Sizzling in summer

One of the great pleasures of summer in Greece is being able to use the barbecue regularly, especially if friends come round to share a meal, talking and drinking until late in the warm night air. All types of meat, marinated in lemon juice and olive oil together with fresh herbs picked from the garden, taste wonderful cooked over charcoal, as does fish, bought the same day from the sellers at the front. Aubergines and peppers are beautiful too, grilled and sprinkled with salt, vinegar and oil.

But what is this? A study has found that this is really shocking behaviour.

Beer, ice-cream, crisps, Indian takeaways, chips and anything in batter: normally, it's a particular food type that gets blamed for helping the British to pile on the pounds. But now a whole style of cooking and eating has come under fire for encouraging obesity in the UK.

Research shows that Britons consume more than the recommended daily intake of calories in a single barbecue meal, with men often eating more than 3,500 calories and women more than 2,500.

Oh no! Douse those coals immediately or at least follow the report's advice. Replace those sausages with a "tofu kebab or mixed green salad with harissa dressing" or at the very least "exercise portion control".

So who carried out this research, which University or research establishment was involved? Er ... the study was "conducted by Boots and the Tony Ferguson Weightloss Programme" who just happen to have a new range of expensive diet products to sell to the guilt-ridden.

There was one consolation at the end of the piece,

However, the Boots research indicates that any advice on sensible alfresco eating habits is likely to be ignored: it found that although a third of those questioned (2,000 adults) were aware they eat more food than usual, 41% chose to forget how many calories they were consuming and ate as much as they wanted.

Bravo for the 41%! Anyway, I always exercise portion control at my barbecues, the portions are vast.