7, 2017 with new host, Casey Webb set with the task of eating his way around America, chomping gluttonously on the likes of a 2.5 pound “Zombie Burrito”. More GLUTTONY >>> |
