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00:00Fatty burgers, greasy pizzas, salty chips.
00:06We all know this is bad for us.
00:09And we all know that this is good for us.
00:12Fresh fruit and veg, whole foods, packed with vitamins, fibre and all the good stuff.
00:18Delicious.
00:20But what about all of this?
00:22The supermarket where we buy pretty much all of our food.
00:25Here is where we find ourselves in murky waters.
00:29Bombarded by endless choice, irresistible deals and confusing health claims.
00:34This is ultra-processed food.
00:37If you're trying to be healthy, this is the new battleground.
00:41In the UK, we're starting to realise that ultra-processed foods could be having a major impact on our health.
00:48Definitely tired, like, all the time.
00:50I have acid reflux.
00:52My blood pressure.
00:53Constipation.
00:54I'm Professor Tim Spector.
00:56A leading world expert in gut health and nutrition.
00:59And along with GP and dietary advisor, Dr Candy Ejafor, we're going to show you how to transform your health.
01:06As we meet four families whose ultra-processed diets may be making them ill.
01:12My main problem is my weight.
01:14Because of diabetes, I had to remove one of my toes.
01:18By showing them.
01:19Oh my God.
01:20How much ultra-processed food.
01:22Is bad.
01:23They're really eating.
01:24That's crazy.
01:25And it's made me feel really sick, actually.
01:27We'll reveal what these foods are doing to you.
01:31You are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
01:34That's really quite scary, actually.
01:36Your heart health was 78 years old.
01:39It's kind of make or break.
01:43We'll show you how to spot an ultra-processed food.
01:47It's really like a sort of glue.
01:49We'll find out how they're made.
01:51Oh, that looks really horrible.
01:53And give you simple swaps to make healthier choices.
01:56That is delicious.
01:58Without costing you any more money.
02:00We are still within our budget.
02:02But can our families ditch ultra-processed food?
02:05Ah!
02:06You brown sauce!
02:08And transform their lives.
02:10It's a fantastic result.
02:11For good.
02:12What have I signed myself for?
02:22We don't yet have a universal definition of ultra-processed food.
02:26But for me, it means food that has been industrially processed
02:30that has a negative impact on health.
02:33And when it comes to eating, most ultra-processed foods are hyper-palatable.
02:38Meaning you can't stop eating them.
02:40Calorie dense.
02:42Large amounts of additives and chemicals you really don't want in your body.
02:46They're soft and easy to eat.
02:49And crucially, they're lacking in any real nutrients and fibre.
02:53UPFs make up over half of our diet in the UK.
02:57Eating these foods in large quantities is associated with rising levels of obesity,
03:02increased heart disease, dementia and even some cancers.
03:08So how do we learn to avoid this stuff?
03:10Less than 40% of us feel confident identifying ultra-processed foods.
03:15So the first step is learning to spot them.
03:18Let's take seafood as an example.
03:21A nice fresh fillet is unprocessed.
03:24Still in its natural form with no additives or alterations beyond cleaning and packaging.
03:30Next, we have tinned fish.
03:32This is classed as processed.
03:34The flesh has been cooked and placed in oil or brine,
03:37but it still contains minimal added ingredients.
03:40And then we have seafood sticks.
03:43These are ultra-processed.
03:45The fish is minced, preservatives and flavourings are added
03:48and it's now significantly altered from its original form.
03:53I want you to start looking at the back of packets when you're in the supermarket
03:57so you can make informed choices about what you're eating.
04:07And this week, we're going to help a couple in Reading whose diet is full of UPFs.
04:1338-year-old contracts coordinator Camille
04:16and 42-year-old security guard Frankie.
04:20The fluffy one in the middle is 3-year-old Teddy.
04:23I'm a very social person.
04:25I love to meet people.
04:27I love to go out.
04:28I like to plan things.
04:29She's a social bug.
04:31I'm just the guy who tags along and just goes with the flow.
04:35They're on a tight budget and buy lots of their meals in the supermarket-reduced section.
04:41And it's nearly always ultra-processed convenience food.
04:45We don't actually go for a weekly shopping.
04:48It's just basically buy a bunch of random stuff,
04:51anything that's there and reduced, and then just bring it home.
04:55Deliciousness.
04:57Oh, wow.
04:59Yum, yum.
05:00That'll be my breakfast for tomorrow.
05:02Those random choices have consequences.
05:05A breakfast of cream cakes means Frankie's already consuming huge quantities of fat and sugar
05:11before the day has even begun.
05:13I will eat everything.
05:15I mean, I even have a nickname GD.
05:17Garbage disposal.
05:18A small portion?
05:19We don't do a small portion.
05:21But there is one thing they don't eat much of, anything green.
05:29I don't like vegetables in general.
05:32He will pick it out of the dish and then put it on the side.
05:36But, oh no, to be fair, there's one vegetable that he can eat.
05:40Mushrooms.
05:41Love mushrooms.
05:42Yeah.
05:43So, oh, well done for the mushroom.
05:44Yay, the mushroom.
05:46That mushroom aside, their diet is full of ultra-processed food.
05:53There's always the snacks for us.
05:55There's always in-between meals, like a cheesy tortilla chips.
06:01Camille can get through a family-sized bag of these a day.
06:05That's almost half her recommended calories just from a snack.
06:09Frankie, meanwhile, downs two litres of diet cola a day and more on weekends.
06:16I can't drink anything else, not even water.
06:19I have not drank water for eight months.
06:22It doesn't do anything for me.
06:25But for these two especially, a poor diet has very grave consequences.
06:31Frankie has type 1 diabetes and eating too much sugar has already caused critical damage.
06:38I was in hospital last year because they had to remove one of my toes.
06:44Clearly because of diabetes.
06:47He actually cried when he first found out.
06:51Meanwhile, Camille suffers from debilitating acid reflux.
06:57All of a sudden you'll be gagging because your acid is going up.
07:01It's already affecting my day-to-day work.
07:03Like, sometimes I don't want to go out because I'm anxious.
07:07Sorry, can we cut it?
07:10Oh God, I'm sorry.
07:13I'm just going to take my tablet.
07:16It's clearly reaching crisis point.
07:21And it's time for them to start taking what they eat seriously.
07:26I want us to live a longer life.
07:28And if we don't look after ourselves, then we won't going to have that.
07:32You know, so I'm worried about you.
07:37This is going to be a very tough case.
07:40But Dr Candy's up to the challenge.
07:42As a GP, her speciality is helping patients understand the link between what they eat and how they feel.
07:49She's going to get to the bottom of Frankie and Camille's ultra-processed addiction.
07:54Hello!
07:56And work out how we can change their food habits to make a difference.
08:01Lovely meeting you both, Camille, Frankie.
08:04Starting with Camille's acid reflux.
08:07So how often are you having these attacks?
08:10Oh, it's every day.
08:12And then in the evenings, whatever I eat, I just puke it out, I vomit it out, like everything.
08:19I prefer to be just like at home because I get anxious.
08:23Wow.
08:24OK.
08:25I think that's really tough.
08:26And then Frankie, you have type...
08:291.
08:301 diabetes.
08:31Yes.
08:32Because it's quite a significant condition, I just wanted to ask if you have any readings that you have recently.
08:38Yeah, I can just scan it.
08:41Frankie wears a monitor on his arm, which he can scan with his phone to check his blood sugar.
08:47It should normally be around 6 or 7.
08:49So like right now my sugar is 22.5.
08:5422.5 is high?
08:55It's very high, yeah.
08:56It's quite worryingly high for me though.
08:58Yeah.
08:59OK, so maybe we pause quickly, get you on the phone to your GP and then we can resume.
09:07Blood sugar spikes aren't great for any of us, causing tiredness, dehydration and headaches.
09:13But for a diabetic like Frankie, it's deadly serious.
09:17Sorry, just a quick thing.
09:19Basically, I was just checking my sugar readings and it was really, really high.
09:24Persistent high blood glucose levels have already caused devastating damage to his blood vessels and nerves.
09:30Losing his toe was only the beginning.
09:32OK, sure, not a problem.
09:34Thank you so much doctor.
09:37So she said that they will now monitor my readings and if it gets worse for a longer period of time, they will take action.
09:47OK.
09:48And actually just on that point, do you have any symptoms at all?
09:51My feet, I have no nerves at all. I can't feel anything on my feet. It has affected my eyes. I had cataracts removed last year. It affects a whole lot of stuff, yeah.
10:06And that all has a really huge knock-on impact into your mental health as well.
10:11Yeah.
10:12So I guess it's important for me to ask, how are you mentally?
10:17I mean...
10:25Sorry.
10:26Sorry.
10:27Sorry.
10:28It is what it is, you know? It's just...
10:44Try to help yourself, but you can't.
10:47Sorry.
10:49I think your display of emotion is really courageous.
10:56So I'm grateful that you've been able to open up.
10:59Type 1 diabetes is a really serious, scary condition that if it's just left untreated, it can just spiral out of control and it can be the matter of life or death.
11:13I think the hard truth, the reality is really hitting him now.
11:18I'm really good at hard truth.
11:19Yeah?
11:20Sorry.
11:21I'm happy that, you know, he was able to open up and he's willing to make changes, which is really, really good.
11:30Absolutely, yeah.
11:31I'm really glad. Well done.
11:34Seeing Frankie cry and be really emotional was, you know, heartbreaking.
11:41But it's important to see that he is affected by this emotionally and hopefully, therefore, he's willing to dig in and do the work so they can have a long and fruitful life together.
11:52Coming up, the lowdown on artificial sweeteners.
11:58They are 200 to 600 times sweeter than normal sugar.
12:04Ugh!
12:05And Frankie faces up to just how bad his cola habit truly is.
12:11Oh my gosh, what is this?
12:24Ultra-processed foods are everywhere.
12:27We're bombarded by endless choice, irresistible deals and confusing health claims.
12:33And if you're not careful, they could be doing harm to your health.
12:37They have additives and chemicals you really don't want in your body.
12:40Dr Candy is in Reading, helping Frankie and Camille break their UPF habit.
12:46And the first step is learning to spot one.
12:49A quick look at the back of the packet will do it, because when it comes to ultra-processed food, some of the ingredients don't even sound like food.
12:58Looking at the ingredients here, we have corn, tangy cheese flavouring, salt, cheese powder, tomato powder, onion powder.
13:07Many strange sounding additives are there to help make the products more uniform, last longer on the shelves and taste better than they really deserve to.
13:15We extract ascorbic acid, citric acid.
13:18Do you find it easy to consume, you know, a whole bag?
13:22Yeah, very easy. I can go two or three parts if I wanted to.
13:26But because of the taste, it's very hard to stop.
13:29Definitely the tanginess and the spiciness probably doesn't help the reflux either.
13:33Yeah, yeah, for sure.
13:34I'm just going to go and see in the fridge.
13:36You need to look at labels very closely.
13:39Okay.
13:41Even the ones that appear to be healthy.
13:43So even when it says reduced fat or lighter or organic, you know, these are often phrases that we've seen thrown about, but then it can still be high in other things.
13:52Wow, okay.
13:53So confusing.
13:54I mean, we would naturally see reduced fat and think, hey, it's healthy.
13:59Some ultra-processed products might seem healthier because some of the natural fat has been removed, for example, a low-fat yogurt.
14:08But to try and match the original taste and texture, sometimes the fat is replaced with added sugars, artificial sweeteners or other chemicals.
14:17Not necessarily a great swap.
14:20I'll put this away.
14:22Frankie and Camille need to start making informed choices and checking that healthy-seeming products don't contain nasty surprises.
14:30Peach slices in grape juice, but this has got about 38 grams of sugar in this one tin.
14:38Oh my god.
14:39It's a lot of sugar.
14:40It's a lot of sugar.
14:41I mean, we don't ever read upon what we buy.
14:45Yeah.
14:46We just go for taste, not for reading material.
14:49My hope is that you will start reading the back of what you're consuming a bit more so that you can be mindful and informed of what's going in your body and how much sugar there is.
15:02It was really helpful for us.
15:04It's eye-opening.
15:05And also it is giving us some hope that there will be a chance for us to be healthy and improve it.
15:12Getting healthy means ditching those UPFs.
15:16And the product that gets consumed most in this house is diet cola.
15:20Frankie downs it by the bucket load, thinking that as long as it's the diet variety, it can't be too bad for him.
15:27Frankie loves his diet cola.
15:31He drinks at least a bottle of this a day.
15:33He thinks it's the healthy choice.
15:35Let's have a look at the ingredients.
15:37The first ingredient that really worries me is phosphoric acid.
15:41This is added to cola to give it acidity and a real tanginess.
15:47And it's part of the phosphate family that are found all over ultra-processed foods, from baked goods to processed meats.
15:57Excess consumption of these phosphates has been linked to increased risk of heart disease, kidney disorders, low bone density, hormonal problems and actually an increased risk of death.
16:09Next up, the artificial sweeteners.
16:12Sucralose and something called ACE-K, they are 200 to 600 times sweeter than normal sugar.
16:22Really sweet.
16:24They also have a very bitter aftertaste.
16:26We used to be told these were the perfect ingredients because they were completely inert, had no effect on our bodies with zero calories.
16:36It was perfect.
16:37But there's a catch.
16:39They were wrong.
16:40Artificial sweeteners, which contain no sugar at all, can actually interfere with your glucose control.
16:47And on a study I did when I was wearing a sugar monitor, I saw that just taking a sachet of sucralose gave me a sugar spike.
16:56Recent studies show that some sweeteners may cause changes in the gut microbiome, and rather worryingly, change how the body regulates glucose.
17:05And excess consumption of these artificially sweetened drinks has been linked to increased risk of diabetes.
17:13And if you already suffer from diabetes, you might think you're making the healthy choice, but actually you could be making things very much worse.
17:24We clearly need to change the way we think of diet drinks, especially as those sweeteners could keep you wanting more and more, as candy is about to reveal.
17:35Open your eyes.
17:38Oh my gosh, what is this?
17:43Wow.
17:44What is this?
17:46You know you're in trouble with your diet when you stood in a car park with a GP and two paddling pools full of cola.
17:53Frankie, this is how much cola you have consumed in the last year.
17:59Wow, that's crazy.
18:00That's a lot.
18:04That is a lot.
18:07We couldn't find a paddling pool big enough to hold what Frankie drinks in a year, so we've got two, holding 160 gallons of diet cola.
18:17You never quite take stock of how much you're consuming.
18:20Exactly.
18:21True.
18:22Until you see it like this.
18:24It's just unreal.
18:25I'm totally shocked.
18:27The average Briton consumes around five cans of soft drink a week.
18:31But shockingly, Frankie drinks six cans a day.
18:35This to me looks like a swamp.
18:37Yes.
18:38You can see it bubbling out.
18:41Yeah, it's certainly attracted a few flies.
18:43I mean, it looks nasty also.
18:46This sticky brown soup of sweeteners, caffeine and phosphoric acid won't do anyone any good.
18:53But for a diabetic like Frankie, it's best to make healthy choices.
18:57So whilst it doesn't contain sugar, it does contain sweeteners.
19:01So your body thinks that you're having something very sweet and it can trigger your cravings.
19:07There have been links as well to other health conditions, inflammation, weight gain, some chronic conditions, especially heart disease.
19:15Yes, yes.
19:16So it all has a knock-on effect to your health.
19:18For sure.
19:19It's really important to recognise before it's too late.
19:24I never think of what it's actually doing to my system.
19:27Seeing it like this makes me want to quit it faster and get healthier sooner.
19:36To get a bigger picture of what their ultra-processed food diet has been doing to Frankie and Camille,
19:42Dr Candy has done a series of medical tests, including blood work, and the results are in.
19:49So, starting with you Camille, your blood pressure reading and your cholesterol levels were both high.
19:56Hmm.
19:57Your waist circumference was 118 centimetres.
20:01And that's in the very high risk category compared to other females your age.
20:06Okay, yeah.
20:07Looking at your weight, blood pressure and various other risk factors can also tell you how much extra stress your heart is having to cope with and what its relative age is.
20:19I understand that your age is 38 years old.
20:21Yeah.
20:22So your heart health is coming up a bit higher at 44 years old.
20:26Oh, okay.
20:28Um, it's actually quite, yeah, scary.
20:32And things are looking just as concerning for Frankie.
20:35We've talked about your sugar levels before.
20:39They were very high.
20:41With your weight, your BMI is about 32, which also puts you in the obese category.
20:49How old are you again?
20:5042.
20:5142.
20:52So your heart health was coming up at 54.
20:58All of those together do put you at increased risk of things like strokes and heart attacks and other illnesses.
21:04Hmm.
21:07Scary.
21:08Oh, for sure.
21:10How are you feeling Frankie?
21:14Not good.
21:16At 42 you have a heart of a 54 year old, it's not something anyone wants to hear.
21:22It's hard to hear, but even the smallest of changes makes a big difference.
21:30That's why I'm so passionate about the food.
21:32That's why I'm so passionate about what you put in your body.
21:35Because it does make a difference.
21:39And it's not too late.
21:40Seeing Frankie break down like that was heartbreaking.
21:46It's so difficult in age where ultra processed food, convenience food is at your fingertips.
21:53I'm incredibly empathetic with how difficult this whole journey is.
21:58It's clear Frankie and Camille have a lot of work ahead of them if they want to turn their health around.
22:06Eating more whole foods is a huge part of improving your diet.
22:11But there are also a few clever tricks to make eating everyday foods much healthier.
22:1625 million slices of bread are thrown away every single day in the UK.
22:24Now I'm going to show you a tip that tells you how you could save on waste,
22:28but also make those carbs healthier for you.
22:32Generally when you're eating starchy carbs like this,
22:35you're going to get that starch converse to sugar very rapidly,
22:38which goes into your blood, which gives you a blood sugar spike,
22:41which is generally bad for your health and can make you hungrier.
22:43So what we're going to do is show you how to reduce those sugar spikes.
22:48And one way with bread, all you've got to do is put this into a little bag and you pop it in the freezer.
22:55Even the next day when you take it out and toast it,
22:58it's going to have up to 40% less of a sugar spike than you had the day before.
23:03That's because something has actually fundamentally changed in that bread.
23:08The starch has been transformed by the freezing into something called resistant starch.
23:13A form of fiber, which means it doesn't get absorbed instantly into your bloodstream as sugar and is much better for your health.
23:21And that's also true for all the other starchy carbs such as pasta, potatoes, and it also applies to white rice.
23:29All you've got to do is take the cooked version of these and simply put it in the fridge overnight.
23:35And just by chilling it, it magically transforms and you get resistant starch, which makes it healthier.
23:42So there you have it, a really easy tip to reduce food waste and improve the health of your food.
23:50Coming up, Frankie and Camille face up to their snack addiction.
23:55Looking at that, it has definitely put me off.
23:57And what's actually in our favourite packet of crisps?
24:02Silicon dioxide. It's safe to eat, is it?
24:14Ultra-processed foods are lurking in all our cupboards and it's important for us to know what they're doing to our bodies.
24:21When you're eating starchy carbs like this, you're going to get a blood sugar spike, which can make you hungrier.
24:28In Reading, we've been helping Frankie and Camille face up to some uncomfortable truths about their health and diet.
24:35At 42, you have a heart of a 54-year-old. It's not something anyone wants to hear.
24:41They both eat a lot of ultra-processed, savoury snacks, up to two big bags each day.
24:46So to introduce a little shock factor, Dr Candy's got a demonstration up her sleeve involving some hot water and two types of crisps.
24:56One is a very simple plain potato crisp. All it has in it is potatoes, sunflower oil and sea salt.
25:03And the other one you may recognise. This in comparison has maize, sunflower oil, spicy flavourings and lots of salt, onions, acids.
25:17Natural foods and ultra-processed foods behave very differently inside our bodies.
25:22So when we eat foods and we chew foods, it sends signals to our brain to let us know that it needs to start breaking it down.
25:32But with ultra-processed foods that are very soft and dissolve on the tongue, then it doesn't send that signal to the brain.
25:38And so therefore the brain thinks that actually we need to eat more. And so we continue eating and eating.
25:44Those UPF snacks might dissolve quickly, but they pack quite the calorific punch.
25:49Can you see, if you look closely, that there's more fat and oil in that one?
25:54Yeah, absolutely.
25:56It's crazy.
25:58In 100 grams, this has 36 grams of fat, whereas this has 13 grams.
26:04Mind-blowing.
26:06Neither snack is exactly a health food, but simple sliced potato crisps tend to require more chewing.
26:13Chewing not only slows down the speed of eating, it also helps send fullness signals to the brain.
26:18But the ultra-processed snacks that Camille and Frankie love have something known as vanishing caloric density.
26:24They're made from corn that's been completely ground down and they dissolve almost instantly in your mouth.
26:30This gives you a massive hit of sugar and also tricks your brain into thinking you've consumed fewer calories, making them easy to overeat.
26:37You both talked about how easily you could go through a whole big bag of crisps and you can do that readily day after day.
26:47Yeah.
26:48So that's all by design.
26:50There are people whose jobs are to make things hyperpalatable and find ways to really trick the brain and the body into needing to eat more.
26:59Looking at that, it has definitely put me off.
27:03On that note.
27:05Let's get going.
27:07Candy's clearing the cupboards of their ultra-processed foods.
27:10Sorry, Camille.
27:12Oh, it's here.
27:13Sorry, Frankie.
27:15Let's work through the rest of the kitchen.
27:16But not all ultra-processed foods are created equal.
27:21Candy's letting them keep a few items.
27:24Garlic puree, for one.
27:26Despite containing a number of added ingredients, the garlic itself is still full of antioxidants and vitamins.
27:33Plus, if it makes it easier to cook your sauce from scratch, you're more likely to use lots of other nutritious, fresh ingredients.
27:41The cola, though, that's got to go.
27:43Do you think you'll miss it?
27:45Yes, I will. Definitely.
27:47I want to have a sip right now. That's how bad it is.
27:50Okay. We'll work through this.
27:52This is going to be a seismic shift in Frankie and Camille's diet.
27:55And Candy's kicking off the new regime with lots of fresh, whole foods.
28:00Wow. What do we have? Oh, my gosh.
28:03Wow.
28:05Oh, wow.
28:07I'm just not so used to seeing so much colour in this house.
28:10Yeah. There wasn't much fruit and there wasn't much vegetables.
28:12There wasn't much vegetables either.
28:14We're giving them plenty of fibre-filled veg, beans and pulses, fresh fruit and, to replace Frankie's beloved cola, naturally flavoured sparkling water.
28:24These two don't usually have much at all in their cupboards, so a vital part of the new regime will be meal planning.
28:30I'm hoping that we can really turn things around and focus on having three main meals.
28:38Breakfast, lunch and dinner. I think that's going to be really good for making you stay fuller for longer.
28:42But also helpful for your diabetes, ensuring that we avoid rapid sugar spikes.
28:50So you'll be snacking a lot less and you'll be eating healthier food, so it's a win-win.
28:54A typical meal plan for these two will be a veggie omelette for breakfast, tuna salad for lunch and a honey mustard chicken tray bake for dinner.
29:05A veggie omelette is a great way to start the day thanks to protein-rich eggs.
29:09Spinach, packed with iron and antioxidants, which is great for energy.
29:14And Frankie's favourite, mushrooms, which are low-calorie and full of vitamins B and D.
29:20Filling healthy meals will keep Frankie's sugar levels steady and help stop Camille reaching for the ultra-processed snacks.
29:27But to make it happen, they're going to need to get organised with batch cooking.
29:32I've got some Tupperware for you to get busy and start using your freezer because it was awfully empty.
29:40Thank you, Tandy.
29:42So they're really good for portion control, so it allows you to just, you know, appropriately portion out your foods for when you need it.
29:49Amazing.
29:51And we've got a plan to help wean Frankie off the diet cola.
29:54We've got some carbonated water that you can add your own flavouring to.
29:57So you can use the lime, the lemon, the oranges or the cucumbers to really squeeze and add flavours.
30:04It's going to be a monumental change for these two.
30:08There's a lot of stuff we have not seen in here before.
30:12Honestly, I have no idea what this is.
30:16I really have no idea.
30:18It's a better nut squash.
30:19I don't know anything about that, no thank you.
30:22Try not to beat yourself up.
30:23If sometimes you find harder days than others.
30:27But I am really confident that you can do it.
30:30And I'm very excited for where this will go.
30:33Thank you so much.
30:34This is very helpful.
30:36Today is the start of our new lifestyle change for the healthier us.
30:41The great British potato, a versatile staple we all enjoy.
30:57But did you know that it wasn't until 1962 that the first commercially available flavoured crisp was introduced in the UK.
31:05But how are these flavourings made and crucially, how do you transform the humble potato into a tasty tangy snack?
31:15I've been visiting Mission Kitchen in London to get into the nitty gritty of food processing.
31:21And now I'm going to find out how Britain's favourite snack is made.
31:24How do you make that special flavouring that goes on crisps, that makes them taste so good?
31:31I'll be happy to tell you.
31:32So, today we're going to be doing salt and vinegar.
31:34But I'm going to show you the process of how we can turn a liquid into a powder.
31:38And then also how we combine a load of other ingredients to get that classic salt and vinegar flavour.
31:42OK, let's go.
31:44First of all we're going to start off with this blend of chemicals.
31:46So in here there's going to be some glucose powder, a bit of sucrose, and then two other ingredients with kind of long names.
31:52So we have some calcium lactate and silicone dioxide.
31:55Silicon dioxide, why would you use that?
31:57What that does, it basically keeps the environment dry and it just draws out anything that prevents from clumping.
32:02It's like an anti-caking agent almost.
32:04I often see it in electronic equipment, they often put little bits of silicon dioxide to absorb the moisture.
32:11It is, that's exactly what it is. And this is a food grade type of silicone.
32:15It's used very commonly in a lot of spice mixes that you'll find on the supermarket shelf.
32:20OK, and it's safe to eat, is it?
32:21It is safe to eat in small quantities.
32:24Right, so it's a bit more complicated than putting salt and vinegar on your chips down the chip shop.
32:28This concoction of chemicals captures the vinegar taste in a dry powder to coat the crisp.
32:34And then we get our vinegar, just regular malt vinegar, the kind you'd find in a fish and chip shop.
32:38As we mix this together, it's going to start clumping up.
32:43So we're getting some solid vinegar.
32:45Yes.
32:46So now, I'm just going to put this into the spice mix blender.
32:50Yeah.
32:51OK, now we'll just give this a little blend.
32:58This will turn into a lovely little powder.
33:00OK, a lovely fine powder, yes. And that's vinegar powder.
33:03Yes, vinegar powder. And what I'm going to do is just pass this through a tiny little sieve.
33:08Can you do this for other liquids you might use in cooking?
33:11You can do it with literally anything. I've done it with whisky before.
33:14Whisky crisps. That one we could maybe, yeah, start a new line.
33:17Yeah, absolutely. We'll sell it in the Highlands and we'll make millions.
33:21So we've got our chalky vinegar. How do we make it more palatable?
33:24So we have some regular sea salt but this is just being blended into a fine powder so it coats nicely.
33:30After that, we have a blend of malic, citric and ascorbic acid.
33:35And that's to have an effect on your tongue, is that right?
33:37Absolutely. Each one of them has different kinds of spikes in acidity.
33:40You can have a nice little acidic journey, I guess.
33:42OK.
33:43We're just going to give this a nice blend.
33:45So that's a powdered vinegar to create the taste, powdered acids to create the tang
33:50and next, even more powders to create the consistency.
33:54There's still some clumps.
33:56So what we're going to do, we're just going to add more silicone dioxide.
33:59Give that another blend.
34:03And then it's going to be...
34:05Real alchemy this, isn't it?
34:06Yes, it is. And now you can see that's super fine.
34:08Wow, look at that.
34:09Fine, fine powder.
34:10Yeah.
34:11These are just plain crisp.
34:15So all we're going to do is give them a very light coating of vegetable oil.
34:20And next, we're just going to give this a nice little dusting of our salt and vinegar.
34:26And there we have it.
34:27OK, let's have a go.
34:28Cheers.
34:29Cheers.
34:31The flavour of simple salt and vinegar recreated with a cocktail of white powders.
34:37You're a genius.
34:38Thank you again.
34:39Cheers.
34:40Cheers.
34:41It's been one week since Camille and Frankie started their new UPF-free regime.
34:51Oh, gosh. Even that, before we don't have...
34:54We don't have a shelf, we actually...
34:56A vegetable tray now.
34:58Frankie's not yet convinced about all that veg.
35:01So many green stuff here now.
35:03Green's a nice colour, but it's like outside the house, not inside the house.
35:08But Camille's determined to persuade him by hook or by crook.
35:12There's something green in the omelettes. What was that?
35:15Oh, the spinach. You liked it?
35:18I'm sorry. There's spinach in an omelette.
35:20Yeah. Nice, right?
35:24You know I have been putting spinach in every food that we have.
35:28I guess what you can't see won't hurt.
35:30And while Camille's happily swapped from crisps to fruits and nuts...
35:35This is very filling.
35:37Frankie's swap from cola to sparkling water has not been so smooth.
35:42Let's toast your water with lime.
35:45Yeah, good chance. Cheers!
35:50I'm sorry, it just didn't do anything for me.
35:52It was really bitter. Just didn't like it at all.
35:55Ah, okay.
35:58I mean, I definitely know cola is that for me,
36:00but soft drinks has been there since I was a child.
36:03So that's why it's the one that's hardest to give up at the moment.
36:06Camille has been making lots of wholesome meals.
36:10Chicken, chickpea!
36:12But keeping up that routine isn't always easy.
36:16We went to McDonald's.
36:18We had a very long day.
36:22We were tired.
36:24So it's like a comfort food for us.
36:27I know we're being naughty, but we are just so tired.
36:35Coming up, a delicious and nutritious recipe
36:37for when you need food fast,
36:39but not fast food.
36:41We're trying to eat the rainbow.
36:43The more colourful the food, the more healthy it is.
36:46And Frankie and Camille's food transformation journey continues.
36:50Try this.
36:51No, thank you.
36:52No, just try it. Come on!
36:53A shocking amount of our food today is ultra-processed.
37:08In here there's glucose powder, a bit of sucrose, calcium lactate and silicone dioxide.
37:13And I want to help you to avoid it, like Camille and Frankie and Redding, who are trying to change the way they eat.
37:20Honestly, I have no idea what this is.
37:22I really have no idea.
37:25It's a better not squash.
37:27It's a very difficult thing to alter your eating habits so dramatically.
37:31But what can make it easier are tempting, easy and nutritious recipes like this one.
37:37I'm going to show you how to make the bulgur wheat bowl.
37:41It's dead simple to make and it's delicious.
37:48What essentially are we starting with is lots of good colourful veg, because we're trying to eat the rainbow.
37:55The more colourful the food, the more healthy it is.
37:58Now we know that within all these colourful veggies are chemicals called polyphenols, which are like rocket fuel for our gut microbes.
38:06I'm using peppers, aubergines and red onions, but you can be as creative as you like.
38:11Just mix them around a bit.
38:13Then smother it with extra virgin olive oil, a bit of salt, a bit of pepper.
38:19This can now get popped in the oven.
38:22It's going to take 25 minutes.
38:25Right, so time to deal with the bulgur wheat.
38:27It's an amazing whole grain that is much healthier than white rice or couscous,
38:32because the outer coating of it, the kernel, is still intact, which means you're getting all the nutrients.
38:38You're also getting the protein and the fibre.
38:41And the thing I love about it, it's so easy to make.
38:44All you've got to do is just add some boiled water to it and cover it with a plate.
38:52And then we sit and wait for 20 minutes.
38:54We're going to take this delicious tray out.
38:59Mmm, smells great, looks great.
39:02And mix this in.
39:05And now we're going to add our dressing.
39:08You can just use olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.
39:11Or you could make a dressing which is made from sauerkraut.
39:15Sauerkraut is fermented vegetable.
39:18It's just cabbage and salt and microbes, which give it that impact and taste and also on health.
39:25All you've got to do to make it is add some red peppers, which you can buy in jars and pre-cooked.
39:31Add some sauerkraut, making sure it's the fermented one, not the vinegar.
39:35And a handful of basil with olive oil and you blend it together and this is what you get.
39:41The beauty of these fermented foods is not only that they add an extra flavour to your dish, but they're also great for your gut microbes.
39:51Add in your dressing, give it another mix and serve it up.
39:55I like to add a sprinkle of seeds for extra goodness.
39:59They're a fantastic source of really healthy fats, omega-3s and extra protein and fibre.
40:06We now have about 13 plants in this dish at least.
40:11But the important thing is, what does it taste like?
40:18That is delicious.
40:20And it's so simple to make and you can have so many great ingredients.
40:23Don't exclude stuff from your diet, add more to it.
40:26Make it more fun, make it more diverse, make it more tasty.
40:35In Reading, it's six weeks since Frankie and Camille gave up their ultra-processed foods.
40:40And they've swapped the reduced aisle for the veggie aisle.
40:43Wow, look how colourful that is.
40:45I know.
40:46It looks very healthy, yeah?
40:49But it hasn't broken the budget.
40:51The cost of the weekly shopping has been a surprise for us.
40:54Eating healthy doesn't mean that it has to be expensive.
40:57It's actually a lot cheaper.
41:00Camille's been slowly getting to grips with batch cooking.
41:03Delicious.
41:04You're happy with this for lunch tomorrow, right?
41:05Yes.
41:06Very nice.
41:07Love this one.
41:09I think for us to get into that routine, to plan ahead.
41:13Hit is changing our life.
41:15But it's still taking some persuading to get Frankie to try some of the new foods.
41:20Are you sure you don't like granola?
41:22No.
41:23I really don't like the taste.
41:25Try this.
41:26No, thank you.
41:27No, just try it.
41:28Come on.
41:29No, thank you.
41:30And he's continued his cheat days too.
41:33I haven't eaten healthy every single day.
41:38Change for me is difficult.
41:41When something is new, it is overwhelming.
41:44It's not as easy as I thought it would be.
41:48But in the end, we'll get there.
41:50So, how much difference will their efforts have made to their health?
41:54There's only one way to find out.
41:56They're heading to London to repeat their initial health tests.
42:01There's a part of us that's scared.
42:03Are you scared?
42:04Yes, very scared.
42:05Yeah.
42:06I thought I'm just...
42:07It's just me.
42:08It was not an easy journey for us.
42:10I mean, the temptations aren't everywhere.
42:12But we've done a lot of work.
42:14So, I want to know and see if the effort has worked for us or not.
42:21Hello!
42:22Back when Candy first met these two six weeks ago,
42:26their diet was almost exclusively ultra-processed.
42:29Family-sized bags of savoury snacks for Camille,
42:32litres of cola for Frankie,
42:34and whatever prepackaged stuff was lurking in the reduced section for their dinner.
42:39Diabetic Frankie had huge sugar spikes,
42:42and Camille was suffering from severe acid reflux.
42:45Let's see if they've been doing enough to turn things around.
42:49I mean, you look great.
42:51You really do look like you've got a lot more colour in your face,
42:55and a lot more energy.
42:57I don't look tired anymore.
43:00Camille, I'm going to start with you.
43:01So, looking at your waist, you've lost about ten centimetres,
43:05so that's four inches off your waist.
43:07Really?
43:08That's really good.
43:10That's why I would fit in my old clothes now.
43:12Yeah? That's really good.
43:13So you've noticed that?
43:14Yes, I have. I have. I have noticed, and I'm so happy.
43:18Brilliant work.
43:19Yay!
43:20Camille's results have seen huge improvement across the board,
43:23from blood pressure to inflammation,
43:25and cutting down on additive-packed UPFs
43:28has been a huge help with her debilitating acid reflux.
43:32I'm so pleased to tell you guys that the vomiting has lessened.
43:37That's really great.
43:38That's the really good news.
43:39And then another marker, your heart health,
43:41which we touched on before.
43:42So you're 38 years old, and your heart health was about 44.
43:46Yeah.
43:47You've now brought that down to 41.
43:49No way.
43:50So you've knocked three years off,
43:52which is a fantastic achievement,
43:54with the weight loss and reduction.
43:55In a few weeks.
43:56Yeah.
43:57Oh, my gosh.
43:58Now this is giving me even much more motivation.
44:00So maybe it will push me now.
44:02I'm 38.
44:03I'll try to go for 35.
44:05Absolutely.
44:06Why stop there?
44:07Yeah.
44:0821.
44:09Exactly right.
44:11Back when Candy first met Frankie,
44:13there was a lot going on.
44:15Obesity, poor heart health,
44:17and despite needing to be extremely careful with his diabetes,
44:20his blood sugar was sky high.
44:24So, Frankie, we've really seen an improvement
44:27of your fasting glucose as a snapshot
44:29that's gone from the high 20s to 8.8.
44:33Wow.
44:34Oh, my God.
44:35That is crazy.
44:36So that's really good news.
44:37That is crazy.
44:38And you are 42 years old,
44:41and when I first met you, your heart health was about 54,
44:45and that's also really come down to 50.
44:48Wow.
44:49Wow.
44:50I'm very, very, very shocked.
44:51I'm not going to lie.
44:52I haven't really done as much as Camille has done.
44:55Yeah, you haven't done as well as Camille.
44:58Your weight hasn't changed as we would have liked it to,
45:01but even making small changes can have big effects on your health
45:06and your likelihood of how long you're going to live.
45:08I'm very happy to see that.
45:10Frankie, one question I have to ask you is how is your cola habit going?
45:15Ah, not very well.
45:16I'm still constantly having cola as much as I was before.
45:20Do you think you're slightly addicted to it?
45:22Yeah, 100%.
45:23I am addicted to cola.
45:24It is tough, and there are a lot of people who are in your position,
45:28so you need to just see if you can change your taste buds,
45:32as you've done in other ways.
45:33Yeah.
45:34Because you've shown that you can do this.
45:36Yeah.
45:37Ultimately, I think you've come a long way
45:38because you've really come off all those crisps
45:40and you're eating more vegetables,
45:42you've got more variety of colour,
45:43you're batch cooking.
45:45I've given up a lot of stuff that you saw
45:47when you came into the house.
45:49It doesn't exist in the house anymore.
45:51That's really great.
45:52You know, there's really a lot to take away here,
45:54so I'm really proud of the progress that you guys have made.
45:57Yeah, I mean, thank you guys very much
45:59for being a part of our new lives.
46:02Fantastic job.
46:03Well done.
46:04Well done.
46:08It's such a good feeling,
46:09even just a tiny bit, simple step.
46:11It gives us this very, very good positive change.
46:15It makes it easier moving on.
46:17100%.
46:18We will definitely continue this,
46:20and we can just be there for each other,
46:22support each other,
46:23and just, you know, grow old and happy.
46:34The loveliest woman on telly is on the holiday of her lifetime.
46:37Endless summer light and thriving communities
46:39as Lorraine Kelly continues her Norwegian odyssey
46:42Thursday from 8.
46:43And lessons enough to do it yourself
46:45at 8 o'clock next Tuesday night.
46:46Jasmine Harmon lifts the lid on some bargain holiday secrets.
46:49Truly shocking next tonight, though.
46:5124 hours in police custody.
46:53.
46:55.
46:56.
46:57.
46:58.
46:59.
47:00.
47:01.
47:02.
47:03.
47:04.
47:05.
47:06.
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