I'm often asked what my favorite food TV show is. Although it's not strictly a "food" show, I'd have to say it's NBC's "The Biggest Loser" reality series.

It's inspiring to watch real-life people lose weight by working out and eating right. In fact, my sister-in-law, Janna Phillips, credits the show for helping her lose 50 pounds.

Although it's a two-hour show, I usually tape it to watch after my aerobics class on Tuesday nights. It only takes about 40 minutes when you fast-forward through the commercials, recaps and "infomercials" of contestants eating at Subway or whipping up fat-free Jell-O.

Despite the blatant product placements, I thought this season's segments with Rocco DiSpirito gave some good healthful cooking tips. (I guess he did them between his turn on "Dancing With the Stars.")

But some viewers are dismayed that producers kicked up the drama level this season with trash-talking, yelling and even threats of bodily harm. Many online fan posts blame contestant Vicky Vilcan for the conflicts. Due to deadlines, I'm writing this before Tuesday night's episode and don't know whether or not Vilcan made it to the final three. Apparently, a fan vote decides the last finalist, and if Vicky is one of these, I'm betting she'll get booted.

Vilcan claims on her MySpace blog that the show was edited to make her a villain. Were other people's bad behavior deliberately left out? I don't know. But it would be hard to edit-in behavior that never happened.

The controversy has sparked comments from unhappy fans, including my sister-in-law, who has watched every season. She noted that while contestants have always strategized to win, they generally seemed supportive of each other.

Inspired by their success, Janna joined The Biggest Loser Club online in March. Now 50 pounds lighter, she follows her team's challenge to keep moving while watching the entire show: stepping in place, strength work and so on.

"I was so excited for this season to begin but have been so disappointed at the mean-spirited people they have chosen, especially Vicky, who has such hateful thoughts and actions toward many of the other contestants." she said.

She hopes that NBC will heed her plea: "Give us back the show that inspired us. Give us back the show that made us believe we can do this. Give us back the show that gave me hope."

In my opinion, the trainers have added to the discord, with more in-your-face attitude and bleeped-out language. They are paid professionals; they should try harder to act like it. Jillian Michaels is always screaming that she doesn't care if the contestants' arms fall off or if they puke or die, as the contestants sob or collapse on the gym floor.