Sophie Morris opens the door of her family home in Greystones, Co. Wicklow, beaming. We step into her dusky pink wood panelled hallway, the kitchen to the right drenched with light, with a view out over Glen of the Downs, and to the left, her living room, recently done up, painted a calming pastel sage. Wearing cool baggy jeans and a soft cashmere jumper she ushers us gently into her kitchen, which is spotless (not usually the way, she tells us, with two wild boys, Wrio, (6) and Max, (4)). A vase of wildflowers sits on the dinner table, some children’s toys are tucked away by the window, on the island is a fruit bowl and a plate of salted chocolate berry and peanut butter bark, a recipe straight out of her bestselling book.
This book, Sophie’s Swaps, is, how would you call it? A book-buster! Since it’s release six weeks ago it has sat confidently and very stubbornly at the top of the charts – there is just no budging it. In it you will find 50 family-friendly UPF-free (ultra processed food) recipes that will help you unprocess your plate, along with Sophie’s hugely popular “clever swaps”, which show you how to make simple, smarter choices every time you shop.
Every time we have shopped lately, we’ve filed by customers in the aisles scrutinising the small print on the back of everything, from juice drinks to yoghurts to bread. Sophie has caused a movement, it’s called #thesophiemorriseffect and if you need proof, just check her Instagram (@sophie_morris) where she has accumulated over 500,000 followers in one year, and rising. What they are all following for, is to see her daily videos where she studies labels and suggests “clever swaps” of foods that are better quality and often cheaper than the ultra-processed alternative. Her message is simple, clear and succinct; this nutrition coach is on a mission to reshape Ireland’s food landscape – one trolley at a time. And for once everyone is listening.
After a morning spent hanging in her kitchen, eating her berry bark, nosing through her cookbooks (Darina Allen, Yotam Ottolenghi and Nigel Slater to name a few) and admiring her new sauna and plunge pool, the latter built by her husband Robbie, we sit and talk about
it all: how it happened, why it happened and what’s next…
Sophie, you’ve started a movement, can you believe it?
No, I can’t! I really am still finding it hard to wrap my head around! It’s still just over a year and the explosion of it has been mind-blowing. Sometimes I sit down and go, is this really happening? It’s bonkers but it’s just really landed with people, I don’t know how I’ve communicated the message, but it’s resonated strongly and people have now totally changed how they’re shopping, that’s just what I hear, repeatedly.
548k followers on Instagram right now, but surely that’s growing by the day?
It is, it’s just going up and up and up! It’s slowed down from early on, at the very start it was madness, I was going up 5,000 followers a day at one point! But it’s still big growth – even today!
And your book Sophie’s Swaps is also still at the top of the charts! Like wow!
I know! It’s No.1 again! I’m six weeks at No.1 in paperback non-fiction – I’m absolutely thrilled!
Did you ever imagine when you started out that this could happen? That there was that level of interest out there?
If you even told me a year ago that I’d be writing a book, I’d have said, no way, it’s not a possibility. So, to have got a chance to write it, publish it and be top of the charts is phenomenal. Supporters on Instagram is one thing, but people who are actually parting with their money to support me and my book is another level. I appreciate it so much, it’s been so moving.
What the numbers do say is that people are concerned with what they are consuming. What the numbers say is that they’re looking for help.
People are kind of angry, and they feel duped in a way by how misleading packaging can be. Beforehand people were shopping totally unaware; just blindly going in and believing claims on the front of packs. These health claims that are put on the front of packs, by big food companies, are often factually correct. Say high protein is plastered over the front of the product, that product does have to have protein in it, but the thing is these health claims have been put on to highlight one aspect of the product in order to distract us from the rest of what’s going on. So we’re not getting the full content picture, and I’m just saying, let’s look at what else is actually in there before we make an informed choice about whether this is helping our health or not. I think that has been such a massive eye opener for people and what I’m proud of is people are now shopping more savvy. They’re not letting big food companies pull the wool over their eyes anymore, they’re reading the ingredients and truly that is the only informed way when you’re shopping.
And it’s not just shoppers who are listening, supermarkets are too.
That’s been an amazing side effect, it’s been such a movement, because people want better and they want to be choosing better products. People are voting with their wallets; they’re buying quality products and as a result supermarkets are starting to respond to that. I often call out and highlight small food producers because I’m very passionate about them getting more visibility, because you just don’t stand a chance as a small producer against the big guys in supermarkets. Most people don’t know they exist and they die a slow death, but they’re the guys who really care about good produce. When I recommend some of these products, people are picking them up and it’s transformed some of their businesses. Supermarkets are giving them massive shelf space, they’re getting more listings, so we’re really seeing better quality products on the shelves, which is phenomenal.
Are you rattling the supermarkets, do you think? Are they quaking in their boots when they see you coming?
I think they have a real love/hate relationship with me! They all have contacted me at some point or another, they all want to work with me, because when I recommend a product the sales are phenomenal! But I made a conscious decision early on that I did not want to do any paid work with any retailer or food company so I could stay totally neutral and independent.
It is shocking to think that 50 per cent of the average Irish shopping basket is filled with ultra-processed foods (UPF).
And the worrying thing is you are mostly unaware. People are buying products without realising. They’re buying products without looking at the ingredient list at the back. But I hope I always get this message through in my content, I am not saying we need to cut out UPF’s completely, it’s not necessary and it’s not realistic in today’s world, but the problem is we’re not hitting the right balance because the average Irish shoppers’ basket is, as you said, 50 per cent ultra processed. That is becoming problematic for our health, so the aim is to get it to 80/20. If 80 per cent of our calories are coming from whole or partially processed nutrient dense foods, it doesn’t matter where you get the other 20 per cent from. So, making clever swaps and moving the needle away from the 50 per cent is the aim.
Give us a little lesson in ultra-processed foods, please, Sophie!
Essentially, it’s foods that have gone through multiple stages of industrial processing, so they are combining extracts of whole foods with artificial additives and industrial ingredients, so the end product is often far removed from what those original recognisable ingredients are. A really simple way to look at it is, if you look at a product and the ingredient list has lots of things on it that you would not recognise and you wouldn’t be able to replicate at home, that is an ultra-processed food. The scary thing is we’re moving more and more towards that type of processing because they are cheaper to manufacture and big food companies number one goal is not nutritional value or our health, their priority is driving profits so using these additives in replacement of real product ingredients makes them cheaper to manufacture, they’ll last longer on the shelf, and the very nature of using these ingredients is that they stimulate our taste buds in a way that make us want to eat more and more and more.
We’re being tricked!
So much money is poured into the formulations of these products, they employ really sophisticated food scientists who are using these precise combinations of saturated fat, salt and sugar, this combination is called the “bliss point”. You know when you eat a food with these ingredients because it’s so moreish you can’t stop? That’s the food scientists’ job, to hit that “bliss point”, and the more they sell the more they drive profit.
Your insight into the supermarket/food system stems from your own experience running a small food production company, called Kooky Dough…
That’s really what’s informed most of what I’m doing. I got a real inside experience of what it was like to be a small food producer and deal with the supermarkets, because it is a brutal space to be in if you are a producer who’s using quality ingredients and you care about quality, it’s nearly impossible to compete in the supermarket landscape. Constantly we were pushed to change our ingredients; to make them cheaper so they can sell it cheaper; it was a constant battle; you become very disillusioned with the industry when you’re in it. It’s also great to be able to speak the truth about what goes on now because back then you are so under compliment to these supermarkets. It left such a sour taste in my mouth seeing how the whole system operates.
Ballymaloe Cookery School, where you trained, must be so proud of what you’re doing because this is really back to their ethos.
They have been so supportive, Darina rang me soon after the page launched, Rachel has been very supportive too. So much of my passion for the quality of food came from that experience. It’s not just a cookery school, it’s not just learning cooking skills, you really get this understanding of what food is and what it should be; they are practically self-sufficient down in west Cork in terms of growing everything. It was just such an incredibly immersive experience.
Let’s talk about your shopping trolley, Sophie. Firstly, where do you shop?
I shop in all of the supermarkets because I’m in them all so much, that is literally when I pick up my shopping when I’m in there doing my content! And they all have different great things about them. I love cooking but I do have two crazy little boys so I don’t get to cook from scratch as much as I would love too, so I am picking up the shortcut things, that’s when those Sophie’s Swaps come in! But lots of fruit and veg and meat. I would love to make hummus myself but at the end of the day, I end up buying it. I’m a chocolate lover so I’ll always have chocolate in there. I buy ice cream and ice pops for the kids. I think people think I would never buy stuff like that, of course, I do! I think it’s 80/20 balance and as long as you’re mostly cooking and eating minimally processed foods then you don’t need to be concerned.
What are your go-to recipes, or staples, you always keep at home?
I love a stir fry because it’s quick and handy! A great hack for cooking from scratch if you’re busy: frozen chopped ginger, garlic, onions and veg from the freezer aisle. If you have them in the freezer, it makes the stir fry so quick. I love tray bakes too, I love whacking a load of veg into the oven. There’s a recipe in my book where you put chicken thighs on top of veg, and then you add pesto, and it’s just quick and easy. Sometimes I’ll make my own pesto and sometimes I’ll use a shop bought pesto, depending on my time. Things that I can chuck in the oven while getting on with doing laundry are a real winner for me!
Let’s talk about our grocery bills. Over the course of the year you’ve surely seen price hikes across the board?
Totally, and actually something that kind of bothers me, and I need to investigate it further, people often will message me and say that products I recommend soon after they’ll see the prices going up. I haven’t verified it myself, but I do get those messages quite a lot. I really hope the retailers are not doing that. But generally, yes, the prices are going up and it’s hard, and it does mean you have to put effort into what you’re buying. I have a whole section in my book about the psychology of supermarket shopping, and it really delves into the tactics of the supermarket, and again it’s not some big evil conspiracy, but they are, again, profit driven. When you step into a supermarket their whole goal is to extract as much money from you. So, it’s being aware of the tactics, because they work.
Give us a few tactics to be aware of.
You’ll always find the milk and the eggs in the very far corner, the things you absolutely need to get, so you have to go through all the middle aisles where you’re tempted by all the packaged goods, and all the offers. The bakery section tends to be near the entrance so if you shop hungry – which you shouldn’t – those sensory smells of freshly baked breads, trigger something in you, and then it’s harder to resist picking up stuff. I also don’t think it’s a good idea to go to the supermarket at the end of the day. I really believe you get decision fatigue. To be honest my favourite thing is shopping online because you don’t get all those sensory triggers and flashy promotions. Again, it’s boring, but planning and having your list and sticking to it, that really is the way to save on your shopping budget. And also using the freezer aisle because the amount the average Irish household wastes on food each year, is crazy. If the prices are going up, the freezer aisle is the first place we should be looking.
Looking ahead Sophie, what’s next for you and your mission? You’ve done so much in a year, where to from here?
It’s been such a whirlwind, and it’s been hard to stop and take stock. Obviously, the book took so much of my time for so long and that’s out there now, but already the publishers are talking about the next book! Also, I ran an online course earlier this year, but I’ve since developed it further and I’m going to be launching a membership plan soon. Essentially it will be a platform where people can log in depending on what supermarket they’re in, and search for Sophie’s Best Swaps! I am very excited about that; I think it’s really going to help people.
