Food Unwrapped (2012) s08e51 Episode Script
Lose Weight for Summer
1 This summer, get the body of your dreams with Food Unwrapped as we share the secrets of Britain's super-slimmers.
On this summer's slimming secrets special, I jet to Japan to investigate the tales of weight loss with miso soup Can I try a little bit? .
.
and have high hopes for the apple cider vinegar diet.
Can you feel the pounds just dripping off you already? I meet a nation of pasta lovers, and find out 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 get to the bottom of the gut bacteria that can make you thinner.
So basically, you put that into a blender and you're going to make a poo smoothie? Oh, gosh! And I offer up my body to science in a quest to find a calorie-negative food.
Would you leave me alone for like a minute? We wanted to investigate the very latest diet trends, so we asked this lot.
This was me 12 months ago, and I've lost 3.
5st.
I lost just over a stone.
This was me before I lost nearly 9st on my secret summer slim down diet.
Meet the super-slimmers.
Just ordinary people but, between them, they've lost a total of 50st.
The secret of my weight loss is coconut oil.
Bacon, eggs, sausages and spinach.
High-fibre cereal.
Each of them swears by a different weight loss secret, and they've agreed to tell all.
I can eat and eat and eat, and pretty much never put on weight.
Well, that's annoying, but is there any science behind the secrets? And which ones actually work? I lost 11 inches on my waist thanks to my diet secret.
First on our hit list and trending worldwide .
.
the Japanese soup called miso.
- I love miso soup.
- Have we miso-ed up yet? Yeah! I would recommend miso for a diet.
What is it? Is it like Cup-a-Soup? Until recently, miso was only found in sushi restaurants.
But now, an instant form is in all the major supermarkets, and on thousands of slimmers' lists.
I'm trying to lose weight for summer, get beach fit, so I'm digging into the miso soup.
And it says it's healthy.
Now, does that mean it's going to help me lose weight? And I'm just not sure that it's going to fill me up.
ME-SO hungry, you see.
Bye! Can a slimy soup really help us get slimmer for summer? I'm off to miso's motherland.
Just outside Tokyo is one of the country's biggest manufacturers, in the city of Kofu.
We've just arrived at the miso factory and I've just got to show you something, OK, right.
Can you see just there? Everyone who works in the company apparently every morning comes outside, gathers together and says the company motto.
They really take their miso seriously! So, you make miso? Can I see? They've been perfecting the art of making miso paste for 100 years, and one of the ancient ingredients smells very familiar.
Do you know what, it really smells of rice pudding! That doesn't sound especially slimming to me.
So that smell of rice pudding is actually rice? That's how you start the miso? Once it's been cooked, a mould called koji is added.
Can I try a little bit? That doesn't need any translation! Then the rice is taken to a special room in the factory.
What's in here? Can we go in? Whoops, there it is again.
OK, how about I just have a little peek, just open the door for a second? Right, you ready? Come in close, come in.
Almost smells like you're making wine in there.
Just like brewing alcohol, the koji ferments the rice to give it its distinctive rich taste.
Quick, shut it! Access is restricted because if any foreign bacteria were to enter, it could ruin the fermentation process.
Another key ingredient are soya beans, but I'm still none the wiser as to how this soup could be tipped as a weight loss wonder.
That's good! Quite rich and deep.
So if you want to make a good miso soup, you take this, and what do you do? So, the miso paste is not the end of the story.
Well, I know what seaweed is, but I don't know what bonito is.
Back on the road, and I'm heading to the city of Yaizu, to get to the bottom of bonito.
So, it's lunch in the van today, and an unidentified delicacy.
On director Ben's recommendation.
What are they? Takoyaki.
Translation -- octopus pancake balls.
That is pretty good, isn't it, Ben? - They're delicious, they're really good.
- Mmm! Three octopus balls later and we're at the bonito factory.
I'm meeting factory manager Takahashi Suzuki.
Lovely to meet you.
And with the smell that greets me, I've finally worked out what bonito is.
Boy, it is so fishy in here, Suzuki.
It's a bonito fish? These bonito fish form the basis of the stock used in miso, and these guys process a whopping 1,000 of them a day.
That smell is very interesting, Suzuki.
The fish are boiled for two hours in these enormous vats to soften them before every single one of their hundreds of bones are removed by hand.
Blimey, you need some patience for this! And we're still not finished with this fish.
That is like a bonfire in a box! They are then smoked and dried for six weeks.
That literally looks like I've pulled two logs off the fire.
Even after all this, the fish are aged in mould for a further three weeks, where the bacteria feast on any residual fat and moisture.
Jeez, what a palaver.
What do you do with it now? This is the finished product.
Bonito flake.
Mmm! An astonishing amount of flavour just packed into one tiny, little flake, like that.
Could this be the key to miso's mythical weight loss magic? Are bonito flakes the reason why miso soup could possibly help you lose weight? That is one fat-free flake, isn't it? Later, I see all the components come together for a super taste sensation.
Umami! And find out whether the science stacks up for the miso method.
Participant A is not looking very interested in that food.
Next top tip from our super slimmers I've lost over 3.
5st despite eating loads of pasta.
Maybe pasta isn't as bad as we thought.
I'm heading to Parma in northern Italy, famous for Parma ham, Parmesan cheese and pasta.
Plenty of pasta.
How much pasta would you eat in a week? - 1.
5 kilos.
- Well, I eat pasta kind of every day.
- Every day? - Yeah.
In fact, the average Italian eats 26 kilos of high-carb pasta every year.
That's ten times more than us Brits.
Most of Italian people eat pasta every day.
But while we are getting bigger and bigger, the Italians stay as trim as their tagliatelle.
So if I was to eat pasta every day, I would be as thin as you? Try! Hang on, pasta's a carb, carbs turn to sugar, and sugar makes you fat.
So how can pasta not make you fat? This pasta factory looks huge, and it is.
In fact, it's the world's largest.
Hi there, I'm Jim.
Nice to meet you.
Antonio Nespoli is going to fill me in.
Hi, now I'm here to find out if pasta is good or bad for your waistline.
- Let's go to see the secrets.
OK? - Fine.
This factory produces 1.
8 billion tonnes of pasta every year.
In 120 different shapes.
And you need more than wheels of pasta to get around this factory floor! But it all begins here, with a handful of grain.
Yes.
Dry pasta is almost always produced using this durum wheat.
The hard durum wheat is ground into a yellow semolina flour.
Yeah, great.
Next, the flour's mixed with water for 12 minutes to form a dough.
- That is a very, very quick pasta machine.
- Yes.
So I'd seen the raw ingredients, but I hadn't seen anything that would stop these pasta carbs from making me porky.
Yes.
So, is this extrusion process, where pasta dough is turned into a pasta shape, the thing that keeps pasta eaters in shape? The heat and high pressure traps starch granules in a web of gluten, altering the shape of the molecules and creating a starch that takes longer to digest.
The glycaemic index ranks food on a scale of 0 to 100.
The higher the GI score, the more quickly it raises blood sugar levels.
But surely the shape of the pasta couldn't mean a lower GI? So why is there a variation? So the amount of pressure applied to the pasta can change the GI? So, if you're watching your weight, fettuccine looks like the best bet.
What's more, head chef Roberto Bassi is going to share a top tip that every self-respecting Italian knows.
"Al dente" is Italian for "to the tooth".
Pasta al dente is firm to bite.
Why al dente? There you go.
You needn't deny yourself that bowl of pasta.
Who'd have thought it? So, keep slim, cook it al dente.
You are a pasta eater, because you are I'm a nonstop pasta eater.
Thank you very much.
So are you.
We should go out together! Now, calorie-negative food -- fact or fiction? Calorie-negative foods? If I could have eaten food that would have burned calories, I would definitely have done that.
If you look at the diet vloggers' webcasts, it's a hot topic.
You can eat as much of it as you want without any weight gain.
Well, she's bought in.
But this one's not a big believer.
Guys, this is just not true! And this trainer is just plain confused.
Is there such a thing or is it just a myth? Time to clear this up once and for all.
Leeds City fruit and veg market is the biggest in Europe, so I'm hoping I can find some of this calorie-negative food in here.
Have you got a food which you'd consider calorie-negative? - Cucumbers.
- Celery.
- Maybe grapefruit? - Lime or lemon? Next to no calories? I thought all veg were like next to no calories.
I've picked some calorie-negative frontrunners, but I think I need some expert help to narrow things down.
- Hiya, how are you doing? - Nice to meet you.
Anna Daniels is from the British Dietetic Association.
- I got all this fruit and veg from these guys earlier.
- Brilliant.
So I got celery, I've got melons, there's grapefruit in there.
And it's what the guys on the stall thought could be calorie-negative food.
- Is there such a thing? - If there were to be such a thing as a calorie-negative food, there are certain things you'd be looking for.
To choose our frontrunner, Anna's brought along her handy fruit and veg who's who, which lists the nutritional content of every variety.
So what determines whether something could be calorie-negative? So we'd be looking for three things.
- High in water.
- Water, right.
- High in fibre.
- Yeah.
- And low in calories.
So, time to chalk up which is the key contender out of melon, cucumber or celery.
Looking at these, what would you say here could be conceived as calorie-negative? If there were to be such a thing as a calorie-negative food You're not hanging your hat on this, are you, to be honest? If there were There's no evidence, but if there were, celery is the one that comes out on top.
Later, to bring you the truth in the first trial of its kind, I endure the calorie chamber armed with nothing but celery.
It's like trying to re-eat vomit.
Back to the summer slimming secrets special.
I used to be a size 20, but now I'm a size 12.
We're revealing which of our slender squad's weight loss tricks could actually get results.
I've gone down four dress sizes, all thanks to vegetables.
I would say that my summer slimming secret is eating bacon and eggs.
The secret to my summer body is eating lots of chicken.
Nice one.
I'm on a mission to find out if there's such a thing as a calorie-negative food -- something you can eat to actually lose weight.
If there were to be such a thing as a calorie-negative food, celery is the one that comes up on top.
So, can eating celery actually burn calories? Nobody has ever tested this scientifically, but University Hospital Coventry have agreed to give it a go.
- Hello.
- Hi, Matt.
- Matt.
- Good to see you.
- Nice to meet you.
Dr Tom Barber from Warwick University has volunteered to be the first to scientifically test whether a calorie-negative food actually exists.
But he needs a lab rat.
It's a shame I don't like celery.
- So, Matt, this is the bod pod room.
- OK.
First, he needs an accurate reading of my muscle and fat, so it's into the bod pod in just my pants and a funny hat.
Then, it's off to something called a metabolic chamber.
- It's a bit like a submarine.
- Stuffy, isn't it? It's hermetically sealed, because what it essentially does is measure how much carbon dioxide you're producing and how much oxygen you're consuming, and from that we can work out how many calories you are burning to digest the celery that you're eating.
- Let's do it.
- OK.
- See you later.
- Bye-bye.
Come on, then.
Off you pop, you lot.
I'm gonna make myself comfortable.
It takes two hours for Dr Barber to calculate my base metabolic rate -- how many calories I burn just doing nothing.
Then, it's lunchtime.
If you could eat as much of that as you can.
If only it came with a cheese board and some chutney.
So you did really well with the celery, you managed to eat about 326g.
While I wait for my body to digest all this fibre, it's lucky I can count on the Food Unwrapped team to be supportive.
Could you leave me alone for, like, a minute? After five hours, there's a bit of good news.
I don't have to eat celery any more.
I have to drink it instead.
It's like trying to re-eat vomit.
After 12 hours, my man versus celery ordeal has ended.
- Welcome to the outside world.
- Wow, thanks.
Dr Tom will now calculate the calories I burned chewing and digesting the whole celery, and then those burned digesting the smoothie.
- Oh! Can I have this, then? - Yeah.
Canteen korma never tasted so good! Later, I'll find out if these sticks of fibre really are the root of a metabolic miracle.
Thrown up a couple of interesting surprises.
Back to miso.
I've been on a wild goose chase trying to work out what it is about miso that could help you get in shape.
That is one fat-free flake, isn't it? And I still don't know if it actually works.
Back in Tokyo, I've heard of a chef that makes a mean miso.
- Konnichiwa! - Konnichiwa.
'Let's hope Chef Takashi can reveal the miso's slimming secrets.
' I've heard you make a really lovely one.
Aha! Seaweed! Maybe this is the slimming secret.
The bonito flakes are simmered with the kelp seaweed and then sieved.
And finally, the miso paste is added.
Arigatou.
Mm! That is so tasty! Ooh-what-ee? So what exactly is umami? Umami is now recognised as the fifth taste, in addition to bitter, sweet, sour and salty.
- Umami.
- Umami.
- Umami.
- OK! Do you know if umami has got anything to do with slimming? Could just a flavour alone really help you lose weight? Umami! Back in the UK, I'm beginning to wonder if this is just another shaggy dog story.
But there's a professor at the University of Sussex who is leading a study into umami and appetite.
- Hello, Martin! - Good morning.
Professor Martin Yeomans.
So, I've been to Japan and I heard lots about umami, but I'm still no closer to finding out if there is a link, scientifically, between miso soup and weight loss.
Well, the work we've been doing suggests there might be.
Very surprising.
This is exciting.
And what's more, Martin has identified the two components that make umami -- compounds known as glutamates and nucleotides.
In miso, these come from kelp and the bonito fish flakes.
It turns out that broth, which is the basis for miso soup, has the perfect combination of these glutamate and nucleotide sources, and that's what gives it that strong umami taste.
But how could a taste help us back into our skinny jeans? We've developed our ability to taste umami probably because it's valuable to us, because it says there might be protein there.
So a signal is basically going to my brain, almost saying, what, prepare for protein, protein's coming? That's how we're interpreting it and we know protein is very filling.
What we've got is the evidence if you enhance umami in certain foods, you increase satiety.
And so if you have an umami-rich diet, you typically end up reducing your intake.
And that is scientific fact? Absolutely.
Over the last two years, Martin's team has studied 87 participants to identify a link between umami and appetite.
Gosh, it's like CCTV.
Volunteers believe they are taking part in mental agility tests, so the results are unbiased.
As they tackle the brain games, they are served soups.
One packed with umami and the other umami-free.
- Do they have to finish their whole bowl of soup? - Absolutely.
They are then fed as much pasta as they can eat.
The pasta is going in! Will the participant who had the umami-laced soup eat less than the other? Participant A is not looking very interested in that food.
Quite quickly, participant A, who drank the umami soup, starts to flag, but participant B is still loving that pasta.
Participant A looks like she may have decided she's had enough.
- So if you compare how much pasta they ate - Yep.
.
.
what was the difference? Participant B, 400g of pasta.
A, with added umami, 320g.
So participant A, who had the umami soup, ate 20% less pasta.
A fair amount, isn't it? So how do the results today compare with your bigger studies? We've tested over 60 people and so this is very much the same pattern, it's the same direction.
It's still early days for this area of research, but it looks like there could be something about the taste of umami that triggers us to eat less.
I can see miso soup nationwide just flying off the shelves! Coming up -- we've put more of our dieters' tips under the microscope I lost a stone in six months.
.
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to see which ones could actually help you get your body in shape for summer.
Back to the summer diet secret special.
And there's one sour substance that's on everyone's lips.
I lost a stone in six months and it's all down to this apple cider vinegar.
- I love vinegar.
- Huge fan of the vinegar.
It doesn't taste as bad as you'd think.
According to the glossies, this one is the latest A-list favourite.
Everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow to Megan Fox are championing its health virtues.
So we're going to give it a shot.
Hi there.
Do you sell cider vinegar? It claims that it's good for healthy living.
- If you get these health magazines, it's all the trend.
- 'Is it?' So you don't know if it'll help me lose weight? 'I wouldn't have thought so, no.
' I've come to south London, to meet our super slimmer who swears by the stuff Hi, Ella.
'.
.
Ella Allred.
' - Nice to meet you.
- You too.
This cocktail bar specialises in health-enhancing, non-alcoholic juices, many of which are super-charged with a shot of vinegar.
Right, OK.
Cheers.
- Cheers.
- This is my first vinegar cocktail.
- Not bad, is it? Quite nice.
- It's pretty good.
- Yeah.
Ella had been struggling to lose weight after having a baby, until she discovered the wonders of apple cider vinegar.
So you think apple cider vinegar has helped you lose weight? Definitely.
It was as soon as I put the vinegar in that I noticed a massive improvement in my digestion and my appetite suppressed quite a lot, as well.
So this is when my baby was three months old.
- OK.
- So still quite fat, as you can see.
This is the next spring.
Gosh! And you think it's down to that? Yes.
It was the apple cider vinegar that did it for me.
Ella drank ten millilitres in water before each meal and, apparently, the pounds dropped off.
Blimey! That gets the engine started, doesn't it? It certainly does.
Vinegar may have the power to pickle but how on earth can it make you lose weight? The European Food Safety Authority hasn't approved any of its health claims yet, so I'm headed to Suffolk to check this out myself.
- Hi, Henry.
- Hiya.
How are you? - Kate.
- Welcome to Suffolk.
Henry Chevalier's family has been making apple ciders and vinegars since 1728.
Lead the way.
So this is where it all starts - Apples.
- .
.
with the wonderful apples.
We take that apple and we squeeze all the juice out of it.
Then we ferment the sugar in the juice to alcohol and it turns into cider.
So here's one we prepared earlier.
- Mm, lovely.
So in order to make your vinegar - Mm-hm? .
.
all you start with is cider? That's it.
Good cider, but cider.
It's pretty surprising that ultimately this vinegar, that people think can help them lose weight, starts as something that often would make you put on weight.
But there's some magic in there that changes things around.
So what is this magic that turns a sugary sweet tipple into this sour solution that's got so many slimmers hooked? - So, welcome to the vinegar barn, where - I can smell vinegar.
It's quite strong, quite pungent.
- It's making my mouth water.
- Mm-hm.
The cider is piped into enormous fermentation tanks, where the transformation into vinegar takes place.
There is a culture of bacteria in here, specifically called Acetobacter.
This is what turns the alcohol into acetic acid.
Acetic acid is the chemical compound that gives vinegar its pungent smell and sour taste.
Can we see that bacteria? Microscopically, it's so small that you can't see it with the naked eye, but if you actually leave Acetobacter in a bottle What's that? What are those little nuggets? That, essentially, is a culture of bacteria.
That's the mother culture.
Gosh! So these little nuggets -- which almost look like chestnuts, don't they, suspended? -- - are like, almost, little bacteria cities.
- Yes.
The bacteria feasts on the calorific alcohol and converts it into acetic acid.
- Can I try this? - Yes, you can.
Of course you can.
Do you the power of good.
But that tastes like a vinegar I haven't tasted before.
- Do you think? - It's real vinegar.
- So we both have just had a little swig - Mm-hm.
.
.
but can you feel the pounds just dripping off you already? Well, I'm not a nutritionist but the amount of letters and the number of anecdotal snippets that we've picked up through years and years and years of doing this tends to suggest there is something in it.
Coming up, we put vinegar to the test with a food you don't find on many diets.
So you've got your chips You can eat.
Back to our super slimmers.
What if you could eat anything and never have to diet? I really, really love eating chocolate.
Bacon sandwiches.
I've got a real sweet tooth so cheesecakes, chocolate, croissants -- things like that.
Well, that's so unfair.
Seriously, though, what is her secret? So, I found out that I have a special form of gut bacteria.
It's a microbe and it means that I can eat and eat and eat and pretty much never put on weight.
And she's not the only one.
We're twins.
Carol Champion and Wendy Jackson are non-identical twins.
Most twins remain the same approximate weight as each other throughout their entire lives -- but not these two.
I am 6st lighter than my twin because I have good gut bacteria.
I hide it well.
So can these little beasties inside our stomach really mean that for some of us, staying slim is easy? To find out, I've come to St Thomas's Hospital in London, who are part of a ground-breaking transatlantic study on the human gut.
Hi there, you must be Tim.
I'm Jim.
- Nice to meet you.
- Hello, Jim.
- Wow! Dr Tim Spector is leading the charge here in the UK, and we're diving straight in.
This is a poo sample.
Most of these microbes -- there are 100 trillion of them in our gut -- are beneficial.
So these guys here are all doing a good job? 99% of them are doing a great job.
It's a huge community that work together, a bit like a rainforest.
Right, so when we're trying to look at our diets, we consider the foods we eat but we don't consider the bacteria - in our stomach, do we? - Exactly.
That's why it's been called the forgotten organ.
But now science is rediscovering the gut, which could revolutionise the way we diet.
They produce vitamins, they're important for brain development.
Our immune system can't really function without them.
And they can even help us with weight loss.
They can help us stay slim? Absolutely.
There are certain microbes that can stop you gaining weight.
Dr Spector's ground-breaking study also collated data from thousands of twins, including Wendy and Carol.
They're of particular interest -- their DNA is similar but their waistlines are not.
We measured the microbes and we found big differences between the two sisters.
And looking at thousands of twins, we found there was one microbe in particular that was key, that we rarely found in overweight people, and we found much more commonly in skinny people who found it hard to gain weight.
And this particular microbe, no-one had ever really heard of before and it comes under the strange name of Christensenella.
That was the big difference between many of the twins and, in particular, between Wendy and Carol.
So it's not just the diet, the kind of food she's eating, but it's the symbiotic relationship with these little bacteria in our gut? It is, and the reason we know for sure is that in part of this experiment, we took the microbe from twins and we put them into laboratory mice and we could stop them gaining weight, even on a high-fat diet.
So it was preventing the weight gain -- that's how we knew it was causal.
That's incredible.
So depending who's living in your gut, what bacteria you've got, can influence if you're going to gain weight or not? Absolutely.
This explains why all of us vary so much when we go on diets.
They can succeed for some people and fail totally for others.
'And so for the question on every doughnut lover's lips' And if I want to get the right gut bacteria, is there anything I can do to help that? Yes.
It's down to changing your diet, and cut out all processed foods.
'Right.
I'm so up for this.
'But before I can embark on my gut upgrade, 'it's time for a trip to the little boy's room.
' 'And voila.
' You're going to test my poo to see the microbes I've got? - Where you are now.
- Yeah.
- That's our baseline.
What I will do is then really try and ramp up those microbes, those good ones, and that will improve your health.
So while Dr Spector gets stuck into my sample, I'm going to start eating my way to a gutful of bulge-beating bacteria.
Right, my diet has arrived, from Professor Tim Spector.
Let's have a look.
There's all sorts in here.
I've got celery, seeds .
.
kale, bananas, natural yogurt, berries, coffee, green tea.
Ah, hang on a minute -- it's not all going to be that bad.
Chocolate.
Wine.
Lovely.
Coming up, I discover there is one other way of boosting your good bacteria.
Basically, you put it into a blender and you're going to make a poo smoothie? Yeah, that's one way of looking at it.
But be warned -- it's not for the faint-hearted.
What does it feel like now? It's very relaxing, it's very soothing.
I've set out to see if I can prove that celery is every dieter's dream -- something you can eat that makes you lose weight.
It's like trying to re-eat vomit.
Is it just a myth? Right, it's results day.
See if all that celery eating was worth it.
- Dr Barlow, how are you? - Hi, Matt.
- Nice to see you.
Here I am.
- Indeed.
- In statistics.
We had some really interesting data, actually, from the study - and it's thrown up a couple of interesting surprises.
- OK.
I had two meals of celery -- one I munched and one I drank.
Both contained 326g of celery, each equivalent to 53 calories.
And for the celery I ate, the results are eye-popping.
You did in fact burn off more calories than you actually got from the celery.
By 19 calories.
We did it! In an experiment that's never been done before, I digested 53 calories of celery but burned 72.
That's a negative calorie count of 19.
And it gets even better.
So what about the drink -- that vile celery drink? It was even more impressive than the case with the raw celery.
You seemed to burn off an extra 59 calories.
Amazingly, that glass of green gunk took me a whopping 112 calories to burn, a negative calorie count of 59.
But why? If you liquidise the celery, break down all that fibre and you release the nutrients from the celery, it gives the liver more work to do.
And you get the added bonus of, it actually makes you lose weight.
Indeed.
You would expect to lose weight.
So this, in other words, is negative-calorie food.
- So it's true? - I think we have to be a little bit cautious in how we interpret it.
- I don't think we do! I think it's a fact.
So the Food Unwrapped crown for the world's first official calorie-negative food .
.
goes to celery.
Coming up, does the hip Hollywood cider vinegar diet actually deliver? This is a scientific experiment.
I don't want to see any vinegar left.
Back to our Summer Diet Secrets Special, and apple cider vinegar.
I lost a stone in six months.
- Oh, I love vinegar.
- Huge fan of the vinegar.
It doesn't taste as bad as you would think.
And I might have found a clue to back up our slimmers' claims that it minimised their muffin tops.
There's a culture of bacteria in here and this is what turns the alcohol into acetic acid.
Is it all about the acetic acid? I've come to Brighton to meet dietician Nicole Berberian.
- Hi, Nicole.
- Hey.
'She's set up a trial at a cool ad agency 'to replicate the various studies that seem to demonstrate 'that the vinegar diet could actually get results.
' Good morning, team.
Good morning.
So I've looked into vinegar and discovered that there's this thing in apple cider vinegar called acetic acid.
Now, has that got something to do with weight loss? That's what studies have shown.
The acetic acid itself, which is in vinegar, dressing, pickled foods and fermented foods.
So it's not just apple cider vinegar? All the vinegars have got acetic acid in and that's the key component we're looking at.
'There are several theories as to why acetic acid 'might help some people lose weight.
'From suppressing appetite to aiding digestion.
'But the most solid data links vinegar 'to regulating blood sugar levels.
' So what are we doing today? We've got our willing volunteers that have already done a test meal.
'Last week, our guinea pigs fasted for 12 hours 'before tucking into chips without vinegar.
'The sugar levels in their blood were measured 'every 15 minutes for two hours, 'charting how high it peaked.
' So, this week, what we're going to do is give them the chips again, but douse it with vinegar and see can we bring the blood sugar down so that they get a much slower response in their blood sugar levels? The idea is that helps with cravings and keeps them full for longer.
'So it's chips for breakfast again, 'but this time with 30ml of the chip shop favourite -- malt vinegar.
' Right, so you've got your chips.
They're vinegared.
You all look very hungry.
You can eat.
This is a scientific experiment.
I don't want to see any vinegar left.
What happens next? Now what we're going to do is just get you to use your blood sugar monitors and keep testing your blood sugar over the next two hours so we can see what's really going on.
I'd just like to introduce you to James.
He's a researcher on the Food Unwrapped team.
Now, James has been a little bit of a guinea pig with this chip experiment, and you've done it, haven't you? Four times.
Four times.
James has eaten a lot of chips.
So how did it work for you? All the times I did it, when I added vinegar to my chips, my blood sugar spike was much less, yeah.
Wow.
'But will vinegar have the same effect on these guys?' Hello, chaps! You've eaten your chips and the results are in.
Right, James, let's see them.
'The blue bars represent the sugar levels in their blood 'after eating chips without vinegar.
'If it's worked, the sugar levels in red after adding the vinegar 'should be lower.
'Shame, we had high hopes for this one.
' 'Out of our very small test group, it only worked for two of them.
'Oh, and James, of course.
' So we've explored the link between acetic acid and blood sugar levels today.
But the only two that did what we were expecting were Chenai and Jane.
That is pretty interesting.
Do you want to talk us through it? There's so many variables that we may not have controlled for, such as what food did you eat the night before? Was it the same from last week to this week? Different levels of activity, all of these can affect your response.
These guys are looking at those results thinking, "You made me eat chips twice for breakfast for that.
" Sorry.
'Well, our super slimmers may swear by this, 'but for us it didn't exactly smash it.
'Perhaps try it without the chips.
' Back to gut bacteria.
I've been learning about a microbe that scientists believe could win the war against obesity.
It can help us to stay slim? Absolutely.
There are certain microbes that can stop you gaining weight.
'To try and get some of this wonder stuff growing in my gut, 'I'm on a special diet.
' So, it's day three of my high-fibre diet.
And I'm out filming with the crew.
But I've still got my spinach to eat, lots of greens.
I've even got a cabbage-y kind of green drink to drink.
It's making me very gassy.
I'm getting a bit fed up with it, so let's hope it's had some sort of effect on my gut bacteria.
'But I've heard there's a quicker way to get the good guys in.
'To find out more, I'm on my way to a private clinic in Hertfordshire.
' Hi there, I'm Jim.
Hi, I'm Glenn.
I'm Director of Science here.
'Glenn Taylor specialises in something called faecal transplants.
That's right, I said faecal transplants.
OK, so Here we have a sample brought in by a donor this morning.
So, that is, that's a that's a fresh Sitting in there will be somebody's bowel movement.
'All faeces used for transplant are processed 'within 90 minutes of coming into the world, 'and only come from the creme de la creme of healthy donors.
' Now, when I heard the words "faecal implant" .
.
your sort of, your mind, it wanders.
It's not about You're not going to put somebody else's poo - up someone else's bottom, are you? - No.
This is a long way from that.
We're only interested in the bacteria.
So your job is to get the bacteria out of the poo? Just to process the bacteria back out of that.
So it's a good job it's not Smell-O-Vision.
So we're ready now to homogenise this.
So, basically, you've put it into a blender and you're going to make a poo smoothie? Oh, gosh! Yeah, you're you're right.
Yep, that's one way of looking at it.
Wow.
That was quick.
'The heady mixture is sieved to remove leftover food, liver waste, 'old skin cells and mucus.
' God, you want to make sure that's tight, don't you? 'Next, it's into the centrifuge, which separates the mixture, 'revealing the bacteria that Glenn's after.
' - Do you see that dark ring down at the bottom there? - Yeah.
OK, there's your pellet.
That's your microbial pellet.
So, tell me, who are your patients, then? Well, it started off with patients with intestinal problems.
But it's getting more complex than that, because doctors are referring a broader range of patients for treatment.
So what is the future for this good gut bacteria? Well, at the moment there are some very encouraging results coming out of studies and trials to suggest quite strongly that faecal microbial matter may play a part in weight loss.
'Currently, faecal transplants are only being used 'to help with digestive disorders, rather than for weight loss.
'Annalise McBean has come all the way from the States 'to treat her autoimmune disorder and coeliac disease.
' Hi, there.
I'm Jim, nice to meet you.
- Thanks for meeting me.
- Sure.
So, this procedure, for most people, if they don't know about it, it seems pretty weird, doesn't it? For me it made a whole lot of sense that healthy bacteria living in somebody's healthy colon is something I'm missing.
'Today is the sixth transplant of her course.
' Do you see any difference? Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes.
It's kind of like, imagine carrying a bowling ball around in your belly.
- Yeah.
- For most of your life.
- Yeah.
And then, within a couple of days, the bowling ball's gone.
So, after just five, six treatments, there's an immediate? For me, there has been.
For me, there has been.
Yeah.
'Extensive clinical trials on the effectiveness of this treatment 'are yet to be carried out.
'Matron Madeleine Smith is administering 'today's faecal transplant.
' So that'll be the tube that we're going to be giving the treatment through.
Right, OK.
So, that'll go into the bowel and - Her rectum, yes, it will go into there.
- OK.
Yeah.
And then this is the actual, um bacteria.
Wow! Before you had this done, did you think there'd be such a large amount? - Er - For some reason I thought it would be Yeah, I'm from America, bigger's always better! I'm glad to see that it's a lot.
Well, because you see the benefits already, you know, any discomfort is nothing compared to what you've put up with.
- Absolutely true, absolutely true.
- Yeah.
Right, well, best of luck.
'A course of transplants like these cost around £4,000.
'And 20 minutes later, it's all over.
'I think for the moment, I'll just stick with the diet.
'Speaking of which, I've got a special delivery.
' Just got my results from my gut bacteria test.
A couple of photos.
That's before I started the diet and that was after.
'There's definitely more of SOMETHING there.
'Let's hope it's good bacteria.
' Right, so this is from Professor Tim Spector.
"Dear Jimmy, your bacterial composition to start with "was very impressive, showing you already had a good diet.
"And after just seven days on the probiotic high-fibre diet, "your results show a small but positive change "in your gut bacteria, which is really great.
"Keep it up for another two-to-three weeks "and we'd expect to see an even bigger difference.
" Do you know what? I reckon all the difference was made by all the chocolate and the wine.
So what have we learned? Well, vinegar may work for some.
Miso could mess with our minds.
Celery really is calorie-negative.
Perhaps pasta isn't the dieting demon we thought.
And we should all nurture our gut bacteria.
But whatever slimming secret you go for this summer, we hope it works for you.
On this summer's slimming secrets special, I jet to Japan to investigate the tales of weight loss with miso soup Can I try a little bit? .
.
and have high hopes for the apple cider vinegar diet.
Can you feel the pounds just dripping off you already? I meet a nation of pasta lovers, and find out 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 get to the bottom of the gut bacteria that can make you thinner.
So basically, you put that into a blender and you're going to make a poo smoothie? Oh, gosh! And I offer up my body to science in a quest to find a calorie-negative food.
Would you leave me alone for like a minute? We wanted to investigate the very latest diet trends, so we asked this lot.
This was me 12 months ago, and I've lost 3.
5st.
I lost just over a stone.
This was me before I lost nearly 9st on my secret summer slim down diet.
Meet the super-slimmers.
Just ordinary people but, between them, they've lost a total of 50st.
The secret of my weight loss is coconut oil.
Bacon, eggs, sausages and spinach.
High-fibre cereal.
Each of them swears by a different weight loss secret, and they've agreed to tell all.
I can eat and eat and eat, and pretty much never put on weight.
Well, that's annoying, but is there any science behind the secrets? And which ones actually work? I lost 11 inches on my waist thanks to my diet secret.
First on our hit list and trending worldwide .
.
the Japanese soup called miso.
- I love miso soup.
- Have we miso-ed up yet? Yeah! I would recommend miso for a diet.
What is it? Is it like Cup-a-Soup? Until recently, miso was only found in sushi restaurants.
But now, an instant form is in all the major supermarkets, and on thousands of slimmers' lists.
I'm trying to lose weight for summer, get beach fit, so I'm digging into the miso soup.
And it says it's healthy.
Now, does that mean it's going to help me lose weight? And I'm just not sure that it's going to fill me up.
ME-SO hungry, you see.
Bye! Can a slimy soup really help us get slimmer for summer? I'm off to miso's motherland.
Just outside Tokyo is one of the country's biggest manufacturers, in the city of Kofu.
We've just arrived at the miso factory and I've just got to show you something, OK, right.
Can you see just there? Everyone who works in the company apparently every morning comes outside, gathers together and says the company motto.
They really take their miso seriously! So, you make miso? Can I see? They've been perfecting the art of making miso paste for 100 years, and one of the ancient ingredients smells very familiar.
Do you know what, it really smells of rice pudding! That doesn't sound especially slimming to me.
So that smell of rice pudding is actually rice? That's how you start the miso? Once it's been cooked, a mould called koji is added.
Can I try a little bit? That doesn't need any translation! Then the rice is taken to a special room in the factory.
What's in here? Can we go in? Whoops, there it is again.
OK, how about I just have a little peek, just open the door for a second? Right, you ready? Come in close, come in.
Almost smells like you're making wine in there.
Just like brewing alcohol, the koji ferments the rice to give it its distinctive rich taste.
Quick, shut it! Access is restricted because if any foreign bacteria were to enter, it could ruin the fermentation process.
Another key ingredient are soya beans, but I'm still none the wiser as to how this soup could be tipped as a weight loss wonder.
That's good! Quite rich and deep.
So if you want to make a good miso soup, you take this, and what do you do? So, the miso paste is not the end of the story.
Well, I know what seaweed is, but I don't know what bonito is.
Back on the road, and I'm heading to the city of Yaizu, to get to the bottom of bonito.
So, it's lunch in the van today, and an unidentified delicacy.
On director Ben's recommendation.
What are they? Takoyaki.
Translation -- octopus pancake balls.
That is pretty good, isn't it, Ben? - They're delicious, they're really good.
- Mmm! Three octopus balls later and we're at the bonito factory.
I'm meeting factory manager Takahashi Suzuki.
Lovely to meet you.
And with the smell that greets me, I've finally worked out what bonito is.
Boy, it is so fishy in here, Suzuki.
It's a bonito fish? These bonito fish form the basis of the stock used in miso, and these guys process a whopping 1,000 of them a day.
That smell is very interesting, Suzuki.
The fish are boiled for two hours in these enormous vats to soften them before every single one of their hundreds of bones are removed by hand.
Blimey, you need some patience for this! And we're still not finished with this fish.
That is like a bonfire in a box! They are then smoked and dried for six weeks.
That literally looks like I've pulled two logs off the fire.
Even after all this, the fish are aged in mould for a further three weeks, where the bacteria feast on any residual fat and moisture.
Jeez, what a palaver.
What do you do with it now? This is the finished product.
Bonito flake.
Mmm! An astonishing amount of flavour just packed into one tiny, little flake, like that.
Could this be the key to miso's mythical weight loss magic? Are bonito flakes the reason why miso soup could possibly help you lose weight? That is one fat-free flake, isn't it? Later, I see all the components come together for a super taste sensation.
Umami! And find out whether the science stacks up for the miso method.
Participant A is not looking very interested in that food.
Next top tip from our super slimmers I've lost over 3.
5st despite eating loads of pasta.
Maybe pasta isn't as bad as we thought.
I'm heading to Parma in northern Italy, famous for Parma ham, Parmesan cheese and pasta.
Plenty of pasta.
How much pasta would you eat in a week? - 1.
5 kilos.
- Well, I eat pasta kind of every day.
- Every day? - Yeah.
In fact, the average Italian eats 26 kilos of high-carb pasta every year.
That's ten times more than us Brits.
Most of Italian people eat pasta every day.
But while we are getting bigger and bigger, the Italians stay as trim as their tagliatelle.
So if I was to eat pasta every day, I would be as thin as you? Try! Hang on, pasta's a carb, carbs turn to sugar, and sugar makes you fat.
So how can pasta not make you fat? This pasta factory looks huge, and it is.
In fact, it's the world's largest.
Hi there, I'm Jim.
Nice to meet you.
Antonio Nespoli is going to fill me in.
Hi, now I'm here to find out if pasta is good or bad for your waistline.
- Let's go to see the secrets.
OK? - Fine.
This factory produces 1.
8 billion tonnes of pasta every year.
In 120 different shapes.
And you need more than wheels of pasta to get around this factory floor! But it all begins here, with a handful of grain.
Yes.
Dry pasta is almost always produced using this durum wheat.
The hard durum wheat is ground into a yellow semolina flour.
Yeah, great.
Next, the flour's mixed with water for 12 minutes to form a dough.
- That is a very, very quick pasta machine.
- Yes.
So I'd seen the raw ingredients, but I hadn't seen anything that would stop these pasta carbs from making me porky.
Yes.
So, is this extrusion process, where pasta dough is turned into a pasta shape, the thing that keeps pasta eaters in shape? The heat and high pressure traps starch granules in a web of gluten, altering the shape of the molecules and creating a starch that takes longer to digest.
The glycaemic index ranks food on a scale of 0 to 100.
The higher the GI score, the more quickly it raises blood sugar levels.
But surely the shape of the pasta couldn't mean a lower GI? So why is there a variation? So the amount of pressure applied to the pasta can change the GI? So, if you're watching your weight, fettuccine looks like the best bet.
What's more, head chef Roberto Bassi is going to share a top tip that every self-respecting Italian knows.
"Al dente" is Italian for "to the tooth".
Pasta al dente is firm to bite.
Why al dente? There you go.
You needn't deny yourself that bowl of pasta.
Who'd have thought it? So, keep slim, cook it al dente.
You are a pasta eater, because you are I'm a nonstop pasta eater.
Thank you very much.
So are you.
We should go out together! Now, calorie-negative food -- fact or fiction? Calorie-negative foods? If I could have eaten food that would have burned calories, I would definitely have done that.
If you look at the diet vloggers' webcasts, it's a hot topic.
You can eat as much of it as you want without any weight gain.
Well, she's bought in.
But this one's not a big believer.
Guys, this is just not true! And this trainer is just plain confused.
Is there such a thing or is it just a myth? Time to clear this up once and for all.
Leeds City fruit and veg market is the biggest in Europe, so I'm hoping I can find some of this calorie-negative food in here.
Have you got a food which you'd consider calorie-negative? - Cucumbers.
- Celery.
- Maybe grapefruit? - Lime or lemon? Next to no calories? I thought all veg were like next to no calories.
I've picked some calorie-negative frontrunners, but I think I need some expert help to narrow things down.
- Hiya, how are you doing? - Nice to meet you.
Anna Daniels is from the British Dietetic Association.
- I got all this fruit and veg from these guys earlier.
- Brilliant.
So I got celery, I've got melons, there's grapefruit in there.
And it's what the guys on the stall thought could be calorie-negative food.
- Is there such a thing? - If there were to be such a thing as a calorie-negative food, there are certain things you'd be looking for.
To choose our frontrunner, Anna's brought along her handy fruit and veg who's who, which lists the nutritional content of every variety.
So what determines whether something could be calorie-negative? So we'd be looking for three things.
- High in water.
- Water, right.
- High in fibre.
- Yeah.
- And low in calories.
So, time to chalk up which is the key contender out of melon, cucumber or celery.
Looking at these, what would you say here could be conceived as calorie-negative? If there were to be such a thing as a calorie-negative food You're not hanging your hat on this, are you, to be honest? If there were There's no evidence, but if there were, celery is the one that comes out on top.
Later, to bring you the truth in the first trial of its kind, I endure the calorie chamber armed with nothing but celery.
It's like trying to re-eat vomit.
Back to the summer slimming secrets special.
I used to be a size 20, but now I'm a size 12.
We're revealing which of our slender squad's weight loss tricks could actually get results.
I've gone down four dress sizes, all thanks to vegetables.
I would say that my summer slimming secret is eating bacon and eggs.
The secret to my summer body is eating lots of chicken.
Nice one.
I'm on a mission to find out if there's such a thing as a calorie-negative food -- something you can eat to actually lose weight.
If there were to be such a thing as a calorie-negative food, celery is the one that comes up on top.
So, can eating celery actually burn calories? Nobody has ever tested this scientifically, but University Hospital Coventry have agreed to give it a go.
- Hello.
- Hi, Matt.
- Matt.
- Good to see you.
- Nice to meet you.
Dr Tom Barber from Warwick University has volunteered to be the first to scientifically test whether a calorie-negative food actually exists.
But he needs a lab rat.
It's a shame I don't like celery.
- So, Matt, this is the bod pod room.
- OK.
First, he needs an accurate reading of my muscle and fat, so it's into the bod pod in just my pants and a funny hat.
Then, it's off to something called a metabolic chamber.
- It's a bit like a submarine.
- Stuffy, isn't it? It's hermetically sealed, because what it essentially does is measure how much carbon dioxide you're producing and how much oxygen you're consuming, and from that we can work out how many calories you are burning to digest the celery that you're eating.
- Let's do it.
- OK.
- See you later.
- Bye-bye.
Come on, then.
Off you pop, you lot.
I'm gonna make myself comfortable.
It takes two hours for Dr Barber to calculate my base metabolic rate -- how many calories I burn just doing nothing.
Then, it's lunchtime.
If you could eat as much of that as you can.
If only it came with a cheese board and some chutney.
So you did really well with the celery, you managed to eat about 326g.
While I wait for my body to digest all this fibre, it's lucky I can count on the Food Unwrapped team to be supportive.
Could you leave me alone for, like, a minute? After five hours, there's a bit of good news.
I don't have to eat celery any more.
I have to drink it instead.
It's like trying to re-eat vomit.
After 12 hours, my man versus celery ordeal has ended.
- Welcome to the outside world.
- Wow, thanks.
Dr Tom will now calculate the calories I burned chewing and digesting the whole celery, and then those burned digesting the smoothie.
- Oh! Can I have this, then? - Yeah.
Canteen korma never tasted so good! Later, I'll find out if these sticks of fibre really are the root of a metabolic miracle.
Thrown up a couple of interesting surprises.
Back to miso.
I've been on a wild goose chase trying to work out what it is about miso that could help you get in shape.
That is one fat-free flake, isn't it? And I still don't know if it actually works.
Back in Tokyo, I've heard of a chef that makes a mean miso.
- Konnichiwa! - Konnichiwa.
'Let's hope Chef Takashi can reveal the miso's slimming secrets.
' I've heard you make a really lovely one.
Aha! Seaweed! Maybe this is the slimming secret.
The bonito flakes are simmered with the kelp seaweed and then sieved.
And finally, the miso paste is added.
Arigatou.
Mm! That is so tasty! Ooh-what-ee? So what exactly is umami? Umami is now recognised as the fifth taste, in addition to bitter, sweet, sour and salty.
- Umami.
- Umami.
- Umami.
- OK! Do you know if umami has got anything to do with slimming? Could just a flavour alone really help you lose weight? Umami! Back in the UK, I'm beginning to wonder if this is just another shaggy dog story.
But there's a professor at the University of Sussex who is leading a study into umami and appetite.
- Hello, Martin! - Good morning.
Professor Martin Yeomans.
So, I've been to Japan and I heard lots about umami, but I'm still no closer to finding out if there is a link, scientifically, between miso soup and weight loss.
Well, the work we've been doing suggests there might be.
Very surprising.
This is exciting.
And what's more, Martin has identified the two components that make umami -- compounds known as glutamates and nucleotides.
In miso, these come from kelp and the bonito fish flakes.
It turns out that broth, which is the basis for miso soup, has the perfect combination of these glutamate and nucleotide sources, and that's what gives it that strong umami taste.
But how could a taste help us back into our skinny jeans? We've developed our ability to taste umami probably because it's valuable to us, because it says there might be protein there.
So a signal is basically going to my brain, almost saying, what, prepare for protein, protein's coming? That's how we're interpreting it and we know protein is very filling.
What we've got is the evidence if you enhance umami in certain foods, you increase satiety.
And so if you have an umami-rich diet, you typically end up reducing your intake.
And that is scientific fact? Absolutely.
Over the last two years, Martin's team has studied 87 participants to identify a link between umami and appetite.
Gosh, it's like CCTV.
Volunteers believe they are taking part in mental agility tests, so the results are unbiased.
As they tackle the brain games, they are served soups.
One packed with umami and the other umami-free.
- Do they have to finish their whole bowl of soup? - Absolutely.
They are then fed as much pasta as they can eat.
The pasta is going in! Will the participant who had the umami-laced soup eat less than the other? Participant A is not looking very interested in that food.
Quite quickly, participant A, who drank the umami soup, starts to flag, but participant B is still loving that pasta.
Participant A looks like she may have decided she's had enough.
- So if you compare how much pasta they ate - Yep.
.
.
what was the difference? Participant B, 400g of pasta.
A, with added umami, 320g.
So participant A, who had the umami soup, ate 20% less pasta.
A fair amount, isn't it? So how do the results today compare with your bigger studies? We've tested over 60 people and so this is very much the same pattern, it's the same direction.
It's still early days for this area of research, but it looks like there could be something about the taste of umami that triggers us to eat less.
I can see miso soup nationwide just flying off the shelves! Coming up -- we've put more of our dieters' tips under the microscope I lost a stone in six months.
.
.
to see which ones could actually help you get your body in shape for summer.
Back to the summer diet secret special.
And there's one sour substance that's on everyone's lips.
I lost a stone in six months and it's all down to this apple cider vinegar.
- I love vinegar.
- Huge fan of the vinegar.
It doesn't taste as bad as you'd think.
According to the glossies, this one is the latest A-list favourite.
Everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow to Megan Fox are championing its health virtues.
So we're going to give it a shot.
Hi there.
Do you sell cider vinegar? It claims that it's good for healthy living.
- If you get these health magazines, it's all the trend.
- 'Is it?' So you don't know if it'll help me lose weight? 'I wouldn't have thought so, no.
' I've come to south London, to meet our super slimmer who swears by the stuff Hi, Ella.
'.
.
Ella Allred.
' - Nice to meet you.
- You too.
This cocktail bar specialises in health-enhancing, non-alcoholic juices, many of which are super-charged with a shot of vinegar.
Right, OK.
Cheers.
- Cheers.
- This is my first vinegar cocktail.
- Not bad, is it? Quite nice.
- It's pretty good.
- Yeah.
Ella had been struggling to lose weight after having a baby, until she discovered the wonders of apple cider vinegar.
So you think apple cider vinegar has helped you lose weight? Definitely.
It was as soon as I put the vinegar in that I noticed a massive improvement in my digestion and my appetite suppressed quite a lot, as well.
So this is when my baby was three months old.
- OK.
- So still quite fat, as you can see.
This is the next spring.
Gosh! And you think it's down to that? Yes.
It was the apple cider vinegar that did it for me.
Ella drank ten millilitres in water before each meal and, apparently, the pounds dropped off.
Blimey! That gets the engine started, doesn't it? It certainly does.
Vinegar may have the power to pickle but how on earth can it make you lose weight? The European Food Safety Authority hasn't approved any of its health claims yet, so I'm headed to Suffolk to check this out myself.
- Hi, Henry.
- Hiya.
How are you? - Kate.
- Welcome to Suffolk.
Henry Chevalier's family has been making apple ciders and vinegars since 1728.
Lead the way.
So this is where it all starts - Apples.
- .
.
with the wonderful apples.
We take that apple and we squeeze all the juice out of it.
Then we ferment the sugar in the juice to alcohol and it turns into cider.
So here's one we prepared earlier.
- Mm, lovely.
So in order to make your vinegar - Mm-hm? .
.
all you start with is cider? That's it.
Good cider, but cider.
It's pretty surprising that ultimately this vinegar, that people think can help them lose weight, starts as something that often would make you put on weight.
But there's some magic in there that changes things around.
So what is this magic that turns a sugary sweet tipple into this sour solution that's got so many slimmers hooked? - So, welcome to the vinegar barn, where - I can smell vinegar.
It's quite strong, quite pungent.
- It's making my mouth water.
- Mm-hm.
The cider is piped into enormous fermentation tanks, where the transformation into vinegar takes place.
There is a culture of bacteria in here, specifically called Acetobacter.
This is what turns the alcohol into acetic acid.
Acetic acid is the chemical compound that gives vinegar its pungent smell and sour taste.
Can we see that bacteria? Microscopically, it's so small that you can't see it with the naked eye, but if you actually leave Acetobacter in a bottle What's that? What are those little nuggets? That, essentially, is a culture of bacteria.
That's the mother culture.
Gosh! So these little nuggets -- which almost look like chestnuts, don't they, suspended? -- - are like, almost, little bacteria cities.
- Yes.
The bacteria feasts on the calorific alcohol and converts it into acetic acid.
- Can I try this? - Yes, you can.
Of course you can.
Do you the power of good.
But that tastes like a vinegar I haven't tasted before.
- Do you think? - It's real vinegar.
- So we both have just had a little swig - Mm-hm.
.
.
but can you feel the pounds just dripping off you already? Well, I'm not a nutritionist but the amount of letters and the number of anecdotal snippets that we've picked up through years and years and years of doing this tends to suggest there is something in it.
Coming up, we put vinegar to the test with a food you don't find on many diets.
So you've got your chips You can eat.
Back to our super slimmers.
What if you could eat anything and never have to diet? I really, really love eating chocolate.
Bacon sandwiches.
I've got a real sweet tooth so cheesecakes, chocolate, croissants -- things like that.
Well, that's so unfair.
Seriously, though, what is her secret? So, I found out that I have a special form of gut bacteria.
It's a microbe and it means that I can eat and eat and eat and pretty much never put on weight.
And she's not the only one.
We're twins.
Carol Champion and Wendy Jackson are non-identical twins.
Most twins remain the same approximate weight as each other throughout their entire lives -- but not these two.
I am 6st lighter than my twin because I have good gut bacteria.
I hide it well.
So can these little beasties inside our stomach really mean that for some of us, staying slim is easy? To find out, I've come to St Thomas's Hospital in London, who are part of a ground-breaking transatlantic study on the human gut.
Hi there, you must be Tim.
I'm Jim.
- Nice to meet you.
- Hello, Jim.
- Wow! Dr Tim Spector is leading the charge here in the UK, and we're diving straight in.
This is a poo sample.
Most of these microbes -- there are 100 trillion of them in our gut -- are beneficial.
So these guys here are all doing a good job? 99% of them are doing a great job.
It's a huge community that work together, a bit like a rainforest.
Right, so when we're trying to look at our diets, we consider the foods we eat but we don't consider the bacteria - in our stomach, do we? - Exactly.
That's why it's been called the forgotten organ.
But now science is rediscovering the gut, which could revolutionise the way we diet.
They produce vitamins, they're important for brain development.
Our immune system can't really function without them.
And they can even help us with weight loss.
They can help us stay slim? Absolutely.
There are certain microbes that can stop you gaining weight.
Dr Spector's ground-breaking study also collated data from thousands of twins, including Wendy and Carol.
They're of particular interest -- their DNA is similar but their waistlines are not.
We measured the microbes and we found big differences between the two sisters.
And looking at thousands of twins, we found there was one microbe in particular that was key, that we rarely found in overweight people, and we found much more commonly in skinny people who found it hard to gain weight.
And this particular microbe, no-one had ever really heard of before and it comes under the strange name of Christensenella.
That was the big difference between many of the twins and, in particular, between Wendy and Carol.
So it's not just the diet, the kind of food she's eating, but it's the symbiotic relationship with these little bacteria in our gut? It is, and the reason we know for sure is that in part of this experiment, we took the microbe from twins and we put them into laboratory mice and we could stop them gaining weight, even on a high-fat diet.
So it was preventing the weight gain -- that's how we knew it was causal.
That's incredible.
So depending who's living in your gut, what bacteria you've got, can influence if you're going to gain weight or not? Absolutely.
This explains why all of us vary so much when we go on diets.
They can succeed for some people and fail totally for others.
'And so for the question on every doughnut lover's lips' And if I want to get the right gut bacteria, is there anything I can do to help that? Yes.
It's down to changing your diet, and cut out all processed foods.
'Right.
I'm so up for this.
'But before I can embark on my gut upgrade, 'it's time for a trip to the little boy's room.
' 'And voila.
' You're going to test my poo to see the microbes I've got? - Where you are now.
- Yeah.
- That's our baseline.
What I will do is then really try and ramp up those microbes, those good ones, and that will improve your health.
So while Dr Spector gets stuck into my sample, I'm going to start eating my way to a gutful of bulge-beating bacteria.
Right, my diet has arrived, from Professor Tim Spector.
Let's have a look.
There's all sorts in here.
I've got celery, seeds .
.
kale, bananas, natural yogurt, berries, coffee, green tea.
Ah, hang on a minute -- it's not all going to be that bad.
Chocolate.
Wine.
Lovely.
Coming up, I discover there is one other way of boosting your good bacteria.
Basically, you put it into a blender and you're going to make a poo smoothie? Yeah, that's one way of looking at it.
But be warned -- it's not for the faint-hearted.
What does it feel like now? It's very relaxing, it's very soothing.
I've set out to see if I can prove that celery is every dieter's dream -- something you can eat that makes you lose weight.
It's like trying to re-eat vomit.
Is it just a myth? Right, it's results day.
See if all that celery eating was worth it.
- Dr Barlow, how are you? - Hi, Matt.
- Nice to see you.
Here I am.
- Indeed.
- In statistics.
We had some really interesting data, actually, from the study - and it's thrown up a couple of interesting surprises.
- OK.
I had two meals of celery -- one I munched and one I drank.
Both contained 326g of celery, each equivalent to 53 calories.
And for the celery I ate, the results are eye-popping.
You did in fact burn off more calories than you actually got from the celery.
By 19 calories.
We did it! In an experiment that's never been done before, I digested 53 calories of celery but burned 72.
That's a negative calorie count of 19.
And it gets even better.
So what about the drink -- that vile celery drink? It was even more impressive than the case with the raw celery.
You seemed to burn off an extra 59 calories.
Amazingly, that glass of green gunk took me a whopping 112 calories to burn, a negative calorie count of 59.
But why? If you liquidise the celery, break down all that fibre and you release the nutrients from the celery, it gives the liver more work to do.
And you get the added bonus of, it actually makes you lose weight.
Indeed.
You would expect to lose weight.
So this, in other words, is negative-calorie food.
- So it's true? - I think we have to be a little bit cautious in how we interpret it.
- I don't think we do! I think it's a fact.
So the Food Unwrapped crown for the world's first official calorie-negative food .
.
goes to celery.
Coming up, does the hip Hollywood cider vinegar diet actually deliver? This is a scientific experiment.
I don't want to see any vinegar left.
Back to our Summer Diet Secrets Special, and apple cider vinegar.
I lost a stone in six months.
- Oh, I love vinegar.
- Huge fan of the vinegar.
It doesn't taste as bad as you would think.
And I might have found a clue to back up our slimmers' claims that it minimised their muffin tops.
There's a culture of bacteria in here and this is what turns the alcohol into acetic acid.
Is it all about the acetic acid? I've come to Brighton to meet dietician Nicole Berberian.
- Hi, Nicole.
- Hey.
'She's set up a trial at a cool ad agency 'to replicate the various studies that seem to demonstrate 'that the vinegar diet could actually get results.
' Good morning, team.
Good morning.
So I've looked into vinegar and discovered that there's this thing in apple cider vinegar called acetic acid.
Now, has that got something to do with weight loss? That's what studies have shown.
The acetic acid itself, which is in vinegar, dressing, pickled foods and fermented foods.
So it's not just apple cider vinegar? All the vinegars have got acetic acid in and that's the key component we're looking at.
'There are several theories as to why acetic acid 'might help some people lose weight.
'From suppressing appetite to aiding digestion.
'But the most solid data links vinegar 'to regulating blood sugar levels.
' So what are we doing today? We've got our willing volunteers that have already done a test meal.
'Last week, our guinea pigs fasted for 12 hours 'before tucking into chips without vinegar.
'The sugar levels in their blood were measured 'every 15 minutes for two hours, 'charting how high it peaked.
' So, this week, what we're going to do is give them the chips again, but douse it with vinegar and see can we bring the blood sugar down so that they get a much slower response in their blood sugar levels? The idea is that helps with cravings and keeps them full for longer.
'So it's chips for breakfast again, 'but this time with 30ml of the chip shop favourite -- malt vinegar.
' Right, so you've got your chips.
They're vinegared.
You all look very hungry.
You can eat.
This is a scientific experiment.
I don't want to see any vinegar left.
What happens next? Now what we're going to do is just get you to use your blood sugar monitors and keep testing your blood sugar over the next two hours so we can see what's really going on.
I'd just like to introduce you to James.
He's a researcher on the Food Unwrapped team.
Now, James has been a little bit of a guinea pig with this chip experiment, and you've done it, haven't you? Four times.
Four times.
James has eaten a lot of chips.
So how did it work for you? All the times I did it, when I added vinegar to my chips, my blood sugar spike was much less, yeah.
Wow.
'But will vinegar have the same effect on these guys?' Hello, chaps! You've eaten your chips and the results are in.
Right, James, let's see them.
'The blue bars represent the sugar levels in their blood 'after eating chips without vinegar.
'If it's worked, the sugar levels in red after adding the vinegar 'should be lower.
'Shame, we had high hopes for this one.
' 'Out of our very small test group, it only worked for two of them.
'Oh, and James, of course.
' So we've explored the link between acetic acid and blood sugar levels today.
But the only two that did what we were expecting were Chenai and Jane.
That is pretty interesting.
Do you want to talk us through it? There's so many variables that we may not have controlled for, such as what food did you eat the night before? Was it the same from last week to this week? Different levels of activity, all of these can affect your response.
These guys are looking at those results thinking, "You made me eat chips twice for breakfast for that.
" Sorry.
'Well, our super slimmers may swear by this, 'but for us it didn't exactly smash it.
'Perhaps try it without the chips.
' Back to gut bacteria.
I've been learning about a microbe that scientists believe could win the war against obesity.
It can help us to stay slim? Absolutely.
There are certain microbes that can stop you gaining weight.
'To try and get some of this wonder stuff growing in my gut, 'I'm on a special diet.
' So, it's day three of my high-fibre diet.
And I'm out filming with the crew.
But I've still got my spinach to eat, lots of greens.
I've even got a cabbage-y kind of green drink to drink.
It's making me very gassy.
I'm getting a bit fed up with it, so let's hope it's had some sort of effect on my gut bacteria.
'But I've heard there's a quicker way to get the good guys in.
'To find out more, I'm on my way to a private clinic in Hertfordshire.
' Hi there, I'm Jim.
Hi, I'm Glenn.
I'm Director of Science here.
'Glenn Taylor specialises in something called faecal transplants.
That's right, I said faecal transplants.
OK, so Here we have a sample brought in by a donor this morning.
So, that is, that's a that's a fresh Sitting in there will be somebody's bowel movement.
'All faeces used for transplant are processed 'within 90 minutes of coming into the world, 'and only come from the creme de la creme of healthy donors.
' Now, when I heard the words "faecal implant" .
.
your sort of, your mind, it wanders.
It's not about You're not going to put somebody else's poo - up someone else's bottom, are you? - No.
This is a long way from that.
We're only interested in the bacteria.
So your job is to get the bacteria out of the poo? Just to process the bacteria back out of that.
So it's a good job it's not Smell-O-Vision.
So we're ready now to homogenise this.
So, basically, you've put it into a blender and you're going to make a poo smoothie? Oh, gosh! Yeah, you're you're right.
Yep, that's one way of looking at it.
Wow.
That was quick.
'The heady mixture is sieved to remove leftover food, liver waste, 'old skin cells and mucus.
' God, you want to make sure that's tight, don't you? 'Next, it's into the centrifuge, which separates the mixture, 'revealing the bacteria that Glenn's after.
' - Do you see that dark ring down at the bottom there? - Yeah.
OK, there's your pellet.
That's your microbial pellet.
So, tell me, who are your patients, then? Well, it started off with patients with intestinal problems.
But it's getting more complex than that, because doctors are referring a broader range of patients for treatment.
So what is the future for this good gut bacteria? Well, at the moment there are some very encouraging results coming out of studies and trials to suggest quite strongly that faecal microbial matter may play a part in weight loss.
'Currently, faecal transplants are only being used 'to help with digestive disorders, rather than for weight loss.
'Annalise McBean has come all the way from the States 'to treat her autoimmune disorder and coeliac disease.
' Hi, there.
I'm Jim, nice to meet you.
- Thanks for meeting me.
- Sure.
So, this procedure, for most people, if they don't know about it, it seems pretty weird, doesn't it? For me it made a whole lot of sense that healthy bacteria living in somebody's healthy colon is something I'm missing.
'Today is the sixth transplant of her course.
' Do you see any difference? Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes.
It's kind of like, imagine carrying a bowling ball around in your belly.
- Yeah.
- For most of your life.
- Yeah.
And then, within a couple of days, the bowling ball's gone.
So, after just five, six treatments, there's an immediate? For me, there has been.
For me, there has been.
Yeah.
'Extensive clinical trials on the effectiveness of this treatment 'are yet to be carried out.
'Matron Madeleine Smith is administering 'today's faecal transplant.
' So that'll be the tube that we're going to be giving the treatment through.
Right, OK.
So, that'll go into the bowel and - Her rectum, yes, it will go into there.
- OK.
Yeah.
And then this is the actual, um bacteria.
Wow! Before you had this done, did you think there'd be such a large amount? - Er - For some reason I thought it would be Yeah, I'm from America, bigger's always better! I'm glad to see that it's a lot.
Well, because you see the benefits already, you know, any discomfort is nothing compared to what you've put up with.
- Absolutely true, absolutely true.
- Yeah.
Right, well, best of luck.
'A course of transplants like these cost around £4,000.
'And 20 minutes later, it's all over.
'I think for the moment, I'll just stick with the diet.
'Speaking of which, I've got a special delivery.
' Just got my results from my gut bacteria test.
A couple of photos.
That's before I started the diet and that was after.
'There's definitely more of SOMETHING there.
'Let's hope it's good bacteria.
' Right, so this is from Professor Tim Spector.
"Dear Jimmy, your bacterial composition to start with "was very impressive, showing you already had a good diet.
"And after just seven days on the probiotic high-fibre diet, "your results show a small but positive change "in your gut bacteria, which is really great.
"Keep it up for another two-to-three weeks "and we'd expect to see an even bigger difference.
" Do you know what? I reckon all the difference was made by all the chocolate and the wine.
So what have we learned? Well, vinegar may work for some.
Miso could mess with our minds.
Celery really is calorie-negative.
Perhaps pasta isn't the dieting demon we thought.
And we should all nurture our gut bacteria.
But whatever slimming secret you go for this summer, we hope it works for you.