The Dr Louise Newson Podcast - 012 - Gut Matters - Emma Ellice-Flint & Dr Louise Newson

Episode Date: August 27, 2019

In this episode Dr Newson and qualified nutritionist and chef Emma Ellice-Flint, talk about gut matters, microbiome research and what foods can make a difference to the gut and whole body health. Topics discussed include: Control how you feel through what you eat, bidirectional communication to/from gut and the brain. The time it takes to make a change to your gut microbiome through what you eat. Fecal transplants, what it is and some recent research. Different types of prebiotics and probiotics and what they are, including kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, kimchi. Getting variety into everyday eating, making vegetables the center of your dish. Which good fats to especially eat - extra virgin olive oil, nuts and seeds, avocado, seafood. Digestion and the anticipation of eating on digestion. Fasting and ways of doing it. Variety - pushing out your food choices to include more varieties of fruit and vegetables. Individual - what suits one person may not suit another, learn to understand what works best for you. Sleep - good habits around sleep and what you might be able to improve to have a better night's sleep. Read more about Emma on her website here and follow Emma on Instagram and Facebook. Read about Emma’s cookbooks here. Emma's Three take Home Tips for Gut Health: Variety is important! Especially when it comes to vegetables - try to mix it up and try new things. We are all individual and what works for one person when it comes to weight loss, bloating, hormone balance etc might be different for another. Find out how your body works! Sleep is so important. We make better food choices when we are well rested.

Welcome to the Newsome Health Menopause podcast. I'm Dr Louise Newsome, a GP and menopause specialist, and I run the Newsome Health Menopause and Wellbeing Centre here in Stratford-upon-Avon. Today I have Emma Ellis Flint, who's our nutritionist, who's been working with us now for a few months. And I'm really, really excited that she's here doing a podcast, but here in general, because it's taken me a long time to find the right. person. So hi Emma. Thanks for coming. Hello. So although you don't sound English, you are

English, aren't you? So you've been in Australia for a while and I can't remember, did you contact me when you were still in Australia? Yes, I did. Yes, last year. Yeah, yeah, when I was still practicing in Australia, but knew that I was moving to England. So I got this exciting email from you, did a bit of stalking, found your book, which is incredible and just thought I really want this working with me to help some of my patients, but also educate women in general who have access to me and also my staff, which we've done. So tell me a bit about your sort of journey to get to where you are at the minute, Emma. Okay, all right, yeah. So I was always very passionate about food and eating right from a young age. And so when I first qualified, and not as a

nutritionist, when I first qualified, I qualified in the hospitality industry. And then I worked as a chef for many years and out in Australia predominantly as an adult. And then I just, you know, did it as a lot of people do, I went on my own self journey of whole foods and wellness and trying to work out what suited me the best. And why in my early 40s did I feel so tired and rubbish? And I just really cleaned up my diet and got really interested in this. And so I started to study nutrition. and got very excited about this, did a degree in nutrition. In Australia?

In Australia. And then set up a practice in Sydney, in Australia. And as I saw more and more mostly women patients in my clinic, I just learned so much about what food can do to bring about the health and the change that people want. It's phenomenal. It is phenomenal, isn't it? And there's that all saying you well what you eat. Yes.

And I think I look at my, I've got three daughters, as you know, and they can pretty much eat anything and they'll be fine because they're young. Although they don't, I'm quite careful about what they eat. I hasten to add. But as we get older, our metabolism changes, isn't it? And I think just we probably have less reserve as well. And, I mean, I know it's a personal experience. I had pancreatitis a couple of years ago, which was very weird because I don't drink alcohol. I didn't have gallstones.

But I had a very high amylase and was in hospital. hospital for several days feeling absolutely dreadful. And I still didn't feel well afterwards. And unbeknown to me, my gallbladder was playing up. But I really experimented with my diet, which was always healthy. But it's become super healthy. And actually, the more that I ate better, the better that I felt. And I thought, wow, actually, this is quite something to really be able to control how you feel through diets. Yes. There you go. Perfect example. And I don't know about you, but the more you eat healthily, the more you crave it and want to continue doing so. Do you find that?

It is and it's interesting because I've always had a sweet tooth. And I think that when I'd had my 16-year-old, you know, that time when you're breastfeeding, you're tired, you're to sleep deprived. And I would buy donuts and I'd eat a donut. And I would, you know, have toast because it would keep me going. And then three in the morning, I'd have some chocolate when I was breastfeeding. I would never touch that food. actually, I don't miss it. Yeah.

But if I'd said to myself then, oh, you will no longer have any processed food, you will never eat any donuts or, you know, I would say, no, surely, no, it's fine. But I think someone said to me, it takes a couple of weeks. Every time you miss something from your diet, it takes a couple of weeks to adjust. This is very interesting. Okay. So let's concentrate a bit on the guts and talk about that today and the microbiome. Yeah.

And what the microbiome is, is a whole load of, it's not just bacteria, actually. It's all sorts of microbes living in your gut. Synergistically, they're in your gut. And it keeps us well and happy, and we keep them well and happy by eating the right foods. So that's the microbiome in there. And when you talk about, for instance, the time period, there's a really interesting study to do with African Americans and African-Americans, and African Africans.

And they looked at the diets of the two, and they looked at, did the faecal studies on what, you know, basically poo samples, and looked at what they could work out was their gut microbiome or what was going on. And as I'm sure you could imagine, the African Americans on the whole, their gut microbeiroin was far smaller in its variety and far less and reduced. And they also know from epidemiological studies, which is like population studies, that African-Americans tend to have quite a strong likelihood of getting cancers, especially colon and breast cancers and type 2 diabetes. And yet African Africans don't at all. And their gut, microbeam is really varied.

So of course, the research has looked at work here. What's everybody eating here? And the African Americans are largely eating the very simple Western diet. The African Africans are eating a heavily plant-based diet with a massive variety in it. So what they did was they did swapses. They swapped the diets over and had a look. So for two weeks, they swapped over the diets of the two communities. And the microbiome in the African Americans just grew.

and they in fact incidentally felt a lot better and the microbiome just drastically reduced in the African Africans So just in two weeks And that was two weeks for the change And so you were talking about that sort of time And two weeks it took Yeah It's not long at all is it

And it's certainly as a medic I was never taught anything about gut microbes And obviously was a huge move Now from weight even when I qualified about not prescribes antibiotics which is obviously very good and obviously we knew a lot about microbiology a lot about diseases a lot about diseases infections causing illness but nothing about what's going on in your gut and and it's i'm sure you're in a license but it's not just about your gut is it these microbes are so important for our brain health our heart health our muscle health they're really yes yes

this is right so for instance there that now science has proved that there's this nerve called the vagus nerve running between the gut and the brain and it's bidirectional in other words the communication can be from our brain to say say we're anxious of something that can affect our gut and our gut motility but of course what's going on in our gut and how healthy it is can affect our brain and make us feel rubbish or even depressed and things like that so yeah there's this communication going we know that don't we? I mean, I've spent years saying to patients who have got irritable bowel syndrome, the gut is the most sensitive organ in the body. So if you're stressed, you get this knotted feeling

in your stomach or you're anxious, you get the butterflies, so accordingly. So we know that it's responding all the time if you're nervous, you might some diarrhea. So it, but it's having that two-way process, isn't it? How what's going on in your gut can really improve your brain. And we know that, don't we? Because a lot of food's addictive, isn't it? So a lot of people will go to fast food outlet or they eat some chocolate and they get this instant reward that's going on in their brain so they feel happy and it won't last long but it's still so it makes sense there's these feedback mechanisms although we've never really thought about them much before no that's right that's right and this is one area the gut research area it's just urgent it's just so much we don't know

still there's so much you don't know and it's fascinating fantastic um there was another recently recent research about gut microbes and how they may or may not be implicated in type to diabetes and also in just obesity and how much the fat people have around their bodies. And it was done actually on mice, so it's tricky obviously to extrapolated into humans. But it was where they did fecal transplants. You may have heard of this where they put the microbiome matter or fecal matter from an obese person into a mouse that was normal weight and fed it the usual food

but in fact that mouse increased its fat around its body and became overweight even though everything else didn't change except the fecal matter that went into that mouse so you know I mean that's a mouse study it's from a human study but that's just showing you how important these microbes are and it's probably the easiest way of getting microbes

is not by having someone else's pooing. Oh, it's quite interesting. There is some work looking at it. Oh, there's actually really good research, scientific research about fecal transplants. They tend to be used in extreme cases, but they're showing. Especially people with inflammatory bowel disease. Inflammatory bowel disease, exactly.

Even one newish one, small study, though, about autism, which is quite fascinating. 16 autistic people were divided into two groups and eight of them had a faecal transplant from somebody who didn't have autism and actually apparently their autistic expression changed so much so that part of the group of aid actually became what you might call normal

it had no autistic expression at all it's so interesting that was the only change you can see there has been quite a lot work hasn't there done done on children with behavioural difficulties and problems and how their diet can make such a huge difference. And I know even personal experience, if I've been away with my children and the only food we can get,

we've been to Euro-Disney before, and it's impossible to eat well. Euro-Disnizabeth have always taken snacks. But their mood changes. If they're just having fast food, especially when they were toddlers, they're mood to a bile. And I'd say to my son,

oh, I just want to give them some lasagna or some homemade casseroes and they'll be fine again. And, you know, it's very interesting, isn't it? Isn't it? So when I talk to people about their gut health, they look at me like I'm crazy sometimes and say, well, what are you? You know, I'm here because I've got menopoles or symptoms or whatever. But actually, a lot of people are very confused, don't they?

They say, well, I drink that little, those little yoghety drinks every morning. Surely that's enough. Yeah. No, actually. Yeah. So talk us through, because the people get confused between prebiotics and prebiotics and probiotics and even antibiotics. They've all got biotics in their words.

Tell us what the difference is. Well, I'll talk about pre and probiotics. So prebiotics are the food that we can eat that feeds our gut bacteria. So the microbiome that lives in our predominantly are large intestine. Even if we've got good microbes, we still need to feed them. Yes, absolutely. Otherwise they'll reduce, hence that African-American state name, for instance. So that's absolutely right.

And the prebiotics are the good ones. There's actually, there's many, many, mostly it's fruits and vegetables, but actually cocoa is one of them. And even coffee's one. And to a certain extent, that's why red wine, the resveratrol in red wine, which is the phytonutrient in red wine, is thought to also help our microbiome. So a glass of red wine, a bit of dark chocolate. Very dark chocolate, mindy. Has to be 85% to be therapeutically beneficial to our microbiome. microbiome. Okay. So it's worth knowing if anyone wants to eat chocolate, so over 85% and maybe a glass

of red wine. But I think the red wine, I'm not sure about, the amount of retroveratrol in it. So let's put that one on the back burner. But yeah, so prebiotics are foods that help to feed our good gut bacteria. So probiotics are actually foods that already have microorganisms in it that has been found to be beneficial for our gut. So we've got things like sauerkraut, live sourcrow and kimchi, which is kind of the Asian equivalent of the fermentic Chinese cabbage. Then we've got drinks like yoghurt drinks or yoghuts themselves, which have live bacteria in them. Then we've got drinks called kombucha, which is made with a sort of a particular other type of bacteria.

These all have different bacteria in them. So they're having a selection. Yes. And then there's kathir, which is a nut. generally it's a drink which has another type actually many different types of good bacteria in them and that's interesting at kaffir because I've noticed even in the supermarket there's so many more than they used to buy it I never buy it a few years

and I used to buy it but then you gave me some at cooking demonstration and I'd be making my own and someone's such a recently oh louis haven't you got enough to make your own kaffir but it actually so easy talk us through what you do and then I make sure I'm doing it right yeah I grill so it's weird kaffiria so it's weird kaffir Funny enough, there's about 40 different beneficial microorganisms in kaffir. So it's like clusters of microorganisms.

And as you know, because I gave you some, it's this weird, it looks a little, they call it grains or. It's a bit like a sort of weird cottage cheesy. Yes, cottage cheesy. And what you do with it is you add milk to, for instance, if it's a dairy kathia, because you can also get water and coconut kaffir, but we'll talk about the dairy one. And you add some milk to it and you leave it just in a jang jar or something, you know, with the lid on, out on your kitchen bench overnight. And the kaffir grains or digest the sugars that are naturally found in milk.

And then in the morning you've got, it's not exactly like yogurt. It's a bit more sour than yogurt. But you've got this kind of yoghety mass. And what you do is you strain out the kaffir milk carefully into maybe your bowl that you're going to use for breakfast. And then you also, and what's left in this sort of. strainer is these kaffir grains. And they grow, don't they? And they do. And they multiply, you see.

And then that's where you start giving them to your friends. And they look at you strangely and you say, oh no, you're going to love this. This is great for your gut. And actually kaffir is, I've found anyway, kaffir is even better for your gut than just yoghuts, which only have maybe two or three strains in it. Because I have Greek yogurt every morning and I've been stirring the kephyr in. And actually, some of the bork kaffir, I don't like the taste. Yeah, it's a little bit weaker.

It's good, but it just depends on your flavour. And also you've got to be careful with the Bort Kaffir, how much sugar they might have added to it to make it palatable. And I always believe where possible, buy something in its raw state. And you can control the sugar. You control how much sweetness. And that's my sugar fix, I suppose. But, yeah, totally.

And it's so cheap as well. Well, it's free for me because you gave it to me. But I'm using a bit more milk, obviously. But I mean, I use full-fat, organic milk. I do use a lot of people think that low-fat milk, that red top and green top should. But actually, the percentage of fat is so low. It's 4%. In regular milk, as in full fat, it's just 4%.

And there's vitamin's A and D in it. Absolutely. So there's fat soluble vitamins you won't get in your red top milk. And if it's organic, you know there's even more of those in it. So that's really good. It is really important. And I think people don't, if you don't know that, you'll reach for the cheapest milk or you'll reach for the one that you think is going to help you slim down,

but actually it won't because it won't fill you up as much either, would it? That's right, that's right. And also it's therefore proportionately higher in the natural sugars that are in milk. So, yeah, it's a difficult one. That's exactly right. Yeah. So having all these foods can really make a big difference. Yes, so probiotic foods, so that's the ones with the live bacteria in them,

they're really good to just naturally bring into you everyday eating. in a big way or a small way so like you have the kaffir and a bit of yoghurt every morning great done fantastic and you may or may not have some sauerkraut

you know maybe with your lunch just like a tablespoon and you're doing it and it's just a natural thing to do you're incorporating into what you eat and it's just a fabulous way and then your food might also have in it

the pre-bolted foods which are the ones you know that your gut bacteria feed off and so you've got So it's funny enough, sauerkrauts made from cabbage, and that's a pre-biotic food anyway. So you've got that double whammy there. But if your lunch, say, your lunch salad has some leeks in it, and it has some asparagus, some avocado, that sort of thing in it. And then you might have a dollop of sauer on the side.

And, you know, you're carrying on from there, it might even have a mixture of, say, sort of lentils and quinoa stir through it. So you've got a lot of pre-botic foods in that. And it's very easy when you know what you're doing, isn't it? Yeah. But I think people get scared and we've not been open here in my clinic for very long. And it's interesting because when I first started lots of people bringing in their sandwiches and putting them in the fridge. Yeah.

And month by month, it's changing because I always, as you know, make salads and lots of roasted vegetables and Kinwhal or Bulgawar wheat as my sort of carbohydrate part. And I'm putting it in the fridge and now I'm seeing that the girls are bringing in different foods. They're experimenting a bit. And it is, I used to take a cheese sandwich to work every day and I'd always be eating it on my lap in between visits because of the GP, you're constantly on the go and that would be my lunch.

And I think, gosh, I can't remember the last time I ate bread. And the type of cheese I eat is very different because you're not having something that smells and is a bit soft because I'm going to have more organisms than it is, isn't it? So, but I think if you don't know, you reach, and I heard somewhere that's something like 70% of people eat the same lunch every single day.

Yes, and that depends what that lunch is I mean, that's not a problem if you've got a, like I was just describing like a great big gorgeous salad with plenty different variety in it and you do that every day that's actually okay but you're right if it's cheese sandwich every day

your gut microbes are going to go well hello I think we'll go back asleep you know it's not and also reduce in their kind of in their kind of quantity as well as different like varieties So it is important not to be scared of food, isn't it? Because I think a lot of people are quite overwhelmed when they go to the supermarket

and they're scared of all these different types and groups of food. And then a lot of women, as many of you know, metabolism can change during the perimenopause and menopause. So often slows down. We have these metabolic changes that lead us more likely to have pre-diabetes and diabetes. And people tend to put on weight, especially around the midline. Yeah. So a lot of women say to me,

me, I don't really want to eat, so I end up skipping meals. So I don't have lunch. I'll have a bowl of cereal in the morning, maybe a wheat ofix or something or a piece of fruit. Don't have lunch. And then I'll have a low-fat lasagna ready-made from a supermarket. So I'm not eating much. And look at me, I'm putting on weight. And I then have to say, so when you're eating the wrong food and you're not eating enough and they look at me. But it's right, isn't it? Yeah. You know, you have to be, it's not just looking at what you eat, but it's the amount you eat.

is actually quite important too, isn't it? Yes. To stimulate metabolism, you've got to be eating plenty of food. But then if you eat a lot of, say, well, just a lot of simple carbohydrates, for instance, then you must like you to put on weight. So that's like white flour products, say, when I say simple carbohydrates or lots of that. So a classic British meal might be, say, you're right. So it might be, say, wheat of bricks for breakfast.

And then it will be a sandwich for lunch and maybe an afternoon. tea biscuit or something. And then it might be some pasta for dinner. With a ready-made sauce, maybe. Maybe a ready-made sauce or a bolognesey thing. Well, hang on. So think about that. That's wheat for breakfast, wheat for lunch, wheat for afternoon tea, and wheat for dinner. And that's also possibly, or probably white flour as well. So it's also about variety. So I'm not saying there's anything wrong with bread, say, for instance, especially whole wheat bread or multi-grained bread or something like that. What is interesting It's about getting variety in there.

So not five times a day, say, having just wheat grains, say. It's just bringing in variety. And also making vegetables the centre of when you're considering food and what to eat. So, or fresh fruit, say perhaps a breakfast, if you're that sort. And it's really important, is it? Because we've got the whole five a day ingrained in us. And certainly, I'm very aware of it with children. You can buy packets of dried fruit or you can buy some drinks.

and it will say part of your five a day. And I don't actually include them as any of everybody's five a day, but unless it's something that you can pick up and you recognise what it is. Yeah. Because it's been processed in some way a lot of these foods. So it is trying to change. We don't need to look at five a day. We can have a lot more than five a day, can we?

Oh, yes. And indeed, the more we have the better. Because some people say, well, I don't eat fruit because it's got sugar in it. And sugar's really bad. But actually, we shouldn't be really sick. So sugar in whole food, isn't it? is absolutely fine. It's brilliant, in fact. And berries are just absolutely king. They're just fantastic. Blueberries, the darker, the better, black currants, blackberries. You know, if you're

wondering down the lane and there's a blackberry bush, well, assuming it's not been, like, that's wide with it. Yeah. Just pick some and notch on them. But, um, frozen berries. Frozen berries, actually, you know, that's an interesting question. Frozen berries are just as therapeutically beneficial, like, just as good for our body. just as nutritionally beneficial as fresh. Yes. That's totally based from research. It's good.

Because I always think, I like to have berries actually through the year. And I know that's not eating seasonally, but berries are one of those things I just adore. And I just incorporate it almost every day. And so I have frozen in the winter. Yeah, which is fine. Yeah, that's right. Good.

So all fruits good. All vegetables are food. Absolutely. Because there's a lot of fad now, isn't there, about missing things in our diet. So, you know, gluten fruit. even though people aren't senior or not eating meat or not eating dairy. And some people just decide to reduce their meat but eat really good quality meat, don't they?

And that's not a bad thing. Yeah, no, it's not a bad thing. It's fantastic if you know that that animal has been brought up well. Because it's what that animal eats is really important. And what that's eaten and also it's being treated well. And if you can find, if you know that, then if you choose to want to eat meat, then I think that's terrific. it's just a bit difficult perhaps to know that

unless you're buying from an online store or from a butcher or somewhere that it actually tells you about that meat and how it's been raised on what it's eaten. I think in the supermarkets now they're labelling it better for you to understand. It's not hard and I know my mum's son says this to me

when I bought chicken from the supermarket it's no different to your fancy chicken that you've got from the butchers but your butcher's is so much more expensive, how ridiculous. And I say well actually I don't buy much meat My children, if I do, I'm constantly castoralling it and putting loads of vegetables in to make it bigger. So actually, the amount they eat is quite cheap.

Yeah. I do, I do. I do, proportionally, yeah. And but I want to know where the meat is. Yeah. And there's a big thing now, isn't there, about the amount of antibiotics that are given to cattle and to animals. And that's coming through into our food. And that's really not good for our health either.

That's right. And it's the same as seafood now. Yes. We want to definitely eat sustainable seafood, but we want to understand what that is and you want to see that it's labeled and it is definitely sustainable and things like that. So food does go well beyond just, okay, we want to eat. So our macronutrients, you know, do we get enough protein in the day? Do we get some complex carbohydrate in? Are we getting good oils in our body?

It does go beyond that to understand, well, where's that protein coming from? what's that chicken meat, you know, what's it being fed, has it been given antibiotics? You know, just all sorts of things. You know, understanding and learning. It's questioning everything that we eat is really important, isn't it? And then just about the whole fat. So a lot of people will say, well, I eat really well, I have low fat, yogurt for breakfast. I have low fat, cheese, I have low fat, everything, really.

But what are your takes on that? Well, I think it's been blown out of the water, the low fats, really. because fat's so vital to our bodies. If you imagine, so our body's made up of billions of cells and every single cell has, you know, it's outer coating, which is like a barrier to the working of the cell. And that barrier is, you know, nutrients go in, nutrients go out and that sort of thing. And that cell wall is made up partly of some fat or oil.

And that's so vital to the functioning of that cell. And we've got billions of them in our body or trillions. What's the bigger than billions? And so we want that to work really beautifully. And so we need fats in our diet. But we want good fats. And starting in the best of the best good fats is extra virgin olive oil, definitely. And then we've got nuts and seeds.

Then we've got things like avocados. Those are fabulous. And then we've got the omega-3 oils, which come generally from seafood. You can get them. If you're vegetarian, you can and vegan. You can get them from things like flax seeds. and chia seeds and things like that. Your body just has to convert it into omega-3,

and it's harder for your body to do so. So seafood is fantastic. And then if you're concerned about sources of seafood who are just not eating them in the day, I think a really fantastic fish oil supplement where you know that the fish oil has come from a good company and that company has tested that fish oil to not have a great deal of heavy metals in them.

And they also come from sustainable sources of the fish oil. shores. So like sort of white-bates sardines, that sort of thing. That's really important. But I digress. So those are good fats. And those fats are fundamental to the functioning of our whole body, including our mental health. So also fats do help us to feel full. So that's actually really good. Satiation. Fantastic. I remember you did a great, well, you've done lots of demonstrations here at my clinic, but you did one for my staff, which was Brilliant. And you were saying, actually, it's about the anticipation of the food that you're preparing

or that you're going to cook. And that starts your saliva going, your stomach juices going. And if you know you're going to eat something you prepared that's beautiful, you're going for a really lovely meal, you do start thinking about it. And I'm sure what you're preparing your body for is different if you were going to fast food outlet and just going to have something quickly. Yeah. You know, it's...

Yeah. But it does start right from before you eat. isn't it? Yes. What's happening to our bodies? Absolutely. Absolutely. So our bodies might communicate, though, a bit hungry.

So it's interesting. The clock shouldn't really dictate to us necessarily, but it's time to eat. It's really, okay, are we guessing and feeling a bit hungry? But, and then we might think about what are we going to eat, and that thought itself is actually helpful in digestion. And then you might sort of be preparing a meal, say, or something like that. And that preparation actually helps our digestion as well. It does get our saliva amylase going and things like that. And it does get those digestive enzymes going in our stomach and prepare them.

Which is great. And now there's also this sort of move with fasting, isn't there? Yeah. Because we know that actually fasting is having a period of time without food can actually help regenerate some of our gut microbes as well. Yeah. So it's just not that. I mean, obviously people do it, I think, primarily for weight loss.

But actually, research seems to show that it just help with so many almost disease states. And it's really quite healthy for our body to almost take the pressure off digestion and relieve our digestive system for a while. And it seems to really help with our mind and our mental clarity as well. I mean, it's very individual, but it does seem to help with that. So, yeah, so fasting, there's several ways of doing fasting. So you can either do it where you're just reducing down the overall calories of the food, eat in a day. So that's like 500 calories, say a couple of times a week and that's often called

5-2. But then there's also another fasting that's also good where you are restricting the times in the day where you eat. So it's called 16-8. So you're eating food within eight hours for day and not food or milk or anything like that outside of that time. So you can have black coffee, black tea, herbal teas, water, that's something. But no, no food of food in the 16 hours and that's also really beneficial um it might help weight loss depends on the person but that's also a way often helping a person it seems with their mental thoughts as well and mental clarity absolutely yeah i mean i've um since having children i used to wait for my husband to come home from work which is invariably late wait for the children to go to bed

then we'd end up eating sort of nine 10 o'clock at night and then going to bed on a full stomach and now i tend to eat with the children and i try and eat sort of six o'clock if i can And then I need my breakfast to get me going. So I have my breakfast at 7 o'clock in the morning. So it's 13 hour fast I managed to do. That's fantastic. But it's good and it does make a big difference. And when I, as you know, I do yoga and sometimes I don't have time to do it in the morning.

So sometimes I do it in the evening and it's so much better to do yoga when you've got an empty stomach. Oh, yes. It's really good. So that fits in with us as well. But it is interesting because I've been doing it more religiously recently. And when I've been making a salad for my next day, I've been thinking, oh, I just have a pick of that Obedeen, or just, oh, no, I'm not, I'm fasting. And you make sure you realise how much we just graze, you know, open the fridge for something. Oh, I just have a grape or I just have something.

So actually, it's harder than you think fasting for a long period of time. If you're used to snacking or eating later, it's a way of training your body, isn't it? Yeah, which is why the 16-8 sometimes works so well. So people can just kind of eat whatever's, well, not within reason. in that eight-hour window, if they find that doing a five-two where two days a week they're just having it. Yeah, my husband did five-two and the two days of the week. He came home from work with fire. He was so hungry.

He was so moody. And I just thought, what's the point? This is torture. It just depends. Other people can go all day without eating. Don't miss this. Yeah, that's right. That's right.

But it is quite interesting. It seems that our small intestine anyway sweeps out and kind of cleans after it's done its digestion. They're in the small intestine. It almost does this sweeping like a broom effect once you've eaten. And it needs time to be without food, to do that. This is why it seems to help, doesn't it? So with just a normal person that doesn't need to particularly do any sort of fasting for any particular reason. You know, it's great to still have that 12-hour break from eating every kind of evening, night time.

It's so healthy for our body. Absolutely. Yeah. Brilliant. Well, we could talk all day, I'm sure, and I think I will have you back. to talk about other things if that's okay. Just before we finish, can I have your three take-home messages, a bit of a theme with this for focus?

Just three easy things that people could do to change their diet feel better. Yeah. So I think the first one is variety. Absolutely, please, please don't stick to the same things you're always eating. Really, especially when it comes to vegetables, really, really push that out. And if you're on a plate in the, say, evening is, um, some sort of a protein and a complex carbohydrate. And then you might just have, say, some steamed broccoli.

Well, don't just have steamed broccoli. If you're steaming, fine. Have the broccoli with some sugar smacked peas and some green beans and maybe some shredded cabbage. All can be steamed together at the same time. So you're just really nudging it out, push it out there, have a lot more vegetables. Great.

Yeah, a lot more variety. Okay. The second one is we are all individual and what works for one person either... So important. Either for health to feel vital and energised for, or for weight loss or for hormone balance, for instance, and for non-blotid gut or bloated gut, you know, everything is so individual. And learn to understand what suits your body best.

And it is really very individual. And you can be in tune with your body. You can work it out, you know, trial and error. Or come and see me. Yeah, absolutely. And that's what's great, is that to have individualised advice is really important. Yeah, yeah. And the third one, I think sleep is so important.

If you have poor sleep or you, for whatever reason, just don't have eight hours-ish is the optimal amount. But if you don't have a good night's sleep, your food choices the next day are always going to be worse. They just are. And that is backed up by research. And so I think sleep is so important. So have a look at, they call it sleep hygiene, but just have a look at your, you know, the way you arrange your sleep or what you do before bed or like you were saying, you know, how close to bedtime to you eat, which is not so good.

And just try and see if you can improve your sleep and whatever way works for you. I think, and like you say, it is individual. I don't sleep for very long, but I sleep really, really well. Right, fine. Which is fine. And it works for me when I, before, when I was perimenopause and I was in bed a lot longer, but I was waking up all the time. And it was so frustrating.

But it's about resting as well as sleeping, isn't it? So it's, yeah, great. Yeah, great. That's all good. Thanks, Emma. Thanks for coming. Pleasure. Thank you. For more information about the menopause, please visit our website www. www. www.menopausedoctor.com.uk.