01/09/2014 Inside Out North West

Hello and welcome to a new series of Inside Out North West, with me,

You have got about 20 kilos to lose. That is pretty terrifying. And a

major music and drama about Chester zoo starting this week, we go behind

the scenes. It is all really easy when you see it aloud, but never

quite happened is that way. The government is recommending

that we halve the amount of sugar we eat, to just 5%

of our total daily calories. That is 35g for a man

and 25g for a woman. We decided to see

if this was feasible and set Radio Merseyside's Roger Phillips

the challenge of living on just seven teaspoons of sugar a

day for the duration of the summer. Those of you who listen to

Radio Merseyside will have heard me host the lunchtime phone`in,

but just because I am working through my lunch break does not mean

I go without food. In fact, there is always some sugary

treats lying around the newsroom, so trying to stick to 35g of sugar a

day is going to be a real challenge. This is the special table

for special occasions. The problem is that, at BBC Radio

Merseyside, there is a special Oh, it is Wednesday `

let' s have cake! It's somebody's birthday

in two weeks, let's have It is all the time here

at BBC Radio Merseyside, Well, it's not a problem for me,

because I have willpower I can take Well, this is the problem

and this is why you have to do it. There is no use taking someone

like me go off the sugar, because I could, but you couldn't

because you are addicted and, if you don't mind me saying so,

Roger, you're a bit portly. You see I can't

walk past this table, you see now. I can't walk past this table without

wanting to eat all of those. It is my last day,

but I can't eat them all. There is a serious side to this `

the internet is full of articles Ten things you don't know

about sugar And what you don't know It is just devastating if you look

around and it does encourage you to do what I am doing and cut out

the sugar as best I can. I have a daughter that is getting

married in August and, to be quite honest, my shirts don't

fit me, my suits don't fit me. I doubt with this shirt

I can close it up. I have to wear open`neck shirts,

because I can't close them. Why go out and buy a whole load

of new clothes? I hope I might be able to treat

myself to a whole new suit ready for If there are cakes

and biscuits going, then I am quite And maybe makes more visits to

the pink sofa, where the cakes and Roger has been very,

very good diet`wise on lots If you look at him now,

you might not think that, but he can So I would say

his chances are improving, but I You should always consult your GP

before embarking on a diet, So that is 19 kilos heavier than

you were this time last year. So that would mean you have 20 or

more kilos to lose before your That is pretty terrifying,

but possible. So, I have got to lose

just over three stone. To get down to

a weight that is close to being a healthy normal weight, as defined

by your body mass index, yes. And going

for sugar`free is going to help me Sugar is the fuel that we all live

on, but when you eat more sugar than your body needs, it turns it into

different chemicals, including fat. So if you drastically start to

reduce the amount of sugar going into your body and start to do a bit

more physical exercise to burn that fuel off more aggressively, your

body will look for another fuel. Fat is a really rubbish, inefficient

fuel, so once you start burning it, Sometimes I worry

about government campaigns. Is it just a scare story

about sugar? Because everywhere you look they

are saying, cut down on sugar. It is very difficult to

legislate for what food we eat. However, in some parts of this city

now, we have got up to one third of children in year six of school,

that is just when they leave junior school at age 11, are clinically

obese and that is terrifying. We are seeing at children's

hospitals now, adult onset diabetes Have you seen more and more

adults with diabetes, as well? Absolutely, our diabetic register

at the practice has grown hugely We are a lot more aggressive

at seeking diabetes and Also, we are diagnosing 2,000

diabetics So I really have to do this,

then don't I, otherwise you will Well, you have got a busy summer

on and I think what we should do is get together again at the end

of August and I'll do We can get you on the scales

and we will see how you have done. We all know that cakes

and biscuits are laden with sugar, but it is the less obvious sugars

that I need to root out. Right, Robin, I have summoned you

here to this store because I have been set this challenge of 35g

of sugar per day and you and Alex Well, the reason why 35g has come

up, the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition has just

produced the report that people have The reason why it reported is

because our diet is not very good in this country and the reason why

it is not very good is because of the large amount of sugar we have

and we are not always aware of it. It does not just lead to

people being overweight. Alex and I, as you know, are working

on the Healthy Weight Campaign ` Food Active across the North West

because we are really concerned with the impact it is costing the NHS,

which is costing individuals, I have done it for about three days

so far and it has been hopeless, because I do not know what has got

sugar in and what has not.I am not eating any fruit

because they say there is all this sugar in fruit, because it has got

glucose and fructose and Roger,

the good news is you can eat fruit. It is the added sugar that we are

bothered about, so fruit in There is a whole loads

of cereals here. We've just had a look at some

of the packets here and you will find with some of them

that there are 12g of sugar per Some of them also have quite

a lot of salt in, I do think that some people probably

presume that cereals are quite healthy

because they do present themselves as being very healthy, but people do

need to look at the labels. All right,

so you have put me off cereals. Well, I want you to have breakfast,

actually. Seriously, you could have

fruit with natural yoghurt. So, unsweetened yoghurt,

natural yoghurt. You can have banana,

you can have apples. OK, Robin, so I vaguely know what I

am doing for breakfast, but not I know that you know I have

a very snacky lunch, for instance, that would be nice to wash

down that with. That looks really nice

and that is low calorie, I think. I know you are going to

tell me that it is wrong. So, sushi, people think this is

a healthy choice, but if you have a look, there is actually 11.7g

of sugar just in that pot. Well, I could have it,

but then I have only got 20 left. And also, that is not exactly

going to fill you up. So, this fairly small portion it has

actually got 17.8 grams What about the yogurt which wouldn't

fill me at all, but I like yogurts. OK,

so this serving has 16g of sugar. All right, whatever I have,

I will wash it down with that. That is water version,

so I will be all right. No,

this orange juice has 50g of sugar. No,

this orange juice has 50g of sugar. That is only relating to 2`3

servings per bottle, so you are only supposed to have a third or a half

of this bottle at any one time. Obviously, most people would

have the whole bottle. The reason why it is so high

in sugar is because it is the produce of a lot of oranges

and when the juice is actually in the orange that is OK, because

it is also there with the fibre, But when it is juiced, you are

just getting the pure sugar. So, they haven't added sugar to it,

not in the way they have added It is just the natural sugar

from the fruit. Because it has had that many

oranges squeezed into it. But if I had one orange

for lunch. I am afraid to say that I am not

much of a cook, but my wife, when she does cook,

when I am home for her to cook for me, she will cook, let's say a

shepherd's pie and she doesn't pour But her cottage pies taste

better than theirs. Yes, so it tastes much better cooked

from scratch, so eat homemade food, None of

the food manufacturers we approached would speak to us, so we asked The

Food and Drink Federation why sugar Sugar is added as an ingredient

to product for different reasons. For example, to add flavour

and texture and colour and to preserve food, to reduce the

microbiological spoilage of food. Sugar is a really important

ingredient for a number of products. For example,

it can reduce the acidity, so if you have a pasta sauce,

you can add a little bit of sugar, which people do when they cook

their own pasta sauces at home, to So, sugar is

a very versatile ingredient and it Now that I know I can have fruit,

I am finding my new regime surprisingly easy, just as long as I

avoid fruit juice. These four oranges, when squeezed,

make a glass of juice which contains 30g of sugar ` more or less

the same as a glass of cola. How is Roger Phillips getting

on with his diet? He is throwing things

around the office. That was Tuesday,

that was Wednesday. Oh, that is something

else he has thrown. It is partly psychological, I think,

I feel I am doing something. For the first time,

I am taking control for myself and the notion of the reduced sugar, or

35g of sugar, that is a focus for me I achieve it every day

and that is great. As I have been told Type 2 Diabetes

is reaching epidemic proportions, I go and find out what it would be

like to live with the condition. Tommy Brown was diagnosed five

years ago, at the age of 50. What is it

like living with diabetes? It can be difficult, because when

you are used to eating all the cakes and especially chocolates, fizzy

drink, coca cola and orange drinks, You have to keep your sugar

levels as low as you can. You have got to eat healthily,

anyway. Veg, fruit and veg,

cut out fatty foods because fatty You have got to keep

your weight down and exercise. Certainly I have become aware that

there is this element of a ticking time bomb about diabetes that it is

going to be causing really serious The dangers you can lose your sight

through bad diabetes control. It can also cause kidney damage,

again without looking With feet, you can see,

and with your eyes, you know that Kidneys, you might not know,

and it could just be slowly eating away, causing damage to your kidneys

and you are totally unaware of it. Shocked by what Tommy's told me, I

resolve to up my exercise and take One thing is I'm enjoying fruit

and salads to an extent I never did and I am avoiding that table

in our newsroom where all people keep piling very bad things which I

used to eat a lot as I passed by. I'd have one and as I passed by,

I might eat another one, so I used to eat an awful lot

of those bad things. I've managed to control

my diet relatively well. I can't say totally, but not

too bad and it's been easier. I must admit Lulu

and I have become quite friendly considering, because of the walking,

she doesn't really like me. She doesn't

like blokes She's a rescue dog, so we don't know what happened in the

past, but she is getting better. For me,

the most surprising discovery is the It is something pressure

group Action On Sugar is I meet one of its founders,

Professor Simon Capewell. What we said was sugar is

the new tobacco and what we meant by that is that it was now

a major public health problem. In the 1980s, people knew smoking

was a bad thing, but people weren't We were building our case

on science and we thought it was outrageous that ordinary people were

being kept in the dark about how That's what I've

discovered doing this. Sugar is hidden everywhere,

so either you get very good at reading labels or you

progressively modify your diet, you cut down on the sugary drinks

and the sugary fruit juices. Ideally, chuck them away and you

ideally cut down on the processed Go more to preparing stuff at home,

to fruit and veg and salads. And a lot of people have done

that and feel better for it. But the Food and Drink Federation

say we should be counting calories Focusing on individual nutrients

is not necessarily helpful. Because it is the link with

obesity that needs to be explored. And reducing incidents

of obesity can be achieved Yes, you can reduce calories

by choosing products with less sugar in some cases, but in other cases,

products with low sugar still have the same amount of calories, because

sugar will need to be replaced with other ingredients or other nutrients

that have similar calorie content. And if you want to find out more

about how tough it was for Roger it has been seven weeks since I saw

you. John bone. That is 108. That is not so bad. You have lost

five kilos. How was it for you? Surprisingly good. I thought I had

lost about ?7. Five is not bad. I going to try and keep on doing it. I

think we could shift to stored in a reasonable amount of time. If you

are comfortable doing something which fits around your commitments,

you are far more likely to do that. Well, ?5 is not quite as much as I

would of liked. But it is a start. I feel good about that. If I can

continue like that, I could lose more. But it is my daughter 's

fault, she should not have got married. But there are no further

marriages in prospect. But I am hoping I can keep this up and get

really fit in the future. And if you want to find out more

about how tough it was for Roger and what you can do to improve

your health, tune in to Radio A new drama about Chester Zoo

starts this week on BBC1. Jacey Normand has been to the zoo to

find out more about the true story of the zoo's founder, George

Mottershead, and to discover how he was a pioneer in the important

conservation role performed by zoos today Set in the 1930s,

Our Zoo is the story of one man's It is perfect. What is going on? I

want to build a zoo. Set in the 1930s,

Our Zoo is the story of one man's The drama has been shot on

location across the North West. Today's scene is being filmed

in the picturesque Cheshire village And it seems the whole village has

turned out to watch the drama and But the stars in question are

a little bit camera`shy. Recording

a scene with wild animals in this instance, penguins, is not really

the type of thing you can rehearse. That, taken alongside the fact that

the whole town has turned up to watch, might mean that the cast and

crew have to do a few practises. We work with some fantastic animal

handlers. The animals are treated was like child actors. There's a

maximum amount of filming time we do them. They are very well looked

after. How do you gone with the animals? It is one of these things,

they tell you, EB will just do lines and then we will do this and do

that, but naturally, with the animals, it does not always work out

like that. Lee has infinity with them

because they are round about Actor Lee Ingleby plays

the lead role of George Mottershead, whose daughter June Williams played

an important consultant role June gave us as much information

as she could. Her relationship with her dad

and his relationship with the zoo and how it started

and how driven he was. So, I suppose with

the script that we have, it is just marrying those two together

and making it work, I think. June, who is 88,

has been invited onto How does it feel

for you to see your family history It is very exciting, because I never

dreamed, in my wildest dreams, Your granny is going to kill me.

Man, too. Have we really get a monkey, as well? He has finally

correct. When you were a child growing up,

did it feel unusual to you? You say it is different growing up,

but I took it all in my stride But there was nothing

at all ordinary about June's Their father George Mottershead had

been injured fighting in On return to England,

he opened a shop in Crewe and began His growing menagerie attracted

members of the public and, by 1930, But not everyone shared

his enthusiasm for locating a zoo They did not want us, but mainly

because it was letting down the tone of the area, because, of course,

these were gentlemens' residences and they were frightened of some

of the animals, the dangerous Some dogs you pat, won't you, and

other dogs you will not go near. You judge them

by their reactions to you. One of June's favourite animals

at the zoo was Well, Mary came as a baby and she

was more or less hand`reared. There is a photograph of her helping

to build the lion enclosure. And the whole concept of having

a zoo without lots of bars, how In those days, they had lots of

these small square cages with bars ` But it takes courage to put

chimpanzees and an island with just water around them and many people

would not take that chance. They have been friends since they were

cubs. There was an open`air pets, to stop the hungry beer is getting out.

After a bath, they can have the bait. For the children, no visit is

complete without a raid Chester Zoo has come a long way

since the 1930s but remarkably, the foundations on which it was

built have remained a crucial part of everything it does today and,

next year, it enters an exciting A 14`acre extension to the zoo

opens to the public in the spring. Staying true to George Mottershead's

vision of a zoo without bars, the animals will be housed on islands,

accessible on foot and by boat. George Mottershead was passionate

about animal conservation and it is as important at Chester Zoo today

as it was when he first started. Scott, they are amazing

when you see them this close up. So, tell me about some

of the current conservation work you have been doing with these

beautiful creatures. Unfortunately, in the wild, these

guys are under a lot of threat. The forests are being cut down

at alarming rates. And this crop is replacing where

the forests were, so a lot of the populations of orangutans

are heavily fragmented, which is We can see he is eating there,

but I understand that some of these have actually got

their own dentist, which has been quite crucial for some of

the research you have been doing. Yes, unfortunately, a lot

of the impacts in the wild result in a lot of orphaned animals coming

into sanctuaries in Indonesia. It is quite important to be able to

age those animals and see how old they are and we have

been able to do research here at Chester Zoo on our own animals to

look into their teeth and use that They're very inquisitive,

aren't they? I just wondered how you think

your father would have felt knowing your life story and

your family's life story is being Oh, I think he would

have been thrilled. And he would have been thrilled that

his family were mentioned. And you can watch Our Zoo

on Wednesday night here on BBC One. Do not forget, you can catch

us again on the BBC iPlayer. Next week, flight planning

applications in the north`west are making people see red. If things do

not change, people will not be able to enjoy the sort of things

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