Bringing cake into the office is as harmful to colleagues as secondhand smoking, food tsar warns 

Bringing cake into work is as harmful to colleagues as secondhand smoking, Britain’s top food tsar has warned.

Professor Susan Jebb, the Food Standards Agency chairwoman, argues that passive smoke inflicts harm on others in the office ‘and exactly the same is true of food’.

She has also slammed ministers over a decision to delay a watershed for junk food advertising, adding that it has led to a ‘complete market failure’ that has squeezed out health foods.

Prof Jebb, who teaches diet and population health at the University of Oxford, told the Times: ‘If nobody brought in cakes into the office, I would not eat cakes in the day, but because people do bring cakes in, I eat them.

The professor says: ‘If nobody brought in cakes into the office, I would not eat cakes in the day’

WHAT SHOULD A BALANCED DIET LOOK LIKE?

Meals should be based on potatoes, bread, rice, pasta or other starchy carbohydrates, ideally wholegrain, according to the NHS

• Eat at least 5 portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables every day. All fresh, frozen, dried and canned fruit and vegetables count

• Base meals on potatoes, bread, rice, pasta or other starchy carbohydrates, ideally wholegrain

• 30 grams of fibre a day: This is the same as eating all of the following: 5 portions of fruit and vegetables, 2 whole-wheat cereal biscuits, 2 thick slices of wholemeal bread and large baked potato with the skin on

• Have some dairy or dairy alternatives (such as soya drinks) choosing lower fat and lower sugar options

• Eat some beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other proteins (including 2 portions of fish every week, one of which should be oily)

• Choose unsaturated oils and spreads and consuming in small amounts

• Drink 6-8 cups/glasses of water a day

• Adults should have less than 6g of salt and 20g of saturated fat for women or 30g for men a day

Source: NHS Eatwell Guide 

‘Now, okay, I have made a choice, but people were making a choice to go into a smoky pub.’

She added: ‘With smoking, after a very long time, we have got to a place where we understand that individuals have to make some effort but that we can make their efforts more successful by having a supportive environment.

‘But we still don’t feel like that about food.’

She has pushed for doctors to be more open to approaching patients about their weight and offering help with dieting.

Prof Jebb said it is bad that many currently refrain from broaching the topic.

A former government advisor on obesity, Prof Jebb also criticised the government for delaying a junk food advertising ban, which she said is ‘undermining people’s free will’ to eat vegetables.

‘Advertising means that the businesses with the most money have the biggest influence on people’s behaviour,’ she said.

‘That’s not fair. At the moment we allow advertising for commercial gain with no health controls on it whatsoever and we’ve ended up with a complete market failure because what you get advertised is chocolate and not cauliflower.’

She also insisted obesity in the UK could be treated, saying ‘pretty cheap interventions’ such as weight management programmes would help.

It comes as Lord Rose of Monewden, chairwoman of Asda, told the Times Health Commission on Monday that workplaces need to do more for employee’s health.

He asked: ‘Why don’t we lobby to say that also in that process as employers, we have a legal obligation to do something about our employees’ health?’

Two thirds of adults in the UK are currently overweight – a figure that has doubled in the last 30 years. 

Treating obesity-related illnesses, like high blood pressure, diabetes, and several cancers, is estimated to cost the NHS £6billion a year 

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson famously declared war on the nation’s waistlines in 2020, ditching his previous aversion to nanny-state style nutrition policies, after his own weight exacerbated his Covid infection.

Prof Jebb has also criticised the government for delaying a junk food advertising ban amid increasing obesity in the UK

Prof Jebb argues that passive smoke inflicts harm on others in the office ‘and exactly the same is true of food’

But the Government last year backed down on several schemes, delaying a ban on ‘buy one get one free’ junk food deals and a 9pm watershed for sugary snacks for a least a year in a bid to help poorer families with food bills.

And last month Health Secretary Steve Barclay delayed an advertising ban until 2025.

He is resistant to bans and instead wants ‘more positive ways to promote healthy living’.

Meanwhile, Prof Jebb said tackling obesity could be achieved through ‘pretty cheap interventions [that] yield huge benefits’ including NHS weight management programmes.