The Wellness Scoop - Is Ozempic Is Changing the World? & What the Hell Is Netflix Bum?

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

This week, we’re diving into the small (and slightly ridiculous) things that could be having a big impact on your health. We start with the science behind fibre — and how eating more of it may actually help flush out forever chemicals from the body. Then there’s the rising concern over plastics disrupting our sleep, thanks to their unexpected effect on the body’s circadian rhythm. We also explore the viral trends taking over wellness feeds right now — from fart walks to “Netflix bum” (yes, it’s real), plus the new wave of advice on why midlife strength training is so important for healthspan. Elsewhere in the episode, we unpack how ozempic might change the world and we answer your listener question on how to reduce sugar cravings without falling into the restriction trap. Recommendations: Check out @sambentley for good, positive news that breaks through the doom and gloom! Packing cases - a big stress saver before going on holiday Pitta breads - versatile and reduces waste! Charles Dowding's Youtube channel - namely his 'no dig' method. Lots of useful tips for your garden Plus you can order Rhi's new book The Unprocessed Plate here And don’t forget: The Wellness Scoop Live is happening on Saturday 14th June at Cadogan Hall — find your tickets here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://cadoganhall.com/whats-on/the-wellness-scoop-with-ella-mills-and-rhiannon-lambert/⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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to learn more Canada Life insurance, investments, advice. Okay, so just a quick moment before we dive into today's episode, we have got something very exciting to share with you guys. We do, we are down to the final tickets everyone for our first ever live show. I still can't believe this is happening and it's going to be at Cadogan Hall in London

on June the 14th. We literally can't wait. I know, I'm so looking forward to it. We'll be bringing the full podcast to life, big headline deep dives on everything from body image to the broken food system, health anxiety, plus an interactive audience Q&A so you can bring all your burning questions

and a proper deep dive into the years worth of research that Rhee has done into ultra processed foods will be the first to hear everything she's learned putting together her new book. It is very exciting. I really hope you love it. There'll be a chance as well to include you all so you can vote, you can ask questions, even win prizes. They're going to be great in our final quiz and we'd love for you to be a part of this day with us. So if you fancy a night of big conversation, connection and a few surprises, just head to cadouganhall.com or google Wellness Scoop Live to grab one of the last tickets and

we cannot wait to see you there. Welcome to the Wellness Scoop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration and I'm going to say empowerment. And we are your hosts as always, I'm LMLs. And I'm Rhiannon Lambert and after a decade in the wellness industry, we know how overwhelming and confusing health advice can be. So that's why we created this podcast to cut through the noise and make healthier living simple, fun and personal. And as always, we couldn't be happier for you guys to be joining us. I hope life is treating you well. We're actually recording this normally we record only two days or so

before the episode comes out. But we've done this a week early because I'm going to be in sunny Spain, Rhi is going to be. I'm going to be in Turkey Ella. Sunny Turkey and our producer wills off to Norway. So we are a week out of the office for the wellness scoop. This is coming to you in advance. I'm sure we'll be inundated with headlines to bring you when we get back. But for now, Rhee, what have we got coming up in today's show? So in today's show, we have plastic chemicals that may be disrupting our sleep.

Can fiber help flush out forever chemicals? What is Netflix bum? I said the rest quite seriously in this one. I'm like, yeah, Netflix bum. And do you have it? Why strength training and midlife matters more than ever. And we have an amazing listener question this week on how do I reduce sugar cravings without restriction. So because we're doing this in advance, we would be probably a bit made up if we said, what have we been up to this week? So let's just move on to our recommendations. Rhee, what have you got for us this week?

My recommendation, I actually really like it this week. So I've been following this guy Sam for I think like a year or two now. I'm so obsessed, Ella, with his Instagram page because it's about positive news. Like everything he posts makes me feel better about the world and I'm so done with all the negative stuff that gets picked up in my algorithm. So I've got two examples here and I'll play just a snippet for what the topic was about to you but basically any environmental discovery that's going to save the planet, he reports it. If there is a war somewhere

and something sad is happening, he'll try and say something positive that we can do to make a difference. Like his page is phenomenal. It sounds like the good news that we all desperately need every day. Not a single tree was cut down to make this paper bag. It's called a relief bag made by a Ukrainian company using fallen leaves from urban areas, not from forests. Leaves are collected from parks and residential areas before being cleaned and dried for storage.

They can then be processed into paper bags without harming a single tree. Processing them also uses way less resources than conventional paper, with just one third of the electricity usage using 70% less CO2 and about 15 times less water. less resources than conventional paper with just one third of the electricity usage using 70% less CO2 and about 15 times less water. This guy in Brazil turned a dead rainforest into a thriving farm forest and here's how

he did it. Meet Ernst Goetsch, a Swiss farmer who wanted to swap farming with pesticides and fertilizers to a more natural solution instead. So in the 1980s he moved to Brazil and found 480 hectares of barren, unproductive land. And what Ernst did with it needs to be studied. Using a method called Syntropic farming, he planted in layers, just like a wild forest, so the plants could support and nourish each other. He covered the dry soil with organic matter

and planted fast growing trees that could help keep moisture in the ground, making the soil healthier. As the plants grew they released moisture into the air triggering rainfall. This process is called flying rivers and it's how rainforests create their own rain. His approach eliminated the need for pesticides and fertilizers. It's amazing I never knew all of these inventions were happening around the world because they don't get airtime Ella because they're not exciting or sad enough for us all to be like,

yeah, this is gonna make headline news today. They're literally saving the waters over in Sweden with some magic invention, and it's made the news because it just doesn't. So follow Sam Bentley. He is brilliant. And then my second is packing cases. Oh, I love packing cases.

Oh my goodness, I now realize I can't pack without them. How old are we? I know, there we go. So yeah, packing cases, that's my recommendation. Ella, yours? I'd top that. Do you know what? I don't particularly have any.

I just tell you, my number one favourite food at the moment is pitta. And it's so funny, I put this on my Instagram and I was like, I just think that's such an amazing thing for quick, healthy, easy meals. And I can't comment on why at the moment, but someone's like, oh, last time you recommended beige foods, you must have been pregnant you were pregnant really I'm not

pregnant just to clarify to answer that person publicly but I just am obsessed with them because it's the easiest way I find instead of like sandwiches with cutting off crust for kids or the stale bread being a little bit too stale for sandwiches all the rest of it Toaster Pitta the easiest breakfast in the morning, peanut butter, jam, sprinkle of hemp seeds, of course. So easy, so great in lunch boxes. Yeah, because they're like you pop them and then they've got a big pocket in the middle. Exactly, and they hold everything so well. I've been making big batches. I think I mentioned it a few weeks ago of like edamame, pea and tofu kind of whipped greens, which is such good filler. Chuck in some cucumbers and rocket, so great.

And you get through the pack so much more quickly than bread, so nothing goes moldy or off or stale. And they have no palm oil in them. So unlike wraps, you find pitta breads more often than not, always check the label. You can get wholemeal options. They're cheaper, they're more cost efficient. You can also freeze them and there's no extra oils and additives in them like you get in wraps.

And they're so satisfying. Really good. Love it Ella. It's a good recommendation. I know in the world of complex powders, proteins, all sorts of gadgets and good drinks, mushroom lattes, get yourself some pitas. And then the other recommendation came from you guys. I was talking about how in two months now we are going to have a garden

in our big move to the countryside, which is so exciting coming up so soon. And I was asking for recommendations on gardening because I'm a complete newbie to the whole thing. And I have a beautiful veg garden to maintain from the old owners and lots of people recommending Charles Dowding and his no dig method and to look it up on YouTube. Amazing. I'm going to do that. Yeah. I've started following him on Instagram, loads and loads of good stuff coming up, but I'm gonna get deep into his YouTube now.

I'm feeling a bit nervous about the gardening. Yeah, it's more the pressure of are they going to die and am I actually going to maintain this amazing, incredible thing in your garden? My panic is always, did I cover the strawberries? Did I remember, did I put eggshells down because I don't to use poison pellets to deter the slugs.

So there's all that kind of thing that comes alongside it. Welcome, Ella. I know, I can't wait. My daughter keeps telling me we won't need the Ocado van anymore because we'll do everything ourselves. Yeah.

I'm like, oh, I'm not sure whether they're going to be there yet. The optimism is there, but yeah, let's see. Ella might not be doing the good life just yet. One day. Okay so let's move on. Health headlines that matter. We've got a quick pick up before we go into this week's headlines and it's on Azempic again. So do you remember a few weeks ago we were talking about how these drugs and again using the word as Zempik to kind of represent this whole group of GLP-1 weight loss drugs and how we believed basically we kept talking about them because we think that this is this new, it's a paradigm shift, we're going to have a completely reshaped world on the back of it. I then read a piece in

the Times at the weekend that captured it and it was called, All the ways as Zempik will change our world from alcohol to airlines. And we had to bring in because it represents so much the conversation that we were having about how health and wellness is just changing at such a rapid rate, but how it goes so far beyond that. And it opens with this really striking image. So I'm going to read you the beginning of the article. This is about what life will look like in 2014. Okay, and the quote starts, half the population are regularly taking weight loss pills. Airline profits are soaring as their passenger load drops. The tree island supermarkets have

been relegated to a back shelf. Health food shops appear on every street corner. Sales of booze and cigarettes have collapsed, putting many addiction clinics out of business. Britain, once one of the fattest developed nations in the world, has conquered its obesity crisis freeing billions for the NHS. So dramatic, obviously, but equally, I think it was just this interesting reflection on what we were saying is potentially is paradigm shift. And actually this idea that there is this kind of ripple effect where it's going into airlines and it's changing high streets. I mean, the article dives into, you know, these GLP-1 drugs, so all of them. So you've

got a Zempit, Wigovia, Manjaro. And the benefits way beyond weight loss as well, Ella. So from reducing the risk of heart attacks, there's now links with cancer as well, not just because of the weight loss, but because of a different element of the drug that's now being researched, dementia and depression to help people with addiction even and maybe compulsive behaviour. So we're literally talking about a complete reframe of what we thought these drugs were originally for. What I find amazing is we still don't have long term data, but how amazing that's actually a really positive, it created a picture for me of a healthy Britain. Yeah, and I think this is what it is, is that every day, basically, new information is coming out. And because it's all so new, it's changing at such a pace.

But as we said, it's just this paradigm shift. And I think it's not just therefore about biology, it's about behaviour. So we said it's like supermarkets, gyms, airlines, alcohol company. And what's interesting, again, is all this information is coming out about how closely all sorts of corporations that you wouldn't necessarily think of being associated with these drugs are watching this unfolding. about how closely all sorts of corporations that you wouldn't necessarily think of being associated with these drugs are watching this unfolding. For example, Walmart,

which is obviously the huge retailer in the US, they have already publicly said that they believe there's a link between what they've seen as a slight pullback in their overall baskets. So the kind of basket size of their shoppers to these jabs with their shoppers buying less food and fewer calories.

Holland and Barrett, which is a huge health food chain in the UK, if you don't live here, they have seen a surge in health food sales and they believe that's because these users of GLP-1 drugs are craving less ultra-processed foods and looking for more functional health-led ingredients. I mean, we're really pulling at the stats there though. I mean, it's how can you exactly tell? You can't at the moment, but I think it's just that we're seeing kind of behaviour change. There was a big group called Fundsmith Equity. They were a huge investor in Diageo. They own basically most of the world's biggest alcohol brands.

And they exited the company apparently on concerns that the drugs will lead to significantly lower alcohol consumption because you're seeing people on these drugs starting to want much less alcohol which wasn't in effect people were assuming would be to this point if unfolding. I mean, Ella, if it can help the planet as well. So they've got the thing here that said that because of the airline statistics if passengers are on average just £10 lighter, United Airlines estimated it could save £80 million a year on fuel. That's how deep this goes, Ella, because one study also said that if these drugs are made available basically to everybody that's eligible in the UK, like we discussed before,

they might turn them into pills, there's lots of things that are happening here, it could boost our economy by £.5 billion a year, just by reducing sick days. The knock on effect on the environment is something I wish I'd known about when I wrote The Science of Plant Based Nutrition, like another page on the future of the environmental impact of food. It's amazing. It's extraordinary. It's just, as I said, it's that I thought the article was just relevant for the show because it's that 360 effect that I think people are starting to put together which is fascinating and there was a quote from an economist called Daniel Suskin in the piece and he wrote, we know that obesity costs the NHS by 8% of its

annual budget but we're now starting to sense that this is unlikely just the beginning. In the 21st century the economic consequences of weight loss drugs may turn out to be similar in scale to what the discovery of penicillin did to the 20th century. Because from an economic productivity perspective, we are losing such an extraordinary amount of our productivity and economic well-being essentially to sick days now. And people unable to work. And obviously again, this isn't like a panacea and there's still so much research, as you said, that needs to be done. But it's just interesting actually, this isn't like a panacea and there's still so much research, as you said, that needs to be done. But it's just interesting, actually, this point that I think people are looking at as individual benefit to people taking these drugs,

but actually the collective potential economic benefit beyond the NHS, the environment, people shopping habits, alcohol consumption, all these things. It's absolutely fascinating, isn't it? I mean, I think ultimately, you know, Ella and I aren't saying that this is a great thing or a bad thing. We're just watching this story unfold and just thinking, wow, potential of positive aspects. Of course, there's always negatives as well. And we're just observing and commenting on the fact our whole planet and the way we function might be changing by 2040.

Yeah, I think that's the idea. Five to 10 years, the world could look very, very different as a result of this. And I think that connection to penicillin is very, very interesting as a result. Right. So we move on to our first headline of this week, and that is plastic may disrupt sleep. We've talked about microplastics a fair amount. I know we're both nervous of them. I know lots of you at home are nervous of them.

And this is just yet another example of the impact. I mean, I remember saying in last week's episode that now even getting my coffee cup on the go feels guilty because I know it's got this plastic level. And actually at the dentist, my retainer is plastic that I have to wear every night after you do Invisalign. So I obviously, I have a bit of health anxiety around this plastic discussion, I think, but I'm trying to use the rational side of my brain to say, let's get the stats.

So plastic and everyday objects, it said, may disrupt sleep in the same way as caffeine. And that's the headline from a new study that caught our attention. And the research said that chemicals in common plastics, things we use every day may interfere with the body's natural sleep-wake cycle in a way that's surprisingly similar to how coffee affects the brain. Now, coffee affects the brain by dimming the response that we get in the brain with the tired response. Basically, it dims how we feel tired, and it helps us feel more alert

because it's a psychoactive substance. And these plastics actually, technically technically they do the opposite. They activate this adenosine receptor. But that still disrupts the rhythm in the same way essentially or very very similar way. And it showed that this can delay your physiological processes of your sleep rhythm by up to 17 minutes. Now we'll come on to that in a second because I think 17 minutes doesn't sound like a lot, but actually scientists are quite concerned about this. And I guess just to clarify a bit more in the study, they were looking at two products, a PVC medical feeding tube and a

polyurethane hydration pouch, like the ones that long distance runners use. Because basically those materials are everywhere, children's toys, packaging, furniture, clothing. So we talked about the other week, gym clothes, and the chemicals extracted from them were shown to disrupt the circadian rhythm. So that's the internal clock that regulates when we feel sleepy and when we feel alert. And that's all why this adenosine receptor that's such a part of that, that caffeine acts on and that turns out these act on too. And that's the relevancy and the connection between coffee and microplastics and sleep. I mean it might sound small Ella but delaying the physiological processes by up to 17 minutes over

time, that kind of disruption does definitely add up so it shifts circadian rhythms that have been linked to everything from sleep disorders and fatigue to obesity. You know sleep is huge, it affects how we feel every day, diabetes is linked to sleep, weakened immune function, dementia, even long-term cancer. So it's not just about a good night's sleep. It's about protecting, I think, our long-term health, which is what this is essentially saying. Exactly, and that's what I was saying.

Like 17 minutes doesn't sound like a lot, but actually shifting these rhythms is linked to a whole array of things. Now, this study was done in vitro. So in the lab. Exactly, and researchers are now planning to test this. And I know it's always an ethical debate about this, but on zebrafish, to better understand

the chemicals involved and how they act in the body. But interestingly, the ultimate goal is to drive safer design and regulation, because there is no regulation really about these materials and what we use and how much we consume and the impact of plastics. But I think it's a topic that we're all becoming more and more aware of. I think if you take a hospital environment, for example, and sterilisation and

how dependent we are as a society on plastic, this is such a huge talking topic that is only going to get bigger and bigger, almost like the Azempic topic got bigger. I do feel like we are going to see a lot more of these headlines over the next few years because it is a powerful reminder that our environment, not just our habits, does play a role. We've got to be kind to ourselves because we can't control these things. I mean, you can't always control the environment you end up in. If you're poorly, you're in

hospital or at home or like my coffee cup on the go sometimes I've got to live life you know but I also have an ethical thing every time I mean I'm a blooming scientist Ella and at university all the time tested on animals I still find it really hard when I read things like that and I think all these paws I don't know what zebrafish is and what these paws zebrafish why am I so sensitive Ella everything I'm so sensitive. It's because you're a great person now the good news here is we've gone from bad to good, which is that that's something that I think, as I said, we're scared of, I think lots of you are scared of and kind of very aware of at the moment. But there's great news guys, which is that eating more fibre,

hello my fun game of counting your 30 plants each week, may reduce your forever chemicals. So in amongst the fear mongering and nervousness, there's reasons to feel optimistic and there are things you can do to actively meet, making a powerful difference to your health every day. And this research showed that consuming higher amounts of fiber reduces levels of these toxic PFASs, forever chemicals in the body.

And that is from a new peer-reviewed pilot study. Amazing. Absolutely. So PFAS, which is short for per and polyfluoroichyl substances, are a class of about 15,000 chemicals. So most commonly used to make products like water, stain and grease resistant things that are found in everything from nonstick pans, you know, the ones that everyone on Instagram is now saying are toxic and waterproof clothing to food packaging, cosmetics. They're called forever chemicals

because they don't actually break down in the environment or in our bodies and they've been linked to some serious health risks. So this does include cancer, birth defects, decreased immunity, kidney disease, high cholesterol and more. And I don't want to scare anybody because of course, we don't have full data and we can't foregone, we can't just say these cause these sorts of things. But according to federal data,

virtually everyone now has detectable levels of PFASs in their blood, Ella. But before we get really worried, there's good news. Yes, because that was quite deep. The eternal optimist. Okay, so what's really promising and, yeah, as I said, makes our 30 plants week game even more fun. And why the liver king is not the person to follow online.

Yes, if you listened to us last week, we're not sure about the raw testicles that he's promoting. Researchers from Boston University found that increasing dietary fiber intake and as hopefully everyone's aware of, your dietary fiber comes from plants. That's the only place to get fiber. You can reduce these levels of PFASs in the body, particularly two of the most common and harmful types called PFOSs and PFOAs. And in both small human trial and earlier tests in mice, people with higher fiber intake had lower concentrations of these chemicals, which is really, really meaningful.

And Rui, you'll be able to share a bit of light in how that works. What do these dietary fibers do in the body to help? Absolutely. I think I've got a new book idea. You know, I've got things I'm thinking of I think everybody needs, but there's loads of different types of fibers. It's not just soluble and insoluble anymore. You know, there's lots of different strains. Researchers are coming out with them all the time. But basically, the authors of this study say that dietary fiber forms a gel in the gut, which is true. So it acts a bit like a barrier, which stops

the gut lining from absorbing these little bits of plastic, you know, the PFAS. And it's a similar mechanism to how fibre impedes bile acid absorption. So increasing bile acid elimination of feces. And that same process may help carry these chemicals out of the body. It's basically like a natural detoxification before they're absorbed into the bloodstream. So what you eat every single day, the reason we have poo essentially, you know, is also to get rid of waste products. And a lot of the fiber we eat helps push everything through. And that's why it's so important that, you know, if you're experiencing constipation frequently and things that you can address that,

you know, there's lots we can do in our diet, Sella. And tell us a bit about that actually. Do we want to be pooing every day? Yeah, but some people have different bowel movements and frequency and they can go. To some people it's normal to go like three times a week. Other people it's three times a day. And what I would say is I think it's healthier, depending on the type of stool you have, to probably have them at least once a day. Some people do naturally have a slower transit time and obviously around for females it's different with the time of month. You know if you look at apps that track cycles now they often ask about digestion

too which is great because we store estrogen receptors in our gut lining as well which helps us retain water which is why some stools are not as solid around the time of month. So fiber is so crucial Ella. It's basically what we with fiber helps push out all the things we don't need in the body but also feed our gut bugs. So these diets that don't include vegetables or fruit or whole grains, I find them really baffling when we have all this research. So start with one high fiber meal a day if you can. For most people that's breakfast. Most people have a cereal. And I don't want to demonize some ultra-processed foods. I explain this in The Unprocessed Plate, the new book,

that for so many people these cereals are such a lifesaver because you're getting in your Weetabix or whatever cereal you buy a big chunk of fiber, which is so crucial. Because on the go snacks that are ultra-processed food, as we know, they don't contain the amount of fiber. And the ready we looked at the other week, you know, 70% of them were low in fibre. If you're buying food out and about or for dinner, it's unlikely you're going to hit your fibre goals in the same way as if you were cooking at home. So it's your favourite game, Ella. It's your variety game. It is. And I bet I think it's such great advice. Like this research obviously needs lots more human studies and large scale.

They should go to the biobank, our friends where you get half a million people. But I think it is one of those things where it's actually just a low risk piece of intervention and advice for everybody to up your fiber intake to try and have more of that elimination ultimately. And I think actually eating more fiber is easier than you might think. And as you said, like start with one high fiber swap a day. You know, that could just be oats, making porridge or overnight oats is such a, you know, for people who find mornings really stressful, which I think we all relate to. Just soak some oats overnight.

And leave them in a bowl even doesn't have to be the fancy jar like Instagram just a bowl a cereal bowl yeah perfect add some nut butter for flavor you could match a banana add some frozen fruit sprinkle of seeds from a big bag you've got in the cupboard totally you could probably make it with everything you already have in your house and then you can take it with you on the go or eat it quickly before you leave the house but then you don't even have to cook clean do anything in the morning and you've got a lot of your 30 plants a week and that one meal you have like five. You know what I'm really into at the moment is coffee overnight oats. Oh really?

Oh yum. Yeah, I mean I just love coffee. But in a shot of an espresso. Yeah, so good. I want to know. I mean I'm gonna say call it tiramisu, you could call it tiramisu, but I feel like that's really pushing it. But I think people like that. I only react like that because I don't love the taste of coffee, but I want to know what the science says. I'm interested if you put coffee in a cold environment and you've already mixed it, I wonder what the effect is for the coffee on you the next morning versus drinking it in your hot cup.

Like maybe it's stronger because it's been in the fridge overnight and you're not heating it. I don't know, I do both. Yeah, no, you can have your shot. I've still got my cup of coffee and my shot. She belongs in Italy by the side of the bar with a shot of espresso. Oh that would be a glam life but honestly yeah I do oats, some chia seeds, a shot of espresso, some yogurt, vanilla yogurt is particularly good. I guess that is like tiramisu, it's like creamy. Mix it all up exactly, some milk. Do you add any sweetener like a honey or maple syrup? Just a squeeze yeah.

Coffee can be quite bitter. Exactly. Oh my gosh, so yum. Okay, right, there you go guys. Coffee lovers, I think that is your ultimate breakfast. Ella, tell me that's in your next book. Actually, do you know what it actually is? I was like, I need to write this up with a formulation because other people might enjoy it.

Don't give it away yet. And then the other two tips for more fiber, guys. First of all, and I love this, and I actually got in a lot of trouble, I'm gonna say trouble, when I started my career for saying this, which is that I've- Did you?

Yeah, well, I was always an advocate of, yes, my recipes are plant-based, but my aim is not to make you all plant-based. My aim is to get people excited about your broccoli and carrots and all the rest of it. That's fine. And I said, you know, actually, instead of feeling you have to change everything at once, why don't you just make plants the main instead of the

side and keep your animal protein, whatever it is you enjoy in the meal. And I got in trouble because people are like, oh, you can imagine how that went. Oh Ella, I can imagine who. Yeah, don't worry. You know, you're not saying eliminate protein from your meal. No, animal protein, exactly. But I think it's a really nice way to think about it where actually instead of having your veg as the side and the add-on, have something that's bean based, lentil based, grain based, veg based as your middle. So instead of making a fish curry, make a veg curry and add some prawns or whatever you want on the top. So just flip it because that

way you're getting so many more plants in your life. I had a debate on Time's radio with a chef called Sally. She's amazing. She has a restaurant over in Mayfairway. And I remember telling her, you know, the plant based options, where are they for people like myself who don't eat meat, you know, on the menu? She goes, we're trained to cook with meat. So most chefs in this country know how to cook meat really well. And that's the hero of their dish because everything revolves around their animal produce, which is why we have a problem when it comes to plant-based options because A, they're not nutritionists.

They don't know that the one option is always risotto on the menu. And often it's really low in protein because they don't know what to put in it. Or a stuffed pepper. Yeah, or a stuffed pepper, or let's be honest, a pasta. So it's purely in this country, we have a big problem with how we see our plate of food. And I think you're right.

If we actually looked at plants as more of a hero item on the plate, we'd have less problems. But also with the ultra-processed food conversation with 70% of kids, most of their food being UPF and adults, 60%. It's not just the UPF themselves that's a problem. And that's why I'm so passionate about this discussion. I said in parliament, the problem is what they're missing out on by it being 60% UPF. So the UPFs aren't good enough. They're not giving us what we're missing. It's just, it's very backward, but maybe in our OZempic positive era, that will change. Maybe I have said I've only ever seen it on a menu once, but I thought it was so clever.

There's a place called the Newt down in Somerset, and it was really extraordinary. It's this amazing kind of farm, garden. So beautiful. Anyway, but their restaurant had this where it was. There's a few restaurants. It was one of them, but it was the veg stuff was the main and then the sides with the various different animal proteins. And it was so clever because it wasn't stopping you from having them by any means. But it was,

again, it was let's hero these amazing seasonal local phenomenal ingredients and then let's add on the animal protein. It's just that mind switch. Because most people are brought up on a handful of vegetables. They want a tomato, a sweet corn, a broccoli, peas, and the other one that were carrots. If you're lucky, peppers might be in the mix. Most people don't venture away from those six vegetables actually. And I find that in clinic that if I suggest something

like a leek or something that, what do I do with that? Well, me too, but it's like a basic starting point to challenge yourself to get past those six items. Oh, and an onion if you want to count that. Oh, if you don't know what to do with your leeks, saute some onion or some shallots, loads of garlic. I could just eat that by itself if you understand. So then add your leeks and cook that down so that your leeks are nice and soft, quite thinly sliced. Then add a big jar of the really like juicy butter beans if you can get them

and simmer that all together. Add a little bit of pesto, a little bit of yoghurt, lots of lemon zest, black pepper and you've got creamy leek butter beans. Oh my gosh, I'm going to do that tonight actually because I have leeks in the fridge. I need to save one for a photo shoot on Friday. They want my fridge to be full. I was like, well I want to eat my food. It's my leek. Okay, and that was the other tip that we had for Best Fiber is say yes variety. So try and branch out those five or six things., well, I want to eat my food. It's my leak. OK, and that was the other tip that we had for best fiber, is say yes to variety. So try and branch out those five or six things. And again, I always say that in the same way of keeping the familiar but putting plants in the middle,

if you're trying to make those changes, I think it's another really good example of like, cook a recipe you're already really comfortable with, but then add one extra plant that you don't normally have. I think people need a xylosol, because I live with that tiny little blender thing. I think if you've got one, it just takes away the stress of all the chopping. And I sometimes think the chopping alone can put you off.

So yeah, just make sure you've got a gadget. And I'll leave it at that. That's not a very helpful point. But it's the same to be fair. If you make things like hummus at home, switch out, so do a different bean in it instead of just a chickpea. Or if you've got a jar of roasted red peppers, chuck those in as well. Add in different smoked paprika, add in extra garlic, add in all sorts of veg,

like beetroot, cooked beetroot. I'm so hungry, Ella. I'm so hungry. I'm actually starving now as well. Why do fintechs like Float choose Visa? As a more trusted, more secure payments network, Visa provides scale, expertise, and innovative payment solutions. Learn more at visa.ca slash fintech. I'm excited to quickly share with you all that you can pre-order my new book, The Unprocessed Plate Now, and Ella and I discuss this all the time that the world of food and nutrition

is currently full of conversations surrounding ultra-processed plate now and Ella and I discuss this all the time that the world of food and nutrition is currently full of conversations surrounding ultra processed foods and this is for good reason and in my book The Unprocessed Plate I dive into what UPFs actually are, explore the latest evidence on how they impact our health and most importantly how we can reduce our reliance on them without overhauling our entire lives and remember there's a lot of nuanced guides, there's a privileged conversation, lots of things here. But I want to cut through the noise and offer actual practical solutions. There's incredible diagrams

to make the science more accessible. And there's 60 amazing recipes, family-friendly, everything from breakfast, weekday dinners, quick lunches, simple swaps and snacks and things you can have on the go that makes such a difference. And trust me, whether you're a busy parent or you're just trying to reduce these in your diet on your everyday workload this book is here to support and empower you to get back to basics with food without the pressure of this perfectionism. So if

you want to feel more informed and inspired in the kitchen then you can pre-order your copy of the unprocessed plate now. It's out June the 19th. And back to me and Ella. What is trending in wellness this week is brilliant, unusual. I think it made me laugh out loud. We have the Netflix bum. So Netflix and Chill has gone one step further to developing a derriere that is known as dead butt syndrome. Ella, you go.

Yeah, we have a wellness scoop. What's happened? We just everything that we see online in the newspapers, on the streamers, wherever we just screenshot it, we pop it in. All hours of day, because me and Ella are often up in the evening when the kids are going to bed. Paul Lola in our chat gets our 10pm message about Netflix bum. Yeah, it's a 24 seven chat and it goes from like the sublime to the ridiculous as you can imagine from all the topics that we cover. We send this, it was like a little pair of red pants being pulled out with someone's butt cheeks sticking out. It was on the telegraph that was bum. I was like, why is that image on the telegraph? Have you got Netflix bum? And as we said,, it's known as dead butt syndrome, not Netflix bum, or

more formally as gluteal amnesia. And I think we can probably most of the amnesia is when you forget things. And it's basically that's what happens to your glutes, the muscles in your bum, because we're spending so much time sitting down, obviously at work, but then we have these super sedentary lifestyles because then we get home and we scroll or we watch for hours on end. Like that trend we talked about a few weeks, rotting, where people are literally spending a whole day in their bed just watching TV, watching Netflix, etc. And essentially, the muscles in your bum, your glutes,

forget how to work because you've been sitting so much and... I mean... It's on the rise. Yeah, the symptoms aren't just a numb bum though. That's the problem. And actually in all seriousness, our sedentary lifestyles aren't good. It leads to stiffness, misalignment, lower back pain. That's a big one. And a lack of strength and stability. And my friend Lavina, I always see her, she has this thing called exercise snacks. So she talks about menopause a lot and she says, well, if I'm watching TV, I will do squats or something for like a second.

And sometimes when I remember when I'm brushing my teeth, I'll do a squat and I'm like, oh, done my squat. Dr. Chatterjee, I remember talked about this a lot in his early work, because this whole point of us all struggling to fit this in. But he was like, when you're waiting for the kettle to boil, instead of scrolling your phone, do 10 squats. Sometimes instead of squats, I put my hands on the counter. I do like a ballet

kickback. Oh, my husband wears his hands on the counter and do some press ups. But I'm not saying I do this all the time. This is a reminder for us all, because honestly, that will help us. Exactly. And I think I always stuck with me. This is a long time ago. I remember him talking about this, but it really stuck with me with like, you don't have anything necessarily you should do while the kettle boils or while your porridge cooks.

Unless you're like us where you are a chronic overworker and then you run to the washroom and you run to do a chore. Well, at least you're moving. At least I'm moving. If we put our phone away though, I think the problem is if we're on our phone, we could be doing those squats. Exactly. So then you can bring your neck fix bum back to life. But actually, again, in all seriousness, last week we talked about the fact that posture has an impact on our health, not just on aesthetics. So I think all of this is it's kind of hilarious, but also quite worrying

in the sense of just this sedentary lifestyle, this lack of movement, our love of or addiction to scrolling and watching TV. It's just it's not good. Do you know what Ella wrote for me to say next? Bring that Netflix bum back to life. I'm reading it going, thanks Ella. You can say that. Let's give the full context here.

So if you're listening to this on the sofa, maybe pause the episode for a sec, do a few squats and bring your Netflix bum back to life. Or do your hot girl walk and just clench your bum a little bit. Or don't do your hot girl walk, do a fart walk. That's what we're talking about next. Okay, so that's the next headline. Oh my goodness.

Okay, so we've got a lot of down there topics today. So Ella found this one. I actually like it. No, my mum found this one. Thank you for contributing. She texted me over the weekend and it was there. It was just like, all I could see on the little bit on my phone was fart walks.

So I was like, sorry, Mum. And then you have me sending you pictures of bumps. So yeah, guys. This is hilarious. Compose ourselves. So Ella, yeah, popped this one in from her mum, obviously. I like it, Ella, because we do fart around 15 times a day on average, 15 to 20, and I've never been shy

of discussing that sort of thing. But apparently, and this is true, if you do a short gentle walk after a meal, which we should be doing anyway, but we just don't have time because we eat at our desks, and they do this in the Mediterranean a lot, in those countries that have really great health outcomes, it's part of the lifestyle.

It does help with gas and bloating. Alongside, I will add so many other factors like not wearing high-waisted trousers like I am right now because it's the fashion. You know, trying to just look after your gut and move just helps you absorb things and maintain better blood sugar regulation. Exactly. So far, walk sounds absurd. I think the hot girl walk sounds more aspirational. Yeah, this is not a nice name. Have latched onto it. I think saying like, I'm going to take a hot girl walk sounds more aspirational. Yeah, this is not a nice name. Have latched on to it. I think saying like, I'm going to take a hot girl walk and listen to a podcast sounds great. Whereas being like, hey, guys, I'm just going to pop up for a

fart walk. You always say like, dare you guys to say that to your colleague at lunchtime? We'd say in science, the postprandial session for the passing of the gas. But the evidence is really positive, as you said, reducing gas bloating, supporting your digestive system, your blood sugar regulation, which is particularly true after a heavier, less balanced meal, where you can just feel really tired afterwards.

And I have to say, apparently, the term fart walk was coined by a nutritionist and cookbook author called Marilyn Smith, but it has gone viral, I guess, because it is funny and even in our 30s, we're still amused by toilet humor. But it's sort of that brilliant thing of being both ridiculous and genuinely really, really helpful. I might even discuss it with the kids. They find that sort of stuff hilarious.

Oh my gosh, yeah, toilet humor is rife in our house. Yeah, exactly. It's all the time in the younger ages. But I have to say, the blood sugar response is really interesting to me. I think it's a no-brainer that it's going to help you digest your food better if you're able to move and not just sit on the couch after you've eaten a meal. That's really going to help your digestion get blood flow going.

Because remember, even when we're stressed, blood is drawn away from our digestive system, which is why we get more digestive discomfort when we're stressed. All those factors count. But the blood sugar thing is really, really crucial because a lot of people are worried about these blood sugar spikes and actually you don't need to be but you can actually reduce that yourself just by moving a little bit. And often the advice for women who have gestational diabetes is just to do more walking in the day. And that often does wonders. I think it's such an

underrated tool for digestive health. And so many of us struggle with that like three, four o'clock slump when we're at our desk and as you're saying like actually doing that walk to support that kind of balanced blood sugar after you eat your lunch in particular is so helpful for that where we're all struggling with our kind of energy and motivation mid-afternoon. Just 10 minutes Ella, 10-15 minutes that's literally all you need. Yeah. So if the fun game from recently was to count your 30 plants, I think challenge yourself, ourselves to after lunch, as many days as you can this week, particularly if you're going back to your desk after lunch,

just do a 10 minute walk. It might be an errand. Like maybe you need to pick something up from a pharmacy from Boots, you know, go do that. do it after lunch. Yeah, absolutely. See how you feel. Be free. Do a fart walk. Okay, moving on now, aren't we?

Okay, we're moving from farts to cravings, sugar cravings. We have a fantastic question this week and it goes, I look forward to new episodes every week. So thank you for that. Remention the reward center in the brain in relation to sugar cravings. Can you tell us more about that and what we can do to reduce cravings? Great question. Yeah, because everyone gets them. You get them, don't you? Oh my gosh, I get sugar cravings. I would say the more I've tried to, in reference to last week's episode and Deepak Chopra's focus on kind of stillness, the more I try and be in tune with myself,

I would say my sugar cravings are very emotional. When I feel stressed, when I feel overwhelmed, when I feel just ah, I instantly crave sugar. Well, do you know, this morning, walking to the podcast studio, me and Ella are both really crazy busy at the moment, working on so many multiple projects. And I thought I need sugar. The first thing that came into my head, I got out the tube box, the circus, I was like, oh my goodness, where can I get some chocolate for? I'm going to take it into the studio with me. I didn't actually do it because I didn't have time to get it. But it goes to show we all are human beings. No one is immune to this. And it's a fast source of energy. You know, evolutionarily speaking, the fastest form of energy that

you're going to reach for that we have in our environment is sugar because it's absorbed so quickly and that's why when we're low in energy or low in mood the first pick-me-up that we have it's not gonna be broccoli or peas you know we're going to seek out something that's absorbed really quickly so there's an evolutionary angle there's a psychological angle there as well how we cope with our feelings and often it is at times when we're depleted, like Ella just said, I think in, gosh, with my work in the clinic and the work I did with my master practitioner, so I looked at psychological implications of disordered eating and relationships with food and it was an intensive like three diplomas that add up to the overall master practitioner. And that course single-handedly changed my working clinic and the Retrition

Clinic just grew because I was able to offer my clients a different perspective to just my university education. And I think what we're lacking is kindness and empathy in the society today around sugar cravings and why so many people feel addicted because we do get dopamine released. There are reward centres and once they become saturated, then they need even more to get the same hit. So just to understand that for everyone listening is that you're stressed, you're overwhelmed, you're tired and we know that tiredness increases cravings of things like sugar. You're ghrelin, your hunger hormone goes up. So you buy some sweets and you eat the sweets and you're saying then your dopamine area,

that reward center is lighting up. So you want more. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't give you the same hit the second time you reach for them either. So by the 20th time you're reaching for that same pack of sweets, the impact isn't as big as it was the first time. So you want more and more and more and more. And this is also a UPF cycle. I've actually got a nice description in the new book of this cycle of food. Because people so often talk about willpower and I think it's a real misnomer.

It's toxic. Exactly, which is like, oh, I can't stop after two or three. But for your point here is like, yeah, that's normal. That's almost like a normal physiological response. And then especially if you've got that emotional layer. Yeah. As well. I think where we go wrong so often is there's an element of truth in things. There's a small element of truth that it's willpower when you choose to go for a milk chocolate bar versus a dark chocolate bar.

That's a choice, you know, but that isn't the overall arching reason why. It's not because you can't say no. It's because the environment around us, the emotions, the relationship we grew up with food, you know, how the food items we reach for are often trained. You know, it's things you've seen your parents reach for, things you were given when you were a kid, or things you particularly liked at one moment in your life. But what you can do, I'm going to give some advice on what you can do,

because, you know, losing weight and working on sugar cravings at the same time is not a good idea. I just want to caveat that because, you know, you've got to really start to identify yourself and your feelings and that's really hard. No one likes to sit alone like we discussed in the other episode for five minutes and sit with your feelings but when you are feeling a craving that's what you need to do and we call them stop and delay tactics in clinic where give yourself 60 seconds like a minute at first and, what am I actually feeling? Am I tired? Am I stressed? Am I hungry? Am I depleted?

Or do I just really fancy this right now? It's hot and I want this ice cream or identify. And by the time you've even let that minute pass, you'll notice you're craving diminish. And then if you do opt for that dark chocolate more than that milk chocolate, your taste buds will also adapt to that too. But start by eating regular balanced meals. So that's the best thing you can do.

If you haven't had enough calories, your body will tell you. That's evolution. So many people that restrict, wonder why do I always have those evening munchies? It's because you didn't have a big lunch. You probably had an on-the-go tiny sandwich. And then by the time you got home,

you maybe felt guilty about something you've done. So you try and restrict your evening meal. Whereas actually, if you'd have had a healthy big also dish rather than a diet item and a diet pop cloud popcorn or whatever it is you're going to buy. Often that helps reduce cravings. Water, I know it's cliche, but you need to stay hydrated. You need to get enough sleep. You need to manage your stress because cortisol also helps with these cravings.

High cortisol, so high stress hormones. Yeah, exactly. Because it's telling your body to prepare for fight or flight modes. You need a lot of energy to process that feeling. You know, you're about to run in the wild from a tiger. But in today's society, it's that the horn is beeping outside on the car or someone's alarms going off. Yeah, you don't like an email. horn is beeping outside on the car or someone's alarms going off. Yeah, you don't like an email. Yeah, you can't do anything about it. So we need to learn how to deal with that in a different way and to soothe ourselves. So the list goes on, but I'm not going to be that health professional that says, well, just go for a natural sweet alternative, because that's not going to help you with cravings.

That's not getting to the problem. That's a plaster. Every time you're craving something at the end of the day, just eat strawberries. Or sometimes as much as I love fresh British strawberries, which I do, I am obsessed when they're really good. It's not going to cut my craving for my favourite chocolate bar. No, it's just a fundamentally different food, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, I've always found that quite frustrating as well. I totally, totally agree. But that's what we're trained to do at Uni Ella. We're trained to say go for a strawberry, not chocolate bar. Yeah, which is to me, it's just two polar opposite ends of the continuum. As opposed

to as you said, actually, I think a more useful strategy is can you choose the dark chocolate, not the milk chocolate and still enjoy the chocolate, for example. And I think that's a really great piece of advice. For most people. Yeah. I mean, obviously we get some cases where they'll have to go cold turkey for a bit, depending on how serious the sugar addiction is or their cravings. And there's some people that might have a real deep

relationship with food and we really have to work on perhaps intuitive eating principles. So it can vary. But I think for most people, please acknowledge how normal it is to get sugar cravings, Ella. Cause I remember you telling me, Ella, that you're all or nothing sometimes.

And I was like, I wonder if you are. I wonder if it's stress. You know, you've really got to think about why we feel that we're all or nothing. Yeah, it's a really great question. Yeah, I think I've lived my life so much, all or nothing in every aspect. But you've also got here, which I think is really important, is avoid skipping meals. That's a big one, because when we're restricting, and this brings us on to fasting a little bit as well I often find people that go into intermittent fasting often it depends on what their job role is What's going on in their life for some people it backfires? Completely and it actually screws with their relationship with food rather than enhancing it because it's hailed isn't it as a

Miracle for your gut. Yeah. No, it really is I think anything held as miracle needs a pinch of salt. Not that there aren't benefits, and obviously there is some research around it. But equally, as you said, I think this kind of binge and restrict cycle, which is, again, inherently linked to this sort of diet culture we've always had, is really challenging.

Because then, is your point, there's this biological, physiological, evolutionary part of your body that's like alarm bells, I need food and then you want sugar because your body wants that fast, fast energy. And often we don't take the time to even know we're stressed. So we might think, oh, I'm used to coping with this amount of work at the moment. I'm used to dealing with this. Why am I so tired? Why am I so hungry all the time? There's something wrong with me. I must be anemic because I'm so tired. I went through that process last week myself. And then I realized four days later, I'd actually caught up on the impact of my busy two weeks before and

late nights. So we constantly don't give ourselves credit for the amount of stress we put on our bodies. And I actually think, and we'll do another episode where we cover this whole cortisol train because that's a whole different ball game. Yes. And someone also asked us, we have to add to the list along with kombucha We've got olive oil and saunas at the moment is cortisol cocktails Which is quite a popular trend which is what those awful AI videos that were made on me were about cortisol Do you remember they were trying to sell these supplements for cortisol is your stress hormone? And there's a big trend at the moment of like anti cortisol drinks. I'm seeing stuff

It's like I lost 30 pounds in a week. I mean it's so absurd. What because of a cortisol supplement? Yeah I mean salt, coconut water and orange juice. But more on that another time we will take that to a trend section. Yeah absolutely so guys just remember we will cover it but ultimately relationships of food and sugar cravings are normal. You can work on it. I promise you can get to a point where you feel like you're in total harmony with what you eat and it's so possible to get there. But is it easy? Not for everybody. It might take a bit of a journey. It's not an overnight fix. No, but those really exist and you can do it. So you said thank you guys for joining us. It's just the best time of every week, isn't it?

It's our therapy session. So thank you for helping us and enabling us to do it. Please do rate and review the podcast though, because we've noticed it's actually making a big difference. It really is. It makes the world of difference. Click, follow, rate it, review it, share it with friends, family, colleagues on your socials if you're feeling really generous. We just so want this message of attainable health changes.

I love it when I see the shares on Social Zealot. It makes me so happy. You know, when they tag the podcast, thank you everybody because it lifts us up. Yeah, that makes my day every time. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Have a lovely, lovely day, everyone, and do something that decreases your stress if you can.