Ozempic, UPFs & The Problem With Diet Shortcuts with Rhiannon Lambert

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1:43What is up? I'm Grace Beverley and welcome back to Working Hard, the podcast shared guidebook on how to improve your own life and achieve what you actually dreamed of doing because life's too short for boring podcasts and bad advice.

1:57Hello and welcome back to Working Hard. Today we are diving into one of the most confusing, overwhelming and emotionally charged topics out there, nutrition. Most of us grew up surrounded by a whirlwind of food rules from diet culture telling us to cut carbs and count every calorie to wellness trends convincing us that only green juice and almond flour are the path to health. So it is no wonder why we now feel totally disconnected from how to actually nourish our bodies and so much of nutrition advice is either unscientific or oversimplified or just plain wrong. In fact one of my favourite stats from this episode was that two percent, only two percent of nutrition data on TikTok is correct and accurate.

2:37Two percent and that is my personal fave news source. So today I'm joined by someone who has made it her mission to cut through the noise of all of that. Rhiannon Lambert is a registered nutritionist, best-selling author, founder of Retrition, and she has spent years translating nutritional science into practical advice that people can actually use. In this episode I really wanted to unpack what healthy eating really looks like, so how social media has totally warped our perception of food, and what the wellness industry doesn't really want you to know. From diet culture to a zen pic, emotional eating to TikTok trends, we are covering it all.

3:12I wanted it to be a very unfiltered conversation about all of these things. And this isn't about food rules or fear mongering, it is about taking back control, rebuilding your relationship with what you eat and learning how to feel good in your body for the long term.

3:34Rianna Lambert, are you currently more working hard or hardly working? oh I would love to say I'm hardly working but as a working mum um and the kids are still quite young I think I'm working really hard too hard do you know what I love my career it's really hard because I wouldn't consider what I do hard because I love it every single day it's what I'm really passionate about you know it's my whole life but there's never enough hours in the day so I would say I'm working hard yeah I think that's very valid and I also think when you were saying that I was just thinking how much women think through this question more when I ask it to them.

4:11And women, all of them really don't want to come across as ungrateful, but also don't want to come across like they're doing, they're not working at all. They love their work and all of that. It's just funny. I was literally thinking about like, I was like, men don't seem to struggle with this question. We're trying to be like really balanced and be like, but I am grateful, but it is hard. But I also am this. It's true. It's true. And I think it's because we just carry such a load as women anyway. And obviously it's not a nutrition related topic, but, you know, I'm carrying the lives of my two little ones and their schedules to manage alongside my own, keeping a house, doing the work.

4:46It is a lot of stuff to do. And that's why I think women struggle with it as well. It's how you're perceived. You definitely don't want to be like, oh, I chose to be a mum. I chose to have a career. Tricky conversations. And so for anyone who's not familiar with your work, could you tell us about when you decided to get into nutrition? Yeah, absolutely. So nutrition wasn't the first port of call for me. I was actually a singer, a classical singer, before I got into nutrition. And nutrition for me has quite literally saved my life, I would say. I was a singer back in the times when size zero was cool.

5:26It was awful. Diet culture was everywhere. I was weighed monthly and checked for my BMI by the label I was signed to. Whoa! Yeah, it was hardcore. And I was in the classical crossover industry, so it was more of the fact I was being told, well, you know, you're going to wear these specific ball gowns and things. I was being marketed as the next Katherine Jenkins type person. And this was all before the economy crashed in 2008, which caused labels to go bust. So I was moved basically at one point from Universal Classics and jazz to get a deal there. And then I was moved over to Warner Brothers to do this duo called Jazz Babes.

6:02And I was in this turbulent industry where food back then was calorie counting. It was buying the well-known Weight Watchers products. You know, that's what I thought was healthy. And it got to a point in my life where I just thought I can't do it anymore. My mental health was really bad. All my friends were off at uni having fun. And at the age of 21, I was classified a mature student, Grace. So I enrolled. Yep, I was mature at 21. Isn't it bizarre? I was not. I know. But there was a strange divide. Like I didn't want to go and live in undergrad halls. I wanted to go in the mature halls. But it was strange to be classified as that back then.

6:40And there were only five courses that did nutrition in the country. And the only thing I thought I was interested in was food, which probably came from a very disordered place because it's what I took an interest in. And one week into the nutrition course, I remember just calling my dad in tears, being like, I don't know any science. What am I doing here? How did I get onto this course? This is insane. I'd neglected science at school thinking you know I'm gonna be a singer it was my whole life that's all I ever worked towards I entered the S Club juniors competition when I was younger you know I did all that kind of stuff and so to go and do nutrition taught me everything it taught me to see food in a different way and I went on to have a first-class degree in nutrition and health so I think being the underdog was quite a drive for me really studied hard I worked five jobs when I was at uni to pay for uni because I was a mature student back then and then I went on to do a master's degree in obesity risks and prevention somehow I had some strange foresight that this was not going anywhere you know and obesity was such talking talking topic back then and I look now and I'm really grateful for that education I had and from that I set up my nutrition clinic the re-trition clinic so if anyone has heard of the work I do I'm an author of soon to be six books the next one's called the unprocessed play and it's on ultra processed foods but I'm most known I think for my encyclopedias I write those resources that go around the schools and the libraries that teach people about nutrition called the science of nutrition or the science of plant-based nutrition and that really stemmed about from my master practitioner in psychological interventions to food so my education is still ongoing just to put that out there you can never know enough to keep up with today's crazy world but I would say that's how most people would know me from my books now or the Retrition Clinic which I have in town I set that up the minute I finish my master's degree and it's a big umbrella now I do the wellness scoop with Ella Mills and I'm very blessed to have an opportunity to have a voice in an industry I'm so passionate about.

8:45Yeah I love that and it really shows that you've kind of committed to that constant education I do think it is one of those industries especially like we'll come on to talk about things like a zempic or even the rise in ultra processed foods like they probably didn't exist anywhere near in the same way when you were even at university and all of that so kind of it is one of those industries where you really do need to stay a student of it and I think there's so much online that's kind of very black and white and very like this is right this is wrong this is all of this which is antithetical to that kind of constant learning nuance understanding that these industries are changing and the technology around food is changing and all of these different things I think it's incredibly interesting and vital as well within your industry to really like you've got to keep keep close to it a hundred percent there's a saying and it's true the more you know the less you know and that's how I feel and the more I see this noise online and I see things evolving if everybody could just treat people with kindness and know that everyone's as unique because they're personalities, then you'd know that one size doesn't fit all.

9:48Right. But that's not a sexy sell to the media. So this is why nutrition is so controversial. It's also a motive, Grace, because we all care. You know, we all eat three, four, five, however many times a day we eat. We all have our own background with food, our own memories associated to it. So, yeah, it's a big topic and I love it. Yeah. Oh, good. Well, we can tell. um and you've said before that you're kind of really fighting to protect the nutritionist title and the reputation of that nutritionist title especially because there's so much dangerous information out there online are you still fighting to protect this yes oh my goodness it's been years so we got really close in covid so for people that don't know so anyone can call themselves a nutritionist but not anyone can call themselves a dietician dietician is a protected term and I think it's opposite in the U.S.

10:39as well the U.S. still has the dietician protected title right and I think they also lack regulation but I will check that I'm pretty sure I remember once hearing I remember being like someone saying something online and someone else being like actually in the U.S. it's opposite anyway confusing it's yeah this is just it very very confusing so even though I have these several degrees and I call myself a registered nutritionist I I voluntarily choose to be registered. So it's a choice I've made. And that means that anyone that's registered with the Association for Nutrition is held accountable for what they're saying.

11:15Right. So ultimately, if I say something wrong in this amazing podcast interview with you now, I will be in trouble. I could be struck off. I have to go for a proceeding hearing. They'll look at my code of conduct, my ethics. It's to protect the public, just like dieticians have or GPs have, the GMC. We've all got these governing bodies. the problem we have is because nutritionists are not a protected title yet someone that does a week-long course someone that's even just done one degree and decides to you know go and sell lots of things they're not held accountable what I will say is that if you choose not to be registered and you're a nutritionist you can cash in anywhere and there's no there's no moral ethics behind it you know I'm I'm probably very extreme in the sense I just want to do the right thing I'm very old school but I do think that's the right thing you know I won't just take people's money or pay on their vulnerabilities so the title got pre-covid very far we were we the PM had seen it I think we were ready to go and then covid hit and then we had to start all over again and now it's sitting with the Privy Council at the moment but it's been there since autumn and because we had a new government come in.

12:25It takes a long time, but I'm still hopeful that we will get the title protected because at the moment you get lots of people calling themselves registered nutritionists that aren't even registered. Right. How on earth is anyone meant to know? So my advice to your listeners would be check their qualifications and then check to see if there's anyone watching them or holding them accountable. What qualifications should they be looking out for? I would say at least a degree in nutrition, but I would also say that without a governing body, that's also tricky and blurry. Sure. And the degree itself sometimes isn't enough.

13:00If they're saying they specialize, I've seen so many things like hormone balancing nutritionist or a nutritionist that works with eating disorders or nutritionist that works in, you know, sports. Unless you have a further qualification on top of your base degree. Right. You can't really possibly specialize in an area. The degree is like an overview. We shared modules with neurologists, with doctors, because you're doing the same science grounding and then you just build on it to a public health level. And then if you go further, like I did with my masters and my master practitioner, you then specialize in different areas.

13:34So it is a long journey. You're looking at six, seven years of education and someone can do a week long course, Grace, and then there are nutritionists selling plans online. Right. And in addition to that type of thing, there's also so many myths out there and kind of trends as well that go round with nutrition, especially online. What is something you're seeing at the moment that is everywhere online that is driving you crazy? Oh, gosh. There's a lot. Yeah. You can list them. We don't even we don't just need one. Okay. Well, there's a lot. I would say that supplements are the answer to, you know, any ailment you have.

14:16Taking collagen is suddenly going to make your skin look 10 years younger. By going keto, therefore it's the secret to health and lowering inflammation. Fasting is also the secret to health. I mean, where do I stop? Then protein. Oh my goodness, these buzzwords. I feel like protein at the moment, if anyone sees high protein, it has a health halo effect. That's what we call it in the industry where to make a claim on a packet, you have to meet certain criteria, a percentage of a certain nutrient. So something doesn't may not be organic, but it can be called organic because it meets X percentage of the product.

14:52So it's blurry. And don't get me started on the claim natural because a product can be marketed as natural and there's nothing natural about it. So companies hire nutritionists, even like myself and other people to have a look at the breakdown of nutrients to market a product. protein is having an absolute field day and I think my biggest bugbear at the moment is that I just wish people would just focus on eating a balanced plate you know let's just get a few more veg in everyone's fiber deficient they're not deficient in protein yet there's protein chocolate there's protein cereal there's protein drinks protein fizzy drinks so that would be a big one.

15:34So talk to us then about how much protein we should be getting and what the myths are around protein that you're seeing come up that don't actually apply. So I'm not denying that protein is not important. You know, we have a metabolism that needs three main macronutrients to help us create energy within our body. That's essentially what the metabolism is. I think a lot of people confuse metabolism because of the media with weight and they think, oh, I've got a fast metabolism, I'm smaller or oh my metabolism's slow I gain weight. That's a fraction of it. I'd say a fraction of that is true but predominantly you've got to think about your carbs, your proteins and your fats going into your metabolism and creating all of this energy and fuel for your body to do what it needs to do.

16:17So protein is everywhere because it does help build our hormones, build and block of our hormones, of our skin. It plays a crucial function in maintaining our muscle. As we know as we age, our muscle mass declines. So we need to look at repairing and growing and looking at the structures of our skin. Lots of people talking about collagen at the moment, you know, essentially, you know, protein gives you collagen if it's from animal sources, you've got to have a look at the type of diet you have. Protein is key to being healthy, helps you repair. But, and the big but is that you only really need a gram to 1.5 grams per kilo of body weight.

16:53And most people are hitting that and then we get into the extra requirements if you work out if you're a certain age if you've got a certain condition and we're all unique and that then dictates that amount again so maybe it goes up for some people maybe it goes down for some people so protein's key but what we're missing on our plate is the fiber and that's what's so fascinating to me like what macronutrient was there left to pick on in the diet industry you know we've done carbohydrates rates we've done low carb that didn't work for people obesity rates are going up up up then the media goes right let's do fats we've done low fat we're not going to say high carb high fat are we let's be honest um then we had a look at sugar for a few years that was everywhere salt's always an issue we should be getting six grams of salt a day we get eight the same of sugar we over consume sugar protein you're not going to say low protein so we're marketing high protein now this has obviously I don't understand how algorithms work as well as you Grace I know you will definitely have a lot more of an insight here than me but it seems to be if you create content on platforms like TikTok or Instagram your content goes viral if it's high protein or it's more likely to be picked up in someone's feed therefore you've been you've got a barrage of people that are suddenly creating all the solutions to protein everywhere you've got people talking about it in the media because it's being picked up people releasing books because it's being picked up and we've seen this in nutrition history if you look back at the last decade the last 20 30 years this happens every year there's something it was fasting a few years ago and everyone was releasing fasting books you know now we're on protein and I'm not saying protein's not important I'm just saying you having more than 20 I'd say 30 max at one sitting in a meal is so unnecessary your body just excretes it you know you can't store over a certain amount anyway so to explain protein in a nutshell it's important but please don't overdo it you can actually have real harm to your body and your kidneys if you actually overdo it and what most people are missing by focusing on protein is their gut health and their amazing amazing nutrients that create these short chain fatty acids in our gut that send signals up to our brain that create b vitamins that help with our mental health that's so researched yet in this country we get 18 grams a day instead of 30 and we can't even hit our five a day so let's talk about fiber then yeah because i hadn't known that it was such an issue in terms of us actually getting enough fiber so what do we need to be doing around fiber like what are we doing wrong currently so fiber is a really really important um part of our diets and it's so interesting when you look at other tribes in other countries and you know really I'm talking ancient most studies tribes I think the Hadza tribe is one in Tanzania don't quote me on that but it's one in the research in evolution and adaption we used to look at university all the time they get so much fiber in their diet and there was some research that said the heavier your stools and which means the more fiber and bulk you've had in your diet the healthier you are and the better health outcomes you have now in the UK okay, we've got poor bowel habits, high rates of constipation, high rates of IBS.

20:10Everyone suffers with poor digestion. Now, there's many reasons for that. It's not just diet. You know, it's lifestyle. It's the clothes we wear. It's stress. It's sleep. It's so many factors. But we're not getting the roughage. We're not getting the types of things that push everything through in our body and feed our gut. So carbohydrates, predominantly most people's major source of fiber. You know, you start your morning breakfast. most people start with cereal or porridge, oats, you know, that sort of thing. Their gut bacteria ingest that, give off gas as a by-product and create other amazing things and it helps a garden of bacteria grow in your gut.

20:46And that is linked to our happy hormone production, all sorts of amazing things. It's a crisis because bowel cancer risk has gone up. We know one of the main factors that helps reduce risk of bowel cancer, especially in younger generations, Grace, this is the first time in history we're not outliving our parents. How have we got to that point? And many scientists think it's because of the fibre in Western worlds and ultra processed foods. So because the food landscape has changed, we live in a world where 70 % of children's diets is predominantly ultra processed foods, up to 60 % of adults. That's the same as America in the UK right now.

21:25And because the food landscape is so poor this means whole food items that have been broken down and made into something and created you know you get potato flakes made into crisps instead of potato or you're having white bread a lot instead of brown bread and these items contain more fat more salt more sugar and low fiber on ready meals there's a study that came out this week that said 75 percent of ready meals in the uk are low in fiber like how if people don't cook and they're buying ready meals not only is their salt intake in one ready meal probably higher than their daily intake you're then not getting the fiber so I've been looking into this for a long time so as I'd say every nutrition scientist is really aware that fiber should be a really big focus because of the rates of the health of the future generations now I'm a mother I want to see children growing up being healthy and happy and living a long time we've also got a link to fertility rates in this country now and ultra processed foods is such a huge topic and that's why I chose to write a new book on it I was so hesitant Grace I cannot tell you when my publisher said I think we need to have a book on entrepreneur food I said it's been done Dr Chris wrote an amazing one I don't want to jump on a trend it's not a trend because it's a food crisis and the more that we don't get the roughage and the fiber and the whole grains and the nuts the seeds the veg the plants not only is the planet declining because of this you know we could get into the food manufacturing chain that's a whole other topic of energy burn there but ultra processed foods has become such a key concern because of the lack of nutrient density in people's diets and it's increasing our risk of all sorts of poor health outcomes and shortening our lifespan okay so much to go into so much first of all i'd like to finish on fiber just because as someone who didn't realize that they might not be getting enough i'd love to know so grams wise how much was it that we should be having So studies suggest 30 grams a day is a good target to hit.

23:20And what does that look like in terms of maybe some fruits and veg? Yeah, I mean, if you look at a plate of oats or your porridge in the morning, you're getting four to eight grams already. So that's a good start. But if you had a slice of white bread versus whole grain bread, you know, you're going to get more in your whole grain bread. It means for a snack item, instead of having a protein egg, you have a banana because it contains more fiber. But the problem is people have demonized fruit. So what this protein trend has also done has replaced those healthy items that we used to have as snacks, like almonds, nuts, seeds, fruits, with high protein options that are low in fiber and ultra processed foods that have been taking the fiber out.

24:01So an average meal, you want to be aiming for around 10 grams of fiber because three meals a day is 30 grams of fiber. If you had snacks, you could easily do this because you have a carbohydrate base. You've got your rice. You've got pasta. quinoa bulgur wheat potatoes whatever you want there then if you've got a good portion of vegetables already you're probably hitting nine grams yeah okay yeah okay so but i think i probably am you are grace i would say you are because you've got a good you love your plants so i'm sure you're hitting that but the problem is if you're on a protein hype or a keto diet you're literally getting no fiber yeah interesting because okay my other side to this and i know this is very specific to me but I have insulin resistant PCOS okay so I do make sure I'm getting protein and fats with my carbs every time I have them just because otherwise I notice a huge difference both in terms of my PCOS symptoms but also things like brain fog and feeling crashes and all of that I had kind of assumed that that was just always best for everyone to be doing is that not the case I think it's true that a balanced plate is really helpful and that means every food group carbs protein, healthy fats, I mean cooking in olive oil and you know having some seeds or avocados on your plate but sadly this is not the norm in the UK people don't do this and then you've got the protein.

25:17The reason being it slows the release of sugars in your system when you eat a meal and there's obviously a craze on CGM wearing so continuous glucose monitors they're wildly inaccurate we know now we finally have data to suggest that readings can be up to 30 % inaccurate even more you have to test the same food multiple times and you'd get a different response every single time wearing a cgm so they're great for a diabetic population not so much a non-diabetic population but i would definitely say slow the release of sugars for more energy throughout the day but that's enjoying food let's talk about the love of food like breakfast should be a meal you enjoy who just wants porridge with oats and water and honey definitely not me it doesn't taste great like if you make it with your favorite plant milk or if you drink cow's milk you know if you put that in you've got a bit of natural fats and then you add some nuts or you add nut butter you had a bit of fruit yeah you've got a really nice balanced meal i remember back when i like i must have been like 16 or 17 and like i was following it was the beginning of instagram for me at least well actually i think it was the beginning of instagram as well and i was like consuming lots of people like doing these beautiful you were you were there literally doing like the oak like gorgeously decorated like banana on top all of this and just like berries were so fucking expensive so i just remember looking at people's and being like how are you guys having like half a punnet of blue fruits every day because they're crazy expensive actually having them that with frozen fruit equally as if not more delicious and I've heard you speak about frozen fruit and veg before did you see me get trolled about frozen fruit oh my god tell us tell us about frozen fruit and veg because I feel like it's always been seen as a negative or depleted of nutrients and all of that I know I'm really glad you brought up frozen fruit because I was told and I didn't realize that it's such a cultural thing.

27:02So in some cultures around the world, because my video is saying that frozen fruit is more nutritious than fresh, which it is, everybody. It's picked fresh, it's then frozen, it retains more nutrition. When it sits on the shop shelf, over time it oxidizes, you know, it's exposed to oxygen, it depletes nutrition ever so slightly. It doesn't make it an item you shouldn't have. It's great to have fresh fruit. But frozen berries are more nutritious and rich. Anyway, I'd said this on another podcast and the clip had gone, You know how they do. They get millions of views and things and it gets quite scary.

27:32And then the comments underneath, so many people were saying that it's not good to eat something that's frozen because culturally to them, they believe that fresh food is a religious thing. And if you have cold food, it's bad for your heart or your health because it's cold and it's frozen. And loads of people saying this nutritionist doesn't know what she's talking about. How can something frozen remotely be nutritious? You've killed everything in it. And, you know, it was that lack of science versus tradition that had hit me that I'd never been faced before. I was like, how is this a controversial topic, frozen berries?

28:04It's saving people money. I was thinking I was doing a good thing. You know, they're full of nice colors which support your brain with all these lovely anthocyanins and antioxidants. And then people are telling me that I'm doing an awful thing. And I was like, the Internet is wild. Yeah. Yeah. But I think that is so interesting, though, that they are so nutritious. because I do think that I don't know the whole time growing up we definitely assumed that frozen was worse but but that is because again of the ultra processed food conversation right I mean I've spent oh a year or more researching for this new book and I have whole sections that explain privilege first of all so we have to remember there's a privilege conversation when we discuss frozen food some people can't afford to have a freezer running in their house yeah so it's huge.

28:50There was a stat that said that 2.8 million people in the UK are living without a freezer. So for us to even be discussing frozen berries, for so many people, it's not even an option. And that's where government comes in, actually, as well. And we have to remember this conversation. And when I was researching the book, I had a page on, is ultra-processed foods a privileged conversation? And then I looked around the world at the different demographics of people that are consuming more ultra-processed foods. And interestingly, in some cultures, the wealthier you were the more upfs you consume and the obesity rates are higher and in other countries like we have here it's the lowest socioeconomic groups and the broken plate came out in january report this year in 2025 and it said that to eat healthfully it's twice as expensive than junk food and if you're on a lower income in your family you have to spend 70 of your income to achieve a healthy balanced diet on your family 70 70 god that is dire this is what breaks my heart and this This is why when I accepted to write the unprocessed plate, I was like, I have to have privilege in there.

29:50I have to have relationships with food because this is a conversation that is so far from people's concerns right now in parts of this country still in the UK. It's heartbreaking, isn't it? Tonight's meal, tilapia surprise with boiled cabbage. Begin cooking steps one through 50 now. Are you kidding me? Making dinner shouldn't feel like doing a thousand piece puzzle. with Blue Apron's new one-pan assemble-and-bake meals. The hard part's already done. Pre-chopped ingredients. Zero stress. Just assemble, bake, and enjoy. No complicated steps. No mountain of dishes. Try assemble and bake today. Get 20 % off your first two orders with code APRON20.

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31:09But you know what does? The simple eating tips from my nutritionist at Mochi. And after losing over 30 pounds, I can say you're not just another GLP-1 source. You're a life source. Thanks, Tara. I'm Myra Ameth, founder of Mochi Health. To find your Mochi moment, visit joinmochi.com. Tara is a Mochi member compensated for her story. Yeah, I spent three months in the U.S. at the beginning of the year. And I've always noticed the difference here between, I think the freezer thing, for example, it must be a type of, it must be a kind of like hockey stick like graph because also at the same time, fresh fruit is super expensive.

31:46Yeah. But I also think that, you know, it's easy to notice how cheap you can get something from McDonald's, for example, versus, I don't know, even a meal deal or even, you know, going up from there in terms of fancier things and salads are always the most expensive of the meal deals and all of this. but in the US I can't believe that people aren't fucking revolting like as in like I I literally cannot believe that there aren't like protests about the food because it is so the difference between if you go into just like a grocery store first of all the state of the food is crazy it's like these monster apples and onions and everything the size of your head they're also wrapped in this um the whatever they spray on it is not digestible to the human body but they put it on it that's what makes it look shiny so first of all messed up second of all if you want to get organic it's far more expensive even like i try to buy some pomegranates in the us like eight nine dollars wow for the for a tiny thing of pomegranates and i know that's like a specific fruit and it was probably not a local fruit which is my bad um but like there's anything fruit or veg was so expensive there like doing there are whole cities in the US where doing a grocery shop is going to be your most expensive option and then you would look at so I would look at this and I'd look at the fact that like one organic fruit was like you know well above like two three dollars which in the UK it wouldn't be but also then on top of that you see all the signs for the fast food and it's literally one dollar for a burger one dollar for a like taco one dollar for like so so cheap that was the first time that I and obviously this comes from a lens of privilege but like that was the first time where I truly truly was like this is first of all this is 10 times worse than the UK but it is also just like a huge moral issue and I think in the US there's this whole extra layer of it in the way that then they profit from the fact that you get ill and like at least in the UK we are not you know supplementation yes is profiting but the health system isn't necessarily it's probably it will do better if you are profiting the health system right exactly so so the health system will do better if you are facing less disease whereas in the US they are directly incentivized to make sure you are facing more disease but by the yeah I literally, just sorry, I know it's a bit off topic, but I just remember literally being like, how are people not picketing?

34:23It's sad. I think they are. I think the thing is, what is even scarier is like, you've explained the landscape of the US. And I'm sure lots of people listening to your podcast will be from the US as well. And they'll feed back to you what their food is like there, because there are some small pockets where it's great. But the majority is the fact that it's run by advertising agencies, like you say. what's scary is how can we be one percent away from the u.s in terms of our consumption of these types of foods now so while you don't think the uk is bad the stats of obesity are pretty much nearly at a par and the consumption of children is higher and the same as the u.s with the poor items of food so we are basically following the u.s's lead um but what we do have here is we do support well not enough but british farmers like i was at parliament last night doing a talk about children's nutrition which we can get into later but the fact that you know british berries 95 % of the berries in the uk are produced in britain so we get them here i don't know what is going on in the states but even their health secretary is confused so their health secretary has a big thing about seed oils so there's this huge conversation i think you've had dr sarah berry on before and i'm sure she dissected that far more eloquently than i can it's her research she spends her life researching this she's amazing and they are so confused in the states right now they're saying let's go back to beef tallow let's fry everything and all your fast food yeah you can be healthy again go eat your fast food and beef tallow that's higher in saturated fat it's pure insanity but to so many people it seems natural there's this philosophy this kind of view that oh let's go back to just using the cow in this awful way to produce this industry everything is backwards grace basically in the food industry and I feel like I'm banging my head on a brick wall because what doesn't help is the misinformation online because it empowers all these conversations we don't realize how powerful social media is like it's actually filtrating through to government policies it's huge and so on ultra processed foods then what first of all what constitutes an ultra processed food okay so there's four different stages and scientists disagree of course they do no one agrees on everything yeah shows good research they do exactly so we have Carlos Montero created a system called Nova, and he did it over in Brazil originally to have a look at the state of the obese population in Brazil.

36:44Why is this happening? Is it the high consumption of sugar sweetened beverages? They put a tax on those. They looked at that. But Nova is the system most people use. Now, stage one, two, you've got minimally processed items. So the apple you pick from the tree is obviously not processed, is it? You've got minimally processed, which would be an olive oil, because all you've done is taken the olive, pressed it and put it in the bottle. Right. So a traditional cake, let's look at a cake. Traditionally, people would use butter, eggs, flour, sugar, whatever. Mix things in a bowl, you make a cake. But today, you buy a cake on the shop shelves, it could sit there for up to, what, four months?

37:18That's actually horrible. I know, when you look at it, you're like, but no one thinks of it because we're so conditioned over the past 10 years to expect shelf life to be longer. Now, the problem with this system is it's pretty obvious an ultra-processed food has a long list of ingredients. doesn't always make them bad some of them are vitamin fortification and there's nuance that comes in in this category four which is ultra processed you know supermarket bread is ultra processed but remember that stat of 2.8 million people in the uk that don't have a fridge probably or freezer they can't get fresh bread because it goes off in a day because there's nothing to protect it from spoiling to external sources or developing mold so we have to remember upfs were invented to save lives baby formula is a upf women that can't breastfeed or you know live in a different area choose not to that saves an infant's life so there's the nuance that i go into in the book about this with remember you know emulsified fires were invented in the 1960s or whatever i think and that was an incredible invention one of the best 20th century inventions of you know pasteurization like wow so just remember the wow factor but how it has turned into an everyday item in every shape or form from your pasta sauce jars that have tons of extra additives and emulsifiers to the you know protein powder is an ultra processed food it has a place we've all consumed it it's not inherently bad but it shouldn't be an everyday item that's just the way it is and we're looking at the fact our body can't absorb effectively nutrients and these upfs now are everywhere to preserve a food you need more salt therefore you have a high salt intake therefore you have more cases of heart disease being attributed to that you've got type 2 diabetes risks with extra sugar and look at the cake the cake that's there with all of these extra things I even saw a porridge pot when I was researching for the book very well known instant porridge pot that had shellac in it what yeah my nail shellac yeah it's the chocolate one so shellac is actually comes from the beetle and um yeah I've got a list of what every an e number is basically classified by the European, you know, we classify things in Europe.

39:24There we put an E for Europe at the front, and then we just put a number next to every ingredient that we possibly have. So E numbers and additives are amazing. They have a place, but so many are unnecessary. They're purely there to be hyperpalatable. They've done the digesting for you. They've taken half the chewing out of your time of day. So we eat more because it's soft, it's mushy. I mean, a bag of crisps, how easy is it to eat a whole jumbo bag of crisps? It's so easy. I know, it's really clever, right? Yeah. And they taste so good. And I'm not saying don't ever have crisps. I'm just saying don't have them every day.

39:54So what should we be aiming for percentage-wise? This is the question that they asked me to put in the book. And we don't have an exact stat. And it's infuriating. But what I would say is if you start with making sure you're at least getting one meal a day that is an ultra-process that you can cook from scratch, the key to UPF consumption is cooking. But we've lost this art over different generations and years of cooking because we're busy. I've definitely lost that art. Yeah. Yeah, well, do you know, I go for a phase. You know, Grace, I've got two kids. I don't always cook fresh, fresh for them every day.

40:26You know, sometimes I do buy that pasta sauce jar when I'm in a rush. I'm not evangelical about I cook everything from scratch. Oh, I wasn't even thinking of pasta sauce. That for me was a given. No, but this is what I mean. And it's not bad. Have I ever had a homemade soup? I know. I'm so grateful for podcasts, the fact that I have time to talk about this topic, because otherwise people will think, oh, my goodness, UPFs are scary. They're bad. And it's not at all. it's more the fact that if you're buying ready meals or you're buying chicken nuggets every day there's a hierarchy of chicken nuggets and fish fingers but we looked into fish fingers in the u.s and we looked into fish fingers here in the uk and it was unbelievable the amount of additives they put in the u.s versus the uk first of all but the percentage of fish is something like 45 fish in a fish finger and a kid this is a common item children eat every single day yeah what's the rest this is just it and then we've also got the food standards agency little fact for you here in the uk have five additives that are linked to hyperactivity in children and it's there on their website plain as day and they're in so many things in the us they allow even more so we know that they impact behavior we know they impact health yet we need to reformulate in the food industry to reduce our amount of epf so my biggest advice is start one meal at a time yeah so if if someone's listening to this and just realizing even through like a lot of the things that you've mentioned like pasta sauce for example which for some people will be the healthiest part of that meal versus like the rest of it which might be just the they're just having pasta and pasta sauce and cheese switch to brown pasta instead of white and then have it with the pasta sauce jar you know rather than just doing white pasta white pasta sauce or just do it every now and again do it once a week and then try and make a pasta sauce from scratch this is what i try and help people do through the recipes and things and then freeze it if you can or if you can't you store airtight now and you've got a meal for three days so it's really tough to navigate but you can do it and i think one of the biggest culprits are the carbohydrates that we eat for upfs it's the breads it's the wraps it's um did you know like a pita bread doesn't have any palm oil in it whereas a wrap will most of them some don't but you know wraps looks suspicious to me well it's because they're they're shiny and malleable like you can fold them without them cracking but you couldn't actually do that with bread it's funny because i i had to and you'll i mean i had to for medical reasons so it's fine but i had to go gluten-free back in um december and i've been gluten-free since and i wonder how many of the positive results that i've had are going gluten-free versus the reduction in the amount of ultra processed foods that i'm able to have based on the fact that i'm gluten-free because literally every ultra processed food has gluten in it like don't get me wrong i'm still managing to get some in there and do you buy the gluten-free alternative i don't actually so i've actually tried to re kind of just rethink my diet so i'm just looking at different carbohydrates rather than looking at because actually they're so bad like yeah honestly i would love to say that this was a health standpoint um they are so bad like gluten vegan versions people have nailed gluten free versions of anything it is like sawdust in a bed of concrete you know why because gluten's a protein that's glue it is the glue of the food yeah it sticks things together it's stretchy if you look at gluten that's where it gets its name from and glue gets its name from so it's really hard for scientists to replicate anything and it will all be able to process because you are manipulating a food and adding loads of different things to create a texture i'm glad you said gluten-free because that's one of the things do you remember a few years ago oh it was all the rage everyone said it should be and these poor people that actually like yourself and people that are celiac and people that actually have to be gluten-free must have been so frustrated like why would you choose to do this oh yeah I did to be fair I did say I said it was the one thing I would never ever ever do like you couldn't pay me enough and I think that was based on the fact that um I tried it when I was like 18 my version of a diet was I went gluten and dairy free and now unfortunately I've cursed myself in the future much like my mum who once pretended she had glandular fever to miss an exam and then actually got glandular fever this is how I feel um and I did yeah I remember finding it like so hard but being like actually it takes all the quote unquote bad things out of my diet and now I actually have to do it and it's truly heartbreaking and I do look at lots of things and just think that is so sad it's good that you're really open about your relationship with food and the things that you've tried because I'm sure so many people can relate that it's really hard to navigate first what I eat in a day is on social media aren't real like no one actually eats these things they're spending hours cooking this is the main thing is like I'm not I'm not even that impressed by how healthy people are I'm literally like are you do you have multiple breaks in your day where you can literally spend even half an hour cooking no you've discovered you know what cooking um i actually wrote a shopping list in how to start your day in the book because i know how busy people are i get infuriated by when i see these videos i'm like so unattainable for so many people it's so unrealistic but they're viral content you know these are the this is the content that social media platforms push out to everybody but with um bread and things you can just make it with two ingredients yogurt and flour you know mash it my kids love doing this we mash it together we make little bagels together and fun little things and there's so many easy hacks like we make dorito crisps so i'll get the wraps that don't have the palm oil in them i'll get some scissors i cut them into triangles just put a little bit of olive oil on it put it in the oven for like five minutes and then i've got the most delicious crisp and you can add salt for adults obviously in different flavors but that takes me no time at all they get back from school on a friday and they're so happy that yeah it's crisp night with a film it's disney obviously movie disney movie with the homemade chris i mean i'm so cliche nutritionist but you know that to me is what i'm choosing to do as a parent that's my choice and then when we go out for parties i'll give them the upf items it's all about balance and knowing where like i wouldn't deprive them a birthday cake at a party yeah i was gonna say i think that's really interesting i think it's a really good point so you don't have any rules for them in terms of food when it comes to going other places?

46:27I, up until the age of, so there's research called the first a thousand days from naught to two, that's in the womb when a baby is inside the mummy's tummy all the way up to the age of two, that they have the most brain development, they grow their immune system, all sorts of things, they get their preference of food, the flavours, and you're not meant to give your kid any added sugar under the age of two, that is NHS guidance in this country. Really? Yeah. No added sugar? No added sugar, whereas every nursery you go to under the age of two and remember their teeth are still coming out some kids haven't finished with all their teeth yet so you've got all these different things to consider here and there's now suggestions that speech development is being delayed in this country because of the lack of chewing on actual foods because of the amount of ultra processed foods and sucking on pouches there's so many scandals right now in this country with food for kids but that's for another time and another another conversation but if we have a look at the amount of sugar in kids diets It's way too high.

47:21So my little thing to myself was if I can get to the age of two with minimal amounts, minimal, I'll be really proud. And I did it till three. I'm really proud of myself. When you've got a sibling, it's virtually impossible because you can't just give the older one something and not the younger one. Yeah. But I used to take the goodie bags, party bags, before my kids saw it because they didn't care at that age. They don't know. And I think that's a key point as well because the idea is that it's not for them to worry about. it's not like their mental load of being like oh sweets are bad oh my gosh I feel like that has I had a really bad pick and mix addiction I used to I used to go to Woolworths before it shut down and get all those pick and mixes I used to so we used to get um 10p pocket money for every for your age so if you were nine you'd get 90p for example and that was like every Sunday and we'd like we'd go spend it when I got to one pound oh pound land opened up to me and it was just yeah it's a true wonder but i used to without a doubt spend every single like every single penny of everything on just sweets i think because we weren't they were very demonized like it was very much like oh no these aren't good and so i just developed the world's biggest like addiction to pick and mix so my kids have chocolate every single day love that but they have dark chocolate every single day i am your kids yes there you go but i'd rather that because if I deprived it like you're saying if I let it wait till the weekend and by the way your parents were doing the right thing at the time there's no judgment on parents whatsoever because you every parent wants to do the best for their kids you don't realize what you're going to do to them in the future you know you just don't know but I do think for any parents that might be listening it's a really good idea to not demonize foods but you're in control before they go to school yeah when they go to school you have no control yeah kids parties you don't want to isolate them And I just have to embrace it.

49:14Do you think it impacts people's tastes later on? Yes, absolutely. So if a child doesn't have enough bitter foods growing up and vegetables and exposure to a variety, which many don't because the cost of living is too high. It's really hard for parents to find time to cook from scratch. So many reasons why. The school food's not good enough. The nursery food's not good enough. And that's what I spent a lot of my time. I was in Parliament yesterday, late in the evening. The nursery staff must be terrified of you. Them seeing you at Parliament talking about nursery food. They're like shaking as they come in.

49:43Do you know what's funny is that my nurseries have been really lovely and receptive, which is really, really nice. And I have spoken and they cook fresh on site. I'm really lucky I've got a really nice nursery. But it's just not a choice for so many. They don't have a budget. Of course. So I was at Parliament last night discussing children's nutrition and the state of things in this country and how it should be a priority. And so many nurseries want to do it, Grace. So schools want to do it, nurseries want to do it. but the funding you know do you remember Jamie Oliver's campaigns and what happened it's like we've gone backwards but I'm very passionate about this area and I think if more people knew we have this small window to shape a child's relationship with food you know that is it in my eyes I always knew as a parent right not for I've got to nail this because then I know it's going to help them and I don't want them to have a poor relationship with food they need to be able to enjoy Haribo and things at some point but do they need it before the age of two they're also choking hazards because kids that young can't like swallow the sweets do you know what the biggest choking hazard is in the uk sausages and grapes so sausages because people don't cut them lengthways they cut them in like little coin shapes and they're still wide so they get stuck in kids throats and they're really hard to get back up and so many parents don't know this kind of stuff so i was pretty hot on it but anyway ultra processed foods are filtrated into the school system and in spain last week they banned ultra processed food in schools as they should as of last week and i'm wondering if we'll follow suit the reason i say as they should for that because i do think like that it's you know as we've talked about balance is important it's important like you don't need to cut them all out and all of this but like it makes it less of a privileged conversation because if it is in schools just like that is what we know they aren't fed ultra processed foods there then at least when people are going to school they are getting a good square balanced meal that is it doesn't have to be influenced by the fact that their you know parents might not be able to pay for it this is it because we've got to remember for some people the only treat they can give their kids and i have such compassion for that is that pack of sweets and that is something that's so special to that child and that parent but if they can go to an environment where everyone's the same on the same playing field sure it makes such a difference So I think, I hope, we'll follow suit.

51:58They said in Spain, it's a very simple message. Instead of chips and deep fried items and ultra processed foods, we're going to give fresh fruit. Yeah. It's just a no brainer. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think that's... I want to see it, UK. I want to see it. Me too. I'm now on board. Thank you. Help me in. Let's do this. The market's uncertain. Revenue's tied and hiring on hold. That's why results driven companies are using Upwork to keep work moving. Go to Upwork.com today and start hiring proven freelance talent fast. No bulky overhead. No rigid long-term contracts. Just the right expert right when you need them.

52:33Work smarter and faster with Upwork. Go to Upwork.com now and find your freelance expert. That's U-P-W-O-R-K.com. Post a job for free and get started today. I want to talk about a Zempick. Okay, I knew it was coming. every interview at the moment I was like who's gonna throw well I just think that like what I really want from this episode is to be able to arm ourselves against the like nutrition myths online and also just I think what you're so committed to is making sure you're up to date with like what is what are the changes around nutrition and nutritional culture and I do think when I look at that ultra processed foods yes a Zen pic is a big one like I look on TikTok and there's so much talk about it there's demonization there is also the other side and kind of amplification and so I'd just love to know your take on a Zempik.

53:28It's a big topic um let's start by the fact every single person in the UK probably knows the word Zempik. Do you know the word of other medications? Not many of them. Yeah yeah so it's already got a name which means it's it's a mainstream thing This is more than just a discussion of what the drug does. It's become almost a cultural shift. It's also changed the landscape of the weight loss industry. You know, companies that thrive off shame, like, you know, you've got Weight Watchers, Slimming World. Weight Watchers went bankrupt, I think, in the last two weeks. RIP. Yeah, by Weight Watchers. However, they've now bought into Ozempic or Wagovi.

54:07They'll be using these weight loss injections. Then over the past nine months, we've had a trial on the same GLP. So the peptide hormones that keep people feeling full. That's essentially what you're injecting your body with. These properties that make you feel fuller. So people's appetites shrink. And I'll just start by the research we've got. We're thinking of moving it over to pills. So in this country, they've done a lot of research. And by 2026, we may have a pill version. They're also thinking of making it free. because the result of reducing the comorbidities that come with people being obese or severely overweight the strain that puts on our health care system in the UK is going to save unthinkable amounts of money so as NPIC's a money conversation it's a scientific research conversation we don't have long-term data we don't have anyone that's been on it for 10 years but how crazy is that then we've got tech companies that are integrating the use of these jabs alongside their lifestyle wearables um so you could be wearing an aura ring and you'll have an injection on the other side and we've got to a point where it's become so normal to be on a zempick and the pro side is it's life-changing you cannot deny for somebody that's got to a point No one chooses to be severely overweight or obese.

55:30I mean, it's a very rare lifestyle choice. No one chooses that. When you're at that point, you've got to remember this is hugely psychological. You're probably in a darker place. It's really difficult to make lifestyle choices. No one around you is helping you do it. The food environment you're living isn't helping you. The government isn't helping you. You've got no emotional support. It's a disordered relationship with food or an eating disorder. That's tough. That's really tough. So it literally is transformative for people's lives. And once you get that initial weight loss, then healthy behaviors come with it.

56:02The flip side is the black market. I mean, how many A-listers are probably on a Zempic? So many. And I think about the fact that people that are healthy weights do not need to be taking these medications. I also have friends and people I know personally on a Zempic. And the people that I know, it's just changed their lives. So my friend, basically, the one that I was discussing this with is a good example, or clients that I have in the nutrition clinic. It doesn't take away the lifestyle changes you have to make because you'll reach a plateau. Any weight loss program reaches a plateau. And then if you're starving yourself and you haven't got nutritional education and you come off these injections or these medications, often the weight does go back on.

56:42Now, it may not go on to the point where it was really damaging, but you will put on a significant amount. And that instills another yo-yo dieting relationship with food. I think the judgment comes from a place where it's a very strange place where judgment of people on a Zen pic comes from. Almost a bitter place, I'd say, of, oh, how dare they cut the traditional methods of weight loss. It's unfair that you didn't have to go through the tough thing of, yeah, yeah. I live my life in this way, but it's not a choice. And I'm not for or against a Zen pic. I need to see what on earth is going to happen with this over the next five years.

57:19but it has changed the landscape of my clinic, my nutritional practice, traditional methods of weight loss. It's changed the way that weight loss programs everywhere operate. Financially speaking, it's going to hopefully help the health system. And now there's the latest research, again, that's come out in the last few weeks. This is a hot day today for research, Grace. I feel like it's all flying at me. It's very exciting times. But a Zempig, or not specifically that brand, you know these grp injections they have been linked to reduced inflammation and a reduced risk of cancer not because of the weight association so we initially thought that the weight that comes off means you're reducing your risk of all these other elements which is true but there's now potential that it could help in other areas but we don't know so people and scientists are now going to take this away and use it in other areas not just weight loss yeah but the knock-on effect on the gut microbiome, the knock-on effect on our mental health.

58:17You know, you've got Mark Zuckerberg saying we all need an AI friend. I feel like the world is turning into plasters that we're just putting on things and we're never getting to the food system in the UK. We're just going to keep taking weight loss pills. Right, so it's about using it correctly and appropriately rather than it being something that everyone needs to be on so they're as small as possible. And if you need it, I did this documentary with Anna Richardson on Channel 4 and we did the black market of a Zen pic. And I remember having her in clinic. We were talking about the fact that people are selling this down Harley Street, left, right and center to people that aren't screened for it correctly.

58:55And because it's profitable, they're going to keep buying it every single month. They don't really need it. So the regulation factor is wild. and I can see all sides of the coin but ultimately let's just be kind to one another in a very difficult landscape everyone is struggling to navigate this conversation I am struggling to navigate this conversation I'm seeing pros but I'm seeing side effects I'm seeing people with severe nausea clinical depression because they took it really so where do I sit on the fence because I don't know where else to sit I heard something I don't know if it was an accurate statistic but it basically um I think it was in an article and it was basically saying that you put most of the weight back on but because you can't put muscle on to this at the same speed as you put as you obviously because you lose muscle as well as fat when you're on a zempec and that's why weight training is so important and all of that but you put the same amount on but you put it on predominantly in fat so you often end up with a worse body composition than you started with if i don't know that's that is that is a theory it depends what your starting weight is sure so it's still going to be more positive people that were obese to a certain degree it will still be more positive not be carrying you've got to think about the weight on their joints every day you know their gait their biomechanics has moved so their hip structure the way they walk everything's changed but you're right in the sense that any time we lose weight really quickly that's not healthy and it is always going to be better to do it slowly and sustained to reduce the amount of muscle you potentially lose and to enable you to keep it off long term because your body goes into survival mode and it's very similar the euphoric feeling you get of weight loss to what anorexics actually get what we have in our eating disorder clinic is that they feel euphoria during starvation sometimes because it's your body's protective mechanism to prevent you from realizing what's actually happening to your body right and people that are on this severe weight loss where they're losing weight really quickly you get the dopamine reward of seeing the number on the scales but also you get protective properties that can ping up that make you feel incredible when you're on this journey it's really really interesting the psychology and nutrition is always going to be literally combined yeah right that's incredibly interesting and obviously there are other things that i mean that's one of the things that have been hugely talked about on tiktok in terms of nutrition and weight loss and all of these things have you seen that there's oat zempic and then there's another one recently with facilium husk and they're saying it's like taking a Zen pic.

1:01:23There's crazy trends that are popping up around a Zen pic. Yeah. How else, I guess, do you think TikTok is changing our relationship with food? TikTok is not a good platform to go to for nutrition information. Less than 2 % is accurate from the latest study we have of information on TikTok. That is scientifically researched and less than 2%. I mean, it's insane. And it's short form content. You can't possibly get context of anything in quick, snappy, short form videos. My fear is that around a quarter of young people now turn to TikTok for their health advice rather than going to their GP or to see a professional themselves.

1:02:02And then the biggest scary factor now, and it happened to me recently, I'm sure you've probably had it happen to you as well, was these AI. The ads, the like fake ads. Yeah, it was me talking and it wasn't me. and I was selling these products I'd never heard of in my life on TikTok it had over a million views I know and I had to contact some eventually it took a month I got it taken down by contacting TikTok directly for a friend I knew but it was people buying these it was me but it it moved my mouth it had my voice it was basically I've had similar happen to me but I'm not going to say what it is because I don't know don't no I don't want to say what it is either I do not want to say what it is but some people you couldn't really it's not obvious obvious all the time not everyone reads that it says it's AI I don't understand how that's legal but to anyone consuming TikTok you don't know what you're consuming is it even real so how can you go there for nutrition advice and there's a lot of toxic trends disordered eating um it's just not censored it's actually really dangerous I do worry about the teenagers today consuming nutrition advice from TikTok massively right and is there anything that you're seeing particularly at the moment that's like flying around other than things like the you know the protein stuff and something came up because we're recording in spring of like bikini tacks for the body and things and always thought it's the same messaging as do you remember years ago there was that famous advert that was everywhere with the girl in the yellow bikini the protein marks one yes and it got so yeah yeah we've definitely gone back because that was like taken down and also people were so angry and it was something about bikini body yeah well now there's tiktok trends called bikini tax so you have to earn your food and earn your bikini body and all i can say about these trends is anything that says do this to look like this is wrong big red flag eat like me what i eat in a day big red flag it's not you don't create content like that and it cannot possibly emulate your entire day right most people like you said earlier are working in an office or out and about or they've got kids at home or they're manic they're not cooking three times a day with loads of ingredients in a kitchen it's just not real so red flags are things that look too good to be true that are promising miracle results and are selling you something hard yeah and i mean like i take this look at my hair you know my hair today that's good because i took this gummy last night yeah that type of thing and i see it with hair transformations you know you see those videos where I ate this in my diet and now look look at my hair a month later look how much longer it is I'm so aware of body transformation pictures when it comes to nutrition because everyone is different we do not know how we all function internally yet yeah we don't have the data and so but anyone listening to this who wants to make changes that they will have the prolonged results but maybe you know as you said most people aren't able to cook three meals a day they're not able to um you know be looking at every single thing they eat and a lot of the time they just need to grab something from tesco what are some simple things you would recommend they do to make to make their not their relationship with food better but to make to mean they're consuming their food better yeah yeah to make better choices around food i don't know why i couldn't say that wow i know what you mean i know what you mean is my brain sometimes goes in overdrive it's so overwhelming the discussion of nutrition in today's society is crazy and small changes have big results so instead of focusing on your entire day if the only time you're sat at home with your loved one or someone else or by yourself to enjoy a meal is breakfast prioritize that meal that is the meal you cook or you prep the night before that is the meal where you will get one of your five a day because that's what you have time to do that is the best bit of advice to start in that way small the second one is if you're an on-the-go eater you do need to educate yourself that's you know look it up on the internet or get a book like my next book or just have a look at how to dissect labels learn what's in your ingredients list because I guarantee there's probably no sandwich that you buy on the go in any supermarket that doesn't have a massive long list of ingredients and if you're looking to reduce your UPF content you're probably better off instead of going for the sandwich I know they're easier to eat and the wraps and they look so delicious and every now and again that's fine but if you're having that every single day you're probably better off going for one of the bowls where you can see like almost like a Buddha bowl style meal so it is actually wild how expensive things have got as well so you're much better off taking one item from home with you and pairing it with one thing you buy in the supermarket so it's learning these little hacks which will help you navigate it like for instance people that eat meat if you look at sliced chicken in a packet and think that's a good choice, do you realize what percentage of meat that actually is?

1:06:45It's not what you think. There's loads of extra components that have gone in to make that sliced chicken. It's not just 100 % chicken breast. So you might as well get your chicken at home, save a load of money if that's what you eat. If you're plant-based, I cannot emphasize enough, getting cans of beans and pulses in your cupboard, regardless of if you're plant-based or you eat meat, is the best, single most best spend of money you can possibly do. It's cheap. You don't break the bank getting your protein at your meal. You increase your fiber at the same time. They're linked to living longer in countries in the world and blue zones, having more beans and pulses.

1:07:17They contain plant-based iron if you pair it with vitamin C to absorb it better. That's a really good investment. And then once a week, roast a load of vegetables, make tray bakes. I do these kind of recipes in the book because I know what it's like to be really time poor. And tray bakes go everywhere. The roasted veg can go in a curry. The roasted veg can go in a salad. The roasted veg can go over your rice. It can go in a wrap. It can go with hummus. like you can literally do so many meals from that one tray also you can do anything this i could write a love letter to tray bakes of roasted veg i love i just feel like so what i used to do is every single night for dinner um the first time i moved out every single night i would line up these vegetables on this whole tray and i would have a whole tray because i believe in portions um and would literally just do like whole tray all in in the oven and then you can get shit done like there's nothing you need to do and it comes out 45 minutes delicious it's delicious it's a little bowl it's oh it's perfect it's so tasty and if you put the potatoes of your tray but you've got your carb done you don't have to separately cook your rice because this sounds like one of those i know it does it does it does sound like an ai ad and i'm now going to say you can use an air fryer which would be let's sell an air fryer let's get one of those going as well but we like air fryers yeah so i think i actually adapted all the recipes in the book to have plant points proteins people love it fiber and to be air fryer friendly do you know fun fact i had an air fryer when i was at university before they were even a thing did you back in like 2012 13 wow but it was like a beast of an air fry and it's because i was in the shared kitchen yeah and i hated the mess like it was disgusting so i was like i want to cook my food so i had an air fryer well i wasn't even allowed to get a kettle i had a secret kettle that i hid did you yeah did you put it in your little room i just put it on the bed oh nice yeah see little hacks we have to do but eating healthily is really easy and one of my favorite things i have to say is roasted bean mixes lashings of olive oil over a can of butter beans you've just put on a tray they're like mini roast potatoes 20 minutes watch it like a hawk some ovens vary unbelievable so good i mean my kids have that as an after school snack and they think it's the bee's knees it's like eating roast potatoes but you get protein and fiber it's a win-win so for anyone listening I'm not talking about complicated recipes you have to cook every week I'm saying just cook one or two things fresh a week that can go longer that can last longer and get yourself armed with that in your cupboards once your cupboards are right you can make better choices so just on that and I know you've touched on a few pieces of that but if you want to be healthy and want to be eating right what should you have in your cupboards so you want to have a larder type cupboard or one cupboard that contains cans of beans and pulses some dried carbohydrates like brown rice quinoa brown pasta i even had a pack of polenta polenta recipe i thought it was really underrated polenta people don't use it enough so yummy so creamy and delicious easy to cook couscous you make it into a cake there you go another ai ad one for polenta we're doing big for the fruits and why are we not sponsored by all these companies um but no that is an amazing cupboard dried lentils you know things that literally do not break the bank and will go really far bulk up all your meals with things like lentils it's extra iron and protein and it really goes far so that's one cupboard the next cupboard is things like your snack items that to be healthy you want to have on the go so opt for more sensible things like the rice cakes that don't contain all the extra sugar but have a little bit less you know navigate what your favorite go-tos are i have popcorn microwave popcorn at home i love popcorn i could do fresh popcorn i've got the kernels do i ever use it no i want the one that's got a bit of sugar on it so i have the lesser of the two having looked at the back of the packs you can make those decisions at home i have dark chocolate coated rice cakes because they're delicious that is still better than a huge mars bar every day and then sometimes i'll have a mars bar but i won't keep it in my house i have it when i'm out because I don't want my kids to then think that that's an everyday item but I don't want them to also crave it so I'll let them have stuff when we're out.

1:11:30So have that cupboard, have your snacky cupboard of things you like, always have a fruit bowl if you can and then if you do have a fridge and freezer that's where the magic comes in with all the things that you can cook fresh. If you buy a pan of strawberries fresh, chop them immediately and put them in your freezer or buy the bags of frozen berries if you can but strawberries tend to be the season more from May so that's like the time you want to do that and then you can build anything from tomatoes cans of tomatoes it's the base of everything an onion a tomato some garlic all those cans you can whip up a meal amazing yeah and to end yes can I ask what the best piece of advice is that you've ever been given my dad always said treat other people how you'd like to be treated so I've sort of run my business and my practice and everyone I work with I prefer to get on really well with people I work with and have a nice relationship and just to be polite I think there's a lot to be said for just saying thank you to your supermarket checkout person you know there's there's just I think the world goes round if we're we're a bit more nice to each other and I think it helps in the workplace too but one other thing if I could give two would just be stay true to your core values because if you're in the health space like I am I don't think I'd still have a career if I sold out you know stay true to what you believe in oh i love that well thank you so much you've been incredible and really appreciate you sharing all your wonderful advice thanks for having me

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