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Far 2 Fabulous
Join Catherine & Julie, your feisty hosts at Far 2 Fabulous, as they lead you on a wellness revolution to embrace your fabulousness.
Julie, a Registered Nutritional Therapist with over 20 years of expertise, and Catherine, a former nurse turned Pilates Instructor and Vitality Coach, blend wisdom and laughter seamlessly.
Off the air, catch them harmonising in their local choir and dancing to 80's hits in superhero attire. Catherine braves the sea for year-round swims, while Julie flips and tumbles in ongoing gymnastics escapades.
With a shared passion for women's health and well-being, they bring you an engaging exploration of health, life, and laughter. Join us on this adventure toward a more fabulous and empowered you!
Far 2 Fabulous
Wellness Washing: Products that pretend to be good for us
Episode 89. Wellness Washing: Products that pretend to be good for us
That "healthy" product you're buying might be anything but. Catherine and Julie pull back the curtain on the deceptive world of wellness washing – products claiming health benefits while potentially causing harm.
The conversation ignites when Julie shares her frustration over a Dettol laundry detergent advertisement targeting parents with fear-based marketing about germs on children's clothes. Despite everything we now understand about the importance of a healthy microbiome, these chemical-laden products promise to "kill all known germs" – introducing harmful substances to our skin while disrupting beneficial bacteria we actually need.
From cleaning products, the hosts dive into food marketing manipulation. "Protein" yoghurts command premium prices while often containing less actual protein than regular Greek yoghurt and hiding added sugars. Breakfast cereals like Special K position themselves as healthy foods, despite having minimal nutritional value. Plant-based alternatives and gluten-free products frequently compensate for missing ingredients with chemical additives, poor-quality oils, and excessive sugar.
Most concerning is the impact of these marketing tactics on children. The UK has reached a troubling milestone with more overweight children than healthy-weight children. Supermarkets strategically place unhealthy items at eye level, use bright packaging, and create "child-friendly" versions of junk food. Products like flavoured waters, which parents believe are healthier alternatives to soda, often contain artificial sweeteners, preservatives, and colouring.
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Welcome to Far Too Fabulous hosted by Julie and.
Speaker 2:Catherine, join us on a mission to embrace your fabulousness and redefine wellness. Get ready for some feistiness, inspiration, candid chats and humour as we journey together towards empowered wellbeing.
Speaker 1:Let's dive in. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Far Too Fab fabulous podcast Did you like that one today. That was very good. That was very tuneful. Less newsreader yeah definitely.
Speaker 2:I think the newsreader should adopt it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Okay. So this week we are talking about things that pretend to be healthy but aren't. And this was this came about because I was watching tv with adverts. This, I don't really do this anymore, do you know? I don't.
Speaker 1:And they, they annoy me even more yeah so I was watching a program with my daughter and it was one with adverts. And this advert came on and it was just. It just really wound me up. And then it got me thinking about all the things that pretend to be healthy or they're marketed as healthy yeah, and they're not, and it really annoys me. What was the advert for? So it was the Dettol washing fabric laundry detergent.
Speaker 2:Oh interesting.
Speaker 1:So it wasn't even something to eat. No, it wasn't even something to eat, although we will talk about that. You know the foods, but in this particular case it was. The advert was the little boy at school and he's getting germs all over his clothes and then he's taking them home.
Speaker 2:So now you need to have a special washing detergent to get the germs off the clothes and let's just sprinkle a little bit of fear in there, like a bit of covid fear in there. Shall we just, you know, with germs and and things like that, just to make people buy a product?
Speaker 1:yeah, and so the thing that most annoys me about it is that we've come on such a long way with the information about the microbiome, yeah, and we know that we have to have these bugs in our gut and on our skin and everywhere. And what does Dettol do? Is it Dettol or Domestos? Kills all known germs Dead, dead. See, marketing is brilliant. Everything right. It kills everything. So what is going to be in that product that then is going on those clothes, that then is going on that child's skin, and it just winds me up.
Speaker 1:So I then having was having a bit of a rant and explaining to my daughter why I was getting annoyed by this dental advert.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, no, I totally get that, and it's the same with all of those products, isn't it that? Are it they add? They? They add that little bit of fear in that you feel like you should be using it, that you're maybe even neglecting your children or your family if you don't clean with something like this yeah, you're a terrible parent if you don't use this and the irony is that you're actually causing them more harm.
Speaker 1:The chemicals in that. Please go. Next time you go to the supermarket just have a look at what is in that product.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, can read them, you get a gold star from us. If you can say them out loud, you get a I don't know a platinum star it just winds me up.
Speaker 1:So then. So then I was talking to katherine about it and then we said, oh, we need to do an episode on this because, we've got. We've got a bit ranty and we need to record it yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And what was the next one? We went straight on to Lucozade.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Lucozade. So I still remember when I was a child that if you were real, you got given Lucozade because it was going to make you better and solve all your issues.
Speaker 2:I got it when I was in hospital when I was 10 years old. I vividly remember a bottle of Lucoz being on this on my bedside and it's exactly. It was there because I was poorly and I don't think that I ever had it at any other time, but when I was poorly yeah, and it's just full of sugar and it's bright orange.
Speaker 1:That's not natural, is it no?
Speaker 2:I don't know, I don't even know, and maybe, if it because it was because I was a child that I didn't know about the drink, I don't even know what it is about it. Has it got electrolytes in it? Is that the idea of it? I guess it is.
Speaker 1:It is, yeah, yeah, it has, but it's also got a load of sugars and additives and colourings.
Speaker 2:And colourings. Yeah, that's like my dad banned us from having, uh, cherryade because it used to dye the inside of the cups, like back in the 80s. Yeah, yeah, he did imagine, if he did that to the cups, what the hell he was doing. I'm fairly sure he did that to protect the cups. I'm pretty sure he wasn't thinking about us inside, but what did it do to our insides?
Speaker 1:When I was studying at uni, we did an experiment with using Coca-Cola to clean the toilet. Yeah, as part of our nutrition degree.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was very interesting. Yeah, I bet you all had lovely, lovely clean toilets. Works really well. Perhaps I should do that, see, and then you can ditch the lime scale cleaner and just have the Coke.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was talking to my husband this morning about the calcium in the water, so I went on to look at where we have southern water and looking at the mineral content of our water and looking at I've gone right on a tangent, yeah, but I was looking at the balance between calcium and magnesium in regards to heart issues. The balance of calcium to magnesium in our local water because it's very hard is completely the balance isn't good. We're really dominant. So the reason why I brought this up is just thinking about the lime scale. Yeah, is that I was saying to him about the fact that we, because the water is so hard, it is challenging to get certain things in the house clean. Yeah, because of that, that build-up, and it is calcium that does that and I feel like it's changed over the years definitely got worse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because my, yeah, my, my toilet is very challenging to keep nice and shiny and white.
Speaker 1:It's the toilet.
Speaker 2:I'm not massively house proud, but one doesn't like that.
Speaker 1:No, and that's exactly what we were talking about the frustration there. And because we don't use harsh chemicals at all, it does make it more difficult. Yeah, I'd forgotten about the Coca-Cola, so maybe I'll try some of that.
Speaker 2:So this is the problem with us. Our cleaner doesn't use any harsh chemicals because she's got breathing issues, and so it's really, it's really bad for her. So I mean, aside from it being a brilliant, unique selling point that she uses everything naturally and it smells lovely, it's the challenge that she has my shower door. I mean thankfully I'm not there when she's cleaning my shower door, but I'm pretty sure there are swear words being uttered, like trying to get all of the lime scale off it. And my kettle's just died and it's got lime scales like coming out of the kettle.
Speaker 1:So imagine what that's doing inside your body as well, which is why I was looking at those particular nutrients with regards to those minerals and heart disease, because the imbalance in those minerals keeps coming up. On the hair test that I run in this part of Europe, and especially in certain parts of our country, yeah, the hard water, yeah, and that imbalance being so huge that we have a higher need for magnesium that's really interesting and so that would have an impact on someone's cardiac health, if it was, if they were susceptible to that anybody really yeah, because calcium I mean, we've really gone on a tangent now, but calcium is supposed to be in your bones and teeth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but when your body is deposited in the head, when we see it on the hair test, it's being displaced into the tissues. And when you think about what, where calcium tends to go in the body, it goes to the joints. Yeah, it's a factor in osteoarthritis In arteries. It furs up arteries. Yeah, it has an impact on muscles, so calcium contracts things. So, your heart's a muscle? Yeah, it makes things rigid and restrictive.
Speaker 2:And gallstones, kidney stones, calcium-based benign breast lumps, calcium-basedign breast lumps calcium-based yeah, calcium deposits out of place yeah, that's really interesting and I really begrudge paying like you've got an amazing water filter that I imagine probably wasn't a bargain basement prices it's not as bad as you think, actually, but I just begrudge paying for bottled water and on top yeah when it says and I was, I've been made.
Speaker 2:I can't say too much about this, I can do next spring. But I was suddenly made aware of the fact that our bills literally say drinking water and you can't drink it and you're paying for that and you have to pay for that. It's the law that you have to pay for these bills again. Probably something I can't talk about very for that. It's the law that you have to pay for these bills again. Probably something I can't talk about very much. But it's really annoying, isn't it? And I mean actually that that is a really nice circular way background to somebody saying something that they do when actually they don't do it. And there we go and we're back on, back on track again back to things that pretend to be healthy.
Speaker 1:So the other one that's slightly bugging me at the moment. When I say slightly, I'm trying to keep and I was impressed with how well you kept your emotions there with the water situation.
Speaker 2:That was very good. I was breathing. It's only because I can't, I will. I will. That sounded very secretive and I will. You'll be able to know what I'm talking about in spring 26.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know you've been involved in some projects and you can't say at the moment, but the one that's getting me at the moment is the protein yogurts. Oh yeah, so protein yogurts in a supermarket You'll see them now. It's a big deal. The protein yogurts are way more expensive because they are saying that they're protein, yeah, and they're flavoured, so they've had a load of sugar in to make them more enticing, I suppose. But when you look at the actual ingredient in the label, look at the nutritional content, there is sometimes less protein in a protein yogurt than in a normal Greek yogurt and you're paying so much more, so just buy the Greek yogurt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's much better for you. Add your own fruit. Yeah, exactly, it's simple. It's just yogurt, it's just the protein, rather than all of the other stuff around with it. But that's the thing, isn't it? Like the marketing companies will jump on the at the moment it's the protein bandwagon and there'll be protein bars. They're. They're another thing, aren't they that market themselves. I'm sure I've said this on here before. Remember that, that, um, I think it was a snickers bar or something that was by the till at sports direct oh, yes, and it was a specific snickers protein.
Speaker 2:I was hungry. I'd had a workout. I thought I knew that it would be high in sugar. I genuinely knew it would be, but I thought you know that'd be a good thing. It was utterly disgusting. It was complete waste. Not even mikey ate it and he eats everything.
Speaker 1:But it was and it got me it just because it said protein on the front of it you could have just totally suck it in packet of peanuts and some dark chocolate and that was so good yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and it's so irritating and you do on a. You know we get suckered into these these things and you really have to again. It annoys me. You've got to really research these things and find out whether they are actually what they say they are yeah, and talking about yogurts.
Speaker 1:When I was running my classes for baby lab weaning, I would have this shock image of the Petit Fleur yogurt versus the packet of Haribo for sugar. Yeah, and they both had the same amount of sugar in them. Yeah, Now, obviously the Haribo has not got any of the extra good ingredients in the yogurt, but that used to shock the parents because that is marketed. I don't know if they've changed the label, but it used to be four plus months.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for kids yeah, definitely, and the same with the little um, the ones that came in the, the plastic tubes oh, the froobs froobs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so much sugar when you actually have a look at it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fruit flavored it's not fair because, like the people that buy them, are genuinely trying to do the best that they can.
Speaker 1:It's really it's really unfair. Yeah, I cannot stand the fruit juice drinks in the baby section. You know babies should drink water, formula milk or breast milk full stop. They don't need to have some kind of special baby juice.
Speaker 2:No, no, they don't, because they're not coming at it from from us. We've had like years of of our taste buds like changing, and so often you get people that don't like. I don't like water. That makes me a little bit cross anyway, yes, just like, suck it up, buttercup your your 60 or 70% water, drink it.
Speaker 2:It's kind of essential, yeah. However, the babies don't come at it from that point of view. They've not had all of the artificial tastes and stuff. They don't feel the same way as you about water. They can drink it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I saw I think it was this week that the shift now and we know that we've got a problem with overweight and obese children. I don't know if you heard this the other day, but the up-to-date study now is that we've now got more overweight children than healthy weight children. It's just tipped. Oh my goodness. We did predict it, because originally it was one in four at primary school and this is in the uk, yeah, in the uk, one in three at secondary school. And now it's, it's tipped.
Speaker 2:Wow, scary right, it is really, really scary, but saying that I I'm not surprised because of being bombarded with everything that you are in the supermarket. So I'm being really aware again. I've been doing a food diary, just not because I want to restrict anything, I just want an awareness of what I'm putting in my body and I find that it's a really good reset for myself. Yeah, really good. And so, as you're walking down that first aisle of tesco, I'm going to say it. But I mean, it's the same in every single supermarket and they have all the specials down one side. There was not one thing that would have been classed as healthy for me to have picked up, not one thing.
Speaker 2:And they all look lovely. They're all brightly colored. You know the jaffa cake. They're eye level and yeah, and they just and they look lovely and I know they taste lovely, and how hard is that? And I'm pretty self-aware and I'm pretty motivated and I and I'm pretty like I know what they're doing, but the kids don't know this. No, and they could just walk in, of course, and they've got some money. They want to buy something that tastes really great. Of course they do. It's that that's on your list, isn't it really great?
Speaker 1:it's the kellogg's yeah, I noticed actually when I went shopping the other day. Talking about that bit that you go into, is that the tubs of Quality Street, and they've appeared.
Speaker 2:They have been in there First of September, since the when I got back from camping, I think Like, yeah, in Aldi they were there. I was like that makes me. That makes me really gross.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's no need for that is there.
Speaker 2:It makes me really, really mad. No, because they know that they're going to buy them, same as Easter eggs. They know that they're going to buy them early. They know that they're going to eat them.
Speaker 1:And they're going to have to go back and buy some more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and the quality street is definitely smaller.
Speaker 1:But different topic. Yeah, it really is. Or I've got bigger, one of the two, yeah. So going back to your, your protein bar at the sports direct, that I think people really need to be careful about protein bars and shakes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, again, you've got to read the ingredients label because they will be marketed as healthy yeah but often the thing you need to watch out for is the oil base that's used in a lot of these, because the oil is cheap oil and that's not good for you, the fillers and the things that bind stuff together or the opposite absolutely awful. So you've got to look at the ingredients again. That's really interesting.
Speaker 2:I've bought a. I can't remember what the name of the protein shake was that was pre-made in sainsbury's. Is it huel or something like that, maybe yeah, and I'm literally. I'm on the floor, just sat reading all the backs of these labels, trying to work out because, again, I'm, you know, I wasn't prepared, I was hungry. It was in the middle of the town where I think was probably going off to choir and I wanted something and I I had bought like a boiled egg in a packet, but I probably didn't just want that and it probably smelled quite bad so.
Speaker 2:I went into choir, but it's really unfair, though, isn't it, that you've got to be really double checking what they're telling you they do? But that's interesting to look out for. What would be good? What would we want to see in something?
Speaker 1:you just want things that you recognize, yeah. You don't want any of those sweeteners and additives and fillers and things you literally want in a protein bar. Most of them will be nuts, yeah, and then you'll have something to sweeten it like dates, yeah, and you don't want any of those extras. You want the whole foods that you can just see and read, and it's the same. When you're buying a protein powder, you want it to be just the thing that you're buying. Like you know, we both use pea protein or hemp protein. They're organic brands and when you look at the label, it just says pea protein?
Speaker 2:yeah, no, absolutely that's so. I guess it's. It's the same rule, isn't it that making sure that that that ingredients list is really as short as possible yeah, and that you recognize the, the names of things.
Speaker 1:You can say them, yeah, you can I, I get, um, I get my. When I, when I was doing my parents courses, I would get them to answer the question does that come from the, a tree, the ground or the sea or an animal? So that they would know, yeah, and then we would like well, where does that come from? And then we'd have the factory. Yeah, yeah and then we'd look how many factory things that is interesting is it?
Speaker 2:yeah, where did that come from?
Speaker 1:like that was completely manufactured breakfast cereals, oh, and breakfast bars, the biscuits, oh, don't get me started on the belvita biscuits, let's get you started on the belvita biscuits.
Speaker 2:Let's do it. Do you know? Because I find it really difficult when you want something for breakfast, like, say, we're going, we're going on a road trip, and I want to. I don't, we have to, don't have to do it so much anymore, but you want to pull the children out of bed, throw them into their car seats and drive in the middle of the night and then and then you want to just be able to throw food across the back of the seat and and feed them. I find that really challenging and that's when you think, oh, they would be nice.
Speaker 1:And then you look at them because, again, the way that they're marketed, they sound like they're amazing, they're healthy. Yeah. And back in the day, I remember when nutrigrain bars were first introduced and I remember my mum saying to me I've got you some nutrigrain bars because actually they're better for you. Off, you go to school with a Nutri-Grain bar.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, Thinking about things blast from the past. Anya was watching Coyote Ugly the other day Great film. And she told her dad, who was John Goodman, that he was supposed to be on a diet and he was going to have a lean cuisine. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Do you remember?
Speaker 2:those. I could even hear the ping of the advert Lean cuisine yeah, imagine what that had in it. That was definitely factory made.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, we've still got this big issue with low-fat foods, haven't we? Oh, when I speak to clients, there's still this hang-up on oh, I did get a low-fat version, yeah, and I just think no, because the minute you reduce the fat in something, you've got to push the sugar up and actually that's worse than the fat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah definitely that study, that one study did so much damage, so much damage, incredible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's all because they wanted a way to monetize the waste part of. I can't think what it was now. It was like the court, like corn syrup and that sort of stuff yeah, and then they were that that study that was flawed, that showed that that the high fat caused heart disease.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, incredible and it's. Yeah, I don't it, just it stuck didn't it.
Speaker 1:When you look at the history of that, it's really interesting, because initially what they did was they lowered the fat, but they didn't adjust the sugar. Yeah, and the products were so vile that nobody would eat them yeah and so they then had to push up things like the salt and the sugar and that's then continued, hasn't it ever since even things like?
Speaker 2:I think I saw a video on cabra's hot chocolate and the actual chocolate to sugar ratio changing just over months, just like that quickly yeah, that's definitely happened a lot in the last probably 40 years with everything like chocolate bars and all that sort of stuff yeah, even some of those products that we used when we were younger that were processed, they weren't anywhere near what they are now yeah, yeah, yeah, that's the same since um mcdonald's chips.
Speaker 2:That how that has changed over the years, and so again when we were younger. They, they. They weren't good for you by any stretch of the imagination, but they genuinely were just like fat potatoes and salt, yeah, whereas now there's all sorts of stuff sprinkled over them. Just make you want more of them as well.
Speaker 2:It's a problem isn't it it's a problem, but it makes me. It makes me feel it. I'm angry because they treat us like idiots. Do you know what I mean? Like the, the marketing companies and the people that make these products are just like I feel like. They're just like chuckling away at the back. They go and this is gonna make like pringles. I mean pringles. I'm a, I'm an absolute sucker for pringles and I the the strap line. Once you pop, you can't stop. Is 100? True? It is yeah, and you just and oh. I saw another video, um doritos, uh, talking about, like, how bad they are for you and all of the, the, the, like the powdered stuff that's left on your fingers that you're just just consuming, and it's got all the stuff that just lights up your body. It's like, yes, this is great, bring it in. I mean, I love a dorito, or a dorio as I like to call it.
Speaker 2:That's how that's what mandy's nan used to call them.
Speaker 1:Dorios love it. Um, there's a really good book just talking about the fat situation. There's a really good book if anyone listening is interested in that history or they've got a real issue with. They can't get past the low fat. Yeah, it's called the big fat lie. It's really good. Oh, I bet that's really juicy indeed. So the other breakfast cereal well, well, breakfast cereals generally, I mean obviously those biscuits.
Speaker 1:But breakfast cereals generally are a bit rubbish, aren't? They Are awful. But the ones that pretend that they're really going to Special K, that used to wind me up.
Speaker 2:Special Cardboard yeah, Special Cardboard. It's literally like someone got the box and cut it up into flakes.
Speaker 1:Yes, but it's got so much sugar in it. Yeah, and the same with all those other ones that are marketed as healthy. I just don't even go in that section of the supermarket, really.
Speaker 2:No, even like um, like weetabix, it's got lots and lots of sugar in it as well, isn't it? And that's you think that's a pretty, that's a pretty good one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, weetabix has got a lot of sugar in it and those, those oats, so simple sachets. Oh well, I put like porridge sachets.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're full of sugar. I mean I don't, I don't know, I don't understand. I mean it's, it's marketing and it's brilliant. Again, what's the difference between buying a bag of porridge and a bag of oats? So simple you don't like preparation wise, you don't do anything differently.
Speaker 1:I think it's quicker because they have blitzed the, the oat grain down to, so it's refined now, whereas your actual porridge oats are not. So it's a bit ready brekkie rather. Yes, exactly. And then then they put the flavors in, don't they? Which?
Speaker 2:I mean, I guess you could do that if you wanted something to happen really quickly, you could take the bag of oats home and blitz it, blitz it. Yeah, you could.
Speaker 1:But it's completely different. But I think with those sachets they're just really super quick to do. They probably put some liquid in, put them in the microwave or something, don't you? I don't know even how to do it, because I never do that. No, yeah, just make normal porridge yeah, it is, isn't it? It is pretty quick or even make overnight oats. Oh, there you go, and then it's done. Yeah, then you can just and in fact you can just heat up your over overnight oats if you prefer it.
Speaker 2:I do, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah. And you could, you could, you could keep with the f fats and you could add your protein powder, and then there's a protein-rich one Mmm, bum, bum, bum.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yesterday I made banana pancakes, which I absolutely love, so it's just a mashed banana, one egg, some flaxseed mixed together fried in some coconut oil, served with Greek yogurt and blueberries.
Speaker 2:Boom done.
Speaker 1:But I did actually put some of my protein powder in there yesterday because I was going to be training. So I thought, yeah, increase the protein. So I did actually do that and you can't tell it's in there and it's perfectly nice. Sometimes I'll add oats in there as well yes, yeah, but yeah, that's a great breakfast.
Speaker 2:I love that. Yeah, no, it is a new. And you feel this is the. This is the whole psychological thing as well is you feel like you're having a treat. I don't know why pancakes is a treat, but you feel like you're having one.
Speaker 1:One of my favourite pancake recipes again we're going off on a tangent is using sweet potato. So if you mash, if you cook some sweet potato and mash it and put it in the fridge, it lasts for a few days in the fridge and then you basically mix a bit of egg in with some milk and mash it, yeah, and put it in the fridge. It lasts for a few days in the fridge, yeah, and then you basically mix a bit of egg in with some milk.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then I usually put flaxseed and things in. That gives you such fluffy, nice pancakes.
Speaker 2:But then you just eat them like you would do a scotch pancake with some what with some yogurt and fruit or something like that. Yeah, or just on their own.
Speaker 1:No, I some yogurt and fruit or something like that, or just on their own. No, I, I have yogurt and fruit with them. My daughter will do bacon with maple syrup with hers, but at least I know she's got some sweet potato and some good stuff going in oh, hell yes to the maple syrup.
Speaker 2:I was wondering where that was.
Speaker 1:Quite honestly, I felt like that was missing you can put it on with your yogurt and berries as well, the maple syrup, if you want when mixing sweet potato and banana be disgusting I don't know. I've never tried mixing those two. I feel like that. I thought that's where you were going with it. No, so instead of using the banana as the base of the banana pancake, I use the sweet potato. Yeah, but the sweet potato makes them like like american style pancakes fluffy, oh yeah, okay, I'll give that a go then.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, really nice, really nice.
Speaker 1:The kids absolutely love them as well, what were we talking about? And it feels you were talking about pancakes feeling like a treat. That really does feel like a treat when you make those as well. Yeah, but it's so easy, isn't that?
Speaker 2:funny that you feel like, because you're eating something naughty, that it's a treat or that you have to eat. Yeah, I don't know, there's a whole psychology thing there. I don't know what that is. Yeah.
Speaker 1:We've got to bring up the plant-based junk foods. Yes, Because this one again really winds me up, those fake meats and those vegan-ready nuggets, etc. That are ultra-processed.
Speaker 2:That's what they are. I know I hear you every time I pick them out of the, out of the freezer. I do. I do hear you because I mean sometimes for us it's me, so me and the girls are still vegetarian it's, it is that quick fix. It's like, what are we gonna have instead of like if they're having chicken, or or what have you? What are we gonna have instead of like if they're having chicken, or or what have you? What are we gonna have instead? We do have tofu, quite a lot, but again, I'm fairly aware of the quality of tofu yeah, it's yeah, it's a.
Speaker 2:It is a tricky one, but I do hear you. I know that. I know that, uh, corn is not your favorite manufacturer no, no and again, just look at the ingredients list.
Speaker 1:And the same with gluten-free and dairy-free products. If you've got to be gluten-free or dairy-free then you know this is different. But a lot of the time, people again, when I'm getting food diaries in for seeing people in my clinic, I will see someone say oh, I've, I'm, I'm using the good stuff, though. I had the good biscuits because they were the gluten-free ones.
Speaker 2:Yes, it doesn't make them healthy because they've taken the gluten out no, because they'll still pack in everything else, because they don't want to lose the flavor and a lot of the time.
Speaker 1:Those gluten-free products, the free from range in the supermarket, are just so highly processed and cheap and loads of additives to make up the fact that the gluten is missing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or the dairy's missing yeah, but market is, if they're doing, doing you a favor yeah, this is the thing.
Speaker 1:This is what I'm saying about things that pretend to be healthy but aren't. Just because you bought a packet of biscuits in the gluten free free from section does not make them healthy, does not make them good for you.
Speaker 2:No, absolutely it's.
Speaker 1:It's so, so interesting so we already spoke about the dettol route right at the start. Yes, but just generally. The cleaning products for breeze. Oh, I tell you which one really winds me up the plug-in glade you know the the the. Have you seen the advert where the lady comes into the room? Oh, and it just smells disgusting and and it's just awful she doesn't want to be at home, but then she puts one of these plug-ins in and everything's right oh, it's perfect in her house.
Speaker 1:She's happy, their family are happy, it's great. It's all chemicals you're breathing in, all those chemicals. Just again, it winds me up that there's a, that their connection there is to do with the wellness. Yeah, and there is no connection there. In fact, it's the opposite.
Speaker 2:The opposite, yeah, absolute opposite. That's really. That is really interesting, and it's always like these things are always marketed with, like flowers or leaves or that sort of thing, aren't they to make it seem like it's natural and and and, like it, within that wellness industry yeah, nature valley, nature valley.
Speaker 1:You know the bars, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, nature valley green box. Yes, nice and healthy. A green box? Yes, yeah, brain goes all green, healthy. Yeah, I'll buy those nature valley bars. The advert is in the middle of nature, isn't it? Yeah, they drop when that person eats the bar. Have you seen it where she? She opens up the bar and she gets dropped into the middle of a a field full of daisies and right, brilliant, though.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah again, check the ingredients sugar, sugar, sugar, yeah, and again you think, oh, what am I going to give them for? For their packed lunch, that will fit in there nicely, that looks good. It must be good for you. It's got oats in it, or something yep, it's got oats.
Speaker 1:It's good for you because it's in a green box. Yeah, and it's in that section of the supermarket where they, you know, they put the I'm doing the, the inverted comma fingers thing, they put they group the ones that are healthy together. Yeah, it's in that section, isn't it.
Speaker 2:It's, yeah, it's really, it's really unfair.
Speaker 1:Anything else that I want to have a rant about? Have you got any others that you can think of? That really wind you up.
Speaker 2:Mikey was doing something in his new graphic design class he was talking about and I think it was along the lines of jazzing up kids' foods and things and he was talking about is it yo-yo with? The bear on the front of it and how that was completely marketed for children. I don't actually think that's too bad. It was probably very sugary they've.
Speaker 1:Well, the thing is with those is that it is all natural ingredients and if you compare a bear yo-yo fruit loop thing to a fruit string, can't think of the name of the company it does. The fruit string, okay, that has got about 15 ingredients, half of which you can't pronounce, and then about six different variations of sugar.
Speaker 2:The bear one does just have the fruit juice interesting, but I imagine again they'll be pretty much next to each other on the shelf and I imagine maybe Yo-Yo, because it looks a bit fancy. It's probably a lot more expensive. Someone's going to go oh, they're probably similar products, I'll pick the cheaper one up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the yogurt-flavored ones, those ones. Yogurt-flavored anything is not healthy. Yeah, ones yogurt flavored anything is not healthy, yeah sugar again yeah, sugar, oh, the one. I just thought of one that also winds me up and it used to make me so annoyed with the kids being at school, going into the canteen flavored water oh my goodness, yes, it was still there yeah, flavored water is just diabolical.
Speaker 1:Diabolical, and I don't care if it says it's flavored vitamin water or whatever other term they come up with. The water has been manipulated by having artificial sweeteners added, and or sugar and other and other things to color it, to preserve it. Yeah, it really, really winds me up because even my own children would say to me oh, I didn't, I didn't get a fizzy drink, I got a flavored water. Yeah, as if that was better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because it sounds like it would be better yeah but it isn't and it's the thing that when it's available at school, it's something, something that they then have like every single day. It's not like we're going to like. I use flavored water or something like that If we're having a party and I don't want to drink and I want something nice to drink, but it's when it's sat there in the fridge of the canteen every single day and they get to drinking and they think that they're doing themselves a favor.
Speaker 1:It's really unfair, yeah it is that they're doing the sales a favor. It's really unfair. Yeah, it is, so that's yeah. Um, I've pretty much exhausted my list of things that are I bet you haven't in my head.
Speaker 2:I bet we could go around and entice, I mean. But that's the thing, isn't it? If you think about the entire supermarket, basically, apart from the aisles that have got the fruit and the vegetables, maybe some of the frozen meats and vegetables, maybe somewhere where there's like, the nuts, yeah, the beans and pulses, yeah, yeah, some canned goods and things like that, pretty much everywhere else in that entire supermarket you could run about.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I could could, because it's because it's from a factory as opposed to, yeah, a natural source, and I think that's that I probably is. Our message today is that making sure that most of your shopping is done in those in those fewer aisles, and just to watch out for the very, very clever marketing. We've said it over and over again that they spend a lot of money and a lot of research on making these products look really, really desirable to you yeah, and they don't put high in vitamin c on a you know, a broccoli, do they?
Speaker 1:so if they've put that, if they've put that on something else, I'm always thinking to myself what are they not telling me? They're being like so deliberate in telling me that this is high protein or this is high in vitamin c or whatever it may be, I always want to know what are they hiding here, and then you can see when you look at the ingredients that's so true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't have that stuck in an orange, do you? No, you do not. You do not. What are they hiding? That's and I love that. Yeah, I know, you're absolutely right. Oh, my goodness. Well, that was a good. It was a good rant, wasn't it?
Speaker 1:I think that we should continue this conversation in the Facebook group, because I bet there are products that people are now thinking is this healthy or not? Maybe we could just have. You could post a picture up and then I will be able to let you know whether it's good or not or what to look out for.
Speaker 2:She'll post a picture of her face, either looking really angry or big thumbs up. Or maybe in the middle, in the middle, yeah, yeah, but that would be fun, I think yeah, definitely share with us, or if you've come across anything that you thought you were being really great and then and then you've discovered that you've been foiled again yes, foiled again have a fabulous rest of your week and we will see you next time. Yep, see you next time thank you so much for joining us today. We love creating this for you.
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