This is the emotional moment a woman broke down in tears after she was confronted with her £300-a-week takeaway habit during the latest episode of Channel 4’s Michael Mosley: Secrets of Your Big Shop.
Lydia and Liam Rooney, both 32, from Milton Keynes, said they ‘pride’ themselves on making ‘healthy’ choices for their four children and prefer ‘fresh’ over frozen meals.
However, after the couple complained of unexplained weight gain and bloating, presenter Dr Michael Mosley went undercover as a Deliveroo driver to present them with the reality of their eating habits.
After hearing the doorbell ring, Liam rushed to the entrance expecting to receive the family’s daily delivery – only for his excited grin to evaporate as soon as it arrived.
In came Michael with one week’s worth of takeaway, along with a twist: his huge Deliveroo bag was the amount normally consumed by just one Rooney.
He asked the couple: ‘Do you know how much you spend per week on takeaways?’
While Liam tried to downplay it, his wife responded: ‘I only saw it once, this was ages ago. I think it was about £300.
The host retorted: ‘You’ve spent £15,000 a year on takeaway’.
Lydia – who grabbed her face in immediate shock – couldn’t believe her ears after being confronted with the exorbitant amount.
‘I’m shocked,’ Liam added.
The health presenter then drew the couple’s attention to his oversized delivery bag, which contained Domino’s pizza, Nando’s and multiple packs of Maltesers.
The pair – who are currently staying with Liam’s mum to save up money for a deposit on a property – became visibly emotional after conceding the money could have gone to better use.
Lydia recounted how the couple had been living there for three years in order to build up the deposit, adding: ‘I’m upset. I think it’s really irresponsible as parents really.’
She then fought back tears while reflecting on the family’s current situation.
Liam added: ‘If we hadn’t been spending 15 grand a year we could’ve got our deposit and the kids would’ve had their own space.
‘It’s a bit upsetting. We could’ve been a bit more mature and responsible.’
Adamant to show the Rooneys the error of their ways, Michael embarked on a project to calculate the unhealthy amounts of food they were consuming.
He said his tailored advice would change their lives and ‘improve their waistlines, high blood pressure, and low moods’.
To drive home his point he displayed a week’s worth of takeaways on a dining room table for the couple to see.
The visual prompted Liam to remark: ‘I’m horrified. I’m embarrassed’.
The host talked them through the trays of Oreos, pizza, sweets and sugared drinks that lay before them.
He explained: ‘This is full of fat and sugar… you talked about low mood, anxiety and depression. This is what is driving that.
Speaking to viewers, he added: ‘They should be consuming 31,500 calories a week between them.
‘But on top of their weekly shop, they’re eating another 33,000 calories a week from takeaways. Which is astonishing.’
On top of that, he said the pair were currently consuming three times the daily recommended amount of salt, four times the amount of saturated fat and a staggering 10 times the amount of sugar.
While NHS recommends just 30g of sugar a day, the Rooneys were consuming a whopping almost 300g each.
He suggested the couple cut out the takeaways and stick to a standard shop of fruits, vegetables and protein to avoid entering the hypertensive ‘red zone’.
It comes as a couple who claimed they ate a ‘healthy’ diet were caught in a lie in last week’s episode.
The shocking double life of Dan and Natalie Sharp, from Birmingham, was exposed when the pair were shown to be purchasing junk food items like pizza and Cadbury’s mini rolls during their mid-week Asda supermarket shop – despite insisting they ate mainly ‘veggies’ and ‘protein’.
To uncover the truth, Michael doubled as a secret Asda cashier and even used cameras to spy on the crafty duo when they went grocery shopping.
Natalie, a stay-at-home mother, and Dan, a teacher – both parents to a brood of five – enlisted the health journalist to investigate the cause of their IBS symptoms and ‘monster farts’.
Shedding light on their diet, Natalie explained: ‘I think our shopping trolley is generally healthy.
‘I love lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, anything I can make a healthy salad with or pop in a sandwich’.
Backing up his wife, Dan added: ‘If you go into our fridge now, there’s strawberries, there’s grapes, there’s apples, there’s pears.
‘We tend to eat rice, potatoes as well. And pasta’. The couple also said they enjoyed a thriving array of proteins including beef and chicken.
But despite their lean cuisine, the pair struggled to understand why they were suffering from various health issues.
Namely Dan said he’d grown fed up of his rotund belly and ‘monster farts’ – which his doting family have affectionately nicknamed ‘Beef Bomb’.
He said: ‘My bloating can be quite severe… it’s not just the visual. It comes along with a smell and bad wind. AKA in this household “beef bomb”.’
What’s more, Natalie’s IBS symptoms were leaving her constipated for days at a a time.
After a consultation at their home, Michael candidly commented that ‘something wasn’t right’ about their claims.
To prove his point, he tape measured their waists and the results suggested it was time to shed a little weight.
His solution was to put them both to the task and find out exactly what they were really eating.
To do this, the sneaky presenter went deep undercover at the couple’s local Asda supermarket and planned to accost them at the till at their next weekly shop.
The couple, with their kids in tow and unbeknownst to the filmed spectacle, popped into the store and filled up their trolley with pizza, chocolate digestive biscuits, bourbons, bagels and Cadbury mini rolls.
In facts viewers spotted barley any vegetables in sight.
Dan was first to sight Michael at the till and immediately knew the duo had been busted.
He yelled out ‘oh s**t’ while his wife conceded: ‘we’re in trouble here’.
While Michael scanned their one box of strawberries and single packet of greens, Dan exclaimed that the family were only human and were entitled to their ‘little naughty nights’.
Back at home Michael said it was time for the Sharps to hear a ‘dose of cold hard truth’ – starting with their extreme sugar intake.
He discovered that the family were consuming a staggering six kilograms of sugar a week, while the NHS recommends a maximum of one kilogram for a family of seven.
He also demanded they swap their processed food with green vegetables like kale, as well as add more protein to their diet.
For Natalie, he suggested she cut down her carbohydrate and wheat intake, promising her it would be the gateway to a happier and healthier lifestyle.
Before the end of the show, viewers saw the results of the new experiment.
Natalie reported a loss of three inches off of her waist, while Dan said he’d lost all fear of breaking wind in public as it would no longer ‘put a skunk to shame’.
He also said of his revitalised wife: ‘She’s got more energy, more bounce and she’s sexier.’
James Parker is a UK-based entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to the West End, he offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
