Shopping in Italy is something we probably all love.
They have the most beautiful window displays in the world. Even small country villages have elaborately decorated windows.
Entering the shop though can be an entirely different experience.
The sales assistants are too bored to bother with you, items displayed in the windows may not be available and the promise of what could have been is soon deflated.
It’s the power of merchandising. It draws us in, wraps us up and throws us away once the deal is done.
Merchandising Italian shoes is one thing but when selling health, it becomes a complex issue and one that has concerned me for many years.
I have so many clients attend their first consultation with me armed with a bag full of potions and powders that have been sold to them on the promise of losing weight, tightening skin and eliminating cellulite.
They look so convincing, easy and practical but look closer and they’re likely to be full of artificial sweetener, flour, poor quality protein powder, rancid nuts and seeds. They’re actually just glorified, well-merchandised, chocolate bars. A well-dressed lolly.
Why would powders that purport to be full of vital green vegetables need to have sugar listed in the ingredients?
People consume these products and then wonder why they can’t lose weight. They’re trying to do the right thing, only to have been sorely misled though perhaps the answer they’re looking for is to stop thinking there’s a great secret to weight loss and good health.
Every one of these brands is marketed as the secret and clients show me each one as if it’s a jewel in their jewel box but none of these powders are actually real vegetables.
Fact is, nothing replaces the nutritional power of vegetables, just as they are. Even if you grind fibre to a fine molecule, our bodies don’t process or recognise it as fibre so it won’t work as fibre – it won’t make you feel full and it won’t slow down the body’s insulin response or fill your gut with the welcome good bacteria that comes with a great serve of vegetables.
We also need to chew food, not drink it. That’s why we have teeth.
It’s marketed as a meal replacement but look at the amount of real nourishment and you’ll soon realise it’s not a meal and certainly not a replacement for proper food.
And most of all, we want to be eating well for life. Do we really want to drink all of our meals forever? What if you run out of your packet of faux health food? Best stick to real food for real nutrition.
