The Wellness Scoop - Can Vegetables Protect Your Heart? Rethinking Screen Time & AI Wearables

Episode Date: August 3, 2026

Could eating more broccoli or beans in your twenties help protect your heart decades later? Should children under two avoid screens altogether? And are AI-powered wearables about to transform the way women understand their hormones? This week, we unpack a major report warning that the UK is raising one of the unhealthiest generations in decades, explore fascinating new research on how different vegetables may benefit men and women differently, and look at two major new studies on children's screen time. Plus, is fibre finally replacing protein, and why a new AI wearable has just raised $11.6 million to predict women's hormone changes. Send your questions for our weekly Q&A to ⁠⁠[e-mail]⁠⁠ For more from Rhi and Ella:  Order your copy of Ella's new book: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Quick Wins: Healthy Cooking for Busy Lives⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Order your copy of Rhi's new book: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Fibre Formula⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up to ⁠Rhitrition+⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hear that? It's your money calling. It wants a promotion. Elevate your savings with the Scotia high-interest savings account. Always earn high regular interest rates that grow the more you save and invest. Conditions apply. Visit scotiabank.com slash h-I-SA to learn more. Scotia Bank. You're richer than you think. The first ever all-electric 2026 Subaru Trail Seeker is the EV for the Trail Obsessed. trail obsessed. With up to 444 kilometers on a full charge and DC fast charging from 10 to 80%

in about 30 minutes in ideal conditions. Plus, ample ground clearance and symmetrical all-wheel drive make the 2026 trail seeker the most capable EV Subaru has ever built. Test drive it at your local Subaru dealer or visit Subaru.ca. I am genuinely so excited about today's sponsor because it's the way. Honestly, if you have listened to me any time over the last few months, you know I have become a little bit evangelical about this app and I honestly recommend it to everyone. My friends, my family, people on Instagram, everyone. And she recommended it to me, so it's true. I've heard so much about it.

It's just because it has had such a big impact on me. I've meditated on and off for 15 years or so now, but using the way it's honestly the first time we've become so consistent with this daily practice. and I've just seen the most unbelievable results as a result of that. The app is just incredible. And what I love is every day you open it and there's a meditation waiting for you. So you don't scroll that you don't have to choose between hundreds of options. There's no wondering what to do.

It just takes you on a path. Well, I think that's why it works so well because, you know, most of us just don't need more big decisions every day to make, Ella. No, exactly that. We've got decision fatigue, haven't we? So this is so nice because you just follow this path of meditation, which is led by Henry, the founder who's just the most amazing teacher, and he makes it seem somehow just incredibly simple, but exceptionally profound at the same time, which is a very rare skill.

And I've been using it too. Yes, I've now finally begun a meditation journey, and I've been doing some of the shorter practices on busy days because I completely understand why you talk about it so much, Ella, it really is a nice intro in for me. Yeah, it is, and I'm so glad. Anyway, it's helped me feel so much calmer, less reactive, more present. It all sounds like huge claims, but I just say, please, please, please try it if you're

struggling with stress or overwhelm. You just got to give it a go. And the lovely thing is that everyone listening can definitely try it themselves. Exactly. So you can get a 30-day free trial, so just try it every day for a month. It'll change your life. All you do is head to thewayapp.com forward slash wellness scoop. Yeah, that's thewayapp.com forward slash wellness scoop. Welcome to the Wellness Group, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. And as always, we're here as your host. I'm Ella Mills. And I'm Rihanna Lambert. And after a decade in the wellness industry, we know that it can be very overwhelming, confusing. And that's why we're here with our podcast to cut through the noise

and make healthier living simple, fun and personal. It's funny because this time of the year, obviously the whole show is about what you guys are seeing, reading, hearing, what's viral on your socials, what's in the headlines, etc. And I'm always thinking, oh, gosh, we'll have nothing to talk about July, August time. You know, things tend to go quite quiet. Oh my gosh, we are like swimming in things to talk about. I have a running tab of goodness even knows how many headlines that we can't get to at the moment. Because there's too many. It's insane.

I mean, it's great. Like, yay for us, obviously. There's so much to talk about. but I can't believe it. We've been messaging each other so much for different things that are cropping up. Also, trends that you're sending us. There are so many.

Yeah, the world of wellness seems to be really, really kicking off at the moment. So Ella, what do we have coming up in today's show? Okay, we are going to be talking about whether different veggies can protect men and women's heart health, in particular differently. Why experts are saying the UK is raising one of the unhealthiest generations of children, which is very worried. the latest evidence, but more on screen time, some very interesting updates and some

unsurprising ones there. And is fibre finally replacing protein and also some interesting developments in AI wearables? We've talked a lot about wearables recently. This one's about women's hormones. So loads to talk about. But then there were other huge headlines that we just couldn't fit in because it was just too much this week. A new UN report showing that healthy diet is now too expensive for one in three people globally. Obviously super concerning. We're going to talk about that in depth next week. It came in quite late and we didn't want to rush it because it's very, very important. And then also so many of you guys have sent us, we'll do it in trends next week. This insane video of this woman explaining why like adding a banana to your

smoothie will basically just kill you. I was nearly going to do an Instagram real on it, but I actually saw that the particular woman in question replied to another colleague's reel that I saw and I thought, oh, do I really want the... Oh, I saw that. Yeah. Do I want that? No. You know what? That's why it's so funny. I was on Instagram this morning. And this really lovely yoga teacher, I've known a very long time, put something on her Instagram stories. Just saying, you know, I kind of struggle to show up here.

I have so much I want to talk about. There's so much I want to share. There's so many ideas. But I just feel so kind of, oh, like confined by this strange algorithm and the way that people respond to stuff on here. And it's so how I feel. and then I love bringing stuff to the show. Like, I find this, I don't really post on Instagram anymore.

I'm just like, it's so lacking in nuance and depth. And it's either a bit like, I'm having a really nice day. And if you're not, I feel a bit weird sharing that. And vice versa, and I don't want to share it in such a kind of two second way. Anyway, it's so nice to take those bigger things and those bigger conversations and have them here where we can like actually unpack them and chat. Yeah, exactly. We have the time here to voice opinions and different sides of the equation.

So Ella, before we go into the health headlines that matter today, how have you been and what have you been up to? I am, yeah, I'm so good. I am really enjoying the slower pace of the middle of summer and like not rushing in the mornings in the same way, trying to get everybody ready and out the door and fed and all the rest of it, which is so nice. I do always find these days a bit not strange because I'm really enjoying them, but where I keep her. we were talking about the four hob theory recently and how like you can really dial up one but you can't really really dial up four and as someone that's quite an all or nothing person inherently I find that a really helpful concept because I as you know had worked dialed up very very very very high above and beyond anything else for 15 years and I've since dialed it down

but over the summer holidays I've got the kids and so I'm really trying to kind of, yeah, just be a bit more present, a bit more focus on things and say like, it's okay, you know what, I can pick that back up in a second. I don't have to do everything today. Don't have to do it all perfectly. And that's my kind of thing that I'm working on the moment. I don't know about anyone else, but I find that quite hard who always feel like you've got to do the best job of everything, but you can't do the best job of everything at once. And when they're here all day, I find that kind of being sort of semi-present, not great because it's bad work and it's bad parenting. I just think being present really difficult full stop sometimes.

I think for so many of us today, like we discuss on the podcast, it's nice to share that actually, Alex, I'm sure lots of people right now are feeling that way across the summer. And also to add, as you all know, I discuss, or I touch on ever so slightly, this is not what the wellness scoops about, but I touch on the issues with the climate at the moment. And we've officially just been declared in the UK with certain areas having drought in Wales for the first time in 190 years. So it's kind of I'm feeling at the moment like it's a very big day. I'm almost praying in a way I never have before for the heavens to open and rain, Ella. Oh my gosh, Rie, I'm exactly the same because we've been a little cloudy at points this week

and I've looked at the sky and I'm like, you can do it. I mean, the grass in our house is like, I mean, it's honestly, it's like a desert. Like it's crisp and it's so dead. I don't know if any way it can come back to life. Anyways, I just, yeah, I completely agree with you. And it's funny, I was someone else on Instagram posting like a long sleeve top and shorts being saying, like, how used to living in a hot country have we all become because it's 27 degrees and then wearing long sleeves? Wow. Everybody do correct us if we're wrong, but I read as well on social media. It takes your body two weeks to adapt to the climate change and the heat wave. Personally, I do not feel like I'm adapting. I'm just too hot 24-7. But,

apparently lots of us have adapted and that's what's happening is that we're finding it cold when it dropped to 23 one day. I actually think that's true and like the kids this morning came down and it was say 20 and they're like, oh, it's freezing. I know and before we'd have been like, wow, that's so warm. And so anyway, before we become very stereotypically British discussing the weather, we don't bury ahead in the sand. We're very, very aware of what's going on as well. But we also have a job to do here, which is to dissect these mountains of wellness headlines. because goodness me, Ella, shall we move on to our health headlines that matter? We shall, and do you know what?

We've had it in for another episode, but on that, what you just said very, very quickly, apparently we are also going to see some real shortages, particularly on things like cucumber. Potatoes. As a result of these really unusual conditions that we've had, obviously not just in the UK, the cucumber, I think, very affected by countries like Morocco, if I'm understanding it correctly. Anyway, we'll pick back up on it.

But yeah, we're going to see some big shortages as a result. I have to say, you know, I got into my veggie garden this year. And I just took this mentality of like, I've never done this before. I'm just going to give it a go. You know, some things are going to work. Some things are not going to work. Definitely has been the case. But I did a few cucumber seeds.

And I have a very small greenhouse. There was space for a few tomatoes, one cucumber. But I had three more cucumber little plants. So I thought, well, I'll put them outside. if they don't work, it just doesn't matter. I've got nothing to lose. I am swimming in cucumbers. That's not me gloating in the face of the drought,

just to be super clear. But just to say, it's nuts because cucumbers, I don't think are meant to grow in a garden outside in the UK this quickly. But I have got so many. And it's just because it has been so hot. I'm getting more than in my greenhouse. It's wild. It is wild.

And it's also just another example. So for anyone listening, you have to imagine on a mass scale producing, obviously with hose pipe bands, all sorts of things that we've got, we cannot be watering the crops in the field to the degree they probably need consistently and then the heat is evaporating from the ground. So what we've had with these consistent heat waves is a constant evaporation of moisture, which means that we're just drying out the soil down so that, you know, it makes sense to me that in your own garden, your crops might be able to thrive, but obviously on a mass scale, it's just another

story. Also other countries who provide lots of the produce in our supermarkets have had obviously even more extreme weather than we have. I'd be really interested as well. I know some of our listeners work in farming or our farmers as well because what I have noticed is like there's lots of farms around where we are and there's one that we can see from the house. And I think they're already starting harvesting crops that you don't normally see till August.

So let us know. Well, I also trying to stop wildfires, right? I just keep seeing these videos of tractors trying desperately to cut back and stop spreading. So yeah, let us know what's going on everyone. If you're in these industries, we really are thinking of you. And then our first health headline today is another kind of wake-up call, Ella, in a very different genre. It is. Yeah, it's interesting that you said that. This was picked up absolutely everywhere. I think this headline was from the BBC. The UK is raising one of the unhealthiest generations in decades. No, sorry, that was actually from the Guardian.

but the Guardian then had a second follow-up on this looking at some letters from readers, and the headline there was yet another wake-up call on declining child health. It's really scary and exactly as it says on the tin, essentially there was a big report, a publication that came out on the state of child health from the Royal College of Pediatricians and Child Health. And what it showed was that nearly a decade on from the first report on the same topics, children's health across the UK has either worsened or completely stalled across almost every major measure. That obviously in and of itself is super concerning, but where this leaves us is that children in the UK are among the unhealthiest in Western Europe.

And there's some absolutely terrifying stats in there really quickly before we get on to this. I also think it's maybe this is ridiculous to have to caveat, you tell me. But we don't share headlines on children because we're parents. this would be very relevant whether we were parents or not parents. This is so critical to all of us because ultimately the state of each generation's health has huge economic implications above and beyond. To some extent in terms of the effect on everyone, almost anything else. Like the colossal weight of this on the welfare system, on the NHS, it is absolutely vast.

And so it affects all of us. And so I think it's just important to know, that because it is a kind of, it's not an individual issue, it's a collective problem for want to a better word for the whole of the country and kind of every component part in terms of how it impacts kids to work through. So let's reel off some of these statistics because, you know, I also want to know if any of you work in primary school settings, what you see and what you witness. It's really interesting to hear your feedback as working professionals that maybe work with children as well. So one in five children. A,

age eight to 16 now have a probable mental health disorder. So we know that mental health is declining in children in this country. The UK now, and this is for me, this is absolutely wild, Ella. We have the lowest childhood vaccination rates of any G7 country. I mean, we can discuss this in depth another time. I obviously think these things stemmed from COVID probably, moving forwards, and the misinformation online, but let's get into that. children living in the most deprived communities are four times more likely to die from asthma,

which is something that should be available at your GP and inhaler, you know, something that should be checked out, something this just should not be happening. Then we've got babies born into the most deprived communities are more than twice as likely to die during infancy. God, makes me sad when I speak about it. One in four children starting primary school are overweight or living with obesity. So that means we're rising to more than one in three. It used to be one in four of children now in primary school in England will be overweight or obese.

And then children in the most deprived areas, again, are more than four times more likely to be living with severe obesity by 10 to 11. And the issue with this is that if you are obese or overweight as a child, as we've discussed before, Ella, and I think we discussed with Professor Charles Yo in one of our episodes last year as well, that this means that they are far more likely to carry that through to adulthood. and it just means there's a consistent strain on that child's health their entire life. It's challenging. It's so challenging. And as we said a second ago, that's not to put, you know, blame at the feet of parents by any means. As we said, this is such a kind of collective issue to solve looking at, you know, government, food industry, health bodies, community funding. You know, this is a very, very, very nuanced and complex issue.

But as you said, that's the big. concern is that excess weight in childhood significantly increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, obstructive sleep, apnea, muscular skeletal conditions and some cancers later in life. And moderate to severe obesity has even been linked to reduction in life expectancy of between two and 10 years. So, and then obviously beyond that, the physical health, children of the obesity are also unfortunately proven to be more likely to experience bullying, anxiety, depression, lower self-esteem and poor educational outcomes. So it's so worrying.

And then obviously most worrying of all is that there's obviously this huge thread from everything that we read out there, the kind of headlines from the report, that inequality is, as we know, one of the biggest issues at play here in almost every stage of childhood outcomes are substantially worth for children growing up in the most deprived communities in this country. Whether that's asthma, infant mortality, obesity, deprivation, constantly has this really big impact on poor health and it's, you know, it's obviously wrong on every level and it's just really worrying. It's incredibly worrying. And reading this off, you know, it's why I've also wanted to professionally throw a lot of weight towards children's nutrition

recently because one of the areas, of course, that we can improve is access to nutrition, isn't it? Nutricious food, the school meal discussion. But then we have to look at the health uptake of vaccination rates and all sorts of things that are healthier children. So like Ella said, this will impact all of us in the years to come rather than now potentially. And it's one that I think we should raise because on the wellness scoop, we like to talk about preventative health just as much as just discussing dire statistics. We do believe there's hope. There always has to be hope. And hopefully with these types of headlines, perhaps it will wake up a few of the people that are in the positions of power to make a change. Yeah, I hope so. And I think it is, yeah, it's incredibly important to talk about.

you know, I think we like to, as we always say, kind of cover the huge topics and they're really serious and quite frankly difficult to talk about or upsetting topics just as much as we like to talk about viral videos about why bananas and smoothies will apparently be absolutely terrible for your health. Spoiler, that's obviously not true. And actually interesting again to this whole point of all of the millions different headlines that we can't fit in at the moment. But we'll talk about this soon. There was another new report that came out almost simultaneously showing that restoring Britain's health to just 2014 levels, which were better than today, not phenomenal, but statistically better than today, could

add 2% to the UK's GDP. This came out from a paper published by the Health Foundation, obviously, which was arguing that health is an economic asset, which is something I would totally agree with, and showing that, as I said, restoring Britain's health to 2014 levels, not only would add 2% to the UK's GDP, but also could generate. it's 72 billion for public finances. I'm sure that is a combination of both savings in healthcare, but also increase in productivity, because obviously the huge impact on our health is detrimental to productivity,

which is incredibly important for our economy, which we do need to grow for everyone's sake. So, yeah, it's really interesting. There's so many different angles to look out on this, but lots more to talk about anything you guys have read or any interesting inputs you have on this conversation. We would love, love, love to hear from you. Exactly, Ella. There are so many facts to consider here. So I think actually it moves us on in a different way to the other types of headlines that we're experiencing in the country at the moment, which it's so bizarre, isn't it, to think that we are actually literally striving for 2014 rates of health. Yet we are still divvying up these sorts of headlines. The headline two is beans for blokes, broccoli for women, which veggies protect young hearts. Now, I always find it fascinating when we look at gender divinely.

as well when it comes to nutrition conversations and food, because there are stereotypes, of course, that exist. But this is actually based on a new study, which came from Edith Cohen University in Australia. And it suggested that vegetables are offered the greatest protection against future heart disease and type 2 diabetes do differ, potentially, between men and women.

Yeah, exactly. And this is definitely early thoughts on the topic. But it is interesting. So the researchers in the study that we are, mentioned we're looking at health and dietary data from 638 young adults and those were people who were taking part in a long running study called the Rain Study. And they did find some really interesting differences. So young men who ate more legumes, so we're talking about like chickpeas and white beans, etc. As well as peas and lentils were significantly less like you to show early

warning signs of heart disease. Whereas young women who ate more cruciferous veg, so we're talking like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage there, was significantly less like he should. show early warning signs of both heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Exactly. And I think, look, older people already, of course, living with the disease weren't mentioned here. This was people in their 20s. And it's quite interesting for us researchers to look at data that early on because often we are looking at an older adult sample when we look at a lot of nutritional research with things that involve diseases. But because these sorts of things are moving forwards and they're getting younger and younger with different generations, this is where we're starting to look.

researchers were looking at the warning signs of future health problems. Now, these warning signs that they looked at included the waist circumference, the blood pressure, cholesterol and triglyceride counts, blood sugar. In fact, almost one in five participants already had multiple cardio metabolic risk factors despite being so young and age. It's like we're saying that these risk factors are occurring now in younger generations like they haven't done before. So why do we think men and women and respond differently. Now, this is what I love the thought process behind it. The researchers think it could come down to the different plant compounds found in these vegetables. So perhaps the most encouraging finding was that you just have to add one extra serving a day of relevant vegetables,

and that is associated with a substantially lower risk. So legumes contain compounds that may have a greater influence on the sex hormones testosterone, while the cruciferous vegetables compare the compounds that were strongly situated with us females, so things like

estrogen, progesterone. I mean, that's a theory at there, but, you know, it's interesting. It is interesting.

And obviously, it was an observational study so it can only just show an association. It's not going to prove and obviously nothing in isolation is going to do there.

So it doesn't prove that just eating more broccoli is going to prevent diabetes in women or that just eating chick peas are going to directly protect men's health. It's one study.

just over 600 people. But it's just interesting, as you said, to look at how the certain compounds could potentially particularly be beneficial for some of us. Actually, on the cruciferous veg, I do see that a lot on social media in terms of women's cycles

and excess estrogen at point. So that's interesting to see again. I actually just made a video yesterday talking on seed cycling and discussing it in depth. Oh my gosh, that's so funny. Because my sister, what happened the other day?

And was like, what do you think about seed cycling? Is it legit? You can't say that and they're not giving us an overview. Well, you have to look at my post, everybody, because these posts tend to flop because they're just health information. It's about splitting the types of seeds at the first half of your cycle and the second half of your cycle.

Which seeds go at the start if you're following it? Of the top of my head, I'm pretty sure that the second half were the flax seeds and the first half were the things like the sunflower seed. and things. Sesamees. Yeah. And honestly, their evidence isn't there,

but what's so interesting is that we just need to include more of these things in our diets. You know, we're talking once again about all of us having more wonderful vegetables,

seeds, pulses, nuts, fiber, fiber, everybody, healthy fats in our diets. And we're just over-complicating it consistently, just like we'll go back to the banana example.

We should not be isolating foods in this way. We really should just be trying to include them every single day. or every other day of the week can embrace them and enjoy them. Sometimes I think we almost want to complicate it because it's almost like if we have rules to follow,

there's a structure and a guideline and we kind of know what we're doing. It's really interesting. I think we are, I said earlier, I'm an all or nothing person. I definitely am. I think quite a lot of people maybe lean towards that and the sort of ambiguity of flexibility

can be a bit overwhelming to some extent. And so it's almost like, okay, if someone says, do you have a tablespoon of this on day one, this seed on day two, this on day three, it's like a rule, a boundary, feels quite safe to some extent. And you feel like that might answer the issue, whereas I think the kind of more general, I know we just need many, many more seeds. And the seeds are so beneficial for you. But as alongside the lentils and the chickpeas and the avocados and the olive oil, etc.

Well, this is the issue that it's rules, it's diet culture. It's we've lost intuitive eating. we've lost the ability to just live and just be because that's why we need rules because society is so hard. We have honestly lost the just being. It's so interesting and obviously, you know, I'm teaching a lot of meditation at the moment. And so much of that is just this learning to sit. Not for long. I mean, we're talking about like 10, 15 minutes here.

But it's amazing how difficult it is actually for most of us today to just be. To like just sit and just be. It's so difficult. Even if we're talking about 15 minutes in a whole day. And you don't say that in a critical way. Like, it's taking me a long time to learn to do that. But it is interesting. And often when you say to people about meditation,

they're like, oh, I just could never sit with myself for that much time. I think we just are very used to not feeling anything. And because it makes us uncomfortable. And that's why the algorithms should be banned for under 16s. And all these discussions we're having because we want to try and help us all break away from those feelings and learn that we shouldn't feel uncomfortable ourselves. And what I don't want to see from us discussing this particular study is that women should eat broccoli and men should eat beans.

It's just a reminder that all veg are very powerful. But do you know what? When I post that seed cycling video, everyone, come on, show me some laugh. It's just bought her. Sorry. At least you're still trying. I literally just don't try anymore on social media. I'm just like, every now and again, I'm like, oh, you should give it a go.

and then I'm like, I hate it. I actually just hate it. I'm on meditation guys, wellness group community, now 112,000 minutes of meditation. And there's only been 24 days since we started sharing this. So I'm proud, I'm really happy about it. It's incredible. And one other positive thing. You know, you said that fruits are coming out earlier. I've just looked outside my window while we're recording this. And there's like a rogue blackberry bush that's poking out through my normal head row. And normally that comes out in autumn. I know. I love. Blackberries. I'm really excited about that. Where we're moving to in a few weeks, oh my goodness gracious, in the back of the garden is the biggest Blackberry bush I've ever seen. So I'm very excited about that.

Well, they're there now, Ella. You need to go early and start stalking them. I don't need to get going. I do need to get going. Anyway, but I also forgot so at the beginning of the show on meditation. I also took part in a really cool free course on Insight Timer, which is a really nice free app or pretty much everything on there's free. If you just want to kind of dabble. And they did a 10-day course to support kind of exhaustion and that feeling of burnout. Anyway, I taught the first class in the course. It's completely free. You can still join it.

I'll put a link in the show notes. I love that, Anna. They're all under 10 minutes, 10 days. If you just want to dip your toe in something, quite fun. Hear that? It's your money calling. It wants a promotion. Elevate your savings with the Scotia high-interest savings account.

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AI Cloud ERP for M. Any Size Business. Headline 3 does link nicely. We have segued unintentionally again from gender vegetables and food into screen time for children with two major new studies. But this goes to show that our brains are definitely not built or wired to consume as much screen time as we are. And this particular conversation, you know, much of it has always focused on teens,

hasn't it, in social media, especially since adolescence came out, that TV show, I felt like the awareness really catapulted through the roof, but researchers have said there's a baby blind spot. Yeah, this was so interesting. I don't know if you guys remember it. A few months ago we talked about the fact that the government published what they said was sort of kind of quite landmark guidance. This was just guidance on how screen time should be treated in the kind of preschool age category.

Now, obviously there's so much research going on at the moment is and there across the board in terms of what is social media doing to all of us as a collective, what they looked at so as researchers from four different universities in the country. And they basically have concluded from this research that this is so interesting, I think, and I, whilst this is specifically about babies and toddlers, it's like if it's doing it for baby and toddlers, it's going to be having an impact on us all. So I think it's quite interesting in that sense. But basically, under the age of two, there should be no regular intentional screen time, none. And that the evidence that links early screen time use to poorer health and development and that that evidence is way too strong

to ignore, which is so interesting, it's being described this review as the most comprehensive assessment of global evidence to date. Unsurprisingly, then calls on the government to change the guidance, which at the moment recommends avoiding screen time for under twos except for when it's shared activities that encourage bonding and conversation, whereas this report says, no, no, no, no, that gives people kind of easy way to use screens. It should just be a blanket. No, no screens for under twos. My children watch screens under two.

I just want to say that. I think that's important because I don't want people to think that we've always been perfect or done things perfectly. Definitely not. But equally, I think this is absolutely staggering. It's really, really important. And actually, you know, as a first time lockdown parent that I definitely had some teteutbies and dancing vegetables on the screen, the review link.

The review links, regular screen time and under two, we've reduced parent-child bonding, so delayed language development, porous sleep, which is interesting, over-stimulation, less physical play, potential impacts on eye health. That to me is so intriguing and a higher risk of childhood obesity. So it definitely seems to be impacting our entire way of living, being, moving, feeling, thinking, Ella. the authors are calling on the government to strengthen this, like you said. And it actually links to other headlines we've seen recently where teenagers sleep better without social media. I mean, I sleep better without social media. This was picked up everywhere and it made me laugh in a way because it's like, yeah,

like shocking. We obviously it's important because it's got to be evidence-based to make huge interventions on society. But equally it made me laugh because it was like, okay, like I think we know this. I should have been watching wildfires before I go to bed and panicking about the state of the world every single night when I go to sleep. It's just not healthy. Exactly. Like we're all the same in that sense. Anyway, obviously this is really unsurprising.

But because there's obviously so many different interventions being looked at in terms of limitation of screens and social media devices, particularly for teenagers at the moment, there was a study that came out. And it was basically following just more than 300 families as they reduced their. the teenagers social media use in different ways. So families did one of three things. They either had a 9pm to 7 a.m. overnight curfew or they had to remove social media apps altogether or they were just limited to 15 minutes on each app per day. And across all three groups, all three obviously reducing time spent on social, had better sleep, lower stress, improved concentration, more time with friends and family. This was a government study. They reported that some families even saw a 30% increase in family time, which is unbelievable. But obviously, it's not

simple. So essentially, what they found of these three interventions was the overnight curfew proved the most practical long-term solution because it delivered on all of these scores that we want to improve, but it also created the less sort of friction, restriction, and therefore it was the most likely to continue after the study. I think what's so fascinating about this, is that I'm now starting to see screen times. I think we've discussed it before. We can't use the exact word addictive, but it's designed to hook you

because researchers acknowledge that some of the challenges of implementing any restrictions on social media is that you can get withdrawals, Ella. Withdrawals. So they found that teens were irritable, that was household tension. They were experiencing withdrawals

like somebody that's cutting down the caffeine intake. I mean, it's absolutely fascinating. Overall, these findings definitely suggest that even, you know, small, simple boundaries are probably a very good idea for the well-being of the future generations. And us. And us right now. I think we need them too. I feel like there just needs to be a blanket. Yeah.

Curfew. You know, I've been feeling so I'm a bit run down. You can probably hear my voice everyone. It's not as clear as it always is. But I feel nauseous when I look at social media. It makes me want to throw up. I guess it's not that good for you. Okay, guys, what is trending?

We have two things for you today. The first is re-sent this on our like chat for the wellness scoop, a graph that showed fiber might actually be the new protein, which is very cool. It's cool, but also alarming for the multitude of products that are going to have fiber plastered across them. But according to analysis that I found on Google Trends by Fit Insider, searches in the States for foods high in fibre have now overtaken foods high in protein for the

first time. And Ella saw an article in Forbes that was published asking his fibre the new protein. So I honestly think, Ella, now we look at things, it is positive inherently because people know protein's important, but they didn't know fibres important. So if this helps get that message out there, then that's fan-blumentastic. However, I feel like I'm constantly myth-busting in newspaper articles at the moment, you'll probably see my comments and a lot of them coming up soon, saying that no magic drink with an added fibre or chewing gum or chocolate bar of added fibre is going to offer the benefits of eating a whole plant food diet with fibre for your gut. Yeah, I totally agree. It's really exciting. I think probably the reason why Google trends are seeing food's high in fiber higher now

than food's high in proteins. I think probably everybody knows that food time protein include chicken and like fish. Protein's pretty well understood. Maybe plant protein a little bit less so, but it's generally pretty well understood. Whereas I think people honestly, sometimes you're like a surprise where fibre is. You're like it's in all plant foods.

Oh, I have any. So I think there's obviously as you're doing, but there's a big education piece there. But it's really exciting to see people be curious and people listening. But I would say I totally agree with, as we talked about the other day, there's almost 40,000 products,

for example, in American supermarkets that have kind of been proteinified. We'll see the same in fiber. Of course we will. And I would just say to everyone listening, exactly as you said a second ago, really, like I would just watch out, not if you see, I don't know, an energy ball or a granola that says high in fiber, because that's going to be coming from nuts and seeds and apricots and dates and that's different. But if you're seeing like a fizzy drink that's got vibrant, that's just ultimately the source of fiber there.

You know, it's just not doing the same. Like add a tablespoon of lentils to your salad. Pop some frozen peas in the pan when you're making pasta. Yeah, if you love bolognese, you know, add some lentils to it alongside the meat. Like just these little teeny things, even just making like as snacks, you know, get a jar of roasted red peppers. blend it with chickpeas, lemon, tahini, garlic, olive oil, delicious, like such a nice snack.

So just these little, you don't have to change everything about your diet, but if you're thinking about it, just these little bits of added fruit, veg, legumes, nuts. So good. Or even just like if you have like apples, cut your apple and then just dip it into nut butter. Amazing little boost.

It's your carbs and your plants. So if you see a product that's not got any carbohydrates in it or any plants, then the fibre claim is going to be a very unusual one, I have to say. Yeah, they technically have fibre, but it's not going to be the fibre that's like game changing for your gut and it's almost certainly going to have a lot of UPFs with it. If it's delicious and it's the kind of like, and that's what your dream treat is, like, crack on. I just don't think for most of us it is. I think that lies in more in the like chocolate department for most people. Exactly. And what is chocolate anymore in the UK? Because obviously we can't call lots of

traditional chocolate's chocolate. So life is changing on the supermarket shelves. Yeah, but really, that's because the prices of chocolate have gone up so much again, because of changes in global farming as a result, to a huge extent because of global warming. I mean, the price of cacao's gone up an absolutely extraordinary degree. I mean, we had it obviously when we owned delicious yellow and we had our factory and like, you know, you see the margin like disappear overnight because the cost of making the same product was just absolutely extraordinary. And so basically, to make selling these products that have been household favorites, like a penguin bar or something, plausible for the companies. They have to reduce the amount of cacao in there. I actually just looked

it up to double check exactly. And I think essentially, the price of cacao's risen by more than 100% could be over 200% at its peak compared to historical baselines. I mean, completely skyrocketed, essentially. And so, yeah, as I said, these huge companies where cacao is a critical component par, but there's many other flavors in there. So they're essentially not allowed to call them chocolate anymore because the amount of cacao in there is now below a certain threshold. So they're just chocolate flavored. We're entering a whole new era of food. I feel like everybody needs to be retrained on sustainability and how we're actually going to manage to produce and how and when and should we produce certain types of food. Things are definitely changing.

And it moves us on to how tech is changing. Our wearables, our next trend is that wearables are entering their hormone era. Yeah, this is interesting because, I mean, this is just so super early stage. We obviously have talked a lot recently, haven't we, about the kind of era of optimization, the obsession that we are seeing with tracking, with kind of getting to know every part of ourselves, but not intuitively getting to know every part of ourselves, in terms of like, like let's say this, we're talking about hormones and kind of female cycles in that sense of like writing down, yeah, dates and you know, how do you feel the few days before your period,

for example, or how do you feel at these stages? It's relying on tech to tell you it's a bit like your sleep, etc. So which is interesting and I think the loss of intuition. And actually, I was thinking about this the other day and I saw it in myself. And I know some of you don't like it, but I think the vast majority of people are now using AI a lot and asking questions to it. And it is interesting. I can see how we lose our intuition because instead of asking ourselves, what's the answer to this? So ask chat chit. Anyway, on this topic of developments within tracking, unsurprisingly, I think we're going to start

to see we've obviously been able to track our sleep, our exercise, our stress to some extent through some of those wearables, obviously our step count. It looks like the next thing that people are looking at being able to track is hormones, which is interesting because you're talking about seed cycling and things a minute ago. I did also see, not included in the notes for today, a new device in the press where you breathe into it to see if you've gone into a fat burning zone. I know they exist, but coming again a bit more mass market like a aura or a whoop or whatever, which is interesting.

But this is about a huge fundraise that a company in America just did for almost $12 million to get off the ground. a bracelet this is that would track your cycle. Okay. Before we get into the details, really, like, what's your top line thoughts on this? My top line is it's incredibly difficult to accurately track anything that's going on internally in our bodies. It's really not, I mean, remember when glucose monitors were all the rage and then we have the, you know, to get an average reading, you needed to test yourself something ridiculous

like 70 to 90 times because of the inaccuracies. and that was a massive, massive trend with science behind it at the time. And I think it's fantastic we learn more about our hormones. I think there's a massive gap. I mean, I was not educated until probably the age of 30 plus with my own personal body, menstrual cycle hormones. I don't think any of us really were. And I do think it's incredibly important.

In fact, the founder of Hurtility, Dr. Helen O'Neill was saying that there's a list, a long list of words that are actually blacklisted on social media because they're called too political to do with female health. So if you just say the word uterus, you are blacklisted. I will get her to give us a voice note. Will you please bring that for next week? That would be so interesting. Yes, because what I'm finding very interesting is that we have to as women advocate and shout about the inaccuracies in research for female health. Now, do I think that this should be financial gain error for a wearable tech measuring hormones that we don't know if it's fully accurate. I'm not so sure. However, I can see the appeal. I'm very on the fence at the moment, Ella,

until I see more, but with the breathing calorie counters and all sorts of different things, you know, you've got to take all of a pinch of sulk. Normally we do these types of things in laboratories of controlled conditions. So that's my over. That's my take. You give us the snaps. That's my take. I'll give you the stats. I thought to me, I'm not a massive fan of measuring everything. I say that all my siblings now wear an aura ring and I feel like everyone around me does. I feel like I'm like this dinosaur kind of like old school loser. Trust yourself.

Trust your body. Sit and meditate. Connect with yourself. This I think is much more exciting because it's obviously so common to have challenges with your menstrual cycle and your metriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, although I know the name of that has just changed. But there's lots of different gynaological hormonal issues

that women have and getting enough information on these topics can be so difficult. And so this is one where I'm like actually tracking seems more interesting. And that's sort of where the whole thing came from. So the company is called Claire. I think it'll be really interesting to watch it. But it was started by this 22 year old. She's the co-founder's two Stanford grads. But she actually starts at her name's Jenny Duane. And she basically had spent months and months logging her menstrual cycle into tracking apps, hoping they'll be able to help her and tell her something useful, but she didn't find that. Her cycle was super unpredictable,

the apps kept sort of getting it, quote, unquote, wrong. And basically she found they were recording symptoms, but they weren't really helping her understand what was actually going on in her body. And I know lots of people very close to me who have very unpredictable cycles. They're finding it really frustrating, lots of them getting to an age that made me thinking about children

and wanting to know more, and it's difficult to know more. So I actually think it's a really interesting concept anyway. is basically this bracelet and the bracelet uses 10 different sensors to get information like skin temperature, heart rate, breathing rate, sleep, feeds the data through these learning models to estimate changes in hormones. So obviously things like our Eastern progesterone, LH, FSH, anyway, but this is the really interesting part, Ray, and this is the part that I think we're going to want to follow is the company says so far, having been through the testing phases, they are thinking,

that there are not four phases of the menstrual cycle, but nine distinct sub-phases of the menstrual cycle. And I think that is so interesting, basically. Anyway, and I can't wait to hear more. Well, I'm fascinated. So my initial reaction on my head is I need to find a gynecologist and I'll get Dr. Helen O'Neill, hopefully, or somebody in this area,

to come and comment on this and give us all the lowdown because I remember when those temperature tracking apps first came out and there was a big uproar from the medical community saying this isn't accurate. They were trying to measure the temperature changes. So I think this is all fascinating. I'm so here for more research on women's health. Let's look at it. Let's see and watch the space and see what they have to say.

And anyone listening, have you got a device like this? Do you track your cycle? Because I do use those tracking apps, Ella, to track my cycle. And I find that really helpful, you know, to know, well, before I got pregnant, obviously, when your period's coming, when it's not. And then I saw something Dr. Philippa Kay said yesterday, because what's just been announced in the UK, I don't know if you have followed this and we should probably pick up on this as well, is there suggesting a certain amount of days of leave for women going through menstrual cycles. And actually, the reaction hasn't been as positive as I'd have thought towards it because doctors are arguing if you have a menstrual cycle that's causing that much debilitation, there's something underlying that's wrong. The answer isn't just give them time off. It's we need to help these. we need to actually get to the bottom of the research. So it's a humongous topic right now, which is great. And I think we need medics of all angles and professions to comment, Ella.

Can't wait to hear more. Yeah, I totally agree. As we all know, kind of women's health has been understudied, underfunded. And I think it's interesting to see so much more funding and research and curiosity coming into this topic. I track my cycle. I actually do it in a very basic way. I just literally do it on the iPhone health app. But it's so much. helpful. And as you said, like, I was in my, you know, late 20s before I understood anything about really the different stages of the cycle and how different I would feel. And even like, you know, I will notice. I'm like, why do I really just want to eat like sweet things? And I'm slightly lacking in motivation and I just kind of want to binge terrible TV shows. And I'm like,

oh yeah, my period's due tomorrow. And I think that I've always just felt, as I said, I do believe that is important to have a relationship with yourself and understand yourself and self-compassion is so important. And then it's really easy to be like, oh, this is normal. It's really normal that I feel a bit more bloated. It's really normal that, you know, my digestive system might be a little bit different to normal. It's very normal that I might be a little bit hungry,

wanting a little bit more sweet food, a little bit more comfort food. It's very, very normal that I want to kind of curl up at home. And you're not kind of judging yourself and not being your most shiny extroverted self. You're very kind to yourself. and like, this is normal. This is my body. I know what's going on. Exactly. Do you know what? How groundbreaking if there were nine phases of our cycle and not just four, Ella, that we never knew before. I mean, honestly, this, I feel like I said, we're in a whole new era of food. We're in a whole new era of discovering women's health. We're in a whole new era of wellness. We're here to keep you informed wellness scupers and we will make sure we keep diving deeper.

Yeah. And maybe there are nine stages to our mental cycle. Who knew? But if it's true, you heard it here first. Amazing, guys. We love being here with you. Thank you so much. As always, we will be back on Thursday. We have so many show, like TV show recommendations after I talked about my failed post off campus, which I have a hilarious update on. We're going to be talking about what smelly farts mean. We're going to be talking about blood type diets, whether you actually have to eat a rainbow, what herbs, colorful fruits, etc. why they need more attention, things about complete proteins. Yeah, so much in there. And we're also going to talk about a Wellness Scoop challenge for next year. And Rhee has a big update for us on some new guidelines.

So we can't wait to see you guys on Thursday. Yeah, we just love this show. I just love this show. It's so fun. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Bye.