Britain’s Fat Fight with Hugh Fearnleywhittingstall
BBC ONE, 9.00PM; SCOTLAND, 10.45PM
The UK has the worst eating habits in Europe, says veteran food campaigner Hugh Fearnley-whittingstall, and the fallout is crippling the NHS. In the Fifties, just two per cent of the population was overweight, compared to the 20 per cent of us tipping the obesity scales currently. What we have to do, says Fearnleywhittingstall, is not just diet and exercise, but fight back against the tide of high-calorie processed food being pushed at us from every direction.
He begins this engrossing series by inviting children to do a supermarket shop without their parents. The results are striking, demonstrating the influence of advertising and how poor eating choices take root from an early age. There are many other striking moments in a show bursting with information, revelation and naming and shaming. He shows how the changing face of our high streets has limited food choices, and his campaign to get 10,000 people in Newcastle to shed a communal 100,000lbs is inspired. But his drive to get WH Smith to stop, as he says, “pushing” chocolate from its tills will perhaps be what resonates most with viewers. Gerard O’donovan Rick and Marty aren’t the only ones who think that there’s a chance that it could still be there.