The nation’s PE teacher Joe Wicks has pissed off a lot of people. Although that was partly the point of his Channel 4 consumer shockumentary Joe Wicks: Licensed to Kill, which aired last night, setting out to expose unhealthy ultra-processed foods with the creation of a “killer” product.

Unfortunately, many of those he’s upset are the wrong people. Big Food and the government have thus far kept schtum on the programme. Nutrition experts and health advocates, however, have today spoken out, mainly to criticise the show’s complete lack of nuance, and fearmongering.

They might have a point.

The stunt saw Wicks devise a protein bar packed full of every additive, emulsifier and sweetener going – basically “bowl after bowl after bowl of white powder” he said – but still within legal thresholds and approved for sale.

Why? Because the UK eats more UPF than any other nation after the US, the show explained, much of it masquerading as healthy or good for us.

UPF has become “impossible to avoid” Wicks said, which “pisses me off, it stresses me out”. He wants the government to “wake up and take account”.

Turning nutrition into a horror story

One expert on side is anti-UPF figurehead Chris van Tulleken, who served as Wicks’ encouraging sidekick on the show, and exposed him to the links between different ingredients and cancer, diabetes and early death. UPFs, van Tulleken said, are “better thought of as an industrially produced edible substance”.

Given the “health halo” around protein bars currently – though possibly not for much longer – the category was perfect for skewering. Brands Fulfil, PhD Smart Bar, Optimum Nutrition, Huel and Grenade are called out by name.

But is it the permissible per product quantities of the various ingredients Wicks has issue with? Or that they permitted at all? Or the prevalence of UPFs on the supermarket shelf more broadly? Or the on-pack health claims brands can make? Or is it protein bars that are the problem specifically? Surely it’s better to swap the Mars bar you would’ve eaten for one?

Confusion reigns. And that’s an issue.

“Turning nutrition into a horror story isn’t the answer,” Tim Spector wrote in an Independent op-ed. The show “feeds the same kind of fear and confusion that’s already rife in food culture. People don’t just need more fear; they need a better understanding and practical help,” he noted.

Richard Wilkinson, UK MD of no-added sugar chocolate bar brand Neoh, posted that Wicks was “still full of shit”. “Scaring people off eating all protein bars and creating fear over foods that are perfectly safe to consume in reasonable quantities,” he wrote, was “reckless and irresponsible”.

“Unfortunately, as always, the boring and sensible messages rarely make the headlines so brands and individuals have to make extreme statements and claims to generate the clicks and visibility,” posted dietician Clementine Vaughan. “Anyone know how to make ‘moderation’ attention-grabbing?”

A food revolution

Like it or not, Wicks entering the UPF fray – no matter how erratically he’s throwing punches – with such a headline-grabbing stunt will no doubt provide a catalyst for further conversation and some kind of response.

“Nothing like a stunt to get people talking,” Leo Campbell, co-founder of Modern Baker, told The Grocer. “This one lacked a focused call to action in my view.

“What it did do was shine a light on how unfit our current health guidelines are for purpose,” Campbell added. “Anything that moves the UPF debate closer to its natural conclusion – that we have to redefine ‘healthy’ and fix food through better science – is progress.” 

The good it may bring to the nation’s health – while not immediately apparent – could be worth the immediate upset.

Even Wicks – who some may remember as the face of MyProtein in 2019, his image appearing on a full range of powders and pills, is shown having second thoughts on the stunt. A bar designed to harm health, sold with his face on it. Van Tulleken convincingly explained that to keep it as a thought experiment would mean nothing would happen. It must be sold, he said.

“This is how revolution happens,” van Tulleken said, “and we’ve reached the point in the food system in this country where we have to think in revolutionary terms.”

You can’t make a (healthy) cake without cracking a few (ultra-processed) eggs.

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