Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on being a fussy eater; gut health; inexpensive healthy meals

River Cottage's Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall talks to Kate about being a fussy eater; eating healthier to manage gut and mental health and encouraging food education to shop and eat healthier.

White Wine Question Time with Kate Thornton is the podcast that brings together well-known guests to answer three thought-provoking questions over three glasses of wine. Discover the friendships behind the entertainment headlines, and listen in on their conversations for a side to the celebrities you've never heard before. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow on Instagram (@whitewineqt) & Twitter (@WhiteWineQT) to keep up to date with the latest guests, news and more.

Video transcript

HUGH FEARNLEY-WHITTINGSTALL: I mean, I have to say, I was quite a fussy kid. There were things that I couldn't go near as a kid growing up. Mushrooms left-- I was terrified that someone might try and make me eat a mushroom. I just couldn't go near them. And even tomatoes actually. I had no problem with ketchup, slurping that out of the bottle. But the idea of a sliced tomato. But of course, in those days, they didn't taste of very much.

The biggest choice that I would like everybody to have is to be able to cook, to actually have the skills to put an affordable meal on the table using inexpensive ingredients that will give us some pleasure and keep our families healthy and well. I think it's really interesting that the conversation about healthy food has come to focus a lot on our guts.

It's not a word everyone loves bandying about, but it's so important now. And it's a really fascinating bit of science that's emerging on just how much of our well-being depends on things going well right there in the middle of our tummies. Not just our physical health, but our mental health.

If you can't cook a healthy meal because-- if you're on a really tight budget, that's going to-- and you just want to get some energy inside your family, then you're going to go for cheap calories. And cheap calories tend not to be the healthiest calories. And it's a conversation that politicians often try and deflect by saying, ah, but it's about personal choice.

You know, the food you choose, we can't tell people what to eat. We can't be the nanny state. But actually the problem is big business does tell people what to eat. And it tells them to eat foods that aren't good for them. And it offers them those unhealthy foods at very cheap prices.

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