- Mary Berry is a role model because of her attitude to food, scientists sayÂ
- Presenter is famed for making cakes but only eats small amounts of them
- Scientists warned more should be done about marketing of unhealthy foods
- People now eat bigger portions and are less sedentary than 40 years ago
- Supermarkets and coffee shops offer snacks at the tills, they warn
- ‘Susceptible’ people are having food ‘pushed on them’, scientists say
- Balance between diet, alcohol and exercise is the key to keeping healthy
Madlen Davies for MailOnline
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Scientists said Mary Berry is a role model as she makes high calorie cakes but then only eats small amounts of them
Though she is famed for her calorific cakes, Great British Bake off presenter Mary Berry is a role model for people wanting to eat a healthy diet, scientists have said.
While she is renowned for getting contestants on the BBC show to make high-fat masterpieces, the 79-year old food writer’s attitude should be praised as she only eats a small amount of such foods.
The group of leading nutritional scientists said that a diet low in saturated fat, along with keeping active, is key to a healthy lifestyle, and criticised a recent study which played down links between saturated fat and risk of heart disease.
Tom Sanders, professor of nutrition and dietetics at King’s College London said: ‘Mary Berry, I always like her, she cooks these cakes with everything we think is awful – sugar, saturated fat and cream – but she said, “I only eat a little bit of itâ€, and I think that is the key to it.’
Speaking at London’s Science Media Centre, scientists said that more needs to be done to counteract the marketing of high-calorie snack foods and coffees which have boomed in recent years.
While the average UK diet contains less saturated fat than it did 40 years ago, obesity continues to rise.
They said this is because while people have changed the way they eat at home – for example, eating less red meat – they are more sedentary.
The foods they eat while out – in restaurants or as snacks – have got bigger in portion size and calorie count, they added.
Professor Sanders added that ‘susceptible’ people are having food ‘pushed on to them’ and could not say no.
He said: ‘It is the “what else?†culture. It doesn’t help.
‘You go and get a coffee and you are asked, “Would you like a muffin with the coffee?†Or if I buy a magazine … I’m offered a 100g bar of chocolate which I don’t need.
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‘There is a whole thing about the marketing of food. I have referred to one retailer where you have to queue up as being the ‘walk of shame’ – you have all the high-calorie, high-sugar, high-fat snacks in the way and I think that is part of the problem.’
The balance between diet, alcohol intake and exercise level is the key to keeping your weight down and lowering the risk of heart disease and diabetes, scientists said.
Christine Williams, professor of human nutrition at the University of Reading, called for the government to give people advice about healthy snacking, because of the growth of food and drink being available around the clock.
Scientists called for the government to give people advice about healthy snacking, because of the growth of food and drink being available around the clock
She said: ‘You can see it, you only have to go to a station. There didn’t used to be five or six different coffee shops, you sometimes couldn’t get a snack on your way home from work.
‘Alcohol – pubs are open, food is available 24 hours a day and people probably feel that if it is available it should be okay if I have it.
‘Some people are less able to control that and make sense of it than others.’
She added: ‘A lot of the problems are to do with foods that don’t ever see a plate – they are not considered to be food, they are a snack.
‘They have gone straight from the hand to the mouth, the coffee is just warming you up in the middle of the day when you are tired, it is all subconscious. And yet it is all very calorific.’
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