Get busy with Isy
My challenge was to spot the new Lambrini in a blind tasting of three drinks. If I’d put my brain in gear first, and remembered that the name of the drink was I might have fared better. All the drinks had a blueberry theme, but I didn’t spot blueberry in any of them – and I thought a blueberry-themed cider with lime was in fact the Lambrini. It was a bit of a “buy this jar of expensive ingredient and let it sit in your cupboard for the next six months!”
Fads then, are a resounding ‘No!’
“It’s so enraging when you’re a nutritionist and you read these headlines,” says Izy, shooting down the coconut oil trend.
“It’s so exclusionary - it’s the whole organic vegetable thing, and superfoods. To be healthy, you have to have enough money to buy this thing, and buying plain tomato isn’t good enough any more; you have to have the organically grown, biodynamic thing, with spirulina and you have to have turmeric in EVERYTHING you eat,” she says, incredulous. “It’s hard enough to get people to eat enough fibre and vegetables!”
Izy, who went to an all-girls school and started baking by herself aged around 10, might have written her first cookbook, Everyday Deliciousness, during her AS-levels, but that doesn’t mean she was exempt from the pressures around food. #doh moment. I don’t know why you trust me (maybe you don’t).
When the Lambrini was revealed, I checked my notes. I’d described it like this: aromas – sherbert, elderflower, drops of vanilla, citrus, bit of stone fruit; flavours – lemonade, simple flavours, not long-lasting but refreshing.
When I dipped in the glass again, after the event, then yes, I spotted the blueberry theme.
What did I think? Well as a simple refreshing light drink on a warm day it would be pretty nice, though I couldn’t drink more than a couple of glasses. I’d be happy to use it as the base of a sangria, tumbled into a jug with a bottle of cheerful
“I went through a phase of maybe three or four years in my teens, constantly dieting and over-exercising,” she remembers. “I used to think you could have anorexia, bulimia, or orthorexia (an obsession and anxiety over healthy eating), but now I realise there’s more of a spectrum, and I definitely was on the spectrum of that. I wasn’t getting admitted into hospital – I wasn’t anywhere near that – but I definitely had issues around food.
“But I think, through blogging and speaking to other nutritionists, doing my course, the general backlash against clean eating, and body positivity coming out, it’s given me more confidence, so now I’m happy.
“I’m going to eat butter; I’m going to eat cake; I’m a nutritionist – I don’t care, I’m going to eat sugar, whatever! I know I’m eating a balanced diet and I’m happy with where I am, but I think we have to do a lot more in the future to help younger women, and show them you don’t have to be eating ‘clean’ to be happy.”