Joe Wicks reveals that his children have never had a McDonald's and he hasn't been to the restaurant himself in over a decade

Joe Wicks has revealed that his four children have never eaten at McDonald's, while he himself has not visited the restaurant in over a decade.

The fitness fanatic, 40, known as a Body Coach, has been an avid campaigner against ultra-processed foods and instead encourages families to cook from scratch using fresh ingredients.

And in a recent interview on Times Radio during a chat about his new book Healthy Start, Joe proved that he practices what he preaches, and avoids feeding his young children fast food.

The fitness coach shares children Indie, eight, Marley, six, Leni, four, and Dusty, two, with wife Rosie, 36. 

Opening up on his thoughts on the popular restaurant chain, Joe explained: 'They've never had McDonald's. I haven't had McDonald's, and I used to love like a sausage and egg McMuffin in the mornings. 

'It was my thing. So I would go 7 a.m before my boot camp, and I'd have a sausage egg McMuffin with a hash brown. And I was saying to my wife since I met her in 2015, I haven't been in the McDonald's because the night I met her actually we're driving back from a rave and we stopped at the 24-hour McDonald's in Wandsworth, and that was because she really wanted to have McDonald's. 

'So that was the last time we had McDonald's.'

Meanwhile, Joe, who made an appearance on Friday's This Morning, told host Cathy Newman that he believes too many parents give their children snacks between meals.

He shared: 'If they reject the food, rather than getting upset and offended and make this high stress pressure thing, just say no worries, go away for an hour and play and I'll reheat the food for you in an hour, and nine times out of ten, when hunger kicks in, they'll eat it.

'I do think another issue is people giving their children lots of snacks. I think we live in an environment where we're taught to sort of give snacks and this sort of in between meals all the time so constantly grazing and little children have quite small tummies. So try and avoid snacking, try to just wait.'

It comes after earlier this year, Joe said he was 'offended and upset' by backlash to his documentary after he was accused of 'demonising foods and promoting eating disorders'.

The fitness mogul debuted his Channel 4 series in October, which was designed to show how ultra-processed foods (UPFs) packed with additives can still be marketed as 'healthy'.

In the series, he unveiled what he called 'the UK's most dangerous health bar', urging fans to buy the bars but not eat them as profits would go to healthy-eating charities.

However diet experts branded it a 'scaremongering' stunt while fans accused him of 'demonising sugar' and 'creating weird obsessions'.

Joe has since shared how he felt about the backlash, admitting on Emilie Lavinia's Well Enough podcast in January he was 'surprised at the amount of anger and pushback from the fitness community'. 

He went on to say he took the backlash personally and was 'offended and upset by it', as well as admitting it has 'knocked my confidence'.

He said: 'I was really surprised at the amount of anger and sort of pushback from the fitness community. 

'It was really other fitness coaches and dietitians and nutritionists really pushing back with the narrative of you're demonising foods, you're stigmatising low income families, and you're promoting eating disorders.

'People take a clip, they use that to create their content, to wind people up, get engagement, get comments, and then a few days later, they'll sell, you know, their online plan to you.'

Joe continued: 'I'm really sort of configuring my mindset around what I can do next in that space, because I wasn't ready for the backlash. To be honest, I wasn't prepared.

I did take it personally. I felt offended. I was upset by it, but I had to, just like, ride it out. But it's definitely knocked my confidence a little bit.'

'I just wasn't ready for, like, the negative pushback from it. And it just goes to show that, you know, the system and the way it's set up, it's just so normalised. People don't want to hear that we should consume less of this.'