The Wellness Scoop - Are Carbs Bad? & Ditching the Pressure to ‘Fix’ Yourself

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

This week we’re tackling one of the most persistent wellness myths: that cutting carbs is essential for weight loss. We dive into what carbs actually are, why they became the enemy, what the science really says about low-carb diets, and the health benefits of keeping wholegrains in your life. We also explore powerful new findings from a 30-year Finnish study showing that unhealthy habits like smoking, drinking and inactivity don’t just affect your future. They start impacting your quality of life by your mid-thirties. But the good news is that changing course earlier can make all the difference. Plus, with headlines about 28-year-olds getting facelifts and cosmetic surgery on the rise, we ask why so many of us are feeling pressure to change our appearance, and how we can reclaim confidence and care in a filtered world. Finally, we revisit the rapeseed oil debate, where the fear comes from, and what the science really says about cooking oils and inflammation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Amex Platinum, you have access to over 1,400 airport lounges worldwide. So your experience before takeoff is a taste of what's to come. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights,

and endless ways to move, lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton cross-training tread plus at OnePeloton.ca. Welcome to the Wellness Scoop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. And as always, we're here as your host. I'm Ella Mills. And I'm Rihanna Lambert and after a decade in the wellness industry, it can be pretty overwhelming and confusing and that's why we've created this podcast to cut through that noise and make healthier living, simple, fun and personal. Rhee, how are you?

It's been a busy week. Ella and I were filming something yesterday together and I was actually learning from Professor Tim Specter this week all about the fact that dead microbes might also play a role alongside a live microbes and I was learning how to make kimchi in Notting Hill like you do with Tim. It was really great. This restaurant called The Holy Carrot and they've got like this humongous scobie that's formed from all their fermentation process that they look after like a pet almost. It was the most incredible experience and I've just been really getting into autumn, Ella. I'm going to throw a little Halloween party, I think.

I love that. Have you been making kimchi at home now? Because I haven't done it and I'm desperate to do it. We actually, spoiler alert, have Tim doing our expert Q&A session coming up for you guys on gut health. He's obviously such a guru in the world of gut health. And he was saying how you've got to have three portions of fermented food a day for optimum gut health. And I just don't do that. I reckon if I get a three a week, I'm winning.

So I've got to up my game, which means I'm going to today. on my to-do list by water-cafia grains. I want to try that. And I've got to make some kimchi. Okay. Well, I think I'll let Ella start with it because you have to definitely have all the right ingredients in, but he said you can mix a match, you know, that he was using a purple cabbage.

And if you've got any veg, you can technically make kimchi, but some will be more effective than others. And the process really is important to make sure that you are keeping the substance you've made covered airtight for a while using weights on top of the. jar. It's quite a, not difficult, but refined process. So I think every time you make a batch, you'll get better and better and better. And then Ella can label her as homemade, homemade chimchies to go with the apple juice. My homemade apple juice, I know, my trad wife era. I love kimchi, though. Like when it's really, really spicy, I love her. So Ella is off to the most magical

place on earth and I cannot wait for her. I am off to Disney in Paris as we And the girls have been earning Disney points for like six months to be able to go on the trip. We're only going for a couple of days, but it will be really fun. I've taken everyone's advice to bring snacks with me. I'm not packing kimchi or water kaffir, don't worry. But a lot of delicious yellow oat bars. So yeah, it's good. But we have got a lot to get into today.

What is coming up in today's show. So we have the truth about carbs and weight loss and what actually matters, while your habits in your 20s and 30s will shape your long-term health. and what's behind the rise in cosmetic surgery among younger people, which is something I know that Ella and I are both particularly worried and fascinated in, how social media is fuelling appearance and pressure. What on earth are we going to do about this? And once again, the rapeseed or debate, is it really something that we need to worry about?

So, let's move on to our health headlines. This is what has been in the news this week when it comes to health and wellness. and the first one was from The Guardian and had this graphic of this woman kind of with a loaf of bread and it was all quite dramatic and the headline was, is it true that dot dot dot, dot, cutting out carbs helps you lose weight?

I feel like this is a kind of pinnacle of why we do this show. When we started, we were like, gosh, there's so much noise in health and wellness every time you open social media or a newspaper app, et cetera, et cetera. There's so many headlines, there's so many conflicting information.

how on earth are you meant to know what to do? And I feel like this headline, it's giving the conception of wellness scoop and why we do it. I have to say the article itself actually was very short and dare I say it, not very helpful. Sorry. But I thought it was a really good moment actually to talk about this, as I said, one of health and wellness's biggest, most persistent myths, thanks to the Atkins diet, do can diet, etc. I wonder how many clicks it got. I'm so interested because it is the headline that keeps giving that never goes away for years and years and years. So even though the piece didn't go into much detail, you know, we have to have a look at the fact that perhaps TikTok is also stemming this interest because it is a fairly new social

app compared to Instagram and wellness culture on there is just a complete different ballgame. So we've decided anyway to unpack this properly and give you all a clearer picture to finally discuss carbohydrates in detail. Exactly. It's a carbohydrate moment. Okay, so, Re, separate fat from fiction for us. Let's start. Let's make the super practical, kind of get the basics down. What are carbs?

When people think cut carbs, which obviously, as I said earlier, comes from kind of Atkins diet, Duke and Diet. The Duke and Diet went completely viral around the time of the Royal Wedding. Oh, yeah, because they thought Princess Kate was on it. That was the rumor. Exactly. And obviously, you know, she did obviously look amazing. And then you'd had the Atkins diet before that.

That was huge. And it had created this trend of basically removing carbs. But what do we mean by carbs, Ray? Well, we can start with the fact that they're the brain's preferred source of energy. So you get energy from food via three main macronutrients. You've got your protein, your carb, the hydrate, and your fat. But carbs are really important because they give us sugar in the form of glucose, you know. And that effectively fuels our muscles.

Like I said, it fuels our brain. and it's really important, but the problem is how quickly those sugars release into our bloodstream and dependent on how active we are. And the quantity and quality is what you need to think about with carbohydrates, sort of say. In the clinic, it's the two cues, it's the type and then how much of that type that you have for you. But it doesn't mean carbs are not bad. So let's just start by saying we do need them. And anyone that says never eat carbohydrate, I mean, there's carbohydrates in certain types of vegetable.

There's energy in so many different foods. We can't be demonising. And when people can't even hit their fibre day in this country, carbohydrates are actually most of the UK's main source of fibre, which if you took carbs out, I reckon 100% of them wouldn't be getting enough fibre, not the current stat that I'm writing for the fibre formula book of 96%. So you've got refined carbs Ella, the ones that we love, the pastries,

the crisps, ultra-processed foods that we discuss. us a lot on the podcast and white bread. It doesn't mean they're bad guys. White bread is something I would give to an athlete just before they're about to run because they need that fast releasing source of fuel. Or if one of my kids had an upset tummy, I would probably opt for white bread because I know that it's going to give them some energy when they're really weak and they need something that's not going to be difficult to break down in the body. And essentially, you've taken away the kind of roughage of a carb and you've left it just wide. It's gone through processing. And then we've got Ella and I's favorite things in a world, which is unrefined

whole carbs, sweet potatoes, oats. What are your favorite, Ella? Chickpeas, lentils, quinoa, barley, which I was raving about the other day. Rye, I love rye, I love rye bread. And obviously these have got, as you said, that outer layer, which means they have that extra fibre, vitamins, minerals, antioxidant. So they have these unrefined or these whole grain carbohydrates. Those have got the extra health benefits. So I always just think this idea that kind of carbs as a package is a kind of silly premise because you could be talking about a sweet potato as much as a croissant. And it's very difficult, we're not demonising croissons here, but they obviously aren't in the same health bracket as a sweet potato or a bowl of quino. They don't help your gut health either.

And so the idea that you can lump them all is this one thing that says, cut them out is just absurd. I think it shows how the problem that clickbait creates because what it does is it lacks the nuance to say like, hey, over here we have chickpeas and quinoa and sweet potatoes, mega health foods, super, super, super nutritious and good for you. And over here we have got croissons and pastries and muffins. And as you said, everything can have a time and a place, but those aren't health foods as such. Exactly. And what we know about gut health is that, you know, if you eat something it's good for your gut, like a whole grain carb, because your gut likes to break down the fiber and the roughage. It helps you stay regular. We have to remember guys of bowel movements.

If you want good digestion, you want minimal bloating and you want all these other things. So essentially, the carbohydrates, the right type feed our gut bacteria, but the refined type don't really do that job. The croissant's not going to give your gut bugs anything that it's going to want to get fizzy over within your digestion. And you've got to keep topping it up. Once you eat a refined carbohydrate, it doesn't just sit in your gut and stay there forever. It gets past three, which is why we need a constant flow of healthy food to help nourish our gut bacteria. And that in turn helps our immune system. It helps our weight maintenance.

It helps with our mental health. So carbs are so much more. Carbs make us happy Ella are the right type. This message that carbs should be a sad weight loss predicament is just so messed up. It is. And I think it's really important. just to look at where it came from. And essentially, looking back at it, it seems like calves became the enemy.

And as I said, we know that that lacks any of the nuance to talk about actual health. But as a click-bake premise, calves became the enemy sort of back in the 90s when low fat was really taking off. And food companies started removing fat from products and replacing it with sugar and things like that. And after that, we then moved into Atkins, keto, duke and diet. And that was the moment of low carb. and we always talk about how we kind of cycle between low carb, low fat, low carb, low fat, which is absurd essentially all of it because it all lacks nuance in terms of actual health. But it was the Atkins, the keto, the Dukin diets that really, really, really put this high protein low carb premise on the map.

And people, particularly again, in celebrity culture, were losing a lot of weight. And it reinforced this message that carbs equals bad, equals weight gain. And as we know, particularly in the 90s and noughties, weight and health became terrifyingly synonymous with one another. And so I think what happened was that we stopped thinking about the nuance of carbohydrates. And as you said, the fact they fuel our brain and give us energy. And we weren't looking at quality. We were just saying whole food group, see you later. And people became scared of potatoes.

Well, it's really hard as well when you've got the keto camps online. And you've got lots of people saying there's one size is a miracle and it cures things. It's very toxic online messaging surrounding this particular food group, and I really feel for it. But essentially, you know, if you actually break down the science, it does say most of them. There's lots of small study trials that say that, you know, low fat might be more effective than low carbohydrate short term. But if you look at the long run, they're both the same. And then there were some other studies that suggested that there was no difference between a low fat or a low carb diet. They both had the same outcomes.

So effectively, you've just got to be really wary of the side effects when you do embark on low carbohydrate diets. It will be effective short term. If you're suddenly taking out a whole food group, you're taking out water retention because to every carb molecule you attract like three or four molecules of water. So straight away, when you don't need as much water in your diet because you're just on a protein-only type diet, you will notice that you are less puffy. And people will notice these aesthetic results. So they're often used very fad diet-like, you know, in a very unsustainable, unhealthy way for quick results. And then you just put everything back on when you eat normally again. So to reiterate, health isn't one shape or size, it isn't one look.

People on the front of magazine covers probably have embarked upon restrictive diets to get to that point. And then they just eat again and then they're not in shape for another shoot. And that's how it works. And I think the sooner that we realize that the benefits of eating a balanced diet outweighs. the fad diets purely for weight loss, because it's not long term and it's not sustainable, the better. No, exactly. And I think that was what was really interesting.

And the more I was reading about this over the last week or so while I was doing research for this episode, the clearer it becomes. It's like there is no evidence to say that a low-carb diet will long-term, and we're obsessed with long-term over here, Ria and I, because long-term is what actual health is. There's just no evidence that a low-carb diet is a holy grail when it comes to weight loss.

Ironically, low carb is low fat as well in a way. So what's really interesting is that carbohydrates, the refined type, don't contain any fat really. It's saturated fat. Things are actually bad for your heart health. They're good for your heart health. It's roughage that protects you from cardiovascular disease. Whereas if you're just so focused on protein and fats, actually you can overdo both of those quite drastically as well. It's not just carbs.

Exactly that. So to answer the headline, is it true? cutting out carbs helps you lose weight. In the long run, not really, but it is about understanding what carbohydrates are as a whole, which is that whole grain carbohydrates are so important, become one of the 4% of people in the country who eat in our fibre for good gut health that we know is a cornerstone to total health. And whole grain should not be lumped in as a carb, a bad carb kind of premise, our oats, our brown rice, our quinoa, barley, all of that, full of fiber, full of B vitamins, key for energy, antioxidants, so important for

gut health, blood sugar balance, appetite regulation. So important, you know, protecting its heart disease, type two diabetes, like the whole health spectrum. So don't cut carbs. Just focus on whole grain carbs when you can because they are super, super, super, super good for you. I love that. And I think when people will look at this article, if you're on your own weight loss journey, if this is applying to you listening, you might be feeling vulnerable, you might have read this article at a particular point in thought, oh, this is going to help the rest of my journey. it's not sustainable. And in the Retrition Clinic, my clinicians and I have decades' worth of experience here.

Weight loss is never a straight linear line. I think it's helpful to point that out that anyone that is embarking on this journey, it will go down drastically at the start. It always nearly always plateaus for a while. And then something else changes and tweaks and it goes down again. Then it might go up, then it might go down. We are not robots as human beings. And I do feel the media sometimes treat human beings like robots when it comes to dietary headlines

and that it's just so oversimplified. Well, we don't live like robots either. I was just thinking that this idea that you can like write a plan on a page and follow it. And suddenly you're like so tired or so stressed or so overwhelmed or at a birthday party where there's, you know, espresso martini is flowing. What birthday party is that? I don't know. I want to be that.

That's like a good one. I don't think it's what's happening at Disneyland. You know what I mean? It's like life happens. And so this idea if you say of like all being robots, it's nonsense. Anyway, talking about nonsense, this is not nonsense. This is a great headline. I loved this.

It actually came from something I saw on my Instagram, so social media is not all bad. And then I went to look at it. And I thought, this is a nice prompt, actually. So long-term Finnish study finds unhealthy habits take a toll on health much earlier than expected. And there was a major long-term study that came out of Fidland. And it basically found that unhealthy habits, and here we were talking about smoking, drinking too much alcohol and not exercising. this actually wasn't focused on diet, unsurprisingly affects your health. But it doesn't just impact your health later in life. What they were showing actually is you start to feel the

effects of these things by your mid-30s, by 36. And I just thought that was a really interesting point because quite often we don't necessarily think when we're a little bit younger that these habits are going to be affecting us. But it was very, very clear to show that by the time you're 27, people who were smoking, drinking heavily, physically and active, they had significantly worse health already by 36. Do you know, I was being served this as well, like my algorithm, but it was targeted. For me, I had the number of 40. If you don't change your habits of seeing all these posts at 40 years old, that's when you're all predisposed to neurodegenerative diseases and all sorts of things. So I think it is really, really key to discuss the fact that,

you know, it was linked to people that smoke and drank heavily, it were physically, inactive at the age 27. And those kind of three unhealthy habits are noticeably poorer for mental and physical health compared to those who don't have any of those habits. And it makes perfect sense, doesn't it? Because like we said, if you eat a better diet, you're nourishing your brain. You will feel better. If you move more, we know you feel better, producing more capillaries. You get more oxygen throughout your body. That benefits your gut bugs as well. It benefits everything. And if you don't smoke, you're just looking after your lungs. So it really is the more unhabilis healthy behaviours that you have. So there's always a chance in our life no matter what age

to reduce that. And that's what I loved about this, because if you take the real positives here, what we're saying is actually like early mid-adulthood, amazing window to focus on prevention, on your health span or feeling good for decades to come. And that actually, I think again, if anyone's feeling a bit uninspired, a bit stagnant with the colder weather, the darker morning, It's like, no, this is your moment. What you do now can affect you for decades to come. Get on a walk. I'm full of my good vibes today.

Ries, she's laughing at me. You could know with the snap. I was like, yes. Let's go, guys. I just think there's always this difficult thing with health and wellness where we struggle with the kind of leap between I'm tired today. I'm frustrated with my boss or I'm having just a really sucky week at work. I can't really be bothered.

I'd rather eat a packet of popcorn and sit on the sofa. We all have that. Like, I don't mean it by judging it, but it's quite hard to link that to, how am I going to feel in my 60s? Say you're in your 30s now. And I think actually these sorts of pieces of research a good reminder is that like,

not that you should never sit on the sofa with popcorn and have a cozy night in, you should absolutely do that. But it's just that actually what you do now, it does matter for your future self. And actually we owe it to our future selves and maybe for our grandchildren in decades to come or whoever it is.

to make those little changes and find that motivation to go for a walk, to go to bed a bit earlier, to make a delicious veggie tray bake with crispy lentils that we love tonight. Because actually making these habit changes early in your life, even when you feel in great health, actually makes a humongous difference to who you are in the future. Talking of popcorn as well in my next book, and I don't know if you've probably done loads of popcorn recipes over the years, Ella, but the nutritional yeast, cheesy popcorn is so delicious. Yes. Like, oh my goodness, I'm obsessed. And popcorn, if you pop it yourself in the pan is a really good source of fibre. I was looking at all the plant points and the fibre counts. And actually, a night in, if you do want to do it with popcorn, just don't buy it. Make it. And you save loads of money. And it's quite fun. If any of you listening do have kids, they get to listen for all the pops in the pans. You just kind of like heat the pan, a little bit of coconut oil or whatever at the bottom, add your kernels in and just put the lid on and then just listen out for a. for pop

I really need to see that with my kids actually I don't like popcorn I don't get it I know sacrilegious over here I just always have thought it's like one of those foods that just like doesn't have that much going for it I am sorry in shock

I apologize to all popcorn lovers I'd much rather have a crisp crisp really satisfying and crunchy I find popcorn just like not crunchy enough or flavoursome enough I find it a bit I get it Bit bland. No, I can understand.

I guess if you'd said you didn't like chocolate, there would have been something else going on there. Oh, my God, I love chocolate. My niece hates chocolate. Like my sister lucked out. She just doesn't want chocolate. She just doesn't want anything like that. So she has to have different bags of things.

Anyway, I digress completely. So the take-home messages, guys, for this study. Try your own popcorn or avoid it like the plague. And healthy habits basically don't just cause long-term health risks. They can start lowering your quality. of life by your mid-30s so it's not too late guys don't look at that as doom and gloom just try and do what ella said with her snaps and be like let's just do something that we can actually actively do to feel better every day is it just reducing that glass of wine by 25 mil each time

or does something slightly smaller add another glass of water and instead in between just try move more it's just not too late that's the message today can I give a recommendation there is a brand I have just found I found it in our local farm shop and I Actually, I'm obsessed with it called Mother. And it's this kind of, I was about to call it a cordial and it's not a cordial. But it's a ginger mix that has ginger, honey, a bit of cider vinegar. It's quite spicy. That with ice and sparkling water is so delicious.

Anyway, it's called Mother. It's a ginger drink. But just for a kind of Tuesday night, I want something that's not water. It's absolutely lovely. Because I think finding non-alcoholic alternatives for a kind of mid-week. week, just a nice evening. It's sometimes a little bit difficult because they're often very, very sweet, but this is not sweet. It's kind of fiery and a bit tangy and with lots of sparkling water. It's absolutely delicious. Do you know, it reminds me of every Christmas, my dad and me,

my dad and I, I should say, have ginger wine. And it reminds me it must be like ginger wine. It's this really strong, brood substance, but much better for you. So I'm going to give it a go, Ella. It's so good. I've just found there well. website, mother root, like mother, like a mother, mother.com. And it's called mother root. And it's non-alcoholic, ginger firing fresh, the feel good aperitif. This is not an ad. I bought it at the farm shop and I've become addicted. Yeah, no, I love that. That's what this podcast's all about. We just want to be honest and share things as well that we like. My elder's son, my five-year-old is obsessed with ginger shots. He will down the whole thing. Doesn't matter how far it is. I know.

Oh my God. I've been making ginger turmeric, turmeric, lemon shots on repeat. And I feel really good about myself in the morning when I do that. Yeah, really, really, really good. This is a paid advertisement for better help. As the days get shorter and darker, it's easy to fill a little flat. We all get this. And this time of year can be tough for so many of us, routines changing, energy dips, and sometimes we even forget to check in on each other. Exactly. I have really noticed that lately. Even a quick text or a coffee with a friend can just lift your whole day. And it's such a good reminder that, reaching out doesn't just help them, but it helps you too. That's exactly what Better Help is

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people every day. And if you're ready to find the right therapist for you, our listeners get 10% of their first month at betterhelp.com slash wellness scoop. That's better h-e-l-p.com slash wellness scoop. So we're going to move on to our next headline, which is extremely different and a bit daunting because body positivity still seems to be a bit of a fashion pipe dream with 97% of catwalk models are size 4 to 8 although I will say Ella after we wrote this brief I saw some clips from the Victoria's Secrets fashion show with Ashley Graham and there was a pregnant lady walking it and that was so amazing the first model out at the Victoria Fit Secret fashion show this year was nine months pregnant which is really cool I totally agree I saw that and I loved

that so maybe maybe this headline will start swaying now Victoria's secrets have made a move I mean, I did see some other accounts say it's not enough. There's still not any plus plus sizes in there. And, you know, I don't think anyone's ever going to be entirely happy because everyone's unique in a different size and shape. So you could never cater for everyone on a catwalk. But I thought, what a step forward. I've never seen that before.

I totally agree. I was served quite a lot of Victoria Secret fashion show content as well. And it did feel like there was more diversity. Certainly than I had seen, not that I'm like an avid Victoria Secret fan. surprise surprise but it felt inherently I agree like a good step forward this headline was a few days before that so maybe they'll change it but yes that was from the times body positivity is still a fashion pipe dream catwalk still don't reflect real bodies and basically it was just a new report that had come out and it was showing despite years and it does feel like years now of body positivity

demessaging, campaigns for inclusivity, the fashion industry is just overwhelmingly so different. And I think that matters, not because most of us or most consumers or people listening are kind of deeply embedded in the world of sort of catwalks and hype fashion, but actually because it's what we're then being advertised all the time, we know how much that affects us. And researchers analysed over 9,000 different looks or outfits across 219 major runway shows and found that, as we said, 97% of models in these clothes were between a UK 4 and 8. And only 16 models across all of those shows were above a UK size 14. So that's sub 0.2%.

And I think it's just interesting in terms of actually our collective mental health going backwards, people really struggling with the pressure on their appearance. And again, just not the struggle, yeah, between what we see and how we feel in ourselves. Yeah, it's the stigma, isn't it? it's um weight stigma massive biases it's a really hard i don't know why it's really hard to do it should be a really easy thing for people to do by the way guys this isn't about us criticizing slim bodies at all this is not that some people will naturally be those sizes and that's okay but for so long it's only been about those sizes on a runway and it's so hard because even i find and i live in a slim body

that when I go to the shops and maybe I try on, if I ever get that time to do that, but I'll try on something. It looks so different to me than it does on that mannequin that has no hips and it's just, you know,

and that's not to say anyone that is in those smaller sizes isn't fantastic because they always look incredible. It's just it would be nice to know what it would look like on different sizes, how the material moves,

how it clings, where it falls. Does that make sense? Yeah, and I think the big thing for me when I saw this, headline and why I was keen to talk about it is that I think obviously just a few weeks ago we were talking about that new piece of research that had landed in our inboxes showing that two and five people in the UK now felt more pressure to lose weight than they did a couple of years ago. And I think it's just again, you know, we're very interested in the macro, like what

just the overall landscape look like. And I think the collective impact of weight loss injections and kind of celebrity culture bodies shrinking, what you're seeing from a fact, and what you're seeing from a fashion perspective still just being teeny, teeny tiny. The collective impact of it just feels, as I said, like more and more people are feeling pressure to shrink. And then you get headlines like, you know, sure you cut all carbs. And I'm not saying one directly links to the other,

but there is that overall, you know, people start to look for it. And as a result, you ultimately, you know, weight and health obviously do correlate a point. And obviously there is an intersection between the two. but that's not always the case it really really isn't and I worry so much that people then you say I've got to cut all carbs out and as we said then you're losing your sweet potatoes and your fibre and your oats and all these like deeply beneficial things for a chasing of perfectionism it just doesn't exist and so when I see headlines like this I just I just kind of worry about

I guess as a mum as well of two young girls I am really conscious of that and I'm conscious of teenagers and you know how is that going to make everyone feel I know I think the current climate just isn't helping because the survey also included over 2,000 people that said that nearly a third of those believe that these body trends are changing is making everything worse because there's been a huge shift in GLP1 medications and we have to remember how that makes people feel like we discussed before and we had our episode with Dr Jack Molesley that discussed GLPs and the impact on people that are already in that BMI range that they're not designed for a healthy BMI. taking these medications. It's almost a diet culture and celebrity standards are just plastered everywhere. What makes me really sad about it is I feel it all started when my favourite film, Wicked, came out even more so, you know, the headlines that were coming up around that time. I'm really looking forward to seeing the next film for good, but whenever I see it now, it's got a slight taint for me, and I'm the biggest musical theatre fan in the world, but I just

see the issue at hand. And I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels that way, that beauty standards feel like they have to just still be shrinking all the time. Mental health is really difficult right now for anybody to navigate. And just to say as well, this affects boys, not just girls. You know, even I as a boy mom will worry about this with mine growing up, how they're meant to appear a certain aesthetic to be seen or taken seriously. I think it's, now is being bombarded. Rhee, as you said a second ago, you know, mental health is not easy right now. Obviously, anyone in the Northern Hemisphere, and I know most of our listeners, that's the case. We're going into darker, colder, it's harder just in general to have motivation. There are so

many difficult political conversations, disruptions, conflicts going on all over the world. there is obviously huge economic challenges going on inflation the whole thing it feels incredibly difficult and actually like this is such a lovely space and you and I both feel so lucky to get to be here each week and I'm not being funny but we were doing an ad read before this for better help which is about therapists they were saying in it like we do just need to reach out to each other and I just wanted to kind of take a minute to be like you know what the world is pretty tough and it's that time of year that people just start to feel really lonely So if we're going to turn around that, because I'm in my like,

blah, boom day, if we're going to turn that last headline into something, like actually we just need to be more open, more honest with each other, kind of bring down those walls and reach out to each other. So check everyone you know is feeling okay. Yeah, I think that's a really nice thing to do. And it does really help. I will probably talk about it at some point, but I had a really tough week and I told Ella about it and I produced a well at the beginning of the week.

And it just helps because if you keep things bottled in to yourself, and then you have to show up for other people for work, whatever it may be in life. It just makes it so much harder and you're adding an extra layer. So maybe our little take home today will be, let's just try and talk more to each other. It does move us on again to mental health because what's trending in wellness, Ella, at the moment, is facelifts. This came from the BBC, a facelift at 28, why young people are turning to plastic surgery. And we thought it was very relevant with our third headline, the one we just talked about. This was also covered, for example, last week in The Guardian, who were talking about

a rise in facelifts were driven by social media and weight loss drugs. And it is just absolutely fascinating. We've talked a lot about the pressure of people feeling around their appearance, around weight at the moment. And we are starting to see people get facelifts in their 20s, which is just absolutely wild. And I don't say any of this to judge anyone. but just more than like, God, we must be feeling the effects of appearance and pressure and the way that we look, because that would have been unheard of not that long ago. It's so stunning to me. It really is because it's something that, to be honest, for me, it's terrifying.

I cannot imagine anything more terrifying happening to my face. It just, it's such a big procedure. It should not be normalized it, in my opinion, because it's a big deal. But you normally associate it with people in their 50s or their 60s. But now with these mini lifts and there's things, I'm reading it here, says there are deep plane lifts, ponytail lifts. And they're all being promoted to people in their 20s and 30s on TikTok and Instagram. And the BBC article shared the story of Emily, who at 28, flew to Turkey, bless her, and had six surgeries in one go. She had a mid-face lift, a lip lift, a rhinoplasty.

Is that the nose one? That's nose. All in the name of getting a sculpted and snatched look. And I remember, because I always referred to Live Outward because she does these documentaries. But when I went on her podcast a while ago, and we chatted about gut health and fibre, she just brought this up the fact that younger people

are doing more and more cosmetic surgery. And I didn't quite, I did believe her, but I hadn't seen it. And now I feel it's in such plain sight everywhere. It's become a normal. There's been an 8% rise in face. just in the UK in the last year. And it's not broken down exactly by age,

but there's so many surgeons saying their patients are just getting younger and younger. You're seeing the same, like in the US, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons is saying they see the exact same pattern. Gen X, millennial clients, looking for surgical options. And there was a really, really impactful quote

in the BBC piece from Dr. Kirstie Garbert, who's a body image researcher at the center of appearances research. And she said, I think there's an unprecedented pressure, especially when it comes to the face. We see ourselves on video calls, social media platforms, and we compare ourselves to others so easily. AI filters, it all plays a part in creating a fake online world. And at the same time, we're seeing a rise in the normalization of cosmetic procedures.

They're not risk-free. And I think the biggest thing we have to say here is, I agree with that. We've never had to look at ourselves more, which is awful. I love a day, like the day Ella and I are recording. Today is a day where I put no makeup on my face. I'm just chilling in my glasses, hair. I haven't even brushed my hair. Sometimes we all just need days where,

and to know what, I go out on the street and I feel so blessed I'm able to feel like this. And I couldn't care less. But I can imagine if you're feeling very vulnerable, all you can think in your head is everyone's looking at me. And it's because we are surrounded in this world where everybody's starting to look more and more perfect. But these are invasive surgeries, guys.

These are cutting beneath muscle and fascia and under sedation or anesthesia. We cannot take away the fact that you can get nerve damage, infections, hematomas, even tissue death. And I do believe there was that case where someone died from a botched job in Turkey. I don't remember when that was. Yeah, I then got quite deep into this over the last few days because, yeah, I just worry so much about the pressure out there, essentially. And there was a piece in psychology today on the rise of cosmetic surgery. the social media era. And this was looking at it from Canadian perspective. But they were saying this is in Canada in 2023 alone. Canadians underwent 35 million aesthetic procedures, which is a 40%

increase in just four years. And there's a lot of research that shows a very, very strong link between social media and the rising cosmetic procedures because we're just consistently exposed to idealized bodies, edited photos, and that obviously drives unfavorable social comparisons. which puts that pressure on. There was a systematic review in 2024 looking at 25 different studies with about 14,000 participants and it found that social media

significantly influences decisions to undergo procedures. And again, you see a real spike in cosmetic surgery searches post 2012, which is obviously when Instagram really came into being. And then you saw it again with COVID because that was the time

that we started working at home and again we were like seeing our images all the time and so post kind of 2020 or so there's been this surge in interest because we just see our faces too much. By the way, I'm not against surgery if that's what you need to do for you. I just want to put that out there but I don't think people know the risks

and I do think a lot of it is mental health and I do think a lot of it is the standards and expectations and I guess if I did have endless accounts of money and it was never an issue, Maybe one day I probably would think about things differently. I don't know. Would I? I don't know how I'm going to feel in 10, 20 years time.

But the fact is that this is an age group where it shouldn't really be a concern in your 20s. And that's what really worries me is that this kind of glow, this, you know, when you look on TikTok, they put this automatic, sorry, my cat's tail just hit the microphone. She's just jumped onto my lap. And I'm trying to have a very serious conversation and the tail's going whack, whack. But when you look at AI-enhanced kind of selfies and filters, it looks fake. You know, when you look at it, everyone looks the same. It smooths out the nose and things like that. And it does kind of autocorrect.

I mean, what is it auto-correcting? That's what's so sad that we kind of feel like we all need to be auto-corrected. Anyway, I think it's just suffice to say between this trend and that last headline is that we just need to be so much gentler on us. ourselves and the pressure that we put on ourselves and completely ditch this idea of trying to pursue perfect because it doesn't exist. I mean, how do you feel about it, Ella? Because I still think you're brave doing.

I would rather do a Botox needle over a micro, you know, the thing you tried with all the different things, because the idea of hundreds of little teeny ones just freaks me out. I know, but Botox freaks me out because it's like, what are you putting in your body? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whereas microneedling doesn't help, but I do a very gentle one. It's not deep. So it's gone. There's no kind of downtime. You're just tomato for like six hours and then you're all good.

I've seen so many people do it recently. Who else did I see? Was it Frankie Bridge? Someone else did it the other day as well. I think it's becoming really popular, which is nice. If you're seeing alternative treatments, that's nice as well. Yeah, I think there is a rise in people wanting a kind of gentler approach, which is interesting equally. Anyway, curious to hear how all our listeners feel and like how much pressure.

Do you feel when it comes to body image, your face, kind of just total appearance and like do we start to feel like everyone else is perfect and we're failing as a result like today we are both in sweatshirts I'm going to be honest I haven't washed my face today sorry it's probably quite gross it's really up in the afternoon no did I when I woke up this look Ella and I both had a day where we were on camera yesterday and it was such a long day for me as well and I just felt like today is just a day where I am being I'm just saying no to it all it's lovely it's lovely no to it all okay I'll find trend today is a circle back, the worst phrase of all time, to supermarket fear and the circling

back is to rapeseed oil. The supermarket fear is not going anywhere, is it? Ella, I think now it's become a thing where we've lost the reason why people started. I remember a few years ago I'd go in a supermarket and try and help people, you know, to pick not Greek style, but Greek yogurt if they're opting for their yoghers, you know, to kind of go through. Yeah, how to navigate the aisles, which is what we always talk about, isn't it? It's like, it's really hard. to know with marketing claims versus reality. I used to take footballers wives to Whole Foods and go down the supermarket hours with them. It's a service I used to provide. I used to do this for clients. I would go around

the supermarket over a decade ago and show them what to and what not buy. It is actually really helpful. Think about breakfast. You know, it's like, right, this has actually got really great ingredients. This will give you energy. This doesn't. However, it has been picked up by marketers, people with zero qualification, zero understanding of subjects of privilege and nuance. and mental health and that nutrition is so multi-faceted in, yeah, so many different ways. And it has become who can get the most traction, who can get the biggest clicks, who can say the scariest thing. The other day, there was, I don't like doing response videos with other people.

I've never enjoyed that type of thing. But there was one in particular that my team were like, Ria, I think you have to say something on this. It was kind of like a teenage girl dancing around in a tutu down the supermarket. market saying baby formula is the same as eating a bag of sweets. And it had gone viral. And I was just thinking, this is, we've lost the plot. We've just completely and utterly lost it. And these marketers people are looking at them like they're sent from above. It's just what we're saying earlier when you're talking about carbohydrates. Like in food and in health in general, like there's so much nuance that you've got to find and it's very difficult to get that message across. But it's like

formula is life-saving for so many people and making anyone feel guilty about using it is inherently a terrible thing it's not the same as eating sweets eating sweets is a choice the thing that i have the issue with is why they're demonising certain products so i don't like that um some people will say it's because of the rapeseed oil they've just got it factually and scientifically incorrect or you know don't touch this one because it's got an added vitamin or mineral or it's actually that can be really helpful for some people. And I just don't think there's a need. Why can't they just show people positive things and get a nutritionist or dietitian to talk them through it rather than, because a lot of the time, the people that do these videos are selling something on the

side. They're selling their own supplement range or they're selling their own products by trying to put other products down. It's a type of marketing tactic that I strongly dislike. But I know, Ella, from your point of view, I know you guys don't do this. It's extremely powerful and effective, right? Oh my gosh, it's so effective. Like, what are you going to click on a video of someone peeling a carer or saying these are the three foods that will kill you? Obviously, you're going to kick on the video that says these are the three things that are going to kill you. Here's a helpful nuance video about a way to upgrade gently your breakfast in the morning by choosing this yoga because it's packed with healthy fats. That's not very engaging versus

this food on your breakfast table is slowly killing you in your whole family How dare you Marks and Spencer or Sainsbury's or anyone put this on your aisle This is what it's turning into But then obviously everyone comments and shouts at each other And it drives it further Whereas no one comments and shouts at each other

As you like show how to make a lentil crispy or like This is why we will never be Clickbait viral people online I cannot think of anything worse No and I think look it's worth You know I'm sure lots of people listening work in marketing and know this or, you know, there's definitely people who will. But if you don't work anywhere near this world or kind of near social media, I think it is

worth saying. I think a lot of people have made quite a choice over the last year of whether or not to engage on this or whether or not to forego the exposure, the views, the connection from your audience because the only way to have huge viewership now on social media is to be extreme. And it's really, really simple. And it is a kind of, it's basically just a fact. And you'll see it time and time again. If you're not extreme, you will not have huge engagement. People simply will not see the content anymore. And I think a lot of people and you and I sit in that camp have made the decision that it's very much like against who we are and our ethos and the ethos of anything that we've created when it comes to our work to operate like that. But as a result, you have to take the

consequence, which is that no one comparatively is going to see the delicious salad video because it doesn't do that clickbait. And I'm not going to cook in my bra and I'm not going to tell you the things that will kill you today. And I'm not going to tell you this is what I eat in a day. If it's actually not what I really eat in a day and cook clothes are perfectly curated gourmet meals, I clearly don't eat. I agree with you Ella. And to know what? This is why I love the wellness scoop even more. And I feel like the community we have here, I think just what's so special about the Wellness Group community is that we love discussing things from all sides, the nuance. Like when we discussed Joe's campaign, it was so refreshing to be able to discuss

what many people might be thinking about this right now and for you all to share with us what you agree with and what you don't. And I always meet people that love these particularly huge supermarket accounts that are doing this. But some of them, Ella, you know, a lemon and an orange is going to kill you or rapeseed oil is toxic. To me, That's just too far. I totally agree. And I also just want to caveat when I said I don't want to cooking my bra. I'm not trying to be derogatory to anyone.

But I think it is the sense, as I said, that to create clickbait, you now have to do something which really gets eyeballs. And you will start to notice tips and tricks like that do get eyeballs. Of course they do. Of course they do. Like if you're wearing like, yeah, your workout gear or your leggings or something. But this feeds into the body image ideal issue we had earlier on. And if we go back and discuss if all people are seeing, because all that goes viral is either this is going to kill you or I look great and I eat this and there's no nuance.

What are the younger generations consuming? Well, what are we all consuming? Anyway, rapeseed oil. Rap seed oil. Oh, no. Let's talk about consuming that because this was coming up a lot in your videos and it was stressing you out and it needed to come back to the show. Did it?

I mean, yes, it does need to come back to the show. It's just every time I talk about it, I know the wellness community is different, but you do get a lot of severely uneducated, strong opinions on rapeseed oil. So rapesid oil is often grouped with other seed oils. And in claims online, people say they're inflammatory. I just want to point out that there's no scientific research that says rapidol is inflammatory. If anything, it's anti-inflammatory and it acts in a very similar way to olive oil. That's in the UK.

So we're looking at coal press, rape, seed oil and things like that. And the concerns usually stem from the fact that seed oils sometimes, especially in the States, are extracted, refined, used heats and solvent processes, lots of chemical or industrial ways of creating it. But over here, of course, our production is tightly regulated. And the misinformation on the health claim, Ella, is really Amiga-6. You know, the ratio. Scientists for a long time have debated how much Amiga-3 we should get in our diets versus how much Amiga-3. versus how much omega-6. And people suggest that if you have too much omega-6, you raise inflammation.

However, what we know is that moderate omega-6 intake isn't harmful. And I think this is also stemmed from the UPF conversation because so many ultra-processed foods just happen to contain rapeseed oil because it's more affordable to use than olive oil. And it's grouped in a diet that's high in salt, sugar, fat, emulsifiers, additives and then you're also chucking rapes that or so it's got a bad rep if that makes sense it makes so much sense olive oil as everyone knows is extortionately expensive and so it's just not plausible on scale and the way that we eat now is on scale and so for things to be in supermarkets

it's just not plausible basically it is liquid gold you know people say with olive oil it actually is liquid gold in terms of its expense and the qualities behind it but decades ago industrial rapes contained high levels of arousic acid, which could be harmful and large amounts. But today, in culinary rapeseed, also known as canola in the States, it's bred to contain negligible amounts of arousic acid. And it is safe for human consumption. So I think it really is a movement that has distanced from UPF seller and is based on like an outdated story a little bit.

It is. So let that be your positive thing. One less thing to worry about. And we're going to get somebody who can explain it far more eloquently than us. who I learned from when I was studying Dr Sarah Berry. She educated me on the subject of fats and she is the guru and she leads all the research and we will get her on for all the questions you have about rapesey dog.

Yeah, she's going to do one of our expert Q&As coming up. And menopause, guys, you should add some questions because she's just released her menno scale and she's been researching this for years and years and there's 80 different symptoms and more of it she's discovered related to menopause. So we would have, oh my goodness, so many amazing questions. We need to wrap up the episode.

I'm getting excited again. I know, me too. And we could go on forever and ever and ever. Anyway, I've got to go because I've got to get to Disneyland. It really's got to go to Halloween party. Guys, have such a great day. Thank you for listening. I really want to know what you feel on pressure on body image

because I'm curious how much everyone feels it. So let us know, comments, questions, queries. We always want them. We love this community. Have a great day, guys. And we'll be back in your ears on Thursday. Yay. Bye.

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