Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on why his wife wouldn't tell him that he was getting fat
If anyone can be forgiven for looking a bit squidgy, it is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. The River Cottage chef turned activist documentary maker is, after all, famous for food and farming, not fitness.
But when a doctor measured his waist last year and informed him that he was overweight, he was devastated – and vowed to start being more careful. “I love Crunchie bars and Toffee Crisps and I can be a bit greedy. I knew I was a few pounds over my fighting weight but I didn’t expect to be a statistic,” he says. “I was told I was at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, which was a huge wake-up call.”
Food has started to do us more harm than good
That was in March 2017; when I meet him at Clerkenwell’s hipster haven, Modern Pantry, this week he is slimmer and fitter than he has been for years. He has lost nearly a stone - and his double chin. “I still eat the odd chocolate bar,” he concedes. “I’m not going to deny myself completely but I have started to ration them.”
Hugh’s next campaign – as you might already have guessed – is a war on waistlines. His new four part series, Britain’s Fat Fight begins on BBC One tonight, and examines Britain’s obesity crisis. It remains the worst in Western Europe, and one in three primary school children is obese by the time they move to secondary school, a trend that will see half of Britain obese by 2050.
“Food has started to do us more harm than good,” Hugh sighs. “We’re spending more on the obesity crisis than on the police, fire service and judicial service combined. We have to find solutions.”
It’s not that human beings have got greedier, he says, setting off a rant that lasts the next half hour, but that our food culture has radically changed. What used to be considered an occasional treat when he was younger – a Breakaway bar in a lunchbox, a fizzy drink, a takeaway – have become everyday fare in 2018.
The number of takeaway shops in England has risen by 4,000 since 2014, according to Cambridge University’s Centre for Diet and Activity Research, and confectionery ranges swell each year. “They are now available as yoghurts and cereals, too,” Hugh says. “Overweight has become average and overeating has become so normal that nearly half of overweight men don’t even realise.”
His wife and children – Chloe, 21, Oscar, 18, Freddy, 14 and Louisa, seven – were too polite to say anything about his expanding waistline. The word ‘fat’ is taboo in Britain, and families are reluctant to talk about it, he says: “it’s easier to address in a medical context, which is why I think there should be routine weighing at all GP surgeries,” he says.
“If they’ve got the figures in front of them it is easy to start the conversation.” In practices where this has taken place, it has led to more referrals to weight loss support schemes, and better outcomes.
It’s about time then, he rails, that the corporations selling us junk food take some responsibility. This is the main thrust of episode one, which sees Fearnley-Whittingstall pitching up at the headquarters of Nestlé dressed as a traffic light to petition them to add traffic light labels to sugary cereals – a battle he wins.
He also sets up a vegetable stall in a deprived part of Newcastle where it is easier to buy takeaways than fresh fruit, and meets an obese bus driver who opens his fridge to reveal salad drawers overflowing with sweets. “Global corporations are competing to control our appetites and they do so by clever marketing and adverts on TV and gaming sites,” he says.
The sweets and chocolate at WH Smith’s check outs, designed to tempt customers as they pay, are a particular gripe of his. When he discovers that the company is selling 900 chocolate bars every 45 seconds, he sets up a shop called WH Sugar outside the branch in Slough in protest, featuring a wall of 900 chocolate bars. “We’re hoping that social media comments from viewers will help focus their minds,” he says.
Fast food chains and restaurants are no better, he continues, cynically designing foods to be “hyper palatable”, to make us eat them quickly and want more of them. “They make burgers that take 43 seconds to eat and leave you wanting another one; and four-bite muffins that look substantial but dissolves in the mouth. They serve food with sauce to make it slip down more quickly,” he says. “It’s an arms race to keep control of our attention, our spend, and ultimately our appetite.”
And it’s working. Now, more than 50 per cent of what we eat is “ultra processed” - produced in a factory with industrial ingredients and additives. These foods are quick and cheap but they’re more calorific and less nutritious than freshly cooked alternatives, with added sugar, salt and fat. “Drinks, cakes, ready made meals, breakfast cereals are all highly manufactured,” Hugh explains. “They’re also filled with sugar.”
The government is already taking steps to target childhood obesity through its Change4Life campaign, encouraging parents to choose 100-calorie snacks to cut children’s sugar intake. Earlier this week the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health called for fast food outlets to be banned from opening within 400 metres schools.
Politicians, schools, restaurants and confectionary companies can all be doing more to reduce the 200 extra calories per day an average adult consumes, Hugh continues. He’s already removed between 15 and 20 per cent of sugar out of the children’s menu at his River Cottage restaurants and during the series shames TGI Friday’s and Pizza Hut into removing unlimited fizzy drinks from theirs.
Next he’d like to see a ban on advertising junk food before 9pm. “A study by Cancer Research UK shows that the more junk food advertising our kids are exposed to, the more calories they will consume,” he says. “Unless the government does something about it or the sense of responsibility on the part of the big companies takes a shift.” He’s doing his bit by launching a marketing campaign for vegetables to counteract junk food ads.
Does this mean we’ll soon be seeing cabbage getting as much airtime as cake? “There needs to be TV ads that make carrots look cool,” he nods.
What hope is there for those who are already overweight? Obesity is the second most common cause of premature death after smoking. It’s about making new habits, he opines - he lost weight by simply cutting back on his beloved chocolate bars and reducing portion size.
“It’s effective and doesn’t feel like you’re on a diet,” he says. “Bread and pasta contain energy but they don’t deliver a lot of fibre or vitamins. If you don’t need calories these should be the first foods to go.” His love of puddings hasn’t been ditched entirely, though: “You can reduce the sugar by 20 per cent in a classic Victoria sponge without anyone throwing up their hands in disgust.”
He’s also taken up running, and now regularly does 5k around the Devon lanes at the weekend. He admits he’s fallen off the wagon a couple of times, stopping the refreshments trolley on the train after a long day filming, but now abstains from the packet of crisps that used to accompany it.
“If we all make a few small changes,” he says, “we can shift Britain’s food culture on its axis.”
Britain’s Fat Fight with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall begins Wednesday 25 April on BBC One at 9pm
