Inner beauty is easier to maintain

Nelson Mail TV reviewer Victoria Guild looks at two shows that focus on the inside to keep us looking good.

In your 20s, it's easy to overindulge. In fact, it's almost compulsory.

Friday nights on TV One seem to be hell-bent on improving the nation.

There was a brief respite with a bit of comedy over winter, but after months of Gok Wan telling us how to look good naked and Trinny and Susannah telling us how to look good dressed, the programmers have decided it's time to tackle our health.

To kick-start our metabolisms, we can learn about how to have our cake and eat it too in Cook Yourself Thin. It sounds a bit like a Tui billboard to me.

But these cooks, Harry, Gizzi, Sal and Sophie – clearly chosen for their fabulous recipes despite their glamorous good looks – can cut the calories of some of your favourite dishes in half.

Creamy risotto without the butter and parmesan cheese – how? Add a little creme fraiche, and only your waist will know the difference. Chocolate cake with more chocolate than you can poke a stick at? Stick some grated beetroot in and you're getting your veges at the same time. Brilliant.

The good thing about this show is that it admits right from the start that diets don't always work and that by depriving yourself of the foods you love, you're doomed to failure. It also puts several "diet" products to the test, if only for a short time, and the findings can be surprising. Some don't work as well as the placebo effect, but some do.

The ultimate aim is to drop a dress size for whoever the poor guinea pig happens to be. But it always pays to read the fine print.

A quick disclaimer at the end states that they were put on a balanced diet and exercise programme during the test period. Hmm – that could make any chocolate cake look good.

Continuing with the "beauty on the inside" theme, Who'll Age Worst? takes two fast food-munching, binge-drinking, chain-smoking, sun-loving British twenty-somethings and subjects their lifestyles to the scrutiny of a team of age prevention experts, who give them a peek at what they'll look like in 20 years.

Let's face it – in your 20s, it's easy to overindulge. In fact, it's almost compulsory that we'll drink too much, eat too much fast food and (some of us) smoke too many cigarettes or take too many drugs.

We know we can't do it forever, and we know it's going to take its toll on our looks and health, but 40 seems so far away, so until the hangovers get really bad, we keep on doing it.

Sometimes a wakeup call is needed before an attitude change can happen. It might be the arrival of children or a minor health scare, or simply boredom, but often by that stage, the damage is already done. Who'll Age Worst? hopes to give some people that wakeup call before it's too late.

My favourites so far have been bachelor boys Mikey and Pete, who are such good mates they finish each other's sentences. They pride themselves on looking good – Pete, as a model, takes care of his skin with a regular moisturising and exfoliating regime – and they also enjoy the odd night out.

Actually, they enjoy every night out, smoke at least 40 cigarettes a day and drink over 40 units of alcohol on a Saturday night alone. Couple that with sunbed sessions every week and a diet that leaves both of them with difficulty identifying a vegetable and ... well, you can see where this is heading.

Their skin was put under the microscope, their nutritional and lifestyle damage was calculated, and a dentist checked out their pearly whites. Once the health check was over, Mikey and Pete were given a taster of how their faces and bodies will look 20 years from now. Mikey is at a bit of a disadvantage on the outside, because his fairer skin is likely to feel the effects of the sunbed more. But despite Pete's Mediterranean genes, he doesn't get away scot-free, as he has a family history of heart disease.

These likely lads appeared to take the whole thing with a pinch of salt, until they saw the computer-generated images of themselves in 20 years' time. The denial was up front, but just under the surface lurked a couple of frightened boys.

It has to be said, they didn't look good – but it's hard to imagine they would look as bad as the images suggest. Mikey straight away discounted the extra weight, until his father told him it had crept up on him before he really noticed.

So the sunbed sessions were cut down as Mikey got the fake tan out, the cigarettes were drastically reduced (although there was a bit of lying about how many), and the alcohol intake was slashed. The boys joined a gym and ventured into unchartered territory – a supermarket. The cooking didn't last long, as an obliging girlfriend took over while the boys set the (pool) table.

The revised lifestyle entitled them to a revised makeover, but apart from a little bit less weight around Mikey's middle, I couldn't see a lot of difference in the final images.

The boys admitted they thought their new regime would be dull and boring, but a change is as good as a holiday, and they were finding it wasn't so bad.

Give them a couple of months, though, and I'm betting they'll be back out on the large. After all, 40 is a long way away.

ONE TO WATCH: Donald Trump has the highest-rating show in the United States with The Apprentice. At least, that's what he told us in the latest series, which wraps up at 7.30pm on Tuesday night on TV2. Will James, Nicole, Stephanie or Frank be the latest to join Trump's stable?

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