The Wellness Scoop - 10 Minutes to Change Your Day, NHS Overhaul & Sleep Gummies

Episode Date: July 21, 2025

This week, we’re looking at why the first ten minutes after you wake up might matter more than anything else for how the rest of your day unfolds. From quick morning rituals to simple shifts that ke...ep you steady, we break down what actually helps. We also get into England’s huge new 10-year NHS plan. With life expectancy flatlining and more people getting sick earlier, the government is promising a major overhaul — shifting from treating sickness to preventing it. We look at their ambitious goals, from tackling obesity and smoking to new rules on junk food and air quality, and ask whether it really goes far enough. Then we dive into the worrying story behind children’s sleep gummies that turned out to contain undeclared melatonin. It’s raised serious concerns about how unregulated the supplement industry still is, especially when it comes to products aimed at kids. Elsewhere, we explore why some common foods can behave like drugs in the body when you have too much. Think black licorice, poppy seeds and even Brazil nuts — all a reminder of how thin the line can be between food and pharmacology. And finally, we answer your listener question on organic. Is it genuinely better for your health, or is simply eating more fruits and veggies, no matter how they’re grown, what really counts? If you’re enjoying the show, please hit follow and leave us a review. We’d love to hear your thoughts or questions too! Recommendations: Self Defence: A Myth-busting Guide to Immune Health by Daniel Davis Bite Back activists, being blocked by the big advertising companies but trying to change the world! Turmeric, ginger and lemon shots - batch a week at a time Fit For The Future - The 10 year health plan in the UK The Science Of Menopause - by Dr Philippa Kaye Get your copy of Rhi's new book 'The Unprocessed Plate' ⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠ To get the exclusive gift box from Shokz, order via this link: https://bit.ly/44MSOxI Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:52 And as always, we are your hosts. I'm Ella Mills. And I'm Rhiannon Lambert. And after a decade in the wellness industry, we know how overwhelming and confusing health advice can be. So that's why we've created this podcast to cut through the noise and make healthier living simple, fun and personal.
Starting point is 00:01:09 Oh yes and it's summer, life is good, we have a really jam-packed show for you guys today and thank you so much for keeping feeding back for us, we are so curious what length you want the show to be, we're gearing up to do listeners questions in September so keep the feedback coming, we love it. Exactly, we've got so much planned, we're going to be using the summer to get really organised and wellness scoop focus for you all for the start of September next year. So Ella, what do we have coming up in today's show? Okay, this is one of the things I've been most excited to talk about since we started the show, why your first 10 minutes each morning might shape your whole day, you guys probably get to it by now, but I love a morning routine.
Starting point is 00:01:48 Juicing one, the government's big new 10-year NHS plan. Rui and I have been through this in detail. What does this mean for prevention, obesity, smoking, the future of our health? It's so interesting. Is organic food better for you? Again, that's something you guys have been desperate to know about. Another supplement scandal. The worrying story behind children's sleep gummies. We've got an expert touching on some menopause FAQs you guys have been sending in, and can we have too much of a good thing?
Starting point is 00:02:16 How some everyday foods can act like drugs when you have too much. So Ella is a jam-packed show. Now you've been moving house, how's it going? It's going well. We have our keys, we have the house, we're ready. Gosh, I'm excited to have a garden. I am like reading gardening for dummies. Basically like there's no tomorrow. I just can't wait to drive down and see it. I just cannot wait. We'll get the kids in the garden. It's just going to be so good. I know. We're getting a Wendy house. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:50 Dreams are made. But yes, it feels like summer's really here. It's just so mad, these chapters of your life, isn't it? And I think I've spent the last 12 years hustling around London, growing the business. And I feel like we are entering this completely different chapter of trying to be a little calmer, a bit more still. I find it very difficult to sit still. And I think I've definitely... What was it called? Our non-doing?
Starting point is 00:03:20 Five minutes of non-doing. Yeah, I find it really hard just to be and to sit with myself. And so that's my kind of big thing over the summer. But it is, it does. It feels like a new chapter. It's not about leaving work and there's no, I feel so kind of passionate and obviously... It is, it's big Ella. It's a big change. I mean, going from a city girl to country bumpkin. Yeah, country bumpkins, here we come. It felt like a really concerted thing, actually, to stop chasing stress. I think building a business is fundamentally choosing to chase
Starting point is 00:03:51 stress every day. And it has been worth it a hundred times over. And I've learned so much and I've enjoyed almost all of it. Not every second. But it has we have constantly chosen to add more stress and more pressure. And I think this is a really concerted effort to stop doing that. And I am really curious and really excited to see how it plays out. I think that's really wise actually. I think there's a lot to be said for grafting, isn't there?
Starting point is 00:04:19 People say for how long do you do it for? I mean, is it forever? When do you stop? That was the big question that Matt and I talked about exactly. It's like, when is enough enough when it comes to constantly chasing stress and pressure and more? And I think we're so excited for the new chapter with work and just but feeling like we do have more balance. I hate the term work life balance because I love work. Work is part of life. And I think trying to have these like really black and white boundaries is not an impossible,
Starting point is 00:04:46 but equally work has been pretty much borrowed kids a hundred percent of our life. And I'm excited to try and find more balance and I think removing ourselves and having this change of scenery might be a really good impetus for that. So let's see. No, I can't wait.
Starting point is 00:05:00 I can't wait. No, I think definitely it sounds good. I'm gonna be a new woman. You are gonna be a new woman. That's how I feel getting back from a holiday. I've been away in Corfu with the family and it's just been, I think it just makes such difference you don't cook every day.
Starting point is 00:05:13 I love cooking, generically speaking, but on days where I've got no time, I am time poor and I'm busy and I've got a messy house to tidy up. This was the year I told myself, my husband and I had a chat, we're like 2025 is the year, we've saved the last few years, we're going to actually go away a lot more.
Starting point is 00:05:30 And we stayed at this amazing hotel called Luxme Costa Botanica, which has like this ethos of natural beauty, you know, around by the beach, eco-friendly, everything's sustainable, that sort of, there's so much to do for the kids. Yeah, I feel refreshed. I feel ready to hit the summer in the UK. Come back to a heatwave, which is always great apart from we don't have aircon, but it's great. It is great. And there is so much to get into today. Before we get into a read, if you've got any recs for us. Do you know I do. I actually have a book rec because I've been
Starting point is 00:06:02 away and I've had time to read. So the first one, the rec I've got is called Self-Defense. So it's a myth busting guide to immune health. I actually wrote a forward for this book. I got to see it before it came out by Daniel Davis and he's one of the most incredible immunologists. He's world renowned and he examines the effects of what we discussed basically on this podcast with stress, diet, age, you know, the microbiome.
Starting point is 00:06:27 And he breaks it all down beautifully. He actually lectures at Imperial and he is great. So that's a good book if anyone's interested in that. Any top take-homes in terms of our immune system? Stress. I know like you just said at the beginning, but I think we just cannot underestimate from everything. But what's worse is that what I really took away from it is, yes, I can action certain changes in my life, but the most frustrating thing is I can't control easily how stressed I am. And I really did also think, like, you know, you've kind of had this epiphany in life. I do just want to chill out a bit more.
Starting point is 00:07:03 But last night, I don't know what possessed me. I was like, oh, I think I might just start a written project. I was in the bath, but I had a laptop on the side of that. Why am I doing this? Put the laptop away, Rhiannon. You know, having this internal dialogue in my head. And we talked about it last week, like this idea that we're just like
Starting point is 00:07:18 always putting more pressure on ourselves to be more, to do more, to self-optimize. And I think it's very hard to stop doing that. You feel like you're going to get left behind. Have a read, guys. And Ella, you have got... Oh, do you have like a recipe rec for us? I love this.
Starting point is 00:07:33 Yeah, I was saying last week how moving house, moving to girls' schools, you know, learning to commute. Like, there's lots of big life changes and they're so exciting, but equally a mix of boxes and inserts and kind of new rhythms and so trying to kind of keep healthy habits in place has been really helpful and one of the things that I've been doing is these like a weekly batch of turmeric shots. Obviously turmeric is such a kind of quote-unquote superfood but it really is so anti-inflammatory and with lots of
Starting point is 00:08:02 stress going on obviously I'm very conscious of that and inflammation. Do you have a really good juicer then? I have quite basic juicer actually, it's quite unfancy, it's quite old, I don't use it very much but I have been doing this for the last like six weeks or so and I feel so good for it. So I will buy turmeric root, fresh ginger and lemon and then a couple of carrots as well, chuck them all in and then I'll put it in an airtight bottle and each day have like a generous shot of black pepper in it as well to help activate the turmeric. And I have to say I do feel really really well for it and we're going to come onto this in a minute because obviously our first headline is all about morning routines but I do
Starting point is 00:08:42 find setting the tone for the day really helps, it certainly helps me and I just 10 out of 10 recommend it if you do feel like you haven't been eating that well you just need an extra support it's such an amazing little anti-inflammatory boost yeah you feel pretty good about yourself. I love that Joe I was doing I had a feature in the Sun this week you know really terrifying big spread you know when they put your picture I mean you've had so many of those out I don't know how you do it, you know, your pictures in the middle of the paper and I'm like, Oh, no, what are people going to say? But actually, what I really took away from it was I shouldn't be so scared all the time. And it is these little
Starting point is 00:09:15 changes and I must try new things. And I'm really glad that we went with the feature and we did it because now I'm going to reach more people about the subject of ultra processed foods. But we put some really basic swaps in the article, just little things. So I had 10 ways to make better food choices. So I put them all in chronological order. It was the things we do every day, but choose the right quality bread. You know, it's just that little bit of a difference that you can make. And then if you go for a dairy alternative, you know, make sure you check Do you actually want a sweetened version or not?
Starting point is 00:09:46 Because unless you look on the packet, you don't know some of them will say And then you'll think all this soy milk sweeter than the normal one I get And you'll notice it when you get soy milk on the go, you know, a different taste compared to what you have at home Avoiding the processed and red meats, you know, the swap for a chicken sausage If you eat meat, if you're making a swap from like your average pork sausage, switch over to chicken and just make this different switch because that doesn't go through the same processing depending on the quality again most of the time. And I think it's just really understanding your cupboard. So what I've put also in there is the fact that if you just tidy your cupboard
Starting point is 00:10:22 so you can visually see what's in them, that makes such a difference. If you go to the back of your cupboard, you know the one where you keep the cans, half the time you can't even remember what's there. And I find that you save money when you actually start cooking because otherwise it just becomes this, you know, like I've got my emergency box fund of escape items in the house. That's what it becomes like for some people, right? Anyway. Oh my gosh, completely. Yeah, little changes, but I think I need to invest
Starting point is 00:10:51 in a juicer, because I want to try some turmeric shots. I don't think the sun would like that quote. I don't know if the sun would quite go for that, but I want to do it. Honestly, I really, really recommend them. As I said, it's basically equal parts fresh ginger and turmeric, and then a couple parts, fresh ginger and turmeric, and then a couple of lemons, a couple of carrots, and then some black pepper at the end. It's
Starting point is 00:11:10 so easy. It only takes me five minutes. And I wouldn't do it every day because it is a mess to clean it up. But it is really quite easy. And then you've got a week's worth. Do you want to know something gross? When I worked in Transition Zone, the cafe, like my first job running a cafe, you know, understanding profit margins and making juices and running that, I used to eat the pulp, you know, the back of the juicer. Did you?
Starting point is 00:11:34 Your face. So I used to, I'd take the juices. It's kind of like colorful cardboard. It was like rainbow colored pulp, right? Because I'm making beetroot juices, the frothy, like, pulpy bit. And yeah, I would scoop it out and I would put it on top of my yoghurt and just basically eat all the skins off the fruit. Fiber-rich. Fiber-rich flavour pool. It's actually really gross. But I
Starting point is 00:11:55 thought it was a good nutrition hack at the time. I think I should move on swiftly. Ella, the health headlines that matter this week. Okay, this is like probably my favourite headline of all times. And I was just nodding along saying, yes, I relate to this 100%. When I saw it, I was like, Ella, this is you. This is me. Okay, this is from The Guardian, guys. And the first 10 minutes, why your morning routine matters more than you think. It's absolutely fascinating.
Starting point is 00:12:24 Basically, what it shows is that how your morning goes affects the rest of your day for nearly half of people, 49% and in millennials, obviously that's both of us, even higher, 57% of millennials say a bad start to the day can ruin everything. 73% of Gen Z or Gen Z say they can instantly tell when they're going to have a bad day, which is absolutely fascinating. And I think it is this idea that actually how you set the tone for the first 10 minutes does mean a huge amount. It makes such a difference. And I think about it since I've started trying to wake up earlier before the children, I am in a better mood because I'm changed and I'm not stressed.
Starting point is 00:13:02 I think it's that morning stress Ella. If you're not prepared and you're not ready, I feel the stress of it all completely. I do completely or you wake up and you're just tired and you think, oh, I'm gonna skip this and actually it ruins your day. And again, we're not alone in that at all. 37% of people say they can tell if their day is going to be good or bad within the first 10 minutes
Starting point is 00:13:22 of waking up. I don't know if I'm quite that quick, but I'd be curious. No, I still think I'm half asleep until I have to have my cup of tea. Well, it takes millennials 29 minutes to wake up apparently. 19 minutes for boomers. So that's not to say.
Starting point is 00:13:35 19 minutes for boomers. It's going down in generations. Yeah, 38% of people need a hot drink basically immediately to feel good. That's us, isn't it? You need coffee, I need tea. Exactly. 34% need to brush their teeth, 28% need water, 25% say missing a shower,
Starting point is 00:13:50 throws them off and 22% say skipping exercise derails them completely. I have to say if I plan to exercise and then I feel I had a margarita the night before or I didn't sleep well or whatever it is and I skip it, I would say it often does derail my day. And going back to Gen Z like you said earlier, I mean the fact that 73% of them can say they can instantly tell they're going to have a bad day compared to the other 60% of us. I think they're just more emotionally self-aware. They're just brought up in a world that encouraged them to look after themselves and we weren't. But we should and I have to say,
Starting point is 00:14:26 I just so agree with this premise that like, how we've talked about this before, you know, we talked last week about our inner critic and how we can be so tough on ourselves. And I think it kind of speaks to this again, doesn't it? Like when you wake up and as I said, you've had a bad night's sleep or you're worried about something
Starting point is 00:14:42 or you feel down about yourself for whatever reason, as I said, maybe you had a cocktail too many last night and you think, oh, I can't be bothered today. And you have that can't be bothered attitude. I do think it really seeps through. And when I'm like, oh, I can't be bothered to exercise or I can't bother to do this, but I planned on, I feel like you're... Do you know what I get in a bit of a rut with and I was speaking to my friend Tess about this the other weekend before we went away is that every day I could very easily just wear leggings and a hoodie and I could just scrape my hair up. And I do feel really sluggish, and don't get me wrong, this is my life most of the time.
Starting point is 00:15:16 But when I actually have to get changed and make a bit of an effort, I feel more ready for the day. There's definitely something in preparing yourself for the day ahead that makes logical sense. A hundred percent. And putting a little bit of effort into yourself makes the world of difference and it doesn't need to be a huge thing. And I just thought it was really interesting that actually for so many of us mornings are quite fragile. No phone scrolling. I don't have time to phone scroll in bed in the morning, but so many people phone scroll in bed, right?
Starting point is 00:15:41 A hundred percent. And I think, yeah, for so many people, one small change, your day spirals. So I think it would be nice to just focus on actually, if that is the case, what are the little things you can do to kind of get your morning and therefore your day back on track? I would say making a tiny effort with breakfast really, really helps.
Starting point is 00:15:59 Getting outside in particular. Just drink a glass of water. Like do one thing that says to yourself, I care about myself. Please drink water when you wake up. I cannot emphasize enough. That's the one thing that people really should do. You will feel better.
Starting point is 00:16:12 When we're dehydrated, we just don't feel good. And we've been dehydrated all night, so you need to hydrate. Completely. But yeah, I think it's saying to yourself that you care, isn't it? I love that. We care.
Starting point is 00:16:23 Now onto caring, Ella. The next headline is so humongous. Yeah, we've got a lot to talk here. Big, and I was making notes on the train on the way in, Ella and I were WhatsApping each other last night, going, oh my goodness, this is huge. Ella was like, make sure that we check this bit, and we're diving into the NHS' big 10-year plan.
Starting point is 00:16:42 So this is absolutely massive, and obviously, by no means are we, this is our kind of core expertise and there's lots of people who'd give really interesting insights into it, absolutely. But equally we were both obviously kind of excited and curious to read it. So they've just published England's new 10-year health plan called Fit for the Future. It's a 168-page document and essentially the government have set out how they hope to transform our health and the NHS over the next decade. Not to be doom and gloom, but the backdrop is pretty stark as to why this has had to be laid out, why we need this fix. So life expectancy in the UK, obviously, as we know, is flatlined.
Starting point is 00:17:27 More of us are spending more time living in poor health. People are getting sicker earlier. In England, the number of people living with the major health conditions expected to rise from under one in six back in 2019 to around one in five by 2040. And that's not just with older people. More children and working adults, sorry,
Starting point is 00:17:46 adults of working age are living with more long-term conditions. Since 2020, economic inactivity due to sickness has jumped by half a million people. There's some really stark background here. Yeah, and if nothing changes, so they're saying by the 2070s, health spending could reach nearly 15% of GDP. So this basically means
Starting point is 00:18:07 it's growing twice as fast as the economy itself, which is really scary. And the NHS even says it themselves that like right now, it's more of a sickness service rather than a health service. So that is in the government report that's taken from the 168 page document, the government saying the NHS is currently more of a sickness service than health service. I think it's important that we say that's not from us. That's from the government in this report. And we've known about this for a long time. You see different reports governments bring out like this, but the budget spent on prevention cut by 28% per person over the past decade,
Starting point is 00:18:39 which is awful because what I like about this 10 year plan, Ella, is that they have finally said prevention, not sickness. Exactly. So basically, this fit for the future plan essentially has got three big shifts, one of which is moving from treating sickness to preventing it. And others taking care of hospitals into local communities.
Starting point is 00:18:58 And then the others moving the NHS from an analog into a much more digital first system. But obviously, from our perspective, the most relevant and interesting point is the prevention focus. And that's what we wanted to just share with you guys today, a bit of an overview in terms of what might be coming. A hundred percent.
Starting point is 00:19:15 And I made so many notes on this particular thing because they've used loads of different case studies throughout different models around the world of different areas of how they're going to implement this examples ranging from Singapore over to Manchester here. But what was really star color was the fact that one thing that stood out for me was they listed Blackpool as the place in the UK with the worst health outcomes and the highest ratio things like 30, 34% or something of children living in poverty still. And they've acknowledged in this, didn't they?
Starting point is 00:19:46 That while prevention is a huge focus, they know that this is down to demographic. And one thing I found quite optimistic, but also terrifying for people like you and I myself, is that they've quoted people we know as inspiring the nation, which means we're probably in this bracket, Ella, because if people don't speak out, nothing gets done. They have said, which is optimistic and great, they said the consumer health market
Starting point is 00:20:10 was worth over £4 billion in 2024, up 8% on the year before, with strong growth expected. Millions are running. Joe Wicks, so they mentioned Joe, has got the nation moving. Dr Chris, so Van Turkin, started the big conversations obviously around ultra processed foods and over three million people have crossed the finish line at the local park run. So they've acknowledged that there's people like ourselves at the wellness scoop like Joe and Chris that are doing these big things. And it almost made me feel, I panicked a little bit, I thought, oh my goodness, it's very close to home
Starting point is 00:20:45 where they mention people you know, you know, or you see their work and you think, yes, this is great. There's really good things happening, but it's still on us individuals speaking out about it. It is actually funny you say that, I was speaking out about it. I don't know how many of you guys follow Jay Wicks on Instagram, but he is really trying to avoid
Starting point is 00:21:03 ultra processed foods at the moment. And he was really interested, he went on holiday. This was yesterday, trying to avoid ultra processed food at the moment. And he was really interested, he went on holiday. This was yesterday, I was looking at this. The vending machine. Yeah, and he was talking about it and he had this quote and he said, it's like when you, we now feel that when you go on holiday, you must pack your toothbrush and then buy a giant bag of sweets. And it's true. And I think it is, I think we've both had this nervousness at points and speaking up and being really Frank about the reality of our kind of food system and our health and you know
Starting point is 00:21:29 He was saying again last night like if you're someone who's choosing not to give for example He was talking about his children lots and lots of sweets You're weird and I do think it is this interesting moment of actually I am weird Me too complete freak and as a result often feel like I have to bend to it. And I think it is this moment of actually, do we just need a more stark conversation given how much our health is slipping and how important prevention is to that.
Starting point is 00:21:56 And I think if we're able to change it and push poor health much into our later lives so that people can keep working, raising their children, enjoying their life, the possibilities are massive. And I think it is again, before we go into like the pillars of this shift, saying about 75, again, this is from the government's report,
Starting point is 00:22:13 around 70% of cardiovascular disease, 40% of cancers and 40% of dementia are preventable. And I think- We know that. I know, but I think it really helps when the government says it. Because I think again again to this point It's often seen as left field to sit here and say we should need so many of these things
Starting point is 00:22:29 We should be doing it differently and people don't really like it because it feels confrontational And I think we're in any state exactly and I think when you read a government report that says no We've got a sickness care system not a prevention system We've got to change that because look how many of our biggest health challenges are actually preventable. And it's the financial impact on all of us with taxes, NHS to keep our health system running. Guys, they're talking about saving us all money as well. Well, you look at what you're saying about what the GDP spend on health care could be at 50 years from now if we don't change it. Like, fundamentally, we can't afford that.
Starting point is 00:23:03 And so I think it is, it is a really interesting moment. So let's talk about what these six core pillars are, because I think it is really interesting to think how might this shift our kind of collective conversation on health and wellbeing. Yeah, and we'll start with the first of the six pillars, which of course is tackling obesity and first childhood obesity. And they've really done a good earlier shift in this report. You know, when you're reading it you're just thinking they're finally acknowledging that they even said we have to start with the future generations because they are the generation we
Starting point is 00:23:32 need to grow up to be clear of this. So obesity rates we know have doubled over the past 30 years. We know it's got a lot of comorbidities of other different conditions and one in five children leave primary school of obesity. That number will go up by the way guys rising to nearly 30% in the most you know deprived areas. So they're planning finally now we've heard this before Ella but I'm really hoping this rings true new restrictions on junk food advertising aimed at children. They're banning high caffeine energy drinks for under 16. So energy drinks are a huge culprit to poor health, huge. And they are too available. So that made me really happy.
Starting point is 00:24:10 And giving councils stronger powers to block new fast food outlets near schools. This is what has been needing for so long. And I also read that some companies are leading the way with changes, like Dunham, for instance, said that they will never produce a high fat salt sugar item and they've pledged it in the government campaign ever again. How amazing finally these huge companies that manufacture products are committing to never
Starting point is 00:24:36 targeting children in this way again. I totally agree. It all sounds really good to be honest. They've also updated school food standards. Obviously, last week we were talking about nursery standards, but school food standards so that all schools have to provide healthy and more nutritious meals. I think it is worth saying, yeah, obviously it's a large document, nearly 200 pages, but it doesn't flesh out all the detail. Like, what will that actually look like on a day-to-day basis? Like, we talked a few weeks ago, didn't we, that three of the top five foods eaten by children, lots of which is in a school setting, are classes, carcinogens by the World Health Organization. Are we going to take ham and sausages off
Starting point is 00:25:15 school meal menus or serve them once a month? Like I think that was my big question when I was reading this is like, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, this sounds so good. But what does this actually look like? And I've heard it before. I don't want to be that cynical person. I was reading it with my educated hat on thinking, yeah, great, great. Let's see how they put this out. Let's see how times change. And I'm really hoping they do because of course, the second pillar they've got, I think we often forget we've spoken, I think we've touched on smoking, but we forget that it is still a thing here.
Starting point is 00:25:47 But I really notice it whenever I go abroad because I feel like they smoke more abroad, but actually we've still got issues here, haven't we? Yeah, but it also does show we've had such tight legislation. It's obviously so expensive to smoke. There's no great advertising anymore this year, which we talked about the other day, didn't we, about alcohol as an example, what they did with cigarettes and the rates of smoking have decreased so
Starting point is 00:26:08 dramatically and I think it does show that I know nanny state questions but intervention does work and again this has been rumbling for a while but again part of this big pledge is to create the first smoke free generation which I am thrilled about. Yeah, oh my goodness imagine, but they have to crack down on vapes. So that was a big part of it. The fact that, you know, vaping for kids, because kids are appealed to these things, teenagers, because of the bright colours. And they said they're going to be looking at all of this, making sure that they, you know, put bans on smoking in public places, reduce passive smoking around children, make sure that vapes are now monitored properly and that they're not producing these fancy flavors that appeal
Starting point is 00:26:49 to kids. Exactly. So basically anyone to children turning 16 this year and then everyone younger will never legally be able to buy tobacco in England. Hallelujah. It's really something, isn't it? How has it not happened before though? You know, when I do think about it, I'm like, this is wild. Well, there was something in there that I read that really shocked me.
Starting point is 00:27:10 Obviously, we all know smoking is bad for us. Like, I'm not trying to be novel there. But this really surprised me. Tobacco is the only legal consumer product that kills up to half the people who use it as intended. When you read it like that, it is still, to your point, it's kind of amazing that it's still for sale. When I was in Turkey earlier this year,
Starting point is 00:27:30 the only down point to a holiday was going on a public beach and just seeing people smoking with their babies and kids like it's normal, like next to them. And I don't think there's messages out there. I do not think people know. When you read it in such dark terms, I do think it is quite shocking, and it's behind 70% of lung cancers. And then of course, we cannot negate the other pillar,
Starting point is 00:27:49 which is the fact that, you know, we need to get moving more and getting millions of people moving and exercising through new national campaigns. We've mentioned Joe, we've mentioned part runs and what they were actually looking at. So I read something in the document that said they are going to spend $616 million to maintain and build walking and cycling areas around the UK. Isn't that amazing in the next 10 years? It's a huge amount of money. But what we have to remember is that there's no incentivisation on us. And what they wrote here as well is that citizens have a role to play here. We need to incentivize them like they do in Singapore and other places.
Starting point is 00:28:27 They've looked at models that are working. If we created an environment that you want to use, more people would use it. Yeah, that is really clever. It's rewarding good behavior, isn't it? We have Vitality Health Insurance at Delicious Yellow. And again, I've heard people in the office saying, because it can look at
Starting point is 00:28:45 your step counts and things like that and then you get rewards and money off, etc. And it's really incentivising. It's fantastic because at the end of the day, you know, the government, they do need to do all of this, but to help us make the better decisions. And the same thing goes here. When we're talking about even fresh air, why would I want to go for a walk down the road when it's by busy motorway or or you know fumes everywhere. We've really got to think about air quality and I remember years ago on Food for Thought doing a podcast on air pollution because when I fell pregnant I was terrified of smoke and
Starting point is 00:29:17 fumes and I really was really sensitive to it. And I just think air quality matters and again they're going to enforce it. Yeah so that's one of the pillars of this. And then the final two are working with businesses to help children and families. Again, to your point, Rees, such a big focus on the youngest generations in this big document. Make healthier choices. And that means introducing mandatory health food sales reporting for all large companies in the food sector and set new targets to improve what's actually being sold in shops and restaurants. So again, trying to really
Starting point is 00:29:48 force that environment shift to make healthy options the default. And then the last one was on alcohol and again, as we talked about this the other day, didn't we, with alcohol labels. But the plan promises to move from voluntary guidelines to a mandatory requirement for clear nutritional details and health warning messages on alcohols. So actually bring it into line with other product labeling so people can actually see what they're drinking and the impact on their health. So did you know 27.4 billion a year is spent for our health service related to alcohol harm? Like it's so harmful for our wallets and for our health and that's what the report said. I'm not just pulling these stats up from other, that was in the report this morning when I was reading it coming
Starting point is 00:30:31 here and we're also going to be improving screening for bowel cancers. They're adding in more tools because they used a case study in it and they said from just one person you know they were very good in this plan by using examples elsewhere which I want to see, I want to see data. But you know, just having a scan can save someone's life early intervention. So it's optimistic. But I do want to just see. I love it.
Starting point is 00:30:55 I'm all for it, but I want to see it like that bite back campaign. You know, the company I was talking about, they were buying billboards around the city to take up space that would usually be used by an advertiser. They've now been blocked and bought out by all the big food companies. So they're now no longer able to buy any billboards. They've been blacklisted. So let me just check this. So buy it back, which is obviously okay, really trying to improve people's health. Run by younger people that want a better future.
Starting point is 00:31:19 Yeah. So they were buying up billboard space that would normally be kind of big food advertising. Like McDonald's. Yeah, and they have been bought out. Pushed out, yeah, by the big companies saying don't ever let them buy billboard again, we'll just pay more. So that's happening at the same time the 10-year plan is being announced. So I'm not in the know on all of that, that they publicly did a whole thing about that
Starting point is 00:31:43 socially. So you can all go and watch that on BikeBat30's page. But let's see how it happens. I'm all for it. It's optimistic and I love it. Yeah, always, always devil's in the detail, isn't it? And I think it's so well-intentioned. And I think it's really exciting that we're having
Starting point is 00:31:58 really frank conversations around our health. I think that that is so needed. And as we said a minute ago, it's this really odd position that both of us have found ourselves in so many times in our careers when we're standing up there and saying, we do need to eat way less of these foods, these foods aren't very good for us. Like, to the point in last week's episode, no one's saying you should never have sweets, but sweets aren't good for us. And that's a fact. And we need more broccoli, and we need
Starting point is 00:32:19 more lentils, and we need more fiber, and all the rest of it. And we kind of have to be more transparent. But the fault isn't on the individual, and all the rest of it. And we kind of have to be more transparent. But the fault isn't on the individual. It's the whole food system. They mentioned the inequalities in the report. They do say, look, we are aware that this isn't a choice everybody can make right now. And we're going to do what we can, which is important. But it really struck a chord for me just thinking we've got to keep going with wellness scoop and, you know, books and all sorts of things that just get information out there because actually when you see them quoting Joe in a government strategy it just took someone with a public figure to do something good.
Starting point is 00:32:54 A hundred percent and it shows exactly and what he was doing was so accessible wasn't it? I mean it's like a 15 minute workout you can do by yourself with your friend your partner your kids like in your living room. He made it social, he made it fun. 100% and I think it is. It's like we just got to make health simple, accessible, uncomplicated. I feel that so strongly. Rosie can do a pull-up, you know, his wife. I'm so impressed.
Starting point is 00:33:18 I'm just like... Are you thinking I want to learn to do a pull-up? Me too, but I've tried in the gym, it's really difficult, but I can do an assisted one. Right, Ella, let's move on to what is trending in wellness. Get to Toronto's main venues like Budweiser Stage and the new Roger Stadium with Go Transit. Thanks to Go Transit's special online e-ticket fairs, a $10 one-day weekend pass offers unlimited travel on any weekend day or holiday anywhere along the GO! Network. And the weekday group passes offer the same weekday travel
Starting point is 00:33:50 flexibility across the network, starting at $30 for two people and up to $60 for a group of five. Buy your online GO! Pass ahead of the show at gotransit.com slash tickets. Colgate Total is more than just your favorite toothpaste. It's dedicated to advancing oral health. The new Colgate Total Active Prevention System features a reformulated toothpaste, innovative toothbrush and a refreshing antibacterial mouthwash, all designed to work together to fight the root cause of common oral health issues, such as gingivitis, plaque and tartar. Use the full routine twice daily and be dentist ready.
Starting point is 00:34:25 Shop the Colgate Total Active Prevention System now at walmart.ca. Okay, this is sleep gummies. So again, it's kind of a headline, kind of a trend, but the trend is the world of supplements, which obviously we've talked about lots of times. And I guess, it ought to be like really depressing, but it was just another example about how weird and unregulated the world of supplements is and how cautious we
Starting point is 00:34:49 collectively need to be. So this was the headline was alarm over sleep drug laced children's gummies, which probably makes it a bit more dramatic sinister and sinister than it was. But essentially an NHS manager has been ordered to stop selling children's magnesium glycinate gummies because they were actually found to contain undeclared levels of prescription only melatonin. Oh my goodness. I mean the gummies Ella, so they're marketed obviously as a natural sleep aid for kids and that's what's so deceptive.
Starting point is 00:35:17 And then especially those with ADHD or autism and I think they've got a lot of people talking about this online right now. It's like a real trend, you know, take a melatonin pill, help yourself sleep, take more magnesium, all of it. Everything is everywhere right now. Can I ask about magnesium for sleep? Tell us a little bit about that. Okay, so magnesium for sleep, I wish I could say there was.
Starting point is 00:35:36 There still isn't concrete evidence enough to justify the supplement forms of having any impact on your sleep overall. But it is true that as a component individually in isolation, we love to talk about isolating nutrients, it is beneficial for our sleep and does play a role and helps with relaxation, especially like muscular relaxation. And that's why we've always recommended
Starting point is 00:35:59 in the clinic Epsom salts and baths and athletes take it. But supplementation, you have to be so careful. you take too much, you know, it can act as, you know, it can make you constipated or all sorts of things. And can have a bit of a laxative effect. Laxative effect massively. It can go either way, depending on what type of magnesium, because there's different forms that you can take. And most people don't know. So what you'll do is just buy any old supplement bottle that says high dose magnesium. You're like, yep, I'm going to take that to sleep. Even my mother-in-law
Starting point is 00:36:27 came around last week and said, oh, how are you sleeping? I was like, yeah, it's okay. It's just been a rough week with the kids. You go, oh, you should take these magnesium pills. And I'm like, I tried to explain, you know, they're not all that. But what's happening here is that these gummies have been sold online since March last year by a clinical therapy lead and NHS Trust Ella. And then two mums basically realized that their children were going to sleep really quickly, like unusually quickly for their children. So they got them tested and it turned
Starting point is 00:36:56 out the gummies contained around 0.53 milligrams of melatonin, which exceeds the recommended starting dose for children. And essentially they were selling a prescription only drug without any oversight. Melatonin is a hormone, it helps with sleep and in the UK it's only available via prescription. In the US you can buy it in like a boot's equivalent. Can I tell you why? And I remember-
Starting point is 00:37:18 Yeah, give us a 101 on melatonin. Yeah, cause in my singing days, there was this amazing girl, Angela, in my girl group, we used to sing together and she's like, yeah, I'm just taking my melatonin pills and we had a gig abroad or something and she'd be like, I'm always taking, like, what are melatonin pills? That's when I first became aware of them back in like 2011, 12 years ago. But we don't do it here in the UK. So she used to buy them from Canada and bring them over
Starting point is 00:37:44 for me and the girls and we would be like popping melatonin pills on the airplane. It sounds so wild. But so basically this is a contrast here. So in the US and Canada, melatonin is widely available as an over the counter supplement. But the UK has stricter regulation and this is because we have limited data on long term safety in children. That's why these gummies are even more shocking and concerns over inappropriate use. So we're just very cautious here for the right reasons. And the MHRA, so Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory
Starting point is 00:38:14 Agency, enforces these rules to protect the public because vulnerable groups like kids, you know, where low doses actually could have a significant effect. And that's why melatonin isn't available here, over the counter. And it does play a role in our circadian rhythm and our sleep cycle. Melatonin makes you feel sleepy.
Starting point is 00:38:32 It's that component that kicks in. You produce more of it when you get more tryptophan, the amino acid from proteins, plays a nice role in your body with serotonin, the happy hormone tryptophan, makes you feel sleepy. But taking a pill just isn't always the answer. So with your tryptophan, is there any truth in eat these foods that will help you sleep? There's an underlying level of truth. But again, we can't isolate. So just because
Starting point is 00:38:56 you have, you know, a slice of turkey at lunch or some nuts here that contain tryptophan, it does not mean you're suddenly going to have a better night's sleep because all the other factors that are involved in sleep are happening. But you do want to be creating those pathways, but I would say a healthy balanced diet gives you plenty anyway. And this always comes up around Christmas usually I'm asked about tryptophan, always. Or cherries, do they contain melatonin? There's always the same headlines that come up if you look in the press related to it. So I think just what was so shocking here is that it again shows the unregulated
Starting point is 00:39:28 wild west of supplements, Ella, and how things especially marketed to children. You've just got doesn't matter if it's as natural, doesn't matter if it says it's melatonin is a natural hormone. You know, it does not mean that product's going to be safe. It's a wake up call. How on earth do you know what supplement companies to trust? I do think that's a really important question to answer because we're seeing this so often. We've done so many of these that come up in the press where we're seeing yet another company
Starting point is 00:39:53 as we talked about recently, most creatine jellies or gummies not actually containing creatine and this is not a once in a blue moon occurrence, these particular melatonin ones. How on earth do you know where to go, what to do? I think the ultimate thing to look for first of all is you need to check all the stamps because certain supplements will go by different governing bodies in the terms of you know, you have to actually declare what's inside your product. Some people don't have to do that.
Starting point is 00:40:21 And I think a real easy way of understanding is first you need to check the website. It's not enough to look at a bottle anymore. I don't have to do that. And I think a real easy way of understanding is first, you need to check the website. It's not enough to look at a bottle anymore. I don't think. I mean, there's obvious brands that you know will be held accountable if they do something wrong like a huge like Vita biotic, like the biggest one in the UK, you know, or Solgar, always really commonly known supplements.
Starting point is 00:40:41 They have to abide by certain regulations because they will be caught up. But what's worrying I think is if you're going to an independent supplement company, a very small one that's just cropped up perhaps that is a bit under the radar, they're selling online, they are little red flags in themselves because you don't know the production line, you don't know the quality of the ingredient, is the ingredient declared? And sometimes I hate to say it, but even just having a health professional on board isn't enough because you can't always trust that health professionals regulated. So many people now masquerade as a doctor online when
Starting point is 00:41:16 they're not doctors, you know, how do you trust? Then you've got AI, you know, when I had that AI scandal and so many other health professionals now have had their image taken Yeah, what happened to read was there was a what was it for Moringa? It was awful and it was a kind of supplement company and they used you and your image To promote them and sell them. I've just found one for GLP one injections on Facebook I'm trying to get taken down with you Yeah of me using my face the banner like all my information says it's sold by Rihanna Lambert,
Starting point is 00:41:47 GLP ones. How scary is that? And it's like pictures of before and after bodies all over the page, which I would never do. Oh my god. Awful. A follower sent it to me. I didn't even know it existed. Like, by the way, did you know you're on Facebook doing this? I was like, nope. That's not me. That's not me. And this is what I mean by the Wild West. Sometimes... I think checking your website's a really good point because you have so much more space on
Starting point is 00:42:10 a website to share infinitely more information. And always just check the sourcing of ingredients, the health professional that's behind it, and check if it's an affiliate scheme. So a big red flag is, is someone selling you a supplement online via an affiliate scheme? Sometimes this can be genuine, like, you know, we support certain things, but sometimes it's just a cash in. They don't care about your health. They'll be just trying to make a dime or two.
Starting point is 00:42:36 So just be really, really aware. But with Simpre, for example, that we both worked with, and obviously I love the product as well, they have a huge number of clinical studies that are completely independent, not paid for by them, to show that the product works. So the hard thing with vitamin and mineral supplements is that there will always be studies to say they work. And probiotics are different. That Simprove is a good example of a company that are being very honest, transparent, declare do everything by the book.
Starting point is 00:43:07 But you'll get rogue companies that will pull a study. Let's say they're selling a vitamin C tablet. You don't even know if it's really vitamin C inside the tablet. But they say, oh, so many studies say this produces this. This cures the common cold. Your children should be taking this before bed every night because it's going to stop them from getting winter bugs. And that is also hard for a consumer to tell.
Starting point is 00:43:24 I think the answer with supplements is literally be your own detective, look everywhere and don't take a supplement until you've spoken to a health professional or got some advice first. Apart from general vitamin D. Apart from vitamin D. And again, with that, don't do a high dose. Just go for 10 micrograms to begin with unless you've been told you're deficient. Love it. Sorry. It's a hard question.
Starting point is 00:43:44 It's a hard question. It's a great answer. Okay, our final one today. This was so interesting, we found this and I want you to tell us all about it. Common foods that act like drugs when overeaten. I know, I saw it pop in my inbox. I was like, oh, this is very interesting
Starting point is 00:43:58 because I love that this kind of links back to the ancient medicinal systems in the world. I'm fascinated by many years ago in, you know, when witches existed and all that sort of stuff. You know, obviously they weren't really witches. I can't tell where we're going with this segment. No, but this isn't what I wrote in the brief either. I'm just going off-tad completely. But, you know, they would create their own herbal remedies if you felt sick.
Starting point is 00:44:23 And there had to be something in that. Why else would you start doing that without seeing results? So basically, according to Drug Testing Kits UK, several common foods contain bioactive compounds that can affect the body in surprising drug like ways, but when consumed in large quantities. So I will just say, first of all, you know, your body doesn't recognise the difference between a substance from a snack or a pill sometimes. It's just chemistry really. So you have to be careful how much you take.
Starting point is 00:44:48 The first Ella is licorice root. I love licorice. Do you? Oh my God, I love it. I cannot stand it. It's very Marmite, isn't it? Yeah, but do you know when you've got a sore throat people used to say or in my singing days used to make me want to chew on one of those licorice things.
Starting point is 00:45:04 Oh my gosh, I love them and their tea pigs, peppermint and licorice tea. Whereas I like that because it tastes sweet. To me that's a dessert and a tea. It's so sweet. It is so good. Tea pigs, that is the best tea in the world. Take that as another recommendation for today guys. If you like a sweet thing, tea, pigs, peppermint and licorice tea. Oh my god it's so good. It's got the pink label. It's 10.
Starting point is 00:45:24 Yeah it is a 10 out of 10 tea. I've been obsessed since I worked with them, like obsessed. Tea Pigs Peppin and Licorice Tea. Oh my god, it's so good. It's got the pink label. It's 10. Yeah, it is a 10 out of 10 tea. It's a 10 out of 10. I've been obsessed since I worked with them, like obsessed. I used to bulk buy it at the winter festivals. It's literally the only tea we have in the house and so if people don't like it, I'm like, oh, I really need to start buying like camomile.
Starting point is 00:45:39 I know. Do you know what? This should have been our record at the start of the show, the tea. Okay, so licorice contains Glycerin which is a compound that mimics cortisol the stress hormone and research shows that just a hundred milligrams a day of two weeks Can raise your blood pressure Ella by up to ten milligrams and a drop of potassium levels So that's quite dangerous increasing the risk of arrhythmia and fatigue Yeah, it's really interesting like you don't want to take too much licorice,
Starting point is 00:46:05 like we love it, tea's fine. Yeah, and obviously we're not talking again. About the root itself. Yeah, and also this is like in, to your point, in large quantities, like eating bags and bags and bags of licorice every day, which probably not many people are doing. But I think to your point,
Starting point is 00:46:18 the most interesting thing is the fact that it also does show the kind of reality and the truth of these ancient herbal remedies and potions and things. Potions and lotions. I just have this image all over me. Me too of witches around a fire or something. Yeah and like Rhi loves Wicked and musicals and I then watched Wicked I think I said over the Easter holidays and now the only thing when I see her I always think of Galinda if you haven't seen Rickard, but she looks so like I'm so really seeing you in the witch's wild today brewing some licorice root potions.
Starting point is 00:46:50 But guys be careful because if you're taking medication or have heart issues that is when you shouldn't have black licorice and you know We know this about things like St. John's wort and other you know ancient herbs You shouldn't take it alongside medication But two pieces a day is enough for anyone regardless of how much you love the taste is the advice. This is making me really crave licorice. Is it? Maybe that's what you have to get while you're moving like for your energy sweet.
Starting point is 00:47:14 Okay, I'm gonna buy some licorice on my way to my next meeting. Okay, the next one is poppy seeds. Which you'll love because it's in your lemon bars and I love them. I know me too and also bagels. I'm like in this obsession with bagels at the moment. They are my favorite, favorite food right now. There's a bagel place open near us and I'm like, oh my goodness me. Really like fresh bagels. I love fresh bagels. I made the other day. I'm going to do it on
Starting point is 00:47:37 a reel next week. It was a cottage cheese trend, I have to say, but I couldn't help it. It was blueberry cottage cheese ones and they are so good. Really? In the bagel or on top as the spread? No, in the bagel. Oh I will post it and see. Your high protein goly is gonna go wild. Oh yeah, see I'm inadvertently doing a trend. Okay go for it. Okay so yeah favorite bagel topping poppy seeds contain trace amounts of morphine and codeine alkaloids so obviously again, unlikely to cause any harm whatsoever moderation, but humongous quantities of them
Starting point is 00:48:10 can create false positives on a drug test. I know. So another interesting story, we've spoken before about our love of TV shows like Rain or The Tudors and all that kind of stuff. One of them made like a, I think it was in Rain, like the queen, gosh, look at me, this is so off tangent.
Starting point is 00:48:27 I love the Tudors. I know, she was making like a poppy seed potion to give to one of the guests to make them fall asleep. And it just links back to this because there is truth in it. Oh my gosh, yeah. I think it's, we're going on touch of tangent, aren't we?
Starting point is 00:48:41 We've got like Tudors, we've got wicked, we've got witches, and the other one for our witches today. I guess poppy seeds probably feels the least relevant because I don't think anyone's eating humongous bunches of these. We don't buy bags of poppy seeds. And just chug them. But Brazil nuts, I think this one is important to talk about
Starting point is 00:48:57 because, and I want to ask you about selenium as part of this, but obviously, again, something you see a lot is Brazil nuts are one of the best sources of selenium, which is an essential antioxidant, and also not something wildly plentiful in the rest of our diet. It's not really abundant in loads and loads of foods, but Brazil nuts pack so much selenium into each nut.
Starting point is 00:49:19 If you are eating a whole bag of Brazil nuts, you're just actually way past the recommended safe limit of selenium and that can cause symptoms like that mimic heavy metal poisoning, fatigue, nerve pain, hair loss. So actually you really, I feel like licorice root and poppy seeds is just like fun and funny and no one's eating like copious quantities that sort of thing. Brazil nuts actually is an interesting one. Especially when they're coated in chocolate at Christmas. You don't want to eat a whole bag of those. No you don't. You really don't.
Starting point is 00:49:46 You only need like two or three a day to get your daily dose of selenium. They're the type of nut that literally I advise clients just to have two or three of a day. And I'm not worried on one day if you go over that amount. It's if you're doing this frequently and you're a Brazil nut lover and you're literally snacking on them all the time, it might be doing more harm than good. So selenium, what do we need it for first of all? Selenium plays a really important role in our immune function as well.
Starting point is 00:50:06 And it's something often I find that vegans could be deficient in selenium. It's one of those micronutrients. So alongside vitamins and minerals, they're like the trace minerals, things that people don't often think too much about, but you need it to maintain normal healthy functions. And what I also find interesting,
Starting point is 00:50:22 links to skin, hair, nails, all that sort of stuff, which is why when it said here about hair fall I was like oh that makes a lot of sense because if you have too much of a good thing it starts to do the opposite to what you're actually taking it for in the first place but what's ironic about this article landing in my inbox is that this is just us picking a little bit of food you could say this for every supplement nearly that isn't needed because you're taking too much in a concentrated dose.
Starting point is 00:50:48 At least in a food you've got fiber and you've got healthy fats and Brazil nuts contain other things, not just selenium. At least you're consuming food. Versus a gummy. Versus a gummy. Because I think the problem is a supplement or a pill is so easy just not to think about and down it with some water every day.
Starting point is 00:51:04 And what we should be doing is publishing articles, not foods that act like drugs, but dangers of supplements. We should be publishing articles like that, but somehow it isn't as fun as our witch-like foods. It's not as fun as being a witch in the Tudors. I know, wouldn't that be so cool? I often think of school experiments, and I might go into do cooking next year at the school,
Starting point is 00:51:23 and I was thinking maybe I'll do like, not something, I wouldn't do this, not dangerous but you know like fun experiments with food. And where else do you get selenium? So yeah the reason that obviously vegans might find it hard is because selenium is in eggs, it's in meat, it's in things like crab, poultry. You can get it in brown rice and lentils but it is a bit harder, it depends on the quality of the soil you get it from because of course you know you get these sorts of minerals from the soil the crops grown in and then that's when it translates through to the crop itself.
Starting point is 00:51:52 So yeah you can get selenium in some places but ultimately if you're plant-based or vegan and you eat very little animal produce you probably need to have those two to three Brazil nuts a day. Don't fear them. Don't fear them but not too many. We have a really good follow on listener question which kind of also echoes true on you know where do you get your produce from, does the soil matter and it's on organic. Ella do you want to read this out from Reb? Yeah this is from Reb but we did get quite a lot of these. Reb says desperate to hear
Starting point is 00:52:20 pros and cons of organic appreciating the cost implications means it's not for all and you don't want to exclude listeners but expect a lot of your listeners also curious. I have to say I was actually really surprised the more I looked into this that top line it actually there's not much evidence if any at all to show that organic is healthier. It's been the biggest thing that I've been asked for years and I'm just saying, look, nutritionally speaking, we're nitpicking to find nutritional differences between organic and non-organic food because they still provide the same vitamins and minerals. There's some exceptions. I think carrots was one, cow's milk and things that produced in
Starting point is 00:53:02 an organic way with omega ratios. But generically speaking, Ella, this is when fear mongering comes in. But equally, I now have more of an invested interest because I can afford to do so inorganic because I'm aware of pesticide use. But it doesn't mean I'm not getting the nutrition if I don't do it. Yeah. And there have been large scale reviews from places like Stanford University, the British Nutrition Foundation. So, you know, really serious organizations looking into this
Starting point is 00:53:31 and they have not found consistent evidence that organic diets lead to significantly better health. Yeah, which is, I don't know, as I said, I just think it's really interesting. And to your point, there's lots of questions on soil, etc. And again, there are quite big differences between- Well, they're price tag questions, aren't they? Yes. But no, what I was going to say in terms of US and Europe in terms of regulation on the types of pesticides, et cetera, that are used. But I think particularly in Europe,
Starting point is 00:53:56 this really actually does ring true. The focus should fundamentally be on getting more fruits and veg wherever you're getting them from and not to worry about it too much. But people talk a lot about the dirty dozen. I know and when I did the science of plant-based nutrition, I did a feature on it actually because I wanted to explain to people that it's not a group of scientists that do the dirty dozen. It's the environmental working group. They rank the veg based on fruit on how much pesticides residue is found basically. So when they were testing in the US Department of Agriculture USDA testing. So while it is based on real data you can't really scientifically give it validity in that way and the implications in terms of health are really debated.
Starting point is 00:54:39 So it's only partially evidence-, but I think the context matters because, you know, it doesn't account for health risk and some fruits will contain more pesticides and others that don't have the skin. I know we've spoken about that before, like bananas I'm not worried about because they come in a thick coating. Berries, I did see everywhere. Did you see the fear mongering? It's like it's strawberry season.
Starting point is 00:55:02 Oh, let's just plant a load of toxic strawberry videos over social media. Have you seen those floating? Oh I haven't been to have those. Someone is saying, did you know strawberries are the most toxic fruit you can eat? I'm like it's just because it absorbs more residue but perhaps in the States with the different stuff they put on them, there might be something in that but it's still negligible to eating the fruit itself and getting the benefits of the vitamin C and eating that over a chocolate bar. Yeah. So as it stands today, to your point, the cost difference is absolutely vast. And
Starting point is 00:55:35 so the focus should be on more fruit and veg variety, 30 plants a week and not overly worrying about it. Okay. And then our second listener question, this was from Julia, but again echoes lots of other listeners' questions. Julia says, you always make things clearer. Thank you. Thank you, Julia. I look forward to what the listeners would like more information on too. Perhaps you could speak to all the misinformation
Starting point is 00:55:58 around perimenopause and menopause. Yeah, absolutely. So what I did straight away was just message my friend, an incredible doctor, Dr. Philippa Kaye straight away was just message my friend and incredible doctor Dr. Philippa Kaye. She wrote the science of menopause, the M word. She is a guru in all things menopause. So I thought it best to just get a voice note from her. Okay, so the first question is around all the misinformation around perimenopause and menopause. I think there's lots of misinformation around health in general and then when
Starting point is 00:56:25 it comes to women's health in particular there's potentially more and one of the reasons why that will be is because for so long we didn't talk about women's health issues but also they weren't included in research. It was in 1993 I think that the FDA mandated that women be included in clinical trials. Periods make it more complicated, potential for pregnancy makes it more complicated, but we still have to be included. And where we don't know things, that is where misinformation can really grow like weeds because if doctors don't have the answer and somebody else is saying that they do, then obviously people who are struggling will look to wherever that they can.
Starting point is 00:57:15 When it comes to knowing where to get your information from, the first thing that I would say is that it is important to use trusted resources like the NHS website or the patient information website and then that you if you are on social media that you look to the why of the person that you are listening to. If someone is trying to sell you something there's a strong chance that they're cherry-picking the data or the information that they tell you. If somebody is just trying to educate and can back up with evidence and the guidelines as to why they're saying something, then that is potentially somebody who you should listen to more. If somebody says that they have the secret answer that nobody else does and that the official people are keeping from you, I would be really cautious about that. And then of course when it
Starting point is 00:58:12 comes to perimenopause and menopause, I would suggest that you get my book Science of Menopause. Amazing guys, thank you as always for listening. very curious to get your thoughts on everything as always. Anyone else who's read the 10-year NHS health plan, what you guys' hopes and dreams are for that, any other listener questions, things you want us to cover. We just love to be here every week and we can't wait to be back next week. And please share your homemade concoctions at home. Do you have any remedies that you actually use that work? Like Ella shared her shots at the beginning, her turmeric shots, and I'm always a lemon ginger girl,
Starting point is 00:58:47 but I'd love to know if you use any of these ingredients. Thank you, we'll see you on Monday. Have a great week, guys.

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