Now we’re told eating keeps heating bills down

FIRST we were told by energy firms to cuddle our pets and wear thick socks to keep out the cold this winter as energy prices soar.

Now Octopus Energy has suggested that we ‘eat and drink’ ourselves warm and keep bills down.

The energy provider also suggested customers could ‘make yourself a cup of tea before you touch the thermostat’ and praised the benefits of ‘comfort foods’.

Octopus’s attempt to share innovative guidance on how to keep warm comes after the Government was warned pensioners are at risk of freezing to death this winter because soaring fuel prices will mean many will switch off their heating.

Octopus Energy’s advice appeared on a post on its website last month, which has since been amended. One of the removed items suggests wearing multiple layers and mixed fabrics because ‘you are probably not wearing enough clothes’.

A separate section, which has also since been amended, said Octopus customers could keep their heating low when they were ‘snug’ in certain parts of the house, with the suggestion of using a ‘couch blanket, onesie or grain heat packs’.

The post was part of a blog with ‘Winter Workout’ tips to help consumers save money and ‘stay cosy’. Octopus did not provide any specific explanation as to exactly when or why the blog, most of which is still on the site, has been changed when asked for comment by The Mail on Sunday but it said the blog is regularly updated.

E.ON apologised after it emerged the company shipped socks to 30,000 households with advice on how to keep warm.

And Ovo sparked controversy when its website contained controversial energy-saving tips such as eating ‘hearty bowls of porridge’.

It also recommended customers of SSE Energy Services, which it acquired in 2020, could try ‘sticking to non-alcoholic drinks’, having ‘a cuddle with your pets’ and ‘encouraging blood flow’ by eating ginger.

It later said it was ‘embarrassed’ about the post.

The Conservative MP and former Cabinet Minister Theresa Villiers said the advice was likely wellintentioned but also ‘pretty insensitive’ because ‘people are very anxious about rising energy bills’.

The UK faces a deepening fuel crisis with fresh warnings this weekend that bills could double to £2,400 by October.

Prices have already increased after the wholesale cost of gas rose six times, hitting a record high before Christmas.

Earlier this month, former Pensions Minister Ros Altmann demanded that the Government take urgent action to support hardup pensioners.

The charity for the elderly, Age UK, branded the situation a ‘national emergency’.

Its research shows that every winter one old person dies every seven minutes from the cold in England and Wales.