The Wellness Scoop - Fasting Myths, Gut-Boosting Pasta & A Five-Year Brain Boost

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

This week on The Wellness Scoop, we unpack four headlines shaping how we eat and think about health. A major Cochrane review finds intermittent fasting is no more effective for weight loss than standard calorie-controlled diets, despite its surge in popularity. We explore what the evidence actually shows and why public perception may not match the data. We then dive into resistant starch, the underrated fibre found in foods like lentils and cooled pasta, and explain how simple preparation tweaks can support gut health, cholesterol and blood sugar balance. New research also suggests that lifelong reading, writing and learning could lower dementia risk by nearly 40% and delay onset by up to five years. We unpack what this means for cognitive reserve and long-term brain resilience. And finally, we look at the rise of matcha. From high street launches to social media hype, we break down whether it really deserves its health halo and how it compares to coffee. Order your copy of Ella's new book: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Quick Wins: Healthy Cooking for Busy Lives⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Pre-order your copy of Rhi's upcoming book: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Fibre Formula⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uh, where are my gloves? Come on, heat. Any day now? Winter is hard, but your groceries don't have to be. This winter, stay warm. Tap the banner to order your groceries online at voila.ca. Enjoy in-store prices without leaving your home. You'll find the same regular prices online as in-store.

Many promotions are available both in-store and online, though some may vary. You don't need AI agents, which may sound weird. coming from Service Now, the leader in AI agents. The truth is, AI agents need you. Sure, they'll process, predict, even get work done autonomously. But they don't dream, read a room, rally a team, and they certainly don't have shower thoughts, pivotal hallway chats, or big ideas. People do.

And people, when given the best AI platform, they're freed up to do the fulfilling work they want to do. To see how ServiceNow puts AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com. Welcome to the Wellness Scoop. twice weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. And as always, we're both here as your host. I'm Ella Mills. And I'm Rianna Lambert. And after a decade in the wellness industry, we know how overwhelming and confusing health advice can be. And that's why we're here with this podcast to cut through the noise and make healthier living, simple, fun and personal.

And guys, we made it to March. Oh my gosh, I feel spring is in the air. Oh, well done, everyone. It's just the warmth on my skin, just a little bit. And I'm sure you guys have been the Southern Hemisphere, different story. And thank you for listening all over the world. But certainly, I know for me, there's something like I woke up, so it was quarter seven or something this morning. And I opened the curtains. And it was pretty light.

I could see the sunrise. I've got blossom on my trees starting to appear. Pink or white blossom. I was like, oh my gosh. It's unbelievable difference in me. So the school run, it's light. Spring is giving me a spring in my staff. Yeah.

So anyone listening around the world, I just cannot describe how depressing. the UK winters are and when you get a hint of colour and warmth, you just feel like a new person. January and February are rough and I always think it's so weird, isn't it? I'm sure lots of you feel the same way. But the New Year's resolutions and like aims to get healthier start on the 1st of January when like it's almost impossible to motivate yourself. A hundred percent and I just feel tired and lethargic. Yeah, whereas we've obviously just had Chinese New Year and then in a year of the horse apparently, the magical horse, the fire horse. I know. I mean, it's be a great year guys but then in a few weeks at spring equinox isn't it and so basically i feel like

this is new year guys this is like the positive new year and we're here we can gallop into the sunset galloping headlines for you ella what do we have in today's show okay we have loads but quickly i have to say guys we are so kind of humbled appreciative obviously of your ongoing sport but the emails that we're getting oh my goodness i went away to sunny Spain, I made her there, last week over half term. And I think I was away four nights and I got back and we had over 400 emails. And I didn't believe Ella when she messaged me being like, you know, I think you messaged me at first and it's over 300.

And I was like, no, surely not. I was like, no, she hasn't counted them. Like she just looked like estimated through it. And then I was like, oh my goodness, we actually have. It's crazy. So we're just so, yeah, it's so easy to say we're so grateful. We really appreciate it. And it sounds a bit wishy-washy.

But honestly, we really, knowing this means something to you is just unbelievable for us. And what's also helpful is even though obviously we can't get back to every single one, most of them follow the same thread as well. So we are going to be hopefully able to reply to all of you. So keep them coming. You know, we want to see as many as possible. And we are here for it. And we love reading through them.

Totally. It really, really informs all the topics we take. As we said, there's such clear themes in there that you guys want more of. So thank you. Okay. I'm sorry. What's going on? What have we got going on? Okay, we have got, this is a really good one.

There was a big, big, big new review. We was talking about it on Sky News, I think it was, on intermittent fasting. So we're going to dive into that and whether it's any better or not so much than standard diets when it comes to weight loss. What the evidence says about that. We're going to talk about the underrated fibre ingredient that's hiding in your pasta, your potatoes, your lentils and how we can get more of that in our lives. Reading, writing and lifelong learning being linked to a. 40% lower risk of dementia, which is absolutely wild. We're going to dive into that.

And a little bit more on the rise of matcha. There's some quite funny bits to talk about in there, but we'll also go into whether it lives up to the hype and coffee versus matcha. How was Spain then? Tell me. Oh my gosh. It was just heaven. Yeah. It really was.

We were there four nights. We were staying near Marbea and we were just, the weather was bliss. And I always forget, like, I don't know. there's something about that quality family time when you just remove yourself from everything else that is just gold? It's a good time to go. I feel I sadly worked through February

but it went from naught to a thousand very quickly for me work quite as it wasn't meant to be like that. But I think it's so underrated. A lot of people book before, don't they? And perhaps it's the perfect time to escape. Oh my gosh, it was absolutely... Because it's warm, right? It was warm, it was sunny,

we played a lot of Uno, the kids swam in the pool. And you met my friend on the beach. Met Ries friend. More wealth. Yeah. And the girls made friends with her daughter who was so cute.

So no, it was great and just feel ready. As I said, I kind of feel like this is the new year. Yeah. Bring it on. And then you can write about it

on your sub stack. Yes. Which I'm so enjoying. I've also signed myself up. I think I've said I'm doing my breath work teacher training. And I've signed myself up

to another breathwork training, a meditation training and yoga teacher training. So I think this is my big focus this year. I basically expect Ella to walk into the studio.

dressed in some kind of a dawning robe, you know, like flowing loaves. Like, I am the AI monk. Yes, the AI monk. But it's wonderful. It really is. I'm so happy for you. It's so nice to see that all these things you wanted to do last year, you're able to actually do. Yeah, do you know what?

I mean, I did my first yoga teacher training back in 2018, so quite a long time ago now. But, God, I loved teaching. And it's just sort of, I don't know what it was, but I was like, I want to get back to it. You taught me when I was pregnant. I remember. Yeah. I remember. Anyway, you have on the other hand, I feel like if I'm in my learning phase, you're in your absolute like power woman power suit phase. Yeah. All over this place. It's a busy time. It's a busy time. I won't bore you all with it. There's just so much going on. I've got a new mission with children's nutrition as well, which I'll discuss in a few weeks. I'm working really hard on. What I will say is what I loved about the big Sky News feature that we'll get on to later is I was actually given time for the first time I think on a live TV interview. I was given like six or seven minutes.

to speak. That's massive. Massive. And I was able to get actual information out there. I felt there's been a shift in TV or journalism. There's definitely been a change because when I was doing, you know, BBC World or Sky News like 10 years ago, it wasn't the same. You'd be on for maybe two minutes, three minutes. You barely got a chance to get a word in. So I feel very grateful. And I saw Matilda the musical. So I feel like that does just the icing on my cake. We're going in a few weeks. Yeah. Yeah. I'm really excited. And you saw Sirk to Soleil. We saw Sok to Slay. Yes. A few days. ago, oh my gosh. Phenomenal. I know.

Absolutely fantastic. It makes you feel like the weakest human on the planet. Oh my gosh. The sky who's our older daughter was like, I want to be the contortionist. I get into job. You crack on, life goals right there. Oh, I find it hard to watch. Right, I love it.

I'm so glad you love that, Ella. Shall we tackle now the health headlines that matter? Reid, before we get into our three choosy headlines for this week, you actually have a pickup for us, don't you? I saw you popped in a brand new report that came out last week. I do. I got one of those lovely fancy embargoed emails and I was like, Ella, let's quickly pop that on. It is important because we know now that we've got the figures, the US ranks first now globally for ultra-processed food consumption.

We knew it was high, but it's gone up. So 79% of Americans are eating ultra-processed foods nearly every day. And this is data, get this, from 1 million people worldwide. So the 2025 Global Mind Health Report also found that this is just getting larger and larger in younger people, younger generations. It's increasing from 26% among those who are 55 and over to 54% among 18 to 34 year olds, like such a key crucial age and development and growth. And that's the worldwide figures for consumption of UPFs. So worldwide, 54% of 18 to 34 year olds eat UPFs every day.

And it just goes to show that in countries you were, I wouldn't expect as well. This is happening. It is getting worse. And intake is highest obviously in the US and UK and it is still lowest in the Middle East and North Africa. I feel they just have a very strong food culture. I feel, you know, there's a lot of fresh food being made and still that family kind of ritual. But basically, previous peer reviewed studies had linked UPF food to high rates of depression, which we know plays a role, you know, mental health, emotional regulation. And I feel that is the link with ultra-process views that's not being discussed in the press at the moment, don't you think?

I totally agree. Massively. So it kind of links into the project I want to do with children and mental health coming up with food at the end of the year. But essentially, you know, we really need to focus on the fact that mental health is in the decline and perhaps there's a wider link to food than previously thought. Do you know what? I'll give you one slightly off topic, but tip, that your friend Chessie gave me while we were chatting in the pool.

Sunshine girl. Oh, she's such a sunshine girl. But we were talking her daughter similar to our daughters. And we were talking about cooking for kids and nutrition for children and kind of navigating the minefield or I'd see it as a mind field. And I was saying how one of the things that's resonated most with my girls in terms of, and they're five and six just for context, in terms of understanding, the importance of eating proper food is this idea of their gut bugs. And they have to feed their gut bugs and their gut bugs. You know, so they're always asking me like, do gut bugs love this food or that food? Like that book, that belly bugs book.

Exactly. And they really get the premise there that like the gut bugs need feeding anyway. And so we were talking about this and she said, yes, my daughter finds it really helpful to imagine it as a pet. And she has it as an animal. I love that like a tamagotchi and your bugs. Yes. And it was so helpful. So the girls have chosen the animals.

So Sky, who's the older one, has as a giraffe. May has two guinea pigs and two hamsters. I know. It's hilarious. I just couldn't pick a different, I just put in your tummy. You'd think like a fluffy rabbit. I mean, you can't quite, the neck, it's going to be uncomfortable. But anyway, apparently she has a teenage giraffe on her tummy.

And then May says that she has two guinea pigs and two hamsters. Yeah, I'm doing it with the boys tonight at bedtime. That would be my discussion now. It was fantastic. I'll get dragons, though, I bet you. I know, but they got it. I mean, dragons need power. Yeah.

So it was just this really, they really got it when you're like, no, no, no, we need the peas or we need the chick peas or we need the lentils. We need to have some fruit. Like, we've come back from a birthday party. You've had so much sugar. You know, we went to Sote and sleigh and they had popcorn and sweeties and all the rest of it. And I'm like, oh, let's get some, you know, fruits and some veggies, et cetera. I did tell her before she went, I was like, yeah, you're going to have to eat all the popcorn and confectionary there. And I think it's part of the experience and they love it.

But it was really, anyway, just as a recommendation, it was a really helpful tip for that visualization for younger people. I love that. Jessie, why have you not messaged me that before if you're listening? I absolutely love it. I'm doing that tonight. Everyone let's name our pet. What pet lips in your tummy? a good idea. Amazing. So I think it kind of moves on to the opposite. The first headline

today discusses starving our gut bugs and it's with the trend intermittent fasting. And finally, we had a lot of research come out the other week that suggested that it doesn't do anything different or miraculous to normal weight loss diets, which I think we've said for a very long time. But of course, there are always those voices on the internet that say it's a miracle. Yeah, it was interesting. Lots of the authors were basically saying this is just such a clear example of when kind of hype and desire for quick fixes and kind of internet conversations just don't match the evidence, which is so interesting. Anyway, Rhea, I know you're super clued up on this because you did a whole interview as we said about it. But if we take one headline, this, for example, was in The Guardian. It ran intermittent fasting no better than typical weight loss diets. Study finds researches say limited eating, as in fasting. approaches such as the 5-2 diet are not a miracle solution amid the surge in their popularity. And it just makes sense because we're just all unique. And I did caveat in the interview, and this is the one I was given a long chunk of time on. I was so grateful for that nuance because

I was able to say, look, it does work for some people as a weight loss tool. But for most people, it's just going to spiral into disorder eating and be completely unattainable and leave you feeling like a failure because you're just trying to restrict, right? Have you ever tried it? No. I tried it when people were, when it felt like, oh gosh, maybe this was like five years ago. It just felt like such a hype. It was. I remember the one meal a book day.

I remember getting an argument online with someone that was promoting a one. Honestly, it almost felt like if you weren't doing it, then you didn't care about your health to some degree. It's a bit like if you, it's like not eating greens. Do you know what I mean? There was something about it. And so I remember thinking, okay, well, let's try this. And it's interesting because my husband and I tried it at the same time. I bet his results were better.

He actually really felt good on it. The main thing for him was he felt really good when he was doing it. And yeah, it was a success for him. But the problem for him was he would often then be very busy at work and need to break the fast. And then not have time to break it with like a healthy meal. And so we'd end up breaking it with various snacks and things like that, which isn't ideal. So it was quite difficult in that sense within a kind of working in an office environment. I did not feel good on it at all.

I felt dizzy. my period, which has always been super, super regular, I'm very lucky for that. It just did not. Anyway, I felt dizzy. And I was like, what am I doing? I know. It's the female hormones. But I can understand why not try it if you wanted to. But equally, obviously, we're discussing here in isolation

at linking to weight loss, not other reasons for doing it, which are still debated, I must say. There's no solid research. It is beneficial yet. But what we do know, like Sarah Berry said when she came on our podcast, is that it is good to have a significant gap before bedtime and sleep and eating because that is really beneficial for our gut bugs to do their job, do what they need to do. But you're talking about kind of 12, 13 hours here? Yeah.

Like have dinner and then have breakfast. Yeah, to stop snacking after 9 o'clock is the one thing I always do since Sarah said it. I try really hard. It helps me to have a number on the clock. But sometimes when I'm working late, I'm able to break that because I don't have to sort of eating. I'm flexible. And I think if you find yourself thinking, I have to stick to this warm. number all the time. That's when there is an issue with food. But this review was published in the

Cochrane database of systematic reviews and it analyzed 22 randomised clinical trials, which is the gold standard. I love that type of study. It's really good. On 1,995 adults across Europe, Northern America, China, Australia and South America. So really good high quality evidence. And they looked at different forms of fasting and that did include, like we've said, the alternate day fasting and the 5-2 diet where people basically do two days a week of fasting and then the other three they eat normally. I also find that really hard. I think depending on your job and one of the things I said, Ella, in the Sky News interview

and I actually threw it back on the presenter and I said, would you want your doctor in a hospital to be fasting when he's seeing you? He's like, well, absolutely not. You have to think about your lifestyle and what you do. But yeah, over a period of 12 months, they found no meaningful difference in weight loss. And I think it just sums up absolutely everything that we've said about this industry, like you said at the start. I totally get it. Like, who doesn't want a panacea?

Who doesn't want, you know, a perfect solution? But it's just, it's amazing how quickly the internet packages something up as this will solve all your problems. And I think fasting was really effectively packaged up as that. As I said, I feel like I'm pretty robust. But even I was like, I've got to try this. I mean, there were huge advocates for it at the time as well. well. And I actually remember being criticized for not supporting it at the time because I work, obviously back then, I was very heavily in my clinic, completely in the clinic. And I wasn't

doing asthma. I do the odd media jobs, but I wasn't doing as much. I had the Food for Thought podcast. And I had, I did an interview with Dr. Rona and Tony from Kings, I think, and she specializes in intermittent fasting. And we were having this discussion. And I remember getting so much trolling for saying, look, I work with eating disorder clients. someone's like, yeah, well, not everyone's got an eating disorder. I was like, I know, but for most women who've got their menstrual cycle, it is impossible to do it. Like you said, out of your hormones. Yeah, didn't suit me.

Interestingly, on average, the participants who were doing various different types of fasting, lost around 3% of their body weight. It's not bad, yeah. But my understanding is that generally 5% weight loss is sort of considered clinically meaningful in terms of following diets. And so actually, it's not nothing, but in terms of really fundamentally, shifting your health if weight loss is an important part of that. We need to start weight though.

This is it. We need more research on are these people looking at reducing their risk of type 2 diabetes or are they obese? What's the reason for the weight loss? Totally. And the authors did very clearly note that we do need still a lot more research to look at the impact of fasting on different health outcomes outside of weights. So things like type 2 diabetes, other different metabolic disorders, for example.

So it's not to say that fasting is useless. it's totally pointless. Obviously, I also appreciate, we're talking about this as Ramadan at the moment. There are religious components to it. People will be giving up things for lend. Completely. And obviously it just goes without saying

we're really not discussing the kind of religious element of this. That's obviously something to be hugely respected. Anyone doing that. I mean, Ramadan, I'm in awe of you. Completely. But in terms of just purely a weight loss technique, I think it suffice to say

that this state is pretty clear that it's not a magical fix-all. Yeah, 100%. I'm really glad that it came into the headlines because hopefully slowly we're getting these messages out there to everyone. They don't need to fall for these online tricks. At MedCan, we know that life's greatest moments are built on a foundation of good health,

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Medcan, live well for life. Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. You all know me. I'm about adding more in, not cutting things out, no fads, no diets, just evidence and transparency. And right now in the UK, everyone, 96% of us, that's 96% are not getting enough fiber. It's one of the lowest figures in the world, and I couldn't ignore it. So we've spent years obsessing over protein and other trends, and I'm delighted to share that after a year in the making, my new book, the fibre formula, is available to pre-order.

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It leads us on in a very different note to headline two, which is all about the nutrient you didn't know you needed and how to eat more of it. Yes, exactly. Now that headline, as Reader says, comes from at the times talking about resistance starch. Which I didn't put in the brief. Which Eleanor put in the brief, but that she was the contributor to because. I saw it and I read it and I was like, this is so great. It wasn't even meant to be about the book at all, but it was very nice to be able to talk about a type of fibre. So obviously, Reese got the fiber formula book coming out a couple of weeks in the beginning of March or mid-March.

But this whole piece was on resistant starch, which is a really interesting thing. Obviously, we talk a lot about fiber, about feeding those pets in our tummies, all our different gut bugs and how important that is. but resistant starch is kind of one component part of the reason to eat more fiber, but it has all sorts of quirks. Like you might see people say you should eat cooled down and re-cooked potatoes and things like that. So, Re, just walk us through this. What's resistant starch? Why do we need it?

How do we get it? Why are we cooling and cooking potatoes? Well, it impacts your blood sugar levels after you eat and all sorts of things. It's linked to gut benefits with the bacteria preferring its food essentially. I think we're going to refer to it. is our pet and our tummy now. What is your animal? I think it'd have to be a cat, wouldn't it?

I know. What else would I choose? Yours a dog, right? Oh my God, I don't know. I was like, I could see it being something really weird, like a hyena. Niguana. Niguana. Sorry.

We digress. Yeah, it could be really good for your gut health as well. So resist and starch is a type of fibre, and obviously all fibres kind of resist digestion, essentially. in the small intestine, which is where you absorb all the vitamins and minerals into your bloodstream, and then it travels into your large intestine and food is fermented by our gut bacteria or our pet that waits at the bottom. And unlike most starchy carbs, which are broken down into sugars like glucose, resistant starch, like I said, is more like a food. It's like a prebiotic for your little pet.

So just in the world's most basic terms of people listening, basically resistant starch never actually goes into your body. It goes through your digestive system. and then out into your poo. Exactly. You never get it past your intestines, essentially. But along that route in your intestines, it's doing all these amazing things. And that's why pre-bartics and all types of fibre

are so important because you don't want to be absorbing them. You want them to be pushing through and colonating of all sorts of gut bugs on the way through. And, Rie, I'm finding this story, just personally, this is a really helpful visual, actually, in terms of thinking through why we're eating these sorts of foods in the sense of, as you were saying, So you've got other foods who

and which are not containing resistance starch and these different fibres they are absorbed higher up in your digestive tract they're kind of gone essentially so then by the time the meal gets to the large intestine where you want to feed your pet there's nothing left

it's like you could have had a massive meal there's a bit but just not the beneficial bits that are really the icing on the cake delicious mission star meal for the pet and the pet's like you're missing of course the pet's just got scraps whereas when you're talking about

resistant starch. It's like you've given bits to the rest of your body, but your pets have got the best bits. So you've saved the best mouthfuls for the pets. I'm loving this analogy today. It just makes so much sense. Yes. It is helpful. Like I know maybe it's sound absurd and maybe it sound like I'm talking to bio. Maybe we do. Let's know if you think we're being patronised. I really hope we're not. I just find it a really helpful visual as to like the different types of food. And for example, like if you had a steak, that's not feeding the pets in this way. Oh, definitely not. And that's the problem with most of our modern diets, right? The women. not getting enough fibers that convert, especially into this newly discovered,

what's not that new in science, but resistant starch. Because what you want it to do is you want your pet to eat it and create all these short chain fatty acids. So there's amazing, like, bubbles that the pet gives off, including things like buterate and compounds, and they're the ones that are researched to lower our inflammation. And really only the pet eating food in the large intestine can do that. Yes, yes.

I didn't write this in the article in this way, although I should have used a pet analogy, but I don't think the times would appreciate it in the same way we do. They're higher brow than us. They're high brow than us. But no, because again, I think that's really, really helpful. So the only way to get these inflammation lowering super beneficial.

One of the really effective ways is to, yeah, make sure that your pets eating it, that your bugs are consuming that resistant starch. And, you know, our gut's got all these junctions, and you really want junctions tight and closed because you don't want toxins and things you're trying to come out on your poo essentially leaking into your bloodstream. And what it does is improves that gut barrier the more resistant starch you have,

which again is why fibre is so much more. And also the most common type that I would say most people would get is by freezing bread and then reheating it. Like putting your bread in the freezer is the best way to produce resistant starch. It's the easiest thing to do and then just pop it into your toaster. But, you know, this meta-analysis suggested that even supplementing resistant starch can reduce the bad cholesterol, you know, the LDL in our body. So I think it goes to show that with all these large trials that are coming out with lots of different people, different genetic conditions,

resistant starch is showing up again and again, Ella, in so many different shapes and forms, reducing cholesterol, improving blood sugar responses. So people that are predisposed to type two diabetes or at risk, it's better for them to have more of this type of starch at a meal because it will slow their blood sugar response, their post-pranjure response in their glucose. So it's wonderful and I think also one thing people may not know is that it does suggest that it influences our barl acids and gut pathways that are linked to DNA damage and cancer developments. Perhaps it could be used as a tool for cancer one day. It's absolutely fascinating.

It really, really is. So talk us through where we find it. Okay. So essentially it's all of the things that Ella and I wax lyrical about all the time, our lovely lentils, chickpeas, beans, pulses. But they don't need to be called, right? because the resistant starts already bait into their structure. Which is why plant-based proteins are the king.

Like, honestly, get them in your diet. They're so good oats. Stop demonising oats online, everyone. Especially when you soak them overnight. I mean, wow, all of that prep you're doing on your porridge, Ella, soaking nights before. That is producing a lot of resistant starch. Interestingly, under-ripe bananas,

because obviously the longer they are picked and left, more sugars develop and, you know, they taste. So before they're brown and spotty. Yes. So save the brown and spouty. body to put into your porridge for sweetening them and eat them before as a nice snack in the afternoon while they're a bit greener. For your resistant starch.

I think it's a good little tip. Cooked and cool pasta potatoes and frozen and toasted bread. So with the cooling, sorry, so just to confirm. So basically the resistant starch comes out further. If I cook some potatoes, eat them, but I've made more so then I can reheat them and have them tomorrow, for example, same with pastas, same with rice. That's what helps. Yeah, because it's within the chemical structure, you've got.

to think back to enzymes fitting one another and things that happen when foods are heated or denatured and cooled. And there's a chemical reaction and process that happens to reduce more of this resistant starch. It's described as, you know, like a tighter crystalline structure because cooling allows the starch to kind of restructure itself and reorganize. And it makes it basically harder to digest and it slow as how we absorb food. You probably feel fuller as well. The more fiber you have in a meal. I don't want to over-complicate it, but you know, if you're having a plant-based meal, you will feel fuller than if you had a steak with two pieces of broccoli. So interesting. It's so interesting. It's so, so incredibly helpful.

There we go. So I thought it was pretty cool. And there was also a small 2024 trial published in nature metabolism with those that were overweight. And they were actually given it as a powder for eight weeks. Resistant starch. Yeah, resistant starch as a powder. And they lost on average 2.8 kilograms and showed improvements in all their blood sugar markers. So I think watch this space we might see more, I know we're going to see fiber supplements, but perhaps this might be another next year gimmicky thing that might be overworked. Yeah, especially because it's so easy to get in kind of quote unquote real life particularly. And honestly, I know we always talk about it, but things like pulses, for example, like if there's a stew you love making, be a chicken stew,

it could be anything like that, chicken soup. I haven't put it in pasta baked. Chuck in a tin of blend in the butter beans and chest chuck in a tin of chickpeas in it Like it's not You don't have to change everything About what you're already cooking Or like a lasagna recipe you make

Every week with your family If you make a chicken And pasta bake Just add lentils Exactly Or some white beans My kids love cauliflower cheese I made one for them yesterday

I love cauliflower cheese And I just put white beans in it Yummy A roast dinner is not the same Without cauliflower cheese In my opinion My girls would agree with them Yeah it's good

But yeah I just put in a tin of white beans in it Just so small I don't think they need really noticed. No, they don't, my kids don't notice when it's in pasta bakes either. They've no idea. Anyways. Okay, so headline number three, Ella, a very different subject, but actually, wow, how promising that reading and writing can lower dementia risk by almost 40% the study suggests. Exactly. Cognitive health in later life is, quote, unquote, strongly influenced by lifelong exposure to intellectually stimulating environments, which is unbelievable. I mean, we've talked a lot. There's

been a fair number of studies over the last year or so while we've had the show about the importance of learning languages and engaging your brain for your kind of intellectual and brain health as you go forward into later life. But the fact that reading, writing, learning a language or two could lower dementia risk, but almost 40% is absolutely staggering. It's huge. It was conducted by researchers at Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago. They followed a group of around like nearly 1,900 adults with an average age of 80. And they didn't have dementia at the start of the study. And the participants were tracked for around eight years

to see who went on to develop Alzheimer's disease or mild cognitive impairment. And dementia is just, it's tough, isn't it? And I'm really sorry to anyone listening that this is affected because it is one of the world's biggest health threats. And I think the number of people living now with this condition, Ella has forecast to triple to more than 150 million globally by 2050.

It does present a major, I think, challenge for us all. But the research found that engaging in these activities definitely put it on the decline and delayed the risk of Alzheimer's. And gosh, I think what we need to do is spread this far and wide because surely age 21, we're now going to be more drawn to screens, try and do a bit of read. I don't write much by paper unless I'm helping the kids with homework. Reading I'm now on, thanks to Ella.

Ella's really inspired me to get back into reading. But we need help as a society. Yeah, we really do. And yeah, I mean, I love, I'm like a complete nerd. I love learning, probably why I've signed up to 101 different courses over the next six months. I really, really love it. And so I feel lucky in that sense. But interestingly, with this study, the researchers obviously were tracking these people from 80 plus,

but they also looked at the rest of their lives. So they were kind of assessing their intellectual enrichment, as they called it. across their lifespan. So they're looking at childhood, whether these participants had access to different books, encyclopedias, globes, newspapers, whether they were read to,

whether they learned another language. And then in midlife, they're looking at their income level, access to reading material, library memberships, cultural activities, like visiting museums. Because we know now also

what's so sad in this country is that too many just don't have access to books. Completely. And actually, do you know, we had loads of readers. Right. And after that,

just saying how much they love their local library. That's so nice. I used to love going flow. I still do go with the kids sometimes. Do you know, we had like, where we lived in London, we had a library like literally a street away from us and the girls loved it.

It was fantastic. Yeah. But then they were looking at later life. These people, they're looking at their habits, reading, writing, playing cognitively stimulating games. I'm imagining lots of people playing bridge here. Yeah. Anyway, they were adjusting for their age, sex, education. And the findings are extraordinary. Those in the top 10%

for lifelong cognitive enrichment. So basically the people who were consistently learning and enriching their brains. at a 38% lower risk are developing Alzheimer's disease compared to those in the bottom 10%. I mean, that is a humongous amount. And those people in that top 10% also developed Alzheimer's, an average of five years later, and developed mild cognitive impairment up to seven years later. So it's really huge.

I think it's obviously one piece of the puzzle, because I know that Amiga 3 is also linked to brain health. And what we must remember here is that our... society has changed massively in the last decade, 20 years. We are not reading, we are not writing as much, we are not eating well anymore. And all of these facets combined are obviously raising our risk massively. And this is proof that we need to really go back to analogue. It's the year of analogue. Isn't that what Vogue said? Yeah, we called it. Gratia. Was it Gratia? It was everyone. It was like Forbes. It was literally everyone. Yeah, the year of analog. And it is really interesting

because we talk about, for example, the impact of like doom scrolling on our mood. But I don't think we necessarily look at it from a more macro perspective. And actually, to me, when I'm looking at this and thinking about like how I raise my children and things like that, you know, don't get me wrong. They watch movies. We watch screens. Like absolutely, we're not a completely screen free household. But I'm trying really hard, you know, on the weekend. Yesterday we were just relaxing at home all day in the 12 hours or whatever they were up.

You know, they watched an hour. an hour and a half of bluey. Excellent. Everyone won from that, if I'm honest. But trying really hard to get them to do other things. Do you know what I've got for the playroom? I know that we normally save these wrecks for extra sco, but sorry if this is really boring. And you know, adults can do this too. This is fun. We've got a massive map of the world and then loads of like the times tables and the, you know, money, you know, what is money, what is 50p, what is a pound? And I just stuck them all on the wall this weekend. It's so funny you say that because I was just thinking visual aids and something interesting because

they are really interested at three and five, you know, what things are in the world, things that we just take for granted every day. A hundred percent. Anyway, it's definitely inspiring me to keep reading, keep learning. But yeah, so I love that one. Me too. Absolutely inspiring. And we now move on to what is trending in wellness.

We had three great trend options for us this week. And so we'll save the other two for next week. I just thought this one was so funny. I don't know why. It's not funny, but it's just like. Well, Lola put it in, didn't she in our team chat? And I was like, this is the best trend ever. And it is the irony of it.

It just doesn't fit, does it? Yeah, so we've got the rides and rides of Matcha. Obviously, it's literally everywhere. And it has just launched in Gregg's in the UK. And actually I was like, how do you explain Greggs to someone who doesn't live in the UK? So I asked Chat Chippy T. Oh, okay. How do you explain Gregs?

I'm not in the UK. Yeah. Chat Gptu says, Greg's is a bit like a 7-11 met a cheap bakery chain that's famous for its cheap. pastries and sausage rolls. Basically, like, it's anything but boogie, Greg, so I feel like it's the antithesis of boogie. And I don't want to say like it's low end, but it's not boogie in any shape or four. But it's loved. Now, the interesting thing is it's kind of an endearing, endearing part of the culture in the UK, you know, this love of this type of food. And people are addicted to their, particularly their sausage roll. They even launched a vegan sausage roll that went viral.

A hundred percent. But it's not where you'd imagine matcha. Anyway, I think as a sign of matcher going mainstream. Gregs has just started stocking Matcha and as a PR move around that they opened a, I think it was a pop-up but a Pilate studio in central London called Matcha a Move. Sorry. This is so weird, isn't it?

But it just says like these trance are going massive and then I was looking at up to anything else happening around that and Costa which is one of the biggest coffee chains. They're advertising on the side of bus shelters, their matcher. I know and they've just launched these actually they're really cute. These strawberry matcher like it looks like an

I mean I strawberry matcher as like the matcher green at the top and strawberry kind of color at the bottom reusable cups. So like reusable matcha cups as opposed to coffee cups. Anyway, basically I think ultimate sign trend wise the matcher is not this like niche weird health food situation. It is firmly high street. Although fewer than 10% of over 65s have even tried it. Which is interesting because I definitely think this is like a new like Gen Z.

And obviously I'm a millennial but you know it's definitely fraud. generations well apparently it's most popular between 25 to 34 year olds so we're like just on the car well i'm just a bit over that okay i've got another like two months yeah yeah we're in that yeah we're in 35 enjoy it ella really join me on the other side really sucking it out and then that's um followed by 18 to 25 year old so it's definitely a different generation but anyway it's nuts so we thought given how it's just such a trend but i would say it's moving from trend to kind of main player, we thought it would be worth just breaking down whether it deserves its hype from a health perspective.

Now, as you know, if you've been a wellness scuba from day one, I used to work with Matcha her over 10 years ago. I used to sample it around gyms in London and Whole Foods. Yeah, she's a matcha connoisseur. I have been ahead of the trend on this one. I appreciate most people will think it's just tastes like grass, but I'd love to tell you why it's really cool. It doesn't taste like grass when you get the high street ones that have a lot of sugar in the strawberry syrup.

Yeah, yeah. It doesn't taste like that then, of course. But the actual tea itself is different to having a tea bag because you've ground down all the leaves and they're grown in a very special area under dark shade to preserve the antioxidants and the polyphenols. Catechins that are found in regular green tea, these amazing polyphenols help protect cell damage.

And there's loads of research on these particular antioxidants when isolated as well with benefits for our heart health and our long-term health. So they're grown, they're picked, and then they're ground down. You imagine like a pestil and mortuary, you put the leaves on, you ground it down, and you actually ingest the whole leaf. Whereas in a traditional green tea bag, you just kind of dip it in and the osmosis happens with the water.

So you're not actually getting any fibres. So match it contains fibre guys as well, because you're eating the whole leaf. And it actually has more. So it counts as a plant point too. It counts as a plant point. And it's got more fibre per serving than a cup of coffee. I just don't think matches as researched as coffee. So let's watch this space for the amount of headlines that are going to come out saying,

it's good for our gut bugs or I imagine. Yeah, well, because it's just been so niche comparatively, hasn't it? It's one of those things, like in the world of health and wellness, you've got your matra girlies. Well, it's expensive. It prices people out, right? Totally.

But from a mainstream perspective, it wasn't there. But I think now that there's been so much kind of social internet hype around matto and it is so widely available on the high street, I feel like it's going to become quite a big thing. Well, with Ella's meditation and breathwork, it does contain al-thianine, and that is the amino acid that's known to promote. And originally, Matcha was consumed by Buddhist monks, and that's where it was first created.

And it helped them do their meditation and go about their day. So this amazing compound that's found is much steadier. And often people compare coffee to Matcha and say that Matcha releases slowly and coffee is quite a fast hit in terms of, you know, tapping in as a psychoactive substance. So it's not that it's better than coffee. It's just it doesn't give you a spike. It's gentler. I prefer it, as you know. I'm very biased.

but I'm not anti-coffee guys, it's just not for me. But yeah, it's interesting. I mean, I am really... You're a coffee gal. I am a coffee gal. I have one right now. No, what I was going to say, I'm really tired today. I'm not sure why, I'm just really tired.

And I am kind of pretty, yeah, unmotivated. And I got myself another coffee to, like, power me through. And I was just jittery now. So I should have got a matcher. But then, you know, we were talking, I think the episode that came out last Monday was on the benefits of coffee, you know, for our brain health and for our gut bugs. So you're all unique, everybody. But yay to matcha.

Yay to matcha. If anyone's tried the Greg's one last night, I think we'll have to do a date to get down there and see what it's like. But it is unbelievable when these, as I said, it's not really a trend anymore. But it's amazing when these kind of health foods and things become so mainstream. Yeah, what a change of times. I mean, who'd have predicted it? No, I know. It's amazing.

And I think there's so much negativity in the world. And then I see things like this. And I'm like, no, maybe times really are changing, actually. And health is becoming more. Well, it is. What a positive episode. So bye-bye fads and hello science and let's look after us. I look how cheesy I sound. I love it. Okay, guys, we'll be back on Thursday with more choosiness for you. We've got loads of recommendations. We're going to be talking about air friars. We're going to be talking about spirulina and different superfood hikes. We're going to be talking about hidden veggie winds, something that we all need in our lives.

So it should be a fantastic episode. As always, any questions, queries, things you want to talk about. Hello at Wellness-Scoop.com. We love hearing from you, as we said. And otherwise, just have a fantastic day. Yeah, have a great week. See you Thursday. Bye. Bye.