Hugh declares war on fatties with a mouthful of a show

ver on BBC1 last night Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall was struggling to come up with a catchy title for his new obesity campaign.

That surprised me. I mean, given his recent success with Hugh’s War On Waste surely he should have just called this one Hugh’s War On Waist?

In the end he went for Britain’s fatties – and given that two out of three of us are now obese I doubt if Hugh would last all of 10 seconds in the ring.

Unfortunately, he faces an even bigger struggle in his bid to win the mental battle.

One afternoon spent trying to sell fresh fruit and veg at wholesale prices to residents in Newcastle told Hugh all he needed to know – preparing fresh food is seen as too much trouble, especially as takeaways are so cheap.

The most shocking part of last night’s first episode though was when Hugh let a group of seven-year-olds play Supermarket Sweep.

The kids spent 20 minutes going wild in the aisles and you’ll never guess what their trolleys looked like by the end. There was no fruit. And no veg either. Instead they had amassed an Ocado van’s worth of fizzy drinks, salty snacks, sugary cereals and chocolate bars.

Still, at least none of the mini shoppers asked Hugh if a Terry’s Chocolate Orange counted as one of their five-a-day. Now that would have really rubbed it in.