Celebrity chef to host television series on obesity crisis in Britain

TELEVISION CHEF Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall will host a new series about Britain’s obesity crisis, the BBC has announced. Britain’s Fat Fight with Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, inset, set to air on BBC One, is one of several of new commissions from the broadcaster as it aims to shine a light on the obesity epidemic.

Britain is the most obese country in western Europe, with around two-thirds of adults classed as overweight or obese.

Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall – a celebrity chef, television personality, journalist, food writer and campaigner on food and environmental issues – examines and exposes how consumers are “being misled by packaging and portion sizes”, and takes his findings to Downing Street. He also challenges the city of Newcastle to shed 100,000lb in the space of a year. In the last of three episodes, he heads to the Conservative Party Conference to find out what the Government plans to do about the obesity problem. In one-off BBC One programme The Truth About Obesity, presenter Chris Bavin examines scientific research that reveals

why two-thirds of Britons are classed as overweight.

BBC Three will publish three short films on its online service, each focusing on young people and their personal stories about what it is to be young and obese in Britain.

They will be called Bringing

Sexy Fat, The Naked Truth and Too Fat For Love, which follows a body positivity vlogger on her quest to find out why overweight people are “made to feel unlovable”.

A new online tool on BBC News will also be made available to allow people to check where they are on “the UK fat scale”, the BBC has said.

The new content is to broadcast from April 25.