Dieting seems to be impossible for most of us. There is no doubt that bad habits affect our weight, however, I had worked on a Horizon documentary which revealed that there is more to it than sloth and gluttony. I was investigating the way we experience hunger and the programme changed the way I thought about food and dieting. If you skip meals and get ravenously hungry your stomach will definitely tell your brain it’s time to eat. How this appetite signal works is at the cutting edge of nutritional research.

The programme had a huge response from the viewers who wanted to know more and it was this that triggered the TV series Truth about Food and the book. Whilst making the documentary I talked to the world’s leading scientists and came away convinced that it is possible to eat great food, not feel hungry and still lose weight.