Turn Off Jamie If You Want That Party LBD: Cooking Shows Make Us More Likely To Eat Junk Food

If you’re looking for some top cooking tips for the Christmas season, but you also have your LBD in mind, you’re probably better off turning off the TV cookery shows now.

Stick to the cooking books, experts are saying, as it’s revealed that cookery programmes make us more likely to tuck into unhealthy snacks.

So while Jamie and Nigella are whipping up a storm on the tele, we use the opportunity to kick back with a bag of crisps or a bar of chocolate.

While the popular kitchen shows, including Masterchef and the Great British Bake-Off, inspire many of us to have a go in the kitchen, it seems they also make us more likely to pick sugary, fatty options when we do, even when the show is promoting healthy food…

In the study, researchers found that viewers are more likely to munch on junk food if they are watching a cookery show than if they have tuned into a nature programme.

The scientists believe that food-related programmes may affect eating behaviour by triggering the desire for calorie-laden products.

Put it away Nigella, you're bad for us!

American psychologists recruited 80 adults to find out what impact  our television viewing has on our tastebuds. Half were told to watch a cookery show, while the others watched a nature programme.

Participants were given three bowls, each containing chocolate-covered sweets, cheese curls or raw carrots, which were weighed before they were handed out.

Afterwards the researchers, from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in New York, weighed the food again to see how much had been eaten.

They found those watching the cookery programme got through substantially larger amounts of chocolate sweets than the nature show viewers, who were more likely to tuck into the healthy carrots.

The researchers, who published the study in the journal Appetite, said: “TV watching has been associated with overeating and obesity. But how popular food-related shows affect eating behaviour has not been examined.

“Significantly more chocolate-covered sweets were consumed among those who watched the cooking programme.

“These findings may have implications for obesity prevention.”

This research shows that adults are at risk, even while watching shows that promote healthy eating.