Food porn

I walked through the room when Sally was watching a re-run of the show, Man v. Food, on Travel Channel.

I was disgusted—or more properly, horribly fascinated—by host Alan Richman's speed eating mass quantities of empty calories, in this particular show a gut-busting, giant plate full of nachos.

Man v. Food, which is not currently in production, but in a cycle of re-runs, has been called "food porn." Charlie Brooker, of The Guardian [UK], was largely critical of the show's celebration of excess, stating "if food is the new porn, this is an all-out orgy between wobbling gutsos and farmyard animals – a snuff orgy, no less, since the latter end up sawn in half and smothered in BBQ sauce." Based on the almost sex-like pleasure—or pain, depending on how far into the plate the host is in any given show—I can see why. The camera is right in Richman's face while he stuffs down his challenge food for that episode, much like the close-ups of working genitalia in pornography.

In each episode there are restaurant patrons cheering him on.

Richman looks like a younger, fatter Billy Joel in this picture. He's reacting to a woman's whoops of encouragement.

Richman gets closer to the bottom of the plate, and grimaces in pain.

The show either attracts or repels, based on comments by critics. On the one hand, I think TV critic Alan Sepinwall let the show off easy with his comment, "It ain't deep, and it certainly ain't healthy (I could feel my arteries clog just from watching), but it's fun.” On the other hand, fellow television show host Alton Brown, of the Science Channel's Good Eats, may take it a bit more serious than the television critics: "That show is about gluttony, and gluttony is wrong. It's wasteful. Think about people that are starving to death and think about that show. I think it's an embarrassment." One plate of nachos, or a five-pound cheeseburger (from another episode I saw last year), won't save the starving of the world. But Brown is correct about gluttony, and despite Sepinwall treating it lightly, it's what is killing Americans in droves. It starts at an early age. Parents, trained by years of McDonald's commercials, get their children hooked on this sort of food. While most of us don't eat ten pounds of nachos in one sitting, when people eat enough of that sort of thing then over time it does its damage.

Oh, yeah...in the interest of full disclosure, my diet isn't all that much better, except when my wife makes sure I'm eating more healthy. Given to my own devices I'd be plowing through plates of nachos or pizza every night. Sally loves to cook, and makes sure that besides a main dish, I have fruit and vegetables, something I'd most likely sacrifice if I planned my own meals. The good news is a statin drug keeps my bad cholesterol down. I have no idea if Adam Richman in Man v. Food, who is said to have exercised twice a day on filming days, and not eaten those days except for the challenge food, supplements it with a cholesterol drug. He's still fairly young (born in 1974), but old enough to have caused some damage if he's eaten much of the type of foods I see him eat on Man v. Food.

*Credit where it's due. I got the quotes from critics from Wikipedia. The photos of the television screen are mine.

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