Episode 6 Back in Time for Dinner


Episode 6

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Meet the Robshaws - Brandon, Rochelle, Miranda, Ros and Fred.

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Let's go!

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For one summer, this food-loving family embarked on an extraordinary

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time-travelling adventure...

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to discover how a post-war revolution in what we eat

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has transformed the way we live.

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That is just amazing. Look at them.

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Britain has gone from meagre rations to ready meals at the touch

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of a button in just 50 years.

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But how has this changed our health...

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We've got a pull out larder!

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..our homes and our family dynamics?

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I can't do it any more. This is what would make a woman break.

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To find out, the Robshaws have shopped, cooked and eaten their way

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through history.

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It's 1974!

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Whoa!

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I think that is enough sugar now there, darling.

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No, I hardly put any on!

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Starting in 1950, their own home became their time machine.

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Oh, my goodness!

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This carpet hurts my eyes. Who designed that?!

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Someone who was colour blind.

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Fast forwarding them through a new year every day,

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as they experienced first hand the culinary fads,

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fashions and gadgets of each age.

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THEY LAUGH

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-Can I have some chips?

-You can have some chips.

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Now, at the end of their time travelling adventure,

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I'll be discovering the impact it's had on the Robshaws...

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and giving them a sneak preview of what the future might look like.

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Have you seen those worms in there?

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I am kind of repulsed.

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For the last five weeks,

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the Robshaws have eaten only the food of the past,

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living an accelerated version of the journey

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we've all been on for the past 50 years.

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Oh, God, look at that go.

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We left them in 1999, celebrating the birth of a new millennium.

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Now I'm going to be bringing us right up to date, discovering

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how our food habits have changed since the end of the experiment.

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And then, with a bit of luck and from what we know about the way

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that food history unfolds, perhaps making a few predictions

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about the way we're going to shop, cook and eat in the future.

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We'll see how we've arrived at how we eat now

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and how that is made up of the last 50 years.

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You can kind of see the evolution,

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so I think people are always curious about the future.

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It's made me wonder a lot about the future.

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I've become aware how much we're sort of ruled by trends,

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by shifting culture and technology,

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and all those sorts of things are going to carry on happening.

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It's the constant changes the Robshaws experienced that

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give us valuable insights into how our eating habits might

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develop in years to come.

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Throughout their time-travelling adventure,

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the family's diet was guided by real meals

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recorded in the National Food Survey.

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This is bread and dripping, this is plain bread, this is bread

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and pilchard.

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Established in 1940 to ensure that people were getting enough

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to eat under rationing, the food survey asked families to write down

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what they ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day of the week.

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Mum 32, Dad 41...

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In Bradford North in 1960, and it's corned beef hash.

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The survey continued until 2000 and gives us an extraordinary insight

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into how the eating habits of real families evolved over decades.

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But to understand how we eat now and how it might change,

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food historian Polly Russell and I have had to think again.

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Well, the thing is, up until now, we've been very fortunate

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because we've had the National Food Survey as a kind of basis,

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a sort of detailed account of what people were eating

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over the past 50 or 60 years,

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and that's how the Robshaws are able to live their life.

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For the present and for the future, we don't have that.

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No, that's right. The Food Survey stopped in 2000

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and the surveys that have replaced that, rather than using diaries,

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look at till receipts to see what people are spending on food.

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Just looking at receipts tells you what people buy,

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but it doesn't tell you how they actually consume that food.

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Cos we're just more concerned about people, aren't we?

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It's not just about the money. The whole point of this programme,

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the whole point of this series has been to...from the way people eat,

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to learn about how they live, which you can't do from till receipts.

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Yeah, that's right.

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So our options are basically either to generalise wildly,

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which I love doing and that always seems to work,

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or to commission a new study,

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which is what we've done.

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So this is a bit like the National Food Survey

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but it's, you know, this is the 21st century, so it's all got sort of different colours and fonts

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and stuff like that, it's not just lists.

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But basically, it's asking people what they had for breakfast,

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lunch and dinner, the snacks between...

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You can see this person had a Jammy Dodger biscuit

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and a Blue Riband, so they were actually,

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this is from the 1970s, this family.

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And then what did he drink with that meal?

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Who cooked or prepared the meal?

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Cos I guess we want to know about whether women are still doing all the work, even now.

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And then also we've asked them about shopping habits,

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electrical appliances, what did they...? Were they using microwaves,

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kettles or new exciting things we didn't know about yet?

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It does give us snapshots of what people do.

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With a bit of luck, we'll back up our wild generalisations.

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So, Polly, this is, I assume,

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one person's lunch in obesity-stricken Britain?

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No, it is not one person's lunch.

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This is a selection of different meals that people

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have eaten from our study over the course of a week.

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I think what strikes you is there's a great deal of variety

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from all around the world.

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It would have looked extraordinary to the Robshaws in the '50s

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and the '60s, even the '70s.

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And what it shows is we don't have a national diet any more.

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If you'd looked at the diets of British people in the 1950s,

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it would have looked very British.

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Oh, and it would have been so boring,

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and you'd look at it and think, "I'll eat that once.

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"Please don't make me eat that every Monday, every Tuesday,

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"every Wednesday."

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I suppose one of the things you do see and you could pick up on this

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in terms of a national diet is convenience.

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It's all really quite quick to prepare.

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The quest to save time in the kitchen was a recurring theme

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during the Robshaws' journey through the decades.

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When we began the experiment in the 1950s,

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Rochelle spent over four hours a day cooking meals from scratch.

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Bran's got absolutely no idea what it's like

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to be in the kitchen for the whole day.

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Basic equipment and ingredients meant even simple jobs

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were time-consuming.

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It's taking a bit of a while.

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We'll probably be in 1954 by the time this boils.

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The family's first fish finger offered a tantalising

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glimpse of the future - convenience foods.

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Wow!

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The product is very convenient, I heat it up and that is it.

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Nothing to do, nothing else to do. It's fantastic.

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In the '60s, it took an average of an hour and 40 minutes

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to cook a meal.

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But over the decade, new time-saving technology...

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Isn't it lovely?

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It's really going to revolutionise my life.

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..and innovative products started to bring this time down.

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Oh, my goodness!

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That's a totally new kind of food, isn't it?

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Look at those!

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Look, look, look at them, have you seen them?

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Yeah.

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That has just made my day.

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The arrival of the freezer was another time-saving innovation,

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heralding a host of new products that barely needed any preparation.

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Oh, I have fond memories of cod in butter sauce -

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it's one of the first meals I had with Brandon.

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I thought they were quite sophisticated,

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so I think the kids are in for a treat.

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And by the '80s, the average cooking time for a meal

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had shrunk to an hour...

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-It's six minutes, isn't it, this one?

-No, it's five.

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..if you bothered to cook at all.

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But as the decades moved on, the Robshaws were starting to wake up

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to the potential cost of faster and faster food.

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The food that we were eating, it's got more and more processed,

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more and more salt, more and more fat, more and more sugar in the diet.

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Today the average time taken to cook a meal is just 20 minutes.

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But in case even THAT sounds too long,

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Polly's introducing the Robshaws to a brand-new food

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that does away with the need for cooking altogether

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and claims to be good for you.

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By 2000, the food they're eating is much more convenient,

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but it's also highly processed, highly manufactured.

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In a sense, what they've gained in time,

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they've arguably lost in terms of health.

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Hello, Robshaws.

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Hi, Polly.

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How nice to see you in 2014.

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Have you brought us something?

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-I have!

-Sorry, I should...

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According to some people,

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what's in this bag is the solution to the inconvenience of food

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and the problem of processed food being unhealthy.

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A software engineer from San Francisco started to think that

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food was a really inefficient way of delivering what the body needs.

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Indeed, Rob Rhinehart seems to see food itself as an outdated concept.

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It takes a little bit of perspective to see that food really is

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made out of chemicals, it is reduceable,

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and we can build a backup and we can change it and we can make it better.

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Rhinehart came up with an alternative to his old diet of cheap junk food.

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He claims his invention provides all the calories and nutrition

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people need in liquid form,

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removing the pesky need for traditional meals altogether.

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Terrible name, though, isn't it?

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Soylent, it's like sort of a cross between soil and toilet,

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it sounds awful.

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The name is sort of on purpose because...

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LAUGHTER

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..he wants it to

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be almost anti everything we think about in terms of food.

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Fans of the concept have developed their own versions of the drink

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and the Robshaws are following one of their online recipes,

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using whey protein...

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249 grams - very precise.

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-..oats, psyllium husks...

-In it goes.

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..choline bitartrate...

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Let's have a sniff of it.

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-LAUGHTER

-Oh, that's rank, isn't it?

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Oh, my goodness me!

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LAUGHTER

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..potassium gluconate, calcium,

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salt and ground-up pills of multivitamins D3 and K1.

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All the things that you associate with preparing food,

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like the delicious smells and the sizzling sounds,

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it's just not there, is it?

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You've got the sound of pills falling into a plastic jug.

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Yeah, great(!) LAUGHTER

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I just want to sniff this to see if it smells of anything.

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Yeah.

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It's meant to be drunk three times a day

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and claims to totally replace the need for ordinary food.

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It is actually making me feel slightly nervous.

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-Is it?

-Yeah.

-Really?

-Yeah.

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But are you excited about the nutritional benefits of it?

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I'm not excited. - No, not at all.

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I'm starving, but this isn't food.

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-Well, I think I'm going to try it first.

-OK.

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Really, really quite unpleasant.

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ROS: What does it taste like?

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Do you want to do it at the same time?

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LAUGHTER

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Is it that bad? Have you tasted it yet?

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-No.

-That's disgusting.

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I...don't like it.

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LAUGHTER

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I just...

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Quick, let's just clear all this away and forget about it. LAUGHTER

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Could you subsist on it, every day?

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I couldn't do it.

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The way this is perceived is that the end, the purpose of eating food,

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is just to enable you to carry on functioning and doing your job.

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But food is about a lot more than that, isn't it?

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It's not just a means to an end, it is an end in itself,

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and that end is, you know, pleasure and giving pleasure.

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And it seems, looking at our food study,

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that most of you still get quite a lot of pleasure from eating.

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In fact, on top of your three meals a day, you can't resist a snack -

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a trend the Robshaws saw gradually evolve over the decades.

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SHE GASPS BRANDON: 'There was nothing in between the meals, there weren't any,

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'like, biscuits in the house or packets of crisps,

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'or things to snack on.'

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As soon as I get home, I'd usually have something to eat...

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and I'm actually really, really hungry.

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I'm missing crisps, chocolate, sweets, ice cream...

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..just everything nice.

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'70s was really

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when we felt like snacks were coming back into our lives.

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There were lots of new different types of crisps,

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there were Pot Noodles.

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HE SLURPS

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We had a biscuit tin in the kitchen.

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HE GASPS Whoo.

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-I'm pleased about being able to snack.

-I've missed it.

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In the '80s, new gadgets meant it was even easier

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to treat ourselves between meals

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Wow, we did it. Can you hear the bubbles?

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-You can hear the bubbles.

-I don't know. Can you?

-Yeah.

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What started as an occasional treat has snowballed.

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Today, we're a confirmed nation of snackers.

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In the years of the experiment that the Robshaws

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lived through, the National Food Survey didn't even think it

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was important enough to ask about, but that's all changed.

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When we looked at our modern study,

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it became clear that we all snack, all the time.

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In fact, not a single respondent didn't snack over

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the whole course of their food diary.

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So let's take a look at some of the kinds of things the families

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taking part in our food study were chomping down between meals.

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A respectable showing of fruit - apples,

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blueberries, some raw carrot...

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..seeds.

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Mmm, all very healthy.

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One poor child was even eating raw seaweed.

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But let's not beat about the bush.

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Your most popular snacks are cakes, pastries, sweeties,

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chocolate bars and ice cream.

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But it's not just our habits which have changed,

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it's the world around us.

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It's impossible to avoid food.

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It used to be a thing you had to make room for in your life.

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At the beginning of the survey you had to shop,

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cook and eat a meal three times a day.

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Now, wherever you go, you're assailed with snack food.

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You walk down the road and there's kebabs, and there's hamburgers

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and there's fried chicken, and there's fish and chips, and there's...

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Walk into a newsagent to buy a newspaper, there's chocolates and cakes.

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You buy a coffee in a coffee shop - there are ten on every high street - it's not coffee

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they want to sell you, that's not where they make money,

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it's the 1,000-calorie blueberry muffin that you don't want,

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didn't need, didn't even know existed 20 years ago, rammed into your face.

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It's impossible to avoid food. It's impossible to avoid snacks.

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Food is thrust upon us night and day

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and it's left to us to make our own choices

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about what and when to eat...

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..and it's slowly killing us.

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It's a far cry from the world the Robshaws found themselves in

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at the start of the experiment,

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when the government controlled their diet through rationing.

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I feel, sort of, actually quite nervous

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because it's the thought of the limitation of food...

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so I'm feeling a little bit anxious.

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There's your rations for the week.

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-Oh, gosh, that's for the week?

-Yeah.

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So that's just one egg for five people? Wow.

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Food then was basically made to give you 2,000 calories

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and nothing else.

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It wasn't for pleasure, it was just bland and tasteless.

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They're going to have some of this cold liver,

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which, I have to say, has gone a bit green.

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It's disgusting. I'm actually still hungry after dinner.

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I ate, like, potatoes and bread.

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It sounds quite filling, but it really wasn't because it

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was...just bread and potatoes, and I don't really want to eat that.

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- What was it? Potatoes, cauliflower and bits of liver - all cold.

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What's not to like, you know(?)

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There might not have been the choice they were used to from their

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modern lives, but even the Robshaws could see that government control

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of the food supply had its benefits.

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Although I didn't particularly rave about all of the food, it was,

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quite clearly, a healthier diet

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than we had later on in the experiment.

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Can you get your shears right round that green bit at the end?

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Not my finger.

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-Catch.

-Whoa.

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The food was low sugar, low salt, and we had fresh vegetables,

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so I think we came out of it actually feeling quite healthy, quite good.

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-That was well nice.

-Is it really nice?

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Food rationing finally came to an end in 1954,

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but one place the state did

0:17:130:17:14

retain some control of our diet was in schools, where strict nutritional

0:17:140:17:18

guidelines for school dinners stayed in place for nearly 30 years.

0:17:180:17:22

MUSIC: School Day by Chuck Berry

0:17:220:17:25

Right, children, your 1950s lunch is ready.

0:17:250:17:27

What do you think of the food, then?

0:17:270:17:29

Not nice. Disgusting.

0:17:290:17:31

Do you think you might grow to love it?

0:17:310:17:33

ALL: No.

0:17:330:17:35

They might not have loved it, but it was unarguably good for us.

0:17:350:17:38

In the 1950s, children's diets were healthier than at any other

0:17:380:17:41

point in the experiment.

0:17:410:17:42

I think it was healthy, but not very nice.

0:17:430:17:49

As the decades moved on,

0:17:490:17:51

other factors began to influence the food we bought.

0:17:510:17:55

So have a look in the cupboard.

0:17:550:17:57

-Quite a lot more branded food.

-Uh-hm.

0:17:570:17:59

Where, in the past, the government has been in the kitchen through

0:17:590:18:03

rationing, what you're seeing now is the retailer, the manufacturer,

0:18:030:18:08

the processor coming into the kitchen,

0:18:080:18:10

muscling the government out.

0:18:100:18:11

So somebody else gets into your cupboard

0:18:110:18:13

and tells you what to eat, and it happens to be big corporations.

0:18:130:18:17

By the end of the 1960s,

0:18:170:18:18

virtually every British household owned a TV.

0:18:180:18:21

TV: Birds Eye fish fingers - double delicious -

0:18:210:18:24

that's something every eating expert knows.

0:18:240:18:26

Food manufacturers had a direct line straight into the consumer's home,

0:18:260:18:30

tempting him with delicious new products.

0:18:300:18:33

JINGLE PLAYS

0:18:330:18:35

TV: Bird's Angel Delight, the most delightful taste around.

0:18:350:18:38

In 1981, the last vestiges of state control of our diets disappeared...

0:18:430:18:47

when Mrs Thatcher's government contracted our school dinners

0:18:470:18:51

out to private companies and abolished nutritional standards.

0:18:510:18:54

Like many families, the Robshaws adopted the packed lunch.

0:18:550:18:59

Wait, wait, that's not helping.

0:19:010:19:04

-Yes, it is!

-That is hindering.

0:19:040:19:07

It's helping, Mum.

0:19:070:19:08

So you've got about eight minutes.

0:19:080:19:10

When you've only got a few minutes to prepare it,

0:19:100:19:12

you're going to throw in prepackaged processed food.

0:19:120:19:15

That's it, bye.

0:19:150:19:17

That's an area that the government really should take

0:19:170:19:20

care of, and I'm quite happy to have the state planning children's menus,

0:19:200:19:23

just as it plans children's education.

0:19:230:19:25

You wouldn't leave their education up to the parents, would you?

0:19:250:19:28

In 2005, minimal nutritional standards for school dinners

0:19:280:19:31

were reintroduced, and just last year, the government brought in

0:19:310:19:34

free meals for every child under seven.

0:19:340:19:36

If you are not a child, the government's role since

0:19:390:19:41

rationing ended has simply been to offer advice.

0:19:410:19:45

But is that enough?

0:19:450:19:47

Since the Robshaws finished their time-travelling experiment

0:19:480:19:51

in 2000, Britain has been in the throes of an obesity epidemic.

0:19:510:19:55

Nearly two thirds of us are now overweight or obese, that's a huge

0:19:550:19:58

drain on the National Health Service,

0:19:580:20:00

and life expectancy in this country

0:20:000:20:02

is in danger of coming down for the first time in 1,000 years.

0:20:020:20:05

It's a crisis. We obviously need to do something about it,

0:20:070:20:10

but what role should government play?

0:20:100:20:12

I set up my own fast food stall with Dr Oliver Mytton,

0:20:130:20:17

an expert on obesity, to try out some of the policies governments

0:20:170:20:21

in other countries have adopted in the fight against fat.

0:20:210:20:24

So when did this crisis start to happen?

0:20:240:20:25

Because I've been on this time-travelling experiment

0:20:250:20:28

with the Robshaws, from the '50s right through,

0:20:280:20:30

I hadn't seen it coming, particularly.

0:20:300:20:32

Suddenly, "Pow!" it's upon us. When?

0:20:320:20:34

Well, in terms of obesity,

0:20:340:20:36

we first really started to notice it in this country in the 1990s.

0:20:360:20:39

-Right.

-That was only when we started to measure it, and it's likely

0:20:390:20:42

that pattern had been happening for a period of time before that.

0:20:420:20:46

Fat tax is a phrase one hears banded around,

0:20:460:20:48

they've tried it in some countries,

0:20:480:20:49

it's a way of directly taxing the food that is making us fat.

0:20:490:20:52

How does it work? Can it work?

0:20:520:20:54

So, fat tax is all food taxes.

0:20:540:20:56

The idea is to tax unhealthy food items

0:20:560:20:58

and therefore discourage their consumption.

0:20:580:21:00

-Could we do it here?

-We could

0:21:000:21:02

and it's something that some people have suggested we do.

0:21:020:21:04

But it is controversial, a lot of people don't like it.

0:21:040:21:07

The food industry would probably have some serious reservations about

0:21:070:21:10

doing this because they're worried about how it would hit their sales.

0:21:100:21:13

It's harder to make money from sunny, healthy food,

0:21:130:21:16

and part of the idea behind food taxes is perhaps to start to

0:21:160:21:19

shift that balance, so selling healthy foods becomes more profitable.

0:21:190:21:22

Food taxes have already been introduced in parts of Europe

0:21:250:21:28

and are under discussion worldwide.

0:21:280:21:30

Figures range from the 10% already implemented in Hungary and Finland

0:21:300:21:33

to 40%, as proposed by some groups in New Zealand.

0:21:330:21:36

These taxes have seen consumption fall, though critics claim

0:21:380:21:41

people are simply switching to other unhealthy products.

0:21:410:21:45

The reason people eat these is because they taste good.

0:21:450:21:48

You have to confess.

0:21:480:21:50

I want to see if paying more for fast food would put the Robshaws

0:21:520:21:55

off buying it, so today I've slapped a fat tax on my burgers.

0:21:550:22:00

-My customers!

-Hello, Giles.

0:22:020:22:05

-Oh, my word, it's the Robshaws(!)

-Have you got a new job?

0:22:050:22:07

Yeah, it didn't pan out very well, the show...

0:22:070:22:10

and so they had to cut me out, so now I'm...

0:22:100:22:12

But it's good, I'm happy with my work.

0:22:120:22:14

Is anybody in the mood for a burger?

0:22:140:22:15

Well, I'm quite hungry,

0:22:150:22:17

but everything's got two prices, I'm noticing.

0:22:170:22:20

I've added a tax of 40% to the food,

0:22:200:22:23

and my menu shows the prices before and after tax.

0:22:230:22:26

Imagine a future world in which there is a fat tax

0:22:260:22:29

and food that's going to make you fat is going to cost more.

0:22:290:22:32

So, where it says, for example, five quid for a cheeseburger,

0:22:320:22:34

it's actually not five quid, it's seven quid,

0:22:340:22:37

cos the more fat there is in it, the more you're going to have to pay.

0:22:370:22:40

-Can I have some chips?

-You can.

0:22:400:22:41

-How much are the chips, can you remind me?

-£2.80.

0:22:410:22:43

£2.80. And is that, that's the fat tax price, is it?

0:22:430:22:45

-Yeah, that's a lot.

-Is that worth it?

-No.

0:22:450:22:47

No. So you're not going to have chips, after all? How about that?

0:22:470:22:50

You see, it works. Brilliant. So OK, no chips for the kid, great.

0:22:500:22:54

-Ros, what do you think?

-I want a hamburger.

0:22:540:22:56

The trouble is that there's five of us. I actually haven't got

0:22:560:22:59

enough money on us to get five hamburgers at that price.

0:22:590:23:02

-That is over... That's like £30, isn't it?

-Yeah.

0:23:020:23:04

You're going to be looking at about £30, £35

0:23:040:23:07

and, if you want sugary drinks,

0:23:070:23:09

you're probably going to be doing a 50.

0:23:090:23:11

-Yes.

-I can't get over that. £50.

0:23:110:23:13

One hamburger, one cheeseburger and one chips.

0:23:130:23:15

So on your cheeseburger, would you like some gherkins?

0:23:150:23:18

-ROCHELLE LAUGHS Do they cost extra?

-No,

0:23:180:23:20

they don't, cos there's no fat in them. Some lettuce?

0:23:200:23:23

-Yes, please.

-Yummy, healthy lettuce. No tax on the lettuce.

0:23:230:23:26

That looks fantastic.

0:23:260:23:28

So that is £16.10 for two burgers and some fries.

0:23:280:23:32

-That's painful to do that.

-Does it take you back to the '50s?

0:23:320:23:35

Because you had basically... At the beginning of the experiment, you had

0:23:350:23:38

the government telling you what to do, what you could and couldn't eat,

0:23:380:23:41

and then in the '70s and '80s and '90s, you could eat whatever you wanted.

0:23:410:23:44

And now you are back in a world where the government controls what you eat, is that...?

0:23:440:23:48

- It strikes me that this is going to affect people on low incomes more, probably.

0:23:480:23:52

- But what about if we taxed unhealthy food and we used that

0:23:520:23:55

money to subsidise healthy food, so the average effect would be nothing?

0:23:550:23:59

Yeah, that'd be good.

0:23:590:24:01

Would that drive you from unhealthy food to healthy food?

0:24:010:24:03

- I think it would nudge you, wouldn't it?

0:24:030:24:05

Which is the idea, I suppose.

0:24:050:24:07

- Perhaps one of the concerns with taxing food is

0:24:070:24:09

if people have less money to spend on other food items,

0:24:090:24:11

do they cut back on healthy food items like fruit and vegetables?

0:24:110:24:14

But perhaps we ought to be a bit more targeted in what we go for

0:24:140:24:17

and sugary drinks have been one thing that have been particularly

0:24:170:24:20

implicated with obesity.

0:24:200:24:22

Can I get a Coke?

0:24:220:24:24

LAUGHTER

0:24:240:24:26

Whether or not they move on these taxes,

0:24:260:24:28

-they're going to have to do something, aren't they?

-ROCHELLE: Yeah.

0:24:280:24:31

I think, because we cannot control ourselves, having the government

0:24:310:24:34

control what we're eating now, it would probably be quite a good thing.

0:24:340:24:38

I mean, it's a pretty sort of paternalistic view, isn't it?

0:24:380:24:40

- You're handing over these... - It's maternalistic.

0:24:400:24:43

It's maternalistic.

0:24:430:24:44

The idea of government intervention in our diets is one lesson we

0:24:440:24:47

could take from the past...

0:24:470:24:49

But I think there's another - about the way we shop.

0:24:490:24:52

With no car, and nothing but a larder to keep food fresh,

0:24:560:24:59

shopping locally was the only option for Rochelle in the early '50s.

0:24:590:25:02

Living without a fridge is the hardest part.

0:25:020:25:05

You can see that it would have been absolutely necessary,

0:25:050:25:08

it's not through a particular choice,

0:25:080:25:10

but you would have to go shopping every single day.

0:25:100:25:13

Although it took up lots of time,

0:25:130:25:14

Rochelle could also see the benefits.

0:25:140:25:17

I think the good bit about shopping locally in the '50s,

0:25:170:25:21

sort of, experiment was that you would see the same face every day,

0:25:210:25:28

you would start to have a connection with whoever's selling you the food.

0:25:280:25:32

I've come for my liver.

0:25:360:25:38

SHE LAUGHS

0:25:380:25:40

In the 1960s, Dave Myers delivered the Robshaws' first fridge

0:25:410:25:45

-Ta-da!

-Oh, wow.

0:25:450:25:48

When we got a fridge,

0:25:500:25:51

I remember how delighted Rochelle was with that.

0:25:510:25:54

It made a difference to shopping, you see,

0:25:540:25:56

you didn't need to shop every day.

0:25:560:25:58

It's really going to revolutionise my life.

0:25:580:26:00

For the first time, they could stock up.

0:26:020:26:05

Newly popular supermarkets offered a one-stop shop

0:26:050:26:08

for all their groceries.

0:26:080:26:09

Welcome to shopping, 1960s-style.

0:26:090:26:13

'When I first went into a '60s supermarket,

0:26:130:26:16

'I thought it was really exciting.'

0:26:160:26:18

There's just so much to look at, isn't there?

0:26:180:26:21

There's just so much to look at. It's absolutely extraordinary.

0:26:210:26:25

The new self-service system transformed the way they

0:26:250:26:28

shopped for food.

0:26:280:26:29

I felt that we were much more in control of what we chose

0:26:290:26:32

and I really enjoyed it.

0:26:320:26:33

Later in the experiment, I became a bit more

0:26:330:26:36

cynical about supermarkets, but when I first encountered them,

0:26:360:26:39

I thought, "This is fantastic. What's not to like?

0:26:390:26:41

"All these options. You can just, just get it, choose it, grab it."

0:26:410:26:44

By the 1980s,

0:26:490:26:50

the Robshaws did all their shopping at the supermarket.

0:26:500:26:53

-ROCHELLE:

-On the supermarket shelves,

0:26:550:26:57

a lot of the produce is now in plastic.

0:26:570:27:00

I'm definitely going to have a chicken madras

0:27:000:27:02

and I'm not giving any to anybody else - I'm just saying that now.

0:27:020:27:05

You couldn't see what you were buying any more

0:27:050:27:08

because it was sort of hidden in a box, so you're buying a picture.

0:27:080:27:12

You're buying a picture of something.

0:27:120:27:14

I'm seeing this with new eyes.

0:27:180:27:21

By the 1990s, supermarkets had supersized.

0:27:210:27:23

Their combination of low prices and massive choice seemed irresistible.

0:27:250:27:30

I do think this is amazing.

0:27:300:27:32

This whole aisle, which must be about, like, 20 metres long,

0:27:320:27:35

is all different varieties of cheese.

0:27:350:27:38

But even just the cheddar... It is a wall of cheese.

0:27:380:27:40

It is a great wall of cheese, it's probably visible from space.

0:27:400:27:43

'But for Rochelle, it didn't feel like progress.'

0:27:430:27:46

It was almost shocking in the amount of food that we

0:27:460:27:50

could pile into the back of the car

0:27:500:27:52

and I didn't find that a particularly pleasant experience.

0:27:520:27:57

It was just more and more boxes and plastic bags.

0:27:570:28:00

See, so much of this stuff is perishable. We'll have to...

0:28:010:28:04

If we don't eat it soon, we'll have to just chuck it out.

0:28:040:28:07

You are going to end up eating more, but simply by the fact that it is here.

0:28:070:28:10

In the '90s, you think, "Oh, we're just going in the car to

0:28:100:28:13

"get some shopping," because that's what we've chosen to do.

0:28:130:28:15

But everyone's doing it, you're actually just following a herd.

0:28:150:28:19

You don't realise it, but you are just completely falling

0:28:190:28:22

in line with the spirit of the times.

0:28:220:28:24

When we left the experiment in 1999,

0:28:260:28:28

it seemed as though the rise of the big supermarket would be inexorable.

0:28:280:28:32

But in the last 18 months,

0:28:320:28:33

an extraordinary change has taken place.

0:28:330:28:35

At the end of 2014, the amount of money being spent in the big

0:28:350:28:38

four supermarkets went down for the first time since 1994.

0:28:380:28:41

Our study holds a few clues

0:28:410:28:42

as to why the big supermarkets might be in trouble.

0:28:420:28:45

The last I left Rochelle, it was big out-of-town superstore shopping, it was killing off the high street,

0:28:530:28:57

everyone was going to the supermarkets.

0:28:570:28:59

I know, partly because you reflect it a little bit in the study,

0:28:590:29:02

but also my own life, that the internet, online shopping, means that the

0:29:020:29:05

massive weekly shop feels to me like it's not the thing that it once was.

0:29:050:29:08

Yeah, that sort of going to the supermarket and your car actually,

0:29:080:29:12

you know, groaning with the amount of shopping you had, seems to be over.

0:29:120:29:16

What we're seeing is perhaps the death of the weekly shop.

0:29:160:29:19

And when you look at the study, you can see some of that in the way

0:29:190:29:21

that people are actually reporting their shopping habits.

0:29:210:29:25

This woman has said, "I don't tend to do full shops, only now and again."

0:29:250:29:29

They just call on supermarkets a few times to stock up,

0:29:290:29:32

so in and out of shops rather than doing that once a week thing.

0:29:320:29:37

It seems like people are sort of ducking

0:29:370:29:39

and diving between online, a bit of supermarket,

0:29:390:29:42

and then topping up on the high street in the smaller shop.

0:29:420:29:45

Online grocery shopping took off in 2000

0:29:470:29:49

and was heralded as the future.

0:29:490:29:51

BROADCAST: Every day, 4,000 customers order their shopping from Tesco

0:29:510:29:55

through its internet site, sending a list via computer to a local store.

0:29:550:29:58

100 supermarkets, mainly in the south,

0:29:580:30:01

have the equipment to receive such orders.

0:30:010:30:03

Today Tesco announced, by the end of the year,

0:30:030:30:06

300 stores nationwide will supply online shoppers.

0:30:060:30:09

Internet orders are displayed on a trolley computer,

0:30:090:30:12

collected and then delivered by staff.

0:30:120:30:15

Tesco claims a million people will use

0:30:150:30:17

the service by the end of the year.

0:30:170:30:20

But supermarkets swiftly realised online wasn't great news for

0:30:200:30:22

their profit margins.

0:30:220:30:24

The genius of the supermarket was that we

0:30:250:30:28

as customers drove to the shop, we picked the goods off the shelves,

0:30:280:30:32

we put them in the bag, we drove them home and then we unpacked them.

0:30:320:30:35

They didn't have to do anything except put it on the shelves.

0:30:350:30:38

-We did all that work.

-Yeah.

0:30:380:30:39

Online shopping's different.

0:30:390:30:41

Suddenly, the supermarket has to bear the cost of choosing the food,

0:30:410:30:44

picking the food, putting it in the bag and also transporting it.

0:30:440:30:47

Now that changes the cost basis for supermarkets.

0:30:470:30:50

So, less profit, is that why they're failing?

0:30:500:30:52

Yes, online might be one reason that they're struggling.

0:30:520:30:55

But also, snapping at their heels, are these discount supermarkets.

0:30:550:30:59

The rise of shops like Aldi and Lidl has been a big news story

0:31:020:31:05

over the last couple of years.

0:31:050:31:07

So you've got a Waitrose bag, Sainsbury's,

0:31:070:31:10

a Tesco's bag, but you're also shopping at Aldi.

0:31:100:31:12

-Why?

-Yes. Though beforehand, conveniently you could go to one shop

0:31:120:31:15

and get loads and loads of stuff,

0:31:150:31:17

you're finding you're spending a heck of a lot of money.

0:31:170:31:20

Whereas if you could split it between two shops,

0:31:200:31:22

and one of those being Aldi, you save yourself a heck of a lot of money.

0:31:220:31:25

Aldi arrived in the UK more than 20 years ago.

0:31:250:31:29

It may have far fewer products than a traditional supermarket,

0:31:290:31:33

but that gives Aldi huge buying power with suppliers.

0:31:330:31:36

Discounters like Aldi are stealing a march.

0:31:360:31:40

What's happening here on these aisles is sending shockwaves through

0:31:400:31:44

an industry already grappling with huge change.

0:31:440:31:48

But the internet and discount supermarkets aren't

0:31:520:31:55

the only things that are changing the way we shop.

0:31:550:31:57

I think there's another, potentially more interesting, transformation afoot,

0:31:570:32:01

which may mirror the way things happened in previous eras,

0:32:010:32:03

where a small number of foodier people get into a way of doing

0:32:030:32:07

things which gradually become mainstream.

0:32:070:32:09

And I think it's beginning to happen in the way we shop for food.

0:32:110:32:15

So I've brought Rochelle to my local high street to see

0:32:150:32:18

if I can persuade her that this is the future.

0:32:180:32:20

I don't know really how that small local shopping

0:32:200:32:25

can fit in really well to a busy lifestyle.

0:32:250:32:27

You see, I think it can. I think the supermarkets are dying,

0:32:270:32:30

the big four supermarkets are all losing money,

0:32:300:32:32

their shares are all down, people are doing more and more of their

0:32:320:32:35

shopping online, people aren't going to the out-of-town superstores.

0:32:350:32:38

In the spare time we have that is made by doing the main

0:32:380:32:41

shopping online, that leaves room to buy bread, fish,

0:32:410:32:44

meat, you know, the daily things people need to buy locally,

0:32:440:32:46

and so there is a resurgence of local shops.

0:32:460:32:49

And I think that might well be the future,

0:32:490:32:51

as we've learnt in this series, where the middle classes with

0:32:510:32:53

a few quid lead, the masses do eventually follow, whether that's

0:32:530:32:56

fast food, frozen food, microwaves, curries, you know...

0:32:560:33:00

And I think because poncy middle-class people like me

0:33:000:33:03

are starting to go back to local butchers and fishmongers,

0:33:030:33:05

-that's how the future might be.

-Right, I'll follow your lead.

0:33:050:33:08

Yeah, I mean, you know, maybe you'll think the shops are rubbish.

0:33:080:33:11

There's been an astonishing 25% increase in the number

0:33:140:33:17

of independent food shops since 2012.

0:33:170:33:19

Our first stop is the new fishmonger run by Jonathan.

0:33:210:33:25

-How's business here?

-It's been really good.

0:33:250:33:27

We opened July 1st this year.

0:33:270:33:31

Things are looking really nice, really comfortable now, yeah.

0:33:310:33:34

For me, shopping more locally is about "How easy is it to do?"

0:33:340:33:39

I live down the road. Walk in, boom, and you've shopped really quickly,

0:33:390:33:42

and that's convenient, isn't it? I mean, you're open late...

0:33:420:33:45

Yep, Tuesday through to Friday, until 7.30pm.

0:33:450:33:47

There's a good burst at school run time, and then from 5pm

0:33:470:33:51

through to 7.30pm is probably 40% of the day's trade.

0:33:510:33:55

-Right.

-If not more.

-It's almost like a Mediterranean sort of idea,

0:33:550:33:59

isn't it, shopping late?

0:33:590:34:00

'Later opening hours have made them more convenient,

0:34:000:34:03

'but I know Rochelle will need convincing about the cost.'

0:34:030:34:07

You don't have to be particularly well off to come in here

0:34:070:34:09

and buy a bit of fish.

0:34:090:34:10

The things the supermarkets sell that we sell as well,

0:34:100:34:13

we're priced almost identically.

0:34:130:34:14

Are you? I was going to ask, who comes in, is it just rich people?

0:34:140:34:17

No, not at all, no. People from all walks of life come in.

0:34:170:34:20

This came up this morning from Newlyn,

0:34:200:34:23

that's a really cracking bit of whiting.

0:34:230:34:25

And how much would that piece of whiting cost?

0:34:250:34:27

That piece of whiting, I'd say about £4.

0:34:270:34:29

What would you do with that, then?

0:34:290:34:31

That just needs seasoning, a little smattering of flour

0:34:310:34:34

and frying in butter.

0:34:340:34:35

Everything needs frying in butter, effectively,

0:34:350:34:37

makes it anything taste good, really, doesn't it?

0:34:370:34:39

THEY LAUGH

0:34:390:34:40

OK, well, I think I'll maybe have two of those.

0:34:400:34:44

-Two of those? OK.

-Yes, please, yeah.

0:34:440:34:46

-Brilliant, OK, lovely.

-Thanks very much.

-Thanks very much.

0:34:460:34:49

Thank you. Cheerio.

0:34:490:34:51

One of the factors driving customers back to local shops

0:34:510:34:54

is that we want to have confidence in our food again -

0:34:540:34:56

especially in our meat.

0:34:560:34:58

-Good morning, how are you?

-Hi.

-Good to see you.

0:34:590:35:02

How is business, how's it working out?

0:35:020:35:04

We've had a really good start here.

0:35:040:35:05

Lots of local shoppers, people have really taken to us, which is nice.

0:35:050:35:08

People, you know, they want to be able to trust what they buy,

0:35:080:35:11

and I can tell you where all these animals came from,

0:35:110:35:13

where the farm was and how they're bred, and that's what we do here.

0:35:130:35:16

This kind of reminds me of what it was like when I did the '50s

0:35:160:35:19

-and I'd go locally to my local butcher.

-Yeah.

0:35:190:35:22

The importance of knowing where their meat came from

0:35:230:35:26

was brought home to the Robshaws in the 1990s when BSE,

0:35:260:35:29

known as mad cow disease, became a national talking point.

0:35:290:35:32

'The so-called mad cow disease may pose a threat to humans.'

0:35:360:35:40

It puts you off a bit, doesn't it?

0:35:400:35:42

You wouldn't be happy giving Fred a load of beef

0:35:430:35:46

knowing that there's not, how safe that beef is.

0:35:460:35:49

How would you possibly feel safe giving it to him?

0:35:490:35:53

But I don't like it, I don't like those farming methods.

0:35:530:35:56

The fact is, we know that...

0:35:560:35:58

..the food chain is violated at various points.

0:36:000:36:04

Our trust in food was rocked and the bad news kept coming.

0:36:070:36:11

In 2013, we learned that some supermarkets had sold us horse meat

0:36:110:36:14

in convenience products labelled as containing beef.

0:36:140:36:18

'More beef products were revealed to contain horse DNA yesterday.'

0:36:180:36:22

'If you are just about to pop your dinner in the microwave,

0:36:230:36:26

'don't be put off by the news tonight -

0:36:260:36:29

'that's the official government advice.

0:36:290:36:31

'They say we should keep on eating processed beef,

0:36:310:36:34

'even though they don't actually know what's on our plates.'

0:36:340:36:37

People are really keyed up now with food and I think

0:36:370:36:42

they're starting to realise that, you know, cheap food comes at a cost.

0:36:420:36:45

We're enjoying a little sort of resurge of people

0:36:450:36:48

coming back to the farmer's market

0:36:480:36:50

and, you know, coming and buying fresh meat,

0:36:500:36:52

which is really heartening.

0:36:520:36:53

People kind of wanted to learn from these scandals,

0:36:550:36:59

why was it a problem, why were cows going mad,

0:36:590:37:02

why were sheep getting foot-and-mouth and things like that,

0:37:020:37:05

and they wanted to talk about what they were buying.

0:37:050:37:08

And we saw a movement, people coming back to independent shops

0:37:080:37:11

so they could speak to somebody and say, "What have you got?"

0:37:110:37:14

Now, there are people who will be watching who would think,

0:37:140:37:17

knowing where their meat came from, how they were bred and everything,

0:37:170:37:20

this is a kind of poncy middle-class interest.

0:37:200:37:22

Is that the case at the moment?

0:37:220:37:23

I don't think it is a middle-class thing, it's about knowledge.

0:37:230:37:26

It's about people wanting to know what they're eating,

0:37:260:37:29

wanting to be secure in what they're spending their money on,

0:37:290:37:32

and you can come and buy what you want.

0:37:320:37:34

You haven't got to buy four lamb chops if you only want to eat two.

0:37:340:37:37

So you're contributing to less waste, then, do you think?

0:37:370:37:40

Yeah, absolutely.

0:37:400:37:42

Less waste, good value, extended opening hours,

0:37:420:37:45

I'm sold on local shopping as the future.

0:37:450:37:48

But have I managed to convince Rochelle?

0:37:490:37:51

I hope very much that we can,

0:37:530:37:55

you know, resist the temptation of going to the supermarket.

0:37:550:37:59

It's not like it's sort of like in the '50s, the housewife going out

0:37:590:38:04

to buy food just for her family in-between the hours of daylight,

0:38:040:38:08

now you can shop locally at any time, and it is a pleasant experience.

0:38:080:38:13

It adds something to your life.

0:38:130:38:15

It's not just where they shop that's been affected by their time travel.

0:38:180:38:22

The Robshaws have changed the sort of food they're buying.

0:38:220:38:25

One of the things we've taken away from the experiment as a whole

0:38:250:38:29

is that we do have a regular veg box delivery now.

0:38:290:38:32

This idea of good, fresh vegetables, that's really influenced us.

0:38:330:38:37

-Veg box.

-Veg box.

0:38:370:38:39

-Nice and colourful, isn't it?

-Hmm.

0:38:410:38:43

Getting it seemed to be quite important,

0:38:430:38:46

and just, it seemed to be an expense that I wanted to sort of...

0:38:460:38:51

prioritise.

0:38:510:38:52

Living through the experiment,

0:38:560:38:58

the Robshaws saw a dramatic shift in their diet,

0:38:580:39:01

from fresh ingredients...

0:39:010:39:02

to food that was increasingly processed.

0:39:020:39:05

What do you think of this?

0:39:050:39:07

This beef curry is actually a little bit dry and powdery.

0:39:070:39:10

With advances in food processing enabling novel new products,

0:39:150:39:18

they were only too happy to embrace the appliance of science.

0:39:180:39:23

We're all part of a massive experiment.

0:39:230:39:25

Our food is being changed from a traditional

0:39:250:39:29

to a new technologically-based diet

0:39:290:39:32

and we don't know what the consequences of this are going to be.

0:39:320:39:36

Isn't it amazing how it does this?

0:39:380:39:40

I'm pouring into the Pot Noodles now, everybody. It's bubbling.

0:39:410:39:44

See that? Bloop-bloop-bloop!

0:39:450:39:47

-The cheese is quite bright orange!

-Yes!

0:39:500:39:53

That's the '80s for you, everything's bright orange.

0:39:530:39:56

Nobody could do that.

0:39:560:39:57

I do quite like the food that I've been eating in the '80s,

0:39:570:40:01

but it's not exactly the healthiest of foods.

0:40:010:40:04

The family's visit to an organic farm in 1996 was a wake-up call.

0:40:090:40:14

-OK, so we're going to jump out and look at some lettuces.

-Great.

0:40:140:40:18

-So that's a cos lettuce.

-It's fantastic.

0:40:190:40:21

It's really, really beautiful.

0:40:210:40:22

They just don't look as kind of...

0:40:220:40:24

'For me, it was standing in Guy Watson's field'

0:40:240:40:28

and just seeing food again, as it is, in its sort of raw state.

0:40:280:40:32

It took us almost full circle to the '50s.

0:40:320:40:36

The outer leaves are the most nutritious, where it's green.

0:40:360:40:40

It's really got flavour.

0:40:400:40:42

'Tasting that lettuce fresh from the field, and it was so flavoursome,

0:40:420:40:45

'that is when I thought, "I'm not eating enough fresh food."

0:40:450:40:49

'That was my Damascus moment.'

0:40:490:40:51

Why on earth are we eating processed food?

0:40:520:40:57

Two extremely fine leeks...

0:40:590:41:01

The Robshaws are trying out new ingredients

0:41:030:41:06

and Rochelle is finding a renewed enthusiasm for cooking.

0:41:060:41:10

-What do you call that?

-Kohlrabi.

0:41:100:41:12

-Are they English?

-It's not very English-sounding.

0:41:120:41:15

-Looks like a teapot, doesn't it?

-Yeah, it does, actually.

0:41:150:41:18

Short and stout, here's its handle, here's its spout!

0:41:180:41:20

"The Winter Minestrone."

0:41:220:41:24

HE LAUGHS

0:41:240:41:25

We are replacing the turnip with...

0:41:250:41:29

-Kohlrabi.

-Carborabi...

-Carborabi?

-What did I say?

0:41:290:41:32

-You said, "carborabi"!

-Carborabi!

0:41:320:41:34

Before they started their time travel, Rochelle worked full-time

0:41:390:41:43

and Brandon did the lion's share of the cooking.

0:41:430:41:45

When I first went into this experiment, part of me

0:41:480:41:51

was kind of fed up with work,

0:41:510:41:53

and I kind of thought, "Ooh, it'll be very nice to be at home."

0:41:530:41:57

-Bye, Rochelle.

-Bye, Brandon.

0:41:570:41:59

'All those years of women struggling to get out of the home,

0:42:000:42:03

'I'm putting myself back into it.

0:42:030:42:05

'I think what I had completely underestimated was the fact

0:42:080:42:12

'that it is all hard work.'

0:42:120:42:13

I suppose this is what would make a woman break.

0:42:150:42:17

I didn't really, really want to be at home 100% of the time.

0:42:170:42:22

In the mid-'70s, Rochelle got a part-time job...

0:42:230:42:26

-You're back. How was your day?

-Hello!

0:42:260:42:28

-It was good, thank you.

-Did you enjoy it?

0:42:280:42:30

-Yeah, I did enjoy it, yeah.

-Oh, well done.

0:42:300:42:32

..but was still cooking virtually all the meals.

0:42:320:42:35

-What about supper?

-Haven't really thought about it.

0:42:350:42:38

-No, and you haven't, have you?

-No.

-No. And you haven't?

0:42:380:42:41

-No.

-Right, better get on with it, hadn't I?

0:42:410:42:43

Once we sort of hit the manic-ness of the '80s,

0:42:430:42:47

life becomes a hell of a lot harder because you're out working

0:42:470:42:52

and you're also doing a lot in the home.

0:42:520:42:54

You're just part of a system, that you have no freedom,

0:42:560:42:59

'you have to, you know, you're just caught up in this

0:42:590:43:01

'manic-ness that is kind of overtaking you.'

0:43:010:43:05

-Could someone get me the scraper for this?

-Yeah.

0:43:050:43:08

In the 1990s the balance finally began to be redressed.

0:43:100:43:14

I do feel that Brandon is getting much closer

0:43:150:43:20

to his contemporary role in the kitchen. He's happy to be there.

0:43:200:43:25

-Oh, I tell you what, that's really nice.

-Is it? Oh good.

0:43:250:43:28

Really nice, yeah.

0:43:280:43:29

With the pressure off, cooking could become a pleasure again.

0:43:290:43:32

Oh, that's wonderful! Hang it up on the tree.

0:43:320:43:35

Hang it on the tree, baby.

0:43:350:43:37

That's so good.

0:43:370:43:38

'I am cooking more and I don't know if that's'

0:43:400:43:43

because I had felt that there were these

0:43:430:43:45

sort of like rows of other mes behind me now telling me what to do.

0:43:450:43:49

Well, this is going to be a nice chunky soup.

0:43:490:43:52

It can't be chunked. It says chopped.

0:43:520:43:54

Oh, don't... Look, who's making this, us or Guy Watson?

0:43:540:43:57

Look, everybody likes a succulent chunk of leek.

0:43:570:44:00

-If you really loved me...

-Yeah?

-..you'd chop 'em fine.

0:44:000:44:04

No, no, it's because I love you

0:44:040:44:06

that I want to give you really nice leeks.

0:44:060:44:08

You just feel like you've acquired that little bit of extra

0:44:080:44:11

knowledge all the way through, so it's just sort of made me

0:44:110:44:15

take more interest in it.

0:44:150:44:18

Oh, that just smells so delicious, doesn't it?

0:44:180:44:21

-Dad?

-Yeah?

0:44:230:44:25

It's very vegetable-y.

0:44:250:44:26

It's really nice.

0:44:260:44:27

It is nice.

0:44:270:44:29

It tastes really good.

0:44:290:44:30

-You can see it looks healthy.

-Hmm.

0:44:300:44:32

Where with the normal soup, it just tastes really salty.

0:44:320:44:36

When you get one out of a tin, it tastes,

0:44:360:44:39

like the whole soup tastes the same.

0:44:390:44:41

But this, like, you can taste each little different part of it.

0:44:410:44:45

Since the experiment ended, we have been eating together more, haven't we?

0:44:450:44:48

It creates a space for conversation, doesn't it?

0:44:480:44:51

It's just about being able to make a connection

0:44:510:44:53

with somebody that you care about and that you love.

0:44:530:44:57

'It's very much made me appreciate how food affects family life,

0:44:580:45:02

'and you can see that as food changed, our family habits changed.'

0:45:020:45:08

You can never have too many Pot Noodles.

0:45:080:45:11

HE LAUGHS

0:45:110:45:13

Fast forwarding through 50 years, the Robshaws saw sit down family

0:45:140:45:18

meals become a rarity as informality crept in.

0:45:180:45:21

The sort of order of sitting and eating at the table,

0:45:210:45:25

which we'd done in the '50s and '60s, was broken up.

0:45:250:45:28

You close the door and press time...

0:45:310:45:33

The arrival of microwave ready meals revolutionised family dinner times.

0:45:330:45:37

I'm going to play with my Nintendo.

0:45:370:45:39

This is the very first evening when everybody is eating differently.

0:45:410:45:45

You're standing up, she's sitting... They're sitting over there, Fred's in the other room.

0:45:450:45:49

We're all sort of dispersed and displaced...

0:45:490:45:52

and the microwave's doing it.

0:45:520:45:54

But you do gain in convenience. It's quite nice.

0:45:540:45:57

But what is the convenience?

0:45:570:45:59

Well, you know what the convenience is.

0:45:590:46:01

It's very quick and it minimises the washing up.

0:46:010:46:04

Watch this.

0:46:040:46:06

No washing up. How's that?

0:46:070:46:09

Pushed for time in the 1990s,

0:46:120:46:14

the Robshaws barely sat down to eat...let alone with each other.

0:46:140:46:19

And if every meal is informal, eaten on your lap in different

0:46:190:46:22

rooms of the house, then you lose something.

0:46:220:46:25

THEY CHAT

0:46:250:46:28

By the end of the experiment, we'd learned that it's very nice

0:46:300:46:34

and it's very, very healthy and good to come together as a family

0:46:340:46:37

and eat round the table several times a week.

0:46:370:46:39

I hope that will always be a constant in the future, that we won't lose that.

0:46:390:46:43

Where and when the Robshaws ate might have changed dramatically over

0:46:490:46:52

the 50 years of the experiment,

0:46:520:46:53

but there was one constant ingredient.

0:46:530:46:55

-Is it a slice of pork?

-Yeah.

0:46:570:46:59

Meat.

0:46:590:47:00

What we are looking at here is a family of five's weekly meat

0:47:070:47:10

consumption in 1955, just after rationing.

0:47:100:47:15

This is the sort of quantity they were eating, largely of beef

0:47:150:47:18

and pork, carcass meat, stuff that was on the bone,

0:47:180:47:21

and today's, specifically 2013,

0:47:210:47:22

but it hasn't changed much in the last couple of years.

0:47:220:47:25

Basically, and surprisingly to me, the same amount of meat.

0:47:250:47:28

-It just looks different, lots of processed stuff.

-Yeah.

0:47:280:47:31

The key difference is here they didn't have chicken very often.

0:47:310:47:34

This sorry little thing represents what would have been

0:47:340:47:36

a very small amount of chicken, two or three a year

0:47:360:47:39

because this was expensive and not a thing that people ate very much.

0:47:390:47:42

Here, lots of boneless, skinless chicken breast.

0:47:420:47:44

The cost of chicken, totally driven down by changes in technology

0:47:440:47:48

and new ways of farming,

0:47:480:47:50

have meant that people can afford to buy an inordinate amount more

0:47:500:47:53

chicken than they would have been able to do in the past.

0:47:530:47:56

-ARCHIVE:

-'Not many years ago,

0:47:570:48:00

'the chicken was an expensive luxury for special occasions only,

0:48:000:48:03

'but today it's an easily available and comparatively cheap food,

0:48:030:48:07

'ready to be popped into the oven.'

0:48:070:48:09

The arrival of factory farming in the '60s made chicken affordable.

0:48:090:48:13

-Hey, look what I've found. Frozen chicken.

-Wow.

0:48:130:48:17

Look at that. That's the first time we've had it in this experiment.

0:48:170:48:20

It is, yeah.

0:48:200:48:21

In our normal lives, chicken is just a...

0:48:210:48:24

It's a kind of everyday thing, isn't it?

0:48:240:48:26

And new processed meat products mean that much of the meat

0:48:260:48:30

we now consume would be almost unrecognisable to a family in the '50s.

0:48:300:48:33

Clearly this glut of meat is not a situation that can last.

0:48:330:48:36

In the future, meat supplies might be a problem.

0:48:360:48:39

I think that's right because, as populations grow globally,

0:48:390:48:42

there's a huge pressure on the amount of meat that is produced

0:48:420:48:46

because as developing countries get richer, people start adopting

0:48:460:48:50

Western-style diets and they tend to consume a lot more meat.

0:48:500:48:54

So that it means in countries like China, for example, in the

0:48:540:48:57

'last 70 years, there's a fourfold increase in meat consumption.'

0:48:570:49:01

-So demand across the world will drive up the price of meat?

-That's right.

0:49:010:49:05

If that continues, what will change is we will be paying a lot

0:49:050:49:08

more for it, and we've got very used to having, particularly these

0:49:080:49:12

kind of highly processed meats, being really very inexpensive.

0:49:120:49:16

So if we're going to carry on eating this sort of quantity of meat,

0:49:160:49:20

we're going to have to pay for it in terms of price,

0:49:200:49:22

but also in terms of environmental cost as well.

0:49:220:49:25

The hunt is on for an alternative source of protein which

0:49:260:49:29

doesn't cost the earth.

0:49:290:49:31

I want to give the Robshaws a final futuristic dinner

0:49:340:49:37

and serve up a radical alternative to meat.

0:49:370:49:40

I am actually quite intrigued as to what this is going to be.

0:49:400:49:43

This is going to be the food of the future.

0:49:430:49:45

What do you think it's going to be?

0:49:450:49:47

Do you think we might be eating more things from the sea?

0:49:470:49:49

No, because I think everything from the sea will be dead.

0:49:490:49:53

There will be things along the journey that you've had,

0:49:530:49:56

the time travelling,

0:49:560:49:57

which would have been surprising for you to have eaten.

0:49:570:50:00

The arrival of new tastes and flavours

0:50:040:50:06

has been a continual theme for the Robshaws.

0:50:060:50:09

In 1963, even garlic was an alien ingredient.

0:50:110:50:14

Oh, bolognese! Oh, wow.

0:50:140:50:17

-I'm excited.

-Are you?

0:50:180:50:20

-Can we start?

-Can we start?

0:50:200:50:22

One of the things we learned from the experiment I think was how

0:50:220:50:25

quickly something can go from being exotic to being completely normal.

0:50:250:50:29

So when we had spaghetti bolognese in the 1960s it was like, wow,

0:50:290:50:32

we've never had anything like this with the spaghetti

0:50:320:50:35

and the garlic, and it's so different.

0:50:350:50:37

See that. That's how good it is,

0:50:370:50:39

people are actually scraping the dish.

0:50:390:50:41

But, you know, within a very few years,

0:50:410:50:43

that's just a normal British meal, and that seems to happen a lot.

0:50:430:50:46

In the '70s, their first curry added chilli and spice to their diet.

0:50:510:50:56

To me, this is just fantastic.

0:50:580:51:00

This is just like a kind of party going on in my mouth.

0:51:000:51:03

And, you know, I've broken out in a sweat because of it and I...

0:51:030:51:07

That's what I wanted, you know, I love that.

0:51:070:51:09

Why is it that men felt the need to test themselves with the curry?

0:51:090:51:13

I mean, women weren't impressed by that, I'm not impressed by that.

0:51:130:51:17

But I mean, I don't know, what is that about?

0:51:170:51:20

And by the '90s, adventurous British diners

0:51:230:51:26

were even bold enough to try raw fish.

0:51:260:51:28

I've been wanting fish for like 50 years.

0:51:280:51:31

And now you finally get it.

0:51:310:51:33

Loads of it, raw. That is really... I don't know what I think of that.

0:51:330:51:38

Just to see these sort of bits of raw fish going round

0:51:380:51:42

and round was really foreign and felt really different.

0:51:420:51:47

It did feel that that was a very sort of extreme eating experience.

0:51:470:51:52

Perhaps not as extreme as this one though.

0:51:550:51:59

I'm serving a protein-packed menu of international flavours

0:51:590:52:03

and no meat in sight.

0:52:030:52:04

-See all those worms in there?

-Oh, delicious(!)

0:52:060:52:09

-Oh, they're bugs, aren't they?

-Yeah, absolutely.

0:52:090:52:12

Insects have been hailed as the solution to our meat problem.

0:52:120:52:16

Full of protein, low in fat and packed with nutrients,

0:52:160:52:19

they are already part of the staple diet in parts of Africa and Asia.

0:52:190:52:23

Two billion people in the world,

0:52:240:52:26

that means one third of the population of the world,

0:52:260:52:28

is already eating insects.

0:52:280:52:30

They can become a sustainable source of food

0:52:300:52:32

and I think their importance is going to grow.

0:52:320:52:35

I start by boiling them, to about five minutes boiling them,

0:52:350:52:39

then after that I have to make my sauce,

0:52:390:52:41

which is tomato-based sauce, then they are crispy now.

0:52:410:52:44

They have no aftertaste.

0:52:490:52:50

It's just really a beautiful, very,

0:52:500:52:54

very nice taste.

0:52:540:52:55

Once we have developed better technologies for farming insects,

0:52:550:53:00

they have really large potential for becoming a major food source.

0:53:000:53:05

Today we're having Mexican spiced cricket tacos,

0:53:070:53:11

Asian worm stir-fry,

0:53:110:53:13

buffalo worm tart...

0:53:130:53:15

..and cricket kebabs.

0:53:170:53:18

So, Rochelle, what do you think about eating insects?

0:53:200:53:22

What's your first reaction to this food?

0:53:220:53:24

I am kind of repulsed really.

0:53:240:53:26

I really don't fancy eating it at all.

0:53:260:53:28

They're just staring at you with their little eyes.

0:53:280:53:31

But the fish stares at you.

0:53:310:53:32

I must say, these little worm tarts, I don't like the look of those.

0:53:320:53:36

LAUGHTER

0:53:360:53:38

-Come on, Fred, you take it away first...

-You're the bravest.

0:53:380:53:40

-I'm going to try...

-What are you going to eat?

0:53:400:53:43

Is he going to try the stir fry...with the buffalo worms?

0:53:430:53:47

That's really disgusting.

0:53:470:53:49

What's it like?

0:53:490:53:50

Mmm, delicious.

0:53:500:53:52

-Is it? Is it OK?

-Hmm, yeah.

0:53:520:53:55

They're not disgusting? You'll happily have them for your dinner?

0:53:550:53:58

If I didn't know what they were.

0:53:580:54:00

Worm tart, have a quiche, have a worm tart.

0:54:000:54:03

-No, no!

-Look at this delicious taco. Who can do one?

0:54:030:54:06

-Brandon, you can eat anything.

-Yeah, I'll do one.

0:54:060:54:08

Oh, look, they're trying to climb out...

0:54:080:54:11

LAUGHTER

0:54:110:54:13

Just quickly, hastily...

0:54:130:54:14

Ugh!

0:54:140:54:16

Well, they're dead, aren't they?

0:54:160:54:18

It's savoury in a kind of slightly earthy way. As I say...

0:54:210:54:24

MasterChef! That's a fantastic description.

0:54:240:54:28

I have to say, I feel inclined to remove the wings.

0:54:280:54:32

It gets a bit stuck. We've all got to do it.

0:54:320:54:35

One, two, three, go.

0:54:350:54:38

I can't do it!

0:54:380:54:39

It's not the taste, it's the...

0:54:410:54:42

When you scrunch down on them, there's a slight squeak...that's...

0:54:420:54:47

This is the future. This is how it's going to be.

0:54:470:54:50

I'm just not sure if I am disgusted by it because I think, oh,

0:54:500:54:54

I've only ever seen these sort of wiggling about, sort of live,

0:54:540:54:58

or the fact that I'm just not used to it.

0:54:580:55:00

A lot of it is to do with the fact that we

0:55:000:55:03

think of insects as carriers of disease.

0:55:030:55:05

We think of worms, maggots as things that inhabit rotting food.

0:55:050:55:07

Locusts do terrorise communities and strip crops and are disgusting,

0:55:070:55:12

-and that's why we don't want to eat them, isn't it?

-Yes.

0:55:120:55:14

I don't really want to go there unless I'm sort of...

0:55:140:55:18

-Dying?

-Dying, yes!

0:55:180:55:19

I don't think you'd ever think you'd be coming home from work

0:55:190:55:22

and you'd think, "Great, we've got centipede tonight."

0:55:220:55:24

It just... It doesn't taste nice enough to make me think that.

0:55:240:55:27

I think we ought to get the next course and see if it can be any help.

0:55:270:55:30

Their plentiful supply makes insects a no-brainer,

0:55:300:55:32

if we can overcome our revulsion,

0:55:320:55:34

which is where our second course comes in.

0:55:340:55:36

It's not really just cookies, is it?

0:55:360:55:38

We are serving up burgers made from a mixture of beef and insect protein

0:55:380:55:42

and cookies made with insect flour.

0:55:420:55:45

-Take a burger.

-Take a burger.

0:55:460:55:49

That actually tastes really nice.

0:55:520:55:54

Yeah, here you can't taste the insect at all, can you?

0:55:540:55:56

And what about for Miranda and Ros?

0:55:560:55:58

It solved my problem with the wings and the eyes, but it's just got

0:55:580:56:02

a kind of aftertaste in the back of my mouth, and I don't know whether

0:56:020:56:06

it's my brain going, "There's an insect, so it has to taste nasty."

0:56:060:56:10

I don't know. If we hadn't been told,

0:56:100:56:12

I wonder if we'd have just scoffed our way happily through this.

0:56:120:56:16

Maybe this is the way that you make eating insects acceptable.

0:56:160:56:20

I don't think it's the best meal we've had,

0:56:200:56:23

but I don't want to have a kind of kneejerk reaction against this food.

0:56:230:56:26

It could be the way forward.

0:56:260:56:28

Can I just say that Fred has eaten his way through half a burger

0:56:280:56:32

and two biscuits, knowing, knowing what is in them,

0:56:320:56:37

so maybe it is a generational thing.

0:56:370:56:39

# Da-da-da! #

0:56:390:56:41

In Britain, we have undergone a revolution in the food

0:56:430:56:47

we eat over the last 50 years -

0:56:470:56:49

the Robshaws have witnessed those changes close up -

0:56:490:56:51

it is an experience that has had a profound effect on all of them.

0:56:510:56:55

At the beginning of the experiment,

0:56:570:57:00

I never would have tried to eat an insect,

0:57:000:57:03

but I'm definitely more willing to try more foods.

0:57:030:57:06

It does feel good to be more adventurous.

0:57:060:57:08

I feel really, really lucky to have done this experiment

0:57:080:57:12

because like, I'm 15,

0:57:120:57:14

but I've been in the '50s and that's just pretty cool.

0:57:140:57:16

Whoa!

0:57:160:57:18

'As a family, I think we've come full circle and we're taking'

0:57:180:57:22

the best parts of what we've experienced into the future.

0:57:220:57:26

'We'd learnt, throughout the experiment,

0:57:280:57:30

'that obviously food is essential' to life,'

0:57:300:57:33

you need to eat to live, and you might as well enjoy it.

0:57:330:57:37

But I think, even more important than that, we learnt that food is

0:57:370:57:40

an important part of nurturing people you care about.

0:57:400:57:43

If it's even as simple as taking them a cup of tea,

0:57:430:57:46

or if it's cooking a proper meal and all sitting down together

0:57:460:57:49

in the evening enjoying it -

0:57:490:57:51

all of those things, I think, are ways of showing love

0:57:510:57:54

and caring for those who are close to you.

0:57:540:57:56

-Cheers to the end of the experiment.

-Cheers.

-You did well.

0:57:560:57:59

Whatever we're eating in 50 years, whether it's insects,

0:57:590:58:03

nasty vitamin drinks, or good old egg and chips,

0:58:030:58:05

I think it's fairly safe to say that

0:58:050:58:07

food will go on binding families together as it has for generations.

0:58:070:58:12

'I think the experiment's made me realise that sort of, for me,'

0:58:120:58:15

'part of being a mother is to try and create memories,

0:58:150:58:19

'and part of those memories would be around food,

0:58:190:58:23

'and eating and creating meals.'

0:58:230:58:26

Food is something to be celebrated and enjoyed every day.

0:58:260:58:30

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