Latest / The BEYOND Podcast / Jenny Tschiesche: Why Nutrition Advice Is Confusing Everyone
Transcript
- 0:00Unknown: It's upsetting to know what's happened to the food industry. It's horrible.
- 0:04Businesses want to make money. All the theory behind nutrition. What do you do
- 0:08with it? I think it is over complicated. But then I wouldn't have a job if it was less complicated.
- 0:17[music]
- 0:18You need to become very savvy when it comes to label reading. Look at things that you don't
- 0:23recognize. And if you don't recognize, question it. What is the biggest red flag within the label?
- 0:28The biggest red flag for me on any label is something that says whenever [music] you go
- 0:33to buy anything, there is an impulse buy section which is there to make you want to buy something.
- 0:39What have they done to our food? Breakfast. Is it the most important meal of the day? It depends on
- 0:44who you are. On the subject of sweets, sugar is very inflammatory. If you've took sugar off the
- 0:49table and we didn't eat another sugary thing in our lives, we would still find enough. The human
- 0:54body does not need sugar. And a heavier bread is more likely to have less ingredients in it. The
- 1:00softer they are, the more red flagish it is. Yes. Not every ultrarocessed food is a dangerous food.
- 1:05Is vegetable oil a processed food? Yes. Try and listen to your body more than you listen to social
- 1:10media. What are we snacking on? So, ideally, we would not have to snack. Most of us should be able
- 1:15to go between meals without eating. We shouldn't need to snack. When we listen to our bodies,
- 1:20our bodies will tell us exactly what we need. one takeaway for people, what would it be? Um,
- 1:28something that I haven't already said. Um, Jenny, hello. Welcome to Beyond the Boardroom.
- 1:36Thank you. So, we were having a little informal chat, weren't we, about um
- 1:40all the theory behind nutrition and it's completely and utterly overwhelming. It is at
- 1:46the moment, I think. Yeah. Yes. And what does it all mean? How do we We We've had great podcasts,
- 1:51but I've brought you on to just take, you know, all that theory. Let's take it and let's Now,
- 1:58this is all about applying it in easy digestible chunks. I love what you did there. [laughter]
- 2:06I'm going to eat my nutrition. Yes. Yeah. Because we want to just um like what do you do with it?
- 2:12What do you do with all the information as in what do you eat? Yeah. Absolutely. I think it
- 2:17is over complicated but then I wouldn't have a job if it was less complicated. So that is my
- 2:22job to be that kind of you know take you from all the theory to actually what the heck did you put
- 2:26on your plate you know that this is the conundrum and we're so time poor you know our lives are so
- 2:32busy now whatever stage of life you're at your life is busy and it's over busy and we just do
- 2:38not leave enough time when we compare the time we leave for cooking preparation etc to perhaps
- 2:43how people would have done that and even if you look at the design of our houses and our kitchens
- 2:46they're not really set up for food preparation as we would have considered it Back in the day,
- 2:52we talk about food prep now, like we do, you know, four chicken breasts and some rice and some veg,
- 2:56you know, ahead of a week of work. But that's not what we really meant by food prep back in
- 3:00the day. There would be processes involved that would take you from raw materials to a
- 3:05a cooked meal. Raw materials do anymore. Yeah. Raw materials to a meal. Okay. I mean, I I I don't
- 3:10know what you mean by a change of design for our kitchens. So, we've got the kitchens we've got.
- 3:16We're in the situation we're in. We're all busy. Okay. We've all heard this this information coming
- 3:23to us about ultrarocessed foods and we know that it's a food that's been processed too much and now
- 3:31it's bad for us. Can you That's a really good way of putting it. I like that. [laughter] Why didn't
- 3:35I think of that? And elaborate on that. So, what is it when we're looking on shelves? What is it?
- 3:40It will be a food that has uh lots of ingredients. Step one, ingredients that you have perhaps not
- 3:48heard of before. So they will sound I know people say this and it's very cliche but a
- 3:52little bit more like a chemistry experiment than the sort of things you'd find in your kitchen.
- 3:57But if you think about some of the things that perhaps you did you or were aware of growing up,
- 4:02things like artificial colors or artificial flavoring, it's like that but times X now
- 4:09because now we're looking at things that have got emulsifiers and stabilizers. There's a whole
- 4:14range of artificial sweeteners and I think that would be a podcast in its own right because it's
- 4:18so complicated. I was going to say if I ask you what is an emulsifier, what is a stabilizer? We're
- 4:25podcast and we're moving away from that. So basically what do you do? Yeah. So you need to
- 4:29become very savvy when it comes to label reading but we haven't got time necessarily to do that.
- 4:35So the easiest thing that you could do is you know cook from scratch but scratch really means
- 4:40different things to different people. So, there are variations on that and perhaps that's what
- 4:45we'll, you know, we'll discuss. But, you know, I would say meat that looks like it's come from an
- 4:50animal. Um, nuts, seeds, whole grains, vegetables, and you know where those vegetables have come
- 4:58from, the ground, a tree, whatever. Um, I'm trying to think if there's anything I've forgotten there.
- 5:03Oily fish as well. You know, this is a a whole foods diet. These are recognizable foods. We don't
- 5:08need to be considering things that are beyond that, but we do because because we're time poor.
- 5:13I think this is where we need to ask questions about where our food is coming from. I don't think
- 5:18people ask enough questions in certain contexts that we talk about when you go to the supermarket
- 5:23label reading, but then equally some people will read every single label and then have takeaways
- 5:28three nights a week and not even think about how that's being prepared. So, it's consistency
- 5:33because you're saying a food with a lot of a meal with a lot of ingredients, but then you go to a
- 5:37really nice restaurant. Let's say you want to go to a nice Italian restaurant and you're having a
- 5:41beautiful seafood pasta and there's lots and lots of lovely things in there. You have no idea what,
- 5:46but it's nice. Yeah. Is that an ultrarocessed food? It's unlikely that it is if it's been
- 5:51cooked in the kitchen. And you know, most Italian restaurants, if we think about the culture of
- 5:56Italian restaurants and how Italian immigrants arrived, they brought their food culture with
- 6:00them. They set up restaurants as one of the industries, the sort of founding industries,
- 6:04and they've prepared food from scratch since the day dot. But then take that,
- 6:09literally take that example and look at the number of adverts that give you the impression that the
- 6:14pizza or pasta sauce that you're going to buy from the supermarket was cooked by your Italian
- 6:18grandmother. Now we're moving into ultrarocessed. So the Italian restaurant, great. The food that
- 6:24tells you it's authentic and Italian, not great. No. and I'm in marketing and that upsets me a lot.
- 6:32I used to be in marketing too and I look at it through my daughter's studying
- 6:36marketing at university and I do look at things through a very different lens.
- 6:41I could only see the positive in marketing back in the day and now I see how it can be used but also
- 6:47very easily misused and people can misunderstand a lot very easily because we're so time poor. Yeah,
- 6:55that Yeah. [laughter] Well, that's um pulling the wool over one's eyes. It's not prepared by
- 7:01a grandmother. It's prepared in a factory. And I suppose that's what you're saying. When it's
- 7:04in a factory and there's these things being added to it that we don't know what these things are
- 7:10and they won't grow in nature and you won't pick them off a tree, they there is something going on.
- 7:15So the biggest change so from that all we can take that we need to look at the label. Yeah.
- 7:22Look at the things we don't know. And that's a red flag. Don't buy it. Yeah.
- 7:26Look at things that you don't recognize and if you don't recognize question it. I mean I find
- 7:30it harder as I get older because I have to take my my glasses my specs with me when I go shopping. So
- 7:35you know that standing in the supermarket holding it further and further away. But
- 7:39you know the reality take a photo and then enlarge it. Well there is that too
- 7:42and and and you know this this happens to us because we are so well I am particularly
- 7:47doing what I do but so focused on trying to find better alternatives. I'd love like anybody else
- 7:52I think I'd love to have the time to cook from scratch. I write cookery books. I do
- 7:56cook from scratch, but I'm always trying to find, if I'm truly honest, hand on heart, I'm trying to
- 8:00find a quicker way because I understand that not everyone's going to be in the kitchen all day like
- 8:06I am some days. Yeah. My parents cook from scratch and uh when my dad comes to visit me,
- 8:11he makes me spend the whole day with him in the kitchen and he gets really frustrated. He's like,
- 8:15"We need to make the stock and then we need to do this and then we need to I'm like, "Dad,
- 8:19what a beautiful thing he does." I love it. I love it. But it's so time consuming. It is. Yeah,
- 8:24but it is also an area, a time in your life where you do have connection. And my my mom worked
- 8:29full-time. I'm the youngest of seven children. The kitchen was a galley kitchen. And I kid you not,
- 8:34I probably got the most steps in by trying to speak to my mom of an evening while she prepared
- 8:38an evening meal. And all you had to do was she'd just say, I don't think she'd even say you just
- 8:43automatically move as she reached for the ladle or the wooden spoon or the knife or whatever.
- 8:48And and it was just that immersive experience. I don't even know that I knew that I was learning
- 8:51how to cook. But the six six out of the seven of us, I would say, are very good cooks.
- 8:56I apologize to the person who I've just missed out of that list, but you know that it because that's
- 9:00how we grew up. We grew up around a mother that did cook and she was working full-time,
- 9:04but it's still so important to have a cook meal every evening. Okay. So,
- 9:08there's two things that are coming from this. Um the first one, if you can answer this, is what is
- 9:13the biggest red flag within the label? That's one. And then the second one is a lot of us do cook,
- 9:21you know, the basics like a chicken breast with some potato and whatever some vegetables,
- 9:27but we really fall down on the other things, the cereals, the the whatever the the drinks that we
- 9:33might drink, snacks. So, so could you answer those two? How do we prevent that? What what's that red
- 9:39flag and how do we prevent the other one? Yeah, sure. So, probably the biggest uh sort of one
- 9:45area of or one set of ingredients within the ultrarocessed um kind of area rephrase that.
- 9:54The the biggest uh red flag for me on any label is something that says emulsifier or stabilizer. Now,
- 10:01the unfortunate thing is it doesn't always call that out as an emulsifier or a stabilizer. So,
- 10:06it's almost better to become aware of what they are. So, they're gums generally. um so guag gum,
- 10:11zantham gum etc and emulsifiers. Now the the most amount of research has been done on CMC,
- 10:17caroxymethyl cellulose and polyorbate 80 and those are ones that we should be aware of and we should
- 10:23be looking on the labels of our food but I think when it comes to foods that contain those they are
- 10:30quite prevalent in our diet and a lot of our kind of free from foods for example
- 10:35um so you know you're free from dairy milks and you're um free from loaves your uh gluten-free
- 10:41loaves your gluten-free pizza bases A lot of those will contain them, but even a lot of our
- 10:46dairy products will contain like um yogurts for example, ice cream. So, they're an area that I
- 10:53would look to if you can remove. That's really really difficult. What do they do to you? Well,
- 10:58the research suggests that it affects the gut and the gut lining. And what we do know is that
- 11:03that can create inflammation. And inflammation is at the root the root cause of everything that we
- 11:08know to be lifestyle related. So, anything we can do to reduce inflammation is a good thing. And we
- 11:13know that a diet that's higher in antioxidants. So, look, if you're someone that's like traveling
- 11:18loads with work and you're not in control of what you're eating um in terms of, you know,
- 11:22you don't know whether you're going to be eating something with emulsifiers and stabilizers,
- 11:26it's sort of beyond your control. What you are in control of is what you eat in the other meals or
- 11:30whilst you're traveling. Then really up your antioxidants. You know, think about brightly
- 11:34colored fruits, vegetables. The color should come from the fruit or vegetable, not the packaging.
- 11:39Because of course, that's what again manufacturers have done a really good job of making, you know,
- 11:44a whole aisle of a supermarket look really bright and colorful because we do eat with our eyes, but
- 11:49we don't need to be, you know, the allure doesn't need to be in the packaging. It needs to be in the
- 11:53natural color of these foods. Um, so that's what we should be looking for. Okay, so those are the
- 11:59the red flags. And then when it comes to our cooking and most of us are actually well most
- 12:03a lot of us do cook you know we think we're all if you have to ask people most people think they're
- 12:07generally quite healthy and I would use the word generally it's the other stuff it's all the snacks
- 12:12and everything y sweetened yogurts I'm going to not the Greek yogurts you know what what else
- 12:19I mean anything that you're going to have in between meals but again that says more about
- 12:22our culture and the way that we live our lives you know we we fair enough people are going to snack
- 12:27but if you look again How you know marketing is sort of think about the impulse purchases and how
- 12:33whenever you go to buy anything whether you're in a supermarket whether you're buying a rail ticket
- 12:39whether you're in you know a shop somewhere there is an impulse buy section which is there to make
- 12:45you want to buy something and it's going to be a snack it's ideally going to be you know nuts or
- 12:51fruit but it's very rarely that and you know if you stop at any service station in the UK there
- 12:56will be by every till that you go you you're going to check out. There'll be something that's there
- 13:00to to We were just in in Devon recently and family and my mother-in-law came with. We were driving.
- 13:06We had to stop at the service station and my husband was like, "Should we get a McDonald's?"
- 13:11And I was like, "No, we're not going to get a McDonald's. That's really I I don't
- 13:13want it." And I got frustrated because I already knew that I wasn't eating that healthy. I was on
- 13:18trainings, you know, they were they were having a little trip, but I had to do training and I was
- 13:22already I knew that I had biscuits there and I thought, "Oh no, not McDonald's, please."
- 13:26Then I looked around and I was like, well, what are the choices? Gregs, McDonald's. What? Why?
- 13:31Why isn't there a whole food beautiful farm? I don't know, something. Why? [laughter] It's just
- 13:39not commercially viable. I mean, there there's a really good services on the M25 that recently
- 13:44lost its Leon. I mean, Leon was probably the best alternative to a McDonald's. Yes,
- 13:48you had to pay more for it, but if you wanted that kind of, you know, fast food fix on a journey,
- 13:55that was a great place to stop. And the fact it's gone and it's been replaced by actually, I
- 13:59think it's a premon Starbucks. I'm not sure. But, you know, that means there the choices that were
- 14:04available are not now. It's just not there. The healthy choices are not there. And then you go in
- 14:08and there will be a marks and spent. So, so thank goodness for that. And you might be able to get
- 14:12some berries which you haven't washed cuz you're not by a tap with a clean [laughter] water. So
- 14:15you're eating all your chemicals or your choice is some sandwich which is also ultrarocessed
- 14:20or some chocolate or some crisps or it's absolutely devastating. Why can't they give
- 14:24us a smoothie with some nice real fruit and you know the the best thing you can do is buy a banana
- 14:31cuz you can peel that and eat it. Yeah, that's not a bad choice. Uh yeah, I mean you can do so
- 14:36limited. Some of the I do a lot of corporate well-being and some of the companies I've
- 14:39worked with have people that are out on the road all the time. They work through the night of the
- 14:44sorts of places that are going to be open for them to grab something whilst they're out
- 14:49and what's available is so shocking. I mean, you know, it's it's very very hard for me to advise
- 14:56anybody on what they should be doing when they're in those when they have that that fewer choice
- 15:00those fewer choices to make from, you know, it's very hard. So, I totally get that.
- 15:05Travel with food maybe was something someone else said which is was quite good advice.
- 15:10Okay. So, breakfast, is it the most important meal of the day? And if it is, uh, what shouldn't
- 15:19we be eating? Let me I'm I'm rephrasing the question that I was originally going to ask
- 15:23based on what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, it depends on who you are. Like,
- 15:28I I do a lot of content creation, a lot of social media, and I do understand that people
- 15:32don't like nuance, but I'm afraid it exists. You know, for some people, breakfast is absolutely
- 15:38their best meal of hands up, that's my favorite meal of the day. I almost live for my breakfast,
- 15:44but I am a morning person. You know, if you look at chronotypes, and this is where we
- 15:49look at what's going on with the sort of hormone levels in your body. I am such a lark. I get up
- 15:55early in the morning and quite frankly, I am ready to go to bed nice and early in the evening, too.
- 16:01However, if you're more of an owl, you know, you're probably not a breakfast person. You're
- 16:05probably somebody but but but you do need to plan for when you get hungry, but you're probably
- 16:08somebody that benefits more from a brunch. But I would say that first meal of the day is really
- 16:13important and it does need to be a really balanced meal. And again, um, you know, we we have had,
- 16:20uh, I think a lot of messaging over the years about what a good breakfast looks like, but you
- 16:24only need to travel to, you know, somewhere in the Middle East or somewhere in South America or
- 16:29go to Japan and you get to see a very different version of what breakfast looks like. And and
- 16:35breakfast in a lot of countries is not a different meal from any of your other meals. Um, you know,
- 16:41it is what we might consider here in the UK to be more suitable for a lunch or an evening meal. Yes.
- 16:47Yeah. I noticed that. Yeah. When you say, "Oh, you have to eat protein with your breakfast." And,
- 16:52you know, yes, you might have the bacon, which bacon is not ultrarocessed, really bad for you.
- 16:56And then, yeah, you think, but but we're eating dinner for breakfast. It is a strange. Yeah.
- 17:02You know, and there should be no problem with that. And I think again this is about a mindset
- 17:06change you know where if you have traveled and you have seen that you understand that you if
- 17:11somebody says to you when you're having a bowl of cornflakes every morning you've got to get
- 17:15your protein in. That's a big step change for you. Where are you going to get your protein?
- 17:19You probably think oh maybe the milk. You know I where am I going to get my protein
- 17:22when I'm having cornflakes for breakfast. But if someone says to you like you're already having
- 17:26two eggs for breakfast. You need to get more protein. That's a really easy step up. You know
- 17:31add another egg in there. If you want a bit more fiber, put some avocado. If you want to add a bit
- 17:36more fiber, put some maybe some change your white toast to your whole grain sourdough or something
- 17:40like that. It's a very easy change in mindset for the person that's already, you know, thinking of
- 17:44their breakfast more like a lunch or an evening. Breakfast is so nice. Like bacon and eggs and
- 17:51beans and nice toast, you know, you kind of and um but so so is yogurt with berries and Yeah. And
- 17:59again, I But those are breakfasty things. They're breakfasty things, but we don't have to look far
- 18:02to where those sort of the origins of those things came from. I mean, growing up, we didn't have like
- 18:08a lot of yogurt even, you know, plain yogurt, yes, but we wouldn't have had like a fruit yogurt.
- 18:13And therefore, yogurt wasn't, you know, anything kind of that to be aware of. I didn't have to
- 18:19worry about modified m starch or any stabilizers or any sweeteners or any coloring in my yogurt as
- 18:26a child because I just have plain yogurt. Yeah, there wasn't any. things have changed, you know,
- 18:31and that's and that's where it's almost like it's almost like a game and you have to kind of keep
- 18:35up with the rules and the rules keep changing and that's where it feels like it's unfair to people
- 18:39that don't do what I do. What have they done to our food or what have we cuz it's humans. We've
- 18:44done it to our own food. Yeah, we've accepted it. Um, but I also think that uh, you know,
- 18:49there's a lot of money to be made when you start using people. I've had somebody said this to me
- 18:53the other day. There are more ingredients in that one and and yet it's cheaper, you know,
- 18:58or there are fewer ingredient. I think it was um, I was comparing crisps. Yes. You know, and I was
- 19:03comparing a baked crisp, which ostensibly is, you know, healthier. It tells you it is on the back,
- 19:09you know, versus an olive oil crisp. I don't eat crisps that often, but if I'm going to eat them,
- 19:13I'd probably eat the olive oil ones. Olive oil crisps. Yeah, because you know fewer ingredients.
- 19:18Yes, they're so much more expensive. But it's the point that the ingredients are expensive when
- 19:22they're real ingredients. It's when you put all of the additives in, they're a lot cheaper for cheap
- 19:27and they give the food longevity. They give the food shelf life and that's what people really
- 19:31want. They want to be able to, you know, come back in a year's time and if don't worry if those
- 19:35baked crisps haven't sold because they'll still be in date. We can still make money off them.
- 19:39So think about that sitting of years [laughter] old crisps in a packet. Yeah. Things that
- 19:45you come back to a year later and they still look the same. They're probably not for you.
- 19:51Yeah. Same with bread when it lasts a little bit too long. I think in in the States it lasts for
- 19:55a very long time, doesn't it? Yeah. And and you know, again, you have to look only Yeah.
- 19:59across the Atlantic to find that there is um some interesting there are some interesting ingredients
- 20:05that have been added to bread over the course of time and sugar being one of them. And if you go to
- 20:09the US and you ask for rye bread, for example, it doesn't look and taste anything like the rye bread
- 20:16that you know I've had. I've married a a half German um his father used to get the bread from
- 20:22a German baker in Ireland growing up and you know so that's the rye bread that I was introduced to
- 20:27standard. I love German rye bread going you know you really have to chew it but if you go
- 20:33to America and you ask for rye bread it's it's nothing like that. It might have some rye in it,
- 20:37but it tastes sweet and it's really really hyper palatable. On on the subject of sweets,
- 20:42so we we spoke about ultrarocessed foods. We understand that they cause inflammation. They
- 20:46are really dangerous. And then you've got sugar as well. And there are things go out there that
- 20:53say sugar causes cancer. Okay. Or inflammation. I don't Does it cause cancer or inflammation? I'm
- 20:59not sure. So which one's almost the worst one? Is it sugar or is it I think you can sort of be
- 21:04say I mean it's very simp because I find it on the internet. You know when I was researching for this
- 21:09podcast I was saying what are people asking? What are the things that I see? What pops up?
- 21:13We're looking at this. The team are picking out the things that the everyday person is asking. And
- 21:18there are things like that sugar causes cancer. Don't eat sugar. It will give you cancer. Yeah,
- 21:23that's what you see. You do see that and you see the same about ultrarocessed foods. And I should
- 21:26say in their defense not every ultrarocessed food is a dangerous food. you know, anything
- 21:30that contains some ultrarocessed ingredients isn't necessarily a bad food. And you can think
- 21:35of examples, you know, people talk about obviously if you're thinking about a budget as well,
- 21:40you you got to be careful because you could um be too ex sort of exclusive with this. I'm going to
- 21:46eat ultrarocessed free and that's not accessible to the mainstream. And that's a worry for me
- 21:51because healthy eating, you know, it should be accessible. We all admit that it's not entirely.
- 21:56Um, but I think it's really important to think about whether again nuance ultrarocessed foods
- 22:03that are the the worst culprits, the one that contain the the greatest number of additives
- 22:09and the ones that are hyper palatable. And this is, you know, if you think about I had I had one
- 22:14of my first ever clients um came to me and he was on a typical western diet and I sent him away with
- 22:20a diet plan and he came back two weeks later and he just he said to me, "My jaw hurts. It hurts
- 22:26from chewing. And I had a a moment of and this is before we even talked about ultrarocessed food. So
- 22:32this is a moment of realization where I just think this guy wasn't even chewing his food before. He
- 22:36was everything he was eating, you know, whether it's sort of burger burger buns or um burgers
- 22:42or you know soft cooked chicken or fried softer they are the more red flagish it is. Yeah. So that
- 22:47the more hyper palatable and that's one of the issues with ultrarocessed foods that we want to be
- 22:51aware of is that they're very easy to eat more of them and they can be not for everyone but they can
- 22:56be an addictive quality to them and I think that's what again some people are more prone to this than
- 23:01others. So we shouldn't you know tar everyone on every food with the same brush. We should say
- 23:05if you are somebody that when you eat you know say two biscuits you can't stop at two biscuits
- 23:10and you want to eat five maybe the whole packet some people I've come across then you know that's
- 23:14possibly an issue for you but it's not necessarily an issue for everybody but you could say the same
- 23:19about sugar now sugar is very inflammatory and I think for years um we had the wall pulled over our
- 23:25eyes as a as a a population because we thought for years that fat was the culprit and we recognized
- 23:31that yes there are some bad fats and we do need to be careful not to consume too many, you know,
- 23:35trans fats and not a diet too high in saturated fats. But there's some good quality saturated
- 23:41fats. There's some good quality unsaturated fats. There are some good quality omega-3 fatty acids.
- 23:45And we do need all of those in our diet. We do need those to survive. Sugar, we'll find it. If
- 23:51you've took sugar off the table and we didn't eat another sugary thing in our lives, we would still
- 23:57find enough sugar, if you like, nature sugar. What what did people do before we discovered the sugar
- 24:04cane? Well, people, you know, at honey and they ate fruit. The human body does not need sugar.
- 24:10So, we would be fine without it. We'd be perfectly fine without ultrarocessed foods. But both exist
- 24:15in our modern diet and we just have to make better decisions according to what our body
- 24:19does and how our body reacts to both. That's what I would say. And then you realize when you look at
- 24:23sugar like the white granules how processed that is because um I had the privilege of tasting real
- 24:30raw sugar cane as a kid and sucking it and you know it's really it's delicious. Looks nothing
- 24:36like or tastes like sugar sugar. Yeah. And that that is the most refined form. And if you look at
- 24:42any you know any brown sugar will have some element of it will be slightly more I'm not
- 24:47saying it's nutritious slightly more nutritious because it will have minerals left in it like
- 24:52you know molasses if you think of molasses that darkly syrup you know that's actually a source of
- 24:56chromium and iron but we don't want to be eating spoonfuls of it but if you were going to put any
- 25:01sort of syrup in something maybe that would be a better choice so it it is sadly nuanced okay okay
- 25:08before I move on we'll go back to the breakfast lunch and dinner so just to
- 25:11help everyone. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack. Uh before we go there, you mentioned oil.
- 25:16We've heard that olive oil is great, but then you got to be careful because some are just
- 25:20for drizzling and if you use it for roasting that becomes cancerous because it can't get
- 25:24you can't use it at such high temperatures. But then there's agree with actually I think you can
- 25:27use you can use olive oil. It's self-protecting if you like the the levels of polyphenols in it are
- 25:33protective. So I would say you can cook with olive oil and I would be perfectly happy to do
- 25:38so. It's not a sustainable way for us to eat as a population. there were too many of us and too few
- 25:42olive trees. We do need to be aware of that and consider that. Then we also need to think about,
- 25:47you know, olive oil has been here since the Roman times. Again, there were far fewer of
- 25:51fewer of us on the earth at that point. So, we do we just need to be aware that we do need to seek
- 25:55other sources of oil. We can't all eat olive oil. Yeah. On on the oil though. So, there's olive oil,
- 26:02there's all kinds of there's rape seed oil, there's sesame oil, there's all these oils,
- 26:07and then there's vegetable oil. Is vegetable oil a processed food? Yes, it's a anything that's
- 26:12been super refined like that we we shouldn't be consuming, you know, from an inflammation
- 26:17perspective. If you do want to go down that path, and I suggest we do need to look, like I say,
- 26:21beyond olive oil, then something like an extra virgin rape seed oil, a coldressed rap seed oil,
- 26:28it's local. We grow lots of it here. and you know a cold pressed version rather than the
- 26:33you know refined version that you will see in a lot of products in the supermarket because again
- 26:37as soon as a manufacturer caught on to the fact that they can create something nice and cheaply
- 26:41they'll put it in their food. Yeah, there's so much to to think about. Let's go back to
- 26:44breakfast. How do we improve our breakfast? So think of it firstly as it could be any meal of the
- 26:53day. So your breakfast doesn't have to be what we typically consider breakfast here in the UK. Um,
- 26:58but I would say, you know, do think about fiber, which I think is it's very hot at the moment. It's
- 27:04a hot topic at the moment. It'll have its day and it'll die down again. I I wish it didn't. I wish
- 27:10it wouldn't. I don't think I think protein has had its day and people talk about protein still a bit.
- 27:16Um, but I do think fiber is having its day right now. Um, fiber is a really important consideration
- 27:22and it's harder now to get than it used to be. the way we used to grow our crops, the way we used to
- 27:27prepare our food and the way we used to eat made it a whole lot easier to get fiber into our diet,
- 27:31the way that we prepare our foods now, particularly ultrarocessed foods, that it's
- 27:35it's it's almost impossible for a human being to get about 30 grams a day. Now, that's going
- 27:41to vary according to male or female body size. 30 grams. How visually what would 30 grams look
- 27:46like? So, we're looking at say, for example, a kiwi fruit would be like uh 2 to three grams of
- 27:52fiber. Gosh, really? What about a normal apple? standard size. Yeah. About four g, 5 g of fiber.
- 27:57And we need 30. We we we are talking about having to make sure that now we have things like beans.
- 28:03Um obviously the right kinds of fruits. Raspberries are a good choice when it
- 28:07comes to fiber, but we also need to make sure that the grains that we have are whole grains.
- 28:11Um we need to have seeds. We need to have nuts. You know, all of these things that we would have
- 28:16had. I mean if you think about today the frequency with which we eat meat alone that there's an
- 28:23opportunity cost to that you know so you know I'm not just talking about during the war here
- 28:28in the UK but I'm talking about like in the 50s and 60s I'm talking about prior between the two
- 28:33wars prior to that people couldn't afford to eat the amount of meat that we eat today the way we
- 28:37produce it etc. So what did they eat instead? Well, there were a lot of pulses. You know,
- 28:42pulses are cheap. They're a source of protein and they're a source of carbohydrate as well.
- 28:47But they're a source of fiber, too. And I think, you know, where people used to sort of
- 28:51piece pudding, for example, very old-fashioned, and I know often served alongside bacon, but
- 28:56again, that bacon wouldn't have been prepared in a factory. It would have been prepared, you know,
- 29:00or even a ham or a ham hawk. would have been prepared by your butcher locally and it wouldn't
- 29:05have the additives that we have in our modern day baking bacon cuz it would have been smoked,
- 29:10you know. So, so our preparation techniques have changed. I appreciate I'm going off on
- 29:15one now and I completely forgotten the question. No, no, I also [laughter] forgot the question cuz
- 29:20I'm supposed I'm supposed to remember the question. But it's so interesting.
- 29:23I've forgotten because you just Yeah, you're making me think a lot. I mean,
- 29:26even the process of smoking something, you can smoke it with chemicals added in or you
- 29:31can smoke it naturally without those chemicals. I just feel like, you know, it makes it's upsetting
- 29:38to know what's happened to the food industry. It's horrible that we've all that we're eating disease.
- 29:44It's horrible. And we need to have these podcasts and we need to put that information out there
- 29:50and we need to reprogram all of our minds and get away. I don't like the marketing that's
- 29:58marketing things that are dangerous for people. Those products need to stop
- 30:03Yeah. existing. It's I would love to see it's a different labeling system because I appreciate,
- 30:08you know, businesses want to make money, but I think if things were labeled differently,
- 30:13people eating the I eat ultrarocessed foods. I'm not completely, you know, immune to that.
- 30:18I'm going to find myself traveling somewhere, abroad, somewhere. I'm going to grab something,
- 30:23but I wouldn't make it the main part of my diet. I'd say my diet is probably 90 to 95% ultra
- 30:28process free because I make a conscious effort for that to be the case. Okay. Right. Right. Okay. So,
- 30:34breakfast, we've got our Yeah. We our breakfast looks more like dinner. And we've got in there, we
- 30:40try and packing pack it with fiber. We've got our protein. And if we think about how little fiber
- 30:45there is in fruit, we need to bring in beans, pulses, and those kind of things. Yeah. To up that
- 30:50fiber level. Yeah, there are other I mean there are certain fruits that are about I've mentioned
- 30:55kiwi and raspberry great. Um but you know there are some like gems that people don't necessarily
- 30:59recognize like desicated coconut that's actually relatively high in fiber. Just popping that onto
- 31:03your porridge in the morning. I also have like how do you buy that in a can? Yeah, the dried one.
- 31:10And what about the liquid one? You put that into curries coconut milk. Yeah, you can get that. I
- 31:14mean that's not going to have as much um but the desiccated. So this is the you know the actual
- 31:18meat of a coconut that's being powdery. It looks looks like it can be that or you can have the
- 31:22toasted you bits pieces that have been toasted. So there's even more flavor from those and those are
- 31:26delicious on you know again yogurt. So you can make a savory version of yogurt you can make a
- 31:31sweet version. I think I sort of split or divided people the other day because I suggested putting
- 31:36yogurt on toast which is something I started doing at university and it's very Middle Eastern
- 31:41but it's a really good combination especially if you've got whole grain toast. And I use I I use um
- 31:46chia seeds quite a lot which I know you know people talk a lot again they're having their
- 31:50day but if you want to make a jam and you don't want to have a sugary jam just get a little bit
- 31:55of fruit and some chia seeds and you know you just boil the fruit down till it's reduced add the chia
- 32:01seeds and it thickens up beautifully and you've got a great combination of you know the sweetness
- 32:06the natural carbohydrates and the fiber and the protein from the chia seeds plus the yogurt good
- 32:12slice of toast that's a great hungry. You're making me hungry. Okay, we've had our breakfast.
- 32:17We we go to work. What are we snacking on? So, ideally, you know, we would not have to snack.
- 32:23You know, again, our bodies tend to do better when we don't. Now, there there are differences between
- 32:27hyperactive, hyperactive, [laughter] hyperact, very busy people, people that are very active
- 32:33will require more frequent uh meals. And especially I've worked with a lot of athletes,
- 32:38that's how I got into nutrition is through sport. So I I I totally get that you need to prepare for
- 32:43and you need to recover afterwards. So there are going to be different rules for different people,
- 32:48but by and large most of us should be able to go between meals without without anything without
- 32:53eating. We shouldn't need to snack. And again, you know, I talk a lot I have a degree in geography as
- 32:58well and I talk a lot about place because I think it's really important to look at other places
- 33:03and you know I don't think the UK necessarily gets this part right. We're we're brilliant at
- 33:09some things. We're amazing at sarcasm and we're world leaders at irony, but I don't think our food
- 33:15culture has been the best. And I do think when we look to other nations, we can learn a lot.
- 33:21We don't have to look very far. Like, you know, I always think about the Scandinavians
- 33:25and, you know, how much more healthy they seem to be despite the fact that they don't get enough sun
- 33:30um when it comes to omega-3 and vitamin D status because they actually consume the oily fish that's
- 33:36in the waters around them. We're a tiny island. We're surrounded by water and so many of us don't
- 33:42eat any fish and most of us don't eat any oily fish. So, well, my husband I'm married to a Brit
- 33:49and he said that actually growing up they used to eat more fish. So, now for breakfast and there's
- 33:55another one which is kind of a yellow one. I don't know the name now but uh kippers. Kippers. Yes.
- 34:01So, that was more of a breakfast, right? Yes. Exactly. So, why did that go out of fashion? I I
- 34:07I have no idea. There's all sorts of things. We used to eat nose totail. We used to eat the whole
- 34:10animal. You know, I I only have to spend time with my 85year-old mother to see her eating,
- 34:15you know, tripe and um ox tongue and you know that may offend some people and I'm sorry if it does,
- 34:22but the reality is if you're going to some people are going to eat beef and they're going
- 34:25to eat steak, but they're not going to think about what happened to the rest of the animal.
- 34:29The rest of the animal is only going to go to waste. So, should we not go back to practices?
- 34:34I know. And you know someone like my dad also very very traditional he'll boil it is it is the whole
- 34:40animal and to some it might be freaky but yes there's zero waste absolutely zero waste. Yeah and
- 34:46that and that is where we've become removed um you know I know there have been times when
- 34:51you know famous TV chefs have taken children to farms and you know had a lot of um negative press
- 34:57where they've shown children actually what happens and how it happens. But quite frankly, I'm I'm for
- 35:02children understanding where their food comes from. Otherwise, it just gets delivered to them on
- 35:07the table. They have no connection with it. They have no relationship with it. And we do we have
- 35:11an epidemic of fussy eating right now. And I'm not suggesting that's the only reason for it. But
- 35:16I do think having children educated in how foods where they come from and how they how they make
- 35:22it to the table is a huge part. And I don't think it's up to schools. I really don't. And adults.
- 35:27Yeah. May I [laughter] may I add? Okay. So, try and avoid the snacking and obviously grab the
- 35:34the food that's originated from its source without the label. Lunch. Yeah. What could we go for? Good
- 35:40question. So, again, you know, our our typical meal deal throws us off the scent. If we think
- 35:46that's an actual meal and that's going to keep us going, you know, some people are having lunch
- 35:49at 12:00 and they're not going to get home till 8. Yeah. That that's when you're going to snack
- 35:53because that lunch is not going to do it for you. The typical meal deal being a packet of crisps,
- 35:58a sandwich, and possibly something sweet or a fizzy drink. So, if we look at that,
- 36:03you know, if we break that down nutritionally, you've got an awful lot of carbohydrates,
- 36:06you've got very little protein, you've probably got no fiber at all. That is not going to be a
- 36:10sustaining meal. And quite frankly, if you're looking at achieving certain things, you know,
- 36:14and I do think the younger generation are more aware of what, you know, their macros are, what
- 36:18their goals are. They know that they want to get a certain amount of fiber, maybe not so much fiber,
- 36:23maybe that's where they need to look at it, but protein and carbohydrates and so on and so forth,
- 36:27but that meal in the middle of the day, it just isn't going to do it for anybody. And therefore,
- 36:32there's an opportunity cost because you've got the rest of the day to try and make up for it.
- 36:36Even greater focus on that breakfast and even greater focus on that evening meal. But what
- 36:40if that lunchtime meal was as important as the other two? Or if you're somebody,
- 36:45and again I know people that only have two meals a day because that works brilliantly for them,
- 36:50sort of an intermittent fasting type thing. Um, again, even more focused on those two
- 36:55meals. They've got to be absolutely right. You know, you've really got to focus on that. So,
- 36:59your typical British meal deal isn't going to do it for you. You do need to seek out alternatives
- 37:04and and honestly, the quickest thing is just prepare more of what you did the night before and
- 37:09take that to work the next day. It's the quickest, easiest. go back to a lunch box, take your lunch,
- 37:14buy a thermos flask. There's a squat thermos flask that you can buy. We have about five of them at
- 37:19home and you know, my husband's on a road trip at the moment. He took one with him. He took the
- 37:24night before supper with him. And you know, he's honestly stopping at a service station and having,
- 37:29you know, this lovely stew rather than having what was on offer at the service station was. Yeah.
- 37:34It's really upsetting these service stations. It is. It's just it upsets me. Okay. So you you
- 37:40think about preparing and you take your lunch with you because you you won't be able to cook and and
- 37:46whatever you grab you're limited. So well there are going to be better choices at work as well.
- 37:50You know the people will have like what like what I would prioritize protein at lunchtime
- 37:56because if you eat too many carbohydrates you're going to get very sleepy. So I would think about
- 38:00going to you know whatever is around you. Is there a bean soup that you can choose?
- 38:06Is there some falafel? Is there some hummus? You know, some people are absolutely they they've not
- 38:11got time to go and seek out something, but they can go and get some hummus and like a carrot even
- 38:17or like some apple wedges. What about like a chicken salad from Gales? Great. Perfect. I
- 38:22thought you were going to go no. Oh, no. No. You know, places [laughter] like that, but you know
- 38:26that is going to cost you at least. It is going to cost you. Yeah. And most places are going to
- 38:30charge you something like that. So, and Mark Spencers or whatever, sainsburries, a chicken
- 38:34salad. Yeah. chicken salad would be a better option, but for most people that's not going to
- 38:39give them even enough that and again there's a mental element to this because you sort of
- 38:43if you've grown up with a sandwich and a packet of crisp in your lunch box,
- 38:46you sort of think of that as lunch. So you have to change the way you you look at it. But certainly,
- 38:50yeah, prioritize protein at lunchtime. Make sure that you've got some vegetables in there. Um don't
- 38:55stress too much, but don't think of it as a sort of cheat meal. Think of it as an important meal.
- 39:01Give it due credit important meal. Yeah, it's important as as breakfast and it's kind of like
- 39:07dismissed lunch. It's not really given [laughter] value to and we don't even you know it was 2021 I
- 39:13think it was that in France um they finally scrapped the law that made it illegal to eat
- 39:20at your desk. So up until 2021 the only reason they scrapped the law was because of COVID.
- 39:26So if you think about the French eating culture they've always made time for lunch. you you leave
- 39:31regardless. My one of my uh my brother-in-laws, he lives in France, uh he's a painter and decorator
- 39:36and at lunchtime they down tools and they sit and sometimes wherever they're working they
- 39:41get vouch like lunch and vouchers. They can go and get a meal and they sit with their workmates
- 39:45and they eat properly. They're not even having a sandwich, you know, they're having a proper meal
- 39:49and so the French really know a thing or two and that eating alesco, we have a phrase for
- 39:54it here so it's so unhygienic. But anyway, um, but you know, I lived in Portugal for 2 and 1/2 years
- 40:00and same thing. And we would take out an hour and a half and all go the whole office downstairs
- 40:07cafeteria and have proper like fish, potatoes, everything. Yeah. Think about the communication
- 40:13that goes on during that lunch hour. I bet people are much more efficient, more effective. I mean,
- 40:18I'm sure you've had guests on here that have said how much more effective and efficient people are
- 40:21when they take breaks during the day. I always used to laugh when you used to have, you know,
- 40:25the the smoking policy. The most efficient people were the smokers because they got to go outside,
- 40:30have a cigarette, come back in, they got a mental break, and those mental smokers just worked,
- 40:34worked, work worked, work work, but they became inefficient in their working practices.
- 40:37And I'd say the same with lunch. If you don't stop and make it an entity in its own right,
- 40:42you're missing a trick. You're just going to work yourself into an early grave because, you know,
- 40:46your body is not going to thank you for that at any stage. You do need to take breaks. And
- 40:50eating whilst you're relaxed will help with your digestion. A lot of people end up with, you know,
- 40:55in the afternoon particularly if they've rushed their lunch or they've eaten a lunch that's sort
- 40:58of substandard or they've eaten at their desk when they haven't been focused on what they're
- 41:02doing because they've been distracted by an email that's come in. Their digestion will be really
- 41:06struggling. Their whole digestive system will be really struggling. A lot of people think they have
- 41:10IBS when actually it's just because they haven't made time for lunch. They haven't made time for
- 41:15lunch. We need to respect our lunch more. Okay. Yeah. I love that. I never thought about lunch
- 41:20in that way ever. Well, now, right, dinner. Is it the most important one or is breakfast
- 41:27still the most important one? Again, it depends on who you are. Um, because you know that that
- 41:31sort of lark mentality is like breakfast is my number one thing. It's like I I almost go to bed
- 41:36the night before dreaming of my breakfast, which some people might think of as weird, particularly
- 41:40if they're not breakfast people, and the last thing they feel like is eating breakfast. um
- 41:44that evening [clears throat] meal it it is often a time when particularly families or partners will
- 41:48come together. So I would say it's more of um it has more importance in terms of its sort of
- 41:53bringing together of people. However, I think what people these days probably end up feeling
- 41:58it has importance for is because the rest of the day has been a bit of a miss and you need to hit
- 42:04this something unhealthy for breakfast. You've had a sandwich for lunch at your computer and you've
- 42:09landed at dinner. Exactly. What am I going to make now? What have I and you're too tired to cook.
- 42:13You're too tired to cook and and you've got half an hour. What do you do? Well, there's some great
- 42:17companies out there that are doing these meal kits, but again, it's almost like uh you know,
- 42:21they they know that there are going to be people who are in this situation. I I see where I live,
- 42:27I see a lot of those boxes out on recycling day. So, I know a lot of
- 42:31people, you know, that work or they've got family or both and and they use those kits,
- 42:35meal kits where they're making it, you know, according to a recipe. That's one option. You
- 42:39know, the second option is that you do quite a good job at batch cooking. Um, and again,
- 42:43there's some brilliant resources online where you can batch cook, where you can prepare meals
- 42:48that are uncooked, freeze them, and then take them out and pop them straight into the
- 42:52just just on that, you've written how many books? Seven. Seven. You've written seven books.
- 42:57And one of your books or several of the books go through well, there's different
- 43:00things that you can use to prepare these meals, but what's the simplest of the books just for like
- 43:05the simplest meals? Um, which would you recommend for really for busy people that just want to
- 43:11probably sheet pan dinners. Sheet pan. Sheet pan dinners. Yeah. So, that was one of my first books.
- 43:16Okay. And it the concept is you put everything onto one tray and then you pop it in the oven.
- 43:22Now, there might be things that you add partway through. Broccoli might take less time to cook
- 43:26than the chicken breast, for example. So, you add that a little bit further along the line, but it
- 43:30is a one tray dinner and just put it on or Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a really easy way to cook and
- 43:37it's it's a simple way because well a there's less washing up and I I don't know when I speak to to
- 43:43friends you know often it's one person cooks and the other one washes up. Well if the one person
- 43:47that's cooking is putting it on one tray and the one person washing up is washing up one tray that
- 43:51seems like a fairly not a lot to ask. Yeah. Okay. And you've put together really easy, really simple
- 43:57food dinners that we can just really really simple. I think it's often a sort of a
- 44:01misunderstanding that like I'm a chef. I'm not. I'm a cook and I want to find ways that are quick
- 44:07and easy to cook from scratch but without using ultrarocessed foods. My husband is the process
- 44:13driven one. He loves the whole sourdough thing. That's right up the street. Takes too long. I'm
- 44:18not for that. That's why I use a pressure cooker rather than a slow cooker. We're going to get into
- 44:21the equipment, but basically just so because we're we're trying to help people and people like me,
- 44:27I'm guilty. I'm not. [laughter] So So we'll put the the links in the descriptions below. Yeah.
- 44:34So, it's easy. You go in, you do that. Boom, boom, boom. Okay, let's go into equipment. Um,
- 44:39and also we're going to go into shopping because you need to have the stuff in your house and
- 44:43shopping can be a real pain as well and it takes a lot of time. [laughter] Okay, so right, equipment
- 44:49besides an oven. What else do you need? I love an air fryer because it's like a quick
- 44:55oven. Uh, if there are just sort of two of you, great. If there's a much larger number, having an
- 45:00air fryer can get difficult unless you are doing those one like the air fryers just because it it
- 45:05heats up really quickly. A lot of um modern ovens do, but slightly older ovens and it doesn't take
- 45:10you to go much further than 5 years back. They can take some of them like 10 15 minutes to warm up,
- 45:15whereas an air fryer tends to take about 2 minutes um to warm up. So, it's quick and easy from that
- 45:20perspective. And I think that is sometimes an obstacle to people cooking from scratch. the
- 45:25time it takes to warm up the oven is an obstacle because people get home and they're absolutely
- 45:28ravenous and they just want to eat. So that's one less thing to worry about. So I love having an air
- 45:34fryer, but but honestly it doesn't matter if you don't have one because there is the oven and you
- 45:38you know if you're thinking about equipment in our British kitchens which are not that big and you've
- 45:42got unlimited amount of surface space, I would say a pressure cooker multi cooker. I'm going to
- 45:46call it a multi cooker because that's what it is. You know, there are some big brands on the market.
- 45:51I I still think they're an undervalued bit of kit. I just I I wish more people knew about
- 45:56them. Really? Yeah. I I've never even considered a pressure cooker. You'll see again you'll see
- 46:00a lot in India where there are a lot of pulses prepared and going into meals. You know, there's
- 46:06a lot of vegetarians and a lot of vegetarian food in India and a lot of those dishes will be
- 46:11based around beans and pulses and preparing those where you don't buy a can every time. Actually,
- 46:16preparing them from scratch makes them much more easily digested. Some people get quite flatulent
- 46:21when they eat beans. Cooking them in a pressure cooker makes them much more easily digested and
- 46:25less flatulence, which is good. [snorts] So that's what I do. I prepare them from
- 46:29scratch in the pressure cooker and then I actually prepare them and then put them into the freezer in
- 46:33the portion sizes you get cans because I know a lot of people haven't got a pressure cooker.
- 46:37So, you know, but I just wish more people did because I think it would be great for
- 46:41rotos. How is a pressure cooker better than an oven? I mean, how does it work? I don't
- 46:45even know much about Yeah. So it basically sort of like forces a bit like um if you think about
- 46:51slow cook slow cookers what they do you know like if you think about you can take a sort of
- 46:55a cheaper cut of meat and you know by the time it's cooked for hours on a really slow heat you
- 46:59can sort of tear apart. So you can do all of that with a pressure cooker but you can do it obviously
- 47:04much more quickly and the same with things like rice. I mean the multi cooker it basically is also
- 47:10a rice cooker. The guy that developed it is of an Asian origin. And he wanted it to be able to do
- 47:15meat and rice that also does make yogurts and other things. But let's not over complicate
- 47:20it. Yeah. If you want, you know, a dish and you've got some, you want some brown rice, cooks brown
- 47:24rice perfectly. If you've got some pork belly and you want great flavor pork belly, you can
- 47:29cook that. A whole chicken, you could cook a whole chicken in there. I cook chicken from frozen in
- 47:34my pressure cooker and it's entirely safe to eat. And that is a game changer because if you've like
- 47:40run out of everything, you know, and you've got really very little in, I can take some frozen veg
- 47:46like I always keep a combination of frozen onion, celery, and carrot. So it's called soprito, meua,
- 47:52base vegetables. It's called different things in different cultures, but you use that as a base
- 47:56of pretty much anything. You can get some garlic and some ginger in there if you want to make it
- 48:01slightly one way oriented or the other. And then you can just pop in your chicken and some sort of
- 48:05sauce. You know, it could be a tin of tomatoes. It could be tin of tomatoes and some herbs. It could
- 48:10be your coconut milk if you want to make more of a Thai curry. And then you just cook it until it
- 48:14and it literally is pulled apart by the time you bring it out of the pressure cooker. People don't
- 48:18people don't know this. And I think people are scared because it's not a technique we would have
- 48:22learned growing up. We have our ovens and and it's can I just ask go back go back to the
- 48:26tins. So if we're buying the tinned beans and the tinned tomatoes and the tinned whatever,
- 48:30is that okay or is that ultrarocessed and we're worrying about that? Some people talk about the
- 48:34lining in the the tins and whether that is going to be if it's something acidic in the
- 48:38can or the tin. It can lead the lining to be, you know, for the tomato and for the beans. And
- 48:45again, I I would say, you know, my reason for cooking the beans is because it helps me to digest
- 48:50them. It helps the whole family to digest them. They're they're lower in what we call fitates,
- 48:54which are the anti. So, basically, buy it in a packet. I I think so, but like I totally get that
- 48:58people aren't going to have time to prepare their beans, and I don't want that to be a reason that
- 49:01people don't eat beans. So, if you need to buy cans, buy cans. So, how many times a week should
- 49:06you be eating beans? Oh gosh, that's a really good question. I don't, again, it depends on the
- 49:10individual, but I would say, you know, most of us could have could add some beans or some lentils to
- 49:16like I [snorts] don't know, four or five dishes in our evenings, our evening meals, but salads,
- 49:20you know, again, it's a bit of a social media thing at the moment, but a dense bean salad,
- 49:25they're all over social media. And you know, great that people are finally embracing, you know, this
- 49:30humbled little thing, the bean that's so cheap. Do you know, my mother-in-law made something really
- 49:34nice the other day and I I just I started eating and I almost couldn't stop. I think that it had
- 49:38nutrients of everything that I wanted. She made these big white beans in a salad with tuna with
- 49:45chopped onion and some sort of sauce. And I tell you, I love that combination. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
- 49:51Right up my stop eating it. Yeah. Wonder what it was in there that I needed so much. But honestly,
- 49:56you make a really good point there. You're listening to your body and and and very often
- 50:01when we listen to our bodies, our bodies will tell us exactly what we need. You know, I know a lot
- 50:06of women will say at certain time, you know, in their cycle, they will crave certain foods more.
- 50:11There's a good reason for that, and we probably know what that is. But, you know, I I certainly
- 50:15understand that we listen, I think, more to social media than we listen to our bodies these days.
- 50:19And I really really urge people to just tune in to your own body because your body will tell you
- 50:25a huge amount. And the food that we then subsequently put in is the message back up
- 50:30back to our body. I got you, kid. I understand what you're saying, you know, thanks. You know,
- 50:34so so it's it is a two-way process and we do need to listen. You're speaking about Scandinavians
- 50:39as well. So I'm Polish and we just you know across the the body of water the Swedes eat
- 50:46a lot of herring and we as Polish people also eat a lot of herring and we also Polish women
- 50:51eat herring when pregnant now it's a we say don't eat raw fish but throughout all my pregnancies I
- 50:57could not stop eating herring really important for brain development as a baby so much herring yeah
- 51:02and people again I think we we in this country we're taught to supplement and we're taught
- 51:06particularly to supplement folic acid so B9 But omega-3 is hugely important for the development
- 51:12of a baby's brain. Um, so all pregnant women should crave that like there was no tomorrow.
- 51:18You probably got very brainy children. [laughter] They actually are. There you go. Caring. That's
- 51:24your key. It was the food. But yeah, I just remember that kind of the feeling of of of
- 51:29uh Yeah. I just couldn't get enough. Yeah. Yeah. So, um I mean the main takeaways here
- 51:35are that we buy whole, we plan ahead, we we strip it down to the most essential things.
- 51:43And you know, when you think of a recipe book and going into that, that also seems like work. So,
- 51:49I mean, how does one that doesn't normally cook or have the time for it and find it a bit
- 51:54scary, how can you step into the world of I mean, what do you do? Do you open up page one and go,
- 52:00I'm doing that. And then and then what I asked earlier, how do you shop for that? Do you have
- 52:04to check the recipe first? Then I know I'm asking really basic questions in a way and they sound
- 52:09basic whilst asking, but even for myself, I'm going to go shopping. I'm probably going to go to
- 52:13Tesco and I'm going to buy my usual thing. So what what do you do? I would sit down if you can once a
- 52:20week and think about a meal plan for the week. for the week if you can do it because it's one bit of
- 52:26effort you know but it will reap great rewards. So if if there's time an hour you know at the weekend
- 52:33maybe yeah there's enough from scrolling you can delete some of the Exactly. Take an hour out of
- 52:37that. Let's be real but don't make it too big a goal. So you say you buy your usuals. So then
- 52:45think about one meal that's different from your usual. I mean actually again growing up we had
- 52:49about a three-week rotation. So mom would do the if it was Tuesday week three it was always going
- 52:55to be spag bowl and if it was Thursday week two it was always going to be stew you know so we kind of
- 53:01knew by what day it was obviously not the case in our house but I know it works for a lot of people
- 53:06but just plan what you're going to have and don't make it that different from what you do currently
- 53:10change one meal and then change two meals and then change three meals and do it week on week
- 53:15so it's nothing too big and nothing too ownorous. Also, if you've got children and you're starting
- 53:19to feed them new stuff, they might be a bit funny about that because they've got very
- 53:23used to what they're having and anything that's different or odd can seem quite threatening.
- 53:27I try and sneak in liver into their spaghetti bolognese. I like that. Is there liver in this?
- 53:33Oh, they can actually taste it. Shame. [laughter] Yeah, I know. I tried to conceal it and I chopped
- 53:37up fresh chilies and I disguise and everything, but they always know. Yeah, I know a lot of people
- 53:43put and and you know, I've done it, but I don't tend to do it as a standard, but they put um
- 53:46lentils, brown lentils into their either their chili into their minced meat. Um a it's a cost
- 53:53saving, but also b it's a chance to get more fiber in there. So, they'll, you know, sort of
- 53:57uh supplement the the beef a little bit with some of the sort of pentils or brown lentils.
- 54:03That sounds like Yeah. So it really sounds sounds like you're pushing the beans and the lentil
- 54:07lentils and those [laughter] you're bringing them in cuz it's a and those are really rich in fiber.
- 54:12Those are the ones and fiber is that essential to preventing colon cancer because colon cancer
- 54:19is on the rise. So I'm just I just want to so so be beyond that this is about everyone's systems
- 54:25working well and we talk about from a digestive perspective but it's also about you again if we
- 54:29look at what's happened with people's cholesterol levels there is this thing called familial hyper
- 54:34cholesterolmia that's where families you know pass from generation to generation high cholesterol
- 54:39but so many people think they've got that when actually it's it's lifestyle and diet related
- 54:44and it's really important to start looking at how you make those changes and fiber is the key change
- 54:49really. But but but if we get it in from the word go, you know, if our children when you're weaning
- 54:54a baby, you don't want a too high fiber diet, but literally once they start moving into sort of
- 54:58normal everyday food, you can start adding in that fiber. That's where we want to get people used to,
- 55:04you know, the textures of things. And it isn't just about beans, honestly. It's, you know,
- 55:08but seeds and nuts. I mean, how many children, you know, genuinely eat a lot of seeds and nuts these
- 55:14days? Well, a lot of schools ban nuts, so they're not having it from 9 until 3:00 in the afternoon.
- 55:20Do they get it for breakfast? I doubt it. So, when are they going to be having those? But with seeds
- 55:24and nuts, unless you've got them in a bowl and you snacking on them or you sprinkle them over your
- 55:29oats or your whatever your yogurt, when do you It's quite difficult to cook with seeds and nuts.
- 55:34Well, I mean, again, nut butter, you know, put a put a bit of peanut butter into a soup
- 55:39or into a curry, you know, to give it that lovely creaminess. and put it into a smoothie, you know,
- 55:45or have it on toast. I mean, my my kids are great. Processed peanut butter. It shouldn't be.
- 55:51It used to be. Yes. We used to add all sorts of sugar. So, we need to
- 55:54just check and choose what an organic version. Doesn't have to be organic. I would say things
- 55:58like with with peanut butter and almond butter. I think as long as we're getting,
- 56:02you know, it's just the the nuts and some salt. Just check the ingredients is what you're saying.
- 56:07That makes it accessible to most people. I think if you start making it organic, yes, there could
- 56:11be slight benefits to that nutritionally. I'm just saying you don't want to make this too exclusive
- 56:16for people. So enjoy your nut butter and but but think about places where it can be enjoyed
- 56:22like your soup, your curry, your smoothie, your porridge. Yeah. My trainer at the gym actually
- 56:28was showing me something. He goes, "Look, look at this label of this bread versus this bread. Look,
- 56:33this one's got all these ingredients and this one's only got two ingredients." See?
- 56:37And I was like, "Oh, wow." Oh, I mean [laughter] you're really taking us seriously. It was good. It
- 56:42is good. But, you know, again, simple methodology here. So, I was in Sweden recently and I was sent
- 56:46out. I was with my university friends and we were in a very remote place on a very remote island.
- 56:51There was one shop on the island that happened to be open. We'd run out of bread. They sent me
- 56:54to buy the bread. I had no idea. I don't speak Swedish. So, I just weighed them. And a heavier
- 56:59bread is more likely to have less ingredients in it. Yeah. That That's And when I went home and did
- 57:04Google Translate, I was like, I was right. I got the correct bread. So, just think about, you know,
- 57:08if it's heavier bread, it's a better bread to buy. And there are all sorts of tricks like that. Okay,
- 57:12we're going to have a a brand war here, but let's go into it. So, if you ask people,
- 57:17what do you prefer? Do you prefer Burger King or McDonald's? We were having this conversation
- 57:22in the car. We were deciding, you know, oh, let's have McDonald's. Okay. So, um and then
- 57:27I'm not going to say who who said what, but one person said, "Oh, I prefer McDonald's
- 57:33uh because it's softer and it's nicer to to chew." And then the other person said, "Well, I prefer um
- 57:40was it Burger King cuz it's healthier. It's got it feels the meat's bigger or whatever." But the
- 57:45consensus actually out of everyone was in in that car that day was that they preferred McDonald's
- 57:50because of the softness. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz it's hyper palatable. Hyper palatable. Soft and
- 57:56light. Yeah. You can just eat more and more of it. I mean, I I don't know about you, but if you did
- 58:02eat McDonald's that day, um, how soon after were you hungry would be my question. It didn't feel
- 58:07like food. Yeah. It didn't feel like had a meal. Yeah. [laughter] One breath and it was in. And
- 58:12then I got bloated and I was like, great. Yeah. And I think that's the thing. It's whether people
- 58:16are thinking of that as a whole meal, which, you know, every [clears throat] deal suggests a meal.
- 58:22Every way that it's advertised suggests it is an entire meal. But I wouldn't see that as a meal.
- 58:27I would see that as more like a snack. flat and small that you could have crumbled it up
- 58:30into a little ball like that. How was that food? Yeah. No, but you know, but I didn't want to be
- 58:34the party pooper. Yeah, of course. You know, it was a long drive. Everyone wanted it. You know,
- 58:40they're all saying how wonderful it is and it's soft and nice and I was like,
- 58:43"Oh." So, we did it and I gave in and I felt Yeah. It just felt didn't feel great and it just went.
- 58:50The the difficulty in that situation though is if you had said something different,
- 58:53I want to do this or I want to do that. Sometimes that can make you feel more anxious. It's
- 58:57it's all about weighing it up. You don't want to be over worried about I never I mean literally the
- 59:02last time I can't remember the last time I've had it or the kids really. It's like it does it's not
- 59:06an often thing. It was exactly treat which I don't and I think that's the wonderful thing you know I
- 59:11I see a lot of black and white in nutrition and I don't like it. I don't think any food should be
- 59:17labeled bad. I don't think anything should be like you know obviously if it's poison don't eat it.
- 59:22But if it's something that is going to if you eat loads of it harm you, it's okay to have not
- 59:27very much of it. You know, just let's be sensible about this. Let's not kind of lose our minds over
- 59:33all food has to be organic. All food has to be ultrarocessed free. All food has to be good food.
- 59:38It it it doesn't No, I I know. And it it was nice, you know, it was a good atmosphere and everyone
- 59:42was in a good mood and all that sort of thing and we were able to get get the food in the car and
- 59:45just carry on the drive and everything, but it was so frustrating that there wasn't another option,
- 59:51just something better, healthier, smoothies, farm food. But you're saying it's more expensive and um
- 59:57and you think why when a lotments are the most, you know,
- 1:00:00I know productive. I pass an a lotment every day on my dog walk and I'm like,
- 1:00:04please give me the leftovers. Yeah. Please give me your surplus. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, so could
- 1:00:10you list five pantry swaps that we can do now that will make us healthier? Yeah, great question. Um,
- 1:00:18so I would say so things that you're in your pantry that you think like tomato sauce like
- 1:00:23ketchup. Yeah, I mean if you're a family that eats ketchup, my kids love ketchup. Um,
- 1:00:28I would go for a healthier ketchup, right? Because if there's one that's lower in sugar, that's a
- 1:00:32great alternative. Yeah. And the same with any of your condiments if you if it's easier to make them
- 1:00:37or you could make them or they're going to be But there's some great condiments out there that are
- 1:00:42lower in sugar or like mayonnaise that you can get that's made with real ingredients.
- 1:00:47Avocado oil or olive oil or any of those. So yeah, if you can if you're somebody that loves
- 1:00:52a good condiment like mayonnaise, brown sauce or ketchup, I would switch those out for a
- 1:00:56healthier version because if you're going to be eating a lot of it, then you want to make sure
- 1:01:00a better version. Um, you know, obviously if you if you love your chocolate, I would say go dark.
- 1:01:06If you can go dark, [laughter] that's going to be better. So again, a dark chocolate, it should be
- 1:01:1370% cocoa solids plus and it shouldn't have any other added ingredients. Sometimes there may be
- 1:01:18an emulsifier in there. Sometimes it's most likely to be soyless. Um, sunflower less than
- 1:01:24slightly better. No, emulsifiers fine. They don't need to be there. There's plenty of chocolate
- 1:01:28out there that doesn't have emulsifiers in it. Um, so I'd say yes, a dark chocolate,
- 1:01:32a good quality dark chocolate. Do you know what I'm going to do with this? I'm going to chat
- 1:01:35GPT all this stuff. I'm [laughter] going to take the lot and be like, of all these things I buy,
- 1:01:40here's my shopping basket. You tell me which ones have emulsified and they're going to get banned.
- 1:01:44We're going to go in the naughty naughty tofu step. Naughty step. [laughter] Um, so I would say
- 1:01:51again if you're a family like again my kids, you know, they prepare especially my daughter,
- 1:01:55she's been living away from home for 3 years, but she prepares a lot of food herself. Um,
- 1:01:59and she knows exactly which brand of pasta sauce to buy that's cost effective and doesn't contain
- 1:02:04any ultrarocessed foods. So again, if you're going to be using things like pasta sauce regularly,
- 1:02:10and we're that family, she knows what brand to buy at home. I make our own and I just fill the
- 1:02:15freezer with it. I also do the same with stock. I make my own stock paste. Honestly, people think,
- 1:02:21"Oh my god, that's far too complicated." It really isn't. It takes me half an hour
- 1:02:26and I'm not even doing anything for that half an hour. It's just simmering and reducing
- 1:02:29and I stick it in a food processor and I blend it up and it's in the freezer and you can use
- 1:02:33it straight from the freezer because it has such a high salt content. It doesn't actually freeze
- 1:02:38entirely. And so I just use a tablespoon full of that rather than a stock cube.
- 1:02:42Look at what's in stock cubes. Even vegetable ones, there can be a lot of other added things.
- 1:02:47And I love a stock cube. It gives so much flavor and it's so much bang for your buck. Um,
- 1:02:53something as innocent as a stock cube is not so innocent. I know. and a great flavor provider. So,
- 1:02:58you know, um and then like cereals, we don't need to have cereals and I mean we discussed this at
- 1:03:03the very, you know, start of this, but I think if we're looking at breakfast, think about swapping
- 1:03:08out any other cereals that you have for, you know, something obviously oat based. It depends on
- 1:03:12kind of what your vibe is. Some people love eating more like quinoa and um buckwheat as a as a grain.
- 1:03:18And both of those are what we call a complete protein. They contain all nine of your essential
- 1:03:22amino acids. They're actually a better choice from a kind of protein perspective than oats would be
- 1:03:27and they're more traditional in certain cultures. So if you make like a buckwheat porridge
- 1:03:30or you make buckwheat pancakes, that's not a bad choice for some people. Other people that you they
- 1:03:35wouldn't thank you for that. They would rather have other sorts of, you know, pancakes, but
- 1:03:39again, an oat pancake. I make an oat one all the time. Grind up some oats and some oat bran. And
- 1:03:44then I use Greek yogurt or cottage cheese to keep the protein level high. And I use three eggs. Um,
- 1:03:50and that is a great combination. And it's high in fiber, high in protein. Three pancakes. I can put
- 1:03:55savory toppings on, which I more typically do. I can also put sweet toppings on and serve that. So,
- 1:04:01swapping out your cereals for, you know, whole grains. I would say is it I knew I was going to
- 1:04:05come and see you and I didn't want to have the guilt of sitting here opposite [laughter] you
- 1:04:09and saying, "Alexandra, what did you have for uh so so actually before I came here, I I had
- 1:04:14a [clears throat] little bit of um mints from the night before. Yeah. So, minced with onions and
- 1:04:18all nice chilies and everything and a banana. But that's all I had time for. Protein bit of fiber.
- 1:04:25Yeah. Absolutely. And that and that's what you had time for and you made time for that cuz you knew
- 1:04:30you wanted to eat before you did a podcast. That's about prioritizing. You know, if you just sat
- 1:04:35and your blood sugar was low, you would be you'd be perfectly fine because your
- 1:04:39adrenaline would be flowing. But at some point, this is going to take its toll on your body.
- 1:04:43And how many of us do that in the workplace? I know. I did it when I was in a corporate role.
- 1:04:47You know, the vending machine was my friend. Sad, but true. I'm glad I stopped. Yeah.
- 1:04:54Gut health. What What's the I mean, we talked about fiber. So,
- 1:04:58that's the main thing. [clears throat] What else? So, prebiotics, probiotics, you know,
- 1:05:03we talk a lot about probiotics, I think. So, these are the bacteria that we get from fermented foods
- 1:05:08predominantly. So again, if we just look at what's happened over the course of time,
- 1:05:12um, and we look at other cultures, excuse the pun, sauerkraut, kimchi, you know, the these
- 1:05:17are foods that are traditional and they've been going for a long, long time. Kafir, um, you know,
- 1:05:22and even yogurt, you know, that's probably the one that's been in the UK for the longest,
- 1:05:25but we're quite happy to take other people's uh, you know, hand-me-downs, can you call them that,
- 1:05:30ideas and make them our own. Um, so any of those foods that have been naturally fermented and again
- 1:05:36you so my husband's of Germanic origin and he he had sauerkraut growing up but when I
- 1:05:40actually made sauerkraut it was a whole different ball game because mine was fermented whereas the
- 1:05:44one he'd been able to buy in a supermarket growing up wasn't it was a long life version
- 1:05:48so it had been you know there was vinegar in there and there was a bit of sugar in there and
- 1:05:52actually it wasn't sort of as acidic and um but fermented foods we get some probiotics from but
- 1:05:58the thing that I think people are more aware of now is prebiotics so this is the sort of where we
- 1:06:02get fiber in foods that feeds the good bacteria. So, for example, a banana. If we take a banana,
- 1:06:07a really ripe banana, really sweet and sugary, actually much lower in fiber, prebiotic fiber,
- 1:06:12than a slightly underripe banana. Now, you don't want to eat it where it's like green and,
- 1:06:16you know, pasty. But you do want to enjoy a slightly underrite banana. It's going to be
- 1:06:20higher in this prebiotic fiber and it helps. Excellent. Yeah. It's called resistant starch
- 1:06:26essentially. Um, so it it it acts like a fiber in the body and you know, so I forgotten what
- 1:06:31the question was again. [laughter] No, no. What for your gut? So about the gut.
- 1:06:36I didn't know that actually. It's the same with your carbs. Actually, a lot of people don't
- 1:06:40recognize that. What you can do is freeze or cook and cool and then even reheat carbs and you get a
- 1:06:46higher level of resistant starch which helps with the gut health with gut health. So um you know
- 1:06:51your bread. I always um get really good quality bread. I get it sliced so it's the right thickness
- 1:06:56because if I slice it, it's too thick. And then I put it all in the freezer, take out slice by
- 1:07:00slice so I don't waste any money because bread is expensive if you want to buy good bread. And
- 1:07:04then I'll pop it into the taster and that'll be, you know, it'll be lower glycemic index. So it's
- 1:07:09not going to affect my blood glucose as much and it will be higher in the right kind of fiber. But
- 1:07:13things like onions, leaks, um, garlic, you know, those are really good foods and you cauliflower,
- 1:07:19we all of these foods we should be getting more of. But again, if we skip the food preparation
- 1:07:25process and we go to something that's already made or some source that's already been made, we're not
- 1:07:30going to get the benefits of that prebiotic fiber. So prebiotics and probiotics. Um and and when it
- 1:07:35comes to fiber, you know, if you're not used to it, which a lot of us aren't, have we haven't
- 1:07:39had enough for a long time, don't introduce loads all of all of a sudden. You'll get some, you know,
- 1:07:44nasty side effects from doing that and it'll put you off. So you want to gently increase your fiber
- 1:07:49levels. And I find one of the best ways that I introduce with clients is, you know, via things
- 1:07:54like flax seeds and chia seeds because they're very measurable. Um, sometimes people find beans
- 1:07:59quite useful as well, but to supplement like the beef in your bolognese rather than to eat a whole
- 1:08:05meal of beans. So just enter into it very very gently and change small things bit by bit because
- 1:08:11if you suddenly introduce a whole lot of fiber to your diet, your gut will not know what's hit it.
- 1:08:15You'll get some side effects that you don't want and it'll put you off wanting to carry on.
- 1:08:19I see. I was going to say because I don't know how how many seeds chia seeds is too many. How
- 1:08:23many flax seeds is too many? I know that you can have too much ginger. That ginger you should only
- 1:08:27have a little bit like half a teaspoon a day or something. So, how do you know? Yeah. Well,
- 1:08:31it is anti-inflammatory ginger and I would say you know you can put it into all your dishes and
- 1:08:35whatever and and you turmeric and but again this combination of things that can be really useful.
- 1:08:39So using turmeric, ginger and some black pepper combined can help with improving how your body
- 1:08:45how how bioavailable it is to your body. So again, just these little tidbits of information like I
- 1:08:50made this morning. I did some some dark chocolate, like little melted dark chocolate puddles, and I
- 1:08:55just pushed in some freeze-dried strawberries because the anthocyanins in the strawberries
- 1:09:00work synergistically with the flavonoids in the dark chocolate. So you get a better outcome,
- 1:09:04better for gut health, better for So those those romantic images where you've got the
- 1:09:07strawberry and they dip it in chocolate and give it to you're [laughter] actually really helping.
- 1:09:13But these little things can really help help you, you know, make decisions like
- 1:09:17when you're thinking about should I have this or that and I quite fancy both. Well,
- 1:09:20I'll have that one because that one's going to give me a better outcome. That that's kind of
- 1:09:24how my brain works. I heard I heard you need to have um ideally if you want to absorb iron
- 1:09:30from meat or whatever, you need to have it with vitamin C. Yeah. Particularly plant-based um iron
- 1:09:35sources that you really do need to you should be able to absorb enough from animal based sources.
- 1:09:41There's no harm in having vitamin C alongside. I very often do. I very often have something like a
- 1:09:45um an orange or something after a meal or kiwi fruit as my kind of dessert. Um but yeah,
- 1:09:51certainly if you're eating plant-based iron sources and again things like cooking your
- 1:09:56pulses in a pressure cooker, which reduces the phitates will make the iron from the
- 1:10:01pulses more absorbable. So there's these little tips and tricks which that's why I do what I do.
- 1:10:07Yeah. I think what we need to do is a followup on this and I and we need to go into a kitchen.
- 1:10:12Come to my kitchen. I come to your kitchen. Whatever kitchen and a whole bunch of of of food
- 1:10:17and then just look at the food and and prepare something. I mean yeah just like visually we'll
- 1:10:24do like a little followup possibly just to help us cuz it's all it's getting absorbed but it's like
- 1:10:30I want to get into a kitchen now and have a look and I want to I'm definitely testing the labels
- 1:10:33and putting them into chat GPT. [laughter] This is now going to get very analytical. Yeah. It's your
- 1:10:37next project. Yes. Yes. The next project. But but a final question. Um and I'm going to make it a
- 1:10:43difficult one. One takeaway for people, one thing that if you could impart to them to give people
- 1:10:52watching, one thing that's going to help them guidance, what would it be? Oh, that's a good one.
- 1:10:59Um something that I haven't already said. Um that's a very good question. I mean, can I give
- 1:11:07I can't give two. [laughter] You can't ask me for one. No, you can you can give. I do think I
- 1:11:11do think uh try and listen to your body more than you listen to social media. I think that's a key
- 1:11:17takeaway because I think we can get so distracted by the messaging that we see online and we can
- 1:11:22start to overthink nutrition. And our body tells us much more than social media will ever tell us.
- 1:11:29If you're sleeping well, if you've got energy, if your digestive system is working well,
- 1:11:35you're not constipated, if you've got good skin and your hair is growing brilliantly and your
- 1:11:39nails are nice and strong, great. If any of those things aren't working well, if you're struggling
- 1:11:44to get pregnant, if you're finding your moods are up and down, if you find that your blood glucose
- 1:11:48is dropping regularly throughout the day, think about what you need to do to address that. But I
- 1:11:53I would urge people to listen to their body more than they listen to social media.
- 1:11:57And I think the second thing is get label reading. You know, you may be surprised by what you find.
- 1:12:03I think if you're only coming into this as a as a some as a newbie, as someone that's not really
- 1:12:08thought about this before or or has thought about it, but not really known what to do about it,
- 1:12:13I would look for emulsifiers and stabilizers on most products. And I wouldn't say be, you know,
- 1:12:18black and white about it. You don't have to cut them all out, but just be aware if your diet
- 1:12:23consists of a lot of products that contain those, have a think about where you might want to make
- 1:12:27some changes. Those would be my two. Yeah. Yeah. For me, it's like um it's like a relationship, you
- 1:12:35know? It's a breakup. It is a breakup. I I am I I don't go back, you know. [laughter] I'm going to
- 1:12:40break up with emulsifiers and these stabilizers. I think I think that's the tough thing. We all have
- 1:12:47to eat, you know, and we, you know, we do need to make some decisions that are right for us. And
- 1:12:53if as mothers as well that are right for our children or our partners probably as well,
- 1:12:58you know, we do have concerns for other people, that does tend to be part and parcel of
- 1:13:02certainly I feel that way. I'm sure others do too. And and on that basis, you take that
- 1:13:06responsibility quite seriously. And you know, if you are the person that's doing the shopping,
- 1:13:10if you're the person that even puts the food in the cupboard that someone else cooks,
- 1:13:13it's just making sure that as far as possible, things are as good as they can be within your
- 1:13:18budget and within reason. So, I think you just got to be realistic about it. Jenny,
- 1:13:23it's been educational. Good. [laughter] Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for inviting me.