The Wellness Scoop - Best Time to Exercise, Lab Grown Meat & Microplastics

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

This week on The Wellness Scoop we’re diving into some of your most requested topics. First up, is there really a best time of day to exercise, and does it matter if you train before breakfast. Then we explore lab grown meat, what it is, how it’s made, and whether it could help cut emissions and reduce animal agriculture. Finally, we unpack the latest on microplastics and whether fibre might be one of our strongest natural defences. We’re also answering your brilliant listener questions on stress and simple ways to protect your mental health during busy seasons, nutrition after menopause, and whether fasted morning workouts affect hormones if you eat soon after. This week’s recommendations:- CurrentBody LED mask ⁠ChatGPT Brain Rot Debate on the Diary of a CEO with Stephen Bartlett⁠ Caff's book: The 30 Plan US listeners, grab your copy of Rhi's book - ⁠The Unprocessed Plate Keep your questions coming to [e-mail] or via Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and please leave your name so we can say hello. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Wellness Scoop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. And we are your hosts. I'm Ella Mills. And I'm Rihanna Lambert. And today we are diving into some juicy topics as chosen by you. So each week on Thursdays, we are going to be choosing all your questions and going through them so we can give you the 101 on all things health and wellness. and then Mondays, that's when we'll focus on the headlines, the trends, what on earth is going on in the world of health and wellness? And, Rie, what recommendations have you got for us this week? Anything good, Ed?

I do. I actually have good ones. The first one is thanks to you, because do you remember we were discussing our red masks, our red light masks? LED red light masks. Yes, those are the ones. And my one didn't go all the way around my face. And I was really happy with it, but then Ella said she had one that kind of goes,

I saw it on your stories. I went under the chin, right? Oh yeah. It's like weird looking. I mean, it's the current body LED mask and it completely covers your face and your chin. And whenever I have it on, my husband looks over to me being like, this is so weird. What is going on? Do you know what? I'm joining the game. So I've ordered it. I'm waiting for it to arrive. And that's going to be my new. I'm not doing the Kim Kardashian 50 quid tight in my face. So I'm going to invest in this instead. That's recommendation number one. We'll let you know how I get on. And do you know what on that? We've covered it a few times on the main podcast, but if you guys want a vote on LED masks, et cetera, pop any questions, comments in the

show, sorry, in the comments on Spotify or Apple or send us a message because we went through this actually with an amazing dermatologist in terms of. Dr. Fithy. Exactly. What actually supports healthy aging and fine lines and glowing skin, something that I think we're probably all in pursuit of, well, most of us. And LED masks actually have really, really, really amazing research behind them. So they are an investment, but they are actually an evidence-based one, which I think is something that's very important to us both. Honestly, I wouldn't buy into it if there wasn't any evidence behind it. So I'm really excited about that. The second recommendation is very odd for me, I will say, to recommend this. I've had my thoughts on the Diary of a CEO podcast

since it's released. But I have to say this discussion was one that pulled me in and they were discussing chat GPT. I always say it wrong. I used to call it chat GBT. You know, when you first, in fact, Ella, backstory guys, Ella first introduced me to chat GPT when we were on the photo shoot for the podcast last year.

Oh my gosh, was that the first time? Yeah, that's the first time I'd heard of it. You were like, re, you really need to check out this chat, chat GPT. do and I was like oh what is this basically the experts you had two different scientific experts neurologists I believe don't quote me on that exactly I'm only halfway through but it's really instilled how grateful I am to have written my six books without it first of all to use my brain in a way but we are becoming so dependent on it very very quickly and they were saying there's ways of using it which mean you don't lose those areas in your brain

that are responsible for the hard work and the thought process that we put into everyday actions. The way you speak to it, should you say thank you after you've typed something? What type of prompts are you giving? So there's a way of basically abusing it and using it. I think you'd love it, Ella. It sounds amazing. I've just looked it up. The episode is called chat GPT brain rot debate. The fastest way to get dementia. Watch this before using chat GPT again. And I think what it's about is MIT had just announced that AI is rotting your brain and he had two world leading experts kind of break down the study and look at how AI and chat TPT, which is obviously the most kind of commonly used AI, I think for most people can silently shrink

your brain, kill creativity and wreck your memory. Naturally, I had to tune in. Yeah. So there was a psychiatrist on there and someone who's a pioneer in the field of computational. Sorry, I didn't know that word, neuroscience. So that sounds absolutely fascinating. I am going to watch that and we'll put that in. Thank you for that rack. I need some dog walking recommendations. You do. And my final one, my final wreck is that my book's out in America, this mom. Oh, congratulations. Thank you. So anyone in America that you've messaged me saying, I can't order it. It is because it wasn't there. And now it's going to be there. September 23rd, the unprocessed plate. Oh, I'm thrilled for you. That's such a big thing. Well done. Ella, give me your

Rex, you gave us some books on Monday's episode, so now we need your recommendation. I know I gave you three books on Monday's episode, which I feel like was really stealing from my recommendation pot of having good stuff each week to share with you guys. You know what? I'm going to give you a really niche recommendation this week, which I like to do from time to time. And that is pearl barley. It's one of those grains that I feel we don't really talk about, doesn't get much love.

Rice is, you know, obviously kind of the most commonly used grain and then pasta and and maybe it's like quinoa or something like that. Oats, obviously, for porridge. But parol barley is so delicious. It has a kind of nuttier flavor. It has a sort of slightly chunkier, chewier texture than quinoa. Kinawa is super nutritious, but I don't think it's that delicious. It's great as a base of a kind of bowl of roasted veggies veggies and with loads of dips and

like delicious dressings and stuff like that. But it needs, I think, quinoa needs quite a lot to make it sing and really pop, whereas barley is actually so delicious. Anyway, I made it last night with loads of roastings. roast carrots, which are roasted with maple and chili, and then pan-fried pine nuts, sage, chili, loads and loads of coriander, cooked the barley with a little bit of miso, and just made this really delicious salad, some roasted chickpeas on the top. But it's just a really nice chunky base. And obviously, we always talk about 30 plants a week, needing that diversity for your

gut. So my recommendation is swap out your rice or your kind of go-to grains for some barley this week and you can batch cook it as well. It does take like 40 minutes to cook, which is its only downside. But you don't have to do anything while it cooks. You need to just be in the room. Yeah, to top up the water. Exactly. So do really recommend doing a batch of that if you want to get that diversity in and switch up your grains. Or do some pearl barley? I love Paul barley. I think I had a recipe in the book. I love it. It's kind of like thicker and rounder and larger than a grain of rice. Very chewy. It looks a bit like giant cuscus in a way. Like it's that kind of chunkier. Chuck it in soups, guys. Just put it in your soup. Oh my gosh. I'm like a kind of,

I mean, I probably shouldn't call it minestroney because I'll be Italians rolling their eyes at me. But like, I mean, let's call it minestronee inspired. Is anything we do here really Italian? We serve a pizza. Is it Italian? We don't do you justice. Put pineapple on it. Yeah. I love it though. I love a pineapple piece. Do you? Yes. I'm one of those. I'm a oh, what do you call it a sinner? I even tried a mango on a pizza. It was so good. I know you want Ella's face. That is revolting. But I was obsessed to dry mango in my pregnancy.

I would go for like bags of it. So to have it on a pizza, I was like, oh. I'm unconvinced, guys. Ella, let's move on. Let's move on to our listener questions. First of all, you have to tell us if you think that's gross or not. Okay, listener questions. As always, just a reminder, I'm happy for anyone to email them to me, Ella at

deliciousiella.com. Pop them on the Spotify, Apple, podcast comments. please leave your name if you can because it's just really nice to know about you guys you can put them in our direct messages but it's probably the number one place they might get lost so those are the easiest ways okay so our first question is from laura my mom and i came to a wonderful live podcast event in the summer and we were really fascinated by what you shared about fiber potentially helping to flash out accumulated microplastics i'd love to know is there any guidance on how much fiber we'd need daily for this to have a meaningful impact and are certain types of fiber

more effective than others when it comes to supporting detox pathways in this way. What a great question. Amazing question. And something just to let you know, Laura, that I'm writing a lot on that I cannot wait to share more of you soon. But emerging research does suggest that dietary fibre does play a protective role in reducing. So basically how the plastics are absorbed and how long they sit in our body. And microplastics are teeny, teeny tiny.

And sadly, you know, we get a lot of them in our diet, even. paper coffee cups in a barista will have a thin layer of plastic inside it. And when we put boiling liquid in, we're obviously going to be leaching those. And, you know, I do it sometimes. I get a hot match a latte or something or a cappuccino on the go. And it's just in an everyday life now. So essentially, to cut to the chase, fiber increases store bulk, which is what we need, which binds to toxins and particles in the gut. That's a huge part of excreting what we don't want in our body. And it does accelerate the transit time, so how fast things go through our intestines, which may help trap and facilitate those micropastics before they get through

the intestinal barrier. So remember, where we absorb our vitamins and minerals is through that small intestine lining. And there's lots of different pathways that happen here. So although research in this area still developing, Ella, we've got these findings that I've been writing about that high fiber diets do reduce microplastic induced gut inflammation and promote their clearance. It's just really, really important that we get enough of it in. What a reason to make pearl barley this week. Yes. Do you know, I think I might go and do it.

It is extraordinary, isn't it? And I think this idea that actually having enough fiber that actually these particles can be taken out of your system before they can be absorbed is absolutely fascinating. and, you know, I think it's really funny with the way that we eat because you're tired, it's been a long day and, you know, you kind of think, oh, does it really matter what I have for dinner? And these are sort of invisible things happening in our body that remind us, like, it kind of does and, you know, make that broccoli and par barley. But when we're looking at the best sources of food to consume for the different types of fibre,

will you just run us through kind of insoluble versus soluble fiber? Because I think it's really helpful. Obviously, we need both, but it's quite helpful to have a sense of what's going on for both. Yeah, 100%. Because you do need both of those types of fibers to help promote, you know, the greatest protection. So the soluble fiber binds and traps and insoluble makes sure you clear. But basically, insoluble, think of oats when you add them to a glass of water. They'll disintegrate.

That means they're soluble. But if you put some broccoli in a glass of water, it's not going to break down. It's just going to sit there for a while because it's going to be. got more insoluble fiber. And those are foods such as, you know, whole wheat, brown, nuts, seeds, you know, vegetables. It basically adds bulk to stools and accelerates the transit times and pushes things through. And it's like a sweeping action of insoluble fiber. Just imagine it's pushing everything through our gut, carrying out all those microplastics, things we don't want. It's all wishing through. Whereas on the other hand, the soluble one,

like the oats that dissolve in the glass of water, and some sorts of legumes and flax seeds, all that sort of thing, form a gel. And you'll have heard of this with Facilium Husk, you know, the supplement we discussed before. So this gel-like structure traps small particles, including microplastics. It binds bile acids and toxins, and it slows down the absorption and improves our blood sugar control, basically, and helps with cholesterol, which is why there's that claim that oats, because they contain beta-glucin, are good for people with higher cholesterol levels. So essentially, you want both of those to slow. sweep everything through and one to bulk it up to bind and trap everything. And that's how we make poo. Just to put it out there, that's how it happens. I think it's really helpful.

It is. And I think the other thing I'd says, for your 30 grams of fibre a day, it's actually not as difficult as it sounds. I was just looking, there's lots of examples out there online. This is one that was on the telegraph. What does 30 grams of fiber look like? And for breakfast it could be two thick slices of whole meal toast with a banana and a small glass of fruit smoothie lunch baked potato with 200 grams of baked beans

in tomato sauce and then an apple a small handful of nuts for a snack and a mixed veggie curry with some rice for dinner so nothing kind of wild going on there like pretty basic fruit, veg, baked potatoes baked beans you know very

simple bananas apples so it's totally plausible to get 30 grams fiber a day. And keep for the best gut clearance, foods with skins on. I cannot emphasize enough, even when you opt for oats going for the unkind of ground down. Don't go for the ready bread, go for the whole rolled oats. You know, there's this difference in the type of foods. Obviously, all of these options are good. So rather you have it than not have it, but if you really are looking at supporting your bowel movements, try and eat the apple with the skin on, for instance. And one piece of advice for busy people with the oats example is that,

as you said, porridge oats not quite as beneficial as the whole rolled kind of jumbo oats, but those obviously take a lot longer to cook. If you're going to make porridge, those you need to cook for a solid 20 minutes plus, whereas porridge oats are ready as soon as they're hot, basically, you know, two to three minutes. So what I do with the jumbo oats is soak them overnight. You can just leave them in some milk, whatever milk you're going to cook your porridge with overnight and like you're making overnight oats. And then when it comes to the morning they will have softened so that actually you just need to cook them for a few minutes again like five minutes will suffice and then it's much more like cooking porridge oats in the morning

because obviously you have to be a little bit organised to do that and know you want porridge in the morning but it will keep it's not like you have to eat them that morning they'll be fine it's a great tip what a hack everybody I love a good hack you and soak your oats over night yeah definitely and then maybe just sprinkle a few just a tiny amount that are fresh out the packet just to get that extra fibre in on top and you're like winning yeah everyone one's a winner but yeah soak the big oats and then you won't need the porridge oats i love that question two ella from amy okay amy says i'm going through some big things myself are you able to share what you do to support your mental and physical health in times of stress what helps you find these moments of

calm what amy sending so much love to you thank you for sharing that i'm sure there's a lot of people who will relate to what you're saying re what are your kind of big focuses when it comes to feeling grounded and trying to find calm in amongst all the chaos. I'm still on this journey very much because I have breathing pattern disorder and I've had it for a while. I've known about it for the last year since it got diagnosed. So I'm very much still on my pathway but my big thing now is going to be to try and read more at bedtime, I think and to keep carving out a bit of time for me. But I think Ella, I'm more in awe of how you have managed over your course with setting up the business or the personal ups, downs and

you're navigating your relationship with Matt and still finding moments of calm and obviously your condition in the early days and how you've navigated that. I think your tips are probably best placed here, to be honest, than mine. No, I know, definitely not. No, look, I think, you know, first of all, I'm so sorry you're going through some big things. And I think the world's so strange, isn't it? Because we all go through these huge changes in life. You know, it's that classic saying, like, the only certainty in life is uncertainty. And it's such a weird world, isn't it? Where you, like, get on the train or the tube in the morning and you're surrounded by people. And probably a whole host of them are going through really difficult things at the moment. But we so rarely talk about it and we say to each other, how are you? And the other person says, I'm great. And actually, you're kind of crumbling beneath it all. And so I think it's so important to be open about. this and I think it's funny my father in it always says you've got to say it out loud when you're having a good time and currently I feel like I'm very blessed and very lucky and I am having a great time and there's lots of change at the moment but I feel like we're in an amazing place

but yes I've certainly been through some really difficult times over the last kind of 10 years or so and I think for me it's just coming back to small simple habits that genuinely feel achievable for you and I think one of the best examples for me was I remember so this is a 2017 and you know I've talked about this a little bit before but we were a few years into setting up the business and it was that kind of core startup phase where I mean we were just working like literally like really no exaggeration kind of 18 hours a day seven days a week 52 weeks a year and we were so stressed and it was so fun but we were so stressed and overwhelmed at all times and in the midst of that my mother-in-law was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and over the

next 11 months she kind of went through treatment and surgeries but she kind of declined week on week each week each weekend that we'd go to see her she was notably worse and and she died within the year and I think it was such an example for me of this idea that like you can eat all the broccoli you want and all the rest of it and you know A there's no guarantees in life but B it was you know I felt so all over the place watching a kind of yeah extended family go through such a difficult time and it was such a reminder and I think it was when Matt and I both got quite into meditation and mindfulness and breath work as these very, you know, of course, 10 minutes of breathwork in the morning isn't going to change the reality of what he was going

through and what his family were going through. But it was a moment of grounding and a moment of kind of trying to have a level of empowerment and calm and connection and when things are so up in the air. And I think, you know, it's so easy for these things to seem like, yeah, breathing in a midst of all the chaos and the world does feel so chaotic at the moment. But I think if you can find a few small achievable practices that really help you and it definitely doesn't need to be breathwork or mindfulness or meditation, you know, it might be reading, it might be sewing, it might be walking your dog quietly. But I think if you can find small things that make you feel grounded in amongst the chaos that you can keep coming back to, that's probably my biggest

recommendation and I think it's you know it's easy to make these grand sweeping gestures I'm going to do this I'm going to do that but actually it's these simple things that are really doable that can be that kind of dailyish habit that you can kind of do anywhere or any time that I think are the most important thing in time of stress I think grounding is the key word there isn't it brings me back to therapy actually they always say try and think of a safe space when you're going through stress and things that ground you it's really solid and obviously eddie you went through so much then as well. Thank you both of you for sharing. That's a lot. I think it's just gosh, life just throws it, doesn't it, sometimes? And it always rains. It never quite just

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That's beauty with impact. Maximize your look with minimal effort. Go to ThriveCosmetics.com slash beauty for an exclusive offer of 20% off your first order. That's Thrive Cosmetics, C-A-U-M-T-I-C-S dot com slash beauty. We have now, Ella, a very different question from Christine. Christine has asked something that so many of you have been asking us to cover for quite a long time. Christine said, I have a question about nutrition after menopause.

I just can't seem to get it right and need help on what I should be eating. Thanks so much. Yeah, I'm so glad we're talking about this. Thank you, Christine. And as really said, we've had so many questions on this. And just to echo that again, thank you so much for your questions. I let us know how helpful these episodes are, but it feels really nice to be able to get into a little bit more detail of everything you guys are asking about. I'm certainly, I mean,

I'm 34 now and I'm certainly kind of very conscious that this is coming up. And I feel really grateful that menopause and perimenopause is much more of a conversation than I think it was a few decades ago. But it is really intimidating and there is so much information as a result, so much misinformation. So yeah, I'm absolutely thrilled that we're talking about it. re what in terms of what we should be eating is there any kind of core research or evidence out there in terms of diet we're getting there we're getting there it's really difficult because there isn't tons what we do need to consider first of all is our bone health because we know that as the hormone estrogen declining you know accelerates our bone loss risk gets higher in terms of bone mass

density so raising the osteoprocess risk and we need to be consuming more calcium than we did before that doesn't mean go and drink collared of milk. It actually means more things like leafy greens, sesame seeds, dried apricots, tofu. There's so many different sources, almonds, like we spoke about on Monday's episode, our source as well. And then vitamin D, of course. We need to be thinking about bone health, first of all.

Then we need to be thinking of plant-based diets because there's so much research, again, on more plants here, because our risk of all sorts of conditions, once we lose estrogen, not lose, but once it declines, increases, and that includes our elevated risk of heart disease, because heart disease actually affects more females than men. I don't think people realise that. They often think of it as being this male-dominated condition,

but our risk goes up massively when our estrogen declines. So what we need to do is get more fibre in, which we've spoken about earlier, so I hope fibre is helpful. And on that, it came out, oh, it must have been six, 12 months ago or so, but there was a very big randomized control study. looking at a plant-based diet for menopause. And I'm just on the paper now, and the conclusion of the paper was the combination of a low-fat vegan diet

with whole soybeans, so that's things like tofu, soy milks, etc., were associated with reduced frequency and severity of hot flashes and improved quality of life in vasomotor, psychosocial, physical and sexual domains in post-menopausal women. So there is quite a lot of evidence out there, which is really interesting in terms of a plant-based diet and menopause. The soy angle is what's linked the isoflavin's in. soy so phytoestrogens is what's linked to our hot flashes they call in America or a hot flush

symptoms so it's linked to symptoms but we have to remember it's over in Asia they don't consume dairy like we do over here yet they have lower rates of osteoporosis and they have lower reported symptoms of experiencing negative side effects of menopause that we do over here in the UK and probably the same in America so I think we need to pull a bit more for inspiration from their diets. Now there's also the argument, oh, but they consume more meat than we do over here. And there's all sorts of debates in the scientific world, like, well, they don't eat dairy, but we do here in dairy, XYZ, and meat XYZ. But the underlying message is if you can get soy and beans and pulses and flax seeds and omega threes, those healthy fats, those lovely

protein sources from beans, that is massively going to help you as you go through menopause hugely, also because of the gutling color. So it's the messaging that's sent from our gut, also the gut brain axis. Do you know what? It was the moderate to severe hot flashes or hot flashes were reduced back to 88% in a plantless diet, rich in soy, which is absolutely humongous. And if you're not cooking a lot of soy at the moment, I think tofu can be a bit of an intimidating one to start with.

Even the milk counts. Yeah, exactly. And just using that in your porridge, soak your oats and soy milk, for example. Guys, it does count. I remember when I wrote the science of plant-based nutrition, we had a page with a big picture of tofu on it, and it says you need up to like 100 grams a day or something or two portions of it. And Dr. Mark Messina is one of the leading researchers over in America who did this research. And then I think another two things to remember as well, guys, is that iron, of course, after menstruation ends, iron requirements drop. So our whole lives, we've been worried about iron. It's so common iron deficiency. That's one positive is that we're we don't need to be as conscious of it. Women may no longer need those supplements and then hydration, caffeine and alcohol as we lose estrogen, as with everything else and body fat distributions change, we become more sensitive to alcohol and to caffeine than we ever were before. And it's suggested we reduce them massively because reducing caffeine can ease night

sweats and other symptoms. So caffeine actually isn't so great as we get older for women. So interesting. It's the ultimate example as well. the fact that all of this is so nuanced, isn't it? Because it's like, coffee's a superfood. And it's like, well, yes, coffee has some benefits, but it depends on the environment and the person and all the rest of it. If you're a man or a woman, it's just like biology. Yeah.

Exactly. Exactly. Okay, so we're really flipping around today. Melissa has asked, what are your thoughts on lab grown meat? Which I thought was such a great question and such an interesting one. And it's funny, there's been quite a lot of kind of press recently, been kind of is veganism over? It's plant based over and it feels like the trend quote and quote has passed. But actually I think from an environmental perspective, this is such an

interesting area of research and development within the food industry because the food industry is obviously such a huge player when it comes to the environment and the concerns that we all have around that. And the food industry is actually responsible for kind of 25 to 30 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions. And obviously the effect of that on climate change and also a huge contributor for deforestation, as well as having a big impact on water pollution, for example, as well. So, yeah, the food industry is hugely problematic in lots of ways when it comes to climate change. And obviously, we've had the hottest year on record again, et cetera, et cetera. So it all feels very, very relevant. Ria, I know you did a lot of research

into this, though, when you were writing about the science of plant-based nutrition. Can you tell us a little bit more around, I don't actually know much of the science of agro-meat and the kind of health angle of it. You're right, though. It's environmental discussion massively and ethical. The ethics, of course, is that you're not having to actually kill an animal to produce the meat. So that's a real win, right? If we can produce meat that people enjoy in the same way, and the environmental is just staggering, as Ella has listed here, because the process basically begins by taking a small sample of muscle cells from a living animal. And then scientists explain that the animal may feel only a brief sensation with that.

I mean, there's a huge moral compass of everything in life at the moment. But then these cells are then placed into what we call bioreactors where they're kind of nurtured in a special solution full of different vitamins, minerals, nutrition that allows them to grow and multiply into muscle tissue. I mean, how crazy that we're able to grow meat. And I guess we can grow plants. So they're thinking, why not grow a cell that is, you know, muscle tissue essentially to recreate the familiar structure of meat? Remember, meat is muscle, guys. I think it's really important to remember that it's muscle tissue. And I think sometimes we have this disconnect.

I don't think a lot of people when they consume meat realize it's a muscle, right? That we're cooking up that people are consuming because people don't look at it in that way. That's how we're able to grow the tissue. And it can be shaped and developed into products like chicken nuggets or burgers and steaks. and I remember when I was writing all this in the book thinking this is just insane. I also did 3D printing of food in the book and that was really, really interesting.

Yeah, which was fascinating. They're not there yet. They're way further ahead on lab-grown meat. The first lab-grown burger came out in 2013. So it's been a development for a little while. That burger cost 250,000 pounds to create, to your point about the way that these bioreactors are used and to get the cells to divide and grow,

it's incredibly expensive. If it had the right funding, I see it as an amazing future for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, livestock, reducing harm to animals, offering a solution because we won't be using land. We have to remember the amount of land that we use. There was a crazy stat, wasn't there? Something like, you know, we got less than 4% of wildlife left on this earth, which is tragic, less than 4%. And I remember when I first heard that stat, I was devastated. It made me really sad. And most of the land that we have is for cattle and livestock. And it's not the cattle's fault. It's the consumption rate that we're consuming muscle, essentially. So 30% of landmass is for meat. So in the UK, lab-grown meat is approved to be included in pet food.

Although I can't imagine it would be because it should be so wildly expensive for pet food. But it is not approved for humans as of yet, as far as I understand. It's not approved yet. We're still quite far off. But we're further ahead than other science. And you've got to remember approximately 83 billion land animals was slaughtered in the year of 2022. And that goes up. It's just so, it's a staggering number.

And if we can change our dietary patterns, we're then not saying to people, you have to go vegan or you have to give anything up because there's another option. I think it comes down to money this one, Ella. I totally agree. I think, look, if you could get it tasting the same, then obviously from an ethical, from an environmental perspective, it seems a bit of a no-brainer, at least to replace low-cost. low quality meat. I think that's, that to me is the most interesting part of it. But at the moment, I mean, it's come down massively. As I said, that first burger was about 250,000 to produce. It's now down to kind of between 12 to $23 per pound or about $63 per kilo. So it's completely price prohibitive at the moment. But I think it's a really interesting thing from environmental

and obviously an ethical perspective. We'll get there one day. Yeah, I'm curious to see what happens with it. I have to say I don't have any curiosity to try it. Do you? Well, no, because I don't eat meat. So for me, it's not a thing. But I want my husband to try it. You know, the family members, I'd be really, really interested to see what they thought of it. And I wonder if they'd know. You know, I think we should all be putting those blind test labs and then have the Beyond Meat one, the meat one and the lab grown one. If anyone listening has tried it and you work in that industry or something, please let us know because I'd be so curious. about the texture and things like that.

Fascinated. But you know, you can make like in Chinese restaurants now, I saw on the takeaway menu, there's mock duck, you know, mock crispy duck. So there's so many alternatives out there. So it's a great question. Okay. And our last question today is from Joanna. Joanna said, love your podcast so much. Thank you, Joanna. I'd like to know about exercising in the morning without breakfast. I've seen so much on that on social media over the last 10 years. So I'm really with you on that, Joanna. It's my favorite time to exercise, but I can't really eat at 5am. Is there any evidence that this could mess up your hormones or something like that? Should I just eat my breakfast afterwards? I have seen so much around this in terms

of hormonal health, which is obviously quite a big trend at the moment and something we could definitely do more on. Yes, a thousand percent. So I have got two separate voice notes from my clinicians in the clinic. We've had some new clinicians recently and I don't think I speak about the clinic enough. I've got access to this incredible body of dietitians, psychologists, doctors nutritionists that work in the Retrition Clinic and I've got an eating disorder dietitians opinion on this question and my gut health dietitian so one that specialises in hormones within the body and let's play their two opinions because I thought it's really interested to get two different angles on this question. So this is from Lisa Waldron. She is

one of our amazing eating disorder dietitians in the clinic. So lots of us love working out early but really struggle to eat before. Totally get it. At that time, most of us are just trying to find our shoes, let alone start thinking about eating a whole breakfast and all the prep that goes with that. But here's the thing. The purpose of pre-workout nutrition is to provide the body with fuel for that workout ahead. This is especially important for morning workouts because glycogen, which is our body's stored carbohydrate, gets used up through the night as it's converted into glucose and that drip

feeds into the bloodstream to keep the body systems ticking over through the night. it. So effectively, when we're waking up, it's almost in a low battery mode in terms of the glucose that's available to fuel that training session. So you're more likely to fatigue quickly and performance can suffer as a result if we haven't topped ourselves up with something to eat. Regarding hormones, yeah, a faster training can definitely have an impact. It can lead to high cortisol levels. And that has been linked with a decrease in something called muscle protein synthesis and an increase in muscle protein breakdown. So these are things we're wanting to avoid when we're going training generally because we're wanting to build muscle. Chronically elevated cortisol that can occur if we're doing fasted training regularly. And that can impact our production of estrogen and other sex hormones. And that can lead to menstrual irregularities and contribute to aminorea or loss of periods. So that would be really concerning for us. So in short, we really want to be fueling those sessions because it's going to mean more energy, it's going to prevent

fatigue and improve our recovery and performance, and also just protect our hormonal health as well. So really trying to prioritize getting something in early doors is going to be really valuable for us. So you might want to try and experiment something kind of small to start with, something low in fat and fibre to try and avoid any digestive problems. And if you try and base it on simple carbohydrates, so the energy gets into the body quickly. So keeping it simple, something like a glass of orange juice, slice of fruit loaf or a crumpin and honey can be really nice options, really quick, easy digestible and just really helpful

when you're trying to get out the door in the morning. So that was Lisa Waldron. She's one of our eating disorder dietitians in the clinic. I think it's really interesting about the elevated cortisol. That's what I've seen loads of on social and not wanting to do that, which I think is very, very interesting. and particularly from a female perspective. But I guess it's also what kind of exercise you're doing, right?

Because if you're waking up and you're going to do a 20-minute online yoga, stretch, wake-up, wiggle, flow, I think the fuel for it is probably much less relevant in terms of, you know, your best performance. Because actually this is just like a gentle stretch, wake up, get your body gently moving or like a 20-minute dog walk versus I'm going to the gym, I'm lifting weights. I'm really going to push my body. So I think also kind of my advice also would be to take that into account because I think absolutely.

I think if you're going to really push your body, you need something. Yeah, no, I couldn't agree more. Like she said, rather than focusing on the perfect healthy breakfast, which is what's so interesting when you're looking at disordered eating and relationships of food, this is where those types of simple complex carbohydrates, they really have a place when we're talking about sports nutrition. So this voice note now is from Catherine Rabeas. we've had CAFA on the podcast before when we did our bloating episode. She's the author of

The 30 Plan. Let me play her response here. For most healthy individuals, fasting and exercising is absolutely fine and there's no problem there. However, if you do have a past medical history of diabetes or a heart disease, it's important that you'll be really careful with that because that can potentially cause adverse effects, such as low blood sugars, levels, or it can lead to cardiovascular events such as heart attacks, especially if you're doing strenuous exercise. So what's important is being really smart and, you know, making sure that you're well hydrated, being the key thing. But, you know, with the most healthy individuals, it's okay to fast. But we would say to try and do more gentle exercise, low intensity, impact

exercise such as yoga, walking, swimming, rather than really high intensity exercise. Do you see how interesting it is? And that's why I wanted two different dietitians responding from the nutrition clinic to cover both angles because you could just say to somebody like Caff had said, well, it is okay for some people, but then personal trainers wouldn't know about if you've got a risk or sensitive to blood sugar levels, the risk there that you've got. and they also wouldn't know about the cortisol that Lisa had suggested before. So I think that we're so unique that our exercise and nutrition is so tailored to us. We have to factor in what works for us just because someone online is doing it.

It doesn't make it okay. No, and you've got to listen to your body, haven't you? And like, check in with how you're feeling. And I think, you know, if you really, really, really hate eating breakfast before you work out and you're not feeling good, then you're probably okay. We can probably overthink some of this stuff But if you're really trying to optimise your performance From a much more kind of How heavy can you lift, how fast can you sprint

Then very much I think fueling your body Would be the right thing to do Even if it's a low lift way like a banana and a crumpet I think it's part of this toxic You know we found the skinny talk trends and things like that I think this stems down A lot of the messaging you see online Does come from a not very responsible place

So yeah, listen to your body. And please keep sending us your questions. We have so many. I think that was quite a diverse mix today, Ella. Absolutely. And also these episodes are obviously new. So please feedback. We love your comments, questions, queries, thoughts, opinions, all the above.

So send them in. We cannot wait to see you on Monday. So much to talk about, as always. Have a great week. And remember, health is a 360 pursuit. Just be kind to yourself as you go for it. And thank you for all the messages that I read saying, yay, two episodes a week.

we're so glad you're happy. Thank you guys. We'll see you next week. Bye.