Comic diet carries health warning

Maw Broon suggests washing down breakfast with lager

A cookbook featuring Maw Broon's favourite dishes has been criticised by health experts.

The collection includes recipes for the fried, fatty and sugary foods which have sustained the comic strip family for 70 years.

It has reached number two in the Scottish best-seller list, outselling books by celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson.

Nutritionists have warned that the Broons' diet could lead to obesity.

Maw's breakfast recipe includes fried eggs, scones, potato bread, lorne sausage and black pudding.

Taken as they are, all these things like fried and sugar-laden food, are very bad food and there's no way I could recommend them Carina Norris Nutritionist

She recommends it is followed by a cup of tea with three sugars or a can of lager.

Another recipe is Maw's bacon-and-egg pie which includes half a pound of bacon, three eggs and almost a pound and a half of cheese.

Other selections include traditional Scottish favourites like clootie dumpling, tablet and macaroon bars.

Nutritionist Carina Norris told BBC Scotland: "Taken as they are, all these things like fried and sugar-laden food, are very bad food and there's no way I could recommend them as a nutritionist.

"Clootie dumpling is high in sugar and although it's natural sugar, it really bumps up the calorie count and there's a lot of fat in there as well, so if you eat that very often, you could well end up being obese.

"If you eat stovies too often, it's part of this stodgy, stereotypical old-fashioned Scottish diet, which is fine in moderation, but if it's part of a regular diet as is promoted in the book, that could be a bad move."

Unhealthy diet

Ms Norris suggested using olive oil instead of beef dripping to make healthier stovies, but added that the book should not be taken too seriously.

She said: "I think if someone followed the recipes in this book, solely, it would be a very unhealthy diet, but I don't think that's what this book's about.

"I think it's more a bit of fun and will end up being given as a gift book, maybe as a bit of a joke to people who their friends think their diet needs to be smartened up a bit."

Maw Broon's Cookbook, published by Waverley Books, is described as a collection of recipes first made for her by her mother-in-law when Maw married Paw.

It has been added to over the years with recipes for every day and special days, from friends and neighbours, and others that simply caught Maw's eye.