Man V. Food is amazing television; sadly, I've only just been introduced to it. The programme consists of actor Adam Richman visiting America's 'pig out joints' and attempting their various food 'challenges': burgers the size of tyres, barn-sized barbecues, and chillies so hot the challenger is left looking like they've traversed the Sahara.
It is pure excess. America on a plate. The size of this food is unbelievable, and Adam is a genius of the gut - I've seen him fail only one challenge.
This is amazing - not just because of the sheer size of the smorgasbords served up - but because of the huge crowds that always encircle Adam, cheering his name, shouting and whooping off calories as he piles them on. To be fair, Adam does whip them up into a frenzy, and "rides the wave of their energy" when he's struggling.
Let's face it: we all overindulge once in a while, and when I've had a bit too much curry and a few too many beers, and I'm about to slip into a food coma, the very last thing I would want is a room full of excited Americans behind me.
Vegetarians should look away now: there is more meat and blood on show than in the entire, terrible 'Saw' film franchise. It's possible to have a heart attack just watching Man V. Food.
One of the main things I've noticed since returning from travelling, when my girlfriend Shannon and I went on an eight-month adventure around Europe and Morocco in a VW campervan, was just how much food we have at my family home.
I lost weight whilst away - not because I ate poorly, but because food was not as readily available in the large quantities it is at home.
And when you've experienced non-Western cultures, in any capacity, where food may be scarce, or even if you haven't experienced non-Western cultures and simply have a super-strict food budget, it becomes difficult to enjoy a programme in which a man stuffs his fucking face.
Having said that, Adam is an entertaining presenter and it's sometimes hard not to laugh at the ridiculous scale of the food and the enjoyment the Americans take in it - they are being ironic, right?
But it is really difficult to reconcile having a chuckle at the show with the knowledge that so many people struggle to feed themselves properly, especially when low rainfall, rising food prices, poor harvests and a lack of pasture mean millions are at risk of severe food shortages in West Africa in 2012.
In fact, in a lecture broadcast on BBC One last night, leading geneticist and Nobel laureate Sir Paul Nurse highlighted food security as a problem as pressing as climate change and the current economic situation.
He described how the Green Revolution increased agricultural production in the 1960s and is credited with saving the lives of 1 billion people worldwide, and how science will help us tackle the challenges ahead.
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