Emily Miller: Veganism, Nutrient Deficiencies & Reality TV Pressures

0:00Welcome to Catching Up With The Royals, a brand new show with me, Richard Coles. And me, Emily Andrews. Every week we'll be going beyond the headlines, lifting the lid on what life is really like behind the palace walls. Hello sir, good morning. I'm the Sun's new royal correspondent. Oh, he said, look at me up and down. Things are looking up. We'll be diving into the moments everyone's talking about. What does the world owe you if all of a sudden you've handed back your crown? Meghan and Harry can't keep hold of their stuff. We'll reveal the secrets of an organisation usually shrouded in mystery and explore defining moments of royal history to see how the past still shapes the monarchy today.

0:38Now, you actually knew Princess Diana. I think one of the ways she acquired power was through that relationship with the present. But before that interview, no-one had really spoken and been so open. Was that a game-changer? So, join us every week wherever you get your podcasts, on YouTube and on Saturdays on 5, as we catch up with the Royals. Hi, this is Monica Reinagle of Nutrition Diva. Today's show is sponsored by Nature Raised Farms. Grocery shopping can be a little overwhelming, especially if you're reading labels. And in my opinion, chicken shouldn't be complicated, which is why I appreciate Nature Raised Farms.

1:19It's chicken that's just chicken, and their lightly breaded chicken nuggets are free from gluten, dairy, and soy. Look for nature-raised farms on your next grocery trip and feel more confident about your choices. If you've ever tried to hire someone in another country and immediately hit a wall of paperwork, compliance rules, and back-and-forth approvals, you know how fast that excitement can turn into a headache. That's exactly what Pebble is built to fix. Pebble is a global hiring platform that lets founders and HR leaders hire in over 185 countries in minutes, not months. Compliance isn't something you manage around with Pebble.

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2:38Hello and welcome to The Good, The Bad and The Healthy. This is the podcast that dives into your food and lifestyle and habits and how we explore our esteemed guests and their health journey and what they've done throughout their life and how easy it can be to eat healthily and cleanly and nourish your body. After years of getting ill myself, catching everything going, I had to change my lifestyle and this is my exploration of what I started to do by paying attention to my body, listening to my body and making healthy changes so I can be here to try and help you guys on your own health journey.

3:21So let's of course talk about the good, the bad, and the healthy. Today we're joined by Emily Miller, who you may well remember from season two of Too Hot to Handle. Sounds like an interesting one. And from your podcast with your partner Cam, where you talked about now we're talking baby, which is very interesting topic close to my heart because I've got two kids myself. And obviously your hugely popular social media presence and you've been doing a lot already about what I eat in a day so you've kind of already been getting into this space which is really cool so we'll see how we get on with that and kind of understand more about your journey with health and what you do as a mother for your children and everything but the only right place to start is by really getting into the beginning So we're going to go back all the way to your childhood.

4:16Where did you grow up? What did your parents do? What did they feed you? What was your relationship with food like as a child? I grew up in Hertfordshire. Just, yeah, just quite boring really. But I grew up with two brothers and we always had foster kids in the house as well. My mum started fostering when I was three years old. So the house was always full. My mum was, yeah, foster care, so it was my dad, but my dad also worked full time. So he wasn't always in the house, but he was around. So when it came to food and meal times, it was kind of like a free fall. Is that the saying free fall? Yeah, free fall.

4:55Yeah, it was, there was never a set time for anything. And it was kind of like here, there and everywhere. And I can't, my mum's going to kill me for saying this, but I don't think like it was like nutritionally the best, but it's what she could do at the time. Do you know what I mean? Absolutely. It's hard being a parent. And then with all those foster kids and yourself, it's, right, you've got to make do. Exactly. Like I feel like when we were like babies, she like pureed all the veg and did the fruit and did all that kind of thing. But as we got older and more kids joined the house, it was kind of just like microwave meals, oven food and snacks and sweet treats.

5:34It was speed. it was easy yeah convenient 100 100 and were there any like traditions around that did you have any kind of family traditions if you had a curry night or a fish and chips night what did you were there moments where you brought it all together or was it every once in a while there'd be like a chinese or yeah maybe fish and chips but it wasn't like a regular thing it was kind of just maybe once in a while like so nothing crazy yeah and what were your like nostalgic favorite food memories like everyone has that thing that they loved as a kid what was my favorite food so my mom used to do this really random thing dish like sweet and sour chicken but it was like breaded chicken in the oven rice and then a jar of sweet and sour sauce I don't know it was just like one of my favorite things ever like if I've ever ever feeling poorly or if I had a bad day at school like my mum would just always make me that sweet and sour chicken but basic can't go right listen it is it is what it is right and I I get the challenges as a parent myself of how hard it is to like think about mealtimes and feed and like you're working and then you try and cook food and it's hard and you've got and also I don't think like nutrition was that well known back then like there wasn't like as much exposure around it like it is now like my mum I don't like when I've spoken to her recently about it because obviously now I have a son she was like yeah but we didn't know back then like you know you just get told oh you know here's a microwave meal here's a pouch like it's amazing like do you know what I mean well in fairness it was the early days of like ultra processed food yeah right so it was at that point it was all about well this is so convenient yeah I don't need to cook this this is amazing and the bad sides of it we actually didn't know or didn't understand I mean even now if you talk about microwave meal and microwaving it in plastic now we know about microplastics but back then no clue it's what we would have done right and it's just normal so I think you've got to give your parents a bit of credit yeah the amount of information we have now is is so different yeah right and with social there's so much access yeah to all the studies and everything that it's disseminating so much quicker which is you know why we're all learning why we're here right to kind of learn these things and figure it out and and make it healthier um but I mean there's some interesting things we're seeing of like also you're saying about the baby feeding and like she blended her own fruits and veg and that was amazing but a lot of the new research coming out is going actually as babies you also need fats and protein and like the whole baby the entire baby food industry just totally ignores that to this day that actually we need fats and protein and they're just in those fruit and vegetable pouches um so there's you know lots of things that are evolving even from the detail of baby food where you think you're doing something good and right and fun.

8:24And I'll be the first to say I'm guilty. I've given Reggie some pouches before, but that is even like when it's like says, oh, all it is is like carrot and potato and onion. And like, it's like, oh, that must be fine. But I know it's not. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's very good marketing. Yeah. But also like a pouch here and there is fine. I give Jack's a pouch here. Like when we flew back from Spain last week, you know you're you're on a plane what are you going to do right it's simple and there's always those practical occasions where you need it and then it's fine right it's just when it becomes like the staple yeah which is definitely not yeah no I do try and be good and make my own stuff but so what was it like then at mealtime with all those kids foster kids as well was that odd how was that for you with other people coming into your family environment so because it started when I was so young it was just the normal for me okay yeah but it would only ever be like two of us eating at the same time like so dinner would last for my mum from about 6 p.m to about 8 p.m she'd be in the kitchen just in and out the oven and out the microwave like clearing up she could only pick off two at a time yeah just too much yeah and because my dad couldn't even microwave his own meals so it was like she was cooking for him as well so I get it it like you said it's the convenience thing but there was never yeah we never sat down as a family to eat never never which is also people find strange because I'm quarter Indian as soon as I say that like oh my god like your mum and dad must be amazing at cooking like oh like no no no well but look that happens right I mean part of the challenge is time right why we're driven to this place of ultra processed food is because no one has time yeah everyone's grabbing a sandwich on the train or wherever they're running to their next meeting.

10:09And that's when you need a convenient thing. And that convenience then drives the processing and the preservatives and anything else. So you can see how it's happened with foster kids as well. I can see how that would have been really hard for them. But don't get me wrong, there'd be an odd time where she would cook up a mean spag bol or a curry or a roast dinner. She's amazing at roast dinners. I will give her that. I was going to say, is there no Indian food being? No, there's none. I mean, my dad's half Indian, see? and he can't, he literally can't cook a piece of toast. So yeah, it's awful.

10:41Wow. So yeah, it was always on my mum. And because of that as well, she never taught me how to cook. Right. I didn't know how to cook. Sorry, I'm probably skipping ahead here. No, no, no, it's a good segue because what I want to talk about next is when you actually left home. Like how were you prepared to leave home? Like, and you've already just said you couldn't cook. You didn't know. No. So when you left home, where did you go? What did you do? what was the next step so when i left home i actually booked a one-way ticket to australia nice yeah really close yeah you know just down the road but um i got myself in a really messy love triangle and i just wanted to escape and i just thought the best way is just to piss off to australia so when i got there i had no friends no knew no one and i was like shit like i actually don't know how to look after myself i'd never even put a wash on before oh wow like it was bad it was really bad and I kind of just threw myself into it like I took myself to the supermarket and because I never had that freedom before like I did go to the shops but like when I back home but like that I always thought to myself there was no point buying that because my mum's not going to let me cook it because there's too much going on so I just never would so I had just complete freedom in the supermarket I was picking up all these veggies all this fruit all this organic stuff all this like tofu like all this like stuff I'd never like really seen or like cooked before and just had a whale of a time I literally just taught myself how to cook oh wow so you just jumped in at the deep end yeah figured it out yeah yeah I got food poisoning a few times but whatever did you a couple times yeah well yeah I didn't know how to cook I didn't know to like you to check that chicken was pink not pink or something like honestly I did not know anything so what did what were the meals that gave you food poisoning well probably yeah a couple chicken dishes here and there like chicken yeah like chicken pastas and things but yeah it wasn't that bad it's fine i'm here you're still here yeah yeah but i mean it's great that you threw yourself in a deep end and was like you took the responsibility yeah like i need to learn to cook yeah and that's what i'm going to do because i think that's half the battle with a lot of people is they don't know how to cook and then you turn to these easy options whereas if you actually know how to cook you can spend most of your time in the fruit and veg and the meat aisle and yeah make real food yeah exactly and now going to the supermarket is actually my number one hobby oh come on that was my only hobby actually i love it cam my boyfriend he hates going to the supermarket with me he's like no i mean i haven't got time like you just he says when i'm at the cucumber aisle i'm just there like it really pisses him off but i love it i love it sounds like we should go together because i spend a lot of time in supermarkets doing the same thing we should we should have done this in the supermarket we should have yeah maybe that's the next uh iteration of this i don't know but um so what were some of your quick and easy like go-to meals then when you were learning to cook and what were you doing was it healthy i mean you said you're talking fruits and veg and yeah i mean i guess i've got it so long going i'm 31 now so it was torn like 10 years ago but back then yeah i guess it was just like pat like carbonara kind of dishes like pat like creamy chicken dishes like pasta dishes um i love doing full english breakfast like that's actually still to this day one of my specialties like good fryer can't go wrong even my own hash browns like i'm pretty good yeah um what else did i used to cook just like sweet like things with sweet potatoes just loads and loads of veggies i used to love doing veggie bakes and like things like that.

14:16Where did you get the recipes from? Were you just googling? Well I had three housemates so I'd kind of like you know just would have like a social time in the kitchen like kind of think of things together or I think social media was just starting out then so maybe some bits off there and just general internet really. Yeah no it's interesting because I remember when I went to uni and similar sort of like all right now you've got for yourself and i lived with one of you just get put in a random house with like six other people one of the guys was russian and he was like teaching me how to make chicken hearts and i was like what is going on it was insane it was totally wild but as a student because it was cheap chicken hearts cheap and healthy i mean he didn't really care about the health it was like it was a russian dish and it was tip typically made that way and it was cheap so he just was like cooking chicken hearts all the time and i was like wait are you russian i'm not no no the housemate was oh okay yeah yeah oh right so it's just like but being thrown into that situation with other people not knowing like how to cook and you're just kind of all going yeah should we do this should we try that should we figure it out like it's it's a good way to learn yeah I think being exposed to those different things definitely especially when I had boys come around I wanted to impress them oh so you were doing the cooking yeah what would you go to to impress them oh gosh I'm not even sure we made it to dinner to be quite honest oh there we go

15:37Hi, this is Monica Reinagle of Nutrition Diva. Today's show is sponsored by Nature Raised Farms. Grocery shopping can be a little overwhelming, especially if you're reading labels. And in my opinion, chicken shouldn't be complicated, which is why I appreciate Nature Raised Farms. It's chicken that's just chicken. And their lightly breaded chicken nuggets are free from gluten, dairy, and soy. Look for nature-raised farms on your next grocery trip and feel more confident about your choices. That sound could mean a lot of things. And when something's going wrong at home, the hardest part can be figuring out what the problem actually is.

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16:40All right, so I'm impressed you learned, but now you're a mom. You've got family. You are obviously into your health and your fitness. like what does your approach look like now and what what were the kind of turning points from going figuring out how to cook no idea what I'm doing giving myself food poisoning to then now providing for a family looking after your child and really like dialing in your health god I guess it was just so after Australia and come come back here and then I've got I've actually got into a really bad relationship with food like I wouldn't I thought to be like skinny and healthy and that you just don't eat so I would literally only eat like packs of vegetables like for the day like it was crazy and so I think it was like going through that and then there's well I was doing that until going on to what to handle like I had a really bad relationship until that point so I think when we was in to what to handle and we were like being given all this food all the time I was like, oh my God, is this how people eat?

17:45Like it was crazy. Like we were given like banquets, like three course meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Like it was crazy. Like I'm not sure, probably not recognizable to anyone else, but I put on so much weight on the show and it just kind of stopped. But so I think it was definitely the show that kind of was the turning point for me. Cause then coming back, I was really like invested in my health and just like putting good things in my body. And like actually being hungry all the time, isn't the answer. and that's actually when I turned vegetarian and vegan as well. I was vegan for a couple of years.

18:17Okay. And still, well, I'm like pesky now. And since having reggae, I do eat a bit of chicken now. Yeah. Because it's just, I'll get into that. But like, obviously you don't have time now just to keep making things for yourself as well as your child. But so yeah, coming back from the show, I just wanted to, yeah, just nourish my body. And online, that's when like nutritionists started, I'd like becoming popular. I think, was you up on the coming at that point maybe? Like 2020? Yeah, I was probably a bit later, maybe like 21. Yeah, I think it was 21. Yeah, so I think I followed you since day one.

18:53Okay. And people at Em the Nutritionist, I followed her since early on. And I was like, this is amazing. Like, I love this. I'm taking this as inspo. And yeah, I guess since then, and then being pregnant, obviously I wanted to fuel my body of all the right things. I didn't eat meat at this point. So towards the end, Cam as well was saying, Emily, I really think you should be eating some sort of meat. This is not good for you. So I did start to eat fish toward the end. And when Reggie was born, he did have a lot of issues. And I can't help but think if that was something to do with it. I don't know what your take is on that.

19:29I mean, I wouldn't like to comment because it depends on the issue and you don't know where it can come from on the basis of like, there are plenty of healthy babies born to vegetarian. Yeah. Vegans. But we know there's a lot of vitamins and minerals in meat that you don't get from vegetables. And when I was pregnant, I was so like, I didn't have, I had low iron. I had low vitamin D. I had low everything. Like it was quite bad actually. And I hate taking supplements. I never take supplements. I'm so bad. Apart from yours, obviously. Well, that's fine. You don't have to throw that in there. It's fine.

20:03But I think it's an interesting point because where you started was, it was just about calories, right? and weight loss or looking your ideal size and therefore you were starving all day just eating bags of vegetables yeah I mean that must have been pretty tough yeah and as well you just made me remember it's really bad because I'll just eat like bag of vegetable for the day and because I was so hungry I'd then go home and just snack on like cookies and chocolate and so it was so like counterproductive yeah well and that's the thing I mean essentially in our culture we've kind of got focused on the external aesthetics rather than the internal nourishment of foods men provide right like our body gives us hunger cues because we need that nutrition to fuel our body right it's like a car not having any petrol right like we need that petrol to go through the day so if you're forcibly starving yourself you're not getting enough micronutrients you're not getting enough macronutrients and your body's kind of freaking out and then that's when you turn into like a binge i was like an animal at night times yeah really yeah at night the worst you would just yeah i mean i've always had a sweet tooth who has it yeah so but i think yeah because i was just so just like yeah i guess hungry i was just like and then arguably you might have had more calories overall and it kind of defeated the entire 100 yeah yeah yeah yeah it's we need to get rid of this calorie thing i mean it's a tool i think it is going away isn't it yeah slowly i think there's a lot of gym bros who still love it and sure it's a measurement tool it works in its technical sense but it misses the point of food in general like my view is you should be very much looking for filling satiating food right so like a gym bro would say don't snack on nuts they're really high in calories i would say snack on nuts because they're going to fill you up yeah and then you're and it's healthier it's healthier it's good fats and then you're not reaching for that cookie when and your body's starving, you know, like you'll be filled up.

22:01So I think there's definitely a new way of looking at it. You know when there's people that are like, oh, like there's a cheeseburger that's 200 calories or a handful of nuts at 200 calories. Like you should do the cheeseburger. Like what would, like I always choose the healthier one though, right? Like, you know, it's like three nuts. I mean, I'd say it depends on the burger, actually, right? To be a bit more nuanced about it, because like if it's a McDonald's cheeseburger, it's got probably 50 plus ingredients in it right the buns probably got 30 in the cheese has probably got 10 ingredients in it it's fried in crap it's like awful but actually the very premise of like a piece of meat and some cheese and lettuce and a bit of bread isn't that bad right like technically a cheeseburger is far healthier than like a tesco meal deal sandwich right because it it's got the protein in it it's got the fats in it from the cheese it's actually more of a complete meal yeah essentially um but you know that being said you know i i just don't think if if you took it to the extreme and said right i'm just going to eat nuts right which are the most one of the most calorie dense foods out there i just don't think anyone could actually put on weight doing that i mean you really well you you could you could don't get me wrong like if you push yourself to the extreme and it's like mind over matter you could but in your general life just listening to your body and your natural cues you'd be full right like you eat a bag of nuts you're stuffed like you then don't want to eat your next meal because you've had all those calories and as long as you listen to your body and don't override those signals you'll be fine yeah like that was the thing for me in my health journey it was like I never wanted to count calories I thought it was too much effort couldn't be bothered with it it was always a pain and then like i'd try some new fad diet and i've tried carnivore and i've tried keto and i've tried everything and it was always oh god this is so much work like i don't want to do this like i'm busy i've got a life to live i don't want to put so much time and effort into food and that's when it became about finding the things that habitually just make me healthy on a regular and then i can eat as much as I want whenever I want if I'm on holiday like I was last week I'll go and eat whatever I want I'll have a beer or you know and I'm just not worried because as long as I'm listening to my cues and eating the right things it's good to go what were your health issues before so I had nutrient deficiencies so basically I was working in the city in London and burning the candle at both ends you know young guy in the city earning good money as a banker and then essentially thought I was invincible and very quickly wasn't and was getting sick all the time catching every illness going and to the point where I was like missing work missing friends and social occasions and I was just what's going on why do I feel so drained had low energy and I just at some point just said look enough's enough I need to figure it out and so then through speaking to a doctor a nutritionist and doing some blood testing just realized I had nutrient deficiencies so i was a little bit similar in the sense i was like young in the city going to the gym so i was like protein protein protein and i my dinner would be a chicken breast with uh some broccoli well some rocket salad yeah and maybe some parmesan to make it taste nice and that was it yeah but nutritionally speaking on a micronutrient level it doesn't it's not diverse enough it doesn't have a broad range of nutrition in that kind of thing but from a protein perspective it was fantastic and I was like thinking I was doing low carb so that was great and you know I'd stay fit and healthy and whatever but you know just totally missed this entire micronutrient world and didn't even consider it until then I realized and then that's what kind of led me into building tonic as the vitamin business to go we all need more nutrition we're actually all deficient like if you look at the data about 92 percent of the uk have an inadequate take of at least one nutrient holy shit that's a lot it's wild it's absolutely wild because the more we ultra processed food the less nutrition we get because the problem with it is everyone knows it's highly caloric and cookies and you know burgers and just fries are full of calories and they make us put on weight great but at the same time it under feeds us nutrition because it's all potato wheat starches and processed ingredients that then don't have any vitamins or nutrition in it um so that's why we've got this kind of dual thing going on of everybody's getting overweight and obese but at the same time we've got all these micronutrient deficiencies like cropping up everywhere and when you have a micronutrient deficiency your body starts to not work right for me it was my immune system that was the first kind of telltale sign but you know your immune system is also the thing that goes and cleans up cancer cells in the body.

26:57This is why I love nourishing my body because I'm so scared of stuff like that. Because I know that that is related. Your gut is like, you know, the home of everything, isn't it? So if you're not looking after that, like I don't want to get dementia. No. And I mean, these were things that didn't exist, you know, 50 years ago. And cancer used to be one in 10 i think in the 50s now it's one in two in our lifetime which is insane that's terrifying and no one's asking that question going uh something's changing here really drastically and this isn't good right and some arguments are like you'll put it down to well we've got better testing and better diagnostics so that's why the number of cases going up and i'm yeah, that could explain a little bit, maybe 10%, maybe 20%, but it doesn't explain why now one in two people are getting cancer in their lifetime.

27:51So, you know, something has to fundamentally shift and I hope that's what we're trying to do with this, you know, movement away from ultra processed foods, basically. Yeah, Christ. I think it's definitely going that way. Like people are looking down more like the holistic side of things and more, like keep saying the nutrition side of things. And I know for certain whenever, like I hate going to doctors, I think, okay obviously they're good for some stuff but i just don't like they just chuck anything at you do you know what i mean like if you go oh i've got you know this wrong with me they'll go oh yeah here's you know a bunch of tablets or cream like no like i tell people all the time like yeah have you tried a holistic route like try this try this like you know drink some ginger and lemon tea yeah drink some water for christ's sake well you have to find the root cause right tablets and pills just mask the symptoms and they're great in some instances for treating an issue but they don't necessarily fix it they're not actually designed to fix anything they're just there for treatment so you have to look at the whole picture would you say you're a bit of a hippie bit of a hippie that's a great question because i would say my mum was definitely an 80s hippie and she was like into organic food before it was cool kind of thing i then as a teenager and adult have definitely fully rebelled against it.

29:08Oh, really? And I'm like, I'm not a hippie. There's no way I'm a hippie. But I mean, I guess you guys can be the judge of that. I don't know. I don't know. It doesn't really matter. But I mean, you know, I do have a belief that, you know, our body knows what to do with natural food and drink. So I'd say I have a, you know, a preference and a leaning towards if it's natural, it's more likely to be better for you and work well with your body than if it's artificial despite what the safety studies will say because often the safety studies will go okay if you drink this bit of aspartame in coca-cola it's fine it's safe that's fine but they never do the study that says yeah okay but it's in that and then it's in your cookies and then it's in your you know crisps and then it's in this and then you're eating it all day every day for 10 20 30 years that's when the problems start to arrive and that's why this whole subject's so hard to pin down to like what's good bad and unhealthy because the science tries to isolate it but you can't because it's a long term like compounding thing essentially it's funny you mentioned us what's that word aspartum because when um me and my brothers were younger growing up we wouldn't drink water all we would drink is lemonade oh really like legit like we would have bottles and bottles and bottles in the fridge and then one day someone told my mum that aspartamines and lemonade and she then he told her like why is it so bad everything and she just freaked out and got rid of all the lemonade and we had to then learn to drink water after like years of just drinking lemonade how crazy is that that's wild i know i mean you that must have been really hard yeah right because how old were you when that was happening?

30:55I think I was like 12 when it got taken out the house. It's a tough age. Yeah. I was about to have, and that's crazy. And obviously I didn't go straight to water. I was on squash and things like that. I had to like wean myself off it, you know. It was like, yeah. Wean yourself off the drugs. It makes sense. It's one of those things. Your taste buds, I say it to a lot of people, your taste buds actually change every 14 days. What? So your cells go through every seven years, your body is essentially an entirely new group of cells every seven years so like your body goes through like regeneration old cells die away cleans them up and then replaces them with new cells mental so with your taste buds it's you know if you're going from hardcore artificially sweetened lemonade to then go to water on day one it's gonna suck yeah because your taste buds aren't used to it but if you stick to it for like 14 days and like push through that barrier then you'll actually start to adapt your taste buds and enjoy is this why reggie would like love something one week and then hate it the next yeah partly yeah yeah absolutely yeah mine's blown yeah yeah 100 % and that's why you got it like i always like we had the grandparents staying with us for a while when we had our second boy bodhi and they were so like oh he doesn't want it so we'll just give him something something else and like he ended up eating like yogurt for dinner three nights it was obviously which is fine as a like backup but at the same time i'm like no no he needs to like try real foods and like yesterday he didn't like blueberries on his yogurt and so then you're not putting them on the next day well you're actually creating that food habit in them you need to just put that food on the plate continually and then eventually they'll kind of try it and then their taste buds will change and go actually yeah this is all right and you you kind of need to push them a little with kids for sure yeah so what do you cook for reggie then what's your god he's like a king how old is he now he's gonna be a year in three weeks oh bless him i know um so what does he eat so breakfast will be um ready break and banana okay oh god What?

33:12What's wrong with Ready Breck? It's just oats, isn't it? It is, but actually, annoyingly, the way they grind it up for babies isn't that. So, Ready Breck, the challenge with that is, essentially, they've blended the oats. So, you're breaking down the natural structures of the oats. Can I stop you there? So, I thought, if I'm going to do porridge, I'm literally going to blend the oats down anyway. And I thought, well, Ready Breck is basically that. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if they still add sugar to Ready Breck. No. No. They don't. Okay, fine. So you're good on that. But why do you need to blend the oats?

33:44Well, that's what I've just seen on loads of videos. But I mean, that is a little bit. Because it's a bit chunky, isn't it, for oats for babies? Even though he's not a baby anymore. They're never going to choke on an oat, right? Like if you think about how big it is and how mushy the whole thing is, like it's impossible to choke. I get the parenting like fear of choking hazard and all that. And don't get me wrong. I have the same like maternal instincts. but the reality is oats, it just make it porridge. It'll be absolutely fine. And it's without the blending, it'll have more of the natural structures and limit the sort of glucose spike on them.

34:17But they're a kid, they can handle it. It's not a big deal. I wouldn't worry about it. I'm not like fear mongering around ready breakfast. It's totally like fine, but I would just not blend it. I won't buy any more ready breakfast. I'll just use this. What do you add into it? Do you do milk? Do you do yogurt? Do you just do water? Oat milk. Oat milk. Come on. What? I make my own. You said you watch my videos. Yeah. I make my own oat milk. With just oats? Yeah. And water. And water. Okay, fine. That's all right. That's bad. Got you there. Yeah, okay, fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You haven't got all the additives.

34:50I have actually, you'll see on my shopping list, I did actually buy some whole, I can never say it, harmonagized. Un-homologized. Un-homologized. Yeah, that word. To get him to try that cow's milk now. Because he did actually have a cow's milk intolerance when he was younger. Oh, did he? So that's why I've kind of started with oat milk. Yeah. But I have bought some of the hard stuff for him to try. Honestly, if anyone's got any intolerance to food, like the best way is to just - Oh, yeah, he's fine now. When they're young, wean them off it. Yeah. Wean them into it. Yeah. I mean, he eats Greek yogurt all the time.

35:23So he's fine. So yeah, he's absolutely fine. Awesome. But anyway, so that's his breakfast. That's his breakfast. That's his breakfast. Then lunch would be, okay, let's go for example for yesterday. Yesterday it was lamb chop. Yeah, nice. Orzo. and then some blended up like sweet potato. Great. Just from veg. Cooking him real food. Yeah. Come on. He loves it. He loves steak. He loves lamb. He loves chicken. He loves all that. Honestly, that's one of the funniest things. Like babies love to just like pick up a bit of meat and like gnaw on it. I know. But no one gives it to them. I know. Like they're freaking out.

35:56It's actually so good for them. Yeah. I just let him do that. I just let him pick up. He loves it. Amazing. Loves it. Awesome. And then dinner would be just choc-choc chicken and rice so you could like spoon it in. And I don't think I gave him any veg for dinner. Oh, then lunch sometimes is egg on toast. He loves scrambled egg and toast and avocado. Eggs and avocado are like one of the best foods you can give to kids. Yeah, he has that pretty much every day for lunch normally. Just I had some lamb chops to use up that he hadn't eaten. So that's why his lunch was out yesterday. Amazing. But yeah, he eats like a king.

36:28I'm not joking. That's great. Sounds good. I mean, I'm trying to find something bad in there, but like, what do you feed him for snacks? Snacks, Greek yogurt. And then I freeze the Greek yogurt and these like little lolly things with like crushed up fruit. Come on, super mum. Yeah, yeah. There you go. Sometimes I give him some Ella melty sticks. Oh, the melty sticks. The melty sticks. Yeah, yeah. What else does he like to have for snack? He loves apple. He loves apple. He loves cheese. Great. He loves cheese. And it's the good stuff. It's the Ivers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But yeah, he doesn't really snack a lot.

37:07I think because he has such good meals. Yeah. I mean, they don't have to. I think snacking for kids has become like a coping mechanism for parents more than it has necessarily a necessity. And you saying that, you've hit the nail on the head there. Because when my mum looks after him, I'm like, oh, what did he eat? And she's like, oh, well, when I was getting dinner ready, he had some of that to snack on. I was like, but why didn't you just get it ready, then put him in the chair and then and just give him his dinner rather than, so yeah, I get what you're saying. Yeah, well, yeah, it's easy, right?

37:32It's a distraction. Gotta get rid of those melty sticks though, because they're basically like crisps. They're just - Oh, he does, he loves Quavers as well. And What's It's. And What's It's. They do, right? It's crunchy, like kids love them. Like I'm so conscious, like if ever there's a bag of crisps around Jack's, he'll eat the whole thing. And then he won't eat his dinner. Like it's just, there's something in our brain around the crunchiness that just triggers pleasure centers and like yeah we all love it it's ingrained in us we can't avoid it just if you're gonna do it like i always tend to lean to rice cakes for them oh the organics ones or just normal you can get organics ones they're not that bad they're flavored ones or i just buy the the big yeah size ones and just give them something out give them they hold it they break it they crunch it they eat it um and that way you haven't got like the seed oils and stuff in there and it's not essentially a fried crisp that's just like a baked you know rice cake and you can get lentil ones as well which then have more fiber more protein yeah you can that's a good shout why haven't you thought about that you're busy you're a mom right it happens yeah but i think look that's really good that's really interesting i think it's good inspiring that you do such a good job well done um just change that ready back and then we'll be good um but now let's kind of get to the the crux of the conversation around the good the bad and the healthy i want to hear more about your current eating habits what are you doing to stay in shape looking wonderful um and what's like one big thing you're proud of at the moment um one big thing that i'm proud of i i think i've mentioned this before but i love my veggies i really really do and i'll eat them raw like no I don't need sauce like I hate sauce on my food like I just like it plain oh really yeah like I don't like that shit just I like how it tastes normally good um so yeah I just love veggies I yeah snap on carrots like peppers what's your what's your go-to veg red pepper red pepper highest veg in vitamin c I know you know this stuff very good I know it was all because of you there we go have I done a video on that I don't know maybe it was M the nutritionist but That's fine.

39:46It doesn't matter who it is. It's all good. But then come on in, there's got to be some bad bits in there. What's the thing that's a bit rubbish, a sweet treat? You said you've got a sweet tooth. I've got the worst sweet tooth. Like, it's actually not normal. It's not normal. But actually, recently I have been curbing that. I think my main thing right now is how late I'm having dinner. How late you're having dinner? Like 11 p.m. sometimes. Whoa, what are you doing? Why so late? I just, by the time I've sorted Reggie out, put him to sleep, like, which can be like nine, half nine sometimes. Like he hates going to bed.

40:25Tidied the house, got some work done, then cooked dinner. It's 11 p.m. It's not, it's, I know it's bad, but it's just sometimes the way - Do you not get like starving? When do you have lunch? Yeah, I'm starving sometimes, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But then that's when I snack on like cookies and things. Right, yeah, yeah. But you've got to put your oxygen mask on first, right? They say that. I know. I hate when they say that. As if I'm going to put mine on first. Are you joking? Well, without you, what's Reggie got? Yeah, but I eat his leftovers anyway. So it's like that keeps me going. So you snack on his dinner.

40:57That keeps me going. Okay, fine. Why don't you just cook like one meal? Because I knew he was going to say this. Because like he eats meat a lot. I don't eat meat a lot. So it's like I need to cook my own things. and then yeah and it's just i don't know i don't know i'm probably making excuses i probably could but how many times do you skip dinner because you're just like i can't be bothered i'm going to bed um yeah probably more than half the time more than a lot yeah wow yeah okay that's not nourishing your body i mean we got to get there like i think the thing for me the biggest hack is like people always ask me what you know i cook for jacks and bodie and i'm like what do you mean whatever you're eating i just cook dinner yeah i just cook one meal and then you know siphon off a little bit for them if it needs to be blended up for them or you know just if it's something spicy i'll like make the whole dish before putting the chili in siphon off a bit yeah and eat that and just do it that way because well so you'll have breakfast lunch and dinner all together all together as a family three meals a day if i'm at home obviously i'm not working but But yeah, you know, breakfast we all have.

42:03That's iconic. We all have Greek yogurt and granola for breakfast. And then for lunch, we're all on, you know, scrambled eggs on sourdough. Yeah. You know, and everyone's like, oh, sourdough is too tough for kids. Oh, my God. Reggie loves sourdough. It's his favorite. He's never had anything else. But that's the point. Their taste buds get to know what they get to know. Right. So if you give it to them. Big up, Jason. Big up, Jason. Come on. But, you know, they get to know what they know. And actually even their chewing ability needs something tough like sourdough to develop the jaw strength rather than just giving them soft white bread that melts in their mouth, right?

42:40I even leave the crust on him now. He loves the crust. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They get used to it. It's just part of the development process. So that's awesome. And then, yeah, dinner is just like, you know, meat and veg, whatever I'm making. And then we just blend a little bit on the side and off we go. Simple. you make it sound simple yeah well that's the idea we're all busy right like we're all stressed we've all got jobs we've all got stuff going on in our lives so like the more you complicate it and go right i have to cook a meal for bodie i have to cook a meal for jacks i have to cook a meal for me and the missus like that's a nightmare i've been in the kitchen for like three hours yeah like my mum yeah and then like i try and hack it even faster and just go can't be bothered to cook you know get a load of like chicken thighs chuck them in a pan with a load of chopped up veg in the oven 20 well 30 40 minutes later meals cooked and for the baby you then just take a bit of that roast veg and blend out dinner done you saying it out loud it's like why do we not why do I overcomplicate it I don't know we've all got our own things right we've all got our own lives we do stuff in a certain way and you sometimes just need like seeing another idea or trying it in a different way to kind of like break you out of that habit and start something new.