Dr Arun Ghosh on TalkTV

He has made regular appearances on the Jeremy Kyle show, offering his expert opinion on a wide range of subjects and in May of 2022 the two joined forces once again on TalkTV to discuss the UK's obesity problem. 

See below for the full interview and transcript.  

Full Transcript of Video:

JK = Jeremy Kyle

AG = Dr Arun Ghosh

JK -

A recent study and this is serious now, has suggested this is, I mean, actually the thing about this show is it is light and shade; 42m of the UK’s adults, 42m out of what 70, will be overweight and obese by 2040. That’s what, 20 years away. Two thirds of the population, this is a subject that seemingly comes up on a monthly basis, and solutions aren’t always that simple. Many people say the cost of living will exacerbate this absolutely. People will say people are eating the wrong kind of foot. The government are allowing advertising of the wrong kinds of food. Other people will say ‘No, no, no, this is about parental responsibility.’ Joining us now is a good friend of mine Arun Ghosh, private GP and director of Ghosh Medical Group, Arun, afternoon, how are you, my friend?

AG - 

I’m very well, thank you very much. How are you doing?

JK -

Well, I am alright. Look at him sitting there looking all suave. You have talked to me about this for a long long time; 42m UK adults, Arun, by 2040 will be obese, will be overweight, and we know from all the studies and the stuff we have talked about before the related illnesses to that diabetes, heart disease, are really really serious. Over the last few weeks, we have seen Jamie Oliver say he’s going to dump Eton mess outside Downing Street. We have seen people moaning about government’s advertising sugary and salty foods. You are a GP, what’s your take on this? How do we deal with what is a massive, excuse the pun, problem, but it is.

AG -

When I was studying medicine, I remember looking at a textbook telling me about obesity, and I have just pulled that textbook back out, and when I look at the people in that picture, so 20 years ago, this is how scary it is. To me, they just look like normal people. So, already, today 65% of the population is overweight. So, we’re already starting from a skewered point where what we think is normal, just is not normal, and actually when you see someone of probably normal weight you go ‘Don’t they look thin?’ But they are not thin, they are just average in their weight. So, we really have a bad problem in this country, 64% of us are overweight. We do not recognise obesity until it’s far far too late. What we think is obesity is normally what we call morbid obesity, which is when the weight that you carry is going to have a direct effect on your health whether you like it or not, and that’s class I evidence. That’s as strong as saying if you smoke it’s not good for your health, and that’s the same with obesity. We know now, it’s class I evidence in its likelihood to cause cancer, in its likelihood to cause diabetes, it its likelihood to cause raised blood pressure, and a whole host of other conditions.

JK -

People always say those are startling figures but they are the reality. I

thought that was a great interesting analogy from you that what was thought of as an issue before, it’s very very different. The problem with this is, right, people are either scared or they feel judged, or they do not want to finger pointed at them, so they point it at the government, right? Is it diet, is it lack of exercise, is it lack of intelligence from parents? Why are we seemingly on this headlong rush to eat too much, exercise not a lot, and kill ourselves early, why? I do not understand, mate.

AG -

It’s not just a British problem. We look across the whole of Western Europe, and we’re all getting fatter, but the UK is very unique in the fact that we’re getting fatter faster, and you and I have had many fights about what the cause is, and I will talk to you about education. We’ve removed that from schools and teaching children how to cook, how to look after themselves. We have talked about fast food restaurants opening up completely uncontrolled. Anyone who lives near a fast food restaurant is far more likely to go for that type of diet. You have talked to me about parents and that they should be able to control their children in what they eat, but it is very difficult for low-income parents to get and source very good food, especially fresh food, especially if they are not educated enough, as we have said on how to actually cook that food. It’s far easier to get a microwaved meal, and unfortunately still far cheaper. But, we have got to talk about the quality and quantity of food in this country. We have the way of buying food from super meals, supersizes, triple chocolate bars. We can buy these a meal deals. We give huge amounts of extra calories which we do not need to do on a daily basis, and that is slowly killing our nation.

JK -

When you hear that, so we have argued about this in the past, and I don’t just say it’s parents. I says it’s a combination of things. I think it’s just easy to blame the government. I do not know if you saw that thing last week from Lee Anderson, that tory MP who said, and interestingly, I absolutely slaughtered him in breakfast, and then when it came out that they were saying actually he used to be a Labour MP, he’s actually a self-made man. He’s got a food bank in his constituency, so alongside that we are getting people to attend courses to learn how to cook from scratch, cheaper food, no rely on those take outs, not rely on those salty and heavily calorific meals, and he was lambasted for that. Is that a part of you that understands where he was coming from?

AG -

Absolutely, and I think as doctors I know a lot of doctors who smoke and drink, and certainly are probably overweight, but the education that we have and the ability to give people vouchers, or healthy exercises or joining gyms, they just are not working. We really need a huge amount of intervention, and individuals like that who can set up food banks have to also look at the quality of food that they are giving, but this is in a situation where we are very very under the COSH in terms of what we can afford to buy. The cost of living is going and going to go up, and as a result of that I can tell you obesity is only going to get worse.

JK -

So, Ash, listen, he says ‘Tell your doctor it’s cheaper to buy fresh fruit a vegetable and pasta than it is to buy ready-made meals or takeaways. This is down to parents’ personal responsibility, not relying on the state to tell you how and when to eat.’ You are laughing but that is relevant

AG -

We have this every single time, and I will tell you that is absolutely brilliant if you know how to cook that food, but unfortunately we have a whole set of people who have been brought up on microwaved meals who have been easier to go around to the chippy and have a chippy Friday or a fish supper on a Saturday, and the has been their culture. You know, curry, which is not the greatest meal, and I am Indian, is our national dish. It’s not a great starting point. You look at the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables, say our Spanish counterparts will eat, and it is far far more in their diet.

JK -

The Mediterranean diet is very healthy, isn’t it, to be fair, isn’t it?

AG -

And also the quality that they get in terms of their food is actually far better. So, we have to change the culture. We have to change the concept. We have to change access to that food.

JK -

But Arun, not just food. I mean booze as well, right, I mean wine, you know. I mean that’s… You do this job and you do the TV and you go, and I’ll go I’ll have a glass of wine at 10 o’clock at night. It’s lethal, right?

AG -

Not only wine, look at the coffee sensation that we have had with lattes. That’s just milk. That’s a huge amount of milk with a small amount of coffee. Our fizzy drink intake is phenomenal in Britain, and that’s pure sugar, and if I could ban one food, it would probably be fizzy drinks and crisps because they have a huge amount of calories with no nutritional content. So, there is a huge amount that we drink ourselves fat, and I agree with you, it’s not just the alcohol which may actually have a slightly relaxing effect, it’s actually all these sugary drinks which are constantly coming out onto the market.

JK -

Why is it then, in your mind, that people, when they hear you speak, when they see and hear and read and everything, why are we as a nation no going ‘Jeez, there is an obesity crisis, we need to do something for our health?’ Why are people not listening, Arun?

AG -

It’s because it’s the same reason why I do not have a six-pack, Jeremy. We all know what to do. We all know we need to eat less and move more, but the motivation and the quantity of food that we have at our disposal is far far bigger, and that’s where the government do need to help us out, and that’s where they do need to make decisions for us and say, actually let’s ban the advertising. It worked with smoking. It worked with drinking. It worked in other health initiatives, that if you do not see that food constantly advertised, you are not going to always crave it, and that’s going to help us considerably, especially the next generation which, let’s face it, our kids are going to be even fatter than we are, that already I am seeing 12-year-olds with type II diabetes. I never saw that twenty years ago. So, we have got to do something to those kids, and we have got to do that now, but it’s just like a lot of things with global warming. If we ignore it and let it just roll and roll one, we will sit here with a super fat nation. We saw this during covid, Jeremy. We saw it. We wondered why Britain was so badly hit. One of the key reasons was we were so much fatter than everyone else. We had such a poor diet. So, therefore, covid hit us harder.

JK -

Amazing mate. Always seriously a pleasure, Arun Ghosh, private GP and director of the Ghosh Medical Group, friend of this show, a friend of mine. Thank you for being on. This is Talk TV Drive.

[End]