Live Longer Wales X-Ray

Fast food, exercise advice and tasty treats -

we're bombarded by them every day of our lives.

But how do you sort the best ways

to slim down from the things that will only slim your wallet?

We're here with some top tips...

Breakfast ideas which all take less than

three minutes before you're out the door and on your way.

..plenty of surprising facts

and a message or two for the people in power.

Tonight - the council-run leisure centres giving out

mixed messages about how to live a healthy life.

Rachel goes undercover.

And a sobering vision of the future, including for our very own Lucy.

SHE GASPS

Welcome to a very sunny Barry Island,

where summer has definitely arrived.

This time of year, lots of us decide to try and get fit

and shed a few pounds.

But in a world where we're constantly tempted by treats,

too busy for exercise and baffled by food labels, it isn't easy.

But we're here to help.

First, leisure centres are brilliant places to stay trim

without spending a fortune.

But are the very places that were built to help us get fitter

tempting us to get fatter? Rachel's been investigating.

Working out is all about no pain, no gain.

But if I'm putting in all this effort,

I really want the calories I burn off to stay off.

So I'd be mad to eat chocolate or crisps after I finish,

but what if I want to grab something healthier from my

local leisure centre? Will I be able to find it?

The Welsh government issued this guidance 18 months ago,

telling leisure centres everything they needed to know

to provide healthier food and drinks.

So, it should be a doddle.

The report says leisure centres have an important role

in promoting healthy eating.

Cardiff is the biggest council in Wales,

with the highest population,

so I'm going undercover at all nine of its facilities

to find out just what food and drink they've got on offer.

Vending machines are in all nine leisure centres. First check - food.

And this was true across the city.

In fact, ten out of 13 machines

sold only products high in fat, sugar or both.

Any food with more than 17.5g of fat per 100g

is considered high fat.

This chocolate bar had almost twice that amount.

Many others were high in sugar.

And in three centres there were low level,

brightly-coloured sweet machines that were

really popular with children.

A very poor start. Rows of chocolate, crisps and sweets.

Overall, we found only one vending slot selling a snack

that could be judged as healthier under Welsh government guidelines.

The other 405 slots would not.

But if we've put in the exercise, don't we deserve a treat?

Think of it like this. If I jogged for half an hour then eaten

this one chocolate bar, it would cancel out all the good work

that I'd done, so I'd have to get back on the treadmill once again.

'So what do our bodies actually need after exercise?

'Dietician Chris Cashin has the answer.'

We are kind of conditioned into thinking that

perhaps when we've been to the gym and we've done all this good work

we can treat ourselves, and actually that's the worst thing you can do.

Do I actually need anything at that point?

If you go to the gym and do an hour's exercise

after you've eaten maybe a good breakfast,

or a lunch before you've gone,

a couple of hours before, you don't need to eat anything.

Your body doesn't have a requirement for extra fuel

at that particular point.

Now it may be the case, if you're an elite athlete and you're

doing a lot more exercise, then you would need maybe

some extra fuel or a refuelling drink after you've exercised,

but the vast majority of us only need to drink some water

after we've exercised.

The guidance agrees that water is all you need to replace

lost fluids, unless you're a competitive athlete.

It also gives lots of tips to encourage people

to drink more water, including making it easy to get.

So was it?

The guidance says free water coolers

should be easily accessible and away from toilets.

Centres did have free water, but three of them sent us

to the toilets for it and another to a tap in a first aid cupboard.

When it came to the cafes, in two,

water was the most expensive soft drink available.

We could get tap water from cafes - when they were open.

At other times, it was back to the vending machines.

But at a third of centres, there was no water in machines at all.

Only nine of the 325 drinks vending slots were water.

Overall, a shocking 91% of drinks in machines were high or medium sugar.

Later, I'm on a mission to buy fruit,

but can I find it in any council leisure centre in Cardiff?

And later, Rachel will be enlisting the help of a very special friend

to pay Cardiff Council a visit.

Now, do you often grab a quick sandwich or a pasty for lunch?

Well, if you do, have you ever considered how much exercise

it would take to burn that off?

Well, here's some real food for thought.

We're bombarded with articles on how to look good and stay slim.

The latest wonder diet, get fit for summer, how to cut your calories...

But how many of us really get what calories mean?

We might know some foods are higher than others,

but they're often meaningless figures.

For example, how long does it take to burn off a burger

or a bacon sandwich? Ten minutes? Two hours?

What would happen if you actually

had to work off your lunch, every last calorie of it?

What I need are some good-looking, willing volunteers

to test this out.

Hiya, Lucy. Do you want to take a seat? I'm ready for you now.

A-ha.

We've enlisted three of Merthyr's most fabulous stylists

to help us out.

You've all been working hard all morning,

so we're going to treat you to lunch. How does that sound?

-Fab.

-LUCY LAUGHS

What we're not telling them just yet is that later they'll have

to work off every last calorie.

So that's 440 calories for Laura, 417 pasty calories for Nicole

and a whopping 691 calories for Gerwyn.

Now Paula, their boss, has been in on this from the start.

How do you reckon they're going to got on working off these calories?

What about Gerwyn?

I'll be intrigued to see how Gerwyn gets on,

because he hasn't got a great diet. He doesn't exercise.

-How long would you give him on the bike?

-Five minutes?

-Maximum!

-What about Laura?

-She's really fit,

so I think she's going to do fantastic.

Nicole, I am very sure she's going to do very well.

-She's very healthy.

-So, basically, you reckon

the girls could go the distance and burn off all their calories?

Definitely. Gerwyn? No.

-So, have you all enjoyed lunch?

-Lovely, thank you.

Excellent. I'm so glad because now we'd like you to help us out

with a test. And we want you to burn off, through exercise,

all the calories that you have just consumed in that meal.

What do you think?

Good, yeah. I think I had the least calories,

so I've got the least work to do.

'We give them a couple of hours to let their food settle...'

before they head here to the Exercise Science lab

at Cardiff Metropolitan University, where the experts can work out

just how long it'll take to lose their lunch.

So what are you going to be asking our hairdressers to do?

OK, so they will exercise on the bikes

while we'll be measuring the oxygen that they're consuming,

and we will then be able to calculate the amount of time

that they'll need to exercise in order to burn off their lunch.

So, Nicole, you've been going for 22 minutes now.

You look like you're doing really well there.

Steady pace, so I feel all right.

So if you had to hazard a guess of how much of that pasty

you've worked off, what do you reckon?

-Half of it?

-About half of it, you reckon.

-Yeah.

How's it going? How are you feeling?

Feeling all right, other than the sweat on the seat.

-Not in too much pain?

-No, other than the seat.

How much of that burger do you reckon you might have

-worked off by now?

-Only about a quarter I'd say.

-Really? So still a long way to go you think?

-Yeah.

-Are you regretting it at this stage?

-Yes.

Part way through the test,

Mike's got all the info he needs to deliver the bad news

to our sweating stylists, about just how far they've still got to go.

In order to use up your lunch you need to do 25 more minutes

of exercise, which makes it a whole hour.

'And how about our sandwich and crisps eater Gerwyn?'

An hour and 20 minutes to work off a sandwich

and a packet of crisps. Are you quite shocked at that?

Yes! My new diet of lettuce and dust is starting from tomorrow.

'And what about that innocent little pasty?'

That would equate to 54 minutes of exercise at the intensity

you're doing. You've now done 42 minutes, so you've only got

14 minutes left.

Did you think it would be as much as 54 minutes?

No, not for that small pasty.

'So, after more than 40 minutes of back-breaking cycling,

'will our hairdressers make the cut?'

If you want to stop, that's absolutely fine.

If I had a pillow under my bum I probably would.

-So are you going to call it a day?

-I think I will finish now, yeah.

'But the girls are powering on through.'

Laura, I can tell you that now, your burger calories... gone.

-Thank God for that.

-You can stop pedalling.

-Is that a good feeling?

-Yeah.

-You've done it, Nicole, you've finished.

-Yeah!

-Is that a good feeling, despite the pain?

-Yeah.

-Woo-hoo!

-Group hug.

Absolutely fantastic effort there,

and I'll be thinking twice about picking up a pasty in future!

But exercising is so important to keep off those calories

that adults should be doing 30 minutes of activity,

five times a week, but only about a third of us actually manage that.

But Rachel's with one busy mum who's found a way

to squeeze in fitness to a hectic life.

Yes, thanks, Lucy, I'm with Amanda Glanville, who's a member

of Sosban Riders Cycling Club in Llanelli.

What's the club all about?

It started off, a father wanting to get off his child cycling,

and then it progressed to having now 40 to 50 children

cycling most weekends. One of the fathers had this idea

that the ladies should stop sitting at the sidelines watching

and get involved, and that's where the ladies ride was born really.

Now we have between sort of between 12, 20 ladies

cycling on a regular basis.

So you actually drop the kids off then and go for a ride yourself?

If I wasn't able to take my son along,

I wouldn't be able to participate.

The one thing I struggle with is being able to do any exercise

around work, being a housewife, so this is my way of dropping

Rhys, my son, off and then being able

to get on and do something myself.

So have you seen the benefits of all this exercise?

-Yes, I've lost three stone.

-My goodness! Three stone?

-Since I've been cycling.

-It sounds like it's really changed your life.

It has changed my life. It's got my husband cycling,

it's got myself and my son far more active.

We go out for days out now,

and if I hadn't met Sosban Riders, I wouldn't be doing what I am now.

-I fancy digging out my bike now.

-Come with us! Come with us.

Coming up: how much bolognese does it take to feed

a 30-piece brass band?

We test out portion sizes with some hungry musicians.

Now, research shows people who eat breakfast are less likely

to be overweight and less at risk of conditions like diabetes,

but I wonder, do people here in Barry

start their day in a healthy way?

-What do you have?

-I have varied breakfasts

because my husband makes them for me every day.

-You lucky thing!

-I know.

-I'll have a word with mine!

We just have bread, beans and egg.

Toast usually or cereal.

-How do you feel if you skip it?

-Hungry.

Porridge every day.

-Do you eat breakfast?

-No.

-Never?

No, I never have any time to.

I just skip it and go all the way through to lunch.

So it seems breakfast isn't always top of the agenda for people

here in Barry, and they're not the only ones.

ALARM CLOCK BUZZES

Ughhh.

ALARM CLOCK BUZZES

SHE GASPS

When you're running late, all you can think about

is getting ready as quickly as possible.

And the last thing you've got time for...is breakfast.

Up to a third of us regularly skip this essential meal,

often because we think we just haven't got the time.

Or we're grabbing it on the go.

In fact, the market for breakfast biscuits

is booming - now worth over £76 million.

But look a little closer and some of these products

are so high in sugar, it's like tucking into a couple

of chocolate digestives for breakfast.

In some cases, even worse.

So, does it matter if we skip breakfast?

Yes, it does matter if we skip breakfast.

As the title suggests, it's 'break the fast'. Most of us

have been asleep for about eight hours before we eat breakfast,

so what it does is give you the energy for the day.

It gets you going. If we don't tend to eat breakfast,

if we skip breakfast, the body tends to store the food that we eat,

which then means we are more likely to be overweight or obese.

We went to Go Compare in Bridgend,

where a hearty breakfast is always on offer.

But for those who don't have time, what do they think they're

getting when they glance at the breakfast-on-the-go labels?

This one here, you've got the grain pictures on it and the sun,

and it's quite almost farmy and wholesome, but I guess it's...

If you look at the back of it, the contents at the bottom,

it's a bit more eye-opening I think.

They all seem to be full of sugars

and there's a long list of ingredients which, if you're

just putting your own breakfast together, you wouldn't choose all of

these things, so, no, I wouldn't say that they're very healthy.

In fact, what they're looking at are the top five sugariest bars

and biscuits brands we found

when we compared 48 products on the market.

We also checked three breakfast drinks brands.

These newcomers are all high in sugar too.

The breakfast biscuits here that we've got, as a range,

they range from 26g to 40g of sugar per 100g.

Which is about one-and-a-half to three-and-a-half teaspoons

of sugar per biscuit.

In terms of the drinks, the three that we've got on the table here

range between 19g and 32g of sugar per serving,

which is about three-and-a-half to six-and-a-half teaspoons

of sugar per drink.

You wouldn't put that much in tea or coffee every day.

It's a lot of sugar, isn't it?

Are you surprised about how much there is in each product?

Yeah, definitely, when you look at them,

you'd expect them to have sugar in them,

but that amount of sugar is just unbelievable.

It is surprising, the sugar content in them,

because they're all called a breakfast product or "on the go",

which suggests it's an adequate replacement

for breakfast, but it clearly isn't when you look closer at it.

It's one of things, I always knew they were

sort of bad for you, in the sense you can tell

they're not going to be great for you, but I think hearing

just how bad for you that they are is quite shocking really.

So, if those on-the-go products aren't the solution

to the early morning rush, how can you get a quick, healthy start?

Well, luckily, thanks to Gwawr, I've got some ideas.

Right, some healthy breakfast ideas which all take

less than three minutes

before you're out the door and on your way.

First up - porridge with fruit. Start the clock.

No time to measure, just guessing.

To the microwave.

There you go, porridge and a piece of fruit, ready to go.

Right, next up, a muffin with scrambled egg and tomato.

Here we go.

Whisk it all up! Microwave - two minutes.

Slice the muffin in half, don't need to toast it.

Slice the tomato.

Perfect. Tomatoes on top. Ready to go.

And finally, banana on toast and a flask of milk.

Just be careful about your fingers when you're slicing in a hurry.

Glass of milk ready to go, banana chopped.

So there you go, speedy breakfasts that are both good for you

and made on the go.

Speaking of which, I really need to go.

She does make a mean scrambled egg!

Now, McVitie's tell us their Breakfast Yoghurt Sandwich

is not intended as a daily alternative to breakfast,

and they say that snacks should be

enjoyed as part of a healthy, balanced diet.

Weetabix tell us their breakfast-on-the-go drinks

contain the same balance of protein, fibre and energy as their

normal cereal with milk, but are also a source of vitamins and iron.

Kellogg's say those Nutri-Grain products contain on average

three teaspoons of sugar, and they're also a source of vitamins and iron.

Lacka Foods, makers of Be Fast Breakfast drinks, and Fuel 10K,

who make the Liquid Breakfast, admit their products do contain

added sugar, but Be Fast, Lacka food say,

contains more naturally occurring sugar.

Both say their drinks are low in fat and a source of protein,

fibre and vitamins. And finally, Mondelez International say

their belVita Breakfast range is clinically proven to slowly release

carbohydrates over four hours and also contains vitamins and fibre.

Tonight's special kicks off a new series of programmes

for BBC Wales, looking at how we can all live longer by keeping fit

and eating well. Last time around, chef Dudley Newbery

visited his hometown of Ynysybwl to help people there eat well,

and I'm delighted to say he's with us this evening,

-and even better, he's cooking.

-I am.

-So what are you doing here?

I'm guessing, since we're trying to be healthy,

it's not burgers and sausages.

It's not, we're going to do some chicken thighs.

I've taken the skin off so they're a lot healthier

than normally, and we've marinated those lightly

to give it extra flavour, and they're very easy to do.

Oh, sounds absolutely delicious.

Now, you've been back to Ynysybwl, haven't you,

-to catch up with people there.

-I have, yes.

There were a few really good stories that have come out of my revisit.

OK, I'll leave you to crack on with the cooking,

and let's find out how people in Ynysybwl are getting on.

Last summer, for BBC Wales' Live Longer Wales season,

I went back to my home town of Ynysybwl.

I was on a mission to get my community to think more

about the food they ate, about shopping locally

and about how they could change their lifestyles for the better.

One of the people I met last year whose story had

a real impact on me was Christina Jones.

Christina is a local nurse and single mother

who had a real concern about her family's eating habits

and the detrimental effect their reliance on takeaway

and convenience foods was having on their health.

Obviously I'm overweight, my son is overweight.

We need to do something about it now,

because who's going to look after my kids if I'm not here?

Since the series went out, she's been keeping in touch by e-mail,

and I've got to be honest, from what I'm reading here,

she's got a great story to tell, and I'm here to find out more.

Well, Christina, in your e-mail here, you say you've lost

a fair bit of weight. How much have you actually lost up to now?

-Just over seven stone.

-Seven stone?

-Yeah.

You're nearly half the woman I saw a year ago.

Fair play. You're looking good. Are you feeling good?

-Yes, yes, much better, more energy.

-And what's that down to mainly?

It's a change of lifestyle, the way we eat,

the way we cook, what we cook.

It's just back to basics, healthy eating.

When I took you shopping last year

and showed you how you could shop wiser, if you like,

and more cost-effectively, how much of that

-did you take on board?

-A lot of it, a lot of it.

From when you took me shopping, the difference was unbelievable,

and now we buy fruit and veg, where before we'd buy tins and jars

and things, so it's more convenient

-and we haven't got to spend all our excess money then.

-So you're

-saving money as well as having a healthy diet?

-Definitely, yeah.

So in addition to shopping

and eating differently, have there been any other lifestyle changes?

I do a lot of exercise now, like, who needs to go to the gym

when you've got all this forestry up and down?

I go up there, I can walk miles, I go with my friend and the dogs,

and it's lifted our spirits. My confidence has gained.

It is the person I used to be years ago.

-So you've had a real change for life?

-Yes, absolutely.

-Good.

-This is the way I'm staying.

So what are you going to cook today for the family then?

It's a lovely day out there.

I haven't got time to barbecue unfortunately

but I'm going to do home-made burgers today.

The kids love them. I know what's in them. There's no additives.

I know how much salt has gone in.

So has it really been a challenge for you?

In the beginning, I would say yes, because basically

we were working blind and didn't really know

where we were going with it.

But then, when we got into different foods

and started looking at food, the bigger picture of things and

knowing the smells and the flavours, and it turned into fun

-and wasn't a chore any more.

-When I put this challenge in front of you

about a year ago, did you think that you were going to stick with it?

I wasn't holding out much hope. Over the years we've gone

on so many diets and they haven't worked,

but when we got really into it and discovered it's not half as hard

as I thought it was going to be. It's just planning forward

and when you're eating a meal, you're really enjoying the food

rather than just going through the motions of eating just to have food.

-OK, dinner time!

-Yay!

Well, Christina, it's been a long journey

but has it been worth it?

I'm so proud of all of them

and I'm proud of myself really for doing it.

It's something I wish I'd done a long time ago

but this is how my life is going to stay now.

It was a leap of faith but one I'm so glad I took.

THEY CHEER

What a transformation - absolutely fantastic.

Now tuning up behind me are the Tredegar Town Band,

officially ranked the second-best brass band in the world.

And they were also extremely good sports when they became

our X-Ray guinea pigs to test out a simple healthy-eating trick.

Oh, lovely. Thank you.

Oh, my word!

OK, so for most of us, tackling a meal this size

would be impossible, but actually the amount we eat

is just as important as what we are eat.

When it comes to our ever-expanding waistlines,

this could be one of the main culprits....

the humble plate.

Since Victorian times, the standard-sized dinner plate has had

a diameter of about ten inches.

This didn't change pretty much up until the 1980s,

when larger plates came into vogue.

Cookery shows and celebrity chefs made us want to have

restaurant-style kitchenware at home.

The standard-size plate has almost fallen out of fashion.

And now you can find dinner sets with plates practically

the size of a car wheel hub cap.

We went to meet someone who is convinced

that big plates are making us all rounder.

The problem is people don't realise that there's been such a change

in the size of the dinner plates over the years.

So if I just show you these two plates.

These are about 30 years old

and they're a good-sized plate for people to use.

The way I measure it is, about the palm of my hand,

and it's got a rim as well, that stops us piling the food up.

But we look at these more modern plates and you can see that

there's quite a difference already in the surface area,

so people can just fill their plates up without even realising.

So you're actually telling me that

our choice of crockery guides how much we serve?

It's not about our stomach or how hungry we are.

Absolutely. It's an unconscious decision.

Let me demonstrate it to you.

Now, these two plates have exactly the same amount of pasta on,

but this plate looks quite empty.

It does. I think if I were serving that I'd feel quite stingy.

-I'd want to put some more on there.

-Whereas, this one -

do you think you'd feel satisfied after eating that one?

-It looks full, doesn't it?

-Yeah. So it's an optical illusion.

We eat with our eyes, and I can prove it to you.

Sioned's asked me to assemble a group for her portion size experiment.

As we're in Tredegar, I've got the perfect candidates -

the Tredegar Town Band.

BRASS BAND VERSION OF ALL NIGHT LONG

Founded in the 1870s, today this

world-class brass band

are the holders of the prestigious British Open.

Now it was Napoleon said that an army marches on its stomach...

Helen, you're doing the cooking, so what are you making?

Pasta bolognaise.

Right, OK. So is that a good choice, Sioned?

It's an excellent choice,

because people tend to over serve themselves carbohydrates.

Now people think that things like pasta and rice are healthy.

Yes, they're healthier than chips,

but they're still very high in calories and it's a common problem

for weight gain.

So what is the plan for this experiment?

Well, we're cunningly going to separate the band

into two separate rooms.

They'll be served the same food.

So they will self-serve their pasta bolognaise

but the difference being one room will have

these ten-inch plates

and the other room will have the 12-inch plates.

Like it! Like it!

I can guarantee you that the people with the 12-inch plates

will serve themselves more food.

The meal is weighed so we know

exactly how much food will be on offer to the band members,

who are unaware they'll be given different sized plates.

So the moment of truth.

Do the Tredegar Town Band eat with their eyes?

We have a bit of a confession to make, because we didn't just

invite you here to rehearse. You've actually been part of an experiment.

So, Sioned, do you want to reveal the results?

So who was sat in the conservatory?

Are you feeling pretty full?

MUMBLING AND LAUGHING

People sat in the conservatory, who had the bigger plates,

consumed 8% more food.

So what do you think of that?

'That 8% extra pasta bolognaise

'is the equivalent of 40 calories per person.

'If you over served yourself that every day,

'in a year you'd put on over four pounds in weight.'

Some really interesting results there,

and I'm joined by Sioned Quirk who you saw in that report.

So, Sioned, as well as shrinking our plate sizes,

anything else that we can do to keep control of our portion sizes?

Yeah, definitely.

I just feel by weighing your portions takes so much time

and effort and we don't need to. So a really easy measure is,

for your carbohydrates use a closed fist,

for your protein use the palm of your hand,

and then for your vegetables or your salad, your whole hand,

or actually it doesn't really matter just go for it with veg and salad.

That's a brilliant simple tip there, but I have to say, if that's

the amount of carbohydrates that you should be having, I love my food

and I often serve myself way more than that.

-It doesn't seem very much.

-Yeah, which is the biggest problem.

To be honest, we've got a massive problem with obesity here in Wales,

and portion control is one of the significant problems that we have.

So everybody needs to keep a little eye on it.

So stick to the hand rule?

-Absolutely.

-Great advice, Sioned, thanks.

Still to come - Rachel's on a mission to find fruit

at the leisure centre but the options aren't too appealing.

I have to say, I don't really like the look of that banana.

Now when the sun comes out, many of us cannot wait

to get to the beer garden for a nice glass of wine or beer.

But NHS advice says we should be sticking

to two to three units of alcohol daily for women,

and three to four units for men.

But how many of us actually know how many units are in our drink?

Here at Treadaway's Tavern we can test just that!

If you were pouring yourself a glass of wine at a barbecue,

how big would you make it?

That is looking good.

Right. Have you any idea how many units there are in that glass?

-Two?

-Two units.

-Small?

-Average...medium.

-Right. Let's have a look.

-Perfect.

-Perfect!

OK. If we're looking at 12% wine - 2.1 units.

If that was 14%, 2.5 units.

Barbecue, glass of wine, how much do you put in?

-How well do I know this girl?

-Quite well.

-OK.

Would you like a drop of wine, Shiela?

It's a bit early in the day.

Yes! It's too early in the day.

-That's how much you'd pour yourself, is it?

-Yes.

Do you have any idea how many units might be in there?

Haven't got a clue.

Do you have any idea how many units would be in this glass of lager?

This is average strength.

About 2.4, 2.3...

Actually 2.2 - you weren't far off.

As a man, if you drank two pints of this in an evening,

you'd be over your daily limit.

That's 12% volume alcohol,

that would be three units in there.

I can't actually get that all in there.

We've got over three units there,

if that was the weaker wine at 12%.

If this was a 14% wine, you'd have 3.5 units in there.

That's a medium glass of wine,

so 2.5 units if that was a 14% alcohol bottle.

So, as a lady, you'd be at your limit there.

I would be over the top.

How many are you allowed daily? Do you know?

-Two to three.

-Three or four.

Three or four. Two to three? You're spot-on.

So some confusion about units.

But there's another side to alcohol we know even less about,

as Lucy found out.

For many people, it doesn't get much better

than a nice glass of wine on a beautiful summer's day.

After a long week in the office,

you often feel like you deserve a glass or two.

But if you are trying to lose weight or simply live a healthy lifestyle,

one thing you really need to pay attention to is the amount of

calories in your favourite tipple.

And most of us don't.

In fact, in a recent survey, 85% of people didn't know how many

calories were in a glass of wine.

To maintain a steady weight, women need about 2,000 calories a day

and men around 2,500.

But every kind of alcoholic drink is calorific,

and even a couple of glasses can really tot up.

Someone who knows exactly what's in her glass is dietician Andrea Basu.

People that are particularly trying to watch their weight,

they tend to focus quite a bit on watching the food they eat,

but tend to think less about the fluid,

particularly alcohol that they're taking in.

And is there any benefit to the

-calories that you will have in alcohol?

-Not really.

We know that they're devoid of all those essential nutrients,

particularly vitamins and things like that,

so actually they're not a good thing

to be investing your calories in at all.

And what about the amount of calories that are in alcohol?

Is it just a few or is it actually quite a lot?

If people were having say, five pints of lager a week,

over the space of a year, that can equate to 44,000 calories,

which, dare I say it, is about 221 doughnuts.

So, on a night out,

just how easy is it to rack up those calories?

Andrea and I have come to this pub in Rhyl

to meet a darts team to find out.

The Cob And Pen darts team like to have a drink or two

during a game but how much do they know about the calories

they rack up over the course of the night?

Do you ever think about the amount of calories

when you have a little drink?

Not really. It's a night out.

We have about four or five on a darts night, go home.

You guys...?

No, afraid not. It's just a pint of lager, isn't it?

Well, if I was to tell you that in one pint of lager

there's the same amount of calories as a slice of pizza...

Andrea, those calories can mount up, can't they?

Definitely, even on one night out, if you had, say, six to seven pints,

actually for a guy that would equate to about 50%

or half of your total energy or calorie intake for the day.

So that tray of pints there,

that would be half your entire calorie intake for the day?

For the day?

It's a lot of calories, isn't it, I'm afraid.

Now, how would anybody feel

about drinking that lovely wine glass full of single cream?

Does that appeal to anybody?

If it's sided with strawberries, yeah, definitely.

OK. Would it shock you to know that glass of single cream

has the same amount of calories, roughly,

as two large glasses of wine?

Usually if you're on a diet or something you have a wine,

a wine and soda

and you think that's quite slimming,

but it's obviously not, is it?

Spirits, Andrea, are the lowest calorie option, aren't they?

Yeah, absolutely. But the mixers are really important too.

If you're having something like a diet mixer with your spirit

then, not too bad in terms of calories, only around 50 calories.

But when you add in something like a full-sugar soft drink or

an energy drink, you can double the amount of calories you would have.

Well, I've got something for you to help you try

and cut your alcohol intake on a night out.

Some handy tips all printed out on little X-Ray beer mats,

so I'm going to give these to you and let me know what you think.

'The tips aren't meant to stop you having a good time

'but to slow down your drinking and reduce the calories taken on board.'

'But would the darts team be persuaded to

'change their drinking habits?'

Is there anything there you think that has been helpful?

Low calorie mixers. I think I'm going to try that.

Drinking halves was one option out of those.

Is that something that you think you could do?

Probably not, because you have a half

and it goes down just the same as it would do, then you've got to

queue up at the bar again.

Just missing out very other, maybe

and have just a soft drink. That's probably the best one for me.

'And if they're still not persuaded to take on board our tips

'I've got one more trick up my sleeve.'

I've got an app here that's been developed and it shows you what you

would look like if you drank,

shall we say six to ten glasses...

per week.

OK, here we go. Let's just watch what it does.

That's particularly rough.

It's really shocking, isn't it, when you see that? Yes.

That's awful.

What do you make of your friend?

Gosh, she looks very different.

You would look a lot older than ten years.

-What do you make of that?

-I look about 90.

My grandad looks younger than that and he's 97 this year!

It's only fair that I have a go as well.

Here we go.

SHE GASPS

It doesn't look like you!

That is horrible!

Oh, dear, I still haven't quite got over that!

We've put lots of extra information for you

in an online guide on our website. The details are on your screen now.

Now, can we really eat healthily without breaking the bank?

It's a question that's been a real hot topic lately,

with many arguing that healthy grub is just too expensive.

But on X-Ray, we love a challenge,

and we found just the boys to take this one on.

Two cousins.

Two very different body sizes.

Two completely different diets.

But both shell out more on food and drink each week

than the average person on a low income spends in the UK.

Zac from Treherbert is 22 stone and loves his takeaways and snacks.

I'll have a cup of tea in the morning.

If I fancy a snack, I'll have chocolate and crisps.

Generally junk food to keep going until lunchtime.

Then at lunchtime, I'll go have pasties and an energy drink

to keep me full until I get home.

I'm terrible for pop. I crave pop.

I could go through a two litre bottle in a night.

In Merthyr Tydfil, cousin Nathan is the opposite.

He's slim and conscious of keeping fit.

He eats the best and a fair chunk of his money goes on supplements.

Breakfast would be porridge oats with skimmed milk.

I'd have protein powder just to get that extra protein fix.

Lunchtime, I may look at something like brown rice,

chicken breasts, plenty of vegetables on the side.

His determination to stick to the plan means sometimes good food

is thrown away, like the five egg yolks left out of his omelette.

It doesn't taste like pizza,

it doesn't taste like all the other comfort junk foods that's out

there but one thing for certain is that it does taste good enough,

and it is satisfying and it brings me great pleasure each day.

Nathan normally spends about £45 a week.

Zac around £61.

So here is our challenge. Is it possible for both boys to eat

healthily, and enjoyably, on a much smaller budget?

To help them out, we've asked a dietician to come up

with some top tips on how they can save on calories and cost.

Convenience food and takeaways -

Zac is spending easily half of his budget on those types of food.

That's quite a lot and in fact if he stopped having so many of those

then he could spend that on much better food,

more fruit and vegetables.

So, this is Nathan's typical daily intake.

He actually spends a sixth to a quarter of his food budget

in a week on supplements.

That is quite a lot and it's not uncommon.

I'd always say go for the diet first and if you need supplements

then look at it, but food is the most important thing.

First, Chris tackles Zac's diet.

What worried me was the amount of sugar, in particular.

So I think one of the challenges we might set is perhaps getting

rid of all that cola. Obviously the takeaways as well,

that obviously is quite an expensive way of eating, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-How many times a week do you think you do that?

Sometimes I can be really good and not have one for a week or two

weeks maybe, then I make up for it by having two or three in one week.

Chris wants to show Zac a healthier way to cook his favourite

budget dish - pasta.

Do you want to show me how much pasta

you would normally serve for yourself?

Roughly about five handfuls.

How much do you think is actually a portion?

I'm not too sure. That's why I struggle with the portions.

It's probably about a third of this.

The way you can pad it out a little bit is actually to eat more veg.

Yeah.

Next, will Nathan be willing to ditch his diet supplements

and get more value out of his food?

What do you do with the egg yolks?

-Erm, in the bin.

-You don't use them?

No.

You should, it makes it taste better

and also get some quite healthy fats from the egg yolks.

After plenty of recipe tips we issue the challenge...

to live on the same weekly amount

as the average low-income person in the UK.

That budget is £26.60,

so that's £3.80 a day.

-How does that sound?

-Hard.

Over the next week, we track their eating and spending habits.

It was hard the first day. I didn't have any pop.

After being in work all day, I had a really bad head

and I didn't think I'd be able to cope.

But now, drinking more water, I feel a lot better, and I'm...

kind of going off the thought of pop, to be honest.

It is quite similar,

but I am eating a lot less than what I was eating, pasta-wise,

and putting in more veg instead of having a bigger amount of pasta.

Nathan has dropped his protein supplements for the week.

Of course, by not using supplements

I have saved money this week. However, I think I will continue

to use them because it kind of works for me

and works for my lifestyle.

But omelettes with all the yolks and extra vegetables are a surprise hit.

It's better than usual.

So have they done it?

We catch up with Nathan and Zak over a pint of diet cola.

Nathan, we'll start with you

because you were sure you'd stuck to the budget...

Well, actually you didn't just do that, you absolutely smashed it.

£12.36 was how much money you spent on food last week.

-Surprised?

-Yeah, absolutely.

-You did eat, didn't you?

-Yeah.

£33 was what you saved over a week on the budget,

and if you're talking about a year,

you'd be looking at over £1,700.

Crazy.

So, Zac, over to you.

You actually fed yourself on £15.62 last week,

so you've smashed the budget as well.

-Are you surprised?

-Really surprised.

And if you compare that to the week before,

£45 you have saved yourself.

That's a lot of money.

Over a year...you ready for this?

Nearly £2,360.

Wow.

By cutting out the takeaways,

cutting out the convenience food and cutting out the sugary drinks.

That's incredible, isn't it? Are you surprised?

-Yeah, ridiculously surprised.

-Well done. Thanks for taking part.

-It's OK. No worries.

-So you going to carry on?

Yeah, definitely. Congratulations.

Wow. Amazing savings for both boys there.

Now, as you saw in that report, Zak used to love

his two litres of Pepsi a day.

The British Soft Drinks Association told us the nutritional content

of Pepsi is clearly labelled and that evidence shows excess weight

isn't caused by one product alone.

Next, it's back to our investigation into the huge amount

of unhealthy food on sale in our leisure centres.

We've gone undercover to see whether we can eat and drink healthily

after exercise in the nine council leisure centres across Cardiff.

So far, we've found mainly high sugar

and high fat drinks and snacks in vending machines.

Now, we want to see whether leisure centre staff are doing anything

to spread a healthier eating message.

Most cafes offered fried food.

In one, three of the four children's meals were fried.

When asked again, this woman did offer a salad or a jacket potato

but it was far from the first suggestion.

But what if you're in a hurry or just want a snack on the go?

There are often plenty of sweets or crisps on the counter

that are easy to grab.

But can I get any fruit?

Only two other leisure centres had fruit,

and the supply at this one was in fits and starts according to staff.

So we had a bit of a result in there -

pretty healthy cafe, and we got some fruit, although I have to say

I don't really like the look of that banana.

Great if you can go there when the cafe's open,

but it's only open for a few hours a day.

Outside of that,

you have to resort to the good old vending machines again.

What does sports dietician Chris Cashin make of our findings?

It's quite shocking really that institutions

like leisure centres who promote a healthy lifestyle are selling those

kinds of things. So I think the onus now is on the leisure centres

to actually change a lot of the things they're selling.

They should be complying with the government guidelines that

were issued about 18 months ago, where we're trying to get

leisure centres to promote healthier snacks, healthier drinks

and healthier food in their vending machines and cafes.

Back at the leisure centres,

even some of the staff agree that things should be better.

We sent our findings to Cardiff Council

and asked for an interview. They declined.

In a statement, they said they have to balance promoting healthy living

with making enough money to keep facilities open and that

their catering offering and leisure centre management are under review.

They said they work hard to offer a broad range of food and drink,

and are confident it reflects what's on offer in other leisure centres.

While they have confidence in the public's ability to make

informed choices, people want commonly available products.

Over the years, they have offered more healthy options

but customers had clearly shown that's not what they want.

Getting people to go for healthy options isn't always easy

but for all our sakes, it's vitally important.

Leisure centres are exactly the kind of places that should be

promoting this message - something the guidance very clearly says.

So we're delivering Cardiff Council a little reminder of this

with the help of a very special friend.

So until Cardiff Council decides to offer more healthy eating options,

best to take your own.

Let's hope the message gets through and we see some big changes.

Now it looks like barbecue is almost ready. It's looking good.

-You've got some salad dishes there.

-I have, yeah.

I've got two nice salads here. This is a Thai-style salad.

No dressing yet. Never put the dressing on till the last minute

-and the salad stays nice and crisp.

-Kids like that?

Kids would love it cos it's got lots of fruit in it.

There grapes, cherry tomatoes,

sweetcorn which has just been blanched.

So it's a really colourful salad.

Next to it, we've got a really nice summer ratatouille.

Not been cooked for long.

All been pan-fried so it's really crispy and colourful

and it goes great with the chicken.

Looks amazing. Can't want to try it. But first,

we're going to head back to Ynysybwl.

Back in April 2013, the people of Ynysybwl were working together to

prepare a small patch of land on the school grounds ready for planting.

My aim was to get the children involved in understanding

and appreciating where good food comes from.

After four months of hard work, the site was transformed

into a thriving vegetable garden, providing a harvest of fresh produce

for the grand feast at the Ynysybwl carnival.

I've come back here to Glanffrwd Infants School to have a look

at how things have been going since I left.

Ann, you're a key member of this project.

We had some fond memories last year, didn't we?

Oh, it was wonderful, Dudley, and to see the children

enjoying themselves, and learning as they were going along.

We had trials and tribulations on the way

but of course we did overcome and what a feast!

Everybody got fed, didn't they?

They all got fed and it taught the children

that not all food comes from supermarkets in plastic bags.

They come out of packets of seeds, into the earth and they grow.

We had big hopes with this garden last year.

It looked so good up here I was looking forward to seeing

a better garden this year. Where did it all go wrong?

Glanffrwd School is closing and we're sad about it,

and the sadness is showing in the garden at the moment.

The closure is going to be in July

and that is the main season for growing.

We wouldn't have been able to maintain it.

It's sad but we have got hopes.

With the closure of Glanffrwd Infants,

most of the pupils will be moving to neighbouring Trerobart School.

I went to speak to headmaster Robert Deveraux about some exciting

new plans to continue the community garden in a new

location as part of the redevelopment of the school.

I think the project was a great success for the children

and for the community as well

and this yard is being extensively developed.

There's going to be more green areas

and planters where we do hope to

grow some vegetables,

some herbs to make it more of a sensory experience

for children as well.

And hopefully, we'll be able to grow some lovely vegetables to

-make some of your wonderful soup.

-Let's hope so.

Lucy Clarke, you're the landscape architect of this project.

Talk me through some of the features you've got here on this design.

We've got a number of areas which the children can use.

There's the general running around activity space

which has a number of activity markers and mazes

for them to play in.

But more importantly, from the planting side, we've got a number of

wheeled, small raised planters which then can be planted by the children,

and they can be wheeled around.

So they can take them and they can

arrange them elsewhere or they can have them in shady areas.

And we're hoping that those will be a really popular feature.

It all looks great on the drawing. I can't wait to see it come to life.

All we need now are some enthusiastic helpers, and who

better to put them on the right track

than members of the Crawshaw Street Allotment Society,

who played such a vital role in last year's success?

In your new school, you're having planters and raised beds

so I've got to show you now how to prepare them.

I'm glad there's a garden coming to our school because everyone can

look at it and say, "Oh, what's that?"

And they'll learn more about plants.

We'll be able to grow our own vegetables

and pick our own vegetables and say, "Look, we did that."

All the hard work last year to create that garden,

how do you think it went?

I've got children coming up to me now in the street

and saying, "We grew lots of things, didn't we?

"We got lots of food to eat, didn't we?"

Today again, you see pride in the children's faces

that they'd accomplished something.

And the important thing is that they will still be growing,

cooking and eating healthy food.

Absolutely.

And a bit of Ynysybwl magic, just as last time and we'll get there.

So it looks like, with the help of our trusty allotmenteers

and a new generation of school kids,

there's plenty of enthusiasm

for a new community garden here in Ynysybwl.

I'm sure the garden is in safe hands this time.

Dudley, amazing to see that kind of enthusiasm from the kids there.

It's great and they took a great interest in the gardening.

But of course they're really interested in cooking as well.

Kids can do it all.

Speaking of cooking, I can't wait any more. Rach, come in.

I think you've deserved a little taste as well.

I thought you'd never ask!

Have a little try.

This looks absolutely amazing.

I'm going to try the salad first of all. This looks yummy.

-That is lovely.

-Nice and fresh? Nice and crisp?

-So zingy!

-Exactly right.

-That's absolutely amazing.

We're going to put all the details of these recipes

on our website and I'm definitely going to come,

-back for some more of that later.

-Thought you might!

That's it for tonight,

but X-Ray will be back fighting for your consumer rights in the autumn.

So if you do have anything we can help with,

get in touch on 03703 334 334

or e-mail us, [email protected]

and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

And what better way to end the programme on this lovely

summer evening, than with some music from the Tredegar Town Band?

Take it away!

BRASS BAND MUSIC PLAYS