The Wellness Scoop - Greens Powders, Carnivore Diets, and the £385 Billion Wellness Boom

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

This week, we’re diving into the wellness stories everyone’s talking about! Is TikTok becoming the go-to doctor for a whole generation, or is it a recipe for misinformation? Is the carnivore diet a dangerous fad, or is there some truth behind the hype? (Hint: a Florida man found out the hard way when his extreme all-meat-and-dairy diet left him with cholesterol literally oozing from his skin!) And what about greens powders and celebrity-endorsed supplements like David Beckham’s I.M.8—are they worth their sky-high price tags, or is the £385 billion supplement industry selling us a dream? We’re also exploring the revolutionary NHS trial testing brain implants to boost mood and transform mental health care. Tune in as we cut through the noise to find out what’s really worth your time, money, and health! Recommendations This Week: Open When by Dr. Julie Smith  Ladies Who Launch by Rochelle Humes (Podcast) OMG Tea Matcha  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome to the Wellness Scoop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. We are your hosts. I'm Ella Mills. And I'm Rhiannon Lambert. And after a decade in the wellness industry, we know how overwhelming and confusing health advice can be. And that's why we've created this podcast to cut through the noise and make healthier living simple, fun and personal. And woohoo, everybody. We have made it to the end of January. I think we all need a collective round of applause there.

It is certainly in the UK, absolutely the bleakest month of the year it's rough isn't it it's so dark it's generally so cold and grey and an intense work month often for lots of us so well done we have done it and honestly doing this show has transformed the month for me it feels like it's flown by and the number of you tuning in is just so cool I checked before we got recorded this morning and we've had almost 400,000 downloads I mean we're truly humbled by it aren't we it's an unbelievable reaction and some of the messages and Ella and I do share them with each other you know we're through the week we're like oh have you seen this one honestly it's just a delight that we're your happy safe space each

week. And before we start, I have one teeny tiny favour. If you're enjoying the show, please help us out to get this information to more people. So basically to go up the podcast charts, it would help us so much if you could hit follow. If you're listening on an iPhone, so you're on Apple podcast, then that's the top right of the show page. And if you're on Spotify, it's just under our image and our title. It's just going to mean the episode pops up for you every week. You can choose to listen to it or not, but it'll be easier to find. And if you are feeling super, super generous and wanted to spend another second or two, and you're on Apple podcast, just scroll down to the bottom of the wellness scoop page. And if you're enjoying

it, give us five stars, leave a review because it sounds so simple but these ratings the reviews the follows that is what dictates whether or not people see the show who aren't already listening to it and we so desperately want to get this simple day-to-day health advice cutting through all the noise for everybody we want to get that to as many people as possible and make healthy you just seem a little bit more achievable in what is such an overwhelming world so it would honestly mean a lot to both of us if you'd spare us a few secs and what are we going to talk about today we have a jam-packed episode so much to discuss almost too much a lot of the time is tiktok becoming our go-to doctor we delve into carnivore diets brain

implants to boost our mood the boom of supplements and green powder with, of course, a little David Beckham throw in. Can't wait for this. And then NAD+, so what's the hype about these supplements? Right, I think we should get started. I cannot wait to get into this. There is so much to talk about today. But first of all, what have you been up to this week, Rhi? Oh, the question, you know, when someone says, how are you? And everyone's always like, yeah, I'm fine, thanks. How are you? And actually, there's a lot, isn't there? I wrote a few notes. I was trying to think, how can I concisely say, well, I walked to school a bit.

Well done. I know, it made such a difference. It was very wet and rainy this week. So those are the days I jumped in the car. But on the odd day, that made a difference. And we were discussing before we started recording the juggle of childcare, which is so difficult. And I feel so good just having Ella to kind of discuss things with and friends, because if you don't talk about this, you feel really alone with it. You can feel the balance of being a working mum is quite tricky. But on a completely un-nutritionist type of week, I've had so much pizza and cake this week, Ella, to the point where my skin, I could see it in my skin. It was like oozing out of me. But you know what? I loved every minute of it. We were celebrating. There were lots

of things to celebrate this week, especially, you know, 10 years of my clinic, my team. I just feel unbelievable. The worst bit is because they're based all around the UK now, I couldn't just get a cake and send it to them all. So I just had a cake to myself and my family to enjoy, which was great. But over to you, Ella. I mean, new book ideas I saw pop up on your stories. Absolutely. But before we get into that, congratulations. 10 years of your own business is absolutely extraordinary. It really, really, really is. It is no mean feat to get to this point. Well, you know all too well, the ups,

the downs. We've had tears, haven't we? We've discussed lots of it. It's honestly a testament to my amazing team, though, Ella, that the people, the clinicians that work in the clinic, they literally change lives every single day. Some of the things they witness, they see. And, you know, my girls, the support I've got as a female led team. And, yeah, I'm very, very blessed to have everybody. So big shout out to the nutrition team. Well done, you. Have you got any big highs and lows from that 10 years?

There's just so many, you know, over a decade. Do you think, I mean, I would actually go as far as saying the biggest lows to get that out of the way was probably last year. And a lot of it comes around the types of people you choose to work with, things you can experience on that level. And it was a trust issue actually in the business. And that was one of the biggest lows. I think naively, even though I've had a business for 10 years, and I'm sure you can relate, I'm a very trusting person. And I feel I had to learn that lesson last year that I need to be a little bit more guarded now, especially now I'm a mother and I've got things I want to protect fiercely. So that was probably a bit of a low. But on the plus side, the highs have just been incredible the stories in the clinic that we have

probably are the number one and I know for me on a personal level there's little achievements and things dotted around but having someone that you saw 10 years ago who's in an eating disorder recovery unit to seeing them 10 years later thriving you cannot beat that feeling well you should be so proud of it it's absolutely unbelievable and I'm thrilled for you so go back to it because you're very humble but you are writing another book I am I've just started which is number eight like not really sometimes I think oh I should be doing more and you know I think we all put that pressure on ourselves sometimes and I think okay it's actually 10 years I think this week that my pressure on ourselves sometimes. And I think, okay, it's actually 10 years.

I think this week that my first cookbook came out. So yeah, we've been doing this exact same length of time. So we've both seen this kind of extraordinary rise, fall, twisting, turning of the health and wellness industry. But eight books in that time, it feels a lot. But it's something a little bit different, more focused on how it's not dissimilar to this in so many ways in terms of the premise like yes there's a million one things we can do for our health but it's all quite overwhelming and people's real life of juggling like you're saying child care with a job getting from a to b having you know i don't know this morning i was like right i've got to get the kids to school and get here and meanwhile matt left at four in the morning for a flight.

Sky needed to have a pig costume in today for a school assembly on Chinese New Year. May needs a pack of lunch. You know, there's just so much going on. So it's almost how do we distill it down to make eating well daily-ish. So more days than not, easy. And that's the big focus. So if anyone has anything they want to share that would be helpful to them in that I am just starting out on the project so I'd obviously love to hear from you but it's exciting as you said it's like it's very humbling 10 years after say that first

cookbook and after you started your clinic to still be doing this a lot of imposter syndrome as well don't you find it's um I was at an event last night speaking about the book and I was stood there thinking, you know, I don't know everything. Even though it's been 10 years, I still feel like I'm learning from the beginning. We were asked so many questions when we started this podcast as well and I take them all in. I do absorb them. I think we both do. We both sit back and we think, wow, look at what we've seen. But the fact that we're here now goes to show that, you know, if you have good relationships with people, if you enjoy what you do, you can kind of see yourself through the hardest challenges, can't you, if you enjoy what you do?

100%. And the hardest challenges are there. And I think that's really important. It's funny you said that, an imposter syndrome, not to skip too quickly, but moving on to the recommendations. That is what my recommendation was all about. That was an unplanned and very timely segue from you. I was listening to the new Rochelle Humes podcast. It's called Women Who Launch. It's very much a female business podcast, but even if you have no interest

in ever starting your own business, even if you're not working right now, I think so much of the advice on there is so tangible for all of us, no matter what we're doing. But her first episode is with a woman called Emma Greed. I'm sure lots of you have heard of her. She's a guest judge on Dragon's Den at the moment. But if you haven't, she's this extraordinary powerhouse. She's the CEO of Good American, which is the Khloe Kardashian jeans brand, which is enormous. And she's a founding partner of Skims as well. I've got their t-shirts.

Yeah, they're really good. And their bras. Yeah. Which is a multi-billion dollar company. So extraordinary. And she's absolutely unbelievable. Anyway, so Rochelle interviewed her. She does not have imposter syndrome. And she's so honest about that. So she's my kind of ultimate inspo, because I absolutely do. But there were three things that she talked about. And I just so recommend listening to her because she's so wise and she's so straightforward. And three things really stuck with me. The first is she was talking about how important it is to just check in with how we speak to ourselves. You know, we're always

the first or most of us are so quick to give really positive advice and support to other people you're doing a great job but then when we turn it around to ourselves and that inner dialogue it's often so negative you know we talked this morning we all have those moments with our kids where we're not the mum we want to be or the parent we want to be we lose our cool we're too short we get frustrated you know I had that on the way to school yesterday, an hour of whinging too much. So I can't do it anymore. You know, and you had a moment with your kids. And the first thing I said to you was you're doing such a great job. It's so normal. None of us are perfect. We all have those blips. But to myself, I was like, why did you get

frustrated with them? You're a terrible person but Emma shared she said I make a habit of speaking to myself very very well I think it's just it's just sage advice isn't it that I certainly could take a lot of the next thing which I loved was to stop thinking and being self-indulgent and her point was that actually consistently overthinking what you're doing and how you're acting and how you're speaking and showing up in a way is deeply self-indulgent everyone else is busy in their life they're not overthinking everything that you say or everything you do and again there's like ruminating thoughts that lots of us have did I say that quite right did I get that wrong and we keep thinking about

it and everybody else has moved on to the next thing. So I thought that was really, again, just a great reminder. And then the other thing she just spoke so wisely and honestly about is something that we could all take on board is the importance of losing the expectation of doing everything 100%. And I think maybe it's controversial to some listeners, but I think that the idea that you can do it all is just the ultimate myth. You know, whether that's work, your health health your goals your parenting like it is impossible to give everything your all at any one time like life ebbs and flows and you're gonna be much better at work one point you're gonna be much better parenting and you're gonna be much better friend and you're gonna be able to pour your energy into

different places in different chapters of your life but you cannot be all things to all people in any one chapter. And I think, I think as women in particular, we've consistently been told like, you can do it all, you can be at all. And certainly from my perspective, I would argue, sure, over decades, not in a singular chapter of your life, I think you have to be choosing one or two things to give as your priority. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. It's so interesting you say that because I think times have changed so much in the last 10, 15 years even for women. You can see this shift, this major shift. And we've almost been given, this is going into a whole other rabbit hole, isn't it?

Let's go. Let's go. We've been given equality. Well, we haven't yet still fully, but things are looking in that way, like you're able to have a career. But actually, are we able to have a career? No, because the expectations of everything else are still on our shoulders.

And it almost aligns with my recommendation, the book that I was reading, Open When. And it's something that Dr. Julie, as she's known online, if you follow her on TikTok and Instagram, she's huge. There's a chapter of her new book that I read and I wrote it down here. And it really resonates, I think, with what you've just said

about the giving 100% that no one ever taught us. We are the first generation, this is to mothers, to be fed this idea that we should do anything other than get children to follow the rules. You know, we're attempting to parent this way, in we can say we're really sorry to our children. We apologize to them when we've spoken to them in a certain way. And that's not what our parents used to do. And we're attempting to parent in a way without the benefits of having been treated like that ourselves. We were raised very differently. And if it's something that can repair and reconnect with your child, then it's definitely worth a try. I really had a feeling that times have

changed so much that we are parenting based off memes that you see on Instagram. And that's what's happening. I am taking most of my inspirational parenting advice and being a mom and a business owner from these types of podcasts with Rochelle, which I'm 100% going to listen to. But are living in a very very new era but perhaps our parents felt like that when we were all young thinking you girls you can do anything because there are opportunities for you now interesting isn't it it really is I really want to read the book I keep seeing it actually everywhere I'll lend it to you I'll bring it next week because you gave me the kids kids book so I'll swap with that one with you is the idea with open when is that you open it into so she's a kind

of very well-known psychologist if anyone hasn't come across her and she does fantastic videos on Instagram I think on TikTok as well but I'm not a big TikToker breaking down maybe it's imposter syndrome anxiety exactly these like I think really focusing on the common challenges that so many of us feel with our mental health in such a logical easy to understand way where you feel not in any shape or form alienated and how you feel is so normal and so validated yeah the chapters are exactly like that there's one that says um what do you do if you don't feel that your friends are your friends anymore well We know all these different life challenges. And then you turn to that page and it's really helpful to read.

Or perhaps that's why that friend ghosted you or, you know, they're not around anymore. And there's another basically everything you come up against. Imposter syndrome, talking to yourself in that way. What happens when life doesn't go to plan? She's got a nice, methodical, sensible way of looking at it. That's brilliant. I love it. I came inspired.

Yeah, she's fantastic. I think that sounds amazing. And the podcast, if anyone didn't get it, we put all these recommendations as well in our show notes so you can find them after the episode, be that the name of Ree's LED mask, which, by the way, I have bought. Have you?

Oh, my goodness. Okay. Then that's why. Or maybe I just got a bit more sleep than normal. But it was Rochelle Humes, Women Who Launch, and the guest was Emma Greed that I was really focusing on there. And then Open Word by Dr. Julie, which sounds absolutely fantastic. Amazing. So I guess to close this particular area, we want to create a hub of inspiration for you all. So please keep letting us know if there's anything that you think we should be

listening to. Are there any podcasts you think yes because actually my friend chessie's mum sent me a really long voice note i'm sorry if you're listening julia i haven't replied yet because it's five minutes long and i will i will but i was having a quick skim on the school you know you speed it up on your voice note like i really want to get back to this right now she loves the podcast she's also a huge fan which amazing. And she said that she's so confused and overwhelmed by the advice out there on sports nutrition now and different things that she's hearing and reading about. So send those podcasts that you're confused about to us. Ella and I will listen to them. Yeah, we will. And we will break it down for you. So that segues us very nicely into the headlines that matter this week.

Okay, so in this section, we break down the biggest health stories that are making news. And this week, Ella, we're going to start, I think we should just knock on last week's alcohol trend. So do you want to reel off a few of the stats that you found? Because I think they're really good.

Yeah, so if you haven't listened yet, last week, we were talking about in our trend section, the rise of sobriety, which we're both big fans of. And not to rehash last week, but I didn't drink for a long time and felt very, very alienated by it. So it's really exciting to see these changes because also drinking a lot of alcohol is not very good for us. But very interestingly, last week, the stats that we referenced were from 2021. I couldn't find anything more recent. And in

2021, it showed that just under 30% of young people said they didn't drink alcohol. And then last Thursday, so the day the show came out, a new study came out. And then that most recent data showed quite how quickly things are changing. And now nearly 43% of young people and one in three middle aged Britons, about 32%, no longer drink alcohol. Amazing. So it's extraordinary. Amazing, nearly half. I mean, that's a massive, massive change. That's a 13% rise.

Incredible. In three years. I think that just goes to show that messages around health and awareness is definitely there. It is. So I just thought it was really cool. And I wanted to give you guys an update in case you hadn't seen that. And then the other thing I was super, super keen to have an update on is completely unplanned. There was so much conversation on seed oils last week.

Who'd have thought the week that we chose to speak about it, it was everywhere in the press, everywhere. Even on the European institution that us health professionals go to and look at, they'd created a few posts on seed oils that week. EUFIC, I call it. There's a reason I can't remember the exact breakdown. It's E-U-F-I-C or something. And that's what we go to to get a lot of resources from. It was there as well. It feels like suddenly, having had this very protracted, very dogmatic and quite aggressive debate online, sentiment shifted overnight to what we've been saying all along and I actually saw I was listening to Dr Sarah Berry talking in depth about it as well and really debunking that fear so she's a professor in the department of nutritional sciences at King's College London she's the chief scientist

at Zoe and she's the lead nutritional scientist on the predict program which is the world's largest in-depth nutritional research program and again she was talking for a very long time about how there is just no evidence of harm from seed oils. So I think some people were really surprised, as you said, that they would be last week. There were a few comments, did you see underneath our post? Only like two, which I was really pleased with because I think most people could see we're literally just saying it as it is. So that was amazing. The rest, I think you will fully understand that we're just saying that there isn't anything we can go on to even debate this. There really is.

I wanted to reflect on it before we go on to this week's headlines, because I just think it's a very, very interesting example of what's happened online and what's changed so much and not to be overly simplistic about it, but there weren't these really complicated algorithms in the start of Instagram. You followed somebody, you saw their content. It's really as simple as that. You liked gardening, you followed people with gardening advice. Then you saw their tips, tricks, and everything in between. You follow the cat, you follow cute dogs, little baby elephant here and there, whatever it is that floats your boat,

and then you get that content. That has completely changed over the last decade or so. And the advent of TikTok really spurred that on. So Instagram's really following suit there, where basically the algorithms are dictated by something that's sensationalist because the algorithm is dictated by shares and comments. So if you say something deeply inflammatory or something very controversial or it just is really gets people talking that is how lots and lots of people see it and that's changed so much in the last few years which is if you didn't know that you might be like ah that's explains why i see i just see plane crashes the whole time i see anything that makes me terrified because again you click on it you're're like, wow, what is this?

What's the one thing that's going to kill me? Did you see the plane? That's why, have you bought plane crash app? Because you saw this morning on your feed. I saw it too. Oh, it's so awful. I wish I'd never seen it. But you know, what Ella's discussing is actually rooted in research as well.

So there was a 2024 study and it showed that Generation Z, or Z, however you want to pronounce, show 56% of respondents now go to TikTok for health and wellness advice. That's over half. So while one in three, you know, TikTok's their main source of nutrition information and actually less than 2% of it is accurate. Exactly. And so I think that's what I wanted to really focus on because this really clickbaity content is so well summarized by seed oils, which as user, the evidence is really quite dull when it comes to them. It's like, they're fine. Okay now. Whereas there had been this really intense debate that had raged on and it had created

very sensationalist content. And that is what the internet thrives on. And it thrives on this really, really binary thinking. And the problem is, is because that's now dominating essentially what most people see online, you have this issue where you now have so many people who, as you just said, like 56 think it's this word of caution which is that what you're then being served is likely driven by the algorithm so it is likely sensationalist anxieties like our plane crash what you're seeing is driven by your own anxieties and insecurities but the health content that performs is the sensationalist health content it's not I feel like I talk about this so often it's like like, it's very hard to PR a carrot. It's very hard to PR like a tin of lentils. It's like, watch me peel a carrot, like, hello, let's open and wash some lentils. It's a wonky one today. Yeah, unless it's got like four heads, it's not very, or it looks phallic. It's not going to

really make headlines, is it? So I just think it's so important to have that in your mind as you're looking at things that more likely than not, what's coming up is stuff that, as I said, is driven by fear. It's driven by sensationalism. It's driven by the here's the four things that will kill you in 2025. And I just think it is really, really concerning concerning just how crazy that's become I completely agree I think it moves us really brilliantly onto our first headline this week okay you sent me this headline and I've shown it to everyone I felt sick when I saw the picture I felt physically sick tell us what it is so I sent Ella an image a headline of a man over in Florida who literally has cholesterol oozing from his body.

And it obviously went viral, this particular image. He'd followed online advice to eat just meat and dairy. So carnivore diet, essentially, like we discussed last week. And it sent him to hospital. And the image, just to describe to you, the blood vessels, there's nowhere left for this cholesterol to go, the buildup. It's oozing yellow. Imagine looking at your hand and looking at your natural lines or your veins and seeing yellow pus oozing out of your veins. It's really one of the most extraordinary things I have ever

seen. And it was in literally every newspaper, every news outlet. And the headlines were so extreme. They were like florida man's disgusting bodily change after eating nothing but butter cheese and beef it's so extreme but all of this is taken and all of this news reporting is taken from a paper published in the do you say a jammer or i say jam but it's journal of american you know i just say jammer it is you pronounce the jam i always wondered about pronouncing it right, cardiology. So it's a really reputable journal that this is a true story. And the man absolutely, of course, acknowledged, consented to have his information shared. And it was shared then by a cardiologist at Tampa General Hospital. So I read it. And because this

is taken from the US, I didn't know exactly what it meant to start with. So he told doctors that for about eight months, he'd been eating six to nine pounds of cheese, sticks of butter, we were talking about sticks of butter last week and hamburgers every day. But it was the six to nine pounds of cheese. I actually didn't really know what that meant. Oh, gosh, put it on scale and you'll be like, whoa. Yeah, because I didn't work in pounds. So I did some maths. And I was I'm going to just be honest, I was really shocked. And I don't say I was shocked because I really judge him on an individual level. I think it's this example of TikTok becoming or social media on the internet becoming this like key source of health and knowledge.

But if you were eating nine pounds of cheese a day, that actually translates to just over 4,000 grams of cheese. And then again, just to contextualize it, because I needed to do that from my understanding. If you went into a normal supermarket and you bought like a triangular shape block of Parmesan, those are normally say 150 grams. So that would be eating up to 26 blocks of Parmesan a day. So we're not here demonizing like facets of what he eats, as in some cheese, some butter, some hamburger, but to be eating that much dairy, that much red meat and nothing in between. And his cholesterol levels exceeded a thousand milligrams. It's so

extraordinary. But I think this is why I wanted to zone in on with it and as I said I wanted to pick it up because it was a big headline and it's extraordinary but why it's very very interesting and relevant for us all I believe is that what he had seen online was that loads people were saying it had helped them with weight loss it had helped them with kind of mental clarity and And if you imagine switching from like a very ultra processed diet, for example, into that, he actually initially felt he was achieving that because he did lose weight. He did have increased energy and he did have improved mental clarity. But then what happened was obviously that's taking it so far and, you

know, a very kind of excessive approach to something. And what happened is that his cholesterol levels obviously have massively exceeded any normal and tolerable limit to the point that the cholesterol is, as you said, it's like it's literally oozing out his skin. It's like, you know, when a baby's born and it's covered in the vermix. Yeah, it's like vermix. It looks just like that. It's a kind of like waxy, yellowy paste as though it's stuck to him just like when baby's born. Poor guy. I mean, to give you an idea, guys, the baseline level should be between 210 and 300 milligrams.

He was 1,000 milligrams. It is so worrying, but it's the placebo effect of you follow a fad diet, you feel great. But that's probably a knock-on effect of a multitude of factors. It's not the diet itself. It's probably the weight loss, depending on what weight he was before and after, that gave him more energy, not the fact he was eating sticks of butter. And then sure enough, years follow and you're left with irreversible damage. Yeah, and I just, as a closing thought on that one, as I i said it's definitely not to demonize anything but it is just when you're constantly being shown stuff like this will change your life

um it really is you know i saw something and we're going to talk about it next week so i'm not going to go into it too much but i saw i was advertised on something um last night on my instagram which was a picture of a vitamin drip and it said be your best self yeah and i'm really tired this week feeling the juggle. And you say, well, that's quite tempting, isn't it? It's better than the tongue thing I got. It's probably better than that. But it's just, it's also tempting, right?

You're struggling. Someone says, this is your easy route out and you take it. But actually, as you always say, like there's so much nuance in everything and you can't, you just don't get that through that kind of very click-baity advice online. And so I can completely understand how this was served to someone. And you think, yes, I do need to lose weight. I am struggling with my energy. That's a great idea. Maybe it will work for me too.

But without that rounded education of, well, you don't have any fiber. There's too much saturated fat, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. We both struggle, Ella. So how can, you know, doctors struggle, nutritionists struggle, health professionals struggle. And we were all hit by these drip things and everything. And you think, wow, that might work for me. So if we feel that way, imagine how everyone feels. It doesn't have any education in the area.

I just think it's awful preying on vulnerable people it's just not fair yeah it's just normal to want a quick-ish fix someone to tell you how to sort a problem it's just that life is more nuanced than that and I think that's what's missing from the online world so I think it's quite extraordinary I've certainly never seen anything like it but I think it is also like very wise warning in terms of getting too much singular advice online which is why we need a new book that's going to give us some very good accessible tips Ella. Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. You're a podcast listener, and this is a podcast ad heard only in Canada. Reach great Canadian listeners like yourself

with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre-produced ad like this one across thousands of shows to reach your target audience with Libsyn ads. Email bob at libsyn.com to learn more. That's b-o-b at l-i-b-s-y-n dot com. The next headline we had is on brain implants and I saw it in The Guardian and we've been wanting to discuss it for a while haven't we? Can they enhance our mood? This is absolutely mind-boggling stuff. Okay so it's been reported in lots of places but it's basically can brain implants be used to enhance our mood but really fundamentally alter neural pathways. So there is this groundbreaking NHS trial that's starting and it's looking at ways to boost patients mood. So really focusing in particular here on depression using a brain computer interface

that directly alters brain activity using ultrasounds. So essentially if you can think about it like this a device would be implanted beneath the skull but outside the brain. Black mirror style. So black mirror. And I'm going to get on something that really bring that up in a second. And that would then map your brain activity. And in doing that, it can then deliver really targeted pulses of the ultrasound, which would switch on clusters of neurons that maybe weren't firing to help change your mood. And the hope is obviously that in the start of this technology, it could completely revolutionize treatment of conditions like depression, addiction, OCD, eating disorders, they're looking at it, as well as epilepsy and lots of other things in between, because it would be able to rebalance

disruptive patterns of brain activity. Actually, Elon Musk's company Neuralink have also launched a clinical trial. Their one is with patients suffering from paralysis, and they have implanted a brain chip into the human skull, and that's the first time it was done. So it's extraordinary. But then when I was writing up some of these notes on Monday, I was on The Times and there was an interview with the neurosurgeon who was the consultant on the Apple TV show Severance. I haven't seen that. I haven't seen it either. I keep thinking I really want to watch it. It's had amazing reviews. It's actually directed by Ben Stiller.

Anyway, this is a totally unnecessary. What, steel guy? Blue steel? Yeah, blue steel. Exactly. So anyway, I digress into unnecessary celebrity gossip. But this amazing neurosurgeon who was the neuro consultant on the show, he was interviewed in the Times talking about all of these kind of amazing advancements in brain implants and whether or not essentially in the show severance, they do this sort of procedure. And it's for office workers, they're looking at and they do it so

that they can completely separate their work and their home lives. So the work people when they leave work, I think essentially, they can't remember the other one. So it creates this kind of entire separation between the two. But obviously, it's very confusing for them. And it's a psychological drama, I think, all about that. So they undergo a procedure to separate their work selves from the outside selves. But the interesting thing on all of that is, so this neuroscientist was interviewed in the Times. And he said, I don't think we're actually far off that being able to be a reality. So your Black Mirror reference, 100%, you've got one of the

top neurosurgeons saying, yes, I believe this is the future. And obviously it raises so many kind of ethical questions where you could be implanting things in people's brains. So it could be extraordinary for challenges with depression, epilepsy, anxiety, all sorts of conditions, you know, related to the brain, which is really interesting from a health and well-being perspective, obviously, if we could revolutionize care there. But equally, it's so mind-boggling, the idea that someone else would be able to control facets of your brain it's just so new it's just so fresh and it does seem because black mirror was years ago but in one of the episodes they have these um things you put over the eye and then you rate everyone on likes and then sure

enough that's how social media works now and that was an episode on black mirror so if you spill a coffee on someone by accident that day your overall liking rating goes down and then you don't get access to normal things. Like a taxi driver won't stop for you because you've got a low liking rating that day because you just had a bad day. Oh my gosh, and that's real life today. Yes, and that is real life today, like a currency. A low Uber rating is a big deal. Yes, I know. So I feel like whoever did that show, Black Mirror, has foreseen the future. But what's really interesting about this, obviously the study, the NHS study is going to run for three and a half years and I think it's

because we have such a mental health crisis that we are looking at investing in these types of bits of research I find it completely and utterly fascinating the brain is such an unknown still area for neuroscientists they all speak about it when they do talks don't they they say look we're learning as we go here it's amazing but privacy data someone's seeing your life I don't know how I feel about that it definitely feels we would say this stuff is nuanced there's pros there's cons it could genuinely completely change the way that we look as you said about all sorts of conditions where we have this real mental health crisis? And could we completely change it? And yet on the flip side, someone else could technically, to some extent, have control of your brain, to put it very, very simply. So it's a minefield. And moving from that one, we had a call, the nutrition team and I this week,

and I was representing the UK. It was like a big global call for a brand. And what I found so interesting was how these trends that we've been discussing, you know, these headlines in every country are still so different and how every country has its own approach to things. And we were actually discussing, let's take plant milks as an example. We had this discussion on plant-based nutrition. We were talking through all the options. So there's me from the UK, this very well-known and respected nutritionist from Spain. You there's me from the UK, this very well known and respected nutritionist from Spain. You've got these doctors from Belgium, from Brussels, Germany, someone else over in Switzerland, someone in Italy, we were all there. And we were talking about the trends.

And I said, Oh, we see a trend here about oat milk and lots of fear mongering around it because of glucose spikes and people not knowing what to believe. I have to stop you. Stop me. I can't not stop you. I really want to talk about. I have to stop you. Stop me. I can't not stop you. Go. I really want to talk about everything you want to talk about. But I know I'm just putting myself into your car or your tube carriage or your walk. And I know the number of people who will be saying, explain that to me. Explain this whole oat milk.

And we will do a separate episode on, I think, blood sugar spikes. Shall we do glucose? But I think you need to give us a bit of a top line on this whole oat milk thing. Okay, top line. I'll keep it brief, everybody. Oat milk was never designed to replace cow's milk. It's just something additional you can have in your diet that tastes nice. It's sweet because it's a carbohydrate base.

Carbs are naturally sweet because they're made from glucose, which is a sugar. But the problem that people are saying is that when you drink a lot of water with added oats that is just a sugar spike technically that's true but oat milk's not trying not to be that oat milk's just delicious and it's not going to do any harm to have a tiny spike in blood sugar every now and again but the key to oat milk is what you pair it with if you're having it in porridge and then you're adding some nut butter healthy fats to slow the release, some extra protein, that's okay. And the fear also stems from seed oils that we mentioned before.

Because to fortify a milk or to get a texture to froth, to make it special, you need to add a tiny bit of this oil, which we've busted in the last episode. So anyone listening, go back to last week's episode. We discussed that. But most plant milks contain seed oils. So oat milk's been demonized for being a blood sugar raiser. But how much are we talking about? Because I think the way you talk about it, not you, sorry, the way it is talked about at the moment makes it sound like if you choose to get, say, like a flat white or a latte with oat milk in, that that's the equivalent of eating a bag of sweets or a bag of Haribo. And that's, I think, the bit that feels like it's lost the context.

No, not at all. You cannot compare it. And we get into really dangerous territory when you start comparing individual food items in this way by saying they're good or they're bad. And that's fear-mongering, again. And actually, for you to have oat milk might be a form of hydration for you that day. It's not just a bit of sugar.

And for some people, it's going to have a different impact on their body than another person's. And the portion sizes are fine. If you were to eat or drink, let's say you drank a whole carton, like one litre plus, that's not good. But having like a 200 ml bit of oat milk every day is totally okay. And there'll be some individual cases in the clinic where I'd say, I think you're better off going for soy because there's not as much sugar and perhaps you're pre-diabetic and you may need to make certain switches in your lifestyle. But for most people to say blanketly that oat milk is bad is crazy. And that brings me on to the other countries couldn't believe it.

Germany and Belgium were like, but we love oat milk. It's our favorite here. There's none of that talk over here. We can't believe this. This is really good for you. We think oats are wholesome. They're full of fiber. And even though we know we don't get that fiber in the drink, we still enjoy oat milk

because we know it's a nice item of food. And I was like, that is fascinating. In Spain, their problem is soy. They spend their whole lives debunking soy. And then in Italy, their favorite was almond milk. So it just goes to show that whatever your algorithm social media hole is in each country, that dictates those food choices. And the brand that we were doing this big discussion for, we just were all blown away by how different it is in every country in Europe. Yeah, and I think that really speaks to this idea, isn't it?

That like it's ever evolving and to just keep asking questions. Like when something's so extreme, there's likely a middle ground there. But I can't move on without asking you to give us a top line on soy as well because I think that's something that has also, there were definitely headlines. I feel like in the UK, it was a while ago, where people then had this fear that soy was going to cause breast cancer in particular. It was when I was at university, because I wrote a whole essay I chose to title it Soy Healthy or Harmful. I actually turned it into a blog on my website a few years later. Oh, give us the top line.

The top line on soy is that isoflavones and the amazing plant chemicals like phytoestrogens and soy, they're actually beneficial for us and they don't mimic and act like an actual female hormone in the body like estrogen. It's just impossible. And if you are having excessive amounts of anything, it's not going to be great for you. But soy does not give you man boobs. And actually over in Asia, it's their main source. They don't have as much cow's milk as we do in the UK or dairy. And they have lower rates of hip fractures in Asia. And they don't have dairy.

They predominantly drink soy. So looking at all these different equations, soy is great for protein. It's the most similar replacement to cow's milk if you're making a switch because of the protein content and if you get it fortified. And it's beneficial for women going through the menopause especially and it doesn't give you breast cancer that was the other one was like the idea that there was this direct link this came up last night in my talk and bless her a woman in the audience had had cancer a few years ago and she said i've been terrified to eat soy ever since and i just reassured her i said you know it's not soy that's causing the cancer there's so many mechanisms that are unknown and you'd need to see a cancer specialist. But please, you don't need to give up soy. There's no link that soy causes cancer.

Thank you so much on that clarification as well, because I think there are just these foods that have, and seed oils is the most recent example of it, that has this kind of blow up. And it's so difficult to kind of almost move forward because at one point someone saw something sensationalist about it. But because what we're linking to it in the sensationalist context is often death or disease. It's very difficult to move on from it. And I really, really appreciate that in people. Yeah, me too. And I think it's so scary, isn't it?

I think when you hear that, I mean, I'm obviously we we spoke last week, I'm trying to move away from toxic household products. You know, who knows in 10 years time what they're going to say about those, you know, we're always on the cusp. But when it comes to food, the only class one carcinogens that we have are red and processed meats that can be linked to cancer. We have no other food item like that. Even artificial sweeteners are much lower down on the ranking they're not really associated with cancer in that way so yeah don't panic everybody we're going to be okay and gosh doesn't it prey on the vulnerable no it really does like i definitely have health anxiety and i think definitely for me it came we were talking about it before we were recording my my mother-in-law was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2017 and she was really healthy and really well and it came out of nowhere and there

was very very few treatments available and she passed away almost exactly a year later and it definitely hit me in terms of that like health anxiety and I really struggled ever since to like associate I just anything would come up and like my gosh, that could be something awful. So I definitely really relate to people who fear things. And I think it's just so normal. But these headlines were so unhelpful, as you said, when people think, well, I can never eat that again. I can never eat that again. I can never eat that again. But if you're then also trying to reduce your consumption of ultra processed foods, for example, it just becomes this minefield and it's almost so confusing. You don't know what to do. I know. I mean, soy milk in a glass is really beneficial. And it's better for you than having a McDonald's every day. You know, if you weigh it up and start

taking things, what we say in the clinic is start putting things into your world, into your world and your context. Someone else might be doing great by having just one portion of broccoli every week. For someone else, that's every day. and you have to have a look at your own world in the context of what you need to do to be okay right now rather than focusing what everyone else is telling you and doing because you are doing what you can that is such great advice and are you giving me another really nice segue today to move into what is trending and wellness so what's training and wellness is the absolute antithesis of what you just said in general is this idea of like look at your life what do you need what's important to you what's plausible to you what's realistic for you and that is so different for all of us whereas these various

different supplements and powders that we're going to talk about today are the absolute opposite. And they're so similar to our lovely man in Florida, who was taken in by this kind of absolute allure of promise from eating 26 blocks of Parmesan a day of this idea that like there is this one thing that will change everything. And there are these quick fixes and there are magic bullets and there are these like instant fairy approaches that will change everything in your life and certainly that is the way that I think the supplement are sold today and again looking at you a little bit here social media you know I get advertised all the time it's like one clear skin one glowy hair one you want extra energy, et cetera, take this very expensive powder. And to give people a bit of context, the global nutritional supplements market is enormous. So

in 2024, it was valued at $385 billion. That's US dollars. But it's growing so fast, it's projected to nearly double reaching 758 billion US dollars by 2034. So this is serious business. So if anyone else is being advertised them all the time, that is because there is so much money in this. And the market leader, Athletic Greens, it's the biggest brand in this space. It was last valued at £945 million, about $1.2 billion in 2022. That was the last public valuation because it was after a major fundraising round. And their flagship product, AG1, costs £97 for 30 servings. That's if you buy it without a subscription. It's cheaper with a subscription. But if you just want to buy the singular product, 30 servings, £97. So it's just over £3 a day, £21 a week in terms of you think how much you

could spend on food. Yeah, on fresh fruit and veg. So I wanted to give a bit of context before we talk about supplements. And we have had so many people write in and say, can you please explain this massive trend for greens powders? So it is a big trend. It definitely is. And I think there's so many things to consider here. And you've got to remember that a green powder can never give you the benefit that you'll get from eating a whole food. I think we touched on the food matrix a bit last week. You said the example, Ella, of how an apple will taste different every day because of its unique properties. And what a lot of people don't realize is that they're trying to reduce ultra processed food items, but a green powder is an ultra-processed food item. And that's something that's also really

interesting, isn't it? But yet it seems to have a health halo. And perhaps people should list that as an example of a good UPF. And actually, it doesn't count as one of your five a day having this enormous amount of ingredients in one powder it still doesn't count maybe it counts as one because of the form you're taking it within and it doesn't come with those extra nutrients and what we see in the clinic is just there's such a lack of regulation on how you can advertise these things and we wrote a feature in the summer for a well-known magazine and we went through every green powder I was sent I mean I had boxes of it arriving through the posteller all these different brands obviously I had the market mean, I had boxes of it arriving through the post-dialer. Always different brands. Obviously, I had the market leader there. I had all of them. And what astounded

Abby and I in my clinic, my nutrition manager, we were looking through is that a lot of them don't declare what type of vitamin they've actually put in the drink. So vitamin A comes in different forms. It didn't say what form it comes in. And explain to people why that matters. Because if you have beta carotene or you have vitamin A and you're having retinol, And explain to people why that matters. making some notes on is that we know that one large meta-analysis conducted that high doses of vitamin A, vitamin E and beta carotene in the form of a supplement was actually associated with increased mortality. So risk of death essentially. And I don't want to sound too doom and gloom. Obviously we'll do the positives for green powder in a minute for some people, but I would say they're very small. But this is so,

so risky. Because if you're already taking vitamin A, or you're already getting enough in your diet, and then you're taking a supplement, I think most women that have been pregnant are told and they know vitamin A don't take too much, it's really risky. And it's a message that's actually got across. But other ingredients can interact like ones that are high in vitamin K can interact with blood thinners, people that are on those types of medication. And what's even worse, I'd say, than any of it is contamination of heavy metals and other substances. You can't vouch for the quality. And there will always be discrepancies on the conveyor belt of these powders and the way they're made and produced.

And the body just is not designed to absorb nutrients in this drink form at such a vast quantity so I think the deception and the advertising purely is there to say we're giving you all this nutrition you're probably not absorbing all that nutrition you're just paying it all out and you might get like one or two of those nutrition or values that are in that supplement but it also makes you feel like you don't and don't get me wrong I'm not saying it's easy to cook every night and to batch cook and have it for your leftovers for lunch I'm not trying to do away with the almost more than anything the mental load of planning that at the end of a busy day when you've got a lot going on but I think the way that we often talk about

these or the way they're often talked about is that they're a replacement for yeah you know it's essentially we know you're busy don't worry about making your stir fry tonight have all your greens in this powder instead and for example like again looking at most of them the powdered greens only will have like one to two grams of fiber per serving and obviously in the UK kind of 90 so percent of us are deficient in fiber it's even higher in the US I think it's about 95 percent so you're not getting that fiber when you've swapped you know I don't know i was looking at a tray baker bars last night just a really really simple dinner very very easy but it had just over 10 grams of fiber amazing so you've lost eight or nine grams in thinking that you'd get the benefit of eating the veg there

by having it in a powder but then again a lot as I've seen, for example, say with added fiber, et cetera. Oh, no, it doesn't work that way in the body. It just doesn't work that way. And I can see, so we've had some cases in the clinic, Ella, where we have given people green powder because they literally have such an aversion to fruit and vegetables that you are desperate to get something in as well

that isn't just taking an actual physical multivitaminal pill. And for some people, it can be a great placebo to help them get into a routine. But that's with anything. You could be taking celery juice and getting a placebo, which I'd argue is potentially a more preferable method than the synthesized amount of vitamins and minerals you've got here. And it's amazing they can get away with it in a way because it's not in pill form, it's in food form. And it's where things lie with regulation. It's a really murky area. What's more disturbing is the money they put behind influencing spend. So I've seen doctors advertising it.

And actually, that's really, I don't know. It's not my place to say. It's up to them where their moral and ethical boundary sits. But I think doctors should know that it's not a replacement for food. But perhaps they're going on the angle of there's lots of people out there that aren't eating anything. But then you've got to have all this money to spend £100 a month on the powder. I think that's my challenge with it. And again, this isn't to say that if you're currently eating well and you're exercising and you're managing your stress and you're sleeping and you're also taking this and you feel really good on it you know yes have a look at where the

vitamins are coming from as you said what form are they in you know having a look at like whether there is any heavy metals etc etc but if you're feeling good and you're happy with all of that great go for it my challenge with it is the way that we're talking about these and like all of the hype that they've had it is very much that don't worry we know you're busy you can have this instead but actually having it instead is really bad substitute and it's an even worse substitute when you look at how expensive it is and the risk yeah and if you spend that 21 pounds a week say you're spending three pounds a day on it, on fresh fruit and veg, you would get an extraordinary amount of goodness in your diet. And no risk of this. So the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, we call it SACN, they found that if you're taking green powders combined

with other supplements containing vitamin A that day, it's also risky for bone health. So if this exceeds 1,500 micrograms per day, you've got an increase of bone fractures later in life. So it's not what you're seeing now by taking these things. You know, we meet people that have a long list of supplements, and I totally get it. People are telling you it's worked for them, it's worked for them, this is what you should be taking. But it's what you don't see further down the line. But it's a hard debate, isn't it? Because I can see both sides to this as well completely. I think my hat sits more towards I'd rather really entice someone to make a smoothie at home or something with some frozen things in the freezer than turn to an expensive green powder. But I can see for some people where it might fit in. But for the majority, I don't think it's necessary.

Yeah. Put that £21 towards, as you said, like even a daily-ish, very quick smoothie. Chuck loads of frozen fruit and veg, nuts some oats etc in a blender and you're going to get a lot closer to getting your five a day in just a few minutes which is a similar premise but you're going to get all the fiber you're going to get lots of the fresh vitamins minerals antioxidants you know where it's all come from and it's not that much more work a smoothie oh no considered if you have a blender yeah chuck it in but to be honest people that have these equipment at home are the ones that can afford to pay for the powder so that's also something to consider but we move on to another expensive item ella yeah we move on to

this is the same topic but look i love david David Beckham. Who doesn't? I think I really enjoyed his documentary on Netflix. I really respect his career. I think he seems like a great person. I genuinely don't say any of this to do him down. But I think he's just launched for anyone who doesn't know a new brand called I am eight. And it's pitched as an unparalleled collaboration between academia, medicine and space science, because there are some people from NASA or ex NASA working on it. And it's a team of doctors, professors, and of course, David Beckham, and it's a new range of supplements. And it feels very similar to the supplements we were just talking about. So there's a supplement powder,

which is 92 nutrient rich ingredients in an acai and berry flavoured drink. And then there's a daily supplement which is designed for cellular longevity. And then you can get the Beckham stack, which is the both together. And it claims it can replace up to 16 daily supplements. And that's £104. But who should be taking 16 daily supplements unless you have a condition in the first place? And who can afford to take 16 daily supplements in the first place? So I think this is the question. And as I said, I don't levy the criticism at David Beckham, but it's more this industry we're talking about, this $385 billion industry, which is essentially preying on the fact that we're all busy, the fact that we're all overwhelmed, the fact that we

desperately would love some quick and easy solution to all of it. And we can basically spend 104 pounds and emulate someone we look up to, to some it. And we can basically spend £104 and emulate someone we look up to, to some extent. And yes, there are some really extraordinary people working on this. I so appreciate that. But equally, I just think we need to take it all with a caution. And I don't preclude myself from that. I told you about this example in the notes. Like last summer, I was so stressed, super overwhelmed, and kept seeing loads of things online that were selling me these quick fixes. One of which was ashwagandha, which is an adaptogen. You know, so much of what I was seeing was like, it changed my life.

I had no stress. And guess what I did? At like two o'clock in the morning, at peak of stress, I bought myself some ashwagandha. I've done it as well by the way of ashwagandha, but we delve into that another time yeah we should talk about adaptions another time but i just thought it for me it was so representative of the fact that i was i had no child care at that point we were going through an m&a process on delicious yellow which was extraordinarily stressful matt was working like 6 a.m till 2 a.m pretty much every day basically i hadn't seen him in a while it was a completely extraordinary time of stress and work and so much going on and the idea that a singular supplement

could change that is in fact madness and yet even I as someone who's worked in this for ages and knows how kind of tenuous often claims are. And don't get me wrong, there is some interesting research in ashwagandha being potentially a support in reducing some anxiety and stress. But the word is potential, isn't it? Like all of this, it's not entirely made up. You can't create a $385 billion industry on something entirely fabricated. Absolutely not. But what it is, is take it with a pinch of salt. Like there was no way. And as you said, also, like absolutely a pinch of salt. Like there was no way. And as you said, also, like absolutely there are risks. There's all sorts of contraindications, none of which I looked at when I bought it in this

impulsive, I need something to fix me. But actually I had so much to fix myself and to deal with. And I was also scrolling late and I wasn't eating well and I wasn't exercising and I wasn't doing all these things that are clinically proven to be good for me. And I think this is what I keep coming back to is just that there's so much out there to show that like a quick walk on your lunch break, eating your five a day, reducing your intake of excess alcohol, cigarettes, et cetera, are so good for you and yet they're really difficult to do every single day and so instead there is this desire for these quick fixes

I mean if I were to see a drink and I was in your state right then and I get days too and I'm a nutritionist I get days where I want a quick fix and if I saw a drink that said 92 rich ingredients the first thing I think now is well I know that's impossible you can't absorb all that but if I were in a vulnerable state I'd be like yeah I need those 92 ingredients right now give it to me let me have them and what's so fascinating about what you say is that there isn't any clinical trials so someone with all that funding like David Beckham to go about something this big which we let's be's be honest, I wish it were real. I wish that it was because I'd take it too in a heartbeat, wouldn't you? You'd just be like, yeah, this is groundbreaking.

But if NASA haven't even published a clinical trial, and it says on their website yet to be published, and they've already launched it. Yeah, so the current findings are all self-reported. And the study itself is active on the US government's clinical trial website but no results have yet been posted and obviously there's so much to show that anything that's self-reported always calls for caution because you know there's placebo at play and etc so I just think that again I guess we always circle back to the same thing, but it's just ask yourself, like, could you do a bit more of the basics and actually remind yourself in that, that unfortunately, as you said, like, I wish that there was one simple thing that I could take every day or do every day that would instantly change your health for the rest of time. We should have a psychologist just for supplements. You should have a supplement psychologist we all need one yeah

it's really interesting it's the psychology of why we're all so vulnerable as you said to the quick fixes and the idea that when you've got a lot going on singular something could change everything which is takes us right back to our friend on tiktok which is like i totally get it i totally get why you were struggling with your health and someone said this will completely change it just follow it yeah and then obviously it didn't maybe the American government was doing something right by banning it and then it suddenly popped back up again didn't it didn't it disappear TikTok for people in America maybe they had the right idea but you know what I know lots of people make their income through TikTok. And I appreciate that. But I was a big fan of it being banned because the sensationalist nature of the algorithm is so unhelpful.

And that's not to say all content is bad. But what has happened to the wellness industry since the day we started to today is so detrimental. Yes, it's great that there's lots of information available in lots of ways. But it is now, as a result, I think, almost solely because of social media, so sensationalized. And we've run out of time, I think, to talk about NAD Plus today. Should we do that next week? So we should do it next week.

Let's carry it over. And I'm sure she wouldn't mind me saying this, but like a girlfriend of mine who's just had her second baby, you know, was talking to me about the podcast and me listening to it and really enjoying it. She was like, please can you talk about about nad plus because i'm being advertised at all the time moments amazing for longevity and so good for energy and guess what she has a few week old baby so surprise surprise she's exhausted and she was like yeah i've seen this company and you can like inject in yourself at home i knew that would be your face when i said that and she didn't buy it and she's very sensible but it's just well done you listening I don't know Ella's friend but it's such a hard time when you've just had a baby it's awful it is and she

also exists in the in the well-being industry and and it's just it's so difficult to discern what's going on and it's such a minefield and so yeah I think we'll move that over to next week and do you want to finish Ella then with the question that we picked out from our listeners? I think it's quite a nice positive thing to finish on. It's quite uplifting on something we can give you all listening today to do. Absolutely. So quickly before we go into that, I forgot to have at the top of our trends that last week we talked about matcha. And I promise I will give a quick how to make matcha.

I am no expert by any means, but you need about a quarter of a teaspoon of matcha and you want to whisk that. I do think it's worth buying a little whisk if you want to try it. They're very inexpensive. The little electric ones. Or just a little bamboo one. Yes. A few pounds on Amazon, easy to get hold of. And you whisk about a quarter of a teaspoon of matcha powder with hot but not boiling water so about 80 degrees ish so when your kettle hasn't quite boiled or you've let it cool down a little bit so fill up about a third of a cup with that whisk it up until it looks really frothy and obviously all the powder is dissolved and then you add your hot milk on top and there was also a few requests for brands I haven't tried every brand of

matcha out there absolutely not the nicest brand I've tried in a while is called OM, I think it's OMT. I've seen that. There's Lalani, OMT. Sorry, it's OMGT. I always get it wrong. It's OMGT matcha. I buy it from Holland and Barrett. And it's an amazing female founder.

I met her at an event run by a group called By Women Built, which is all about championing female founders. So really, she was amazing. And it was the best quality I've ever tasted. And you get it from a Holland Barrett. I need to try it because Ella took me to the place last week. So in the storm. So we left the podcast studio in torrential rain to get our matches, didn't we?

We ran down Oxford Street. I just seemed to think it was a really good idea. And you're like, it looks really rainy. And I was like, it will be fine. It was awful. Totally drenched. But it was the best match I've probably ever had I love that thank you I love making good match Ella the question

we had I think is really poignant and I think it's a good one for you um this listener said things are really overwhelming for me I have a two-year-old I'm married to someone who doesn't like a lot of variety as in no beans pulses anything he thinks all of this diet stuff is unnecessary can you give me five tips of where to start maybe with five a day she just feels just a bit lost with it all and she said thank you I think it was such a great question and thank you so much to everyone who's taking the time we're going to try and include a question or two in each episode and the ones that feel really universal I think to lots of us and I think it's a great question. The thing that I would say, and I guess it speaks to everything we've spoken about today,

is just start small. This is not all or nothing. I think for almost anyone trying to change all of your diet or all of your partner or child's diet overnight, and I'm not saying that that's what the system is trying to do, but that is so overwhelming. And as opposed to as well, thinking about what to take out, think about what to add in. Like, could you set yourself a goal of adding in one extra portion of plants every single

day and by that it could be almond butter on your toast it could be a sprinkling of seeds on your salad maybe you eat loads of bolognese in your house and actually 25% of the bolognese mix actually starts to come from lentils yeah you know could you add in to something like that some extra celery or carrots in the base of it? Just think every day about adding in, say, one extra plant, trying something new with that. Even cooking with olive oil is a plant point. Absolutely. And so don't get overwhelmed. Start really small, start really gently. And I think we all so overestimate what we can achieve in a day, a week, a month with everything in our life, including dietary and

health habit changes. But we so underestimate what we can do in a year, two years, three years, four years. And to me, I think about where would you love to get to with your health and well-being a year from now, two years from now, and then ask yourself, can I keep those habits up? Because if to get there, you've got to get up at 4.30 every single morning and you've got to do all of these various different things, or you've got to keep spending £104 or £97 on supplements. The morning shed. Yeah. Is it really going to last one, two, three, four, five years, decades decades I would say unlikely whereas if what you do is like I'm going to batch cook on a Sunday and I'm going to eat that a few times throughout the week as packed

lunches as for example or what I'm going to do is I'm going to try and wake up 10 minutes earlier and I'm going to do five minutes of meditation or five minutes of stretching you probably could do that most days for the next year. And then you'll have a week like I've just had as a nutritionist where I've had pizza and cake and it's been like a party week and that happens. And that's great. That's okay. And then you can pick it back up the next week. I just thought that was such a good question. And don't worry, you're not alone. And can you give her one sound bite as to why all this diet stuff does matter and isn't unnecessary? Yeah, absolutely. And I think we'll get our expert slot on, but won't we as well to go into gut health more. But honestly, any little change you can make, adding in one little extra portion is good for what my son and I call the belly bugs, you know, that live in your belly. And it's just beneficial for your health to get that extra fiber. And the long term data we have and things that bring inflammation down, because chronic inflammation is what's linked to poor health long term is by eating more plants it's just so proven

time and time again there's mountains of research that eating more veg and fruit and pulses and whole grains brings it down so yeah one little thing every day 80 grams is a portion one of your five a day so if you had three bananas for instance anyone listening that's still only one of your five a day not three just remember it remember, it's about different types. And I think you're good to go. Yeah, and don't do anything in extremes. Eating just bananas, just as bad as eating only 26 bucks parmesan. I still can't believe it. It's just so sad.

And just when I looked at it, I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. I think it's the extreme end, but representative of the madness that is the wellness world today. And that is all we have time for. Thank you guys so much for listening. And as I said at the top, if you wanted to just spare two seconds at the end of this, please click follow. It would just mean the episodes pop up for you every week,

top right on iTunes, just under the show title and image on Spotify. And if you're on the podcast app on your iPhone, just scroll down to the bottom of the page. And if you enjoyed the episode, give us five stars, because that is what is going to push us up the charts and more people are going to see what hopefully feels like approachable health advice in a very confusing world. So thank you for listening. See you Monday. You're a podcast listener, and this is a podcast ad heard only in Canada. Reach great Canadian listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre-produced ad like this one across thousands of shows to reach your target audience with Libsyn Ads.

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