Joe Wicks: Licensed to Kill

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Documentary

Summary

Joe Wicks and Dr Chris van Tulleken carry out a highly provocative stunt, that they've designed to convince the government to change our food laws for good. Together, they create the UK's most dangerous health bar, including ingredients linked to cancer, diarrhoea, stroke and early death, all of which are entirely legal in the UK and commonly found in other products

Review

David Butcher

Very occasionally, a TV campaign moves the dial on a public health issue. It happened in 2005, when Jamie’s School Dinners woke the nation up to the original Turkey Twizzlers (since reformulated); this stunt from fitness coach Joe Wicks just might have a similar impact.

Wicks is shocked by the marketing of ultra-processed foods full of sugar, fat and harmful additives. “Diet is killing people,” he says. “Isn’t it the Government’s job to protect the nation?” So he links up with Dr Chris van Tulleken to create and brand a deliberately deadly protein bar.

It’s like an Apprentice task, except the aim is to make their bar as full as it can legally be of “powders and slime”, while still — amazingly — marketable as a healthy, sporty snack. The result is really quite grim. Wicks wonders if “maybe this will be the most important thing I ever do.”

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Channel 4

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rolenamePresenterJoe WicksPresenterChris van TullekenProducerJacob GreenhalghDirectorStorm TheunissenExecutive producerWill AndersonExecutive producerAndrew Palmer

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Why I'm selling a protein bar that could be hazardous to your health

Why isn’t the Government protecting us from ultra-processed foods, asks Joe Wicks.