The Wellness Scoop - Can Fasting Fight Dementia? Have We Got UPFs Wrong? & Beanmania

Episode Date: August 31, 2026

Could fasting help protect our brains as we age? Have we been too quick to label all ultra-processed foods as unhealthy? And why has Britain suddenly gone completely mad for beans?This week, we unpack fascinating new research into meal timing and cognitive health, explore a major study challenging some of the assumptions around UPFs, and dive into the extraordinary rise of beans as our obsession with fibre continues. Plus, we look at the latest safety data on weight-loss drugs, why matcha has gone truly mainstream and what Greggs can tell us about the changing way Britain wants to eat. The Way app link: https://www.thewayapp.com/wellnessscoop Send your questions for our weekly Q&A to ⁠⁠[e-mail]⁠⁠ Pre-order your copy of Rhiannon's brand-new cook book for kids: ⁠'Ready, Set, Cook!' ⁠ For more from Rhi and Ella:  Order your copy of Ella's new book: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Quick Wins: Healthy Cooking for Busy Lives⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Order your copy of Rhi's new book: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Fibre Formula⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up to Rhitrition+ and join Beat The Bloat HERE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome to the Wellness Scoop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. With your host, as always, I'm Ella Mills. And I'm Rihanna Lambert. And after a decade in this wellness industry, Ella and I both know how extremely confusing and overwhelming nutrition and wellness can be. And that's why we're here to cut through the noise with our podcast. So Ella, what do we have coming up in today's show? Oh, guys, we have got some super cool episodes coming up, actually.

This one included, okay, so we're going to be talking about a new study. Looking at whether fasting can help protect against cognitive decline. Obviously, there's been so much about fasting the last few years. So interesting to add to that conversation. Are some UPFs actually perfectly healthy? That nuance, I think, we're bringing into that conversation, which I'm excited to discuss. What do the latest weight log drug safety reports really tell us?

Why Britain is in the grip of Bean Mania, our obsession with beans continues, how much it went completely mainstream, and are our changing wellness habits reshaping the high street? So we have a little like high and low, everything in between today. Which is perfect. And Ella, first of all, what have you been up to? Because, well, I know perfectly well you've been moving out. So it's been a different summer for you.

It's so funny. So with our script, we have like segment one, updates, recommendations, thoughts, that we want to talk about, any feedback from you guys to, headlines, etc. My section of this and our notes just says, I am so all over the shop. That's it. It's what she's got today. And do you know what? I think we've all got those types of feelings. And this episode comes out the first week of September for you all. And it's one of those overwhelming times, I think, as well, Ella, isn't it? There's so much change. It's like the start again of the new kind of season. Yeah, exactly. And as we always say in our intro,

we want to keep this personal. So yes, we were moving house last week. We are now in I just love where our new house is so much. Like we went to this pub on the coast yesterday. It's 25 minutes from our house to be at the beach. The girls were like, it's like we live on holiday. And there's just so many like gorgeous little villages near us. The most amazing pubs.

Like I've never had such good pub food ever. I'm coming. Yeah. Honestly really. Like it's stunning. The water's amazing. Like so happy. But just getting our bearings.

And obviously when your life is in a box and then so much of us, stuff's going to storage, had just felt really overwhelming. And then on moving day, we found out that our old dog, or older dog, Austin, has very aggressive cancer and, you know, really doesn't have long left at all, which has obviously just been devastating. So that, you know, I was saying a second ago, like when one thing in your life is changing or feels uncertain, you kind of need the rest of your life to feel a bit more grounded to cope with it. And I feel like I just couldn't cope last week. I was like a shell, a wreck of a human. But I feel like I'm coming back to myself today.

It's so interesting. First of all, it's devastatingly sad, but I often find when we go through these massive life transitions, life never gives you one thing at a time. And it throws several obstacles. It's almost there, isn't it, to challenge us and to test our emotions. And I feel like I can relate your whole life when good things happen, bad things happen too or sad things and yeah part of being a human is just these crazy rollercoaster of emotions Ella so we're all there thinking of you guys and Austin gosh just love him so yeah fingers and

toes crossed that everything there will run its course as smoothly as it can yeah exactly but how about you so you've got good news fun news big news mine is huge news and mine is scary in a very different way Ella because it's a complete and utter career-changing passion project moment. So for over a year, Ella's known about this behind the scenes, and I've shared with you all listening on the Wellness Scoop that, you know, I really wanted to throw myself behind children's nutrition. I've teamed up with several charities and I work alongside Vegge Power,

the Food Foundation, trying to change things in schools for children's nutrition and contribute in this area. So exclusively for Wellness Group listeners first, you all, get first dibs on this. I'm not announcing on socials for another week, but please do head over there when I do. You can pre-order the first ever nutrition cookbook in the UK for children called Ready Set Cook. It's out there. It's very, very overwhelming just to let you all know that there is a lot of pushback in, for some bizarre reason, educating children about nutrition. And it's because globally it's difficult.

You know, this is a global book with DK, my publishers, and, you know, things are different in Germany and different in America with children's nutrition and different in the States. And everybody has a different approach to it. But one thing I know my publishers and I've been really keen to emphasize is that things aren't getting any better.

And if we don't look to help the future generations and they don't have the life skill to navigate cost of living crisis, you know, of cooking. and understanding like I've broken down in the chapter that food for thought, food, the recipes there can help your brain or food for your tummy. We can talk about those bugs in your tummy or food for your heart, your health. That sports day race, it's targeted at ages 6 to 7 plus, which is primary school age, which is totally neglected, Ella.

I could talk about it forever that if you all really, if you have nieces, nephews, you know anyone with kids. If you do want to hit pre-order, I'll pop the link in the show notes. I really, it's a huge gamble for me. I've never worked in the children's nutrition space. It's coming out in January. It's going to be, well, I'm choking up a bit. Ella, I'll let you take it.

I feel very nervous. Well, first of all, biggest congratulations for me. And I think probably on behalf of all of our listeners as well. Yeah, ready set cook. I've seen the cover. It's amazing. Definitely. Pre-ordering a few copies, obviously, for myself.

But as you said, Nita's nephews as well. look, as we just said, it's such an interesting topic than children's nutrition because there's such huge pushback on it. It's interesting we had a listener email, for example, I was looking at last night from someone they had been traveling. I really want to say it's easy jet, but I could not be easy jet so I don't want to point fingers in case it's wrong, but like there was a kind of children's snack box. And the listeners special was saying, do they really need five different treats in one box? Like the landscape for children's food is whole. horrific, absolutely horrific. And, you know, I've also like so noticed it. I don't know if you have as well really like over the summer holidays. You know, the summer holidays along, you're trying to come up with ideas and like entertaining the kids. And, you know, sometimes it's just like, we're on the supermarket. It's like, what can we get for dinner tonight? Or, you know, you go somewhere, you stop at the petrol station or, you know, forget petrol, whatever it is. And it's just the influx of rubbish. And all day, every day, they're like, mommy says no all the time. And I'm like,

you actually eat a lot of treats. Like if I laid out the treats you eat, it's actually, I think it's still really quite a lot. But if I said yes every day or all day every day, it would be so horrifically bad for you. So yeah, it's so important. It's so needed. I can't wait to get my copy.

I completely agree with you. We have a big issue and it's hard as a parent. And this is about positivity. So I want children. It's not about what I'm taking out. It's about how they can make it themselves or alongside their adult and feel really empowered with. You know the fun facts that kids get really fascinated with? Like, oh, how long is my intestine?

Or, wow, I didn't know that blueberries are good for my brain. All those little random facts, it's about joyful food, celebration of food. I hope they love it. It's really, really positive and it's really simple. And I didn't want things to be expensive because I know now, which we're going to get onto across the Wilders Scoop. episodes in the few coming weeks. The food's not easy, so I've factored that in as well. Anyway, enough about me in the book. Let's get our listener feedback because this is incredible, Ella, we've got some lovely feedback. I saw this email and I just really wanted to share it

with three particularly because it's so lovely. This was from Emma and what she said was about eight years ago, my second year of uni, I started listening to Ella's original podcast with Matt And as someone who was struggling with brain fog and anxiety, listening to this podcast opened up the door to understanding how to eat properly, inspiring me to start exercising as someone who'd never consider themselves particularly sporty and how to manage and prevent stress from taking hold. It awakened a real interest in health and wellness and I've continued trying to learn as much as I can since. I've been loving listening to you both on the wellness scoop and I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated with the disparity between the evidence we now have about living healthily and the policies we have in the UK, which I've been. just don't reflect this. I always thought it was just too late for me to pursue anything related to health professional as I had neither the relevant degree nor the work experience. However, earlier this year I found it's possible for someone like me to study a master's in public health.

So I applied in June and after two months of waiting to hear back, I've been accepted onto the course. I wanted to tell you both as it's really thanks to you both for inspiring me to go for it. Ultimately, I want to be able to shape and implement health policies based on evidence that we have and make it easier for people in this country to live healthier, happier lives. I realize in going into this full of ideals and little knowledge of the reality of trying to push things overline, but I'm excited nonetheless. Yeah, it makes me feel really teary. Congratulations, Emma. We are so thrilled for you and keep us updated how you get on.

I would say it's kind of like anything in life. It was like when we started our business, you do go into it. Not naive, I don't mean that in a condescending way, but you're new to it so you're kind of optimistic. Like, I can change the world. you need that. You've got to believe you can change the world to really do it. I completely and utterly agree. I mean, that couldn't have been a nice bit of feedback after what I've to share actually, Ella, as well. It goes to show it's a ripple effect. You know, one person that you help with your new qualification is another person that can help another person that can help another person and spread the news.

And, you know, that's what we really need in society. So thank you for sharing that. Okay, here we go, everybody. We're going to dive in to. to our first headline that matters today. Okay, Rhee, this I feel is what you have been talking about actually quite a lot, but it's a humongous study made all of the headlines. Two examples of said headlines. Good diet matters more than how processed food is. That was in the times.

Forbes had the exact same study under the headline. New study suggests ultra-processed foods have a place in healthy diets. And I wanted to include those two different headlines. I feel like it shows how you can have the exact same study and one basically says good diet is very important and one diet says like fill your boots with UPFs I just think that's an important thing of like how headlines can be confusing essentially what's happened here

it says a huge new study conducted by Harvard that has just been published and what it suggests is that the nutritional quality of our overall diet matters more for our health than whether the foods we eat are classified as ultra-processed and I think this is so important because as we've talked about a lot, the UPF conversation obviously has got so confusing. We've lost a lot of nuance.

And we kind of reached this moment where like a fortified whole brain cereal or tin tomatoes that have citric acid in, we're kind of scared up and we're almost seeing them in the same box as like Coca-Cola. And actually the two are so different. And we get a lot of emails from you guys about that. Like, you know, what happens you have this citric acid in my tin tomatoes

or, you know, equivalent of that, like all this fortified whole-grain cereal or soy milk, et cetera, et cetera. So let's dive into it. Let's do it. And it builds really nicely onto, I think, the first summer we launched the wellness group. So last summer, 2025, we also covered these sorts of nuances, I think, in depth.

And if you listen back, we've got... Well, that was when UPFs went mad, wasn't it? Like, that was, I feel it was last year that UPFs kind of hit the mainstream. Yeah, we did our live show, didn't we? And we did a huge section because my book, The Un Process Plate, was out. and we were talking about UPFs, but I think what we needed was data, and I remember we kept saying, we just want to see more data that accepts this nuance, and we have it.

So researchers from Harvard analyzed the eating habits of more than 200,000 US adults. The data was running from three huge long-running studies. So follow people all the way from the 80s to 2020s today. Those findings were presented recently in July at the American Society for Nutrition annual meeting. Now, the two things that they looked at separately. First of all, the nutritional quality. And this is what Ella and I wax lyrical about is that, you know, it's about the overall diet. And they were particularly interested in the plant-based portions. So whether they were eating what we talk about here, the fiber, the whole grains, the fruits, nuts, veg, legumes,

you know, all the healthy kind of fats that you want in your diet like olive oil and things. then secondly the second group was looking at how classified on the scale of process the item is based on the Nova scale. Now, Nova is the one that we speak about that often research has referred to developed by Carlos Matera in Brazil. And that classifies foods on a scale of one to four of how minimally processed all the way up to ultra processed a food can be. In category four is what's often picked up by the media and are very, very confused because you can have a tin of baked beans. being in category four alongside a Mars bar. Exactly. So essentially anything that has an industrial ingredient in, like, as I said, citric acid.

So if that's technically been added to a tin of tomatoes, you would officially therefore have that in group four. But obviously that sitting alongside Coca-Cola is not really the nuanced approach we all need. And so what they did, therefore, is they compared four types of diet. they had one healthy and minimally processed diets. They had two healthy and ultra-processed diets. They had three unhealthy and minimally processed and they had four unhealthy and ultra-processed.

I think the bit to clarify here with the like unhealthy and minimally process, what they had there, for example, they were saying is people who eat loads of like, and hear me out, okay, because this is the study, but it's things like loads of white rice, orange juice, you know, tons of potatoes, homemade desserts, cookies. So it's minimally processed 100%, but it's on a broad scale classified as unhealthy because it's lacking in your whole grains, your fruit, your veg, your nuts, legumes, healthy fats. So it's not particularly processed, hence being in that group, but it is much more focused

on like foods that are kind of just poorer, nutritional quality overall. And that's, I guess, the really interesting part of this study is that what they saw is that the overall diet quality is what was actually associated fundamentally with better or worse health outcomes, not the amount of processing. And I think that's really, really interesting. So they're seeing healthy and ultra processed have much better health outcomes than unhealthy and minimally processed. It's always like looking at the ratio of your plate, isn't it, across the day? like the eight remember the 80-20 phrase of nutrition which I've always quite liked in my clinic there's nothing wrong with it 80% of the time try and eat those deliciously nourishing joyful foods but alongside you're 20% of and I'm just plucking the 20% that number will vary for all of you of

you of course but alongside the Coca-Cola and the cereal pops or the other the other cereal pops gosh I'm really making up worse today you know what I mean I think you know which cereal I mean you're very pregnant you're allowed to make up words. People eating the healthier diets had lower rates of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, premature death. So basically all the comorbidities that we associate at the moment with probably obesity and living in an obesitygenic environment.

And the fact that the processing food wasn't the contributor to those risk factors, it is the overall diet. And I think when we talk about overall diet, it goes back to the old school. nutrition train of thought of too much salt, too much sugar, too much saturated fat. And what we want, like Ella said, is those lovely fibrous items, the veggies, the fruits, the whole gains. I mean, I would argue that just having a plate with more fibre and not adding an extra sprinkling of salt on it is a lot more effective than worrying about the citric acid, like you said, in your orange juice. Exactly. And that's what they saw. So foods like fortified cereals,

whole grain bread, tin beans, some plant-based dairy alternatives, like we said, things like soy milk. They technically are in your NOVA-4, your ultra-process category, but they're providing fiber, vitamins, minerals, protein, valuable nutrients. And that was not having an impact on diet. So I think it's just overall what I think this humongous study showed is it essentially, is what you're always saying really, like not all ultra-process foods are nutritionally equivalent. they are not created equal just because they're technically UPFs and technically in the same bucket we shouldn't treat yet a fortified whole grain cereal

and a sugary, fizzy drink. They are not the same thing. I'm rejoicing Ella. Yeah, I feel this is really important. It's not the easiest message I don't think to get across and I also don't want anyone to go home. Scared of white rice and potatoes. I eat lots of white rice and potatoes.

Love them. They were just used as an example of the, fact that if your diet is predominantly like white flowers, white rice, white potatoes, although it's minimally processed, it's not nutritionally dense anyways. And so I think it's, I mean, ultimately it shows sort of common sense to some degree. But I do think that, as I said, I think because the UPF debate became so hot and heavy, there has been this lingering fear of anything with any UPFs in. And ultimately, we don't need to be worried about that. What we need to maybe not worry about, but be conscious of, be active about is having this nutritionally dense

diet. What you add on to it is much less relevant. Yeah, nicely summarised because when, if you rewind until last summer, whenever I was interviewed about the unprocess plate, the questions I would get is, or what do you think about these viral accounts that are going down the supermarket, you know, and saying that foods are toxic. And this is what Ella and I are trying to explain is that I hate those videos. I dislike. like them so strongly, I cannot even tell you. I feel the damage and added confusion and level of chaos they have caused to parents. I mean, we've seen new products emerging in response to this that are no better for everybody, nutritionally speaking, because they claim to be lower in

UPF ingredients. And it's caused a massive shakeup. It's amazing, actually, the power of social media, if we look at it that way, the fact that these types of accounts did shift a sort of change in supermarket or shoppers habits. I don't know how to describe it, but essentially food isn't black and white, and that's what we are trying to say is that having those baby bells is not the end of the world. Having, you know, that tomato pasta sauce sometimes in your cupboard

is really not the end of the world. You don't have to make your own homemade tautil. Exactly. You're using a tomato sauce that has a few additives in and you've got a tin of lentils with it and some whole grain pasta and a chopped onion. garlic and some grated courgette and parmesan. Like that is a great dinner and a proportion of UPF in your sauce versus your overall play

is incomparable. And so I think that's what we have to stop worrying about. Yeah. But the issue that we do need to worry about is that 70% of children's diets are made up of chicken nuggets chips and things that aren't nutritionally dense. And they're the UPFs that we have in abundance. I'm just picking out those items because I think they're great examples everybody knows. And unfortunately, we're concerned.

consuming, rather than it being 80, 20%, it's 70%, 30%, 70% of kids diets are full of the Coca-Cola, the pops and all the other stuff, and only 30% is the veg and the whole grains. And we just need to flip that ratio. That's what it's all about. Yeah, exactly. It's almost 60% for adults. So it's, yeah, loads to do. But I think that was really helpful.

I hope that feels kind of reassuring and helpful for you guys listening as well, that what we don't need to be freaked out about. is like a singular ingredient in a really healthy diet. Just like you don't need to like be worried about going out for pizza on Friday night and having cocktails with your girlfriend. Like that's great. That's part of balance. That's part of life.

We just want nutritional density where we can. Now on to our brain health for headline number two, which is restricted eating hours may reduce cognitive decline in older age. Now it's another fasting headline and this came from The Guardian. I don't know if it's just me. and like, you know, when you start thinking, I can't remember the name of it, but you know, when you start thinking something, you start seeing it all the time, or you start noticing something.

It's like you notice a Dalmatian and suddenly you see a Dalmatian dog. But I feel like I'm seeing fasting really come back. There's a lot about fasting at the moment in terms of headlines. This was looking at, obviously, not just what we eat, but when we eat and whether time-restricted eating could potentially have any benefits for brain health as we age. We have kind of mentioned this before, but just some important content. context probably can't say it enough. Dementia is the leading cause of death now in the UK. It's the seventh leading cause of death worldwide. It counts for nearly two million deaths globally each year.

And then there are some huge risk factors. Obviously, age genetics totally outside of our control. But research at the moment suggests nearly half of dementia cases potentially could be prevented or delayed through modifiable lifestyle factors. Obesity and midlife, for example, has been associated with around a 30% increased risk of dementia later in life. So this is obviously something that there's a huge amount of time and money and research being looked into at the moment because it's an enormous issue, both kind of with our health and well-being, but also economically as well, for us to collectively solve.

One strand of this was looking at whether or not the timing of our meals could make any difference. Which is interesting because I think if you reverse the clock to research 20 years ago in dementia, maybe even a decade, they were more focused on the fact we're an aging population, whereas now we're realizing, oh yes, we are an aging population, but how we live our life, the quality of our life, like we just said in the previous headline, the overall quality of your diet, how much you move, the different, the way we choose to live our life can massively impact the long-term health outcome. So it was a small trial, but it was a randomized

control trial, which, you know, I love. It consisted of 47 women. So we're looking at females here age 50 to 79 who were living and they were already with overweight and obesity. So they were already in that category. And everyone there was encouraged to reduce their daily intake by the classic 500 calories, which is one of the commonly researched methods with time restricted eating as well with the calorie control. And they did that for six months. But 26 women were also asked to restrict all their food to the nine hour window, which would mean they ate between 10 to 6 p.m.

And then, you know, they have to stop eating for at least a few hours before bed, which I would argue when you're living later in life, if you're able to get up a bit later and you're able to, you don't have to go to work or have a job to apply to. That's not difficult to eat between a 10 to 6pm window. I think that is achievable for lots of elderly adults, despite medication depending on the category. But the comparison group ate across their normal window

of 12 hours. So just a two-hour difference. And interestingly, you know, the weight loss was identical in both groups, so no difference there. They both lost on average up to seven kilos. So that's just over a stone, everyone. So it does indicate that like we've always known, I know we talk about Sarah Berry's research at King's College, but most of the corporates are those extra snacks after 9 o'clock before bed that add up to that additional 500 calories, which can make the difference in long-term weight loss. So keeping your eating between a safe time window helped with weight loss. But that's not all, is it Ella? No, exactly. And just to recap what you just said there, Ria, I think one of the things that's always been tempted about fasting is like,

oh, help me lose weight. And as we're seeing just here, everyone reduced their intake every day by 500 calories and they lost the same amount of weight whether they were having time restricted eating, so sort of fasting or not. And that is, as you were just saying, with Sarah Berry's research, and lots of what we're seeing quite similar. It's just that it can be, in a way, the time restricted eating is sometimes to be helpful for people if you do need to or would like to lose any weight because you do stop eating before bed

or you do wait a little bit longer in the morning so you just don't have, as you said, that late night snacking or grazing, for example. But it wasn't some miracle, same amount of weight either way. But the researchers were then looking at the difference and their brains after the six-month period. And this is what was kind of very early, but quite interesting is the women who had followed time-restricted eating

showed significant improvement in spatial planning and problem-solving tests compared with the women who were eating in like a normal window. They also had signs that they had fewer errors in memory and learning tests, although this wasn't seen across every single measure of cognition. Multitasking reaction times, for example, were the same for both groups. But there's sort of a theory that the researchers were looking at is whether or not this shorter eating window and eating a little bit earlier before bed

could align our food intake well with our circadian rhythm. Obviously, we know that's our internal clock that regulates everything from our sleep, body temperature, hormones, our metabolism. And there could be this interplay between the circadian rhythm, our metabolic health, inflammation, all of which has been linked to brain health

and cognitive aging. So it's not the first research that suggests that extending this overnight fast could be helpful, particularly finishing dinner a little bit earlier. There was a review earlier this year that found finishing eating before 7pm was also associated with improvements in body weight, BMI, waist circumference, blood pressure and other different markers of metabolic health. But as you said, it's a tiny study. It's 47 people.

We need way, way, way, way more information. We can't say that it prevents dementia by any means. But it's interesting. And I think to me, I don't know really what you think, but it feels like a couple of years ago, So fasting was like the be all and end all, it will solve all your problems. Like I think we've tackled through that and we're much more cognizant of the fact that fasting can work really well for some people, but it really doesn't work well for others. Women often less successful with.

But there's a balance between the two because as we know, there's a lot of data to show not eating a few hours before bed is really good for our sleep and our general well-being. Not always possible. But like if we can have our last meal a couple of hours before we sleep, it can be really beneficial. It seems to be that way around from multiple research that is presenting itself rather than the morning time window, which is so interesting. And it makes sense because gut health is obviously still relatively new in the grand schemes of nutritional science. But we have certain bugs. We know that are discovered like acumencia that come out in the evening to clean the gut lining.

And all of these messages and signals and the bugs have their own circadian rhythm, our gut microbiome, you know, the living organisms that do so many jobs that is also linked to our brain and our overall health and our weight maintenance, all the things listed here. But it does seem to be that window. And I know for anyone listening, if you're thinking, I work night shifts, what are I meant to do? You know, I work late into the evening. I've got young kids. I'm exhausted. And, you know, those different periods of your life. I did send Ella a clip, which will play at some point that did suggest, don't worry if this is you,

because again, we talk about the overall quality of sleep and the overall quality of your life and what you actually choose to eat. So don't panic. If you can't live by these time restricted rules, it's just 47 women. It potentially had a nice effect on their brain, but I'm sure you'd also get a nice effect on your brain just from walking more each day, getting more fresh air, eating a better quality diet and being happy and social interactions. There's lots of factors to consider Ella, but the morning one I find it interesting for many people because that's really difficult for so many women in particular to fast in the morning and restrict their food intake.

Yeah, it is interesting, isn't it? I mean, totally anecdotal and just a personal observation, but I cannot not eat in the morning. I mean, I hate eating the second I wake up, but like, say I've woken up at six, I really need to have. eating breakfast by 8 or I don't feel quite right. Jo, what's interesting, this is again an anecdotal pregnancy story, but in all three of my pregnancies, I have to eat two breakfasts.

There's something in my, perhaps my circadian rhythm of my gut bugs or my clock where I have to wake up to eat and also to prevent me from being sick. And then I have to eat again like two hours later. And then the rest of the day, I'm sort of okay. I could probably do the early dinner and not eat again in. the evening. But perhaps there's something evolutionarily speaking for females starting off the day. You know, like that old phrase, eat like a... Is it like breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dim like a pauper? Yes, that sort of thing. Perhaps evolutionally speaking, we are adapted

that way. But we're all different and let's watch this space. So let's keep the research coming. I love an early dinner. Do you remember that I should start the ASMR stuff? You know, Gwen if Paltrow had that interview she goes i love going do you remember she had that me and you both winn it yeah she goes me too oh i want to leave the restaurant by seven and it was oh that's so me it's unbelievable um right okay third headline this one's pretty short and snappy but important to include because we always need a rounded view on everything but this was all over the the news um over the last few weeks, which is that there have been more than 100 deaths reported in the UK related to Moncharo or Wegev, so those are the kind of brand names of two of the different popular

GLP ones. So I don't know if you guys know. We talked about it a lot during not on the show. Obviously, we didn't have the show, but it was in the news a lot during COVID, this MHRA yellow card system, which we have in this country where you basically are reporting and flagging adverse reactions to things. So it was a lot in the news because when the COVID vaccine, were coming in. So there's a lot about that. Anyways, so there's new analysis that's taking place of this MHRA yellow card data. And what it found was that there have been about 150,000. This is just in the UK, 150,000 suspected adverse reactions associated with GLP1 weight loss drugs, with about 15,000 of those classified as serious. Manjaro accounts the largest number of those

with over 100,000 adverse reactions, including just over 10,000 serious reports. and 98 reports involving a fatal outcome. We're going to be there around 44,000 reactions, just shy of 5,000 of those were serious and 37 fatal outcomes. And then, I don't know how you say this one, Lyrite Glutein. Yeah, Lyrgyzutide. Because you've got semi-glutides Wagovi. The brand name is Wagovi, isn't it?

And the medication. That has about 3,000 reports, 734 serious and 18 fatal outcomes. So one thing to just say they're having real. of all those scary stats, is these figures don't necessarily, we can't say for sure, that the drugs cause those deaths or side effects because the yellow card scheme is set up

and it basically, to record suspected reactions. And that's reported by patients, relatives, healthcare professionals. It cannot be kind of confirmed 100% that every single one of those was related to the drug as opposed to another factor in these people's lives. And there can also be multiple reports for one person,

symptoms could have another cause, etc, etc. But these are huge numbers and we're saying the same thing in America. There's a host of lawsuits that have been filed against both the manufacturers, Noro, Novo, Nordisk and Eli Lilly regarding, again, side effects

of the different medications, including patients complaining of eye problems, ruptured colones, vomiting spells. About 4,400 patients have filed lawsuits against the manufacturers. I mean, in the grand scheme of how many, people take it. I wonder how large that percentage is, but it's still a wake-up call that has to be discussed because I feel like they have been just hailed as a miracle drug. They have been seen and

perceived as a panacea that you can buy if you have the money to help you lose weight. And I think the real issue here as well is, of course, people taking it and it's not designed for them. It's not designed or tested on their body size or shape. Of course, gastrointestinal issues make up the main majority of this. The biggest symptoms, as I said, we see in the Retrition Clinic are excessive vomiting, nausea as well. I remember doing a talk on JLP ones with Dr. Federi Chromartium. We had a case of a pancreas exploding, you know, all sorts of losing gallbladders. It's dangerous, stomach pain and 1.6 million people are now taking these drugs in the UK. And I would argue more because a lot of them are bought on the private market and not reported. So I think it's just

reiterate that there are symptoms. Yeah, if you look at the data, there's officially about 1.7 to 1.9 million people in the UK taking it. But it's likely more. But if we're saying 1.9 million people taking this, then 150,000 is just shy of 8%. Wow, it's high. I was going to say, it's not an insignificant number. Anyway, I also just thought it was really important to include this for exactly what you just said, Re, which is that these are treated as a little bit of a panacea. And I had this interesting conversation. A very, very old friend of mine who hadn't seen for a couple of years lives in LA.

And she was over visiting this weekend for a wedding. Anyway, so I was asking her about JLP ones. And, you know, we talked obviously recently about shrinking bodies. Hollywood paste there. What was the effect of culture? I was asking her about peptides as well. All the things are very interesting to me. Anyways, she was saying basically, like, obviously this is colloquially speaking and it's, you know, generalised.

But she's like, oh yeah, everyone's microdosing. And of course, everyone isn't microdosing. I know that. And it would be interesting any listeners living in California, what you're seeing as well, please let us know. But she was just saying it's very commonplace to be microdosing these GLP ones. And I think that seems, especially now that the pill form is available in this country, increasingly likely here. and I totally get it's very, very tempting. I really, really get it.

Like, you know, you want to lose that half stone or stone that, you know, you've put on over the last five or ten years, whatever it is. I totally get it. I just think it's important that we always see these things in context. And this is not a small number of adverse reactions. It's really strong medication. Gosh, yeah, it's really insightful to have her feedback. What's been so interesting is the Retrition team and I at the moment with my clinicians

in the clinic, have been looking into how we can provide a weight loss journey on Retrocious Plaster, something I've never wanted to do before, as Alan knows, because... Oh, it's so complex. I mean, imagine how complex is to design a course and a journey, especially now with people that are also on GLP ones, navigating that alongside the body image that we discussed last week, of course, we don't want to speak about individual people's bodies,

but, you know, the Thinspiration accounts that are appearing on social. media, the current climate we're living in. Myself being pregnant, I see a lot of postpartum videos. I saw some really worrying extreme content, Ella, that I got served recently, obviously, because I've been looking at hospital backpacking, someone saying, here's how I put on minimum amount of weight in pregnancy. Really shocking, stark things. So we are going to run this weight loss journey because I think it will do more help. And I've obviously got experts. I'm able from, I'm even getting Charles Yo on to come and give a talk from Cambridge. which I think it's really important we understand the situation in the world right now.

And we raise these red flags and we have these discussions. Because like Ella said last week, if we shy away, and that's how I felt with the Retrition Plus journey, if I shy away from doing it because I know it's complicated to have these talks, we're not going to achieve anything. And I think as a collective, we have to just have more transparency about the issues in the world, especially as women. We've got to all stick together and try and navigate this world. I've always found it's interesting.

I've always found it's so difficult. Like, you know, I never once, we never talked about weight loss ever, ever, ever, because I was so afraid of people being like, you're making women need to lose weight or feel like they need to lose weight. And I was like, no, we're not. But I'm also where some people would like to

or it would be healthy for them to lose a little bit of way. And I almost think we should need to be more okay with that. It's okay. It is okay. And how can we do that in the way that makes us feel our best, emotionally, mentally, physically, that's not extreme, that's sustainable. totally agree. I think it's really important. It's hard because Ella and I have both many years ago

in the past. Not so much now, but I'm sure we'd still get it, not that we read those other sites. I'm sure people would say things about our body shape and size still to this day. But as we live in slim bodies, it's also difficult to approach conversations surrounding weight. And there's these camps online that say if you suggest it's okay for somebody to lose weight, you are accepting diet culture. And I think everyone should be allowed to do what they want. Yes, we accept your body shape at any shape or size. If you want to lose weight, that is your prerogative within reasons. But it's a muddy area. It's muddy. As you said, there was so much backlash against like healthy eating as diet culture. And healthy eating is not

diet culture. They're not the same things. Or at least they shouldn't be the same things or shouldn't be completed as the same things. That all got so sticky and muddy. But, you know, healthy eating is really important. And, you know, depressing diet culture, or do can diet so you can kind of go away for the rest of time, we don't need those in our lives. But actually kind of healthy eating is still, it's okay. Anyways, I think it's complicated, but let's talk about beans. Let's talk about beans because beans aren't complicated. Beans aren't complicated. And I'm an ambassador for banging some beans the campaign in the UK at the moment. But then I saw Ella had put in beans as a trend. So have we officially reached trendy status by our nonstop talking about beans.

beans in this podcast for daily two years. You know, because look, there's one of those things like in the world of wellness, you know, you have bowl bean, amazing. Founder Amelia, she was really cool, like bought beans to the forefront. There's been loads of delicious beans and cookbooks, you know, obviously we've used them those, but you've got your Atalengu's and people like that. So there has been a rise of beans over the last 10 years, which is amazing. But obviously we talked about M&S's new bean campaign a few weeks ago or last month. And there has been this shift, I think, interestingly. But on the back of this M&S beans,

situation where they've switched their 55p tins of own brown butter beans into water, glass jar beans, without changing the price has been, you know, that's really brought beans to the forefront again. Anyways, the Times of the piece of being at Bean Mania kind of thing are how much beans are a trend. And they said, today, Britain is in the grip of Bean Mania. Jars and the gooms are flying off shelves. Brands are expanding their ranges and supermarkets are locked in a bean price war. I mean, it's fantastic. We had a target to double consumption by 2038. I would argue the demographic of people going for the beans, but still, yay. But what we're seeing there, this is why it's cool and this is why I wanted to include it. It's exactly that really,

whereas I think we've been in this, like, wellness demographic of beans becoming popular. I feel it's changing. Now, these are two more affluent supermarkets. I'd love to, if we had data from all supermarkets, but the two bits of data I have, one from Waitrose, where sales of legumes in jars from chickpeas to butter beans have risen 51% in the last year. And M&S has reported 155 percent rise over the past two years. In its butter beans in particular, up 300% over the last two years. I mean, that's amazing. That is good for beans. That is good for beans. Also good for your wallet. We are living in a cost of living really difficult. And, you know, beans are protein and fiber and resistant starch, all of the good stuff. I mean, it is just a no-brainer to eat more beans for

protein. Anyway, I was just pleased to see it. There's loads and negatives always in the world. But You know, beans are on the up and we just like beans. And as we said, they're relatively inexpensive. They are incredibly good for us and we know we should be eating them most days and most of us aren't eating anywhere near enough. So that's cool. Now, to the other end of the wellness spectrum, the trend of wellness going mainstream links us back to my favourite. But can I just say, before we say matcha is my favourite, it's been my favourite for 15 years before it was a thing. So I'm not just, I know it's ridiculously expensive and I know it's not that accessible, but let's talk about Greggs.

Right. We're a trend setter. That's all we can say. But yeah, that's what was interesting. So we just had data from M&S and Waitrose, which is the more kind of premium end of the spectrum in this country. Greggs is the more kind of mainstream end of the spectrum, much less affluent than M&S or waitrose.

And essentially, they have credited matcha, salads and high protein options on driving their growth. Wow. Yeah, which is so interesting. So they have been open about deliberately adapting their menu. They are known for people outside this country who don't know Greg's for like cheap sausage rolls. So very worlds away from matcha, I would say. And they have been very vocal about adapting their menu to change according to changing customer habits and attracting new customers moving beyond these traditional sausage rolls and like pastry bakes, introducing iced matcham, Lattees, way more salads, picnic-style foods, often like chicken rolls,

as opposed to the sausage rolls that launched in April, apparently. Anyway, it's so interesting and they've been expanding, reformulating their salad range, and basically just trying to really appeal to this increasing number of health-conscious consumers. But they've done a great job

because Greg's, am I right in saying that a heritage brand almost seen as a, in a very weird way? Have I used the correct phrase that? because in the UK, they do have viral moments. A Greg's sausage roll is seen as a staple, like baked beans on toast or like a cup of English breakfast tea. Greg seemed to have this very interesting place in the market

as the everyday person's go-to for a sausage roll. So to see them selling something like a blueberry matcher is completely the opposite of a builder's cup of tea in a biscuit. Toteet went viral and it's extraordinary. So, and then looking kind of across the board, apparently matcha drinks in UK cafes, sales of those have more than doubled since last summer, up over 100% year and year. And then in this year in June and July, apparently 1.6 million matcha drinks were sold. So that's over £7 million of sales. And it counts 4% of all cafe drinks sold. So that's according to some data from a company called Square. But anyway, Starbucks in the country reported matcha sales are growing by 68%. since it's 2025 financial year. That growth apparently continues into this year. So it's interesting.

Anyway, Greg's basically, they're doing really well. Their first half revenues have had risen by over 7%. Over 1.1 billion pounds now, so massive. And their profits as well up as well. And anyway, and they were basically saying that, yeah, they've been moving with the trends and they attribute a lot of the performance to this expanded ice drinks, like the ice blueberry matcher and salad ranges,

which have been so popular. What I will say is it's fantastic for people's health. I am very interested to see how this impacts supply and demand chains over in Japan, of course, which the Nisha region where matcha is cultivated, it's grown, it's an art, and it takes time. And there is a difference between good matcher and poor quality matcher. So you may not be seeing the benefits from your blueberry matcher that you would see from a very vibrant green, fresh that's kept airtight in the first. fridge tub of matcher. But either way, just go for it. If it's cutting down the amount of Coca-Cola's you drink and you're going for a blueberry matcher, I think that's a win, Ella.

Yeah, I think this felt inherently positive. You know, there is, as we said, at the top of the episode, this frustration that kind of 60 or, you know, 55 to 60% of adult calories in this country come from UPFs, the domination of food that's really bad for us, how difficult is to have this nutritionally dense diet that we talked about. And then you see things like this, where wellness goes kind of very mainstream, high street, viral, cool, popular. Beans start growing at 300%. And do you think, okay, maybe we can do this. Maybe we can get healthier. I think we can get healthier. Thank you so much for tuning in. I feel very inspired now. I can't actually believe Beanmania is taken over the UK. So Ella, we've got another busy week, haven't we? What are we discussing

on Thursday? Because it's a good one. Okay, we're going to talk about whether counting your plant points actually works. We're going to be talking about some of our favorite healthy snacks. We're going to be talking about the link between our appetite and our digestions, whether some foods are worth making from scratch and which ones we could buy instead. I think that's interesting and like what we just talked about, whether we're getting enough fibre on an individual level, how to calculate that. So much to talk about, as always. And we have loads of recommendations for you guys as well. And then the headlines just keep coming. I think the next few episodes are going to be really juicy and good and packed. But if there's anything you want us to talk about to answer your

questions on, any recommendations, things you've just got to let us know about, please do. Hello at wellness hyphen scoop.com and otherwise have a fantastic day, everyone. Have a great week. Bye.