What is causing Britain’s obesity crisis? A Q&A with chef and food historian Angela Clutton

Until relatively recently, poverty and periodic famine meant that “fatness” was considered a sign of prosperity and wealth. To be slim reflected a lower-class lifestyle involving manual labour and a financial struggle to feed yourself and your family.

According to the NHS, children born in 1946 from lower socioeconomic classes had a lower average weight, while those born in 2001 had a higher average weight. Over time, as our healthcare systems and knowledge of dietary science improved, excess weight became a sign of socio-economic disadvantage. It seems 67% of men and 60% of women in the UK are overweight, today.

This week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a new plan to tackle obesity. It focuses on calorie counts in restaurants and bars, a junk food advertising watershed and a ban on in-store unhealthy snack promotion, as well as a review of the nutritional traffic light system currently used on packaged items.

Will it work? And what are the deeper trends at play? Reaction interviewed food historian and professional cook Angela Clutton on Britain’s relationship with food through the 19th century, and how coronavirus could provide an opportunity for Britain to re-evaluate our not-so-healthy habits.

How would you describe the British attitude toward food?

It is very polarised. On one level there’s this desire for wellness, people are into following (social media) influencers who promote food trends and “healthy living”. But all of these conversations about food in the UK, and particularly obesity, are massively to do with food poverty.

When and how did the perception of higher weight change from a sign of affluence to one of poor health?

The poorer in society used to farm their land and were very busy burning lots of energy and didn’t have access to much, so they were thinner. In Victorian times richer people wanted to have a sort of indication of wealth on their dining table through creamy desserts their ancestors couldn’t have dreamt of having.

Industrialisation in the 18th century meant food started to be made in a slightly different way. You have revolutionary machinery and a railway system which can get different types of food around the country. There was greater access to different types of food right across the spectrum, which is when attitudes start to change.

As you head into the early part of the 1900s there was quite a bit of excess at the very upper ends of society, and who knows where that would have gone were it not for two world wars taking over our food culture for the best part of the century. So, the big change comes after the Second World War with globalisation, huge shifts in how we live our lives.

You marry the advent of processed food and people are deskilled and not learning how to cook in school or at home. They don’t have access to good produce or ingredients anyway.

You pinpoint the Second World War as a big moment for food history. How did the War and rationing change attitudes towards food in Britain?

It is more what happened in the aftermath. Certainly, there was shortages and rationing during the war, but that meant people were growing vegetables. We were short on sugar and wheat, but people were making jams with their fruit. I don’t want to see it through rose-tinted glasses but there was a movement to think about viewing produce very simply. That is something we are trying to do again now, encouraging people to embrace simplicity.

When people’s lives slowly begun to put themselves back on the right axis after the war, they had almost forgotten how to cook and how to deal with more ingredients. People were overwhelmed. Both parents were often going to work. This was great, but a big domestic change from the archetypal mother staying at home cooking. Everyone was living in a faster way, you had supermarkets, freezers, brilliant things which caused a huge change in food culture, and these changes happened without us really considering the consequences.

From the 1970s onwards there was a surge in interest in European and international cuisines – did this help or hinder our obesity levels?

People were beginning to be able to go on holiday to, say, Greece and discovering moussaka. This was wonderful for opening up people’s eyes to wider food options, but it was timed with people not cooking as much for themselves. There was a greater pull towards buying these foods ready-made, finding a frozen moussaka in the freezer aisle rather than making it yourself.

If things had been embraced from Greece or Southern Spain, a piece of fresh fish fried in oil and lemon for example, that would have been great. But in the 70s that wasn’t really what was brought in because you did still have some availability limitations. So processed food was much more drawn on. People used to have these massive chest freezers piled with food and it made things so easy.

The TV chef rose to popularity in the 90s as did eating out more in restaurants. Is it plausible for the government to encourage weight loss to save the NHS and eating out to save the economy in the same breath?

Dining out is no longer reserved for special occasions as there are much lower price points, but the lower price point comes with a whole host of quality issues. There is no such thing as cheap food; there is food, which is cheaper at the point of purchase, but the long-term health cost of that “cheap food” is so much more. And that is the problem, our food pricing is so off-kilter.

But you can combine eating out with healthy living if people make informed choices. I don’t think it is just about the number of calories in a meal, it is much more complicated than just a number. We need to think about to what degree food processed, what kind of fat is used, how much salt is used, in our food both home-cooked and in restaurants.

Why is it so much cheaper to eat processed food than fresh? 

Fresh fruit and vegetables shouldn’t be as expensive as they are. We import too much. If we were able to enjoy more of our produce that would be a real help, environmentally too. A lot of that comes back to seasonality, skilling people up and educating them on what food is in season and when. The government could help by putting systems in place to enable farmers and other food producers to get those foods to us cheaper.

The big companies that process food are dealing with massive economies of scale. Same with Deliveroo and UberEATS. If you only make a couple of pounds, that’s OK because you multiply that by a huge amount. We had a very interesting moment with Covid-19 where people who were able to make choice, often chose to shop local and step away from supermarkets, but who knows if that will continue. There is a lure to the ease of the big supermarket which arguably caused the problem in the first place.

A lot of food policy thinkers believe it should not be left down to the supermarkets to make our food policy, and that, hitherto, is what is happening. On Wednesday, the first stage of the National Food Strategy is published. I think that it is astonishing this is happening two days after Boris’s obesity strategy is announced. The two things should be connected.

How has diet culture and the commercialisation of weight loss (WeightWatchers, etc.) come into play?

Part of the obesity strategy links people to plans like WeightWatchers, and I think to lose a chunk of weight reasonably fast they work. But it is more quick fixes. Unless you are teaching people to turn that into a lifestyle, you are not solving the problem. We have to kit people up with long term plans for how to feed themselves and enjoy food with the understanding of how to make healthy choices.

Should food tech or some equivalent be compulsory for schools? Is the issue a lack of access to healthy ingredients or a lack of education on how to cook?

Both. It is very much about access; if you are in school and don’t have much money for your lunch, and you walk past a chippy; what are you going to do? The chips are going to make you feel pretty good in the moment and you can afford them. But in terms of long term physical and mental health that is going to be a disaster if it is repeated day after day.

The issue is that the healthy food option isn’t made accessible in the same way. We need to teach basic skills to enable people to feed themselves and their families, with simple, cheap recipes.

Take offal, for example, it is so cheap. But people just don’t know how to cook with it. Or kidneys, they’re about 50p. Lots of people don’t want to eat these, but it is cheap produce that people don’t know what to do with.

 What do you think of Boris’ new rules? Are calorie counts and sugar taxes effective?

I understand the government is trying to do things which can come into effect now. But, unless those measures are backed up by also making it easier, cheaper, and more accessible to lead a healthier long-term lifestyle, it just doesn’t work. Finger-wagging alone just promotes guilt and blame.

I’m really behind the sugar tax, I think that it is working. Calorie indications could be a good starting guide to educate people, but you have to back it up with something else. This is where the National Food Strategy comes in; we want to look back at this time as the moment from which everything changed. We want food education in schools, cooking classes, awareness of where our food comes from.

If these advertising bans and calorie counting schemes are the whole thing, it is a waste of time. But, if they are an initial boost to gain some momentum on the obesity crisis, then I think it is good.

What’s the best thing the government could do in your eyes?

First, education. Not just in schools, at the older end as well, there are people of all ages who don’t have simple food skills. Then, support producers and the agricultural industry to get more of what we are locally producing straight to the people, diminishing the power of the biggest producers and supermarkets. We have to engage in local outdoor markets, corner shops, local butchers, bakers and grocers. Give people a real opportunity to engage with their food.

It might seem like we have a long way to go, but cheeringly, if you look at how much food culture has changed over the centuries, food systems can change and be very adaptable very quickly. Cultural change is often bought by crisis and systemic changes such as industrialisation or wars. Perhaps, Covid-19 is our crisis for change. Often food policy and systems are punctuated by these points, so we have a moment. But it is up to everyone to grab it.

Angela Clutton is a food writer, historian and professional chef. Her debut book “The Vinegar Cupboard” is available on Amazon.