Street art, a joke or protest? Surely not real.

"Why do only the awful things become fads?" Connie Willis

As I walked the grandsons to school today I noticed these posters on the wall under a railway bridge. I was quite taken with them and on my way back I took a photo. It was the middle one that caught my eye first, probably because of the reference to kale, Anyway as I pondered on them I decided that this was, of course, not advertising real things. These are made up - they must be I thought. So when I got home I looked each of these 'new foods' up on my computer and, of course, there is no reference to them at all. Well someone had called their ice-cream creation 'loopa' but that was it.

So it's pretty funny isn't it? Well I think so anyway. However, I also thought that it might be something put up by some interesting activist group - and I'm guessing it must be, but there is no reference to them on the posters and when, as I said, you feed the names of these pretend foods into the computer nothing, but nothing comes up. And that's all you have to go on really. So if they are trying to say something you can't find out what it is or who they are. Not that there is anything else to say really is there? It's just a dig at food fads.

It's also interesting that it is on a wall in urban hipster land. Well urban hipsters and housing commission tenants - there are a lot of them too. And there are little cafés tucked away in unexpected places. So unexpected that it takes a while to realise they are cafés sometimes.

Going back to my posters though. What I did find was that there is such a thing as activated nuts (and seeds). It sort of conjures up pictures of nuts and seeds doing a dance on the table to me. Then I found an article on the website The Holistic Ingredient, which said:

"If I sat down to a bowl of unactivated nut/seed granola I would suffer awful tummy pain. For me, there isn't another option, it's just what I do." Amy Crawford - The Holistic Ingredient

She goes on to explain:

"Activated nuts and seeds have been made bio-active by a very simple process of soaking in salted water for a predetermined period of time, draining them and then dehydrating them at a very low temperature in the oven or dehydrator. Nuts and seeds contain what is called phytic acid which prevents them from sprouting prematurely and stores lots of important nutrients.

According to research when we consume phytic acid it reduces our body's ability to absorb these nutrients. They also contain enzyme inhibitors which force the body to work overtime to produce the enzymes necessary for digestion. I understand that this process alone ages us because our bodies have to work so hard to digest"

I could say that if we get old working hard to digest nuts and seeds, then don't eat nuts and seeds, but that would be to deny their tastiness - well some of them anyway - and the good things that they do have in them. Mind you if they do these awful things why are they considered healthy? I also have no idea whether this is all scientific fact or hokum or propaganda put out by people trying to sell activated nuts, and probably neither does she. But it is interesting to note that the poster promoting huxta seeds specifically says they are activated, so it must be a big thing.

Too much knowledge can be a bit of a curse and the internet has certainly made this apparent. If you are feeling unwell and feed in your symptoms, pretty soon you will be thinking you are dying from some awful disease or syndrome. Doctors must hate it. But then again, one learns so many interesting things, and really have we ever known what people are telling us is true? Was Encyclopedia Britannica really foolproof? You certainly can't believe what the newspapers tell you and for every respectable, learned and truly accredited scientist positing one theory there is another one - equally respectable, learned and truly accredited posing an opposite view.

Fads and trends are different things. Fads are short-lived. Trends are game changers. So you could say that there is a trend to seek out 'new/old' healthy foods in order to make oneself healthier, fitter and longer living, and to avoid things like sugar and fat. The fads are the individual things that make up that trend - quinoa, smashed avocado, chia seeds, kale - the list is ever-changing (remember kiwi fruit?) and I do try to feature some of them here from time to time.

So back to my posters. Was it just a fun impulse by someone who had heard enough about kale and activated seeds or is it more serious than that. Is he or she trying to make us think? Do you think people will actually believe these things are real? Will they ask for them in shops? Will somebody come up with a blog post on the latest thing - loopa berries, or kenski leaf? It put a smile on my face for the day anyway. And I found out what activated seeds and nuts are. I think they are a big con. If you buy them how on earth do you know they are activated. These are supposedly activated nuts - they look just like nuts to me.