Fat jabs? Just eat much less says Prue Leith | UK | News | EUROtoday

With her vibrantly fashionable garments, chunky ’n’ funky jewelry and groovy glasses, there’s no denying Great British Bake Off choose, telly prepare dinner and meals queen supreme Prue Leith likes to look good – and manages it, too. But even she has her limits… and admits considering many ladies spend an excessive amount of time, vitality and cash obsessing over their look.

“I get irritated by the endless self-absorption and constant, ‘Me, me, me’ stuff,” she reveals as we chat over Zoom. “Something’s wrong when we seem to want or need so much pampering all the time. I was in Western Australia a couple of months ago and went to this little town where there were no proper shops but endless massage places, wellness centres, foot clinics… just about every kind of maintenance you could think of for mind, body and soul.

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t have these but so many women seem to think of nothing but themselves. It’s very navel gazey, and sort of unhealthy actually. I don’t want to sound pompous but if they were thinking a little bit more about other people and a little bit less about themselves, they would be happier.”

Prue doesn’t maintain again relating to the problem of feminism, both. While undoubtedly sensible for women and girls, she feels it’s had fairly an unsettling impact on some adolescent boys and younger males.

“Those who don’t know what their roles are in life and don’t know what to think. Many aren’t toxic but they just feel ineffectual,” she explains.

“But undeniably some are toxic – the ones who look upon Andrew Tate as a role model. They hate women because Tate does. Confident, competent women taking charge provokes two reactions in men or boys who feel inadequate.

“They’re either cowed and intimidated by females or they hate them. I’m no psychologist but I think this also links in to people just thinking about themselves and how they feel. About looking inwards rather than outwards.”

Yikes! Never one to mince her phrases, Prue is in significantly fiery type at present.

We’re alleged to be speaking about her ITV cooking present, Prue Leith’s Cotswold Kitchen, a mish-mash of tasty recipes, movie star chat and culinary hacks now in its second sequence.

But it’s clear Prue worries about younger folks – and particularly the impact of social media on their psychological well being.

“I don’t really know what can be done about it. Kids these days just don’t seem to have the confidence and resilience earlier generations had – and social media must have something to do with that,” she continues.

“They’re constantly comparing themselves to these ‘amazing’ people with seemingly ‘amazing’ lives whom they see on their screens.

“It makes them feel inadequate and unhappy. It breeds feelings of general discontent – this myth that everyone else is ‘living their best life’.

“In reality, the people doing the posting are likely to be living a false life themselves and probably pretty miserable, too. With regards to the young people in my own life – my two grandchildren from my daughter are too little for it to affect them, while my son’s three have been brought up quite strictly. Their screen time is limited and their parents are very supportive and encouraging, which, in turn, makes the children confident.

“Young people would be far better off doing something real rather than staring at a screen at these so-called ‘perfect lives’ all the time – theatre, music, sports, debating… Outgoing things rather than inward-looking things. Activities which give them self-confidence, happiness and purpose. Things that make them feel alive and a valued, valid part of society.”

Prue, whose two youngsters are the Conservative MP Danny Kruger and TV producer Li-Da Kruger – whom she adopted from Cambodia as a child – has lengthy been an advocate of wholesome consuming. She believes strongly that getting our kids to start out consuming meals that’s good for them slightly than the junk selection can be a step in the proper route to enhancing their psychological in addition to their bodily well-being.

“Obesity rates in children are alarming and getting worse with almost a third regarded as obese or overweight. I’ve been saying for 60 years that we start addressing this by teaching children to love healthy food – and the way to do this is to teach them how to cook.

“If we fed our children healthy, non-processed food, we wouldn’t have this problem with obesity. Look at Japan. Just 4% of their children are overweight and the rate is falling. Obviously, they’re doing something we’re not. Children in Japanese schools sit down to a healthy, free meal every day. Nothing processed is allowed into a school kitchen. From an early age, a whole nation is taught how and what to eat.

“They even have rules about what can be sold in supermarkets. However, our Government just looks at the amount of tax raised from chocolate, fast food and the like, and thinks, ‘We can’t afford to do that.’ But the Government must look more long term.” Such as permitting the NHS to prescribe extra weight-loss remedy equivalent to Mounjaro – which proved simpler than rival Wegovy in latest medical trials – to the overweight and obese than they
presently do?

Prue, it appears, is cautiously in favour of so-called “fat jabs”. She explains: “Something like 60% of hospital admissions are due to diet-related diseases and so this form of treatment could save the NHS a lot of money. If the jabs can help people change the way they eat, then they may literally be life savers and possibly the saviour of the NHS, too.

“I just wish people would eat less. Portion sizes these days are vast. It’s ridiculous. We just eat too much. I think this is
partly due to unhappiness. When we’re not happy, we comfort eat. It’s true that when you’re miserable, you go straight to the fridge or want chocolate.” But as Prue, 85, will know, meals is the recipe to a life properly lived – particularly within the extraordinary one she has lived.

Born in South Africa, she’s an uber profitable restaurateur, broadcaster, cookery author and novelist. But it hasn’t all been plain crusing, significantly relating to her personal life. In her 20s, she started a secret, 13-year-long affair with a lot older enterprise man Rayne Kruger who was married to an in depth pal of her mom’s.

Eventually Rayne left his spouse and 6 months later ‘officially’ obtained along with Prue whom he would go on to marry.

“Morally it wasn’t right – I know that. I don’t think that you should sleep with another woman’s husband,” admits Prue. “But I don’t think I could not have fallen deeply in love with Rayne. This means that while it wasn’t right, we couldn’t have done anything differently.

“We did try to part a few times but always got back together. Rayne was the love of my life. What made it so awful was that Nan, his first wife, was a close family friend. Rayne loved her and so did I. She was wonderful.

“Rayne was determined not to make an enemy of her and they stayed friends. We all did. Eventually, she would come and stop with us every weekend. We got through it the best way we could – my mother included. She was angry when Rayne left Nan, which he did several months before he and I officially became an item. But when she learnt I was pregnant and that I was supremely happy, she was wonderful.

“I have no advice for people in this situation – it’s different for everyone. You can only do your best and try to think the
best of people. That’s all I want to say about it. It was a long time ago.”

Rayne handed away in 2002. She met her present husband John Playfair in 2011 and so they married in 2016. A dressmaker earlier than he retired, John has these days change into a little bit of a telly star by showing alongside Prue on Prue Leith’s Cotswold Kitchen.

“He’s stealing my thunder and I’m supposed to be the TV star in the family!” she laughs. “We were at a supermarket checkout the other day and the girl on the till recognised John. She said, ‘Oh you’re the man on Cotswold Kitchen. You’re wonderful! You’re so funny!’ And I’m stood there packing the bags and she hasn’t a clue who I am!

“I’m pleased for John, though. He’s a natural. We have jokingly been compared to Fanny and Johnnie Craddock!”

While the Duchess of Sussex could movie her As Ever present in a employed kitchen, Prue loves working from residence.

She says: “I wouldn’t want to film it anywhere else. I’m very proud of my kitchen and love living on the job, so to speak. I love the fact that Bambi – the make-up lady on both my show and The Great British Bake Off – wakes me up at 8am with a cuppa and I go straight into the make-up chair. On Bake Off, I have to get up about 5.30am to be in the make-up chair for 7am.”

With regards to Bake Off, eyebrows have been raised just a few months in the past when Prue revealed she wouldn’t be doing the movie star Stand Up For Cancer model of the present. She’ll be again judging the common present which is broadcast in September, although.

“I said no to the celebrity one because I wanted some time off,” she explains. “I love Bake Off. It’s great fun. Everyone gets on and the bakers are amazing. Will this be
my last one? I honestly don’t know. I
know I’ll have to stop some time and I’d rather jump than be pushed but right now I’m very happy.”

Prue Leith’s Cotswold Kitchen is streaming on ITVX now