Fred Sirieix’s BBC show The Restaurant That Burns Off Calories has been met with a furious backlash and has been slammed by an eating disorder charity after it aired it’s first episode.
The 48-year-old First Dates star hosted a special new food based episode of Horizon alongside This Morning’s Dr Zoe Williams, 46, which explored the correlation between exercise and eating.
The show, which aired on BBC 2 on Monday night, involves diners enjoying slap up meals while fitness fanatics demonstrate how much exercise is required to burn off the calories contained in the food being consumed.
Utilising scientific research, the show is intended to demonstrate how diners would on average be inclines to eat up to 20% less when witnessing how much exercise would be required to counteract excess calories.
However the premise of the show was met with fury from an eating disorder charity as well as viewers who said they felt “triggered” by what was being screened.
Eating disorder charity Beat slammed the show, taking to Twitter to warn: “We strongly discourage anyone with an eating disorder to watch the BBC2 programme The Restaurant that Burns Off Calories airing tonight.”
One viewer expressed their shock at the show, tweeting: “What message is this giving to people – that we have to burn off all the calories we eat?? Very triggering for those with eating disorders in particular.”
While another wrote: “It’s taken nearly 10 years to convince myself that it’s okay to eat food and to not punish myself with exercise after eating said food. TV shows like @BBTwo’s The Restaurant That Burns Off Calories is so out of touch and insensitive.”
While former Great British Bake Off star Ruby Tandoh got into a war of words with show host Fred online.
The 27-year-old tweeted: “as many have pointed out, this is an appalling show premise at the best of times, let alone right now.
"People struggle SO much with their relationships with food - this will only worsen that anxiety. reducing food to calories is unhelpful, joyless and leans into disordered eating.”
This provoked a reply from Fred who hit back: “Thank you so so so much for using your platform and bringing attention to this really good #horizon scientific special… I think you will enjoy it. Ps can’t wait to get your apology tweet later on.”
An incredulous Ruby replied in a serious of tweets, concluding: “the fact remains that this is a show that performs bulimia, if only for the sake of an experiment. people with EDs shouldn't watch it.”
