binge britain: diet doctors specials (2/6)

Over 60 per cent of people in the UK are either overweight or obese, with many of us binge eating ourselves into early graves. In this series, six super-fit athletes have volunteered to become human lab rats for two weeks in order to illustrate what effect the nation’s favourite food is having on our bodies. This episode sees ex-Olympic swimmer Karen Pickering eat eight chocolate bars a day, whilst reducing her exercise regime to the national average.

Karen Pickering is a born competitor with a string of honours to her name. In a career that spanned almost 20 years, she was a world champion four times and won a staggering 13 Commonwealth and 13 European Championship medals, as well as acquiring two world records and an MBE.

Karen’s training regime used to involve 20 hours a week of pool practice and four weekly sessions in the gym. As her friend Jamie explains: “Nothing would come between her and her training... She would get in at one o’clock in the morning after clubbing, and get up at five to go training.” Karen confesses that she is always 100 per cent focused on her goals. “I’ve always been incredibly competitive, incredibly determined,” she says. With her body so well trained, she knows exactly what food she needs to eat to keep herself in top shape. And although she may no longer be competing, Karen is still in excellent health. “Karen is probably significantly fitter than your average person in the street,” says her trainer, Dave Champion.

After undergoing an assessment of her vital statistics and getting the all-clear from her GP, Karen is presented with her Diet Doctors challenge in a silver box. Inside, she discovers a mountain of chocolate bars, representing some of Britain’s most popular brands. Her mission is to eat eight bars a day, while restricting her vigorous exercise routine to the national average of only 5,000 steps a day. “You’ve got to be joking!” is Karen’s initial reaction. “Just the thought of putting that inside me is making me feel sick.”

Chocolate is an apt choice for Karen’s diet experiment, as it is one of binge Britain’s most popular indulgences. The nation eats around half a million tonnes every year, making us the fifthlargest consumer of chocolate in the world. Yet one bar can contain over 200 calories and 11 grammes of fat. Karen gets to work on her daunting challenge, but after only four bars she admits that she is already bored of chocolate. “I feel quite sick after I’ve eaten them,” she says. “They just don’t sustain you.”

Side effects of high chocolate consumption can include diarrhoea, bloating, mood swings and stomach cramps, all of which begin to assail Karen as the week progresses. If she were to continue this intake long-term, she would put herself at increased risk of coronary disease and type 2 diabetes.

By the time Karen takes a weekend trip to Palma de Mallorca, halfway through the challenge, she is suffering from vomiting and severe cramps. By day seven, she cannot keep her food down and her skin shows signs of her decline, with a sallow complexion, spots and dark circles under the eyes. “I want to be my normal, fun, happy self again and have some energy,” Karen says.

After consulting with her doctor, on the eighth day Karen abandons the challenge. “There’s no point in making myself more and more ill,” she says. Yet her competitive nature means that she feels like a failure for not completing the task. All that remains is for Karen to undertake a second fitness test to see how her body has coped with this onslaught of chocolate. The staggering findings will give even the most hardened chocoholic pause for thought.