A Systematic Cross-Sectional Analysis of British Based Celebrity Chefs’ Recipes: Is There Cause for Public Health Concern?

Abstract

A comprehensive nutritional assessment was conducted on Celebrity Chefs recipes, with co mparison against national healthy eating guidelines. Food preparation recipes (n=904), covering a wide range of meal types, fro m 26 dominant British based Celebrity Chefs were rando mly sampled fro m literature and web sources. Recipes were blindly analysed through dietary analysis software by three trained d ietetic researchers (CV 6.9%). The nutrit ional value of each recipe was co mpared against national healthy eating benchmark guidelines using a healthy eating index (HEI). Overall average energy, protein, total carbohydrate and total fat per suggested portion was 2.3MJ, 25g, 44g and 31g, respectively; with d ifferences observed between Celebrity Chefs (P<0.001). The overall average recipe co mposition of n=22 Celebrity Chefs presented high fat, n=24 high SFA, n=17 high sugars and n=7 high salt content. Negative HEI was observed in 87% of recipes. Male and British originated Celebrity Chefs presented higher nutritional variables than Female (P<0.001) and International originated (P<0.001) Celebrity Chefs, respectively. The nutritional values of Brit ish based Celebrity Chefs recipes, in adjunct with their likely influence on food preparation habits of the public, suggest Celebrity Chefs are a likely hidden contributing factor to Britain's obesity epidemic and its associated public health issues.