The Truth About Food

I didn't watch it as become jaded over the years . This foods good for you then it's not . Drink this it's good for them it's not .
These programmes are only made to make the company making them and presenters money.

Just use your common sense and have a balanced diet. No wonder children and young adults have eating disorders .

I did watch and really enjoyed it.
The first one was about how the body processes food and was very interesting. I also enjoyed watching the audience’s faces!

Yes, I saw most of it, and have added oats to my breakfast of natural (live) yoghurt, nuts, chia seeds and blueberries. The message I took away was to eat more fibre! I’ll watch it again on catch-up for the bits I missed.

@Whiff this was no programme made to promote a commercial enterprise or to make money for a presenter but one of this years Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for young people .
Practising NHS doctor and leading science presenter Chris van Tulleken explores how the food we eat has a fundamental impact on our own health and that of our planet, in the 2024 CHRISTMAS LECTURES from the Royal Institution, broadcast on BBC Four on the 29, 30, and 31 December at 9pm, on iPlayer from 29 December, and on our YouTube channel for those outside the UK
I have yet to see this one but on previous years’ experience these are a fascinating presentation of sound science, geared to a younger audience but equally interesting to their parents’ and grandparents’ generation.
Heartily recommended!

Chris V T has also written an excellent book on this subject. I read the labels on all food before I buy and have had to consult a dictionary in the past. Many ingredients
are actually NOT even food.

Must watch it!

I am in complete agreement with RosiesMaw2.

The Royal Institution Christmas lectures are a joy, and I have learnt so much from them.

Whiff Nutrition is a young science, and much has still to be understood about it, especially now the abundance and availability of food in many countries far exceeds anything humans have experienced since they began, these on/off recommendations are inevitable, as in any science pushing its boundaries. This does not invalidate your advice that Just use your common sense and have a balanced diet is not correct, but the definition of what is a 'balanceed' diet, may well be open to interpretation and tweaking, given that from one part of the world to another, the idea of a balanced diet may be different.

No I didn’t and I won’t to be honest I m not interested I have been through so many different eras where something is bad for you and then ten years later it’s the wonder food I haven’t got the patience time or inclination to change what seems ok for me
I am a non meat/fish eater, I eat and drink what I enjoy and so far it’s been fine for me

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Tedb

Can you please tell me where to watch it?

BBC 4 and BBC iplayer
If you enlarge my pic the details are also on there.

Nutrition isn't that young a science I learnt about in Home econ 55 years ago when I was 11.

Still cook from scratch but my way as I can't do the things I used to my body wouldn't let me. But still make my own jams marmalade and chutneys but my way . And never use the amount of sugar you should as I don't like them sweet just boil them longer .

BlueBelle

No I didn’t and I won’t to be honest I m not interested I have been through so many different eras where something is bad for you and then ten years later it’s the wonder food I haven’t got the patience time or inclination to change what seems ok for me
I am a non meat/fish eater, I eat and drink what I enjoy and so far it’s been fine for me

The programme I watched (the first in the series, I think) was more about digestion and how the body works.

I've watched the first episode. It was fascinating.

Many of those enthusiastic young people in the audience could be our medical and surgical gastro-intestinal consultants and endoscopy technicians of the future.

The part about the microbiome (comparing the microbiome of a goat with a human) and learning that Chris Van T's own microbiome will have more similarities with his cat (which drinks from the same kitchen tap) than his twin brother was surprising.

One question I would love to have asked is why upper endoscopies can feel so traumatic - the gag reflex really doesn't want to accept that invasive tube - but Xander can thread it up his nose and down his throat without batting an eyelid.

Whiff

I didn't watch it as become jaded over the years . This foods good for you then it's not . Drink this it's good for them it's not .
These programmes are only made to make the company making them and presenters money.

Just use your common sense and have a balanced diet. No wonder children and young adults have eating disorders .

Although I agree that foods go in and out of fashion, this is worth a watch. I read his book about UPF (ultra processed food) and it was an eye opener, even though I thought I was quite clued up.

I don’t think this is the same as a food fashion. I haven’t seen the programme yet but have recorded it. I have been doing a lot of reading about the food industry, because I’m preparing a presentation for my U3A group. There is clearly much wrong with the modern diet in this country (as with many other developed countries) 64% of adults are either obese or overweight in the U.K.

For example there is an addiction to sugar particularly, which is added to many food stuffs, including savoury. Label reading can hold many surprises. I believe our modern diet is making us sick, and weight reducing drugs are not the answer, but less reliance on processed food is.

Farzanah

I don’t think this is the same as a food fashion. I haven’t seen the programme yet but have recorded it. I have been doing a lot of reading about the food industry, because I’m preparing a presentation for my U3A group. There is clearly much wrong with the modern diet in this country (as with many other developed countries) 64% of adults are either obese or overweight in the U.K.

For example there is an addiction to sugar particularly, which is added to many food stuffs, including savoury. Label reading can hold many surprises. I believe our modern diet is making us sick, and weight reducing drugs are not the answer, but less reliance on processed food is.

But sugar itself isn't considered an ultra-processed food, which is one reason I think that concentrating on the ultra-processed content of food to the exclusion of all else is misleading (as is calorie counting or absolute demonisation of any food group).

HousePlantQueen

Whiff

I didn't watch it as become jaded over the years . This foods good for you then it's not . Drink this it's good for them it's not .
These programmes are only made to make the company making them and presenters money.

Just use your common sense and have a balanced diet. No wonder children and young adults have eating disorders .

Although I agree that foods go in and out of fashion, this is worth a watch. I read his book about UPF (ultra processed food) and it was an eye opener, even though I thought I was quite clued up.

The programme I watched wasn't about UPF, although I expect the next one might be.

Monica Nutrition isn’t a new science. The Manual of Nutrition, published by HMSO, was first published in 1940.
Then, the main concern was preventing vitamin deficiency & ensuring adequate intake of protein & calories for a largely manual workforce & the healthy development of children.
I think what is relatively new is the increasing knowledge about the importance of the composition of the gut microbiome and its impact on many aspects of health, and recognition of the role of the food industry & advertising in adversely affecting modern diets.

growstuff Sugar may not be an ultra processed food but is added unnecessarily to many that are and other food stuffs too. Read the label on some soups!

I agree with what you say about increasing knowledge about the gut microbiome and its importance JaneA. Has anyone done the Zoe diet?

Farzanah

growstuff Sugar may not be an ultra processed food but is added unnecessarily to many that are and other food stuffs too. Read the label on some soups!

You don't need to tell your grandmother to suck eggs. The point I'm trying to make is that being ultra-processed is not in itself a reason to avoid foods, nor is not being ultra-processed a reason to eat foods without restriction. The label itself is misleading.

If the idea were to avoid ultra-processed food, there would be nothing wrong with eating spoonfuls of plain sugar. Obviously, that would be ridiculous. Sugar (and too many carbs - even starchy ones) are bad for people in excess, however non-processed they are.

I've been a member of Zoe and although I no longer subscribe I still follow it. It's not a diet as such, I lost a few kilos but I now eat less meat, more fruit and veg, low GI carbs and have a wider variety of foods. What's interesting is that I seem to be less of an apple shape although my weight hasn't changed much. I have always cooked from scratch but I avoid UPF except for the odd bought biscuit. I also don't eat much sugar on the basis that it only provides calories, there's no other nutritional benefit to it.

I think there is a misunderstanding here growstuff. We probably agree more than we disagree. I wasn’t making a point about UPF but additives such as sugar in foods which are hidden and quite unnecessary. Of course a balanced diet with plenty of fresh foods with limited meat, sugar, salt and carbs is the healthiest.

Sounds like they've been re-running old ground (ie well-covered before) to me.

What I think would be useful would be a programme on how to spot "food fakes" - ie most honey sold in Britain, much olive oil, etc. I feel like I've had to learn bit by bit what the signs are as to what constitutes "food as described on the label v. a fake" and it's a bit painstaking.

BTW - does anyone know if that thing about a lot of Chinese white rice isn't actually rice - ie it's a fake made of plastic - is true? I've done enough checking round the Net that I've just thrown out the last of a packet of noodles from China just-in-case....and I'm certainly suspicious that it may well be true....