Celebrity chefs ‘add to obesity problem’

CELEBRITY chefs are “exacerbating” the country’s obesity crisis by encouraging people to eat fatty dishes, according to a new study.

Nutrition experts tested more than 900 recipes from 26 famous cooks and found 87 per cent fell “substantially short” of the Government’s healthy eating recommendations.

Just 13 per cent used ingredients to create “healthy” meals in line with the Food Standards Agency’s guidelines, researchers from Coventry University said.

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The study, published in the Food and Public Health journal, found that many celebrity chef recipes in cookbooks contained undesirable levels of saturated fatty acids (SFA), sugars and salt which are linked to obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

However the experts behind the study have refused to name the worst-offending chefs due to “professional practice protocols”.

Lead author Dr Ricardo Costa, a senior lecturer in dietetics at Coventry University, said: “This study is not about naming and shaming celebrity chefs.

However given the level of trust the public tends to place in the
nutritional integrity of these cooks’ recipes, it’s important to highlight where they’re falling short of healthy eating benchmarks.

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“When you have celebrity chefs involved with promoting many of the Government’s healthy eating initiatives, you inevitably encourage a culture of confidence in their culinary practices.

“I think there ought to be a tightening up of regulation around what these chefs can present on their own terms when it comes to nutrition or healthy eating messages, particularly in light of the results of this study.”

Some 92 per cent of celebrity chefs sampled had at least one recipe with saturated fatty acids above the recommended intake for one day, the study found.

One meal contained more than five times the recommended amount.