Her Discussions by Dr Faye - Nutritionist Explains: The #1 Reason You’re Always Hungry

Episode Date: June 8, 2026

What if everything you've been told about GOOD and BAD food is making your relationship with food worse?In today's episode, we're joined by nutritionist Joshua Hills, who turned the pain of growing up with a mother battling anorexia into a career helping thousands rebuild their relationship with food.We explore what's actually happening when calorie tracking apps and ‘clean eating’ culture push people toward disordered eating, and how social media algorithms and creators are quietly feeding the cycle. You’ll also learn:🍓5 things that actually help people change eating habits long term🚫 Why ‘eat less, move more’ doesn’t work in real life🥑 3 reasons your nutrition falls apart⚖️ The honest truth about scales, and when you should bin yours🍫 Why low-calorie snacks might be the reason you're always hungryResources & links mentioned:Joshua Hills Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/joshuahillsnutrition/You Can Eat That (Joshua’s book!) is available to order here: https://bio.to/youcaneatthatThe Joshua Hills Academy: https://www.joshuahillsnutrition.comSupport for anyone affected by eating disorders:-firststepsed.co.uk -beateatingdisorders.org.uk or 0808 801 0677 (England), 0808 801 0433 (Wales)Professional body for talking therapy and counselling - bacp.co.ukLinks to subscribe / follow:Apple Podcasts: ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/her-discussions-by-dr-faye/id1835829612⁠Spotify: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/5viLYizHD4Zy6J42iqtPRo⁠Can I ask you a BIG favour? 💙Please leave a review or rating. It helps us grow the podcast and bring you more amazing guests.Share with someone who needs this; it might help them live a happier, healthier life.Follow us on social media or join the broadcast channel to send us your questions for our guests. I'll leave the link here: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/channel/AbY4liwxlLnewx4H/?igsh=MWhuaXFweGtucTB3cA==⁠ ⁠https://www.instagram.com/channel/AbY4liwxlLnewx4H/?igsh=MWhuaXFweGtucTB3cA==⁠🛑 Disclaimers:Opinions are my own. This content is for educational / entertainment purposes and not medical or financial advice.

Trigger warning, this episode contains discussion of disordered eating behaviours and related topics that some listeners may find distressing. If any of this content impacts you, please consider skipping this episode or listening with support. Support is available. In the UK, you can contact Beat the UK's Eatin Disorder charity on 0808-801-801-677 or visit beatetendysoters.org. Josh, I think I have a bit of an emergency. I've just eaten like the whole pack of finding one bar. When I was 25, she just told me one day, she said, I've been diagnosed of anorexia. Googling on the computer, why doesn't my mum eat? And that's when I first came across the word anorexia. Why are we so interested in what a woman looks like, what her body is like?

Joshua Hills is a nutritionist with first-hand experience with living with eating disorders after growing up where his mum was battling one. He's turned his personal experience into helping thousands. This whole demonisation of ultra-processed foods is just like the re-emergence of like clean eating. I'm sorry I'm going to say something. it's going to trigger a lot of people. That's why a lot of people struggle with hunger because they're always looking for the next low-calorie snack.

I don't like the term intermittent fasting. This is bad. Like, stop eating this food that everyone's been telling you to eat. People go, oh, I need to listen to this. When I have children, I wouldn't let them on social media. And I'd feel so strongly about that, especially with my mom and other people close to me and seeing what they've kind of endured with eating disorders.

What I learned that day kind of, like, terrifies me. So if you are on a food journey, this could be for you. But before we get into the episode, if you could just spare me a moment of your time and hit subscribe or follow if you are listening on Spotify. Thank you. Hi, I'm Joshua Hills and you're listening to Her Discussions Podcast. Well, guys, you may notice we have a man on the podcast.

That is a very rare occurrence for a good reason. However, this gentleman today is on the podcast because a couple of weeks ago I saw a post that Joshua did about his mom's eating disorder. Now, as a girl who has struggled with her weight and disordered eating herself, it just really, really moved me because I've really enjoyed Joshua's content, like no bullshit approach to nutrition beforehand, but actually seeing that post and understanding the story behind it really, really, really moved me.

And I really wanted to get him on the podcast. So we're just going to get straight into it. Tell me a little bit about what was going on in your childhood. When I was about 10 or 11, I kind of guessed that my mum had something called anorexia. So my mum had struggled with it since when she was a teenager. She doesn't know exactly where it came from, but she remembers certain comments that kind of stayed with her through doing things like gymnastics, athletics,

dance, that kind of thing, very kind of like weight focused. And basically developed anorexia as a teenager. And then when I was born, she still had it. She hadn't had treatment or anything. So kind of like early years, you start to notice things when you grow up. So I started to notice that when we sat down for days. dinner, me and my brother, my mum either wouldn't be there or she would sit with us but wouldn't eat. And then slowly that kind of builds up and I think, yeah, as a child you kind of

notice those things. You don't know what's going on, but you just find it strange. You might go around other people's house and their parents sit with you and eat. Or it might be if we were on holiday, me and my brother would get an ice cream and my mum wouldn't. My mom never joined him with that kind of stuff. So, yeah, I remember walking school one day and just looking at my mom and thinking it's just not, it's just something not quite right. So I just remember just Googling on the, on the computer in the dining room, like, why doesn't my mum eat? And that's when I first came across the word anorexia. Obviously, you don't like, as a child, you don't like go and tell your parents, like what you've been reading or what you think. And then there's a few things that happened

kind of throughout my teenage years where I became very protective of my mom because I kind of, I didn't understand what she was going through because I was young, but I remember being about 16 and some comments were made about her and I thought now I'm going to stand up for her here. I kind of protect her as like her oldest son. So my mom then realized that I kind of understood it and I had a real passion for food, nutrition, everything like that, did it at school, did at A levels and she really supported that. So she became a bit open with me about it. She never mentioned the word Norexia. I never asked her about it. But she actually just opened up, told me, you know, she struggled with her food and she wanted me to have a healthy relationship with food.

and always really encouraged that. So she really struggled with it herself, but she was amazing with me and my brothers in terms of, like I said, if we're on holiday, go get an ice cream. There was nothing ever banned. There was maybe times where, I guess she found it really hard

to have certain things around and she might say, you know, not today, but if we're going out for dinner, it'd take her a lot of courage to, you know, build up to get ready to go out for dinner. And then, yeah, when I was 25, she just told me one day. She said, I've been diagnosed of anorexia

and I just replied, yeah, I know. and when you feel ready to talk about it, we can talk about it. And about two, three years ago, she said to me, I'm ready to talk about it and kind of we speak about it daily. This weekend, campaigning for change with eating disorders and trying to get, you know, improved treatment, more treatment. My mom stood outside, you know, parliament at the weekend, did a speech and kind of, yeah, just trying to share her message.

And, yeah, I think she really wants to help people kind of see that, you know, eating disorders don't just affect one type of person next day. they impact people from, you know, across all ages. And, yeah, she's really determined to make a change. She's still in treatment herself this time. So she's gone through treatment a few times, but this time feels different. So, yeah. And that must be a lot for you to have, and especially as the eldest sibling as well,

to take that on yourself. What sort of impact did that have on you? Yeah, like personally, for me, a massive impact, but I feel kind of like privileged by it because my mum, I was the only person I knew about her anorexia. So our best friends didn't know. My brothers didn't know. No one knew.

And kind of I realized that the way for us to kind of get through that first stage was to just give her the opportunity if she wants to talk about it. We could talk about it. And then just gently over time, encourage her to go back into treatment. And I said as part of her treatment, she probably should tell my brothers. She eventually told him, I think, a year, year and a half ago. But they knew. But we just never said the word. So, yeah, I guess it's the older brother.

I'd get questions from the other brother's, like, you know, what do we do about this? Like, if we're going around my brother's house for dinner or something, we'll stay around there, he'd be like, you know, what do I do about food? So I'd have to, like, chat with my mom, kind of discuss what she felt comfortable doing, tell my brother, those kind of things. So, yeah, it's very heavy. But like I say, I look at it now, and I've never seen this side of my mom. Like, I see her finally excited about life and about doing things.

So very rewarding now, but, yeah, I guess, like, growing up pretty hard. But yeah, I just feel very lucky that she felt comfortable enough to talk to me about it. And very grateful that she's let you share that as well. Because I think it's such an important conversation to have, even more so, because there's light at the end of the tunnel with that story. It's a decades-long battle that she's gone through. But she's been able to face up to that and take positive action. And yeah, I think that that's really important to share

because I'm not sure that we always hear about the possible end. It's ridiculously important conversations have because I remember the first time I was on a pediatric placement in medical school. And I thought I was going to walk onto this pediatric ward and see lots of kids with bronchitis. And I was shocked when I walked onto this ward and there was a silly amount of young girls who were in for eating disorders being fed by a tube.

So it's an extremely important issue and I want to know how that experience led you to following direction that you have because as I mentioned your no nonsense no bullshit approach to nutrition is what has garnered a lot of attention

Yeah I think like I said I'm very lucky my mum always encouraged like me to talk about food and I think she recognised I had a bit of a bit of a passion for food and I think a lot of it came from when I was young I played a lot of sport, you know, rugby football, I swam, did many different things. And my mom really encouraged me to think about food from that point of view of like, you know,

what's going to fuel your exercise and, you know, basically making sure you're eating enough. And I got really interested into that. And I think, well, I would never really ask my mom whether she kind of encouraged me to do it because she kind of saw part of that in herself or she wanted me to kind of understand more about her side. I'd never asked her. but all I know is she really encouraged me to like pursue that and I remember there was a stage where I was 15 I was at school and I I hated school like I used to go home bunk anything and my mom recognised that probably needed just some escapism whatever so she encouraged me to do food tech at GCSE and that's where the kind of passion grew and then yeah when I was 15 I said I'm not going to

do A levels just gonna go play football working I think it was like saying at the time I work in that kind of thing and when I was 15 I was not going to do ALEVALs just gonna go play football working I think it was like I was 15, she just took me into a uni open day to meet the nutrition lecturers and just said, and my son says he doesn't want to go to uni, do anything like that, but he's really interesting food, nutrition, sport. Can you talk to him about, you know, what he can do with this kind of stuff? And I remember I left there that day and yeah, I'm going to be a nutritionist. So she took me like two years earlier than what you normally go to an open day. I'd always wanted to do something in nutrition. Originally, I think it was sports side, but then the more kind of

my mum let me in a little bit, I realised that there's a whole different world of nutrition that's not just about health and not about support and performance. There's a, I don't know people really struggle with food. And I kind of saw that as like, that's what I want to do. I want to not working, eating disorder specifically, but I want to help. You know, people who like my mum who have struggled with food, kind of see that there is joy and excitement around food as well. It shouldn't just be fear and guilt and things.

Do you remember the first time that you saw something that irritated you when you thought, right, I'm going to get out my camera and start filming about this irritation. I don't remember the first time, but that's my kind of natural personality as I say I like a bit of an argument, I like a bit of a debate. And I think people just encourage me to do it because you'd always stand up for something, especially something you're passionate about. And I think the more I kind of learned about my mum's eating disorder and maybe things that were said or kind of rules that she'd believed or things she was told and told to cut out for,

various health reasons. I realize that, you know, this can really encourage, like, disorder eating and, you know, potentially eating disorders as well. So I thought, okay, I'm going to, you know, put that to good use and try and challenge some things. And I'll always admit I'm not the brightest nutritionist. I'm not the best nutritionist, but I do believe in, in, like, protecting people. And I think that stems back to my mom.

I've always been very protective over her and her eating disorder. So I feel quite strongly about trying to make sure people aren't lied to or encouraged to feel guilty about what they eat and things are. So I would say it probably all stems from that, yeah. We'll come on to some of the things that you find most annoying in the nutrition world at the moment. But next we're going to come on to a section of the podcast we like to call buy or bye bye bye.

I'm going to say a thing and you are going to tell me whether you would buy that thing or say bye bye to that thing. They're not all like products. Some of them are metaphorical. First on the list, normally we have cards. However, because Joshua agreed to do this, at such last minute, we do not have cards. You are just going to have to imagine the cards.

So first, we have food journals. Buy or bye-bye? Yeah, bye. I love food journals as like a way of reflecting. So something I encourage a lot of people to use is, you know, so much the time we just look at recording a food and how many calories are in it or how much proteins in it. But we think about, you know, how do that food make you feel?

Like, does it leave you feeling full and nourished or to leave you feeling hungry? Does it leave you feeling like guilty? theology question things. So I love that and I encourage people to write, you know, notes around thoughts or feelings or hunger around, yeah, the meals, snacks in their, in their food journal. So yeah, I love a food journal. A little bit background on my issues with my own eating is I really struggled binge restrict for as long as I can remember. And then I went through a breakup in like 2020. It was mid-COVID and I had this realization. I think maybe I saw some creators talking about, you know, the way to get out of a binge restrict cycle is to stop the restriction because that's,

you know, that's ultimately the cause. So I decided, right, okay, Faye, we are not restricting anymore. And I vividly remember that day, I went to Tesco's and I got a big olive bread, need like fresh bread with olives in. And I just sat and I just ate this entire thing of olive bread with like better on just the whole thing. And like, I felt awful afterwards. And for the next three months, I just ate and ate and ate and ate. And when I looked back, it was an important part of me healing my relationship with food, just getting rid of, just completely getting rid of all the food rules that existed for me. But you touched on a really important point is there are foods that help you, like, sustain yourself. There are foods that are functional when you come back

from a busy day and you just need to chuck something in the microwave. And there are also foods that, you know, probably not ideal to enjoy them every single day. Like, I would have chips and curry sauce every single day? You know, probably not. That's not good health advice. But I really liked how you gave that nuance by saying, well, you can use a food journal to, like, reflect. With that, I think something my mum had to do through this period of her treatment.

And I think it really helped her. It was kind of, and the service that she's been used and they've been great because they've involved me in the treatment. So her first appointment, they brought me in, they said, this is what we're going to do. But we understand, you know your mom better than we do. And we want you to help her with the nutrition size. We want you involved in her treatment.

So I remember there will be times when my mom would be writing in her journal, like, and I've had a packet of crisps, really enjoyed it. But then she's like, what happens if I want another packet of crisps later on? Or I want a chocolate bar later on. And kind of getting her to reflect on that in, like, her journal. And show herself, I actually know that's what I really want. And like you said, with ending that kind of restriction cycle was start allowing yourself those food.

So, yeah, that kind of just reminded me at that. That's nice. Nice. Yeah, what happens if I want another one? That really resonates with me because I thought, you know, actually just sitting and eating that big loaf of olive bread, that was something I was so terrified of. You know, I'd have a slice of the olive bread before

and I'd think, God, I can't possibly have another one. And then just almost facing up to exactly what I feared and realizing, Yeah, I feel like pretty, pretty sluggish right now. But like the world didn't end. You know, it's fine. Grounding exercises. I think there's so much weird stuff online. I would say if something makes you feel more relaxed

or makes you feel a bit more kind of calm, whatever that looks like, you know, crack on with it. Nice. I don't know about specific, like grounded things are walking around barefoot on the earth. But yeah, if something makes you feel more relaxed, cool, crack on. Calorie tracking. Just need to have nuance of it.

I think for some people it might be like really educational. And I would say, you know, if someone's typically like eating pretty well when they're active and they're just like, you know, I just don't really understand. Maybe I'm eating too much. Something like that might be beneficial. But I think a lot of people just resort to it. It's like the first thing because it's what we're told we should do was actually there's far more important things. You know, I see people doing it all the time and it's like, but they still don't eat many fruits and vegetables. it's like surely that's like more important and I think we should be looking at you know kind of like

foundation things with like sleep movement fiber fruit and veg those kind of things maybe would help people a lot more and I think the thing with tracking and stuff is people kind of see it as like a parcel fail test so you go over it it's like I failed I've ruined the day or they might look at it and go I've eaten breakfast lunch friends invited me out for cake and coffee or out for dinner and it's like I can't fit that into my calories, then they feel like they can't do that. I think we just have to, yeah, maybe just see if it's right for the person. Because if you gave it to someone like my mum, it'd be the worst thing in the world. Yeah, if you gave it to somebody else, it might be like, oh, that's actually really helpful.

So I think it just depends. I remember the way the numbers would, like, turn red on my fitness pal as soon as you're right, as soon as you just flick over into the... You feel like you felled. Yeah. And there's no room. And then also, I think, when I was in like a binge restrict cycle, as soon as I went into the red, I was like, well, fuck it.

I'm going to just go eat everything in my cupboard. So it's that binary just, yeah, isn't helpful. I think the other thing as well, it teaches us to rely on something external, rather than internal. It's why I love the food journal. I'm saying about writing thoughts and feelings and did it make you feel full rather than how many calories did it happen at? So if you get into the end of the day and you're like,

I've hit my calories, but I'm hungry. You should eat. You shouldn't be going to bed thinking I'm, you know, that's great. It's fine. I'm hungry, but I'm doing good. I've stuck to my calories and I think we forget that, you know, we can eat different amounts on different days. You might be really hungry one day and you might be less hungry the next day and it could be

for so many different things. It could be exercise, menstrual cycle, all sorts of things. But you can't let an app and some numbers tell you whether you should eat or not. So I think I much prefer learning like internal cues and kind of figuring out that kind of like trial and error relationship with food with, you know, what makes you feel good and what fills you up and what helps you feel nourished and focusing on those other things like, you know, fruits, veg fibre, those kind of things, rather than just a number of calories. On social media, when it was the big trend, where PTs would get maybe like a slice of

white bread with Nutella on, and then maybe like an avocado on whole grain. And they would say, this has got less calories as if, you know, that, watch your thoughts on that. When I see things of that, I just feel sorry for other people that are going to see that and absorb that information. I think the thing we forget is we still see the same trends now, but they're just kind of like repackaged. So there's one at the moment, which is just this is what 200 calories of nuts and looks like,

and this is what 200 calories of olive oil looks like. Whereas this is what 200 calories of strawberries looks like and 200 calories of vegetables. And it's like we're encouraging people to like avoid olive oil and nuts. They're two of the most nutritious foods on earth. And if you go and look at research and things, people that eat more olive oil and nuts tend to be, you know, healthier both like with like blood markers, but also from like, you know, a weight maintenance point of view and stuff. But other people are going to look at that and go, oh, we should avoid those foods. It's not much.

So I think you still see that kind of stuff now. But yeah, I'd go back to, I remember all this post and it's like, jam on toast is better than peanut butter on toast because it's lower in calories. It's like, yeah, but it's not going to be as filling as, I think that's something we always forget. We just think of the numbers and we don't think about how that food makes us feel, you know, in two, three, four hours time. I think that's why a lot of people struggle with hunger because they're always looking for the next low-calorie snack or how can I make a low-calorie version of this food.

And I wonder one or an hour or two, they're looking for food. food again because they're hungry. I'm sorry, I'm going to say something that's going to trigger a lot of people. The way I would just go through like six, 501 bars. I knew you were going to say five or one bars. Every time I was home, because you just wouldn't keep me full at all. But I would, God forbid, I had a bit of peanut butter on toast, you know. I had a client once who texted, I think I had a bit of an emergency.

I've just eaten like the whole pack of five or one bars. And I was like, yeah, that's going to be fun. I just knew you were going to say fiber one. A low point for me is also I was going on holiday to Ibiza. Do you know those zero calorie noodles? Yeah. Have you ever eaten them? No.

Yeah. So these zero calorie noodles, the things they do to your GI tract is just, I don't know, all these little shortcuts that people would make. Yeah. Wild. Okay. Intimit and fasting. I'm going to say bye bye because I think I would reframe it and just say if you don't really like

eating breakfast and you're eating habits the rest of the day, fine. fine, but I don't like people purposely like skipping breakfast and pushing it back because they feel it's better for their health or some sort of magic pill for fat loss. So I don't like the term intermittent fasting. You know, I don't eat breakfast first thing in the morning. I eat at like nine, half nine, ten o'clock. I still eat breakfast. So I'd say, yeah, just, you know, move your meals around for how you like and how it works

for you, but actually like calling something a name just because you're purposely missing breakfast. not a fan. The glucose goddess. Yeah, bye-bye. Why? It feels to me like she has like a nine-year-old draw these little graphs on Canva. And then she puts them up as like evidence. And people see them, they go, oh yeah, that, you know, I shouldn't eat that because

my blood sugar goes up and then it comes down. It's like, yeah, that's what it normally does. Like that is normal blood sugar goes up. It comes down as long as it doesn't stay like elevated for a long period of time. we're not too worried but I've seen all sorts of stuff like there's been some really alarm of things that she said I think and and scaring people over eating like grapes and things like that and I remember I saying you know the more glucose spicy out the sooner you die I've I've never seen that in it I don't know if you've ever seen that in any research anywhere but things

like that and people kind of just forget she says things like that she just drops them in and recently she was talking about how fruit is unnatural and all these kind of things like we're scaring people about fruit and if we really look at the light statistics, I think it's someone like 20, I can remember the exact number, but it's around like 28, 30% of the UK population even eat five fruit and veg a day. God. So, yeah, anyone that's kind of scaring people about fruit and talking about it from like this health point of view, I just think is really scary, I think.

Yeah. And she's got such a massive follower and she's on TV and, you know, people love her and I just, I just can't understand it. blows my mind, but I think it's that French accent. There's something about a really calm French accent that clearly like hooks people because I don't understand it either. There was one of her diary of a CEO episode since she was talking about reversing people's PCOS

and Stephen Bartlett asked her do you think it's possible to reverse PCOS and she said absolutely I had three people that they reverse their PCOS with my you just said with confidence three people three people that is

nowhere near proof but because you've said it with confidence you've gone absolutely three people the tone of your voice has clearly meant that people ignore the fact you've only said three. I personally see that a lot with just general information on social media. If you say it confident enough, no one, that's an eyelid, you know? Next, we have weighing yourself regularly.

It just depends on your relationship with it. If it's something you feel calm about and you just see it as like a number and then don't think about it afterwards, weigh as much as you want. but if it's something where your mood is dictated by it for that day or it then impacts how much you eat that day then I would say no and I think people just have to be honest with their relationship with the scales and their weight

when it comes to that so it just depends I had to not weigh myself for like a long time afterwards because I need to like heal this relationship so I didn't now I weigh myself like probably once a month I will step on the scales deliberately when I know I'm at my heaviest so like previously

I had to only wear myself in the morning, after I've had a massive way, so that before I've eaten anything, so that I knew that that number was probably not going to upset me. And if it upset me, then that was a bad, bad, bad sign. And yeah, you're right, it would ruin my day. Whereas now, like, we went to India for a friend's wedding. It was absolutely the most incredible experience of my life. We ate so much unbelievable food. It was incredible. And myself, my fiance, we got on the weight, the scales when we got back. And it was almost like a competition. see who had put on more weight whilst we've been away.

And that, like, things like that have helped me really detach myself from that number. Desensitise from that. Desensitise. But yeah, you're so right. And you have to be so, so, so honest with yourself in assessing where you are in that journey and what's going to be right for you. And I think that if I noticed that that was making me feel a certain type of way, now planning a wedding and I'm thinking, I can already feel myself almost like slipping into

the slope of the pressure to like be smaller and whatever and I think if I if I started to do that and starts if the numbers started to make me feel a certain way I think I would cut the scales for like a couple of months you know to stop that in its tracks yeah definitely now I think it is just about being honest of how it makes you feel and like I'm someone that weighs a lot but I just get on it I don't even like half the time I don't even remember the number I just step off of doesn't bother me in the slightest. So I think it's just, yeah, just be honest with yourself. But I think that's where it gets so hard and so tricky because it's like calories.

It's like, you have to be honest with yourself and how it makes you feel. And if it's adding something to your day, like positive, like you said, with just data or if it's adding like guilt, stressed, worry, those kind of things and impact in how you eat and things like that or how you feel about yourself, then definitely. One of the best things ever did, my mom was, obviously my mom had a terrible relationship. with scales. And one of the best things we did was I told her, right, you're going to take him outside, you're going to get a hammer, you're going to smash them to pieces. And she did. And I think that was one of the things that she'd done that made her feel like, I'm not controlled

by a number anymore. So yeah, that was a pretty good day. I've got good imagery of that happening. That seems, that sounds very empowering. Yeah, that's great. I love that. Ultra-processed foods. I'm going to say yeah, bye, because I think when I think of ultra-processed foods, I think about things that are convenient, quick, give me a source of nutrition, but at the end of they just make sure I'm fed. And I think people don't quite realize how broad, kind of the term, ultra-processed foods it's where in the category of ultra-processed foods, not only do we have chocolate biscuits, but we also have baked beans. We also have supermarket, whole-meal bread, but we also have things that you will have seen. in the hospital like end shores and like drinks that you know keep people alive and I saw an um and add the other day and I think it was I don't know if it was unicef or someone else

Liam Nissen had a like a sashet of food and he was talking about how this sashay saves lives all over the world and my first thought of that is people won't realize but that's also ultra processed I think they have they're great and I think we just have to apply a bit of nuance when I say ultra processed foods are great I'm not saying you know go and eat chocolate and biscuits all day every day. I'm saying, actually, I can come home and go, I literally just want to eat and go to bed so I can just have beans on toast. Or I can grab something that, like, microwave bowl rice and, you know, some tin food or beans or something, I can make a really quick, nutritious meal. I think people forget that side of it, just because they all jumped, like, clumped into the

same category. And I think the scaremonger and the fearmonger and around ultra-processed foods, it's just we're talking about how trends the trends are the same they're just kind of repackaged you know this whole demonisation of ultra-process foods is just like the re-emergence of like clean eating yeah just kind of repackaged

redesigned it's just that and that goes back to like diet culture and kind of those kind of things so now I think like ultra-process foods have a role and they can ensure that people especially people in poverty and things can have like cheap affordable

nutritious meals like beans on toast I don't know what's going to cost but you could probably feed two kids for like a quid like I've always got to support that you did a video recently about the M&S three ingredients range what's your thoughts on that I think people may have thought I absolutely hate the range I don't I hate the way that it's come about because it's come about purely off the back of social media trends then people forget that supermarkets are business so all supermarkets are businesses and they obviously want to make more money. So they will make new products based on trends that go around social media. So they're not daft and they realize that people have this

huge obsession with ultra-processed foods and things at the moment. So they've obviously thought, how can we make a less processed range of foods and make more money from it? Because obviously it will be high demand. So you've got things like they're baked beans. I think compared to like standard beans at M&S, they've got one less ingredient in them, which I believe is a spice. And they've just swapped sugar for a garth syrup and then they'd like double the price. I think they're like 80p a tin and their normal ones are like 45, 49 p a tin. So I really don't like that side of it because people believe, oh that's healthier, I'll pay the extra money for it.

And again, I'm pretty sure it's just a spice that was removed and then the sugar is just swapped for another type of sugar. And then things like their oat milk, it's not fortified. So someone then, you know, swaps their standard oat milk that they have on their, in their porridge and in their coffee and something for them. this new oat milk that's, you know, less processed. They're getting a lot less calcium and vitamins and minerals that we typically are adding to things.

So I don't like it because I know how people will view it and they will view it as this like, you know, it's like a health halo, isn't it? They're not realizing that some of the products probably aren't as nutritious. So, yeah, I just don't like how those kind of trends are driven purely by trends on social media. There can be real life consequences of thinking that you should be doing something and not doing it. But how do you navigate that yourself as, I guess, understanding that there are ultra-processed food? It's not ideal to be eating biscuits and crissal all day every day. How would you recommend for people to navigate that landscape in a nuanced way where, yeah, there are some ultra-process foods that aren't great?

There are others that are probably going to do you some benefit or aren't going to do you much harm. I think the thing we kind of forget is most people have a pretty good. good idea of what's pretty nutritious, what's maybe something that's less nutritious and taste really nice. And I think most people have an idea of what they probably should be eating more of and probably what they should maybe be eating a bit less of or eat, you know, less frequently. I think we forget that and we kind of treat people like they're idiots. And I think most people know, I could probably do have eating a bit more fruit and veg, I could probably do of eating a bit more fibre. I could probably do with maybe, you know, swapping out, I don't know,

sugary breakfast cereal for some porridge or something. Most of the people, people do know that kind of stuff. So I think we should probably stop trying to make it so complicated. Because I think what we do is we end up overwhelming people. And we make things a lot more complicated than they need to be. And I look at the hundreds of people I've worked with that come to me. Most of them already have a pretty good idea of what they should be eating. Never really had a conversation with someone saying, you know,

maybe we shouldn't eat as much of that. And they've gone, oh, I didn't know. I thought that was really, really good for me. Those conversations don't really happen. it's just about how can we help people make things quicker, easier, maybe slightly more nutritious. Because if we look at when people struggle, it's typically when they're short on time or they're stressed

or they're going for a really busy period of work or a family member's ill or a child's going through their toddler stage and it's really hard work. That's typically when people struggle. It's not because they think that chocolate and biscuits are really, really good for them and they'll eat a packet every day because I think that's going to be good.

So, yeah, I think we end up just, complicating it a lot for people. Yeah, and actually I think it's the landscape of social media rewards that. If you say something that is completely contradictory to everything we've ever been taught, e.g. the glucose goddess saying that fruit is bad, if you say these contradictory things, that is going to garner so much more attention than you saying biscuits all day every day, probably not great. That's not going to go well when our attention spans are declining. So I often say to people, they often say, you know, what's your opinion on this

and kind of you've done it today a few times and I say, well, it depends. And that's my answer a lot of the time. But it's not like a sexy opinion, is it? If I said, it depends on social media, people are just going to get it yet next video. Whereas if I say something controversial and I say it really confidently

and I'm really loud and opinionated about it and I say, this is bad. Like, stop eating this food that everyone's been telling you to eat. People go, oh, I need to listen to this. Because, you know, fear cells, confident sells, loud opinion, sell. And I think that's what we kind of forget

is social media is a game. and it's a game of how can I get more views, more engagement, make more money. A lot of stuff isn't actually there to help you. So I think when people see stuff, they might need to just take a minute and think about, you know, does this depend on something? And you probably have that, you know, if you're a line of work before and stuff, answer probably a lot of times where it depends. It's not black and white.

And actually my answer for you might be different to like my answer for somebody else. And I think we have to remember that when we work with people. We're not working with robots, working with people with emotions and lives and circumstances and jobs and kids and families. So, a lot more complex than just this is bad, this is good. So you've made a lot of videos about this guy who goes around the supermarkets. I don't even know his name and I probably don't want to give him any attention. I just know what his social media handler. He's got dark brown hair, I think, but he, yeah, and he always goes and grabs different things in the supermarkets and says they're bad, says they're good.

what is it that you don't like about this gentleman's content and then second question is do you have any advice for people navigating this world of social media nutrition information I have a real issue of people who just film themselves in a supermarket start off I just think let people do their shopping fair enough I couldn't I think it's because I used to work in Tesco at uni and I think if I saw somebody just film and stuff whilst I was in there working I don't think I'd be able to cope so I think that's one thing I just don't understand the whole

going into a supermarket and filming around other people that are buying and their food and stuff like that. But I think again, it's just fear-driven content. And I even saw literally today, I saw a video of someone asking him, you know, what's the kind of like most important step that we can do for like a health? And he said, basically take my supplement because it's got all the vitamins and minerals in it you need. That's kind of everything. It's not about can I help someone. It's how do I make money? Yeah. And actually, I think we should be, focusing on like I said, applying nuance and things rather than just saying, this is good, this is bad. And if you watch that kind of content, it's always, this is good, this is bad.

You're so much more likely to buy something when you're scared. Even if you get an email from, I don't know, ASOS and they're saying, you know, final sales. There's only five left of these. Yeah, yeah. You are so much more likely to buy those things if you are scared. The same applies to social media. If you are scared to eat anything in the supermarket, of course, You are just going to say, do you know what, I'm just going to buy this supplement and, you know, only things with one ingredient. Like, it's a brilliant market strategy, but it does a lot of damage.

I saw I'm doing a video about how, you know, multidextrin was bad because it's sugar and I found it was in his own products. So, like, people forget the kind of stuff they say and the kind of stuff they sell because it's just about how can I scare people. I'm sure I saw that with Brian Johnson. and Brian Johnson's got his own range of olive oil. And actually, I think he advocates for like a really high quality olive oil or something. And then his olive oil is. It's not. Yeah.

It's funny that, isn't it? Yeah. Like marketing geniuses. Marketing geniuses. That's what I think people forget. And this particular man we're talking about, he has a degree in marketing. And I think this is what people don't know is. He doesn't have any nutrition qualifications.

It's not a doctor. He's not a nutrition. He's not a dietitian. He has a degree in marketing. and he runs a business that sell supplements. And if people just understand that part, they'll probably be able to figure some of the other stuff out themselves. Do you know how much I doubt every single thing that comes out on my mouth?

And I think when you have qualifications and something, every single thing you say, you're thinking about this nuance. And then that actually has implications on your confidence. I'm a loud person. However, I find myself finding it really difficult to talk about things on social media because you doubt everything. Do you find that yourself that you're like, well, I don't, I find it very difficult, especially in this world of short form.

All the time. And often I'll actually avoid making content or I'll make content and then I'll go to edit and I'll go, nah, not sure. And the amount of times I think I'm not sure I put a video out and actually it's fine. But I think, and I think I would say that's probably where we're quite similar as we take our roles and our responsibilities very seriously. And I don't want people to take things that I say out of context or I don't want someone to listen to something I say and then be fearful of something else.

And I think that stems back to my mum. Like my worst nightmare is me ever saying something about food in front of my mom. And then my mum taking that out of context or like applying it her own way and it feed in like disorderly eating behaviours. So I think, yeah, I always struggle with, I'm always worried about what I'm saying. You know, to clients on social media all the time. Anything you do, you're written stuff. I'm always paranoid.

But I think that's, you know, you're always going to make mistakes, aren't you? But I think as long as it's like an innocent mistake, you know, everyone makes mistakes. But yeah, I'll tell her I'm always paranoid about it. But I think what my eyes is that you care. Yeah. Whereas I think sometimes I see things online and I think, God, like, you actually just don't care. As all, you are the one thing that you care about is selling something. And that's like really, really scary.

Yeah, definitely. There was a question actually that was sent in related to that. Do you think the way we speak about food around children has improved? or got worse? I probably can't answer accurately because I don't have children and I'm not a child anymore. I think the way we talk about stuff is probably changing and I notice that a lot from working with a lot of moms now

where they are very nervous about what their parents or maybe older people in their family may say around their own children and they're very protective about what their children here. And I love that because I love that they're trying to teach their children what a healthy relationship with food is because they haven't had that themselves. So I love that. And they're also quite understanding if that's what their parents were told, the information they were given.

So often their parents think they're doing the right things by saying, or don't have too much of that. They feel they're doing, you know, helping you. So I don't think we can hold that against people. I would say I think they're a positive in terms of how language is changing around food. It's never going to change everywhere. But I think the more like children, we can kind of teach a healthy relationship with food too. I think the better and I think is something I'm

obviously very passionate about because although my mum had an eating disorder it was never projected onto me and my brothers. She always encouraged us to have what we liked. We didn't have an ice cream every day but it was something that we might have at the weekend or go out and have so. I'm very lucky my mum

was like that. So I would say probably guess that things are probably shifting in a better direction. I think social media makes it awfully complicated And I think if you probably removed social media from it, I would say, yeah, probably things are going in the right direction. I was sat in Parliament last year and I was there for a talk, a debate on social media and pro eating disorder content and protecting children online. And there was a group of researchers there and they had essentially set up profiles as like 13 year old girls online, brand new profiles.

and within like 30 minutes they were shown pro eating disorder content. Now they had never engaged in it. They were brand new profiles. They didn't like anything. They were just scrolling. And then as soon as they engaged in it, I think they were then shown like another video on that eating disorder content. I can't remember the exact step,

but it was like one every minute or something. Oh my God. And bear in mind the platforms know that this is a 13 year old girl because that's how it was set up. So I think that makes it very, very challenging. But I think luckily, especially my generation, our generation, and we're quite aware of what is on social media. Yeah. And I just hope enough of us can protect children of the future with it.

But I think people don't really understand that side of how social media works. And like there's so many children that are going to be on it. So I think that makes it very complex. God, that makes me terrified. I wish I could say what was discussed in the room with like some very like, I'd say high profile people, people that are involved in social media and the media. and I think I left that day feeling very scared for children in the future just because of a lack of responsibility taken

and essentially they believe that children have the capacity to decide what is healthy and what's not. Oh my God. They're scared. They're terrified of social media companies. That's the problem. And enforcing any kind of rules. What begs me about that is I think that there should be a legal framework that protects.

Absolutely. Like that puts the responsibility on these people. but what bothers me the most is how people go to sleep at night because if that was me and that was my company, I knew that was happening. I wouldn't be okay with that. So like regardless of a legal responsibility and that is me being, obviously I am aware that there are people in this world who exist who exist for the sole purpose of money, but I can't understand that and I never will be able to understand that. Maybe that's because I've had a personal, you know, experience as a teenager being impacted by that. how anyone could let that continue and get worse. Being involved in those conversations in that room,

when I have children, I wouldn't let them on social media. And I'd feel so strongly about that, especially with my mom and other people close to me and seeing what they've kind of endured, you know, with eating disorders. What I learned that day kind of like terrifies me. I wouldn't say it's all social media platforms, but some just they don't care. They just, they know the rules,

they know what they have to provide the government, they just paid the fine for not doing it. Also what is terrifying is it does feel like the era of skinny is back with a vengeance. What are your thoughts? I find it really hard because my first kind of thought is I just don't want to talk about women's bodies. And that's the first thing that always comes into my head. And whether that's something from my mom or the fact that I have a fiancé or whatever it is, my first thing is I just wish for just like, I wish we could just not talk about it.

about women's bodies because I go at when I was younger and I'd go in the supermarket and do the food shop with my mom and you see all the magazines and every magazine front cover is just something about a woman in her body oh this woman's lost too much weight you know she's looks like this and this woman's let herself go and she looks like this and just normal bodies I think I see things maybe a bit differently because I've watched my mom battle anorexia so I know my mom would never have chosen to look like that I know that anorexia can be very controlled in and may encourage people to take something like a GLP1. So I find the whole thing very, very complex.

I think GLP ones are amazing. I think the role that they serve for diabetes, for obesity, I think is amazing. And it's the most like groundbreaking discovery we've really had in that kind of area of research. They're just far too easy to get hold of. There's not enough support with them. And the fact that anyone can pretty, and when I say anyone can get hold of, them like yeah anyone can get hold them if they really want to and they can just use them and I think that's terrifying and especially being involved with the like eating disorder community

and campaigning for things it is terrifying and I think people forget their medication I wouldn't be able to go online just order statins and antidepressants and you know ADHD medications I can just go online and order like a gLP one just think is terrifying. Two points on that. Number one, I treated normal weight girls who were taking it because they ordered it online. Quite a few young girls who would turn up to A&E just uncontrollably follow this in.

Their medications, they're not without their side effects and they should be taken under medical supervision. But then the other point that you made about commenting on women's bodies, that was what made me really, really uncomfortable when there was a certain movie came out. there was a huge amount of discourse talking about these women's bodies. It made me really sad. It was just everywhere. Yeah.

And we forget there's a human there. It's difficult because there's a conversation to be had about the rising. Absolutely. The rise and the pressures and, you know, like what you're saying, if a girl goes on a certain social media app, then those videos are fed to wear. Yeah. But surely we can have that conversation without speaking about individual people in their appearance and look at the systems that are put in place.

have resulted in this what makes gLP ones so accessible what is making people feel like they need to yeah make themselves smaller yeah I think I completely agree

if what you say I think so much of the conversation was focused on the individuals yeah and what they look like and you know them being a role model to children I think we can talk about

the rise of like skinny talk and those kind of things the rise of GLP ones and essentially, you know, diet culture and what it's doing, we can talk about that without talking about the individuals. And I found that really hard, because that was maybe like around Christmas time,

was it, just before Christmas? I found it a really, really hard time, like being on social media at that time because I found everywhere I went, it was just all about certain people and some of them have been quite open about their struggles with stuff in the past. And yeah, they're just,

they're not treated as people. So I really struggled with that. I found myself that a lot of videos would come up and I would like them because they would say something like that really aligned with my thoughts and feelings on the rise of Skinny Talk or whatever and then I would like feel this almost like guilty feeling in my tummy. I would consciously recognise wait that is a person

but initially being honest I wouldn't I would hear the message and I would like agree with it and I found it a couple of times I was liking things and then going wait no unlike it because it made me so uncomfortable I clicked on one of the individuals that was being discussed in the video. And I went on their profile and I clicked on a picture.

And the comments were just filled with, they were so polarizing. Some were you look so much better before. You need to put on weight. And then others were like, you look amazing now. And I just remember looking at it. And I was thinking, like, why are we so interested in what a woman looks like

and what her body is like? And if she could put on weight, then to some people, she'd be perfect. And if she loses weight to other people, she'd be perfect. And there's no kind of, again, nuance in terms of what's just best for that individual. We just see it as just an object. And I just find that just so terrifying. And that's like social media, isn't it?

When I was saying about my history with my binge restrict cycles. So when I decided, right, no more restriction, we are going to like find our food freedom or whatever. Like you work through it. I put on a noticeable amount of weight. And I would vlog and there would be comments being like, put the way. back in the ocean. Yeah. And then maybe a couple months later,

I went through something that was really, really, really stressful. It was kind of a wild experience because for so long I'd really battled with my weight and my eating. And then my appetite just went. I wasn't trying to lose weight, but I just felt this, you know,

this anxiety in my stomach where like I physically couldn't eat. And then I was vlogging maybe a couple months later and the comments were like talking about the diameter of my upper arm saying that clearly I'm malnourished her upper arm is the same size as her lower arm. And I, yeah, it was one of those moments where I just thought, God, it made me wonder how many celebrities who lose weight and then they want to sell a diet plan or, you know, whatever, actually just go through something really stressful.

Oh, yeah, yeah. And then they capitalize off that because that was something I realized is everyone, I was getting messages going, what's your workout routine? What's your diet right now? my diet was potato off eating a potato waffle sandwich in the evening after not eating anything all day stress under slept stress yeah and then my ex I had I didn't gym at all because I physically couldn't but the amount of people who were asking and I was thinking god if I did a little before and after picture praising how you looked had a 20 quid ebook on there yeah I could have made an absolute

killing I sat with my mum last week we did an interview and somebody asked my mum how her anorexia started and she went back to her childhood and she said you know she mentioned about being criticized for her weight gymnastics athletics and then she went on a ridiculous start when she was like 14 and she said she lost a load of weight really quickly and then she was praised for how she looked and then it was that I wasn't good enough when I was a little bit heavier as soon as I lost the weight I was good enough for everyone that's how it all started and it just yeah that's what terrifies me. My mum was just a child at the time. So what you're saying about with the videos, you know, people will praise, you know, how you looked or something, not knowing that what

you've just gone through is something really stressful, traumatic or awful. Yeah, sometimes people may look at that. I think, cool, I was really stressed. I didn't eat, but I just, you know, and that actually made me a better person or more worthy. We've got to be so careful of a language, haven't we? Yeah. We've got a section called Real or Not Real, where I'm going to show you a video and I would love to hear your thoughts. And then we're going to come on to some community questions as well. Cool. Okay.

What's your wellness routine look like now? I eat dinner early in the evening. I do a nice intermittent fast. I usually eat something about 12. And in the morning, I'll have some things that won't spike my blood sugar. Right. So I have coffee. But I really like soup for lunch.

I have bone broth for lunch a lot of the days. Try to do one hour of movement. So I'll either take a while. walk or I'll do Pilates or I'll do my Tracy Anderson and then I get in the sauna. I dry brush and I get in the sauna. So I do my infrared sauna for 30 minutes. And then for dinner I try to eat, you know, according to paleo. So lots of vegetables. It's really important for me to support my detox. What do you think? I love the sound of a walk and lots of vegetables. But you can say that about the sauna and a walk and vegetables. And for some people, those behaviours might be really, really healthy. They might really

enjoy them for others they're like obsessed with like optimization and biohacking that's kind of what we need to remember with people like that is they're obsessed with this optimization at the moment and it's a bit of craze with living as long as we can and doing all these crazy things and I think you know at the end of day if we eat a few more vegetables if we go for a walk each day probably a good thing but probably yeah timing when you eat your breakfast and things like that and jumping in a sauna every day, probably not. Probably not what most people should be focusing on. Yeah. And also most people's not realistic for most people either. So we've got a community question. Is an anti-inflammatory diet actually a thing or just social media hype? I would say we don't really have an anti-inflammatory

diet as such. There are foods that may have anti-inflammatory properties and there is maybe a way of eating that would maybe promote more inflammation in certain areas. I think a lot of the time when we hear these words like anti-inflammatory, they're actually typically just following the food guidelines. So they're talking about eating more fiber, eating more healthy fats, eating less saturated fat, eating less sugar, eating less. When we say processed foods, we're talking like chocolate, biscuits, that kind of stuff. That's typically what the dietary guidelines are like.

If you go on the NHS or the government website, they will say exactly that. And this is what I mean is kind of like, but we have to make things sound sexy and trendy often. Now, if it helps someone eat a bit better, cool. But yeah, like I've seen lots people talk about it. Like I said, there are some foods that maybe, you know, Mediterranean diet, for example, if we were going to say to maybe follow something like that. But at the end of the day, what inflammation are we talking about? What have we had measured? Have we been diagnosed with something? I think often we can just complicate things. If you probably strip back this diet and look at the principles of it, probably the majority of it's probably pretty good.

I've actually never thought of it like that that it is probably just the normal guidelines but obviously you can't charge people money if you just... I saw someone, a creator I really, really like do a video and say if I could recommend one way of eating it would be an anti-inflammatory diet and I thought that's really weird

I've never heard you use that kind of language so I watched it and I just commented saying this is just the dietary guidelines which is great but I don't know why we have to call it something yeah but I guess maybe nowadays we do because to get people to actually follow it. Yeah.

I don't know. Yeah. And maybe from the perspective of people who, if they've tried eating healthily, eating healthly, eating healthily, time and time again, when it's repackaged in a different way, it gives them the novelty to pursue it.

Maybe that's also coming from myself where I'm like, oh, none of this has worked. Maybe let's give it some fancy new packaging and maybe I'll actually stick to it. Yeah. Possibly. That I think if you look at a lot of things

in the health and nutrition world, That's what a lot of things are. And at the end of day, if somebody gets to the right, like, conclusion and they're living a lifestyle and eating in a way that supports the health and they call it something, like, cool. Just maybe don't go shouting about it and encourage people to, like, call it that maybe, would be my opinion. If I'm not mistaken, you're also a ADHD king. Yeah, I was diagnosed. I was 20, 21, about 10, coming up 10 years ago. Yeah, I only got diagnosed.

My brother got diagnosed, and my mom was like, I have always questioned it, Josh. I want to get it checked. My uni were great. They helped with it. Had like an assessment at uni and then they put me through like the NHS where I was at uni and I found out then.

And as classic ADHD person went brilliant thanks. And then left it of that. Nice. But I was like I got like extra help at uni and I got some like private tutor and to help with it. The best thing that came from me getting a diagnosis was

I was taught how my brain like to learn So I was taught that my brain loved learning via audio and not reading. And as soon as I learned that, it was like a game changer. And I learned that I could write on with stuff by talking as well. That for me was like the biggest game changer then. And I think it just helped me like go, cool. My brain just works in a certain way.

I'll just try and work with that. Do you know it's any ways that maybe your ADHD shows up in your nutrition or even clients? I think the most common thing that I see in people with ADHD, and I definitely fitting into this bracket you know, you might do as well, is I'd get to like 5pm and realize I hadn't eaten anything

and especially when I was at uni it was horrendous and I'd be there at like 5pm like doing an assignment and my whole body would be like shaking and I'd be like, what have I done? I'd be like I've probably had like 10 coffees I've probably had some energy drinks

I've not eaten anything. That to me was like yeah, that's a classic ADHD thing so forgetting to eat meals or being in too much for a rush to eat or not justifying the time to grab something over completing the task that you're already doing. So if you're writing the email,

or you're like, oh, I've not replied to my emails for a week, but I'm in the middle of doing them all now. If I step away from my emails to go get breakfast, I might not reply to these emails for another week. So you think, I'll just finish the emails now and my breakfast can wait and then before you know it, you're like four hours later. And then you've like, you've gone to the gym

and you've done the washing and you've, like done the hoovering and you've done some work you've not eaten because you've not justified the importance of eating. So that's the one I would say is really, really common and I'd say just having quick, convenient things that you can grab, make. And if you were to look at my food as a nutritionist, you'd probably say you're the most boring person in the world when it comes to food. But it's quick, it's efficient, it's easy. So I just love making a smoothie for breakfast. Yeah. because it takes me a minute.

I can put loads of seeds in there. I can put like sources of protein, loads of different fruits, berries, you know, flaxseeds, cillium husk, you name it. I can put it in a smoothie. I could take it to my desk and I can sip on it when I want to. And then my lunch is always just literally toast and like beans on toast or eggs on toast or a sandwich. Be like sandwich, I'll grab an apple, I'll grab a bag of popcorn, maybe a cereal bar. And I can just eat.

It takes me two minutes. So just keeping stuff really quick and easy. and making sure that you have like a go-to set of staples, like convenience food. So if you look in my kitchen, I've got tinned everything. Yeah. And I've got frozen everything. So it's always there when I eat it. So I'll have like tinned fish.

I'll have tin beans. I'll have tinned vegetables, sweet corn, fruits, that kind of stuff. So just making sure I've got quick, easy staples to go to all the time. And just having like three, four quick easy meals that you could write them on fridge and just leave them there. So when you're like, I can't think about what to make, like, I know I've got microwave ball rice, I know I've got tuna, I know I've got tin sweet corn, I know I've got an avocado. That's lunch in like two minutes. So I think just doing things like that can help people. The microwave bowl rice is such an idiot. Game changer. Yeah, it is.

And I remember my dad being like, fake rice takes 10 minutes, boy, why would you not just have ice? The microwaveful rice serves an important purpose in my life. My favorite thing now is like microwave bowl lentils. Oh my God. The ones that have got a little bit of seasoning as well. Spanish ones or like French or just anything. Just go and grab a couple of them, grab some bit. And I just, you look at my food and you go, Josh, like, what on earth you're making? I'm like, I figure it out later. But just like convenience staples like that.

It's great. It's only after having a couple of nutritionists on this podcast that I've reassessed my relationship and realize, oh wait, they are still in my blacklist. I just haven't addressed them. Okay. So then now, big one for me is a big handful of nuts in the afternoon before coming to this podcast. I literally did peanut butter on toast because I was like, Faye, you're not going to have eaten. Anything since breakfast, you need something quick.

Otherwise, you're just going to be like, not going to have any brain. I was in London at the March. And when I got at the train station, I was like, I know I'm going to need to carry some food in me. So I just went into M&S and just bought like a couple of bags of nuts and just stuck them in my pocket. Great food. The people have become so scared of them. But I think, is it something you're currently like working on having more of? Is that what you're saying?

I literally have them every day now. I love it. It's great. I eat peanut butter and I eat nuts every day. Yeah. Like two absolute go-toes. And I think people forget just how like, especially like any kind of like mixed nuts in general, just how nutritious they are. Like you take something like a Brazil nut and it's going to provide like your whole entire day's worth of selenium in one go.

Now I wouldn't say go eating loads of Brazil nuts every day. Definitely don't do that. But like one a day gives you an entire amount of selenium. They're great for men's health and things in particular. So people just forget how nutritious nuts are. Yeah, exactly. They're brilliant. To see them as calories and fats. It's like we don't even absorb all the calories and that in them anyway

because they're so hard to break down. And brilliant fibre. Yeah, great fibre. They're pretty good fibre. Yeah, but fearful for a lot of people. Diet culture has a lot to answer. There was one of the question I had to ask you was, have you watched the new Netflix documentary on The Biggest Loser?

I'm really bad. I don't watch stuff. That's good. That's very good. I watch a series. Yeah. But I have to be like into it. I have to be watching.

one thing. I'm terrible when it comes to any kind of health, nutrition programs. I think when you spend all day, every day, talking about food, nutrition, health, and then you go on social media, the last thing I want to do is watch them and say, you name any documentary people who talk about, I guarantee I've never watched it.

Fine, fine. So no, I don't even know it was on there. It's interesting. Is it going back to like the consequences of when they used to do the program and, yeah. So they have got one of the winners on there. I think it might be the winner who lost the most weight out of,

everyone, and they didn't keep off the weight. They are, I believe they put it all back on. If not, they put it all back on and more. Do you have any thoughts on the, I don't know, the consequences of those sorts of shows? I think we kind of forget just how bad TV was back in the day. Like you think about things like fat families, like all those kind of TV shows.

Again, it goes back to talking about people's bodies, make entertainment out of people's bodies and what they look like. or like that they struggle to maybe exercise. What's the super size versus super skinny? That was, oh, that was terrifying. I've seen a lot of stories over years about how, you know, those kind of programs impacted people. But I think maybe the bigger issue was we wonder why we've got disordered thoughts

for foods and stuff and that's the TV we grew up watching. I think that has a lot to answer for. Luckily, you don't see shows like that on TV anymore. At least that's one thing we can take from it is we've realized that kind of TV is not entertainment. To be a man on the podcast, it would be rude not to touch on also men's relationship with food. So take celebrities like Demi Lovato have spoken out about their relationships with foods and disordered eating. Also celebrities like Zane Malik have spoken about disordered eating, but it tends to get less attention. Why do you think that is?

I think part of it goes back to just like general stigma with things like mental health anyway. So, you know, I definitely, like, as a man growing up, and I've been very open with, like, my own depression. I was diagnosed as a child. I took medication for, like, 14 years. When I was growing up, there was still this stigma of, like, you're a man, like, man up, suck it up, that kind of thing. It's still a thing now.

I think we're better with it. I think the positive thing is more eating disorders are being diagnosed in men, and people say, well, that's not a positive thing. I would say the fact that more people are going and asking for help is a positive thing. is a positive thing. So we're now seeing between like a third and a quarter of all eating disorder diagnosis of men, the rates of eating disorders growing

quicker in men than women. And I see it in my work a lot more. I never used to work with men. Men wouldn't come and work for me because Ben don't talk about their feelings anyway. Men don't talk about their feelings with food. I see a big shift in it now. Like quite a lot of clients have worked with

men typically work on emotional eating, binge eating. So it is coming out more and I think a lot of it will come from people like saying people that have been open about struggling with food disorderly eating disorders binge eating those kind of things so i think things are changing for the better but i think it's very very hard to be a man with an eating disorder because you know if i was to ask the audience or anyone if you picture someone with an eating disorder most people are going to think of a woman it's going to be a thin white woman and we look at you know men struggle to get treatment that is

geared towards them because typically they struggle with different things. They might struggle more with obsession over like muscularity and leanness that way. We look at people of color. They struggle to get treatment because it's viewed differently. They may be viewed as like you've got to be strong. Whereas like a thin white woman, you know, maybe we have more of a drive to help that person. That's kind of what we've been taught. They're seen as more vulnerable. So I would say things are changing and they're changing through the campaign and the stuff as well. I think, yeah, just growing up as a young kid, you were kind of taught men have to be like this strong, like personally leads a family kind of thing.

You see it now with like manosphere and all that kind of stuff. I didn't watch that either, but I've seen a lot of the clips and I know like the sort of stuff that goes on. But I think that's what men are told to be, aren't they? It's supposed to be strong and not talk about their feelings. Yeah. The last question that we've been asking all our guests is Joshua. What do you wish every woman knew by this time she was 25?

So I think that's my mum. I didn't know when I was 25, when she was 25. But I say I wish my mom had hope that things could change back then. She has hope that things can change now, but it's only become a recent thing. Whereas I think back to when she was like, yeah, when she was 25 before she had me, you know, she was right in the depths of like her eating disorder with no hope that anything was ever going to change. And she lived like that for another 30 years. And she didn't find hope until she was, you know, 50, 57.

She probably killed me for saying that. But I would hope that, yeah, women could find hope with their struggles with food at that age. Because I work for a lot of women who are in their 40s, 50s, not so many in their 20s. And because they often come to you later when they've struggled for decades rather than a few months or a couple of years. So rather people found hope to change and try and get some help then rather than wait. That is such a wonderful point to end on. So thank you so, so, so, so much. It's been a wonderful episode.

And thank you very much for coming on. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.