Britain’s Fat Fight with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
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- Episode
- Episode 3
- Broadcast Info
- 2018 (59 mins)
- Description
- Britain is already the most obese country in Western Europe, and if current trends continue, more than 50% of us will be obese by 2050. Twothirds of us are already overweight or obese, and there’s no doubt that our poor diet and lack of exercise is slowly killing us... as well as crippling the NHS. After smoking, obesity is the next biggest cause of premature death in the UK. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is on a mission to try and do something about this health crisis. In this new BBC One series, he is going to challenge some of the biggest food companies and restaurant chains to be more honest about what they are selling. Hugh’s going to ask the Government what they’re doing to tackle this crisis. And he’s going to see 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. 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 learns that there are some simple and obvious changes which could be made to GPs surgeries that could help prevent obesityrelated 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 the Conservative 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.
- Genre
- Medicine; Nutrition; Government; Health & Social Care
How to cite this record
The Open University, "Britain’s Fat Fight with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/230309 (Accessed 09 Jan 2025)