Food Unwrapped (2012) s08e05 Episode Script

'We Brits are a nation of food lovers.
' Oh, my goodness! Hello! 'Our supermarkets are jam-packed 'with products from every corner of the globe.
' Konnichiwa! 'But how much do we really know about the journey 'our food makes to our plates?' Wow! I've never seen anything like it in all my life! Oh! 'The Food Unwrapped team travel all over the world and beyond' This is like stepping into the future.
'.
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to reveal the trade secrets behind the food we eat.
'Coming up, I climb to new heights in Vietnam 'to see how they extract the virgin coconut oil that's sizzling away 'in every health-conscious kitchen.
' 100%? 'I'm in Italy to find out what goes into my jar of artichokes' Look at this place! Artichokes everywhere! '.
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and learn what they have in common 'with a strange African berry.
' 'And with floppy hair and a tortured brow, 'I set out to see why absinthe is 'the favourite drink of every louche-living poet.
' If you consume enough wormwood, quickly enough, it's going to have effects.
First, coconut oil.
Right now, we Brits can't get enough of the stuff.
We're sizzling our stir-fries in it and even smothering it on our skin, but does it deserve its healthy reputation and hefty price tag? To find out if coconut oil is worth splashing out on, I'm off to one of the world's biggest producers -- Vietnam.
The Ben Tre Province, in the south of the country, was once known as the Coconut Kingdom.
There was even a religion based around this plentiful fruit.
'Our journey starts with a boat down the Mekong Delta.
' - Hi, Phil.
Give us a wave! - Morning! Good morning, Vietnam.
'But before we even set sail, there's a hitch.
' Our propeller is stuck in a fishing net right underneath me and our driver is currently doing some diving underneath the boat to untangle it.
'Thanks to our skipper's super skills, we're finally on our way.
' Whoo! You set us free! We're off down the Mekong! - Morning.
- Just hop on? Yeah.
'Our guide Fong is going to give me the coconut lowdown.
' This is like a little shop in the middle of the water.
- Is that a coconut I can see? - Coconut, yeah.
- This is brilliant.
Xin chao! Xin chao! Can I buy one of these? That is delicious.
Where do you get your coconuts from? Let's go downriver, find some coconuts.
What are those coconuts used for? At first, you know, they just produced some local products, like candy, but recently, they started to produce coconut oil and then, you know, they can make, you know, more money from that.
'Coconut oil production in this part of Vietnam 'has doubled in the last three years, because it's being used 'more and more as a cooking oil.
Back on dry land, 'I'm heading into the heart of coconut-growing territory.
' - Xin chao.
- Xin chao.
'Mr Kung has been growing coconuts on this smallholding all his life.
'It's one of hundreds of small coconut farms in the area.
' Ooh! Look at him up there! Xin chao! 'And, like most coconuts the world over, 'they're harvested the traditional way -- by tree climbers.
'Perhaps this is why they're so pricey.
' Can you show me how you do it? Come on down.
'Now, I love a challenge, but this might be a step too far.
' Go on, just give me a little leg up.
- Ah! - Ah! And Ah! Mr Kung, I can't! There is no way! Help me down.
Ah! You're going to have to go and get me a coconut.
Show us how it's done.
No! Ha! He makes it look so easy.
'It takes about ten months for a coconut to be ready for picking 'and each tree can produce up to 100 a year.
'This is one labour-intensive fruit.
'I've seen how much work goes into harvesting coconuts, 'which could explain the oil's hefty price tag.
'But how do they get the oil out? 'I've come to one of the biggest coconut oil factories in the area.
' - Hi.
- Kate.
'I'm meeting the boss.
' You're making coconut oil? Ah! And what kind of coconut oil are you making? 'The first stage to making virgin coconut oil is to make the milk 'and, to do that, the coconut meat is washed 'and shredded by a giant corkscrew.
' So what happens once you've shredded your coconut? 'A machine then presses the shredded coconut meat, 'but there's still no sign of oil.
'What's left is the pure coconut milk.
' Just a little? Why? 'The milk is put through a centrifugal spinning machine, 'to separate out the water, which results in a coconut cream, 'but they haven't finished with it yet.
'The cream is spun again to separate out the oil 'and, finally, you're left with' 100%? Virgin coconut oil? 'It takes about ten mature coconuts to make just one litre of the oil.
'No wonder this stuff costs a packet.
' Can I have a little try? Coconuty! 'Later, I head back home to see 'if coconut oil is any healthier than its oily rivals.
' Fire up those fryers! 'Next, artichokes.
'Eating a vegetable should be simple.
'But when it comes to preparing an artichoke, 'you need an instruction manual.
'First, peel off some of the leaves.
'Then, peel off SOME MORE of the leaves.
'To get to the artichoke heart, the tastiest bit, 'you first have to cut out the tough part called the choke, 'which can stick in your throat.
'It's not easy getting the choke out, so how do the farmers do it? 'And what exactly does make it into my jar of artichoke hearts?' 'Well, I think that they take off what is edible, actually.
' I've got you, so it's just - It's basically the middle of the artichoke? - 'That's right.
' 'I'd never heard of an artichoke and I was expecting it - 'to be an animal.
' - Yeah, it's more veg than animal.
'Animal artichokes?! Sounds alarming!' So, what is in my jar of artichoke hearts? I'm off to Puglia, southern Italy, where they produce more than half a million tonnes of this peculiar-looking plant.
Hi there, I'm Jim.
- Ciao, Jim! - Nice to meet you.
'Sara is this farm's export manager, 'responsible for providing supermarkets with 'some of the jars of artichokes we see on our shelves.
' - Is this the farmer? - Yes, Mr Carlino.
- Hi, I'm Jimmy.
- Hi.
- Nice to meet you.
'Mr Carlino's farm stretches across a huge area, 'the size of almost 80 rugby pitches.
' 'The edible part of a fresh artichoke includes the fleshy 'portion of the inner leaves.
'But this isn't the bit of this funny flower 'that makes it into the jar.
' Now going to show us how to prepare the heart of artichokes.
- Wow! - Yes.
- So that's the heart? This is the heart of the artichoke, and this is the bottom.
- Here, you have the leaves that have to be nice and white - Yeah.
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so that they are very tender.
'But hang on, this is the dreaded choke! 'In fresh artichokes, these are too tough to swallow!' I always thought that you couldn't eat the choke bit, cos it'd make you choke.
You cook it, actually, during the production process.
- It becomes really soft.
- OK.
'So you CAN eat the choke without doing yourself a mischief.
' Let's go! Whoa! 'Time to look a little closer at how they process them.
' Wow! Look at this place! Artichokes everywhere! 'First, the artichokes are blanched for five minutes 'in a mixture of lemon juice and near-boiling water.
'This stops them turning brown, but it also softens the choke.
'Then it's heads off, leaves off and into the jar, by which time, 'the choke that I thought was inedible is ready to eat.
' 'Artichokes, anyone?' Oh, it's so perfect, so simple.
Plenty of flavour and texture.
'All this artichoke talk is making me thirsty.
' That's really weird, that is super sweet! 'Something doesn't taste quite right!' - Have you put any sugar in my water? - No.
Not at all.
- So it's not the water that tastes sweet, it's the artichoke? - Yes.
- How does it do that, then? - We shall discover it.
'Later, I find out there's an amazing ingredient in artichokes 'that transforms the taste of water.
' - In a way, the receptor of my brain's playing a trick on me? - Exactly.
'Next, absinthe -- the drink du jour of 19th-century French artistes.
'Its debauched reputation even led to a 70-year ban.
'but is there any truth in the notion it can make you loopy?' I was talking to my friend Matt.
He reckons, if you drink it, it's going to make you go mad? 'One of the herbs that goes into it, it can cause hallucinations, 'but in the UK, they don't allow - 'for that part of the absinthe to be included.
' - Right.
Can it send you mad? 'Er, yeah.
Yeah, it's I wouldn't recommend it.
' 'It used to be it would make you feel like a fish in a swimming pool 'or, you know, fairies flying around you, whereas now it doesn't.
' - 'It has been known to cause hallucinations.
' - No way! 'To see if those guys were right, 'I'm heading to London to scope out a bar, so no change there, then.
' I know absinthe has got a bit of a shady reputation, but check this out! 'But in the mystical world of absinthe, 'things are never quite as they seem.
' - Alan.
Matt.
- Matt, good morning, how are you? - Nice to meet you.
It is the morning, 11.
30, and we'll be drinking absinthe.
'Alan Moss is an expert in this devilish drink.
' - How are we drinking it? Setting fire to it? - Oh, no! - No? - Absolutely not! 'According to Alan, there's only one way to devour this drink.
' What is this funny contraption? Good question, so this is a so-called absinthe fountain.
During the 19th century, this was a classic way of people really getting together socially in a cafe in Paris, which is serving with chilled water.
- So, is that what you want -- a very slow drip of water? - Yes, you do.
And that's really because it allows - the aromas to disperse.
- I can smell it already.
- Absolutely.
That's really good! 'So, if the madness isn't in the way it's drunk, 'what about the ingredients?' So, here's Absinthe Encyclopaedia.
'Yes, Alan's actually got an encyclopaedia 'dedicated to this stuff.
' Here's some recipes from the 19th century.
They all have wormwood.
If you consume enough wormwood, quickly enough, it's going to have effects.
'So, what is this wacky wormwood? 'To find out, I've come to the Sussex Downs.
' - Julia, it's Matt.
- Hi.
- Nice to meet you.
'Herbalist Julia Behrens is - 'a regular visitor to these here woods.
' - I just never feel alone, cos the plants are always there, I always get excited - when I walk past the dandelion and nettles - OK, that's mad.
I was going to be grown-up about that, but that just sounds mad.
'So, she obviously loves her plants, 'but how clued up is she about wormwood?' What is wormwood? It's a beautiful aromatic plant that's used medicinally as an anti-parasitic, so it's used traditionally to eliminate worms.
But what is it that makes you mad? Is it the wormwood? - It's the essential oils within the plant that contain thujone.
- OK.
And thujone is a neurotoxin, so it can cause convulsions, fear, anxiety, tremors.
'And who'd want that? But where's Julia hiding the wormwood?' - Try and find it.
Very unusual.
- Well, I know what I'm looking for, yeah.
I'm like a Whoosh! .
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like a homing pigeon.
Massive badger holes! Ooh, ah! Right, I've looked everywhere! Not having much luck, to be honest.
'Enough of this foraging lark! 'Thank goodness Julia had an alternative up her sleeve 'all along in a nearby garden.
' So, this is it? This is wormwood? It feels nice.
- It's very soft, isn't it? - Can I try it? - Yeah.
It's kind of lingering now.
- Do you feel like you're producing more saliva? - Yeah.
- Yeah.
'Perhaps I am starting to feel something off that wormwood? 'Later, how much thujone would it actually take to mess up your mind?' I've been away with the fairies finding out all about the green fairy, absinthe.
But what is it that makes you mad? Is it the wormwood? It is the essential oils within the plant that contain thujone.
'Thujone is a neurotoxin that is highly dangerous 'if consumed in its pure form.
'But is the tiny amount of thujone in the wormwood 'used in absinthe going to make me loopy? 'John McCarthy has been distilling the spirit here 'for the past six years.
' This is where you make your absinthe? Last night, we put in a large quantity of very strong vodka, 90% alcohol, and then added a big weight of botanicals.
The strong vodka, initially, is just to draw out, as a solvent, to draw out the oils, because if you don't do that stage, it won't be very absinthe-ey.
- These are the botanicals? - Every absinthe will have those in them.
Green anise is the biggest ingredient.
- Fennel seed? - Yeah.
And what's this? - That's wormwood.
- This is what makes you mad? - Allegedly.
And it is allegedly.
You'd have to drink so much of it to actually consume enough thujone for it to take any effect at all.
The alcohol will get you a long time before the thujone will.
Thujone also exists in other herbs, like sage, in much higher quantities.
- OK.
- So you are more likely to have a hallucinogenic trip after your Christmas dinner.
OK, OK, it's good to know.
Earlier, I visited Vietnam.
'And searched root and branch to discover how virgin coconut oil 'is extracted from the coconut.
' Sales of this oil are on the up back home, sizzling up a storm in health-conscious kitchens.
But is coconut oil really the best one to cook with? To find out, I am heading to the seaside, to meet an expert and cook up something with a rather less healthy reputation.
I have brought a whole chip van.
This is Rob, he owns the van! 'Rob is in charge of the fryers and is about to get cooking.
' So we have got a load of sunflower oil, we have got vegetable oil, and we have got a big vat of coconut oil.
- Can we get 'em into your fryers? - Let's give it a go.
How on earth are you going to get that into that? With a bit of difficulty.
Our expert, Professor Martin Grootveld, has come from Leicester University for a day trip to the beach.
- Hello, Martin.
- Hello, how are you? - What a day! 'His instructions were to buy refined versions of all 'the oils we are cooking with.
'But what is wrong with the virgin stuff I saw in Vietnam?' The problem is that's not much good for the cooking, unless the cooking is done at a relatively low temperature, because it has a low smoke point.
And what is the definition of smoke points? Well, a smoke point is the temperature at which an oil starts to completely degrade and lots of toxic chemicals are actually released.
'The cheaper refined oils have been bleached 'and deodorized using a chemical process that makes them 'better to cook with at high temperatures.
' You should always go for the refined oils, simply because they have a higher smoke point.
I am very surprised by that, because I would think extra virgin olive oil is going to be better for me.
It is better for you -- if you don't cook with it.
'Let's get those chips on.
' Fire up those fryers.
So which of the refined oils we are using is the healthiest and how does coconut oil fair? Certain types of oils oxidise very, very easily and they generate very, very toxic compounds known as aldehydes.
And so what are aldehydes? Aldehydes are a group of molecules which are extremely toxic.
They have been implicated in many, many, many diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases.
They are pro-inflammatory, they are also carcinogenic as well.
So you want to limit the amount of aldehydes in your system, full stop? You want to limit them in your system as much as possible.
'So, are there any aldehydes hiding in these cooking oils?' This one is vegetable oil.
'Martin is going to add oil to a special powder.
' - This one is coconut oil.
- 'If aldehyes are present, - 'the liquid will change colour.
' - And this one is sunflower oil.
OK, so how long do we have to wait for a reaction? - About an hour or so.
- Oh.
Plenty of time for a portion of chips.
'After finishing off my chips and pinching a few of his' Help yourself.
'.
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it's time to find out 'if any of our cooking oils contained any aldehydes.
' Ooh, those are very different colours.
- The first one we have here, you see that is the deepest colour.
- Uh-huh.
And that is indicating there is more aldehydes - generated from that particular oil.
- So which oil is this? - That's sunflower oil.
- It is very high in aldehydes! Right, I'm going to pop that down there next to my sunflower.
This one here, you can see the colour is still reasonably intense, but it is less intense than the previous one, and that comes from the vegetable oil.
So if you look at that next to the sunflower - it's not quite as red.
- No.
- But it still contains lots of aldehydes.
Finally And finally, here is the coconut oil sample, - and as you can see, there is little or no colour.
- Gosh.
I mean, that is basically white.
- So are there any aldehydes in here at all? - Little or none, yes.
- Really? 'Coconut oil that has been refined contains fewer aldehydes 'because it is rich in saturated fats, 'which are more stable at high temperatures.
'However, the NHS advice still says we should choose oils 'high in unsaturated fats for cooking.
' Some of the vegetable oils we buy in the supermarket are great if we use them as salad dressing.
They are certainly not good for cooking, because of what happens to the molecules when we subject them to those very, very high temperatures.
We ought to be using a variety of oils for different purposes.
Absolutely.
If you are cooking at high temperatures, - go for a coconut oil - Mm-hmm.
.
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but if you are just going to use it cold, make a salad dressing, put it on some leaves Well, you can kind of use anything.
Coconut chips, anyone? Come on, do you want one? He has been gagging for a chip all day.
Come on, Neil.
That's it! Earlier, I was in Italy, and found that feasting on artichokes had a strange effect on the water I drank afterwards.
- You put any sugar in my water? - No, not at all! 'To find out why artichokes had such a tongue-tripping effect' - I'm Jim.
- Hi, Jim.
- Nice to meet you.
'.
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I'm meeting taste specialist Dr John Fry.
' It is a well-known effect of artichokes.
- The science behind it is quite unusual.
- Right, OK.
So, nice bit of artichoke heart What's happening now I've eaten that artichoke? Well, artichokes contain a substance called cynarin.
So it binds to your sweetness receptors on the tongue and shuts them down.
- So that prevents my tongue getting any sweet flavours? - That's right.
The water washes away the cynarin and floods the mouth with sweetness as the receptors in our taste buds are turned back on.
Water has never tasted so sweet.
That is bizarre.
So, in a way, the receptor in my brain is playing a trick on me.
Yeah, exactly.
'And artichokes aren't the only thing Dr Fry has brought along to 'send my tongue on a taste trip.
' What I do have is dried miracle berry.
The miracle berry is a fruit native to West Africa and it is another food that hacks into our taste buds.
While artichokes close down the tongue's sweetness receptors, these bizarre berries bind the same receptors, making the brain perceive sour flavours as sweet.
Time to put them to the test.
- Pop that in your gob.
- OK.
Let 'em dissolve.
'Miracle berries contain a substance called miraculin, 'the ingredient behind this mind-bending transformation.
' What's that like? Well, it's kind of like an orange, but it is really sherbet-ey.
- But then it tastes like other fruits.
- Yeah.
- Wow, lemon.
- Nice bit of lemon.
Forgot whoopee cushions, these miracle berries, or the odd artichoke, are all I need in my practical joke kit.
- It's nice, yeah.
- That's vinegar.
- Really? - Vinegar.
- Eugh! But there is a more serious use for these berries.
They can work as a sugar substitute and help patients recover their appetites after chemotherapy.
It's sour cream.
Eugh! Mine's worn off! With summer on its way, it is the Food Unwrapped diet special.
I jet to Japan to investigate miso soup Oh, mami! .
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and have high hopes for the apple cider vinegar diet.
Can you feel the pounds just dripping off you already? I ask why Italians are as lean as their linguine.
- So if I was to eat pasta every day, I'd be as thin as you? - Try! And I offer up my body to science in a quest to find a calorie-negative food.
Can you leave me alone for, like, a minute?