ZOE’s new supplement, and the politics of food
It’s the worried well vs the nanny state
Last night I went to the launch of Daily30+, a new supplement from ZOE, the personalised nutrition behemoth that inspires as many haters as ardent devotees.
This launch has been a bit controversial, because ZOE founder Professor Tim Spector is famously anti-supplements. He has said that the vast majority are a waste of money and yet, here he is, launching a supplement.
Well… it’s not a traditional supplement. It’s a mix of dried and chopped nuts, seeds, herbs and spices, as well as flaked beetroot, carrot and lentils, and powdered mushrooms. The USP is that it contains over 30 different plant foods, and the idea is that it will help people who struggle to make healthy food tasty, because you can sprinkle it over everything from your avocado toast to your pasta and it’ll add crunch and flavour, as well as a hit of fibre and polyphenols.
Lots of the online criticism (from experts I respect; not just mad people on the internet) focuses on the price. At £39 for a month’s supply, it’s certainly spenny. But ZOE is a business not a charity. If we never made anything that is too expensive for many people to afford, then we wouldn’t have fancy coffee shops, or the Eras tour, so I can’t get on board with that criticism. I feel that, if you don’t want to buy it, then don’t. But I think there will be plenty of people who do.
Yes, we could all create our own jars of mixed plant foods, but some people would rather spend the money to have it readymade than spend the time making it. I don’t judge them for that, just as I don’t judge anyone who pays a cleaner when they could just clean their own bathroom. Everyone has different values and priorities.
Some people dismiss ZOE members as the “worried well”. Personally, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with doing your best to be healthy, regardless of whether or not you’re currently “well” (all of us will be less well one day, so I understand any attempt to stave that off). But I do see the argument that a product like this is preaching to the converted. The kind of person who would be interested in buying ZOE’s Daily30+ probably has a pretty healthy diet anyway.
I recently hosted an event for Tesco and Guardian Labs about how to improve our nation’s health, as well as the climate and the economy (aiming high!), through food.
You can read a summary of the conversation here, but one thing I found really powerful was when dietician Dr Linia Patel talked about her work in public health and epidemiology. “We have looked at dietary quality over the last decade in the UK and, in higher socioeconomic groups, it has improved,” she said. “But the inequality has increased so there is a wider gap. The food environment has changed.”
We live in a world where middle class parents sprinkle seeds and blueberries on their children’s morning kefir, while kids in lower socioeconomic groups eat a high-sugar cereal (no judgement here: it’s cheap, fortified with vitamins, and all kids like it). One of these children then has steady energy and focus at school, while the other is set up for a day of being fractious, distracted and disruptive. And that’s just how one meal affects them on one day. The longterm impact, of course, includes a future of chronic disease with a far higher risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer and dementia.
There is no simple answer to this gaping chasm of food inequality. Fixing it is going to require some major public health interventions, such as expanding the sugar tax beyond soft drinks (with the money being used to subsidise healthy food), and prioritising food education in schools.
This is being partially addressed by Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food, which teaches basic cooking and nutrition to kids. Alison Corfield, head of social impact at the Jamie Oliver Group, was also at the Tesco event, where she explained that Jamie paid for the initiative himself after being repeatedly turned down for government funding. “We're running a pilot with 10,000 kids at the moment through secondary schools, and hope to take that up to 80,000 by September,” she said, adding: “It shouldn't be a celebrity's job to do that. It should be the government's job.”
Of course, there are those who believe that any kind of regulation is “nanny state” meddling. This comment on yesterday’s article in The Times about a healthy diet reducing dementia risk sums up this attitude perfectly.
What people who think like this don’t understand is that the food conglomerates, and the government that fails to regulate them, are already making our decisions for us. The food landscape has a huge impact on how the vast majority of people eat, particularly kids, with banners shouting “high in vitamin D” on a packet of chocolate flavoured breakfast cereal that is 21% sugar.
“We’ve been let down by politicians on all sides over this,” said Tim Spector, in conversation with Dr Federica Amati, at last night’s launch. “The food industry has taken over completely so that we have the worst diet in Europe, which leads to the worst health. It’s outrageous that children’s foods, in particular, are allowed to have health halos. Lots of the breakfast cereals aimed at children are so high in sugar, they should be in the confectionary aisle.”
In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s an election tomorrow. We already have a commitment from Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting on banning the sale of energy drinks to under 16s. And after tomorrow, there will be an influx of fresh new MPs keen to make their mark. This is their opportunity to be on the right side of history.
This week I’m…
Reading Rhiannon Lambert’s excellent The Science of Plant-based Nutrition
Watching the new series of The Bear, with more of a crush on both Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri than I had last series
Cooking with my kids from Buddy Oliver’s Let’s Cook: Fun and easy recipes for kids (they honestly love it)
Remembering my photo ID to vote tomorrow!
Yes yes yes yes to all of this. I've only started to really figure out what's in food these last couple of years and I feel like big food companies (and the lack of action by government) have really sold me a pup over the past 45 years. We make it so hard for people to eat well.