Joe Wicks’ campaign against ultra-processed food: ‘We’re taught to reward children with sugar’
By Prudence Wade, Press Association
A stark contrast to what you see on Instagram today, Joe Wicks admits to having a “very unhealthy diet as a child”.
Nowadays, the TV fitness coach and cookbook author’s social media is full of healthy recipes using whole ingredients – often cooking alongside his four children: Indie, eight, Marley, six, Leni, three, and Dusty, two.
But it wasn’t always like that. “I had a very unhealthy diet as a child,” says Wicks, 40, who guesses around 90% of it involved ultra-processed food.
“I grew up in a low-income family on benefits, and my dad was an addict. Any money that came through the door was not going on healthy protein sources and vegetables – it just wasn’t. So I lived off ultra-processed food and frozen dinners. My mum was 15 when she was kicked out of school and left home, she didn’t have the skills and knowledge to cook – it was not in her vocabulary.”
This meant Wicks’ early exposure to food was “a lot of sugar, a lot of ultra-processed food” – and he says that’s affected him today: “When I do consume it [now], I can’t eat it in moderation.”
Wicks learned how to cook in his 20s, falling in love with healthy food and exercise – he went on to set up his social media channels as The Body Coach, gaining widespread acclaim during the Covid pandemic for with his P.E. with Joe videos, raising money for the NHS and later being made an MBE for his charity efforts.
Now he’s a father, he’s increasingly concerned about how ultra-processed foods are targeted at kids – and how it might affect young people’s health.
“We’re taught to reward children with sugar,” he notes. “It’s foods that are designed to be hyper-addictive, hyper-tasty. They have a scientifically-engineered bliss point where they mix the perfect amount of salt, fat and sugar, so when you eat a cookie, or a doughnut, or a brownie – you can’t put it down, you want to eat the whole packet.
“Then you realise, that’s what we’re up against, because not many people can consume these foods in moderation.”
And for Wicks, these ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are “everywhere you go” when you have children: “They’re in lunch boxes, they’re on planes, they’re at soft plays, they’re at farms,” which can result in a “tug-of-war” between the parent wanting to give their kids healthy food, and their children demanding sweets.
He explored UPFs even further in last year in the Channel 4 documentary, Joe Wicks: Licensed To Kill, made with scientist Dr Chris van Tulleken (author of Ultra-Processed People, a book Wicks credits with changing his outlook). He admits that it’s “a tough message to hear that the food we’re consuming is affecting our health, our mental health, increasing the risk of type two diabetes, obesity and all the diet-related diseases around that”.
In the lead-up to the documentary, Wicks remembers getting “hammered” on social media, “From fitness influencers, nutritionists, dietitians, doctors”, who he says were unhappy with the links he was making between UPFs and physical and mental health.
The experience obviously shook Wicks, who says: “I was upset. I was emotional. I was sensitive, and it proper knocked my confidence, thinking: ‘Why am I putting myself out there? Why did I do this documentary? Why did I share this?
“I had to wait until the dust settled to accept that it got more people watching, it got more people talking about UPFs and the ingredients, and looking at the back of the product.”
Plus, he suggests that the next five to 10 years will bring even more research backing up his claims into UPFs, but acknowledges it’s hard for families – particularly those on low-incomes – to eat healthily.
While the documentary called on the government for a response to whether it could put health warnings on certain foods, Wicks calls it “disheartening” he never heard anything back. And we won’t catch Wicks doing a follow-up documentary any time soon (“absolutely not”, he says firmly), but he’s still going to be fighting UPFs in other ways.
“I’m not going to spend my life doing documentaries and putting myself in the fire – I can just be part of the solution,” he explains, whether that’s sharing his recipes on social media, encouraging people to think more about their food, and doing what he does best: getting people moving. “I’m constantly trying to use my energy in positive ways that are making an impact in that moment, as opposed to trying to convince the government to change policy.”
Wicks, who lives in Surrey with his four kids and wife Rosie, is releasing his 14th cookbook, Healthy Start, which focuses on nutritious recipes for the whole family, with recipes and tips for how to get kids involved in the kitchen.
None of Wicks’ kids are fussy eaters, which he credits to exposing them to all kinds of food from early on. “I always remember when I started weaning Indie, my first girl, people would be saying, ‘Wait until she’s three, wait until she hits four – it all changes’.
“I was always waiting for this moment where my kids would stop eating healthy food, but I realised actually, if you’re consistent and the only thing on the table is healthy food, then you don’t have that issue. They do get to enjoy treats and they do get to enjoy ultra-processed foods, but it’s not an everyday occurrence: it’s not in the house all the time.” There’s plenty of bold flavours and variety in his new cookbook, with recipes for curries, stir-fries, colourful tray bakes and more – a far cry from the beige, tasteless dishes that are always on kids’ menus.
Wicks has a firm “one family, one recipe” rule – meaning you won’t see him whipping up an alternative meal to cater for different children. If one of his kids doesn’t like dinner, he won’t offer an alternative – he’ll often put it in the fridge, tell them to play for an hour, and come back to it when they’re hungry.
He is also trying to teach them “how foods make you feel”, he says. “I never say ‘good food’, ‘bad food’, I don’t say junk food. I say, ‘This is whole food’, ‘This is a processed food’ – some things make you feel really good and energised, and you’re going to feel great. Other things are going to make you feel tired and sleepy and bloated, and it’s going to bring your mood down.
“I let them choose – I’m not someone who’s saying, ‘You can’t have these things’. If we’re out and about and it’s a weekend, we’ll have a pudding an an ice cream, or if we’re at the park, we might grab a lolly.
“But I don’t have cupboards full of this stuff because if I did, guess what? I’d be eating it every day, and they’d be eating it every day. And that’s the simple fact of it.”
Cooking with his kids – and encouraging others to do the same – is central to Wicks’ mission, who calls it “the most valuable life skill you’ll ever give your child”.
“We know food affects our mood, and if you have a child or a teenager that just eats UPFs, doesn’t want to cook, their mental health and their energy and their mood through their life will never quite be at its best. They’ll never quite be optimised.
“So if we get kids to love cooking, they’re going to be independent, they’re going to move out, they’re going to cook. They’re not going to be ordering food on a takeaway [app] every night. It’s going to change their life.”
Healthy Start by Joe Wicks is published in hardback by Leap. Photography by Mike English. Available now
