‘I’m fascinated by the power of food to be medicine or poison’ Tess Daly

TESS Daly says she’ll never pay attention to calories. “What’s the point?” says the Strictly Come Dancing host. “Are you going to maintain that forever? I don’t count calories, I don’t want to encourage my daughters to do it,” she says. The BBC presenter has two teenage daughters with husband Vernon Kay and wants to teach them not to “judge themselves too harshly”.

Now 53, she knows first-hand how problematic weight pressures on young women can be. Before her primetime TV career, Daly was a model travelling the globe from age 18.

“I was an awkward and gangly teenager, I’d run down to the beach holding the lilo in front of me, because I felt embarrassed in a swimsuit,” she says. “Then I entered a world where people were not eating food because they were being told their weight might be an issue.

“I’d be around people who were battling whether or not to eat certain things. I was told by agents, ‘You should put weight on’, ‘You should lose weight’ – something different from week to week. And as far as I was concerned, nothing had changed.

“I realised quite early that ... you couldn’t keep everybody happy all the time. So I might as well just keep myself happy.”

That healthy relationship with food stuck – and now Daly has released her first health and cookery book, 4 Steps To A Happier, Healthier You. In it, she shares the affordable and accessible hacks that help her feel good, from nutrition and exercise, to breathing and sleeping.

“Looking after our health and wellbeing is no longer a luxury, I think it is a necessity. I’m as guilty as the next person of putting everyone else in my life first, and putting the to-do list before myself,” she reflects. “Every single woman I know is wearing an invisible superhero cape, she is juggling everything. Women are life’s fixers, nurturers, caregivers, we have so many roles. Every woman I know is trying so hard to stay on top of everything for everybody.”

Daly is the main cook in her famous household, although Kay makes a mean roast, and she’s all about healthy comfort food. “I love food, I love cooking, I love feeding my family healthy dishes. But it’s a constant challenge because I’ve got teenagers and their tastes change from week to week.”

Hailing from Stockport, white potatoes featured heavily in her childhood. “I grew up on them – seven days a week. I’ve got Northern and Irish blood, so it’s what we eat. But they don’t always like me. I eat

The Strictly Come Dancing presenter talks about nurturing healthy attitudes in her teenage daughters and why she never counts calories

them because I love them, but they tend to make me a little bit bloated.”

She’s been focusing on her gut health for years. “I’m fascinated by the power of food to be medicine or poison. It can either heal you, or food can cause illness. If you’ve got an unhappy gut – more sort of bad bacteria than good bacteria – it’s going to affect your digestion and your sleep, it’s going to affect your mood, the production of serotonin, your happy hormones.”

Her book includes immune-supporting recipes such as pumpkin and ginger soup and comforting, family-friendly dishes including turkey shepherd’s pie.

Breakfast is important for her, particularly during Strictly filming. “It’s 15-hour days and you have to pace yourself, often you are barely sitting down at all. So I always make sure I have a good breakfast,” she says. “I’ll take some Greek yoghurt, some berries, seeds, maybe banana and some honey, and just chop all that out. At least I know I’ve had something substantial, and then I’ll graze throughout the day.”

4 Steps To A Happier, Healthier You by Tess Daly (Bantam, £18.99)