Chocolate Doesn't Make You Fat, You Make You Fat

Public Health England is leading a drive to reduce calorie intake by 20% by 2024 – that’s not far away, and a lot of work still to do.

So, what are the options for reducing this number? A recent announcement points towards Public Health England giving direction to food companies to reduce the calories in their food.

I’m as guilty as the next person for finishing what’s on my plate just because it’s there. But in the majority of cases, just giving people smaller ready meals, won’t help reduce the calorie intake of an entire country. We will still experience the same hunger, blood sugar rises and crashes, and cravings for salty, fatty foods as we ever did.

Really – the only way to reduce calorie in take is through education. Educate our country on eating well. On the impact of sugars and bad fats on your body. Teach our children cookery skills. Subsidise our farmers to keep fresh, vitamin-rich foods at reasonable price levels. Educate us, to believe that one ready meal won’t make us fat. Guide us towards nutrition. Help us become more active.

We are firm believers that chocolate does not make people fat; people make people fat. We make our own choices and everything we eat, or don’t eat is a choice that we have made. We shouldn’t be punished if we want one chocolate bar, or one ready meal once in a while. If we are educated to make our own choices, we can learn to cut our own calories by 20% - through making small, positive health choices.

But sadly, education takes time, and it’s time we don’t have. In the UK 67% of adult men and 60% of women were overweight or obese and prevalence was over twice as high in the most deprived areas than the least deprived areas.  Read more.

What simple steps can you take?

• Apply the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 rule is a guide for your everyday diet—eat nutritious foods 80 percent of the time and have a serving of your favourite treat with the other 20 percent. For the “80 percent” part of the plan, focus on drinking lots of water and eating nutritious foods

• Watch out for those liquid calories. They are the sneaky ones! 

• Use myfitnesspal or another similar tracker to log everything you eat and drink. It is a royal pain in the bum to start with but a real eyeopener.  Once you know what you are eating you can start to cut out the stuff you really don’t need.