My cholesterol crisis, by River cottage Hugh: Chef who champions healthy food admits he was nearly put on statins because of his fatty diet
- Chef, 49,revealed bad habits while promoting wheat and dairy free cookbook
- Doctors said he was on verge of being prescribed cholesterol-lowering drug
- Said: 'I love milk, I love cheese and I love butter - I love them a bit too much'
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall said doctors almost had to put him on statins because of his fatty diet
He is known as a champion of healthy, organic food and raves about the importance of vegetables in his TV series River Cottage.
But celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has revealed he has struggled to stick to his own advice, admitting that doctors almost had to put him on statins to lower his cholesterol in 2011 because of his fatty diet.
The 49-year-old laid bare his unhealthy habits in an interview about his new cookbook Light and Easy – in which all 170 recipes are dairy and wheat free.
Following a medical test in 2011, he admitted doctors told him he was on the threshold of being prescribed the cholesterol-lowering drug.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live: ‘I had a problem a few years back with my cholesterol, because I was such a cheese picker and I used to slather butter on my toast and I love ice cream and cream on my crumbles.
‘Because I ate a lot of fruit and veg, I felt that essentially I must be eating really healthily. But I had a cholesterol test and it was borderline at the point where I should have been put on statins.
‘So I thought what’s going on? So I learnt to use other culinary oils and learnt to ease back a bit. Now I use butter when I want to, when it’s exactly what I want and not just as a kneejerk reaction.’
He added: ‘I love milk, I love cheese and I love butter. I love them a bit too much and they’re a bit too easy and a bit too affordable. So they’re still part of my cooking and my diet, but for this book I have put them to one side.’
The BAFTA-winning chef, who lives with his wife Marie and four children - Chloe, Oscar, Freddy and Louisa - in Devon, has written a series of best-selling books based on his philosophy of ethically sourced food.
In his Channel 4 series River Cottage, set in a former gamekeeper’s lodge, he had to produce everything himself in the style of the 1970s series The Good Life.
Around 7m Britons currently take statins to tackle high cholesterol, which increases the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall has spoken in the past of his ‘gluttony’ and his radical attempts to lose weight.
The BAFTA-winning chef, who lives with his wife Marie and four children in Devon, has written a series of best-selling books based on his philosophy of ethically sourced food
In 2013, he admitted he struggled to stick to his own River Cottage lifestyle of a diet rich in fruit and vegetables - instead consuming ‘way too much meat, cheese, cream, sugar and alcohol’.
He said: ‘Despite a garden bursting with brussel sprouts, kale and winter salads, and a weekly delivery of organic apples, oranges, clementines and bananas, I know I didn’t eat nearly enough fruit and veg to offset the gluttony.’
Instead, he began intermittent fasting, where dieters eat normally for five days a week but dramatically reduce their food intake on the other two days.
By limiting his food intake on fast days to a 250-calorie breakfast and a 350-calorie supper, he lost 8lb in just six days of fasting.
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