Just As Well, The Women's Health Podcast - Why Medicine Gets Nutrition Wrong with Dr Hazel Wallace

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

Dr Hazel Wallace—better known as The Food Medic—joins Gemma Atkinson and Claire Sanderson for one of our most inspiring conversations yet. Hazel shares how losing her father to a stroke at 14 set her on a mission to change medicine from the inside. After years working on NHS wards, she realised healthcare too often overlooks the importance of nutrition and lifestyle—and decided to do something about it. In this episode, Hazel opens up about Why she quit hospital medicine to focus on women’s healt The truth about carbs, stress, and longevit How she built The Food Medic into a platform of over 1M follower Her fight against viral health misinformation Whether you’re passionate about women’s health, curious about preventative medicine, or just want evidence-based advice on living well, this episode has something for you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is it the matcha or am I this energized from scoring three Sephora holiday gift sets? Definitely the sets. Full size and minis bundled together? What a steal. And that packaging? So cute. It practically wraps itself. And I know I should be giving them away, but I'm keeping the Summer Fridays and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. I don't blame you. The best holiday beauty sets are only at Sephora. Gift sets from Summer Fridays, Rare Beauty, Way, and more are going fast.

Get full-sized favorites and must-have minis bundled for more value. Shop before they're gone. In store online at Sephora.com. Where's your playlist taking you? Down the highway, to the mountains, or just into daydream mode while you're stuck in traffic. With over 4,000 hotels worldwide, Best Western is there to help you make the most of your getaway. Wherever that is,

because the only thing better than a great playlist is a great trip. Life's the trip. Make the most of it at Best Western. Book direct and save at bestwester.com. Hello, I'm Gemm Atkinson. And I'm Claire Sanderson, the editor-in-chief of Women's Health. And we've just done an episode of Just As well with the Food Medic, Hazel Wallace, Dr. Hazel Wallace. Dr. Hazel Wallace, indeed.

And it was actually Gawker who suggested we'd bring her on, wasn't it? Yeah, so he said that he'd worked with her and that she was really lovely and hugely educated and a fountain of all knowledge. So we thought, why not? Yeah, she was brilliant. She was, she looked incredible, but I liked her approach to everything nutrition, health and wellness in terms of 80-20 method, which I know you and I are both a fan of, just kind of movement for medicine. And she's very big on alternative medicine whilst recognising there is a place for, you know, modern medicine that we have, but it should be at a last resort if you can have a preventative medicine over just a curable one, which I found really, really interesting. Yeah, because she's a medically trained doctor. She studied medicine at Cardiff, actually, now where I'm from.

And she worked on the NHS wards for years. But she was so forward-thinking that even in her first year of medical school, she set up the food medic because even then she realized the power of optimal nutrition in optimizing your health. because she said that in medical school and beyond, nutrition is simply not taught to students. She said it's changed slightly now, but at the time, it's simply not taught.

But spurred on by her own experience of her dad having a stroke in her teens, and she did her own research and she realized there can be other contributory factors to strokes, such as high cholesterol, stress, etc. She had already started to explore the power of preventative. medicine. She was marvelous. And she was very honest about how, you know, practicing what you preach and how she keeps herself well, because she was on the front line during COVID, wasn't she? She was working on the COVID wards. So she experienced a lot and she said there was no kind of set routine or

rotor then. It was just you were in while people needed you. So her sleep suffered, her diet went out of the window that she wasn't training and she spoke about how that had a effect on a mental health as well as a physical and the importance of getting. getting back on track if you have a period of time where you kind of neglect yourself because you touched upon the fact as well, didn't you? That, you know, women tend to put themselves at the bottom of the pile when it comes to priorities. Yeah, absolutely.

We discussed that. As women, we put everyone before ourselves. So, mum, sisters, friends, employers, children. And we come to the bottom of that pile. And she said to be the best version of herself, she has to put herself first. And she ended up quitting traditional medicine. She no longer works in hospitals because she realized it just was not the life that for her and the life that would make her be the best version of herself. So she has a master's in nutrition and she specialises in women's health and she has a clinic and she has her platform, the food medic, which is huge.

She has 1.2 million followers on social who all listen to her really sensible advice because her mantra is to be the antidote. to viral misinformation. And there's a lot of misinformation out there. Much like this podcast, we would like to be the antidote to viral misinformation. And we will be. Yes, we will be.

And there's a lot of synergy between us and Hazel Wallace and it was great to have her as a guest. So thank you, Gorks, for the intro. Enjoy Hazel Wallace. So our next guest on Just as Well is the wonderful Dr. Hazel Wallace. Now, Dr. Hazel Wallace is a medical doctor, a nutritionist, a personal trainer,

founder of the food medic platform, and she's also a best-selling author, with the following of more than one million on social media. She's passionate about female health, and she advocates for increased research, as she believes our health needs are largely underserved. Her aim is to be an antidote to viral misinformation, so I'm very much looking forward to getting into this chat. Thank you for joining us, Hazel.

Thanks for having me. Now, you've done a lot with women's health anyway, haven't you? you've featured a couple of times and you're just a fountain of knowledge when it comes to all things we're talking about. What is it that started you on your path to becoming who you are now? So I'll try to give you the short story. I basically lost my father when I was 14 to a stroke and that was obviously a really young age and something that essentially changed the trajectory of my life. and I think around that time I was still thinking about

what I wanted to do at my life and that moment made me think I want to go into medicine I want to be a doctor and hopefully help other people avoid this situation and even at a young age I understood that strokes and cardiovascular disease

can't just be helped by medicine but there also can be prevented by things like our nutrition, our lifestyle, how much we move, the stress that we're under. And so I went into med school really motivated to learn all about nutrition and learned absolutely nothing about nutrition. And so I set up the food matter blog about 13 years ago now, aiming to share evidence-based information in a blog format on how we can live healthier lives and hopefully avoid these non-communicable diseases. So conditions that

are not like infections, you don't just catch them. And, And so that grew over the last 13 years, growing to books and podcasts. I went back and studied my master's in nutrition because, again, I was working in the NHS and I just felt like I was never going to get that information that could really help people from a nutrition standpoint. And I was seeing people every day who were impacted by nutrition. So that's really the short story, even though it's a long story. And it's still my main passion today.

Yeah, it's interesting. You say my dad's, I lost my dad when I was 17. I'm so sorry. He died of a heart attack. And again, he was six foot two, didn't smoke, really drunk in shape, et well. And they said it was stress. And you mentioned the word stress, that it can be a cause of, like you say, strokes and heart disease. So I understand how you fell at 14.

It's not nice. And it does completely change your outlook. Completely. On life. But I love that for you, it's changed something for the best. and you now have a platform to help other people who are suffering. And if you're doing preventative ways to hopefully prevent them in the first place, I think it's brilliant.

Yeah, that's it. I think now that I'm in my 30s and I can look back and not look at it in such an emotional way, I really think that while it was a really horrific thing that happened, it's something really positive has come from that. And I think that gives me like the motivation to keep doing what I do. It's quite forward thinking then to realise the power of preventative medicine because I have friends who are doctors, I have friends who's children are now medical students, which makes me feel very old. But preventative medicine is just not something that is practiced in the NHS, is it? It's all about solutions to people who present when they are chronically ill.

And for you to realise the power of nutrition and to set up a food medic, I believe in your first year as a medical student, that shows a remarkable level of intuition and maturity. Thank you. Yeah, it was definitely not the norm then. And I would be lying if I said that other medical students thought I was really cool for doing so.

I got mocked for doing that and for having my little Instagram page all that time ago. because I guess I had this vision that I was going to become this doctor that was a hybrid doctor integrating nutrition and personal training. And if I'm honest, like once I started working in the NHS, I realized that was never going to happen. Your time is so short with patients. And also when you're working in a hospital setting, you're just putting out fires. You're just trying to keep people alive and trying to get them from A to B. So I think there's so much. more we can do before we get to that stage. And I think it's, for me, it's never been this

or that, like, medicine and surgery have a huge role in our healthcare system. But I think if we integrated more before we got to that stage, nutrition, lifestyle, stress management, we would help ease the burden on our healthcare system as well. 100%. It's like, I think, a lot of the time, people tend to treat a symptom rather than what's causing it. And like the first, one being if people have got a headache, I need some paracetamol when it's kind of, have you drank enough water? Did you sleep efficiently? You know, it's kind of the quick go-to, but I'm all for hopefully trying to do prevention over cure for anything. Because I think it's well, I mean, the NHS is under so much stress. And if we did all this beforehand, it'll take the stress

off it, wouldn't it? If it did get to that stage, and I agree with you, there is a massive, massive place for that type of help when it's needed. But if you can prevent getting there, in the first place, it just makes so much sense. Yeah, completely agree with you. And those people who mocked you for having all that, are they not taking advice from your page? I don't know. I don't know how they're doing.

But I think I'm just really, really grateful that I just kept my head down and kept going. I actually had a consultant in one of my early years as a junior doctor who said, don't be afraid to be a black sheep. Don't be afraid to be different because I feel like a lot of doctors who I met across the years really valued what I was doing and saw a place for it, but just we're like, we don't really have time. We don't have the education. We haven't, you know, being taught any of this in medical school. And I know that that's changing in a lot of medical schools where they're integrating a lot more nutrition now. But I think we've a long way to go

until we get to a place where, you know, you're getting nutrition advice from the NHS. Hopefully, we're society. We're much more knowledgeable. generally about nutrition, aren't we? When I think I've been at Women's Health for eight and a half years, nine years in January, which is terrifying. When I think of the level of knowledge people have now, when I compare to what it was, when you first started working with Women's Health, because I remember you coming into this building and helping us judge on Nutrition Awards, it must have been eight years ago.

Yeah. Just the general level of nutrition knowledge and health knowledge has increased to such an extent you should think or hope that these medical students going through university now will bring that forward to their patients when they do qualify. Yeah, I completely agree with you. I think people are a lot more self-aware, a lot more educated on nutrition. And that's probably partly to do with social media because there are a lot of people who are sharing information. But I think what comes with that as well can be really dangerous because there's a lot of misinformation. and a little bit of education around nutrition can sometimes be a bad thing because someone feels

like they're an expert. So I think it's still a battle of kind of busting those myths, trying to get the kind of the voices who are allowed us in the space to be expert voices and not just people who maybe read the abstract of a study and have decided that they're going to tell everyone that X, Y and Z is really bad for you. Because your first book, it focused on debunking diet myths because there's so many of them. You're told to do this and then do that. And it's not kind of like a one shoe fits all with a lot of foods.

What is the most persistent myth that you encounter today in 2025? I still think that a lot of the kind of core myths are still alive. So if we think about one of the main ones I remember covering in that book was carbs make me fat or carbs cause you. to weight gain and low carb diets were so popular about 10 years ago, 20 years ago. And I think they are still popular now, but for different reasons. So people are no really, people are no longer really focusing on maybe weight loss, but they're really focused on glucose spikes or longevity. So we've shifted from a weight focused narrative to now like hyper wellness hacks, biohacking longevity focus. And I now work exclusively with women in my nutrition clinic and a lot of

them come to me. And they may not have admitted to themselves that they're afraid of carbohydrates in their diet, but they will have tiny, tiny amounts in it. And these will be girls who are trying to run marathons or, you know, just active women. And we need carbohydrates in our diet. You know, they're not the devil. And yes, we need to have an awareness of things like how much refined carbohydrates we have in our diet and how our energy feels and cravings and things like that. But I still think there's a lot of demonisation around big food groups like that. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply.

With carbs, people's mind immediately go to bread, biscuits. that's where the demonisation of carbs comes in because there are healthy carbs and healthy way to fuel your training for instance. So do you want to take us through that then? And what's a healthy carb to take on board to fuel, say Gemma's doing a morning workout? So she wants to cycle her carb intake.

So she would eat carbs the night before. What would be the best way to go about that? Yeah, absolutely. I think, like we all know that you can get carbs from breads, but you get carbs from so many other foods, It's like potatoes, sweet potatoes, your whole grain rice is, your brown rice, your quinoa, your pulses, even like your pastas. And I think while it feels like a really old-school advice, opting for more the whole grain and the brown versions of carbs is really helpful for a couple of reasons. So it generally has more fiber in there.

So it's slower to digest and fiber is really beneficial for your gut bacteria, but also it can help with things like cholesterol levels and steady energy levels. but for other reasons, like when we're talking about glycospikes, and this is something that is so popular right now, as talked about all over social media. And I think one thing to really mention is when your body has a glycos spike because you've eaten a carb, that's a normal physiological response. It means that you're alive.

So that's a good thing. If we're having lots and lots of spikes or they're really big over an extended period of time, yes, that can increase the risk of certain health conditions. We want to avoid that. But micromanaging small glucose spikes in healthy individuals could cause more harm than good, because you could become really obsessed over food. But how can we kind of steady those levels or how can we bring down that spike?

If we're having carbohydrates, we want to go for our high fiber sources, and we want to pair them with healthy fats and protein. And that's just going to help you have a more balanced meal, but also your body's going to respond in a better way. Yeah, it's like because I love old. I love her. I always get organic oats, but I always put my protein powder in it. And like you say, I'll put some, you know, some Brazil nuts in there, some good fatty nuts and chia seeds. I don't just have porridge on its own. I always combine it. And I find, as if I used to have it on its own, I'd get like a slump after.

But if I combine it with the other foods, I don't have a slump. I have energy. And like you say, I can then go and have a big session. So it is the whole demonizing of, I mean, I remember the trade. the trend that went around that you shouldn't eat calms after two o'clock. And it was like, it's like it's going to affect you differently after two than before two. And for years and years,

people like, it's gone two o'clock, no more carbs for the rest of the day. And then the whole towy thing was the no carbs before Mars. Yeah. It was just everywhere, wasn't it? Yeah. And I think in a way, like,

some people still have that narrative in their head that they should avoid carbohydrates, but there's nothing inherently wrong with them. It's just about with, like, with any food choices. It's having that awareness of like there are certain foods that are going to benefit you in other ways. And so, you know, if you were to just eat high fat foods, that's not going to help either. And so I think extreme approaches to nutrition just never work.

And it's mentally boring, isn't it? It's like you want to enjoy food. You want it to be a social event with your family, with your friends, you know, and taste it and enjoy it, not be counting what's in it. And when you can have it, that for me, I just hate that. And the thought of my kids, like my daughter especially one day doing that, petrifies me. It is big though, isn't it? Tracking your macros is a big thing in wellness.

And it's such a lot of effort. And as you say, it just takes the joy out of eating. Yeah. Everything within reason and balanced is surely that's not a bad way to go about life. No, I think you're completely right. Like we talk about food in the nutrition. space in women's health from a nutrition perspective, you know, like what can I eat to optimize health or X, Y, and Z. But also food is like a social occasion, you know, like you'll have food

that reminds you of home or comfort food that you turn to when you're upset. And oftentimes people think that we shouldn't comfort or we shouldn't eat foods that we're craving if they're not quote unquote healthy. But actually, if that allows you to choose what's nutritionally optimal, 80% of the time and allows you to have food or birthday cake with your daughter or your best friend or go out for dinner with your partner on the weekends and you're able to do that without having any, you know, food noise. I think that's a healthy approach to have. And it's knowing as well how foods react to you like we have, Monday to Friday, my kids, they'll start the day, they'll have an omelet every day before school and they love it. We'll put cheese in there, bit of ham, whatever.

on the weekends they'll have pancakes with some biscoff and Mia actually said to me why can we not have these in the week mum and I said to well when you've had your pancakes and biscuits I said they're really lovely aren't it I said but you feel a bit tired after them and she said yeah I do and I said well that's fine I said it's completely fine I said but that's how it's reacting on your body I said so if you go into school having pancakes and biscoff I said you're going to be so tired during your class and she's like oh yeah she said but after me eggs I don't feel tired I said well that's why we have them So I'm not trying to give her as good foods and bad food. I'm trying to explain to her you can eat whatever you want, but just be aware it will make you feel a certain way.

And so far that's kind of worked with us. But I think it is hard for a lot of parents who are on a timescale in the morning. I'm lucky I don't start work until the afternoons. But if you've got to get up and out and your kids out, cereal is the quick fix. And that's like you say the world we're living in, they'll put a cereal box on and then they'll put iron, tick, magnesium, and the reality is it's got none of them. You know, what advice would you give to families

who are on a budget and a timescale but want to try and get healthy food into their kids? It is really difficult, and I will caveat with this, that I don't have kids, so I practically don't know how difficult it is, but I do have lots of nieces and nephews. And I think a lot of the health advice that we give

is coming from, you know, like a privileged place, but if you are time poor or it comes down to financial insecurity, it can be harder to integrate some of these things. And I think it's just going back to basic principles. Yes, maybe if you find you're struggling to get your kids to eat any other cereal, then it's maybe opting for a less sugary cereal and trying to add in things to it. So if you can sneak in maybe some sliced fruit in there

or add some grapes on the side, or instead of having milk, maybe I have some yogurt in there so you're getting some more protein, more calcium for the kids. So it's tweaking things that you're already doing so it's not overhauling your budget, not overhauling your timetable, and they're not going to think that you're doing anything that's too different in the mornings

because you don't want to change their schedule too much. So it's those little tweaks, kind of like what we do for ourselves, that will help. So nutrition is always big news, big news across all of women's health platforms. And there are things that get more attention than others and go viral. We've got a few here. We'd love to get your thoughts on them.

So supplements, big business. And if you believe the hype, they can solve everything. What's your opinion on taking supplements? Yeah, I think supplements have really gotten out of hand in the last couple of years. Like, I think since, you know, you started at women's health, since I started writing content online, the supplement industry has just grown and grown. And the thing that people need to know is supplements aren't regulated in the UK like medicines. So we don't have to prove safety and efficacy. So they're regulated like foods.

So, yes, they do come under quality control, but we don't know if they work very well. And so a lot of people trust these supplements will fix an unhealthy diet or a lot of people use them as an insurance policy. I'm not really sure what they do, but hopefully it will keep coughs and coals at bay. And I know from research that that's why a lot of people do take supplements. What I think has grown over the last couple of years is obviously we've got social media, we've got a lot more influencer marketing, we've got ads on social media. so there's supplements for everything. What I will say is supplements will not change a bad diet. They won't magically make things better.

Not everyone needs to take supplements, and it's very individual. So there's no supplement that I would give you, that I would give you. The only caveat to that is vitamin D in the winter in the UK, because we just simply don't get enough and we can't get enough from food. But supplements are super individual, and so, Claire, you might have different. goals so maybe it's strength goals or maybe it's longevity goals or maybe you've got a specific health condition so we need to supplement for that and gemment might be that you cut out certain foods or

you can't have a certain food and so we need to make sure that you're getting that nutrient from that so when i'm seeing clients in clinic we're going through on that level of of um like granular level to see what are your specific needs so for anyone listening like the next time you see you see an ad pop up and it says this is going to cure bloating or this will balance your hormones, like really interrogate whether you need that. Like what does that even mean? Like there's so many supplements and I know we're going to speak about women's health in a second, but I feel like even in the women's health space, so much generic supplements that promise these very vague claims. And I think even as someone like seeing that content, I feel, oh gosh, should I be taking

that as well? Like you get really dragged into it. But at the the end of the day if you have a healthy balanced diet, if you don't have any specific health needs, it's unlikely that you need to be taking many, if any, supplements. What about the pro and prebiotics? Because there's different ones, isn't there? Do they actually have a benefit, a pro and prebiotic? Yeah, so probiotics are basically like live microorganisms that help our gut bacteria. And so we can find it in things like live yogurts, kaffir, and sourcrap, you can take it in

a supplement form. And then prebiotics are basically pre, like what we feed our gut bugs. And that's basically like high fiber foods. Some probiotics, so the live microorganisms, can be beneficial

in certain situations. The caveat is that they are strain specific. So if you have IBS, for example, I will I will recommend a specific strain for that specific problem. Or if you've been taking antibiotics and you want to replenish your gut bacteria, I will recommend a completely different strain. So it's strain specific, just like if you needed antibiotics from a doctor, they would

recommend a specific antibiotic as opposed to just giving you a generic one. And I think that's what people maybe aren't fully aware of because you can go into the supermarket and you just see a whole load and you think, well, I need to look after my gut. I will just take. take that probiotic because it looks like it will suit me. And I think if you're just taking it for that reason, like an insurance policy, you're probably wasting your money and you could probably do something cheaper by just focusing on improving your diet from a gut health perspective. And that could be maybe integrating some probiotic rich foods.

So having kaffir with your granola in the morning, having live yogurt and blueberries as a snack, maybe adding a bit of sourcrout to your salad, like little things like that. integrating it that way before going to supplements. And from a pre-briotic perspective, just getting as much plant-based foods into your diet, onions, garlic, artichokes, asparagus, trying to build your meals around plant-based foods and you'll be doing a lot more than what you can get in a supplement.

The next one is UPFs, ultra-processed foods. Yes. They are the devil if you read all the books and since all the podcasts, are they always evil? They're really having a moment at the moment and there's been lots of books that have come out, lots of podcasts, lots of TikToks and things, people in supermarkets reading ingredient lists.

So ultra-processed foods, yes, tend to be more palatable, so they taste better. We eat lots of it. And they tend to be higher in sugar, salt, fat, all the things that generally aren't health-promoting. And we do know that if you consume a lot, in your diet, then it can lead to poor health outcomes. So as a whole, they're not health promoting, but it is a big category of food. And within that, we also have things like fortified

breads, we have certain yogurts, we have infant formula. So there is a place for them in our diets. I think as a whole, if we can limit as much processed foods we have in our diet, that's a really positive start. But I don't want people to panic that if they have, to turn to processed foods because it means that they're going to get some vegetables into their diet that day. That's not going to undo all the good that you've done. So it's about limiting in their diet and limiting it in our diet, but they're not always the devil. You know, they're, it's very different if you were to have, I don't know, like, um, Doritos versus having some protein yogurt, for example. So there's, there's kind of like, yes, we can put them in the

same category, but how they benefit us will be different. Yeah, that makes sense. There's like there's different types, I guess, isn't there? Some that are just avoid avoid, but some are like, oh, it's like you say, one UFP's not going to make you unhealthy, one salary is not going to make you healthy. There's a good balance. That's it. What about creatine? There's a lot of hype now that women should be taking creatine. Yeah, creatine has really, has grown in popularity over the last couple of years. We've got good evidence behind it. It's quite safe to take. And I think it's mostly being really popular in the sports and exercise space, but actually there's a lot more evidence coming out in how it might benefit us from a cognition point of view and brain health. Women typically have lower stores of creatine, so maybe supplementing might be more beneficial for us.

And it can be helpful for kind of building muscle mass, especially when you're coupling it with strength training. And I know a lot of women like really just get on really well with it. So I think that is a supplement that I think is well researched and I would consider it as well. I take routine. I happen for years. I've started now since we've been doing this. So I've been adding it into my shake. And final one, electrolytes.

And this is quite a personal one to me because I have been taking electrolytes. But I've also had kidney issues. I have kidney failure two years ago. And I've since read that some kidney doctors are saying proceed with caution. So I guess it goes back to what we're saying about supplements. I thought it couldn't do no harm. But actually, is electrolytes something people should be a little bit weary or? The answer, the short answer is yes.

It shouldn't be a supplement that you take every day. Because people are now. People are taking electrolytes every day even without having a reason to do so. So let's break it down what electrolytes are. basically they're like minerals which we have in our body and usually your body does a really good job at helping to regulate those levels. If you have any issues with our kidneys, for example, then you might find that you've got higher levels than not or if you're really unwell. Now if you're sweating a lot, so if you're exercising, if you're doing a lot of running, for

example, or if you're hot or humid conditions or if you have had diarrhea and vomiting and you're losing salts that way, then you might need to replace them with electrolytes. So, for example, I'm a big runner. When I do long runs, I'll take electrolytes. Do I take electrolytes every day? No, because your body has enough salts in there. We also get electrolytes from food and drink in our every day. Even if you're not adding salt to food, you're still getting it from your food. The issue when we take too much is that you're taking a lot of sodium into your body and potassium and calcium sometimes. different electrolytes and different supplements, that is not good for your body on a day-to-day level

if you're not requiring to replenish that. So in your case, if you've had any kidney issues, that is something I would definitely proceed with caution or if you've got any blood pressure issues. So I guess the take-home message is most people shouldn't be taking electrolytes every morning when they wake up. I see it in a lot of what I eat in a day videos, and I think not something we should really be promoting.

If you're training for a marathon or if you're doing, a big sweaty workout and you're on holidays, then yes, that's fine. But for most people, not a daily supplement. What aspects you mentioned women's health earlier? What specific aspects of women's health do you think are the most underserved in the mainstream media, the ones that are, we should be talking about, but they kind of get pushed under the carpet? Can I say all aspects? I think all aspects of women's health, but I do feel like we've made progress in the menopause space. And I think thanks to the likes of Davina McColl who's been so vocal on that topic and has really pushed with documentaries. So I feel like we're making progress in certain spaces.

But as someone who's just released a book on the menstrual cycle, talking about periods publicly on platforms has been so hard from a resistance point of view because women want to hear it, but I think mainstream media still struggle with talking about anything related to the menstrual cycle. And when we sit back and think about it, 1.9 billion people on this planet have a menstrual cycle. We have it for about 40 years of our life. And that is a huge portion of our life that a lot of women are basically living kind of without knowing much knowledge about what's happening in their body in a day to day, because your menstrual cycle isn't just a bleeding phase, there's so much more that happens across that 23 or so days of your cycle beyond your

period. And those hormones impact everything from your sleep, your energy, your mood, your skin health, even your cravings. And I think a lot of us just live in the dark about our bodies. So I feel like that's a big area. And it's kind of second reason why I think we need to talk more about the menstrual cycle is it brings awareness to conditions like endometriosis and PCOS that takes so long to get diagnosed because when women do go to see their doctors, they're often told, well, it's just normal. It's just part of having a period. They're supposed to be painful. They're supposed to be heavy. You're supposed to be missing school and university. That's not normal. No, it's not. Mine have only got more painful. They're okay now, but mine only got painful after kids, the first few after having the kids. But I was warned about that because obviously you've had a pregnancy. But the whole thing you said there's embarrassment of women talking about it. The first poo after a baby is like terrifying. It's like birth and another child but from a different area. But again, no one, no one spoke openly about that to me. So that first period post baby and the first poo combined,

I was like, it was awful. And there wasn't a lot of people talking about it. So thank God for people like yourself, you are open to talking about periods and, you know, your cycle. And it's interesting you say, you know, that it changes. because your latest book focuses on the menstrual cycle because there's ways women can train around the cycle, isn't there? Yeah. And certain foods. My trainer tells me when I'm craving chocolates during my period

just to up my magnesium intake elsewhere because that's what my body's craving. So there's a certain hacks and things we can do. Yeah, it's so interesting when you really get into it, which is why I just think, like, all women should be given this manual when you get your first period because it would just help with so many things. So cravings before your period are really common, especially for chocolate.

And I found this really validating when I looked into the research. So in the week or two before your period, we call that the luteal phase. You actually have an increase in your resting metabolic rate. So how much energy you burn at rest. And in some studies, it's quoted to be as high as 300 extra calories per day. And naturally, we see women's cravings increase and also their food intake increases, which basically our bodies are intuitive. so we feel hungrier because we're using more energy.

And in particular, cravings for chocolate are higher during that time. So magnesium is one of the reasons why we might crave chocolate, but also because we're using more energy. And if you find that you can have some chocolate and leave it there, but if you find that you're binging on chocolate and that's something that can also happen during that time, binge eating behaviours increase, then think about what you could do proactively with your meals during that time.

So a lot of what I do with my clients who struggle with this is just simply going back to basics, are you having your three regular meals per day? Are they balanced? Do we have complex carbs in there? Our fats are protein. If you are finding that you're always hungry during that time, just have a strategic snack plan for 4pm. If you don't need it, you don't need it. But we've got it booked in there anyway. It's about making those little changes that will stop you feeling so derailed in that week before your period. Your sleep's often worse as well. Your mood's often. often worse as well. So if we can manage your blood sugar levels, we'll help you feel a little less crazy before your period comes. So you've talked about your nutritional approach around your menstrual cycle. But as women, we go through so many different light stages. I'm 47, so I'm very knee-deep in the perimenopause. Do our nutritional needs change and evolve with these life stages that we go to, which are dictated to by hormones, obviously? Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. So the key hormones, estrogen, progesterone, which are influencing those cravings and even how our gut function works, they're influencing how we feel across the menstrual cycle. But when we go through the perimenopause, we don't have this lovely, nice, kind of like gentle flowing of the hormones. We have really erratic hormones that are up and down. And that's why people can feel just completely different from day to day when you're going through the paramedopause. And then when you go through the paramedopause. And then when you go through the.

the menopause you have very much like a big decline, big drop in estrogen and then it's very, very low and steady. So the perimenopause is almost the most erratic hormonal period that you'll go through. And because your hormones are declining in that way, that is influencing lots of things. So we talk about estrogen as like this sex hormone that influences reproduction, but it influences your bone health, your brain health, even your cardiovascular health. So estrogen impacts how your vessels dilate, which is why after the menopause, we get a big spike in things like blood pressure, increased in cardiovascular disease, because your vessels become more rigid. Our bones become more brittle because estrogen helps keep our bones strong.

And there's some relationship between estrogen and our brain health as well. So we need to start thinking about those things, not just when you go through the perimenopause, but before, but especially during the perimenopause. So how can we protect our bones? We want to be strength training. And we want to make sure that we're doing some impact training. So impact is on kind of like two feet or one foot. So running or hiking or anything that requires impact going through your legs.

So what wouldn't count is cycling and swimming because you're not weight bearing. And did you do skipping? Skipping would be amazing. Yeah, definitely. You wanted to skip at home. And going to do. to the gym is also really great because when you are training your muscles, they're basically pulling on your bones and that helps keep them strong. So we see a lot of women drop off in their

strength training once they go through the menopause, but it's arguably the most important time for you to be in the gym. Even if you don't want to go to the gym, get dumbbells at home and do one of those classes or just do body weight exercises, anything where you're using some resistance, so that could be your body or bands. The other thing we want to think about is then our heart. Heart health, obviously exercise really plays a role there. And so getting in your cardiovascular training, you're walking, your step count, breaking up sitting time, but also your nutrition. So thinking again about, you know, a type of diet that really helps all of us, a Mediterranean style diet. So heart healthy diet. Reducing how much saturated fat you have in your diet, reducing alcohol and salt and focusing on your colorful fruits and veg, your oily fish, trying to cook as much from home. And trying to have those regular meal times. And and I know that when you're going through that time as well, it can feel like your routine needs to change completely, but it's just about trying to keep the basics there.

We want to keep your blood sugar steady. We want to focus on your complex carbs, your fibre, your protein, and your healthy fats. Yeah, it's like back to, like you say back to basics, it is when I look at the diet of my grandma had, I mean, she's passed away now, bless her. Well, I'm sure her diet when she was a child, was so, so different to ours.

It was just veg, meat, potatoes, just the basic things. Now we've kind of, I think it was in the 60s, wasn't it? We were all about convenience over care when it came to food. What can we get people to eat quickly, efficiently? Let's do media marketing to get them coming back. So it's all kind of been oversaturated now. But that back to basics is a real thing, I think, to remember. We kind of overcomplicate everything, not just food.

It's everything with beauty, with health, with wellness. It's, and it is just stripping it back. And it becomes a lot easier, I think, for people to manage. Yeah. And I think, if I think about, like, my own mom, I think now that she doesn't have kids that she's cooking for anymore, like prepping school lunches, I don't think she prioritises her nutrition

in the way that she prioritised ours. And we see that with women, when they go through that life stage where they aren't prioritising themselves because they've been so used to prioritising their children for such a long time that they're kind of in a limbo. So I think it's a really important time to like,

now it's time to look after you if you haven't been doing it already. Prioritise your strength training. Sign up to a class if you've never done it before and start thinking about your nutrition because it will really help you not just with your health but also stay independent as you get older. And I think that's something that's so valuable.

As women, you're terrible putting ourselves both, aren't we? Yeah. We'll put everyone, our partners, our ailing parents, our children, our employees, our employers. And we come so far down the pecking order. Yeah, because it's actually your 40s. The 40s, they call in the 40s the battleground years. And I can absolutely understand why that is

because you're probably, at the most senior, you've been in your career, but you've either got young children or teenagers. I've got a teenager at home. You've got your children are younger than mine. But, you know, the challenges that come along with that. And parents, alien parents, having my mother passed away last year. And you think of all the pressures that have put upon us.

I put on weight last year quite quickly. And I think it was because of all the stress I was under. And for me, my, my, I don't drink very often, but I'll eat biscuits, you know. And I just went head first into the biscuits in. And I'm putting away because I just took my eye off the ball because I just wasn't putting myself first. And I wasn't making time for exercise. I wasn't prioritised in my nutrition. And I'm someone who's very knowledgeable in that area as well.

And if I can take my eye off the ball, you can see how it really easily happens for many women. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think you're so right in that, like, I hate generalising, but women do put themselves last. And, you know, one thing I found really interesting when I was kind of really stepping into the space on how women are different to men

and how women are not small men is the differences between how, men and women are diagnosed with heart attacks. And like in the UK, women are more likely to die from a heart attack. And there's been a lot of research into why this might be. The British Heart Foundation have done a lot in this. And, you know, there are differences in how we present with heart attacks. Definitely the primary symptom is if you've got central crushing chest pain,

do you go see or do go to the hospital. But for a lot of women, it will present a little bit differently. You might feel like palpitations or indigestion, less obvious symptoms. But another core reason that came out from this research is women are more likely to try self-medicate at home and they put off going to the doctor because they think, I don't have time. It can't be me. Also, if you look at any of the advertisements for heart attacks, it's always an older white man. It's never a woman. It's true. And so just kind of going back to what you said, Claire, is that please do not put off your health because it could be something as serious as that. And I've seen it myself. When I had kidney failure, I only went to the hospital when my mother-in-law, when I started becoming delirious.

You're touching well, yeah. And when I was admitted, the doctor said, thank God you came in when you did. My kidney function was 19. And there is no way I would afford an ambulance on my own. I would have stayed in bed at home thinking, I'll get over this, it's just a bug. Because you don't think to put yourself first or that something can actually actually be quite serious. And yeah, so I can, I can totally see how women don't go and get help for a heart attack

because they think, oh, it's just something, you'll go away. Yeah, that's it. So anyone listening, if you do have any chest pain, don't just assume it's men. And also can happen in younger women. It doesn't have, you don't have to be like an older woman to experience that. So I had had chest pain for three days. And he was taking Gaviscon thinking it was indigestion. And then it was too late.

So we're always like, I mean, it wasn't as much research back then. I mean, I'm 40 now, I was 17. But I'm always thinking if he did just come to the doctors, he might have said, let's have a lot. There's a little blockage, let's clear it. But he kept saying, I'll be right more Gaviscon. Well, obviously, you're a nutritionist, you're a PT as well, which is brilliant. What is your approach to fitness for women?

Because there's a lot of a game where we're debunking myths. I get messages all the time from women wanting to weight train, but scared to death they will bulk up. Yeah. Now, I've not got enough testosterone to do it naturally anyway. I mean, it's not going to happen. Do you get that from a lot of women frightened of the weight section? Yeah, I think we, I don't know who has created or whether we've done it for ourselves,

but there's a lot of barriers for women when it comes to exercise. And when we compare it to men, women are completely like a lot more inactive than men. So it's really important that we try to find ways to get more women active. But especially when it comes to weight training, I do think it's changed over the years where there's a lot more role models within the space who have really championed weight training and shown that you're not going to turn into Arnold Schwarzenegger

in the morning. You require a lot more testosterone and you have to eat a lot of food and you have to do a lot of weight training to build muscle. And beyond the aesthetics of building muscle, as we've talked about, having muscle is so important for your bone health. It's so important for your metabolic health, your glucose regulation.

I always say to any of clients, your muscles are like a glucose sponge. So the more muscle mass we can build, the more insulin sensitive you will be. And that's really important for managing our energy levels, managing our blood sugar as well. So it's really important from that perspective. Again, just being strong and independent. What we do now will lend us to how we'll be in the future after we retire X, Y and Z. But also I think when it comes to weight training, there's this added layer now. And I guess because I talk a lot about the menstrual cycle, it comes up a lot.

And that is we should train in line with our hormones and our cycles. Now, when it comes to that research, there may be small dips in performance during your period in that early follicular phase of the cycle to the first kind of week of your cycle. But it's a very small effect. And then when we look at training around ovulation, which is kind of that second week of your menstrual cycle, there may be, you may feel slightly stronger. Hypothetically, you might build more muscle during that time, but the effects are quite small. So I find all of this really, I find all of this really fascinating. But I think we're not at a stage where you need to have a specific strength program or training program around your menstrual cycle. I think use your cycle to help guide you.

use your symptoms to guide you. But I think we're going to put women in another box if we say you can only do Pilates in week one and you have to do head training on week two. That's not where we're at with the evidence. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ, built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights,

and endless ways to move. Live with confidence while Peloton IQ counts reps. corrects form and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow and go. Explore the new Peloton cross-training tread plus at Onepeloton.ca. So Hazel, you're a picture of health sat before us today. How do you practice what you preach? Because you must be a very busy woman as well. How do you prioritize wellness and fitness into your life? Thank you, Claire. I think I've definitely gone through periods where I've completely neglected my own health. And if I think back to a time where I was just completely derailed was working as a COVID doctor in intensive care. And there was no health practices. I wasn't

sleeping. I wasn't eating well. I was not exercising. I was not getting out in sunlight. There was nothing that was supporting me. And I completely burned out, not just because of that reason, but because of everything else that was going on. But what that taught me is that I cannot help anyone in my life. I can't help my clients. I can't do my work if I don't look after myself. So I just, a couple of years ago, really worked hard to create a schedule almost for myself where these are the non-negotiables that I need to fit into my week to feel like a healthy

functioning human. And that's going for a walk every morning, even if it's for 15 minutes, the first thing I do. because what I used to do was get up, sit down at my laptop or get up and look at my phone. So I just try to circuit break, 15 minutes walk, sometimes it's 30 minutes, get some sunlight in my eyes, planning my meals. I don't plan every meal, but I usually prep breakfast and lunch, even though I don't work in hospital anymore. Because I know then I'll always have a healthy meal to my hand, and then I like cooking, so I cook dinner when I get home in the night. An exercise for me is a non-negotiable, and it has to be enjoyable.

I've tried so many things in the past. Did it crossfoot for a few years, then I fell out of love with that. Now I'm going through a running phase. And I just allow myself to find joy in movement. I think, you know, if you're doing it from a place of punishment, hatred, you know, poor body image, you're unlikely to stick to it. But if you choose something that's fun,

if that's going to a class with your best friends because that's your socialising, then choose that. Or if you love doing Zumba, do that. It's whatever brings you joy. And it's those basic practices. And just try not to drink too much alcohol, trying to get into bed for eight hours. But I'm not doing any magic supplements. I don't really do any biohacking in the sense of it.

I keep it very simple because that just fits with my lifestyle. What would you change if you could change one thing about how society approaches women's health as a whole? What would the one thing be? I think we still view women's health as just periods and babies. And they are very important parts of women's health. But as we know, women's health is, it includes our entire health. Like if you're going through the menopause or the perimenopause, that's impacting every single part of your body, every organ system of your body. Your menstrual cycle doesn't just involve bleeding. It involves so many other things. And it tells us so much about your health. So I think we need to start seeing women's health as less of just these certain moments in time as we go through our lifespan and something that impacts us every day. We need so much more research. We need so much more funding and just more education that women should get when they go through their first period and when they're navigating things like you said, like pregnancy and what to expect what happens afterwards or the perimenopause.

Even the education needs to start sullar because my daughter is in year four going into year five in September, but she's nine and he's already knows about periods because we talk about them and she's reading the Lottie Brooks books. I don't know if you know the Lottie Brooks books. So the character in them is having periods and blah blah, blah.

But she hasn't been told anything in school. Yeah. And she's relying on reading fictional books and discussing with me. Surely the conversation should start sooner with girls than before the age of nine about, because like you, I don't know what another guest said to us,

she started breeding when she was 10. You know, girls are starting in period younger these things, aren't they? They are. So a lot of girls are going through puberty earlier now than they used to. And as you know, it can happen over a period of time.

So one girl in the group could go through it at age eight or nine and then one girl could be, you know, 12. And I think that can be really terrifying if you don't know what's happening in your body. I do find from kind of friends or my sisters with kids, that a lot more women now are having conversations with their daughters because they don't want them to be in the dark. So, you know, my sister has kids who are nowhere

near that age, but she's having a lot of body conversations with them so that when it comes to that time, it's not this big taboo topic in their house. They feel comfortable to go speak to mum or like even having tampons in the bathroom that are not hidden away. So it's just, this is a really normal thing that women go through. And I think I do feel like times are changing but I agree with you in that we need to have more of a like

nationwide system led approach because it can't just be up to the mums and the dads to have these conversations. Yeah. Mia knows about my periods already just because we went to, she needed the toilet and we went to a public bathroom so we went in the same cubicle and I was on my period when I went to the toilet in front of her.

And she just went, oh, what's that? that because I just had my pad and I just said oh it's a period mommy you know we'll have one once a mom that said it just happens a couple of days nothing to worry about and this was what ages ago and now whenever I'm on my period she'll she'll say to me in your period again mom and I say yeah and then sometimes I go to the toilet and you can flush and whatever but if you are on your period you know sometimes there's a little bit it sits like a two P coin doesn't it and she'll come in and go mom your period's here again and she just already doesn't know the ins of but she knows that once a month it happens and it's completely fine.

Normalising it. Yeah. I don't want her to ever think it's something disgusting or not, you know, it's just, it's going to, because it will happen to her. Yeah. So I try and make light of it, unlike my flow. I love that. Good.

You've achieved so much, Hazel, you know, medically qualified doctor, a PT and nutritionist. I mean, many people don't achieve even one of those qualifications. So you really quite are remarkable. But what else is there left for you to go on and achieve? Well, I think I would say I have pivoted into women's health in the last four years. So the female factor was my third book and then not just a period was my fourth book. And I still love nutrition. I think it will always be my bread and butter.

But when I realized how neglected women are in health and healthcare, I feel like this is now what my focus. and vocation needs to be in. I'm really passionate about women, not just being treated as small men, not just in health and healthcare, but how we approach things like nutrition and exercise and them really getting tailored advice.

So I've only stepped into the space, really, and scraped the surface, and there's so much to do. So I really want to unpack that more. I've started doing some research within that space as well. I'd love to do more. I'd love to write more books. I think if we can get more women who are interested in doing research in women's health, that would be amazing. But yes, I think this is what's really lighting up my fire right now.

So more women's health. Brilliant. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Hazel. It's been a pleasure speaking to you. And I'm so glad there's people like yourself out there. So it's just the knowledge that you're giving to people, like you say, there's not enough of it. But thanks to people like yourself, there will be hopefully one day. Before you go, we do have quick fire questions, don't we?

You do. Yeah. Do you want me to go ahead and do this? Yeah, you go for it. Yeah, so we didn't give you a heads up on any of these. Nothing too challenging. So Gemma and I are inviting ourselves over for dinner at all our guest's houses. We've got quite a few lined up now, actually.

So what are you going to cook us? Am I doing three courses or? Three courses? Well, no one else has offered us three courses, do you honest? Oh, well, then I'll be honest. three courses so I can be the message. We'd be level three course. Okay.

What am I cooking you for starters? I think that I'm going to go with, I'm going through a Greek salad phase. I'm getting married in Greece in three months. Oh, lovely. I'm going to do a Greek salad, but we'll have some dips and pitta on the side. And then as your mains,

I'm going to go with, I don't know how you guys feel. about obergine, but I love a baked aubergine, like with miso and we're going to do that with salmon, some ginger and soy salmon and some greens. I know that's really basic, but I love that. We'll put in some pea lentils as well for some carbohydrates.

Trust me, it's really lovely. And then as a dessert, we're going to throw out the rulebook in terms of nutrition. We're going to make my granny's apple crumble a nice go. Oh, I love that. So he balance. Cestered. Custre. It's the best to you. I love that's.

Yeah. Perfect. I went to a wedding in Ireland, actually, last weekend, and the dessert was apple pie and I'm ceded. It was boiling hot day. You normally associate that with, you know, autumn and winter, around your granny's house and a Sunday afternoon. Yeah.

What's the last thing that made you barely laugh? Oh, let me think. What was the last thing? I was at one of my best friends' weddings on Friday. in Ireland and it was just being back with my school friends I think we barely laughed all day and I've known those girls for almost 30 years now 30 years in September so nice yeah the best it's the best you go on on a desert island for 12 months and you can take one thing what is it can't be my phone oh I thought no I'm going to say no on the phone okay I feel like I need to be really

smart about this. A tent? Yeah. That's a good one. You all get some bad. You'll get a bit like I've been for these. Yeah, I'll start with a tent. You can choose one type of training to do forever more.

What is it? Oh, I feel like the PT side of me is hating that I'm saying this, but running, I just love running. I love that I can take my trainers and run anywhere in the world. So, yeah. Our listeners today, you can tell them. One quick fix that they can go off and do to make themselves feel better. What would you say it is? I imagine you're going to get a lot of nutrition tips for this.

So I would start by just saying there's not really anyone I've met who isn't sleeping enough. So I'd start by getting to bed 15 minutes earlier because it's going to make a big difference. So that would be it. Yeah, sleep is key. And then lastly, before you go, I've got seven things when they'll say to you and you just have to tell me, whether you hack them, whether it's a hack for you and you're all for it, or whether it's a hate. Okay.

And you're like, absolutely not. Getting up at 5am in the morning. Hate. Drinking lemon water in the morning. Hate. Cold showers. Hate. Daily meditation.

That's a hack. Daily journaling. Hack. Getting 10,000 steps in a day. a hack and then lastly matcha flavoured everything I don't have any issues with it but I just don't love it

so no I don't like it everyone we've asked that to have all said no well that's it thank you so much thank you for joining us and before you go what's your Insta handle for anyone who wants to find you it's really easy it's Dr Hazel Wallace there you go

so you can check Dr Hazel Wallace out and get loads more information on her page and good luck with the new walk as well. Thank you. And have a lovely wedding. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. Thank you.

Thanks so much. Rinse takes your laundry and hand delivers it to your door, expertly cleaned and folded. So you could take the time once spent folding and sorting and waiting to finally pursue a whole new version of you. Like tea time you. Mmm. Or this tea time you. Or even this tea time. you. Said you hear about Dave?

Or even tea time, tea time, tea time, tea time you. Mmm. So update on Dave. It's up to you. We'll take the laundry. Rince. It's time to be great.