Food Detectives (2016)

Episode 5 (1x5)

Air date: May 13, 2016

Can chillies help us lose weight? Prof Alice Roberts carries out an experiment to test the claim. In a sealed chamber, a volunteer eats a meal containing chilli and one without. Over the course of nine hours, their metabolic rate is carefully monitored to reveal if eating chilli really can help us burn calories. Chef Tom Kerridge travels to Dunoon on the west coast of Scotland to help a viewer with another kitchen fail. This time, it is how to cook the perfect steak. Also, if your gravy always ends up lumpy, don't despair. Tom shares his tips and tricks for silky smooth gravy every time. Nutritional labels on food packaging are designed to help us make healthy choices at a glance. But as our consumer journalist Sean Fletcher has found, they can be confusing. Sean investigates why a system intended to help us choose healthy food is often doing exactly the opposite.