Why is the Prime Minister inviting everyone into his kitchen, asks Isabel Hardman. Good question. Doesn’t he realise that for those of us fascinated by Dave’s struggles with his waistline, a glimpse inside his fridge – provided courtesy of the Sun – is the perfect opportunity for a snoop?
Disappointingly, there’s no custard on display. In my days as a Telegraph columnist, I would receive regular updates from my source at Number 10 about the sauce at Number 10. Perhaps it’s nestling out of shot. At first glance, the Cameron fridge looks disappointingly anodyne: if it did contain any goodies stuffed with E-numbers, they’ve been removed. What we see is a Notting Hill yuppie selection of… well, I can’t identify much, but it all looks organically sourced. Apart from the Hellmann’s mayonnaise, and for all I know it could be the Light variety, only ’40 calories per dollop’ (though something tells me that Dave Dollops might be rather more generous than the average).
The one thing that does leap out at me, though, is all that olive oil. And, this being a blog for Spectator Health, let me provide you with some nutritional information from diseaseproof.com. Writes Dr Talia Fuhrman:
This is the reality: just like all other oils, olive oil is 100 percent fat, lacks a significant nutrient load, contains a whopping 120 calories per tablespoon – that’s fattening.
Also, Dr Fuhrman is sceptical of claims that olive oil is ‘heart healthy’:
Some have proposed that extra virgin olive oil is heart healthy because it is rich in polyphenols. Polyphenols have antioxidant characteristics and studies show that they reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. However, all plant foods are rich in polyphenols and most deliver much more polyphenols (and far fewer calories) than olive oil. If you rely on olive oil for your polyphenols, good luck getting enough. You’d need to consume 5 tablespoons of olive oil, the equivalent of 600 calories, just to get 150 mg of polyphenols, the same amount in 55 calories of lettuce…
Which makes me wonder. Is Dave, nagged by Sam Cam to fortify himself with polyphenols, slurping five tablespoons of extra extra virgin hand-pressed olive oil every morning in order to reach the 150 mg target? If so, those trademark love handles aren’t going to melt away, even if the custard is under lock and key.
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