The Wellness Scoop - How to Be a Super-Ager and Reduce Inflammation

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

This week, we’re talking about how to be a “super-ager,” people in their eighties whose memory performs like someone 30 years younger, and why friendships, not fitness, turned out to be their secret weapon. We’re also digging into a huge new study on potatoes and type 2 diabetes, showing that eating chips three times a week raises risk by 20%, while swapping them for whole grains cuts risk significantly. Plus, the surprising number of almonds you should eat each day to boost your gut health, and what that means for heart health, antioxidants, blood sugar and inflammation. We’ll also look at whether whole almonds or almond butter give you the bigger benefit. And for our wellness trend of the week, we’re exploring why reading books for just 30 minutes a day could add nearly two years to your life, and how swapping even a fraction of your scrolling time for reading could transform your health. All that, plus personal updates and the news that The Wellness Scoop is now going twice weekly! Recommendations:  Ella's book recs: Blue Sisters, by Coco Mellors; A Well Behaved Woman, by Therese Anne Fowler and; There are Rivers in the Sky, by Elif Shafak US listeners, grab your copy of Rhi's book - The Unprocessed Plate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When I found out my friend got a great deal on a wool coat from winners, I started wondering. Is every fabulous item I see from winners? Like that woman over there with the designer jeans. Are those from winners? Ooh, are those beautiful gold earrings? Did she pay full price? Or that leather tote?

Or that cashmere sweater? Or those knee-high boots? That dress, that jacket, those shoes. Is anyone paying full price for anything? Stop wondering. Start winning. Winners, find fabulous for less. Welcome to the Wellness Scoop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration.

And as always, we are your host. I'm Ella Mills. And I'm Rihanna Lambert. And as always, we're diving into the headlines and trends, making waves in the world of health and wellness. Okay, guys, today we are talking about how to be a super ageer. That's something I think we probably all want. How many almonds do we need to be eating a day for optimum help? Serena Williams' GLP1 advert that's caused a lot of controversy and split the internet. We're going to dive into our thoughts on that.

Why Reading might be your new wellness hack, everything that I want to hear as an obsessive reader, and Kim Kardashian's new face shapewear, is it dystopian or are we all going to be snatched? Before we get into it, Re, how are you? This is the first day back at school. How are you feeling? Oh my goodness. Overwell might be the big word, Ella. How about you? Hit the nail on the head. We are, once this comes out on Monday, we're recording on Wednesday. We will be in our new house. We will have spent the weekend there. The kids will be at their new school. We will have two new puppies because apparently we are not people who do things by halves.

But they're gorgeous. They're so cute. They're so amazing. But we'll be in. But yes, it's definitely, we've been kind of between family the summer, which has been lovely. but kind of everything's in a box or a suitcase. I have no idea where anything is. And the children are feral by the end of the school holidays. Oh my goodness. Getting them out the door this morning, Ella was just a little one didn't want to go. He just wanted to stay at home, play in the playroom. And the eldest is totally fine.

But this is so much to remember. I was going through my calendar of dates of clubs, activities, work meetings, and trying to organise it all onto my planner. I bought a planner off Amazon, I have to say. I do like it. It's quite therapeutic. I did that last year and I was like, I'm officially a grown-up. Oh, dear. So have you had any highlights, Ella, before we continue? Anything you've been up to that you want to share?

You know what? We're just 100% in house mode, which obviously is a highlight in and of itself and the puppies, which is just so sweet and gorgeous and one of the most wholesome moments. And I think for anyone else who's kind of made big life decisions, like for us, I was moving out of London and starting this new life. It's such a big decision, and we undernard on it on two years and about commuting and moving the girls' school. And, you know, we lived really close to family in London and we're further away now and all the rest of it. And I saw my daughter yesterday running around our garden, just so carefree, being chased by both our dog, Austin and the little puppy. And the kids were going

up and down a slide with them. And I just thought, oh my gosh, this is why we've done it. Like, what an amazing childhood. And so I think that that's the big highlight. But you know what? I'm like, So excited. Anyone who commutes will say to me, like, give it a couple of months, but I cannot wait to get on the train of one day, come back into London and get a little bit more work routine going again after the summer. Oh, you're going to absolutely love it. Can I share the funny wellie story very quickly that you said? I was telling Ella how it's like chucking it with rain, you know, standard 1st of September, you know, we're back to it. And I was like, well, I didn't realize because when you moved to the country, you need to have wellie boots.

And I was like, yeah, even the schools, you need wellie boots. And yeah, it's a wonderful transition. You'll love the wellie life at that. I think wellies are going to look good on you. Yeah, I thought they'd be fine at school for a few days without because they hadn't a five yet. But it turns out there's torrential rain and their forest school in the first day. So I don't think so.

Do you know, I've got one very random share for everybody. Do you know, remember ages ago we were talking about the Dubai chocolate and we were discussing that trend, weren't we, how much it was costing, the amazing. boom in this industry. If you haven't tried to buy chocolate, I'm sure you guys have seen it, but just as a refresher for anyone who hasn't, it's a kind of pistachio paste essentially in the middle. And because pistachios are one of the most expensive nuts and nuts are already expensive, it makes this chocolate wildly expensive.

It's like 12 pounds or so to up to 20 pounds. I've seen a bar and it's gone just absolutely wild. I have to say, I hate to be a breaker of bad news, but I thought I was away with the kids last weekend and I thought I saw one I'm going to get it I'm going to treat myself but 12 pound on a bar of chocolate that's got like six cubes in it my husband's like what are you doing why are you spending this money on this small bar of chocolate I'm like you don't understand I want to try the real deal like the actual Dubai chocolate I was so disappointed I honestly Ella I was devastated I think because I'd been so used to our homemade versions with the gorgeous like gooey dates

the pistachio butter lashings and I just thought it was a bit of a disappointment. Oh no, you know what? I haven't tried it. But yes, pistachios as a result feel like they're having a moment and every restaurant menu, etc. everywhere. I had a pistachio souffle. Oh, that sounds good. It was so good. But I think it leads us on today nicely to our headlines that matter. Okay, if you're new here, welcome. We love this community. And each week, agree and I go through and we look at what is everyone talking about in the news and the papers on the TV, radio, etc. And what are the headlines you guys probably have seen and want to know more about? And we are starting with such a nice one today. Friendship, not fitness, linked to

sharp memory in later life. And I just loved this headline. Anyone who's been listening for a while knows that I think both of us have this real, I would call it obsession with the fact that wellness gets so reductive, so often. And it's often linked to you must do this one thing. or these are the four things that will change your life. And so often they're linked to food or to exercise. And both of those things really matter, but they don't sit in isolation. And if you ignore the rest of your health and wellness, it's very much your detriment. And actually, our connections is such a huge part of it.

And this was just an amazing illustration of that. So it was a new study published in Alzheimer's and dementia and it looked at super ages. Yeah. So people over 80, right? That's right, exactly. And don't we all want to be a super ageer? And it was the people over 80. whose memory performed like someone 30 years younger,

so people in their 80s who's a memory is behaving like they're in their 50s. I want to be like this. Pray, pray. And the study was a good one. It was small, but it followed 290 of these super ages, Ella, and they were asked to listen to 15 everyday words, then recall as many as possible half an hour later. I don't know how I'd even do it that now.

Okay, I'm so glad you said that because I'm sitting there thinking, oh no this isn't good maybe we can all take the test it is a reminder maybe we take on far too much in our lives but most people in their 80s remember about five words basically but the super ages remembered nine or more yeah which is the same as someone in their 50s or 60s and me and ella yeah exactly so true oh my goodness okay and the thing that's i think so interesting here to this point of health being this 360 thing and we've got to look at it in a more holistic way is these super ages didn't all live kind of quote unquote perfect lives like they weren't perfect health influences sort of thing some of them ate well they exercised and they slept properly but others

actually were smoking they were drinking they skipped exercise they lived stressful lives and we're not kind of encouraging those habits but i think the thing to pick out here is the one thing all these super ages had in common is they had very very strong social connections and they consistently rated their friendships and relationships more positively than their peers Which is great because we've discussed before social interaction, haven't we, that without it, it can be as harmful as smoking cigarettes. And it's so important. And the brain scans back this up. So super ages had more specialized cells called von econema neurons. So neurons are those firing elements in the brain. And they're linked to social interaction. So they had a thicker anterior

singulate cortex. And the brain region involved in empathy. So our feelings, our emotional and motivation in social situations. And their brains showed less thinning with age. I think that's what we all want, don't we? Because that's the region that's linked to sociability. So I guess we just all want a thicker brain. It's absolutely extraordinary. And I think it's worth reminding, we've talked about this before, but one of the largest studies ever done was done, it was the Harvard study of adult development. And it tracked the lives of thousands of people across different socioeconomic groups over 80 years, and it found that the positive relationships were the number one predictor of health and well-being in those people. So this isn't a kind of standalone piece of research

that was shared in the papers over the last few weeks. This is really a really, really important facet of health and wellness, and I think it's really forgotten about so much of the time. A hundred percent, and it's a really nice one because it's not telling you, I think food is emotive and exercises based on what you're capable of doing and motivation and psychology, but social interactions is just something that's really nice. And I think with a world that's emerging with AI, and I know we can discuss this in more detail another time, it is really worrying that we're not really enhancing those physical contacts. I wonder if there is a study that will come out that follows now, from starting from now, basically, 2025 for the next 10 years,

that follows the difference between social interactions using AI versus a physical human being? Yeah, I totally agree. I think it's fascinating to see, and also we'll pick it up. I think maybe next week there's been a lot of new information coming out about the state of mental health for young people. Again, more research, more evidence about what a difficult time we're having. It's very hard to believe that all of this time online and lack of kind of real connection in this very, very busy and often quite transactional world isn't having a really detrimental impact on our health. And I think, as really said, like, when we look at health and wellness,

we do often think about how many grams of protein, how many grams of fiber, you know, 30 plants a week, et cetera, et cetera, ultra processed food. And I think, you know, it's not that that's not relevant. But I think when you boil it down, it's just really nice to know that actually really making time to like go on a walk with a friend, call someone that matters to you, take even like a 20 minute lunch break at work and chat to a colleague that you get on well with. Like these things really, really, really matter for your well-being. And so, you know, and I say that to myself and I think probably read you too. Like we need to make more time for these things. I find it

really, I don't do it enough. No, I don't. But often I find myself choosing between, you know, late nights of social interaction versus, oh, I'm a bit run down with a cold. I need to get an early night. And often it comes down to these factors and it shouldn't do. I also thought the other day, I don't laugh as much as I used to. And I need to get to. that bag and do you notice like I was in stitches with my elders playing this board game yesterday I know I'm like me and Ella are the coolest but you know we're playing this board game in funny moments and I just saw how he laughed you know with such pure innocence like completely taken over and you feel really good after you laugh it creates and dolphins and I just

don't think we laugh enough anymore there's something in it isn't there there's definitely something in it because we've got stats of course with rates of you know dementia at the moment sadly and lots of different areas of mental health but it does pose the question we need to make time for each other yeah we really do so that's the number one takeaway from this week guys is that health is not just broccoli and protein it is very much about your friends and your social connections as well but on the topic of food headline number two we have so many positives there I hope this is going to give everyone a nice spring in their step as we go into that like back to school back to routine moment of September. Scientists reveal the number of almonds you should eat

every day to boost your gut health. And again, this one is really a nice, positive, easy win for people because I think we've also always heard almonds a good for you. We were talking about blueberries, weren't we last week, and they're kind of superfood status. And I feel almonds kind of go into that group as well, don't they? Where they've had a lot of good press for being so good for us. But there's some new research out there that shows exactly how many almonds, apparently we should all be eating every day to see some real benefits. Yeah, 100%. Almond's are actually one of the first ever nuts I worked with when I graduated from university. And it's where I first met Dr. Sarah Berry, who works currently at King's College doing lots of research. And I remember

sitting on a board discussing that a handful of almonds a day are really beneficial for heart health. You know, keeps heart health at bay was the kind of phrase and messaging at the time. And this study in particular is from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. And it found that eating 50 grams of almonds a day, so roughly a handful or 45 to 50 almonds, improve gut health. Now, that does sound like a lot because actually a portion from memory, I think, is 23, I think. So you kind of want to have two small handfuls a day to get the quota that's quoted in this study. And those participants develop more diverse, beneficial gut bacteria, which is linked, of course,

to our immune system because remember our gut bugs train our immune system and it reduces inflammation and even better mood and cognitive health. I just checked. You're right, 23 almonds. I knew it. It's officially one portion. That is such great, quite niche knowledge. I love it. Thanks, Ella. Do you know, I do retain something. Like I look back at my uni days. I'm like, there are some things in my head. Which is just fab because it's such an easy thing to do. And again, like when you're at work and you want a little mid-morning snack, almonds or obviously almond butter, you can do so much with make homemade nut butter bars and oat bars and things like that. Chuck them in your granola or on your porridge.

Also, roasted almonds, so good on salads, adding that little bit of crunch. You can roast them. Also, if you pan fry them with some like sage and chili, loads of garlic, amazing on top of like grain bowls and things like that. So those different ways to use your almonds. I prefer roasting or Ella's sure hate me saying this, but your chocolate almonds are my daily almond intake.

Oh my God. I love you saying it. The delicious yellow chocolate almonds are one of the best things on the planet. The chocolate orange ones, they're my favourite. They're amazing, aren't they? Yeah, the big packets, obviously, are meant to be for sharing. Oh. I have never shared one of them.

No, I mean, if the kids are around, they do get their hands on them. But almonds are linked to so many benefits. Ella, do you want to list off the first few that we've got here? Exactly. So we've got a kind of multifaceted range of benefits from an almond, which again, we'd just say there's not to be like really dry, but just in terms of the inspiration to do these simple habits today, chat to your friend, have some almonds. They're so good for your heart because they're full of your heart, healthy, monosaturated fats.

And so again, a kind of 30 gram-ish serving. It's got about 15 grams of these healthy fats. And that's the same kind of fact you're going to find in things like olive oil, avocados. And again, all the research shows that adding almonds and this sort of fat, your diet lowers your LDL, your bad cholesterol. So you don't need to be worrying about the fat in it. It's actually so, so good.

and those LDL levels are a major risk factor for heart disease, which is obviously a big concern for so many people. So getting nuts in is actually a really, really beneficial thing, as with your olive oil, your avocados. As Re said, it also is so good for your gut health. You're getting about four grams of fibre in it, feeding your good bacteria, as we know. Obviously, it's so important for your immune system. It's inflammation control, digestion, and even maybe cognitive health later in life. Yeah, absolutely. And just to add as well, this is why I'm not a fan of calorie counting per se because items like almonds are quite high in calories because they're fat content whereas actually the type of fat that we're discussing here linking to the heart

health is good and also contains antioxidants because vitamin E is a fat soluble vitamin and almonds are abundant in them. It's basically packed with it. It's got handfuls of it and if you have one handful of almonds it provides around 7.5 milligrams which is almost double the daily recommended intake of vitamin E. And that's just in one handful. So if you're worried about how to hit some of those healthy fats, it's just such an easy way, Ella, I think. And it's associated, of course, with prevention and reducing your risk of Alzheimer's and cancer. But that is a big statement for me to make. So you can't just have a handful of almonds a day and think that suddenly that's going to solve all our problems. But it contributes to lowering inflammation. It does. And vitamin E is

the kind of beauty, one of the like beauty vitamins, isn't it? Because it's so good for your skin and healthy skin. So you want to glow, eat some almonds. And then we thought it would be helpful just to touch on whole almonds versus almond butter because we've seen some questions from you guys on that. Like what is the difference? Does it make any difference from nutritional perspective? Will you give the kind of overview on that one? Yeah, 100%. This is a food matrix based question. And when I discuss food matrix, I mean how eating a food is absorbed in your body because of the process. So we're back to the ultra-process food conversation that we have quite a bit on the podcast. And I've discussed this in my book, The Unprocessed Plate. But if you eat a whole

almond, you've got the structure still. It's intact. You've got all that fiber, all those lovely fats. And if you grind that down and you put it through a nut butter machine or you're making nut butter, you've got that lovely, lovely fat. It's more readily available. And the angle here is that you don't chew it. I mean, I don't know if you chew nut butter. It depends on the consistency of the nut butter, but often we're just spreading it on our toast, popping it into recipes like me this morning, putting it on a date because I'm obsessed with anything like that, and it tastes really good. So what you're doing is absorbing more of the energy and more calories and more fats from it. And it's probably not the best choice for people that have insulin

resistance, maybe type 2 diabetes, to have a lot of nut butter. You're probably better off having the whole almonds, if we're looking at it that way. But it does. It does. It does. It does. It does. It doesn't mean they're bad. And also, almonds aren't high in sugar. So I'm not worried about almonds as a food group being an unhealthy item. That is not true. I'm just talking about portion control. They do offer the same nutrition practically when it comes to the vitamin content, the mineral content. But you do, the studies here are not really using nut butter. They're using the whole almond. So you're better off chewing that almond. It's good for your gut to chew. We don't chew enough everybody. I know that sounds bizarre. It's something I'm writing behind the

scenes at the moment, but we are not chewing. And there's some studies that suggest that children now are not chewing so much that it's going to impact the structure and shape of their jaw and impact their speech later in life. How interesting is that? Oh my gosh. Yeah. I mean, there's so much around that, isn't there? There's an amount of ultra-processed foods again that children are eating and how it's really affecting their palate, their jaw, their ability. to eat different foods. It's absolutely fascinating. And check the nut butter, Ella. We know this, don't we? Look for parmol, added sugars, all sorts of things because not all nut butters are equal.

With Amex Platinum, access to exclusive Amex pre-sale tickets can score you a spot trackside. So being a fan for life turns into the trip of a lifetime. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Presale tickets for future events subject to availability and vary by race. Turns and conditions apply. Learn more at MX.com.ca. Okay, headline three. It's quite a juicy one today. We've gone from like make friends, eat some almonds. It's all really nice to, yeah, a little bit more controversial. And this is, I've never had more DMs from you guys as in our listeners than with this one. I think Ryu has the exact same. So thank you guys so much for sharing it. This was Serena Williams shares her weight loss journey with GLP1 injections.

and there's a real kind of mix of reactions to this. Some people saying she's breaking the stigma, some people really pointing out that she has had this extraordinary and really tough, I imagine, to take consistent narrative on her body image and her weight and how she looks. And I think there's been arguments of misogyny, of racism, peppered in there, and what a difficult time she's had. And now she's feeling good, and that's really positive.

But also we've obviously talked about GLP ones and these weight loss medications a lot on the point. podcast and it was just a really interesting angle on it. And Rhee, have you watched the whole ad? No. Can you, have you got it? Can we watch it quickly now? Okay, here we go. Yes, I'm on row. They say GLP ones for weight loss is a shortcut. It's not. It's science. After kids, it's the medicine my body needed. GLP ones helped me lose 31 pounds. One app to hit my goals. This This is healthcare. This is Roe. I'm Serena Williams, and I'm a real Roe member. What's your reaction? My reaction is to go straight to my clinical hat. And, you know, I'm a master practitioner with

the psychological interventions to disordered eating. So straightway in my head, I'm going, oh, red flag, you said how much weight you lost. Oh, you know, red flag. You're saying, you know, this is science. First of all, before I'd heard that video, my response. also was I'm obsessed with Serena Williams. She is just iconic. She embodies strength, right? She is everything that we're fighting for being female. She's just, you cannot dispute her talent and her strength and her will and her drive and what she's been through, like you said. But the company name mentioned X times, you know, it's like three times. She mentioned the name of the product, right? and it's selling it's selling disguised obviously as my personal journey and a big red flag

as an evidence based nutrition professional is anecdotal advice it worked for me it'll work for you too and she's not wrong it will work for lots of people but we have to remember medications have side effects i could go on ella but i think my initial response is that she's not a health professional so she can say those things but you're blurring a moral compass there by saying those sorts of things. And it might be true, but it is a moral that you can see why there's a lot of fire behind this discussion. Yeah. And I think there's a lot of curiosity in the discussion because as we've talked about, these GLP ones, these weight loss medications are really changing the health and wellness landscape so, so quickly. And obviously they're in trials to

come in pill form, which I'm sure will kind of speed it up, no end, especially because it will bring the price down and the price is currently going up. So even more relevant at the moment. but I just, I don't know, I think it's this really interesting balance of there's obviously a huge benefit to lots of people with these drugs and it's not taking away from that, but there's a kind of glamourisation and a popular culture, which I just really struggle sometimes with the link between kind of celebrity culture and popular culture and the glamorization of that sort of thing and the health industry. And obviously those lines are blood every day whether you look on Instagram and the what I eat in the days and this is how I'm,

I manage my health. And so maybe it's no different to that. But there's, you know, obviously these drugs do have side effects. And they do. One of the big things I saw, we've talked about her before, was Jamelia Jamil, who's very outspoken on conversations around female bodies and weight loss, making the point that these drugs do have side effects. And it's very different for Serena Williams with huge amounts of disposable income and resources to take them and potentially deal with the side effects later on to anyone else. And as you said, so many people look up to her and is it saying we all now need to lose 31 pounds. I mean, she may have felt and, you know, there was a lot of narrative on her body and she may have felt she needed to lose weight. But equally, she was one of

the most successful women in sport ever. To your point, she was such a huge inspiration. It is such a huge inspiration. It is a completely extraordinary woman in terms of her sporting achievements and her body. And so then for her not to feel comfortable with her body, You know, yes, in a way, it's normalising it, but equally, it's actually really sad. And I don't know, I have quite a difficult time with it. I hear you, I hear you. And you can tell Ella and I just want to be very neutral about the fact that you can decide what you want to do of your body. I think at the end of the day, there's no shame for wanting to lose the weight.

And it's not Serena Williams' fault that she's an icon, that she is who she is. But when you put your messaging across and you share your story in this way for financial gain, that there is an odd, because she could have done this privately, you know, she didn't have to endorse a GLP1 company. And I think what it's done inadvertently is kind of give the message that women's body should always bounce back or look a certain way after childbirth, which isn't true because we're not meant to stay the same after childbirth.

Sometimes it depends on your unique genetics where your body fat sits and hormonal changes and what we're predisposed to be because there is evidence that constant exposure to body ideal messaging can worsen body dissatisfaction, especially in younger women too. So we've got to remember young kids growing up now are going to think, oh, well, I'm just going to have a baby then go on GLP ones like Serena Williams did. And we're losing the support on people that want to do it naturally.

I'm not anti-GLP ones either because we see a lot of success in the clinic. But I would like to share anonymously, of course, one story we had recently where the side effects was so serious that there was vomiting which we thought initially was suspected salmonella poisoning because we just could not put it down initially to the GLP1 and it lasted for about a month and the side effects of the severe vomiting, the nausea, the cramping, the headaches

for an individual that was taking this medication on a very low dose. So you don't know how you're going to react to it. My problem is the endorsement, Ellie. I have so much red tape at what I can and can't say, but then I am a health professional and some people choose not to be registered so they can say what they want. You see doctors saying what they want because they're not held up by the GMC, you know.

But Serena Williams isn't held accountable to anybody. So I think you can financially profit, but financially profiting off your weight loss is always going to be controversial. I think that's it in a nutshell. Her husband also is on the board of Roe. Oh. That explains it. Yeah. And so obviously, you know, the more the company grows, if it's worth billions and, you know, tens of billions of dollars,

then obviously what she stands to gain from that is absolutely enormous. So you're assuming very much that he has shares in the company. But anyway, it's a really interesting one. And thank you guys so much for sending it to us. I don't really have a kind of clear conclusion on this other than I think it's just this interesting intersection. And I'll be curious to see how this keeps developing and whether or not actually this is a new trend. Because obviously we've had people endorsing Weight Watchers and Slim Fast and other old school weight loss. And is this a kind of new era for GLP once?

And yeah, the glamorization of them as they enter into the world of celebrity more openly than I think they've been over the last few years. But does it make it to the point that, you know, Serena Williams by no means, I think could ever be described as like unhealthily overweight? And therefore in need of these, as the argument could go. And so does that, to your point, start to put pressure on more and more people, you know, I'm a few pounds heavier than I'd like to be? My jeans are a few, you know, a little bit tight than I'd like them to be. Shall I just take this drug? Well, this is it. And then we have to remember the kindness and compassion angle because she's very brave equally to get up there and discuss her body image and ideal. It might be really empowering for people to think, oh, you know, if she couldn't do it, then I'm not, there's nothing wrong with me. You know, I'm trying really hard and I can't shift the body for I want to either. There's so many different scientific theories. You know, she said this is science. Well, actually, there's something called set point theory, which is debated, but it is debated that you're meant to sit within a certain weight range. and after you've had kids

that changes again as well so I'm very curious what you guys think yeah let us know can you keep commenting because in the the Spotify comments obviously we were asked about this a lot and then a lot of you fed back of course you're very happy with the two episodes a week

so we'll be able to go into your comments and put them in on the Thursday episode yes we are also we have noticed a lot of questions on gLP ones and so we are also I think we might get someone to come in in on one of our community questions episodes in a couple of weeks time, someone who's completely specialised in GLP ones in these weight loss medications and answer a few more of

your specific questions. So if you have any, if that's interesting, let us know in the comments and we can arrange that. We can do that as part of the Q&As. If we've got a collection of comments on a specific thing, we can find someone who's an absolute expert in that specific area and get them on and make sure we're kind of answering everything you guys want to know about health and wellness in absolute detail. But I don't know. I just, I think there's some really interesting parts of these medicines. I really, really do.

Medicine is the word, Ella, medicine. Yeah, but I just worry so much about the crossover into celebrity and popular culture and people feeling like they've got to shrink again. And I think we've talked about the size zero and it's, you know, the kind of influence these drugs are having on celebrity and pop culture. And I think it just makes me feel a little bit worried. Professor Giles Yo predicted this ages ago. I remember having him on a Food for Thought recording

and he said, is there one medication we can all name apart from perhaps like you can all name paracetamol or ibuprofen? Oh, well, everybody knows what GLP ones are now. You know, everyone knows the word a Zempic even became a trend that we started our first ever episode on with our Oates Zempic. You know, it has become, it's crossed over

from the medical world and that's what is concerning, like you said, the boundary of it being supervised, of it being led by experts, we've now got celebrities talking about it as if it's just something easy, we can all just pop and it's just not that simple. And I think, like you said, that potentially is where we've got to be really careful here. Yeah, it really is. And I think for anyone listening, and I think, you know, people often in the world of wellness say September is the new January. But there is an element of that while people oftentimes over the last few months have been quite out of routine. You know, I hope you've been enjoying more time as per headline one with

friends and family. I've certainly had much, many more margaritas over the summer than I would normally drink. I don't think I've exercised in like two months. I think there lots of us are the same at the end of summer and I hope that's a sign of you having a lovely, lovely time and enjoying yourself, which you absolutely deserve. But if today your jeans are feeling a little small snug or you know you're just feeling not as comfortable in your own skin i hope you just feel that you can kind of be gentle and kind and compassionate to yourself and just eat some almonds look after yourself but not feel like you've got to do anything drastic if you feel that way please go and listen to an episode of few there must have been about four or five episodes ago where we went

through the science of kind of binge and restrict eating when we look at crash diets and people want to kind of lose all the weight overnight and it's so bad for your body it's so bad for your metabolism it doesn't work so take that pressure off and just be kind and gentle and nourishing to yourself oh i think that's a lovely way to end that headline compassion has to be there with everything we discuss because yeah we've all with no one size fits all we are all as unique as our personalities ella it leads us on to trends quite nicely today this is just the most positive episode our trend today is reading and recently this article came up on her Instagram feed and actually the articles of you years old but it was really doing the

rounds on socials and it was reading books for just 30 minutes a day may add nearly two years to your life and we thought this was such a nice one to include as a trend often we're looking at kind of slightly weird wacky wild trends things that unregulated vitamins or sorts of like expensive supplements and why maybe they're not a good idea reading books for 30 minutes a day. Fantastic idea. I completely and utterly, yeah, concur. I think this trend is a really, really nice one. So I think it's actually to do with our brain and the fact that if we use our brain more and reading has been shown to light up different areas of the brain, then it's helping us with the aging process. That's what I think. So the study was published in the social

Science and Medicine Journal, and it looked at reading patterns of 3,635 people aged 50 and older. So there must be something that happens. You know, we get to midlife. We have to keep our brain going. Some people say, you know, start learning an instrument or something. But it could basically just be reading as well. So respondents were separated into those three groups. The first group was those who read for more than three and a half hours a week. And then those who read up to three and a half hours a week. And then you've got those who didn't read at all. And researchers controlling factors,

they even included gender, race, education, and they followed them for 12 years, Ella. Do you want to go through the findings that we've got there? Okay, so looking at the cohorts of people in this group, the people that read more than three and a half hours a week, they were 23% a psyche to die in that time. The people who read up to 3.5 hours a week, so still reading a lot, but a little bit less than the first group,

they were 17% as likely to die and overall reading books provided a 23 month survival advantage compared to non-readers and these were all kind of a group of my understanding kind of healthy people no one had specific health concerns or diagnosis at the start of the group and again it's not one handful of almonds won't save your whole life and change it reading a book on its own cannot do that but when you start to put these little habits together the impact is huge and it's so reassuring to know that because actually maybe on your commute you could read instead of scrolling, we could read. But as Rees said, I think what they were looking at here was that there were two cognitive processes that could

help explain the survival advantage of reading, which isn't kind of the most obvious wellness hack to read. So the first one here was that the process of deep reading, so kind of really immersing yourself in a slow progression of the book and drawing connections across the material, applying that to the outside world, questioning the content, kind of really being immersed in the book, that kind of cognitive engagement strengthens vocabulary, reasoning, concentration and critical thinking, which is super interesting. And then there's a second thing here going on, isn't there? And I love this one. It's about the empathy because I cry when I read a good book. You know, you really feel connected, don't you? You feel like you're sucked into their

character's life and that's what makes you keep on reading. And social perception, emotional intelligence. And those skills don't just enrich our life. They're linked to better social connections and resilience, almost like we discussed earlier, the fact that social interactions. So I wonder if reading a book can mimic the same type of feelings you get from those social interactions that supports longevity. And interestingly, what they found was that you didn't get that benefit from reading newspapers or magazines. The effect was actually really unique to books because obviously it's just infinitely longer. They do provide that kind of deep immersive experience. That's quite hard to get from a single article or a handful of

articles. And we know that, you know, beyond longevity, again, there's been lots of studies on reading, helping reduce stress, which is something that obviously so many of us struggle with. There's actually some research to show that just six minutes of reading a day, so tiny amount can reduce stress by 60s to 68%. So, you know, maybe you're not that ready for mindfulness or breathwork or something like that to help kind of ease the tension at the end of the day. But just reading a chapter or two of your book could be amazing. And as a result of the stress, it's decrease. It has been shown also to support better sleep and boost overall well-being. I love this. So if you put it basically in context, in context, rather, this estimates that

most of us are spent in between like one and two and a half hours a day on social media, but I would actually say it's a lot more. And if even a fraction of the time was swapped for reading, look at those benefits. I think what gave me hope when I read this is because I'm only just getting to the stage where my kids are big enough to pick up books again and actually start to think I've got a bit more time to do things in between running a business, as you know, Ella, and navigating the balance of life. But it said, if you're 50 plus at the beginning, I was like, oh, so when they're all grown up and I've got loads of time to myself, I'm going to read loads and loads of books

and give myself an extra two years. I know, so it's like we spend an hour to two and a half hours a day, say scrolling social media, if we swap that and we spend half that time talking to a friend and half that time reading a book and we ate a couple of almonds as we go we are winning yeah i will give you my three favorite books of the summer if anyone's looking for some inspo i am like an obsessive reader it's my favorite thing in the world and i do go i get really i mean that's all things relative when i say really but i get really frustrated with myself i did it last night like we actually got into bed quite early and instead of picking up because i've got a new book and i haven't quite gotten into it

yet instead of picking it up and reading a bit of my book i was just scrolling and i'm After like an hour and 10 minutes, I thought, what earth am I doing? Like, I'm just, I don't even know where I am at this point. I'm looking at someone so random, disconnected from my life. I'm getting nothing from this. I could have read a few chapters. I would have felt so much more inspired and calm. But it's so difficult to do.

Anyway, my three reads of the summer, Blue Sisters by Cocoa Mellas, amazing. A well-behaved woman. And then there are rivers in the sky by Aleph Chafank. And I'm sorry, I'm probably not saying her name. quite rich, a Turkish writer, and that was one of the most beautiful books I have ever read very slow to start with, but after like 100 pages, it was so gripping. And she tells the story of three people over kind of, I think it's from the mid-1800 to today, so over almost a 200-year period. And the way that these three stories that feel like they could never have anything to do

together and knitted all together in this kind of full-circle element that she manages to weave throughout the book. It's really extraordinary writing and it's a beautiful illustration of how connected we actually all are. It's going to be a Netflix show. I love that book. You can't see it now, can't you? Those three different stories intertwining into one massive Netflix show. Oh, 100%. It would be like visually so beautiful. I've just ordered two more of her books. I'm going to read that one then. That's on my list. Yeah, so I really need to read and not scroll. I love that. And I actually find I have stopped scrolling a lot since we had that episode of TJ. Because I almost get a surge of anxiety before I pick up my phone thinking, what tragedy am I going

to see? You know, I literally don't want to see it anymore. And it's really helped actually to me to tell myself, I'm just going to see something upsetting now. I don't want to see it. However, it has meant I've not been on my social media game. So I need to really work on getting more content out that people really need. There is one other trend, Ella, that we had to quickly just touch on because it was humongous, huge. Kim Kardashian face shapewear. I'm intrigued, like, if it's going to lift my face. But can you imagine your hair being shoved into a face mask every night, like your whole head?

So many of you guys sent us this as well. The BBC wrote about it. They said, shapeware for your face while you sleep. Has Kim Kardashian taken it too far? And the uglier you look going to sleep, the more beautiful you will look in the morning. That's the mantra of people on TikTok who are taking part in the morning shared videos. And obviously, that's what we talked about right at the beginning of. We started the wellness scoop of how far has wellness gone?

Why do we need a morning shed? You know, we've got people swaddled in silica mask, mouth tape, you know. But now Kim Kardashian has included, it's like spanks for your face, basically. Surely you'll get acne. I just think about your pores, not being able to breathe, like being in, I'm sure dermatologists have something to say about this trend. But it's £52 and the mask sold out in under 24 hours. And I think that just shows, like it's 52.

pounds it's quite expensive it just to me really highlights like how desperate we all are for these like easy wins quick fixes we all want to look better feel better and the idea that we can have a sculpted jawline by sleeping in a balaclava it's like let's go didn't her mom have the facelift yes a kind of huge facelift exactly she didn't use the facelift items she had to go and get surgery so it's a bit hypocritical isn't it for sure and i think it's again it's a bit like the serena williams conversation we were having a minute ago. It's kind of really split the internet. I think there's some people saying, you know, just like with Serena, some people are saying, brilliant to be open and honest, we need more of that when it comes to celebrity culture and weight and image and other half

saying, this is all quite dystopian. We're making people feel so insecure. It's too much. And that's kind of what the reaction to the shape where has been, I think. And for your face is like, I'm leaning more towards that. I'm leaning more towards the, well, if you can't afford it. Making us insecure. It's also money. It puts a huge privilege divide because only if you can afford. it can you reverse the aging process and otherwise if you can't embrace naturally aging because you don't have the money the whole thing just is very very twisted yeah and i just think there's this this idea that like we just we've talked about it before but there's sense that you have to be perfect and you've now got to do to be quote unquote perfect the number of things you must now do or buy

just feels kind of insurmountable to your point from a financial perspective but also from just like a time and enjoying life perspective. We just talked about how relationships are one of the most important part of life. Like I, you know, instead of saying to maybe your partner or your flatmate or someone you live with, oh, sorry, I can't chat. Masko wrap myself up for the night. You know, I'm just swaddling yourself in a thousand and one things. And it just, it all just feels a bit much. And I think it'd be worth saying if you didn't get your hands on it and wanted to, there are influences saying, this has changed my life. My face is so snatched. But medical professionals are quite keen to say, and

This is in every article that covered it. There is no science behind this, and there are different, like, aesthetic doctors who've spoken out on it. There was one called Dr. Anna Andrienko on the BBC. She said they may offer some temporary sculpting or depuffing effects due to the pressure and heat retention. So you may wake up, in that sense, looking kind of better, for want of a better word, but the results are not permanent.

Like, you cannot, they cannot deliver lasting contour. Guys, your muscle falls down from your face. The aging process, I think, people forget is if you look at a skeleton and then you put the muscle pads on top of the skeleton and then you put the layers of fat as we age everything kind of shrinks a bit and falls down a bit and to lift that there's no magic magic bullet but again I you know I get it I want to look my best too if it worked I would probably buy it Ella I know I totally agree and we kind of and I think that's the point isn't it and I think that's what we were trying to get out with

the serena Williams video as well actually and I think it kind of wraps the episode up really nicely, which is that it's not about attacking any one person and it's not about attacking any one conversation. But I think when you start putting all these little pieces of the puzzle together that we all absorb day and day out, because it's all over the media, the whole point of the podcast is taking what's in the media and just filling it down for you. There is just so much that you'll kind of feel maybe pressured to buy to do, to where, to need, to be your quote unquote best. Meanwhile, we're spending so much time absorbing that on the internet that we're not doing the things like speaking to our friends,

reading, going outside into nature that are clinically proven to help us have a better well like health span into our later lives. And I think it just to me that's the dystopian element of the wellness industry is it's kind of making us this like mad consumer materialistic kind of got to be better, got to be better on the hamster wheel of perfectionism.

I bet it's not recyclable. It's probably just landfill, right? Yeah. And definitely if you have one, do keep washing it because otherwise that's Breakout City. But it's all a bit much. It's all a bit much. But on that note, we love hearing about it from you. So do keep them coming. We're always sent so many messages, aren't we?

Yeah, and didn't you say people can email you as well? Yeah, I'm so happy to compile all the questions, Ella at Deliciouscecella.com. Or you can slide into our DMs at Ella Mills at Rhee. And we love hearing from you. Yeah, and the Spotify ones. They're really easy to read. the reviews on Apple and Spotify.

Yes, please. Keep them coming. We want to cover everything that you're seeing, that you're curious about. And this week, transfer more time with friends, maybe start the book that sat on the bedside table all summer and have a couple of almonds. Amazing. Have a good week, everyone. We'll see you on Thursday, guys.