In The Matrix, there’s a moment where the choice is laid bare: the blue pill or the red pill.
Take the blue pill, and you wake up the next morning and carry on as before. Take the red pill, and you see the world for what it really is — and there’s no going back.
That’s exactly how I now feel about what I’ve learned around nutrition and the food industry.
You can read this, nod along, and return to life as normal. Or you can take the other pill — and wake up to the uncomfortable reality that a multi-billion-dollar industry now dominates what we eat, driven not by health, but by efficiency, shelf life, repeat consumption, and profit.
Once you see that system clearly, it’s hard to ignore the pattern: food that strips out complexity and fibre, replaces it with refined ingredients and additives, and quietly undermines metabolic and microbial health.
When we handed over the kitchen
Before the Second World War, most families lived locally, worked locally, and ate locally. Meals were built from ingredients, not products. Food came from local shops, nearby farms, or the garden itself. It was seasonal by default.
Then the world changed. After the war, populations grew rapidly. Women quite rightly sought opportunities beyond the home. Households became cash rich and time poor. At the same moment, food began to industrialise.
Ingredients became formulations. Meals became products. Fibre declined. Diversity narrowed. Additives appeared. What once nourished an ecosystem inside us was slowly transformed into something optimised for cost, shelf life, and repeat consumption.
The system revealed
One observation cuts through the noise:
“People say big food and big pharma are connected. It’s not a conspiracy — it’s a system. It starts with Bayer. They don’t make crisps, but they own Monsanto — the company behind genetically modified seeds and weed killers used on corn, soy, and wheat. Those crops go into ultra-processed foods. Bayer makes money at the root of the food chain. And when that food harms your health, they make money again. From seed, to sickness, to solution — often under the same corporate umbrella. Less conspiracy. More clarity.”
In the 1980s, major tobacco companies — experts in addiction and behavioural marketing — moved aggressively into food. Philip Morris bought General Foods, then Kraft Foods, becoming the largest food producer in North America. The same playbook that had hooked the world on cigarettes was now being applied to food: engineering products for craveability, repeat consumption, and margin.
The time bomb was set ticking.
My wake-up moment
When I was a child, there were seasonal foods. You didn’t get strawberries or salad in November. When you walk into a supermarket today, the first aisle is a wall of brightly coloured fruit and vegetables — beans from Chile, peppers from Spain, blueberries from North America.
For food to travel that far and still look perfect, it has to be treated. Sprayed. Preserved. Protected.
We’ve become a strange species — spraying food with chemicals to stop things eating it, then eating it ourselves.
What I do now
1. No processed food (aim for 80:20)
Achieving 100% is extremely difficult. Aim for 80:20 — fresh cooked foods to processed — and allow yourself those meals out, the snack at a cinema. Even at 80:20 you will be infinitely healthier.
2. 30 different types of foods per week
Prof Tim Spector of Zoe fame pushes this agenda to give a broad spectrum to your microbiome. It sounds difficult but 30 includes nuts, seeds, and spices. Suddenly 30 becomes easy.
3. Get back in the kitchen
Start cooking again. Prioritise it in your day. It doesn’t have to be all-consuming.
4. Fermented food
Our grandparents knew how — we forgot. Use it as an accompaniment to at least two meals a day. Think: kefir, Greek yoghurt, kombucha, sauerkraut, beetroot, pickles. I make my own — any veg, diced, with 3% of its weight as salt. Mix, jar it, add water to cover, and leave it.
5. Golden rules:
- If it’s in a packet, read the ingredients. More than 5 ingredients — put it back on the shelf.
- Apps like Yuka let you scan barcodes and get a health score instantly.
- No seed oils — ever. These are industrial lubricants rebadged as food. They are everywhere — read labels.
- Buy organic and wash everything. Put blueberries in a bowl with lukewarm water and a heaped teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. Soak for 10 minutes, rinse. Check the water left behind. You will never not wash fruit again.
- Only ever cook with butter, coconut oil, or ghee. Use extra virgin olive oil for dressings only — not for cooking.
6. Permanent/forever chemicals
Throw away Teflon-coated pans and plastic chopping boards. Change to fluoride-free mineral toothpaste. Food is the biggest lever — focus there first.
The choice that remains
None of this is about perfection. And it’s certainly not about fear.
You are not just feeding yourself. You are feeding trillions of organisms that live with you, work for you, and quietly keep you alive. When you nourish them, they nourish you in return — regulating immunity, reducing inflammation, supporting metabolism, and protecting you in ways medicine can only attempt to replicate later.
The microbiome is not a supplement to health. It is health.
You are what you eat — but more importantly, you are what you feed.