Britain's Fat Fight

Updated Monday 7th January 2019

Britain is already the most obese country in Western Europe, and if current trends continue, more than 50% of us will be overweight by 2050. There’s no doubt that our poor diet and lack of exercise is slowly killing us... as well as crippling the NHS. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall challenges some of the biggest food companies and restaurant chains to be more honest about what they are selling and asks the Government what they’re doing to tackle this crisis. He also discovers if it is possible to change the eating habits of a whole city by challenging the people of Newcastle to lose 100,000lbs in a year.

Read more about the series on the BBC’s Programme pages, or find out more about how to improve your health, and that of your family below.

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About the series

Find out more about the three episodes in the series.

Episode One

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall at the Newcastle Can Launch Copyright: Jonathan Profaska - KEO Films Bad eating habits start when we are children, and to prove it, Hugh asks a group of 7-year-olds to do the weekly supermarket shop without their mums and dads. Unsurprisingly, most of the kids head straight for the cereal section, where they pick from any number of brightly coloured, highly sugared, breakfast cereals. But do their parents realise how much sugar is in the boxes?

Hugh challenges the big brands over their lack of transparency when it comes to their cereal labels. All the supermarket own-brand cereals carry traffic light labelling, which clearly shows in red, green or amber how much sugar is in the box… so why don’t the market leaders?

In Newcastle, Hugh kicks off his ambitious project to see how much weight a city can lose over the course of a year. But after launching ‘Newcastle Can’ in the city centre, passerby Julie stops him and tells him that he is talking to the wrong people. If he really wants to make significant change, he needs to go and talk to people who live in the more deprived parts of the city, to understand the challenges they face.

Hugh also meets Jonny, who wants to lose weight but is addicted to snacking. This encourages Hugh to look at the increasing number of retailers who are tempting us into buying sweet treats on the go. Many of the major supermarkets have committed to stop selling confectionary at their checkouts, so why are other types of shops still doing it? Hugh sets up a replica of one chain’s confectionary-laden checkout in a busy shopping street.

Episode Two

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Ross Noble at the Great North Run 5k Copyright: Jo Murphy - KEO Films Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall turns his attention to the fruit juice and smoothie sellers. He’s surprised to learn bottles of fruit juice can contain as much free sugar as a can of fizzy pop, but that it is not clear on the labels, and that most people he meets in the street have no idea. He is also confused that these labels seem to suggest that anything up to 330ml is a single portion size, when in fact the government recommends not drinking any more than 150ml of juice or smoothies a day.

Three months in, Hugh’s attempt to change the eating habits of a whole city has got off to a slow start … but with Ross Noble’s help it soon starts to take off. Jonny, a local bus driver who wants to lose weight for his children, is given some shocking news when he is diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. This inspires Jonny to make big changes to his lifestyle, which culminates with him running the Great North Run 5k with Hugh and a big group of other members of Newcastle Can.

Children are eating out twice as much as they did in the 1970s, so Hugh puts the spotlight on our most popular high street restaurant chains. He challenges them to reduce the amount of sugar in their puddings, to carry calorie information on their children’s menus and to stop selling bottomless fizzy drinks… When he lets them know there is a window of opportunity to do something before a league table is published, ranking the top 25 from best to worst, some make significant changes. The result is that 10 restaurant chains are now selling 6 million healthier kids’ meals a month.

Episode Three

Hugh standing in lab coat against a wall with his arms crossed Copyright: Lara Marshall - KEO FILMS Over the last year, Hugh has had considerable success changing the behaviour of some of our biggest food retailers and producers. In this episode, Hugh looks at junk food marketing versus the amount that is spent on vegetable marketing and healthy eating, and he’s shocked by the results. When Hugh helps get healthy adverts up in schools and in shops across the country, the results are inspiring.

Hugh also learns that there are some simple and obvious changes which could be made to GPs surgeries that could help prevent obesity-related diseases, like putting weighing scales in every GP waiting room and making it mandatory to weigh every patient before they see the doctor. Hugh arranges a trial in Bristol, with dramatic results.

In Newcastle, Hugh meets Janet, who signed up to Newcastle Can but is finding it difficult to lose any weight. Hugh wants to see if she can make changes to her lifestyle by getting outside of her comfort zone, so they head to the beach to go surfing.

At the end of Hugh’s year-long mission to put the city on a diet, he meets up with some of the people who have already achieved life-changing weight loss and discovers if his ambitious 100,000lb target has been reached.

But it’s becoming clear that he can’t do it all alone. Hugh wants to know what the government is doing about it. Hugh heads to Tory Party Conference, where he has been invited to speak about obesity, but is frustrated in his attempts to get an audience with Jeremy Hunt.

So with the help of Jamie Oliver, Hugh comes up with a bold plan to try and improve the health of our nation once and for all… but he can’t do it alone, and he needs everyone in the country to get involved…

Episode Four

Hugh on set for the Vege Power advert, standing in front of a car covered in vegetables. Alice Henley - KEO FILMS under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is back with the last instalment of his series on a national health crisis that he's determined to do something about. In this final showdown, he examines some of the misleading marketing claims on 'healthier' products, unveils the truth about why Brits love to snack and challenges a family to rethink their portion sizes. And, after almost 100,000 people sign Hugh's letter to the health secretary, he finally gets the interview he has been after for months, discovering some exciting changes that are on the horizon.

British people snack more than any other European country and since the last series aired, lots of people have told Hugh about the foods they find irresistible. To find out more, he runs an experiment to uncover which snacks have Britons hooked and discovers a surprising new theory about one particular combination of ingredients people cannot help but find irresistible.

One of the main drivers of obesity is the simple fact that people are all eating too much. Hugh visits a Torquay family where the father wants help with his diet to stay healthy for his daughters and shift some pounds. Hugh challenges the family to transform their eating habits with a few simple and memorable tricks to reduce the portions on their plates.

Hugh heads to Westminster with Jamie Oliver to talk to MPs about the obesity crisis. He gets the chance to put his questions directly to the health minister and sees many of the issues he has raised throughout the series addressed in some exciting announcements - but are they going to be enough?

In a final fight back against fat, Hugh sees the 'veg power' advertising campaign go to a whole new level, in the hope it will change kids' attitudes to vegetables once and for all.

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Copyright: Joan Simons Dr Joan Simons - Associate Dean, Teaching Excellence in Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies

Dr Joan Simons is Associate Dean Teaching Excellence in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies and one of the Directors of the Centre for Children's Wellbeing (CCW), based at The Open University.

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Publication details

Originally published: Monday, 5th February 2018
Last updated on: Monday, 7th January 2019

Copyright information

Body text - Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0: The Open University
Image 'Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall pouring sugar on hand close' - Copyright: Andrew Hayes-Watkins - KEO FILMS
Image 'A big greasy slice of vegetarian pizza. ' - Pixabay under Creative-Commons license
Image 'An illustration of an ipad with sweets and doughnuts on and a child'd hand pulling a sweet out of the screen. ' - Copyright: Martin O'Brien, O'Brien Creative
Image 'doctors and nurses in a corridor with a patient in a wheelchair' - Copyright: © Spotmatik | Dreamstime.com - Doctors Nurse senior Female Patient in Hospital Corridor
Image 'nurse delivering news to a teenager and her mother' - Copyright: Monkey Business Images | Dreamstime.com
Image 'Brexit healthcare' - By Myfuture.com on Flickr under Creative Commons BY-ND 4.0 license
Image 'Queen Charlotte & Chelsea Hospital' - Chmee2 under Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 license
Image 'Health and social worker' - WorldSkills UK / flickr under Creative-Commons license
Image 'Obesity: Balanced diets and treatment' - Copyright: Used with permission
Image 'Exercise and mental health' - Copyright: Used with permission
Image 'Joan Simons' - Copyright: Joan Simons
Image 'Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on set for the Vege Power advert, holding up two veg. ' - Copyright: Nick Angel - KEO FILMS
Image 'Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall at the Newcastle Can Launch' - Copyright: Jonathan Profaska - KEO Films
Image 'Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Ross Noble at the Great North Run 5k' - Copyright: Jo Murphy - KEO Films
Image 'Hugh standing in lab coat against a wall with his arms crossed' - Copyright: Lara Marshall - KEO FILMS
Image 'Hugh on set for the Vege Power advert, standing in front of a car covered in vegetables. ' - Alice Henley - KEO FILMS under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
Image 'A girl with glasses looking at a number of books' - Copyright: Alphaspirit | Dreamstime.com

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