Reality TV: Fergie advises poor family on healthy eating, weight loss

[StressLess]

Sarah Ferguson stars in a new reality show, tentatively titled The Duchess of Hull, helping a low income family to lose weight. The former Weight Watchers spokesperson has spent six months working with a low-income family who lives in a council estate. (Sounds so much better than "public housing", doesn't it?)

"In an interview with the Radio Times, she said: "I could live in a council house and below the benefit line, of course. Anyone could."

"But I wouldn't smoke and I'd make it nice inside and eat green vegetables because I was brought up on a farm."

"My daughters (Beatrice and Eugenie) might try fast food.


"If, when they were young, I had $5 (£2.50) left at the end of the day and they were crying and I wanted them to sleep, I'd probably have put fast food into them – if it was the only thing I knew.


"The problem is how do we get mothers to spend the $5 on fruit and vegetables and not fast food?"

Wow, I would love to see this show over here in the U.S.--and not an Americanized version, either.

The Duchess of Hull: Fergie moves into a council estate in a new reality TV show | the Daily Mail

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I enjoy a UK board that has a huge section on money saving & frugal living. I see the same issues come up there as on these boards. Sometimes it astonishes me to see what basic living skills --like how to feed oneself-- have been lost over the last couple generations. I see it on both boards. But of course, the good thing is when people recognize their deficiency and do something about it.

The Fergie thing sounds as if it could be a bit exploitative. But who knows, if it really does offer some info to people who will watch and learn, then great!

I'd like to know how UK food assistance programs work. Here in the USA, "foodstamps" money cannot be spent at fast food places. I'm pretty sure it cannot even be used to buy hot food from the deli of a grocery store. The point is to make the food money stretch further than buying hot food would allow. On the other hand foodstamps do allow for the purchase of all kinds of pre-cooked, but not hot foods, such as packaged potato chips, 11 ounces of cold breakfast cereal for $5, cooked hermetically sealed bacon strips, cakes, etc.

Didn't there used to be a show on USAmerican television called "The Frugal Gourmet?" What was it like? Was there really an emphasis on frugality?