In the third episode of Angela Scanlon - Full Frontal, Angela explores the world of fitness and diet. 'We are more conscious of health issues than ever before and yet we are also more prone to new forms of illness,' says Angela. She samples some of the latest dieting fads, including the Paleo diet, in which we confine ourselves to the foods that our cavemen - and cavewomen - ancestors might have eaten.
Our preoccupation with food has been accompanied with a rapid growth in the popularity of new fitness regimes. Many different hardcore gyms have sprung up in Ireland in recent years. There seems to be an addictive element to some forms of exercise that extends beyond the gym, and Angela meets several fitness enthusiasts for whom exercise has become a whole way of life. And perhaps there are some more basic reasons why people want to get fit: 'Everyone wants to look good naked', Angela is told by one personal trainer, 'and the truth is that feeling fit and ripped will also make you feel more horny.'
Angela also encounters the new wave of female body building, where the emphasis is on shape and tone rather than bulk. She is given individual tuition by one of the world's leading bikini models - Nathalia Melo - and learns how to strut her stuff on the stage. Bikini modelling is one of the fastest growing forms of fitness for young Irish women, and Nathalia - who comes from Brazil, but now lives in Belfast, is something of a legend in body building circles. She won the 2012 'Bikini Olympics' which is considered to be the top event in this sport. Angela also embarks on the road "to hell and back" by taking part in a gruelling endurance race in Wicklow that includes ice baths, mud swamps, and electric shocks, not to mention Angela becoming the human target in Sniper's Alley. At a time when Ireland can sometimes seem to have become polarised between those who are struggling with weight issues, and those who are single-minded in their pursuit of physical perfection, Angela w
