It's grim up north - at least when it comes to eating a healthy diet, according to a new survey. The survey of 100 towns and cities in England and Wales by snack company Whitworths found northerners scoffed far less fruit and vegetables than their southern counterparts.
Shoppers in Bath came top of the poll, buying an average 3.92 portions of fresh or dried fruit and vegetables each per day, compared with a national average of 2.9. Rochdale came bottom, with its townsfolk buying an average 1.91 portions each per day. Perhaps this shouldn't come as a big surprise, given that its five-year-olds were recently found to be the fattest in the north west, and one of its most famous residents is the 21-stone former Liberal Democrat MP Sir Cyril Smith - known in the town as "Big Cyril".
Sheffield, Liverpool, Sunderland and Blackpool were the other worst fruit and veg dodgers, while only one northern city, Harrogate, made it into the top five. Is it because, as the High Horse blog suggests, northerners like too much "bun food" - chip butties, bacon sarnies and pasties?
Not that southerners should get too smug, given that no inhabitants of any town or city actually met the government's target of eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. And the five-a-day target is the minimum amount we should be eating. So how should we get the lard-guzzling masses to ditch the chips for carrot sticks?
