While I usually try to avoid any kind of entertainment involving d-z list "celebrities" generally moaning about how no one wants to pay them anymore, I have watched several of the Channel 4 Celebrity Come Dine With Me shows without feeling the need to hastily switch to another channel (although the WAGS episode was a close call). However the most recent episode featuring Debbie Mcgee, Jodie Marsh, Iain Lee and Lembit Opik made me want to hurl my dinner at the screen.
It was a rare show in which there was an even split of vegetarian contestants and meat eaters, this of course was a hot topic at their dinner tables, and it was at this point that meat eater Debbie Mcgee decided to share her wealth of wisdom on the topic of vegetarianism. Debbie, who had earlier ranted about how girls who don't seem to have any career or skill manage to become famous for doing nothing... (who can tell me what Debbie Mcgee does nowadays... anyone?) declared to Jodie and Iain (the two vegetarians) that they would both become ill in old age as they were both missing out on the vitamin b's which you can ONLY get by eating meat.
Comedian Iain Lee's response was amusingly something along the lines of "So every single elderly vegetarian is ill right now?" And the traditionally sarcastic Come Dine With Me voiceover man pointed out that the Vitamin B's are also found in dairy and eggs. (So according to Channel 4 only elderly Vegan's will fall ill!) I don't know who I was angrier at, Debbie Mcgee for being so insanely and arrogantly misinformed, or the Come Dine With Me "researchers" for failing to research the Vitamin B's well enough to inform it's viewers that there are countless other sources which don't involve eating something that used to be, or came from, an animal.
The Vitamin B's are readily found in a large amount of plant based foods including beans, wholegrains, bananas, potatoes and marmite! The only vitamin that is exclusive to meat based products is Vitamin B12, but this can also widely be found in foodstuffs such as breakfast cereals, marmite (again!), vitamin fortified non-dairy milk, and countless vitamin supplements. Debbie Mcgee and the Channel 4 researchers needed only look at the ingredients of their Shreddies to see that it contains nearly half of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin B12 in one serving. Failing that, they could have done what every normal person does to research something... ...Google it!!
Fantastic blog!
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