The Wellness Scoop - Anti-Ageing Foods, The Science of Food Preferences & Stacey Face 

Episode Date: June 1, 2026

This week we’re discussing whether children’s taste preferences actually begin developing before birth, after a fascinating study found babies exposed to vegetables in the womb appeared more accepting of those flavours years later. We also unpack new research suggesting olive oil, berries and coffee may help support healthier ageing at a cellular level through their impact on telomeres, the protective caps linked to biological ageing. We also dive into the surprising old wives’ tales science says may actually be true, from cranberry juice helping prevent UTIs to why hot tea can cool you down and whether an apple a day really does help keep the doctor away. And in What’s Trending in Wellness, we explore the rise of “Stacey Face” and female looksmaxxing: the growing world of AI beauty-rating apps, teenage girls uploading selfies for attractiveness scores, and the increasingly dystopian collision of beauty culture, algorithms and artificial intelligence. For more from Rhi and Ella:  Order your copy of Ella's new book: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Quick Wins: Healthy Cooking for Busy Lives⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Order your copy of Rhi's new book: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Fibre Formula⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up to ⁠⁠Rhitrition+⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI was supposed to take over the parts of the job you hate. Turns out, it made your job even harder. Instead of doing the work, it gave you homework. ServiceNow's AI specialists get work done from start to finish. Cases get resolved. Loops get closed. With ServiceNow, you can do the parts of your job you're best at and delegate the rest. To put AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com.

Welcome to the Wellness Scoop, your weekly days of health and wellness. inspiration and as always we are both here as your host I'm Ella Mills and I'm Rianne Labbert and after a decade in the wellness industry we know how overwhelming and confusing health advice can be and that's why we're both here with this podcast to cut through the noise make healthier living simple fun and very personal I just want to say we are so appreciative of your support guys like just neither of us take it lightly we looked at the charts this morning for last week's episode and it's number two again in the health, wellness, all of, I mean, there are some mega shows

with huge names in there. And to be number two, kind of very regularly at the moment, honestly, it just, we are so appreciative. We're so grateful the number of messages that you're sending at the moment. Honestly, it's just so humbling and amazing and motivating and create such a sense of kind of purpose and passion for us both. I think for the two of us, we have such a kind of aligned view on trying to, obviously, as we talk about quite often, we have such a kind of humongous issue with our collective health. And we both feel so strongly about trying to work as much as we can to change that and to support people in their day-to-day choices and just having this kind of hopefully more nuanced, non-click baiting, non-scary, health and wellness

advice go so mainstream and so wide. It's just, yeah, it's very cool for want to for a better word. So thank You. It's unbelievably cool. Ella, everything you just said, we have got the most unbelievable community here at the Wellness Scoop. And I think Ella and I just feel very supported. In fact, so much so, you've probably seen or heard us rather, come out of our shells massively over the past year with how we present this podcast, the types of discussions we have. You know, sometimes I need a bit of nudge and a support from Ella and vice versa. And then we've got your lovely feedback, which we do really take on. It's very valid. And we really, really appreciate the.

constant communication. So Ella, you sound so much better. You sound like you're getting your voice back. I am. Yes, we're recording us actually a teeny bit early because it's half term in the UK. I'm actually going down to sunny Spain, although I don't think it's going to be quite as hot and sunny as it is in the UK with the heat wave coming, which is ironic. So technically, it's another birthday episode because by the time this comes out, I think Ella's either just had her birthday on the cusp or it's about to come because she's celebrating in Spain. Yeah, we're both May babies. We are May babies.

That's a star sign thing. Although no, because you're at the end of the month. Yeah, I'm last day of the month. So we're both slightly different star signs. So I'm tourists. Gemini, split personality, absolutely accurate. And I'm really stubbornly, fiercely, whatever you call. And anyone that's into star signs, let Ella and I know what we really are.

Half someone trying to build a massive business and have someone who wants to go live in a Buddhist monastery on a silent retreat. Silent retreat. That was epic that week. As my son would say, epic, the new word, the cool word. Ella, I hope you have the most amazing birthday. Or you are having it when this comes out. I can just picture you now with all that beautiful, fresh fruit and produce in Spain.

I was about to say margarita in hand. Look, split personality. Split personality. Right, Ree, coming up in today's show, not my split personality. Instead, we have from a listener actually a crazy article all the way from Sydney about some of these black market GLP1 injections. That was in the Sydney Morning Herald. It is nuts. Why Babies may start learning food preferences before birth.

This is a very interesting one. The foods link to slower biological aging. Telomir's meditation and the science of cellular aging. Which old wives tales are actually backed by evidence? We've got five of those for you. Those are quite fun, including cranberry juice and UT. eyes. Then we are going to something weird and funky and wacky for our trend today, which is a bit of a kind of follow-on from looks maxing, but we're looking at the female side of it and something called Stacey Face. Spoiler alert, I've put both of us into AI apps to see what we need to do to meet a perfect standard of beauty. And it is petrifying. I actually got it wrong and we'll discuss it in the trend section. But I said to it, oh, is Stacey the name of the other Barbie? Ree thought it's trying to send us into Barbies

which I was like oh no I wish this is from the manisphere this is so much more dark and dystopian than a little gay barbies Rey how are you though what have you been up to because obviously Re Plus has launched you've done your first live seminar how was it how does it all feel yeah honestly amazing

if you do want to join us for the eight week nutrition courses which we're about to start running in a variety of topics we literally have something for everyone you need to go and sign up now. It's nice to actually be able to say that. I'm solidly saying to you all, you can head to RetritionPlus.com. It's less than a cup of coffee a month and you can join my team and I, my clinicians in the clinic, for effectively what is a one-to-one consultation with the group every single week for eight weeks. It's incredible value. And I'm very proud of it. I feel like it's a bridge. It's a stepping stone for people that can't afford clinic because

clinic is expensive. You know, one-to-one sessions, they do add up over a long period of time and I'm hoping this is a solution. So I've been living and breathing retrition plus recently. If you hear a little bell in the background, it's because my cat is currently with me. And as Ella knows, it's either, oh no, she's brought in a mouse or she's jumping all over the laptop. So just bear with me there. And Ella, how about you? Do you know, I'm feeling very on brand this morning because I've just had a bowl of cheer pudding, had cheer seeds and oats. I made it like three, four hours ago when I got up with the kids. And then I've got, yeah, I have cheer seeds. and oats. I have some kaffir. I have some vanilla, some yogurt, a little bit of oat milk. Then I have

raspberries. And then I had hemp seeds and chopped dates. So I'm really feeling wellness scoopy. Can I ask about the question? Because I had kaffir too. I should have done actually a cheery pudding. But when you say vanilla, do you have fresh vanilla at home? Or do you add vanilla essence? Okay. So I have vanilla essence and I use that in baking and things like that. But I do buy, and it is quite expensive but the taste is insane vanilla powder. Oh my goodness. Okay, we need this because I'm vanilla obsessed.

Me too. Can replicate that. The vanilla pods, you know, the just fresh vanilla. You can tell a good ice cream when you see vanilla pods. Exactly. And like I'm not going to slice open a vanilla pod every morning, but you can buy a little pot of the vanilla powder.

As I said, it's quite expensive. Although I would say it lasts me so long because it's so strong. You know, you're using just literally like a quarter of a teaspoon. like a smattering, and you put it in and you really get that vanilla. I'm treating myself. Where do I get it? Yeah, it's on Ocardo, Ocardo. It's one of those things like my pistachio butter and my nut butter that you kind of savour

and you really look forward to breakfast. I love that. That's actually a fantastic tip. Yeah, I don't use it in baking or something, but I use it when I kind of really, really appreciate it. Yeah, well, cheer puddings. There we go. Okay, everybody, we have a pick-up that a listener has sent us, which is a news article at a discussed on what's coming up today from Australia. And it's from the Sydney Morning Herald. It's actually a pretty terrifying headline, Ella.

It is the headline. And thank you so much. Actually, a couple of people sent it to us because we were talking about peptides and this kind of unregulated market and how there's all of these doctors coming out, you know, the American Medical Association. Like everyone coming out saying,

please be careful. There's no research behind this. This is quite a social media push versus evidence. And the headline that ran in that paper was amputation's heart attack. next days of vomiting the horror toll of backyard peptized. And essentially just to summarize the article, what the emergency room doctors who were being interviewed was saying was that they're having all these people arrive in the emergency department suffering these really severe side effects as a

result of these illegal peptides vomiting, abdominal cramping, chest pains, things that mirror heart attacks. And what they're saying is that they're also seeing serious skin infections that have even required skin grafts, amputations. And there was one doctor that they interviewed Dr. Mark Putland. And he said they're getting these patients coming in and the doctors are initially sort of assuming or presuming working on the idea that they're suffering heart attacks because of the symptoms. And then after these extensive tests and monitoring, what they're finding is that it's this complication or it's an overdose of these black market peptides. They were talking about patients as young as like 14, wanting to look a certain way and taking them. And

They said they've treated people who've taken up to 10 times the recommended dosage of this. But they said also the biggest issue, and I think this is such an important point, which is one reason I wanted to bring this to the show, is that he said one of the biggest issues for them is the fact that because these things are not regulated and therefore they're not available from, you know, licensed, regulated providers. As a result, there's a huge issue with contamination. What's even inside it, Ella? there's a huge issue of you don't know what you're buying. That's it.

And it's the kind of complications of the contamination that are causing so many of the issues. And I just think it's a really, not to be like too depressing or somber this morning, but I do think it's a really important point that like if you want to be more, I'm just saying, sort of out there with wellness trends and you are wanting to explore these things, which I'm not recommending you doing, you've got to go to doctors. and, you know, I know there's like very bougy longevity clinics in the world that do this sort of thing. You know, I'm not recommending it, but I'm just saying, please don't buy these off the internet. Like, it is so scary.

And you've got to have a doctor. You cannot be buying this stuff on the internet because you just don't know what you're buying. A stark reminder. Yeah, they can be enormous, you know, amputation for the sake of like aesthetics needing skin grafts, these extraordinarily painful, complicated things. So just, you know, please, like, don't take unregulated products, not from a doctor. What's incredibly concerning is it's becoming very difficult, I think, for the public or in general health clinics. Oh, four three dogs that have just come into the room to be part of the show.

We're having a pet day. I love it. Oh, look. Look, he's going to give you a kiss. But on a serious note, it's getting really hard for people to decipher who is a doctor, who isn't a doctor, who is a clinician, who is credible. And I think everybody needs to spend a lot longer now researching these clinics. Ask who is administering your treatment. I mean, doctors will know the anatomy of your face, but also know how many different various complications could arise from what may appear as simple injection, whereas most aesthetically trained, even some nurses aesthetically trained may not. And I think it's very important just to flag that because there is a degree and a level of training that's required.

Some people can call themselves doctors because they may have done a PhD in a subject such as, what's Ross and Friends, paleontology or something. Paleontology. Yeah, he's a doctor. But would you want him injecting your face? Absolutely not. That's an example I can use. Yeah, and that's a great example exactly with that, with Botox as well, as you said, with the face.

And then actually, the pickup I'd originally put in links to that. So just very, very quickly. Then back home in the UK, again, there was lots of. headlines on this. We won't go into detail because I feel like we've sort of covered this roughly before. But there was a huge raid in Birmingham a couple of weeks ago where they uncovered this big illegal operation importing again unlicensed, unregulated Monjaro. So there's weight loss style, not Monjaro style drugs from China. Then they're repackaging these unregulated drugs with needles, injection kits and shipping them directly to customers across the UK.

Crazy stuff is they're then doing it with just like normal. parcel delivery services. Yeah, according to the MHRA, just kind of between 5 and 6,000 illegally traded weight loss injection pens were seized just last year. And they dismantled what was believed to be the UK's first illegal production facility for these counterfeit, these non-regulated weight loss drugs last October. That was in Northamptianship. And that's a fraction of what they will have actually uncovered.

So actually, 5,000 is barely anything. I would imagine there's masses of these illegal drugs. in this country. And what they were saying about this raid in Birmingham in May was that, you know, they found all these drugs obviously and they were just stored in these, obviously, in extremely poor conditions. So it was like a cluttered residential property. It was talking about like a chihuahua running around the living room all around these drugs. And I know, but like obviously imagine if you're selling, you know, if it's a pharmaceutical company, and I'm not advocating, then pharmaceutical companies have their own complications as well. But I'm just,

just saying they are regulated and therefore the way that these drugs are manufactured and stored it's this highly sterile controlled environment. And temperature controlled environment, I mean, goodness me, some of these meds, that's what concerns me almost about the moving on from injections to the pill form of the drug. I understand it's going to simplify and make a lot of people's lives easier access, but actually we'll see the black market rise even more so because you can disguise even more in pill form and more people can probably create counterfeits compared to the injections. Yeah, for sure. So as I said, I just, if you're feeling pressure around all of these things at the moment, just please, please, please don't get them unregulated unlicensed. Like it's a really scary

space. It really is. And I just think when there's so much aesthetic pressure and kind of wellness pressure to be your best and you're seeing, I'm seeing certainly all of these articles about peptides, I'm seeing all of these very attractive influences, very slim, very beautiful, amazing face, taking all of these drugs. I can see why it creates solid pressure. Please don't buy unregulated versions. Now, we move on to a very different headline today. But actually, I love this. It kind of leads on from what we were discussing last week. And it's getting children to eat their vegetables starts in the womb. So it could be what your mother ate in the womb, which led to your preference for food today. Exactly. So this was picked up everywhere. And I think, it's interesting, obviously, if you have children,

but it's interesting from a bigger perspective in terms of obviously we have this humongous issue with our collective health, generation, after generation, our health is getting poorer and anything therefore we can do to get future generations more excited about eating healthily is incredibly important. And then obviously lots of the articles

are talking about like how much do you remember as children, your parents or your teachers or kind of adults around you, being like, please eat your vegetables. And obviously, I'm sure all of us have said that to children that we know in our lives. But there's an interesting piece of research that had just come out using researchers from universities in France, Netherlands, Cambridge and Aston University. And it was looking about taste preferences and how we can help potentially shape children's taste preferences to enjoy vegetables more. I know. So researchers gave pregnant women. I mean, I don't know how I'd feel about this because I found it hard to stomach anything. in pregnancy. So obviously, let's take this all of a pinch of salt, but they gave pregnant women

either a kale powder capsule or a carrot powder capsule during the final. Yeah, I've got to interrupt you there because that's exactly what the researchers were saying, was that they initially tried to do it with the juice. And pregnant women were like, ew, I'm going to throw that up. So that's why they moved to capsules. Yeah, so interesting. Because in pregnancy, it's really hard to have a variety of tastes, as anybody will know, or if you were like Ella and I, who both experienced beige all the way through, I think Ella did for one, I did for both pregnancies. It's very difficult. So researchers tried a capsule approach, which again, give or take, researchers gave pregnant women either kale powder capsules or

carrot powder capsules. Now, remember, we discussed last week the carrot juice, which was one of the original studies looking at taste preferences for the first 1,000 days of life. And they introduced these capsules during the third trimester, so the final months of pregnancy. And interestingly, they actually found that when they tracked these babies' reactions to these smells over several years first, and they did this, by the way, by looking at the facial expressions of babies, so they analysed their facial expressions in the womb, first of all, with ultrasound scans. And then they repeated the testing when the babies were around three weeks old, which is very early again, and then they followed up at age three.

So at three weeks old, they're only having breast milk or formula milk. And the findings were consistent, Ella. So children who've been exposed to carrot flavors in the womb reacted more positively to the smell of carrot later on. And were more likely to grimace at kale. Meanwhile, the children that had taken the kale capsules appeared much more accepting of the smell of kale. And that's so interesting because kale is obviously such a bitter taste. And it's definitely not something that I think most toddlers love. But I think it leads back to the research that I love on the veg first approach, which is how I weaned both of mine.

And I didn't give them, I controversially didn't give my kids any fruit until they're about nine months old. And I was just pure veg majority from six to nine months. And it did work. I think it works. I know it's not possible for all. But I think it makes perfect sense innately as human beings that we are predisposed to, of course, wanting sweet food over savory because it's got more energy. Yeah. It's so interesting.

I have to say, caveat, my children were the world's worst we know, is one of them, in particular. I just refused anything and everything. Because you did, you had to do, I remember you had to do the baby led, which made me so anxious. She just refused. She's so independent. She's still like that. Like she literally, I'm not joking to the extent to which she categorically refused to take anything off a spoon from me. It was absolutely staggering.

Didn't matter what it was. And this is important to share because all babies are different. And I don't want people thinking, oh, they've got perfect kids that just ate everything. Because it's not like that. Every parent has struggles with it. One of my girls basically didn't eat or she was like to. Yeah, exactly. She would literally like chew on a soldier of toast and that was it.

It was very stressful. It was really stressful. I think the thing that's interesting here is obviously if you, when you have a baby in growing, then they are getting these flavour compounds from the foods that the mother eats and that passes through the amniotic fluid, passes into the amniotic fluid around the baby. The baby swallow. They inhale this fluid in the womb. and it means they're effectively experiencing these flavors and smells before they're born.

And what they saw as re-said is they're at these different bits. So like 32 weeks, they're exposed to kale. They're kind of grimacing at the bitter taste. By 36 weeks when they tried it again, they grimace less. And they started to accept the flavor. And I think obviously this was quite a small scale study. But what the researchers were saying is obviously we need much more data on this. But let's say it's possible for pregnant women to start taking.

vegetable capsules essentially. And because it's pill form, it's probably better, more able to to be tolerated than if you're most. Yeah, not all. By the way, Ella and I are very, very aware, we're not shaming anybody here because we both could not eat. I mean, I didn't eat a single vegetable. Yeah, it's so, it's so hard. So just so you know, we're not saying that at all. I ate like every shade of potato first time around. I was literally a potato. I think that's genius, to be honest. It's quite a clever approach. It's the only thing I could Yeah, even looking at broccoli, it made me vomit. But that's why I think this is so clever because these capsules,

you obviously aren't asking people to do something. Because I'm like you, I find it very frustrating when you see things saying, oh, you know, pregnant women just need to kind of eat more. And they've got to look after the baby growing them. And it's like, well, that's nice on paper. And someone whose life is all about health and wellness. I mean, no, not joking. The whole of my first pregnancy, maybe I ate like one avocado.

I just couldn't. And every time, I remember thinking to myself, like, I've got to eat green vegetable, getting some broccoli out of the fridge, and I started cooking it and I vomited. It was that it was that extreme. I mean, it was insane. It's really tough for everybody. And what I want to add here is that I think what Professor Reesland added was really interesting. And he said, our food environments are clearly shaping the way our children have preferences towards food, which we can't ignore. And that must be true. And it's very hard to study any pregnant women ethically or babies within the It's really difficult, very expensive, so many problems to get large data samples there. But it makes perfect sense that our modern diets that are heavy in artificial sweeteners, hyper-palatable foods, UPS, that potentially children are predisposed to those flavors growing up, which also equates to the poor health of the nation in general. But please remember that when we discuss epigenetics, just as of nature, nurture with food, if you had a pregnancy, like Ella and I have experience, you can do so much when you start weaning as well. And with exposure in the first like two years, you can offer as much variety as you can. And all is not

lost is what I'm trying to say in a kind way. Essentially, this could become potentially a very relatively speaking low cost public health intervention of prescribing vegetable pills to create an acceptance of these flavors for upcoming generations, which is so interesting. So I think we've got to watch that space because that feels like a very plausible intervention. Okay, our second headline is always a popular one because it is about how to slow aging, including some of our favorite foods like olive oil and coffee. So we will be back after the break to delve into that. In Toronto, every arrival is a statement and nothing says it better than this. Cadillac Optic was the number one selling luxury EV in Canada for 2025. Find your rhythm across a seamless 33-inch display and an immersive 19

speaker AKG surround audio system. This city demands agility and optic delivers with precision to make every drive extraordinary. Let's take the Cadillac. Find out more at Cadillac canada.ca. Luxury sales claim based on S&P Global Mobility Canadian New Vehicle Total Registrations for calendar year 2025 for the Cadillac definition of luxury. Welcome back everybody. Olive oil and coffee may slow aging studies suggest. Now Ella and I both know that the media is fraught with headlines on coffee is good, then coffee's bad. Wine is good. Red wine is bad.

And olive oil, as we know, is fantastic. But shotting it, they're not shoting it. This actually suggested that drizzling olive oil on your meals and adding berries to breakfast may help support healthier aging. Now, berries didn't make it into the headline. It's not as snappy or grabby as coffee or olive oil. Also, read, don't you think it's also? Because we always talk about this how like whenever there's a headline about, we say like

coffee or red wine, it's like everywhere. Because we all want to read it, right? Like we want these things that we enjoy to be good for us, obviously. Same with chocolate. Whereas berries is kind of like, I mean, loads of people love berries, but you don't necessarily. You're not like, yes, berries are good for us. And also we probably already know that. But I think it's quite funny because whenever there's like an iota of information to say that coffee,

red wine, chocolate might be good for us, front page news. I know. Isn't it amusing? Because yeah, I think berries are just the most fantastic fruit you can have. But this research was presented actually this week at the European Congress and Obesity in the study found that those who consume these polyphenols and antioxidant rich compounds, which you find in the olive oil, of course, you find in the berries, you find in coffee, you find in the cocoa beam from chocolate, you know, all the delicious foods that we love to eat that come in the whole food format. If you have, essentially, I'm going to call it a Mediterranean diet Ella with maybe a bit more coffee, experience fewer age-related changes to their DNA. over time. Yeah, it's so interesting. So this was the University of Navarra. They followed just over 1,700 adults in Spain for nearly a decade, so really nice, long period of time. And they were

monitoring both their diets and their biological markers of aging. Now, what they were particularly looking at is something called a telomere. And that is this like, imagine a shoelace, right? And you've got that little plastic cap on the end. It's like this tiny protective cap at the end of your chromosomes. And essentially, what it's doing is. every time our cells are dividing, these telomeres are just naturally shortening a teeny bit, like those laces are fraying, you can imagine. Great analogy. It's such a good one. I'm going to use that in lectures. Thank you. It's a hell. But basically, over time, as these telomeres shorten, that's associated with cellular

aging, and that is linked with high risk of chronic diseases. Things we often think of, unfortunately, and more prevalent as we go older, heart disease, cancer, even things like Alzheimer's. And because of this, telomeres are often described as part of the body's biological clock. So when we're thinking, we're seeing terms like that, that's one of the things, one of the markers. And so they can help researchers estimate how quickly the body might be aging at this cellular level. But it was quite a stark percentage. So those that consume the highest amounts of these polyphenols, also you can refer to these as antioxidants essentially. It's just all the wonderful components that you find in a whole food diet. They had a 52% lower. So over half risk

of accelerated telemet shortening, so of that fraying of that shoelace, compared with those that consume the lease and the effect appeared strongest in adults that were under the age of 64. That doesn't mean at any age you can't start consuming a healthy diet because we know from previous research and studies that all has an impact. But fruit, I want to emphasize this because there's so much demonisation of fruit. Now, fruit seem particularly important and the participants that ate the most fruit had a 30% lower risk of having shorter telomeres, which is still, we're talking significant differences here. Like in science, these participants, It's almost a third. I mean, it's massive. They're high. They're really high. And I think, you know, drinking coffee, it was slightly lower, but still a quarter was associated with a 26% lower risk of shortening telomis. So essentially, I think what we have to remember is these foods aren't consumed in isolation. They were all consumed as part of that healthy med diet, which I don't think was made that clear in this particular article. They always isolate. They isolate the foods, don't they? Because they want you to feel good about having your coffee.

Yeah, I really, I actually think I didn't pick up on that. I think it's such an important point because this was picked up everywhere. And I totally agree what it did is it kind of drew out maybe fruit, maybe olive oil, maybe coffee. Now, some of these things are particularly beneficial, as we just said, fruit up to kind of 29% lower risk of having these shortening telemiss. That's amazing, obviously, this biological aging and clock and slowing it down for a healthy health span, as we always talk about, not just lifespan. amazing. But as you said, these things aren't in association. What's actually the important number here is that people consuming the highest amount polyphenols and polyphenols antioxidants, those are found in our plant foods. And so those are the people that had a 52% lower risk at this accelerated

biological aging. You can't expect to see 25% decline in aging just for drinking coffee if your diet is predominantly a UPF rich diet with very little plants and vegetables. But this is what happens whenever I'm asked to contribute to an article, I'm often asked about foods in isolation. I always try and get a line to kind of summarize it in, but it's more clickbaity and much more attention grabbing for readers because it isolates what you can and can't do in your brain. Otherwise, it's too overwhelming. So that's where they pick on the individual food. Yeah, it is very interesting. And I see it's very, has good cut through. But essentially, I'm not trying to be annoying, but I'm going to be annoying. I just find this sort of thing.

every time we see this, it just makes me want to bang my head against the wall for all this, like, be a carnivore. Please don't. Like, that's just a bad idea. Take my bloat gummies. Take my bloat gummies to be healthy. Oh my gosh. One of the biggest models in the world sharing anti-blote gummies in a bikini.

I mean, she looked sensational, but that was all over social media. She's not taking those gummies. I'm sorry. Even if she's taking those gummies, that one of the world's highest paid, most famous supermodels, looks like that because it is her, first of all, she's genetically blessed. Second of all, it's her job to look like that. So she has every trainer, and obviously she does under the sun. Her job is to exercise and look amazing in a bikini.

It's not because she takes bloat gummies. I've got to be honest here. That was one of the most – me and Ella were discussing it yesterday. One of the most disappointing. It was Rosie. I didn't quite, Lou. I think she's fab. And then I saw her posing, and I thought, what paycheck was there, you know, to tempt you and to actually want to do it?

Because you don't – she doesn't need – well, I don't know what her financial situation is. but regardless, ethically, you shouldn't do it. But it's this point, isn't it, where we're so easily sold, this one thing is the solve to the issue. She was literally in a bikini on her back, led on a sun lounger with the bottle of gummies next to her flat stomach because she's led down on her back. I think even on her stomach, the packer is all.

Anyways, I just think what's so important is, like, if bloating's an issue for you, bloating's actually always been an issue for me. I've got hypermobility, very much shows up in my stomach. One singular thing cannot solve it. I wish it could. But Ella, you've got a new fact that you learned from last week's share, haven't you? Yeah, I have.

I love a little fact, right? So do you know what? I'm doing this new meditation course at the moment, which I'm loving with this amazing Australian teacher who's just like real sunshine and joy. Anyways, she said something in the lecture and I was like, well, I wonder, not I was doubting her, but I was like, oh, I'm wondering what that study was. So I went off, read much, much more about it. And interestingly, there is research to show that meditation can. help maintain and potentially increase telomere length by boosting your telomeres with the enzyme involved activity. And that's the enzyme that helps rebuild the telomeres. So isn't that

amazing? I think it makes sense. It must improve circulation and then blood flow to various cells. You know, it's so well studied for obviously lowering stress levels and, you know, stress we know is very much associated with accelerated impact on your aging. And so I think it will just be a very effective, well, it is a very effective de-stress tool. I'm sure there's other things that would do the same thing if it has the same impact on you. But anyway, I just thought it was interesting. I love that, Ella. And do you know what? We're moving on to another headline, which to be honest, I really thought was fun. And I actually love discussing all this kind of stuff because it's important that people know the truth. We have an apple a day, the 13 old

wides tales that are actually true. And there was a fun article that looked at nearly all of the grandmother wisdom, all the things that we discussed like last week, carrots in the dark. And we've got a few corkers in here, which I think I can't wait to discuss and bust and celebrate. Exactly. This was in the Times, an apple a day, 13 old wives tales that are actually true. We've picked out five of them for you that felt the most interesting. The first one being cranberry juice may help prevent UTIs. Yeah. So now, I want to go into this because there's a technicality with it. So this one turns out there is some scientific research behind it because of the compounds in cranberries that can help stop bacteria attaching to the lining of the urinary tract,

which makes infections less likely to develop. So it's not that they can prevent it completely, but there's some elements, but you'd have to have so much cranberry juice and also the quality of cranberry juice. In fact, more research studies have suggested it as these specific compounds that may help antibiotics do their job more effectively too and slow the development of antibiotic resistance bacteria. But that is not robust data yet. But earlier this month, the scientist from the Institute National de la Riecher Scientique,

is that in France? Love your French this morning, way. French people won't. Anyone listening will know that was diabolical. They found cranberry compounds appeared to help bacteria absorb more of the antibiotic phosphamacin, which is commonly... Phosphamacin, I think.

Phosphamicin. I would say missen, but maybe my sin. Maybe I'm wrong. No, I think you're probably correct, knowing my pronunciation this morning, which is commonly prescribed for UTIs. But actually, now, there is a supplement that in the nutrition world,

I'm just looking now, we look up... D. Manin. Yeah, D. Mano's Plus and D. D. Manos, which are simple kind of sugar supplements that are used to manage the E. coli-infect. you know, the side of the UTIs. But the evidence is very, very mixed. But I've always been told from clinical background that cranberry juice is not reliable.

I think probably better in capsule form as well. Yeah, in a very high dose. But again, you can't guarantee that's going to get where it needs to go. Take that one with a pinch of salt, but very interesting. And don't put off going to your doctor. UTIs can be very serious. It happened to me once at uni. It can spread to your kidneys and you can end up.

hospitalized. So please catch it early. If you feel their symptoms, get to your GP because some people, especially women during their cycle, are very prone to getting UTIs. And I think it's really important that we're really aware of them. I spent two and a half years on antibiotics without more than 48 hours off because of what became almost antibiotic resistant UTIs. Yeah. Oh, that's horrendous. I ended up with in hospital on trips from. So it was all when I was there. Yeah. That's serious. Yeah, really hard and actually we've discussed that we know that a lot of the medication Ella was put on a long, long time ago. It can have a knock on effect. And then also that much, that many antibiotics had a very detrimental impact on my gut health as well. Yeah, exactly. And it's a lot. So just be very careful

with UTIs. Definitely seek out advice and help. Don't let them spread. Ella, the next one's a bit more straightforward. Cold tea bags. Can they really help with our puffy eyes? Is that what I should do every morning. I know. I've got images of us. Cucumbers and cold tea bags. Okay. Late night, stress, allergies, too much screen time. We all know how these sort of things do. You sometimes wake up. Your eyes are a little bit swollen, a bit puffy, a bit irritated. I certainly used to get that so much from hay fever. Oh my God, I look like Dracula a lot of the time. Anyway, experts at Moorefield's Eye Hospital, which is obviously one of the UK's leading centres for this. Actually, themselves recommend cold damp tea bags as a simple compress for tired eyes.

It's interesting because there's many components of tea bags. So obviously there's the caffeinated component, the antioxidants within the tea. Again, I would say perhaps the quality of your tea bag will happen here. But it temporarily constricts blood vessels and decreases that fluid retention. You know, people tell you to do a lymphatic kind of massage. You know, the very soft tissue under your eyes. Apparently the tea bags act in that way, which helps prevent. puffy puffiness. I mean, to me, it's not the puffiness at CSU. It's the dark circles when I'm

really tired. If anyone tries that, let us know. Okay, hot tea may actually cool you down. Sounds totally counterintuitive, something I've never really believed. But apparently it's true because hot drinks slightly raise the body temperature to begin with, which stimulates sweating and a sweat evaporates from the skin helps cool the body down more effectively. This, I think, came from that time. that actually quite dreadful time, but where Britain, we had a large stake in India, and we used to drink a lot of tea, you know where tea comes from? I don't know the entire history of this here, but I do believe it's because when people were in India, it's obviously a very hot climate compared to the UK, they would drink a lot of tea because of that reason.

It triggers our body's internal heat receptors, which causes you to sweat more. And it's that sweat that evaporates off your skin that creates the natural cooling effect. And there's also some ancient Aravedic wisdom there when it comes to tea as well. So they actually believe that if you do the opposite, if you have cold drinks when you're hot, it can actually shock the digestive system. And that dampens your internal fire, making it harder to process food in heat. So it's really interesting when you look at temperature of foods and where things come from. I love that one, but I would still do a cold drink.

Me too. I mean, the idea of like a nice crisp lemonade when it's a heat wave is it speaks to me more. Okay, two more that feel maybe more relevant. First of all, this one I feel like always gets headlines, always confuses people. Vitamin C may help to shorten colds. Now, I think the key thing here is that there's no evidence to suggest that taking vitamin C is going to stop you from catching the cold in the first place. But there is evidence to suggest it can slightly reduce how long symptoms last. and we've seen that from lots of different research, but that taking one to two milligrams

could reduce the duration of symptoms by roughly 10%, particularly if started early. My best advice is to get a piece of fruit in instead of taking a supplement of vitamin C, which you're likely to just excrete because actually you'll get more benefit from the vitamin C coming from food form than pill form. So when you're feeling run down,

just try and have an extra piece of fruit each day and that's really going to help shorten the length of your cold, hopefully. And finally, can an apple a day really help keep the doctor away? I love this. It's just because it's such a classic saying. Apples, of course, vitamin C rich, they contain pectin, that's amazing soluble fibre. I would say we want you to eat the skin here and all the research that's ever really produced on apples because a lot of the key polyphenols live and reside nearer the skin barrier. And do you really want to be eating next? I know some people peel, pill your apples. But one study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found healthy middle-aged adults who ate two, two apples a day. So not just an apple, two, for eight weeks, reduced their cholesterol levels, while apple juice, which lacks the fibre had no effect. So they were comparing juice to eating the whole apple. Of course, you get the fiber from the apple, less of a blood sugar impact there as well, Ella. Exactly that. There's some research actually that showed that regular apple and pear consumption had a lower dementia risk.

and another one to show that the phytochemical profile of apples could help support prevention of several chronic diseases. I think probably what we're talking about again in all of that, though, not to be overly presumptuous, is what we said when we're talking a second ago is that yes, apples are very good for you, lots of lovely things in there, your polyphenols, as you said, your fibre, etc. But it's probably when eaten with everything else, like if you have a, let's just say, like a kind of junk food diet,

you're eating loads of McDonald's and some pick a mix. one singular apple unfortunately probably won't have quite the same effect it probably won't to keep the doctor away I love a pear. Can I just say, I love a juicy pair. I'm having a rhubarb moment. Oh, love. Can I be honest, which actually is funny because obviously like my so much of my job for my whole adult life has been to cook. I've always been quite scared of cooking rhubarb. I don't know why it's such a kind of weird looking thing. And obviously because you're big. Yeah, I don't know. There's something about it kind of freak me out. Anyway, now that I've started getting into it, I am obsessed. Like stewed rhubarb. Yeah. You mean, you have to add. a fair amount of sugar because it is pretty tart but oh my gosh it's just so good. Ella, I'm excited. What's trending in wellness? Okay guys, I went outside your rabbit hole here. I mean, I love a rabbit hole. So you probably anyone who listens regularly can probably tell. Where did you first see it though? Where? Well, I was just looking at trends and then there was a lot like independent had a piece, the rise of Stacey face, how AI is warping our beauty standards,

the Times had one, the new rise of female looks maxing. There was loads around that kind of thing, mostly basically on this idea of female looks maxing. We obviously talked about the male one the other day and essentially how this is manifesting now for women and how that is showing up. And so I first of all just came across those pieces and then the more I read, the more I was like, this is so, weird. And I also just want to say, before we go into the internet, that's the whole thing, there will be people listening who might think, well, this isn't really relevant for me, because I would never go on to AI and ask AI to rate me out of 10. And I would never, you know, try and emulate some kind of very homogenous beauty standard. But I do think that it is quite

important as women for us to be aware of these trends, because they are taking up a lot of air time. They are becoming increasingly popular. And I do think we all kind of have a, I don't know, not a duty, but a kind of element of impetus to have an awareness to try and change the direction of this. Because again, you can quite quickly see how wrong this could go. Ultimately, this involves asking AI to almost like looks maxxics, to ask you how you can become, quote-on-quote, better version or more attractive version of yourself. And the ultimate goal is becoming a Stacey. And it originated in the Manosphere.

And these communities describe the idealized, hyper, like, hyper-attractive woman, essentially the female counterpart to a guy called Chad. I haven't heard of these people, Ella. Okay. So this originates in a niche space, right? This originates in the Manosphere, has been there for a long time. it's just making its way to the mainstream. In the mannosphere, if you're like a perfect looking man and you are called a Chad,

that's like being Brad Pitt. That's like being perfect kind of thing. Although Brad Pitt's actually never done it for me. But they talk about, again, this is where it comes from. Stacey is essentially like the perfect woman. Becky, I'm very sorry to any Becky's listening, is the woman you don't want to be. And can I just say this is so warped.

It's so unbelievably warped because, as we know, Beauty ideals change depending on the person, depending on the country, the culture. Like, it's outrageously absurd that there's one version of attractiveness. But what I find scary, Ellie, I've called you Ellie, Ella. What's so scary, Ella. I've got Stacey in my head now is that really sadly, oh, it's terrifying. Teenage girls are picking up on this trend as young as 16, I would probably say younger, and are uploading selfies of themselves into these AI platforms to see how they're

faces should be changing. So I think this is the bit where it becomes super relevant for all of us to some extent because I think what we've always had is we've always had these kind of quite idealized views and pressures on particularly women what women should look like and what's quote unquote attractive and what's not. And that is why for decades we've had cabbage soup diets and all of these extremes because there's always been this undercurrent of a pressure on a beauty standard. And now what you've got is this weird, like, merging together of very longstanding cultural pressure, societal pressure on beauty standards, coming together with AI. And obviously what we're seeing now as well is like even if you go on social media,

you know, sheer luck that big platforms been in, I don't want to see trouble, but kind of big discourse about it. Like they've got these AI influences. Now, Guess what? The AI influencers look perfect because they're not real. They don't have human flaws. And so it's this weird meshing. Flaws or perfections, you know, human beauty, like our individual differences. Exactly. Like uniqueness. Anyways, because they're computer generated. So it's this weird meshing of the world of AI and not even knowing if someone's real anymore or the level to which you can manipulate something or any of us can now to manipulate. to manipulate an image, coupled with this longstanding kind of centuries-old pressure on women. I saw men now as well then clearly if men are uploading this, but also the fact that do you think it's because people are finding it harder to meet,

people dating, that it's also another drive towards this platform. How can I enhance myself? What is my value? What am I offering in a relationship and exchange? It's really the whole thing is very deep. It's so, so crazy. So basically there are all these platforms now. And you can even do it on like Reddit threads and things.

And you upload a picture yourself. People are doing it on TikTok and you basically get people to rate you. So you're like, look, what do you? Like tell me honestly like how attractive am I out of 10? Because to me it just looked like Ella had just sent me this. At first it was just the image that came through. I was like, who is that? What was I didn't know with me?

And it just looked like me with a lot of makeup. up and they changed like different features, like your cheekbone moods higher up or something. Yeah, so I went on, anyway, having read some of these articles, I would thought, okay, this is very curious. So I went on one of the AI apps that people are using to do this, and it's nuts. So I sent in a picture of me, and they sent in a picture of Rhee,

and I was like, can you turn us into a Stacey, as in this like perfect woman? I mean, I think we look so freaky. I've just got so much makeup on. But it then tells you, essentially, first of all, it then gave us a rating out of 10. So in not even one minute, I was told all the things that were not very nice about me, my mark out of 10, and what I should do to get better. And my 30-day transformation plan, that involved I need to book a hair appointment to go blonde,

ASAP, get some lash extensions. I need to buy some fitted outfits. I need to practice soft smiling in the mirror much more. I need to upload on social media with main character energy. I need a calorie controlled diet. Very important that came up a lot. Is that what they said? That's unbelievably toxic.

I need body sculpting workouts. I need laminating of my brows. I need more contouring. I did it for my husband. He needs to drop down to 12% body fat. He needs a chin filler. He has to practice mewing. I don't even know what that is to move his jaw position around.

And I just want to say, I don't think that I'm perfect or my husband's perfect. Obviously, Rhea's perfect. But like, I'm not laughing at this being told that, like, I could do things to be more attractive. Like, obviously I could. But it's this weird thing where I took a normal picture of myself at the train station. I put it in and it was like, here you are.

I was like, you're like a six out of ten this morning. But that's why I thought, I thought it's based on Barbie, Ella, because it was just telling you to dye your hair blonde. I was like, what is this program? Stacey must be a Barbie. All I thought since is like, how does. dystopian, like, how do I be a mother of two girls in this era? How concerning about this homogenization of beauty, this one look that's officially attractive. I mean, look, that's

reductive. But then I thought, so either I found it hilarious, like, as in the imagery of all of us, I just thought was really funny. And then I've been so kind of stuck on the dystopian concerning nature of the speed at which I can be told my flaws and the pressure to be, quote, unquote, Perfect. But then I thought, gosh, imagine if I had done this when I was 14. And as I said, it took me one minute. It was a free app. It was like there was no barrier to entry here. This should be banned. This is the regulation we're calling for with social media. This is another part of the equation and the danger. It just stems into a million. If you had like a little brainstorm chart, you've got this AI in the middle and your little cloud bubble. And your mind map is just overflowing with toxic, dangerous. results. And I just think I you know being told all the things that like I don't know if I'm quote quote flaws if as I was younger and more insecure I really don't think it would have been good for me and I could imagine the speed of which I

might have done lots of these things and then we would have all at the same and I do think if I'm being honest when I walk down the street now sometimes and I go on social media but social media particular there is this like element of people looking the same It's like the Kardashians. It's like a kind of completely generated for screen image. People also look very made up all the time. I do wonder how they have the time. I do appreciate. I feel better when I get changed properly and I've brushed my hair and I've put maybe a bit of mascara on or something. You can feel very different. But what's very alarming is the level of effort that we know as women goes into looking even naturally put together in the morning. and that's not enough.

No. It's unbelievable to... Not for this. So yeah, that's a very alarming beauty standard that I really hope that we all are not going to be subjecting future generations to. It's this weird tension between wanting to like, be your kind of quote unquote best self in a normal way in the sense of I totally agree.

Like I feel better if I get up 10 minutes earlier and I have a shower and I wash my hair and I put on a moisturiser and a bit of mascara and I love a blush and a brow gel, have a good breakfast, I'm out the door. Like, I feel better when I do that versus, like, claw my hair back into a greasy bun and put on dirty leggings that have toothpaste on them.

Like, there's a 10 minute difference between the two and I have to say my self-esteem is really different. And I did notice a period after we moved to the countryside where I was like, greasy, greasy bun, dirty leggings, mud, dog hair, toothpaste, kids food. And I remember catching myself in mirror and being like, oh, you don't, I always don't totally recognise, myself. And it's an interesting tension between like doing the little things that make you feel

great and confident, but not feeling the pressure to kind of conform to this what feels like insanity. And being a role model for your children, you know, them seeing it's okay to be yourself and not have to dress up to that level and that there's so many. And not be the same as everybody else. Not be the same as everyone else. Embrace our unique space, which is why I'm just praying that all of these apps and social things get banned for children. Anyone with teenagers, right now please let us know how you navigate these scary sites and what's going on or if you'd heard of it if you hadn't heard of it and we will see you back on Thursday because we have once again a jam-packed episode your questions are getting better and better and also your recommendations

aren't they Ella they are we are going to be talking about kind of whether you can do it all there's some interesting questions and thoughts around something called the four burners theory I'm very excited to get into there we're going to be talking about yeah some interesting questions that you guys had on kind of if your focus is more on wellness habits for health and other people's your friends or people around you are more for aesthetics that's an interesting tension we're going to talk about there a little bit about all or nothing traps when it comes to food a little bit about nervous system health and looking after that a little bit about sugar cravings quite a lot and why we don't have to be perfect so a bit of a follow on from that so yeah

can't wait see you guys on thursday bye