Has Nigella bitten off more than she can chew?

Nigella Lawson - the seductive chef who turns baking a cake into an altogether suggestive affair - has hit the headlines this week following her new show and the high calorie contents of the desserts featured. 

Many people (the Daily Mail included, naturally) have jumped on the bandwagon to criticise the once curvacious-but-now-not-so-much cook for her calorie laden recipes, branding her as trying to make the nation fat.

But can we really blame Nigella for our waistline woes?

True, one of her new recipes on this week's programme featured a cheesecake which contained a whopping 7,000 calories (but then again, it is almost made of 100% fat) and another saw Nigella sandwich ice cream in brioche. 

However, I fail to understand just why there has been such a negative response - after all, isn't indulgence and 'a little bit of what you fancy' the brand that Nigella has always promoted? With her recent weight loss aside, Nigella has been one of very few chefs who truly eats what she cooks, therefore winning female fans for her honesty and male fans for her evocative use of food.

A little escapism is what this nation needs, particularly when we are constantly being told what we can't eat because of any number of reasons. As long as you don't indulge in her recipes every day, I say find another bandwagon to jump on.

After all, if it's good enough for Nigella...