More weird things and the power of Michael Mosley
This health food thing is getting closer to home. Today my husband, who is a bit obsessed with the healthy biome thing decided he wanted to try kefir, which had been heavily pushed by Michael Mosley on his Trust Me, I'm a Doctor program the other day. It was in the segment on fermented foods which I mentioned yesterday - that's it in his hands. It seems that when they compared the probiotic properties of yoghurt and kefir, kefir won hands down. Hence the search for kefir in the supermarket today. And we eventually found the last bottle. Maybe everyone else was watching the program.
But before I go on about the program and the effect that certain people have on our buying habits, just a tiny bit about this particular bottle. We thought we would find it with all those green smoothie type things or the little bottles of yoghurt drink, but no, it was in the milk cabinet. So that's the first slightly strange thing, although I suppose it is a kind of milk. According to Wikipedia it originated in the Caucasus and is a fermented milk made from any kind of milk and a starter made from a particular grain. As for the company name - The Milk Thief, I have drawn a sort of blank. As you know I like to track down these people. On the bottle is a company name - Soulfresh - and they do have a website, but it turns out that they are a mere distributor of various organic brands. I found a hint that it might be a co-operative of organic dairy farmers, but they really do not seem to have a website. They do make butter and cheese as well though. Somewhere.
As for the kefir, my husband thought it tasted a bit like yoghurt. I'm not sure he was all that enamoured, but it depends how much he wants to invest in this really. It was expensive - $7.65. A bottle of milk costs around $1.00
And going back to Michael Mosley who is now a real proponent of kefir - he says that really you should make your own - as you should with all of these fermented products. And incidentally he is also a fan of kombucha which we discussed yesterday.
Perhaps if you were cynical you could say that he gets paid to advertise these things - though really he is not generally advertising a particular product - more a generic food. But it is quite remarkable isn't it how we listen to people such as he and believe them. Interesting though all his little research products are, honestly they are not that scientific, because the sample range is just far too small. They are indicative though of what might be something that needs proper testing. Testing a dozen people's reactions to fermented foods is not really terribly conclusive from a scientific point of view.
But it is interesting how we put so much faith in these people isn't it? And the title of his program is almost challenging you not to trust him. But how could you not trust someone so engaging, who is so willing to use himself as a guinea pig, and who is so curious and so enthusiastic about what he finds out. And his little crew of helpers too. Should we be worried by his influence? I actually don't think so. He, after all, was the person who introduced us to the 5/2 diet (and I do think he made money out of that - I vaguely remember finding his website which was selling various things.) And the 5/2 diet has worked for me - and my doctor also thought that it was the only diet he knew that actually worked. But that's advertising for you. They say that you might think you are above being influenced by ads, but in fact there is always one ad or another that will influence you. Advertising is aimed at specific targets and however clever you might think you are, you are one of those targets. I believe Delia Smith for example is responsible for something called the Delia effect in England - if she mentions a product it sells out. Because people trust her. And that's what it all comes down to really isn't it? That's why Nespresso uses George Clooney.
I don't see myself making kefir though and I don't see us buying any more. I think this one might be a flash in the pan.
