I don't get this bake-off thing

My point is that although I don't think for one moment GBBO is contributing to the obesity crisis, it's a bit rich for the Beeb and other channels to lecture us on healthy eating and show documentaries about the dangers of eating too much sugar and then have three programmes about making and eating sugar laden products in one week.....Not to mention the repeats!!

And not all home bakers have Mary Berry's self control.

And don't forget Mr. Kipling et al.

Yes. It's ridiculous.

No principles at all.

And, while I'm on the subject - GNHQ..... Well, least said about them the better!

On the basis of the original post there are many programmes that shouldn't be aired. Crime series might encourage a crime wave etc. etc.

Nonsense! We don't get documentaries telling us not to murder somebody just before the beginning a new crime series.

And I don't recall the papers being full of a murdering epidemic.

The obese people I see in the supermarket seem to be filling their trolleys with crisps, biscuits, chocolates, fizzy drinks, alcohol and "shop bought" cakes. They don't seem to be buying any ingredients for baking at home!

You obviously shop in the same supermarket I do Deedaa

Oh come on, it's not about encouraging people to eat cakes etc, it's just about skill and by heck there is a lot of skill goes into this. I find that really fascinating.

Me too Nelliemoser

If the programme doesn't make the audience crave cake, then I question how much skill is actually being dislayed.

jings that's nonsense! Of course someone can be impressed by skill displayed without craving to eat what is being prepared.

I can be very impressed by a sushi chef's skill in preparing octopus but it won't make me crave to eat it (because I am not a lover of eating raw octopus).

If a TV programme can make me crave what I'm watching, I must seek out those veggie recipes and look forward to improving my diet!

Love the way you dismiss centuries of skill building on skill with regard to baking jing as cheap television. Any food taken in excess as I know to my cost is fattening, but the skill involved and the knowledge it imparts cannot be so dismissed.

We need to improve the cooking and baking skills of the younger generation so that they don't buy so much junk and pre-prepared food, so I hope all these cookery programmes will help to do that.

Cooking yes, not sure about baking. I can cook but my baking skills are rudimentary. So we rarely have cake. After all the main ingredients are typically fat and sugar.

Not necessarily Aka (but I will concede that they are mostly).

Going to try making a courgette cake tomorrow, it does have sugar in it but the fat is a healthy oil.
Fatless sponges? Bread, savoury biscuits and scones?
Applesauce cake, carrot cake, beetroot chocolate cake, banana and walnut cake, mmm getting hungry now

All this talk about unhealthy fat. Fat is necessary to digest vitamins. I thought they used butter on GBBO, butter is good for you and makes very good cakes. All that stuff about margarine being healthier was a trick to get people to buy it but it is good to have it for people who are lactose intolerant.
I'm not watching this series because most decorated cakes are finished off 24 hours later and Mrs Berry knows this! it was Delia hwo showed people how to bake but she's old fashioned now. You don't neede a huge expensive machine to make pastry either. In planning these shows they first think of an ingredient which everybody will want to buy and then a machine and get a cut off the profits.
And then all those food junkies watch it. It is waste of BBC licence money, but then most cookery shows are.

MargaretXPeople do not have to go out and buy the ingredients or the machines. I love GBBO but have never done so. In my opinion all the money spent on programmes to do with football, cars and sci-fi is a waste but each to their own.

I've never watched it. I'm not particularly keen on cakes - all fat and flour and sugar, empty calories and no food value at all. Posh junk food in fact.