The Wellness Scoop -  Microplastics, The Billion-Dollar Race to Reverse Ageing and Perfect Guacamole

Episode Date: September 29, 2025

This week on The Wellness Scoop we’re diving into two of the most jaw-dropping wellness headlines we’ve seen all year. First, the new research revealing we’re inhaling up to 68,000 microplastic particles every single day, and how these invisible invaders are showing up everywhere from our lungs to our brains, even doubling the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Then we explore the $3 billion Jeff Bezos-backed biotech lab leading the billion-dollar race to reverse ageing. Altos Labs says it could not only slow ageing, but actually reverse it, marking what some scientists are calling the dawn of a new era of medicine. And to balance the intensity, we’re celebrating World Avocado Day with the ultimate guacamole, vibrant, zesty and packed with feel-good benefits. As always, we’re sharing what we’ve been loving lately and a few personal updates from behind the scenes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more at Amex.ca. www.ca.com.com. Welcome to the Wellness Goop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. And we're your hosts. I'm Ella Mills. And I'm Rihanna 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. Exactly. Hi, guys. Hope you're all having a great week. Welcome to the show. Thank you guys for tuning in. We just love it. We say it every week, but God, it's a highlight. We record on a Monday morning and it's just such a nice way to start the

week. I feel very motivated and empowered and inspired whenever we finish. So Ella, what have we got coming up in today's show? Oh, we have a real mix of stuff. We're going to do a few pickups on last week's trend of fiber maxing, which is really hitting the headlines. Very exciting. We've got a quick hit of joy. We're celebrating World Avocado Day and we've got the ultimate feel-good guacamole recipe for you. I am a guacamole fiend, so that's very much my bag. Do we need to start resistance training much younger? A very interesting insight there. Then completely different. We are going to look at this three billion startup backed by Jeff Bezos, which is trying to reverse aging and rewrite the future of medicine and they've had

some interesting breakthroughs that might completely change the face of medicine. And we are looking about some invisible microplastics that we are breathing in every day and how they're showing up in our bloods, our brain, our placentas even. So a real mix of things for the show today. First of all, Re, how are you? What are you up to? Anything interesting? I'm good. I don't feel like I have tons of interesting things to share. I'm looking at my notes and, you know, the two fairy came for my elders. That was quite exciting. That's about as exciting as it gets. Have you been cooking, eating anything good, worth recommending? I've made so many things this weekend.

I've been in the kitchen. We did our first roast dinner of the season, which has been lovely. And then I found some new jelly sweets. That's what I was going to say as well. So they're called Wild Things, and they've got half the amount of sugar than even the candy kittens have. They're completely organic and plant-based. And it's now my go-to jelly sweet when the kids want sweets. Oh, Wild just spelled W-I-L-D.

Yeah, Wild Things. Really cool, really cool. Oh, I haven't seen them. Yeah, definitely check them out. That's all I have to contribute. And I feel like you may have had a much more exciting week than I. Do you know what? That's such a good contribution though because I've got two birthday parties coming up for the girls.

So that's the kind of thing that I am in need of. And so love that. I'm going to be looking up wild things. What have I been doing? We've got a lot of apple trees in our garden because it's an old farm where we live. And a friend that I've made at school has recommended this place near us where you can pick all your apples and drop it off and they will make it into our. apple juice for you. Love. Oh my goodness. How cool is that? So we've been like obsessively picking all

the apples so they, I mean, because I was thought, oh, I'll cook with them and I've made eight batches of apple compot. I know. I think we've got all the compot we could ever need. Like I can't use 300 apple. Then your freezer becomes full. We had this with plums this year. There's only so many plum crumbles and plum jams that you could make. Exactly. So I'm very excited. I'll bring you some. Oh, thank you. We're going to have our own apple juice. And I've been looking on Etsy for things. to make a fairy garden. So that's really my week. Very idyllic, I was so.

I love that. And the John Lewis, everything's going well with your new range. Yeah, it's going well. It will start being in all the John Lewis shops from this week

as soon as this record comes out. Yeah, so if anyone lives near a John Lewis, works near a John Lewis, if you pop into the kitchen area, you should see the whole deliciousiela John Lewis range, which is going to be so surreal.

I'm like, can't quite believe it. I'm going to go next week. after we finish recording to the Oxford Street store and have a look which, yeah, it's unbelievable. And now we are kind of really getting into the nitty-gritty of planning the book launch, which feels like it's just come around so fast. It's so strange, isn't it?

Because you've obviously written this one on quite a tight deadline, I would say. So it does, like you said, you don't do things in halves, do you? No, I think that's going to be my newest resolution is to learn how to do things in halves. But do you know what, Ella, I think in terms of the grand scheme of things,

it's all remarkable and what an achievement I mean they're beautiful can I just say I saw them all when we were having that lunch we discussed last week and honestly I came away as well with a beautiful um the beautiful little shakers oh my gosh that's so cute yeah and the green dish I've been really enjoyed cooking with it all I made some sweet potato brownies for the first time in like four years this weekend and was using it all but I think that leads us on very nicely to our pick up on fibre maxing and I was scrolling sorry late last night But thank goodness I did because I ended up scrolling and I was went and I thought, get off socials, get on the newspaper, at least scroll with intention. Yeah, she did, guys.

She messaged me. What time did you message me with this one? Half 9, 10? Yeah. And I was really, the Times had done a piece that came out, yeah, just that night on fiber maxing, which is obviously what we were talking about last week. And it was because Ocardo had done a survey looking at this trend and the impact that it's having. and it's so interesting old-fashioned foods like prunes and all brand are surging of popularity all thanks to this big TikTok trend of fibre maxing with influences sharing your hyper fibre

recipes things including chickpeas, chia seeds, prunes etc like very untrendy ingredients I would say prunes are not a cool ingredient and a cardo then had reported a 60% rise in prune sales 52% increase for fruit and fibre cereal and a 59% rise for soy for spelt. I mean, I think it's brilliant that I don't see any harm. I think this is the most wonderful headline you could have sent me at that time in the evening because it brings me such joy. But we do know, you know, you've got the World Health Organization reporting that high fibre diets cut bowel cancer risk by 15 to 30 percent. And we know everyone's not hitting that 30 grams. And I promise I will share what I'm working on with fibre very soon. But

honestly, what I find most intriguing is the headline of the article was Gen Z, wasn't it? It said Gen Z or Gen Z, they're the ones that are really jumping on this trend. So there is hope for the future generations to be making their 30 grams a day. Exactly. I thought it was really exciting. So they'd done this survey. It was 2147 British adults. And they found that 62% of Gen Z are active increasing their fibre intake.

And that's versus 36% of over 65s, which is a humongous. It's such a marked difference. And to your point there really, like that is so impanour. Fewer than 1 in 20 UK adults managed to get the fibre that they're meant to have. And so this trend and getting this awareness in a cool way about eating more fibre is clearly having a meaningful impact that has really tangible impacts on our health, which is so cool. So cool. And also, guys, if you don't know, you know, prunes are basically just plums. And also, I like rehydrating them. I put dry prunes in a bowl of water and then they're really, this may not be everyone's thing.

The texture is quite an acquired taste. but I like how they kind of puff up and they get really juicy again. Ah, I'd never thought to do that. Do you know what? I never eat prunes. I got into it in France. I used to work on a health retreat in France, one or another job I had when I was at uni. I'd go in the summer and I remember they had so many prunes

and we would put them all in bowls of water to start the day and rehydrate them and make everyone have one with their breakfast. Love it. That's how I got into it. Maybe I need a prune compot next. They are delicious. Honestly, they've got this reputation for being an old person's like way to go to the toilet. because obviously they just contain a lot of fibre.

So that's why people associate prunes of constipation. But now it's fibre maxing guys, way cooler. Way cooler. So that was just officially putting it in the newspapers that fibre maxing is cool. And as I said, I was just really excited to see that. I think it's we obviously are always looking at trends and what the impact is on the world of health or wellness is that positive isn't negative.

And I think to me seeing something like this is so validating because actually here's a TikTok trend that is having such a positive. impact on the world and we're so down on social media so much the time and this is an example of actually where it comes into play to actually tangibly move the dial when it comes to health okay so we've started on a positive but that does mean naturally we have to balance it out so our fly so if we move on to the headlines that matter Ella do you want to give us our first headline we're going to come back positive to negative don't worry guys we're not staying all in the

negative but it's really interesting obviously since we've done the wellness scoop i am reading and scouring for health headlines in a more concerted way than i was doing pre the show but i was still reading all the headlines beforehand and i don't think i ever used to see anywhere near as much focus on microplastics and the effect of the environment on our health and i'm sure lots of you guys saw this and felt worried about it too because it is really quite extraordinary the guardian um headline was invisible invaders breathing in microplastics. But this was really picked up so widely, CNN, you name it. And it was just another reminder about this extraordinary effect

that the world we're living in is having on our health. And in quite a surprising way, we took us through the study, Re. Yeah, I think the impact on our planet, I think we do need to be more aware of it. I don't think enough people, perhaps you want to bury your head in the sand. And I understand that completely because it is quite a terrifying topic. But there's a study behind this headline, and it found that we might be inhaling up to 68,000 micropastic particles every day. I mean, that's just an unbelievable, unthinkable number.

But most of them come from the air indoors. So at first we thought it was just putting plastic in your dishwasher, or we thought that maybe it was adding hot water to a plastic cup, you know, microwaving in plastic. But actually now it's around us every single day. So where we live, where we go to work. And this adds basically to the body of knowledge that we have already that microplastics are everywhere. So research has found these particles are so tiny. They're just one to 10 micrometers across, which is much smaller than human hair. It's really hard to imagine.

But when you take a small strand of hair and you think it's even tinier and even smaller than that, it can travel deep into our lungs and enter the bloodstream. So potentially the study implicated the fact that when we're inside our house, were breathing in more microplastics than we thought before? Yes, exactly. I don't think this was a kind of commonly understood premise. Certainly I didn't expect, as you said, microplastics. I think we've all started getting at top of mind in terms of our coffee cups and that sort

of thing, but not in terms of just sitting in our office, in our house and what we're breathing. And obviously, the authors were quite keen to point out that this is quite a worrying piece of research because we spend 90% of our day indoors. And interestingly, they found that car interiors had four times more microplastic particles than apartments or houses. But obviously, both were significantly higher than the air outside. But I can believe that because I know from whenever I'm in my car, I turn the circulating air off when I'm in a traffic jam. But I know basically when you're in your car, you have more pollution than when you're outside your car because it traps the fumes through the ventilation. And any car lovers do correct me on that if I've got that wrong.

But I'm sure your car is meant to be a really polluted place. Great. More things to worry about. I'm not an expert in this at all. But Ella, it is a lot because when you think about it, I think it comes from the fact that we're maybe not ventilating. Maybe we're not opening the windows enough, perhaps a big lesson. I do it every morning by habit in the kids' rooms. I read somewhere when they were babies that if you open the window for an hour every single morning, and every single evening before they go to bed

you reduce the chance of germs so I've just always done that and perhaps that's something we should all do well that's a good idea I feel like we're recording remotely as soon as we finish this I'm going to run upstairs open all the windows but yeah so I think this idea is that basically you've got synthetic clothes, carpets, sofas, car seats

plastic packaging just so much plastic all around us and we are starting to breathe it in and obviously we've talked about this beforehand about how we're now starting to see microplastics accumulating across all sorts of critical human organs, including the brain, which is now thought to be 99.5% brain and 0.5% plastic, which is one of those stats that I think will stay with me forever. We've had them detected in human testes, the penis, human blood, lung, liver, tissues, urine, feces, mother's milk, placenta. A February study even found nearly a spoons

worth of microplastics in human brain tissue. So it really is everywhere. And I think there was an interesting study in March last year that showed that people with microplastics in their carotid artery tissues were twice as likely to have a heart attack stroke or die from any cause over the next three years than those who had none. So we don't understand completely the impact of these microplastics on our health. I think that's still developing, but I think what's becoming clearer and clearer, certainly from what I see with more and more research coming out, is that it is everywhere. And I think we probably now need to start to take more concerted efforts to reduce it because whilst it's not completely crystal clear the actual effect of all

these microplastics getting into our bodies, it's starting to become clear that it has a detrimental impact. I mean, I'm also wondering here, so first to reiterate that the study here said that it may have negative outcomes on your respiratory tract, so linked to lung cancers and all sorts of things, but it's very much unknown. And I still think there's a high risk of smoking cigarettes linked to lung cancer than there is from microplastic inhalation. We don't actually know yet, do we? It's very, very early days. But I think until we can get pollution levels down in this country,

and it's just not helping all our health. And I think we've often, we have closed our eyes to this problem. I think a lot of people are still climate deniers, climate change deniers, and there's a bigger, wider issue here that microplastics aren't just in the plastic items we have in our home. It is coming from factories, from manufacturers, from the world, the industry that we have in this country on a whole. And some people always say, oh, but, you know, China give out more emissions than the UK and so does America. But it's not just about that anymore. This is about the air we breathe and we want to preserve it, don't we, for our future generations.

We definitely have to do something, I think, drastic to kind of raise awareness of air pollution. Exactly. And as you said, that research is still ongoing. it's not completely crystal clear, but as it stands, the kind of concern around long-term exposure to as many microplastics as we now have is potentially contributing to respiratory problems, disrupting endocrine, so hormonal function, increasing risk of neurodevelopmental disorders, reproductive birth defects, infertility, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. So it is a very developing area of research, but it's very potentially real.

And I think we're going to learn a lot more over the next few. years, it's just going to be so interesting. But to your point, I think I hide from it as well, because it's, when I think about, we talk about, I don't know, the other week, increasing the potassium in your diet, the benefit of that on your heart, for example. That feels quite actionable. You read that and you think, yep, I'm going to eat some more beetroots, some more lentils, some more avocado. That all feels quite relatively simple and straightforward to do. And I think there's, or when we're saying one minute of micro movement, I don't know if anyone has done it, is still so positive for you in terms of just like running up the stairs or doing that walking up

the escalator in a fast way as opposed to standing and that all feels so tangible it's really empowering it's really like yes these are the little things I can add into my life to improve my health and then I think you read articles like this and you just feel quite I know powerless and overwhelmed and you know you just think oh gosh how do I actually change this and I think there are some simple things that we can do. So vacuuming with hepa filters. I don't do that at the moment. That's something I'm going to look into, ventilating our homes well, as you said, re, choosing natural materials when we can. But obviously, quick to point out, natural materials are much more expensive and then reducing plastic heavy items in our spaces. But again, there's a cost

to all of this. It's not fair, is it, the cost aspect. And I don't even know what a hepper or H-E-P-A filter is. I need to look at it. It's probably a Dyson Hoover or something, isn't it? I I need to have a look into my cleaning equipment, but there's definitely a government level that perhaps now we're getting more research. They probably want a lot more research before they can do anything. But so many people, we just don't have the money

to change the infrastructure of your home. How do you change it? So I think, yeah, let's look at this as really early data. I tell you what a heifer filter is. It's a high efficiency particulate air filter, which is mechanical. No, this is, thank you, Google. It is a mechanical air filter that removes at least

99.97% of airborne particles as small as 0.3 microns in size such as dust, mould, spores, pollen and pet dander. I love this. That's so cool. And again, these things come with with a real cost, but it is interesting to see them. I think it's fascinating. Anyway, we want to keep you updated because we're as worried as you probably are, but I'm not going to get myself into a state about it yet. I want to see more research. And what I will do is just keep airing my house. Yeah. Again, I just think these things, all we can do as it stands is take them as reminders to be mindful of it. And I think, you know, I'm not going to get rid of all our Barbies. You know, like there's toys that we love. But I've just switched, for example, like all of my, I don't have any more plastic Tupperware's, for example. And I think that's where I'm trying, like, the kids water bottles, as we talked about, I've switched those. And I've just trying to those everyday items that I use a lot. That's where I'm personally trying to make a change. And where I'm I'm not getting head up, is that, like, one or two coffees that I get as a takeaway that boost my week and make me so happy and reduce my cortisol. And so it's all swings and roundabouts, isn't it? Same.

You know, I actually tried to take my keep cup, the glass one, two parents evening the other week at school, and then I left it there. You know, I lose it. So it's just pointless. It's a pointless act. I might as well just have my one-off, yeah, paper cup. But it does lead us on to a positive headline, guys, and one that's very, very different. So headline two that we have is that resistance training in kids was once taboo

and now doctors say Ella that it could change their entire future. I know, re put this into the show notes and we actually moved it from last week to this week because we, at the moment, we're just kind of jam-packed with things we want to talk about. And I was so blown away by it. It's sort of thing, as you said, that feels so taboo and I was so curious about it. But, Rie, you found this. So tell us more about it. And I think the reason it's quite taboo.

First of all, I saw it in women's health, actually, first of all. But because of the safety aspect, I mean, I think obviously you have to supervise any child that does any lifting and check their posture. But naturally, one thing that's interesting is children do know how to squat. You'll look at it with any toddler. Their posture's perfect. They squat down. They stand up perfectly. And perhaps that's the time we should be introducing small loads.

So according to this 2025 investigation that was published in JAMA, we know that our mental, physical and developmental health, especially in children in the US, has deteriorated. And Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, or Leon, I should say, she said, I strongly believe the world is going in two directions. One direction is continuing down the path of sedentary behaviour, physical dysfunction and chronic disease. But the alternative route, she said, will be one where physical habits and strength are not. something unusual, but simply the standard. And I think this also stems back to the lack of physical education, the encouragement of movement in schools. It's a lottery where you live, what access you have to different outdoor spaces, but we need to be encouraging more activity. And weight-bearing activity isn't just picking up weights. It is walking and pounding the pavement.

But children, and I notice it, I take my kids to little gym, they're really lucky, but they can hang and they can do pull-ups from the age of like five and three nearly. I never did that as a child. No, it's extraordinary, isn't it? And what they were talking about in this review, which I think is so interesting. We've talked a lot. I think the idea of health span has come into the kind of lexicon. The idea that, yes, we all want to live as long as we possibly can, but living as long as we possibly can with a huge number of chronic ailments is obviously not as appealing. And we know now that the vast majority of people don't get past 70 with that. one of the main 11 chronic conditions that affect our mental and physical health.

So I think there's been a big call in the health and wellness industry for let's increase our health span, how long we actually live a healthy life and can do everything that we want to do. And this, they introduced, I hadn't come across this term before, muscle span. And exactly as you said, Dr. Leon, Dr. Lyon, who led this study, was talking about that introducing resistance training very early on in life can lay foundations for what is now being called muscle span. So essentially our muscle longevity. And by introducing this at a much earlier age, you start building stronger tendons, developing better neuromuscular control and lowering risk of lifetime metabolic diseases.

And it's, when you say it, I think it makes so much sense, the idea that you really early on start to build this and it becomes a kind of innate part of your body as opposed to what's happening now where a lot of people, I think, in their 30s and their 40s are starting to exercise. And like for me, I feel like I have no muscle span. I did not really exercise. I didn't really enjoy sports as a child. Definitely always came last in that kind of thing running related. The very important thing to talk about here as well is one of the reasons there's been a lot of taboo is I think there was this premise that actually was bad for children to do these sorts of weight bearing exercises, etc. It could stunt growth. And actually the 2025 sports medicine review is confirmed. That's not true. Resistance training is actually should be seen as safe and beneficial for children. Wow. I mean, it's a message. It's like an inbuilt message. I remember doing gymnastics as a child and being saying, oh, you mustn't do this any longer because it will stunt your growth. And of course, there's an element of truth, but that's hardcore training. That's like elite level of training. But for most people, this fear that we've had for decades, it stemmed. I've got the fact here. It came from a rare case in 1970. So in the 1970s involving maximum lifts or poor technique. And basically now today, we, we

have supervised programs that don't damage those growth plates. But back then in the 1970s, people just weren't thinking of the safety aspect. They didn't know the outcomes. And just one or two cases, I guess, stem that myth that it does stun growth. It just takes one or two, doesn't it, for a myth to spread and go viral for decades. No one wants to see their children in a position of poor growth and development. And in fact, an older NSA position statement estimated the injury rates in youth resistance training are just at 0.7% compared to 19% in football and 15% in basketball. I guess you have to supervise your children. I would normally say to my boys, I don't really want them lifting heavy equipment in case they drop it on their foot.

But I think here we're talking about lifting the shopping bag or helping do different tasks in the house and picking up heavy items but trusting them that they're able to do it. Like we've got a toddler tower. I know I think you had one too, Ella, you know, so they can reach the kitchen counter. They get them out themselves. They're really big and they push it themselves. You know, they're practicing pushing, practicing pulling. I think that's really important if it's supervised. Yeah, totally. And same with the monkey bars and all the rest of it. Although sometimes I find I've watched all those videos on Instagram that says, don't tell your children, be careful. And I'm watching them swing. May was just jumping off from very high height on a climbing frame onto the

top of the fireman's pole and swing. swinging from it and then trying to get back. And I was like, okay, be mindful of being done. Instead, I'm like, I can't watch. I can't watch. Oh, my goodness. You'd have a heart attack in my house seeing the boys doing what they do, Ella. Oh my gosh. Honestly, trying to be more relaxed. So we talk, as I said, a lot about how do we kind of create healthy foundations. And I think, what a gift. I mean, again, there's another review that came out this year. This was in current opinion and it reinforced this. It showed that strength, bone mass, bone density, body composition, metabolic health, mental well-being, cognitive function,

lowered risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, all came from starting powerful resistance training in children and teens, which, as I said, it's just extraordinary. And obviously, we all know as well that exercise has such a positive impact on our emotional well-being and our mental health. But to me, it's just a really good reminder that we all need to exercise, we all need to get out there, and we need to make such a conscious effort to do it, because it's so easy for all of us to sit in front of screens. And it comes at any age. This isn't just about childhood.

So don't be disheartened because none of us as a child, let's face it, probably did any resistance training. But I think any form of exercise is so beneficial. If you like swimming, you know, anything that you could possibly do, going for those longer walks. But what I will say is when you go past probably 30, 35, it is really helpful to try and do a bit more push and pull with your muscles. And I've noticed only in the last.

year and I know I'm very lucky to be able to do so but I go once a week to the gym and everyone's like what do you mean just once a week that's all I have time for sometimes I don't make that one session but I've noticed such a difference in my strength just from one session a week of just half an hour all I do is 35 minutes because I have no motivation to do anymore 35 minutes to 40 minutes and I try and lift something and I do that and I definitely feel stronger for Ella and I think the gains that anybody will have mentally from trying to do something but the winter is hard

I will say everybody I am very very far from motivated when the weather gets colder I just want to add to what you said though about your once a week which is as a take home from this segment for people particularly to your point it's so much harder and we actually had quite a few listeners questions around motivation in the winter

because it is just much much harder to get up in the cold in the dark if you're trying to exercise before work but I think it's such a powerful reminder I always say this I just think it rings so true which is that we all overestimate what we're going to do in a week

and we underestimate what we'll do in a year and a decade and I think this point of exercising as you do doing weights in the gym once a week but being really committed to that because that's what you actually have time and space for is such a powerful example that over the course of a year

you have seen a tangible shift and I think the temptation is I want to get strong I want to do it. I'm going to go four times a week. And the reality is, is for so many of us, that's just not plausible with other, other commitments in our life. And as a result, we then, after a month, we stopped doing it. We're kind of demotivated. And we actually make very little progress in terms of our strength and therefore our health. Whereas if you commit to small things that genuinely fit into your lifetime and you look at it for my health span, this is to add up for

decade. This is about a big, big health span into my 60s, 70s, 80s. This isn't about, my holiday in two months time. I think you'll be amazed at the impact that you actually have in terms of a long-term health goal. And I just think it's a really important reminder while the weather is going to colder and darker if you live in the northern hemisphere and it's hard to motivate yourself, but if you can find a couple of small goals that feel really tangible and therefore enjoyable and really sustainable in your lifestyle, focus on that as opposed to all or nothing. Yeah, can maybe anyone listening, can you share some accounts online that have this approach? Because I find it quite difficult to follow fitness accounts because they're either

pulling up their skin above their abs, you know, showing how lean they are or that there's this plan and, you know, it's not enough if you don't go three times a week. And I do find it very difficult to find anybody that does that middle ground approach to training that has a fitness account. It does seem very all or nothing. And then you have a lot of personal trainers giving out nutrition advice and that's also a big turn off for me when I'm looking at social media accounts for motivation. So if anyone has any really positive motivational accounts, can you please pop them in the Spotify reviews or the Apple ones? I really want to see them. Yes, please. Have you got any tips for motivating yourself during winter before we close this section? I have to put it in my diary

otherwise it doesn't happen. I have to tell someone a friend or a PT or somebody that I am going to the gym at that time. I think it's just for me it's been time and experience. I used to just go on the cross trainer and play solitaire for half an hour. And, you know, if you look at that, of course it's better than doing nothing, but over the course of a year, two years, what have I learned? What have I gained if I just did that every time I went to the gym? So I just needed a friend to push me out of my comfort zone and say, look, give this a try. And I tell myself it's only half an hour. If I'd committed to an hour, this is interesting. I wouldn't do it. I think there's something about time. You know, most classes are like an hour long. Sometimes that puts me off. What about you? Is it the same?

Oh, I'm desperately in need of motivational tips. I don't think I've exercised for like three months now. So I'm looking at you. No, I'm walking a lot, which I absolutely love. But yeah, kind of mid-building sites, it's hard to find space to do it. But I think that's pathetic excuse on my part. I don't say that a self-deprecating way. Just say that it's a great example of making perfect the enemy of good. You know, there's nothing to stop me from like just putting a yoga mat in the corner of the room and doing 15 minutes. But when you've got other things to do, what I find, I don't know if you find the same thing, but I've got chores to do. You know, it's either do the washing or it's go for a walk or it's do the cooking or the cleaning.

There's never enough time to do everything. And sometimes I shove exercise down to the very bottom of the pile. Whereas if you do something, this might be a tip for people. I mowed the law, and I'm lucky to have a garden. I mowed the law at the weekend. And I did it because I thought, well, it needs doing and it's a chore. And I'm moving. So maybe you can get active in your house by doing like a deep clean.

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To deliver a quality product at a fair price, while paying your people what they're worth too, so your business can stay unfazed. Learn more at SAP.com slash uncertainty. We are moving on to quite a weird but absolutely fascinating headline. We'll probably walk through it slowly because there's quite a lot of quite complicated science in here. But bear with us because I think this is absolutely fascinating. So the headline came from the Times inside three billion quests to defy aging that Jeff Bezos is backing.

So launched in 2022, Altos Labs is trying to rewind biological age itself and is starting to publish peer-review data that could reshape how we think about getting older. Rie, had you heard of Altos Labs? This is out of my sphere completely. No idea. Yeah. So basically, it's so interesting. There is a lot going on in terms of longevity, the biohacking world, trying to increase that health span we were just talking about.

This is one of, I think, many very well-funded companies in this space. And their goal, which I think is kind of mind-blowing, is to rejuvenate human beings. So they want to restore to older people, the resilience against disease and injury that the young take for granted, essentially. They only launched in 2022, so just three years ago now, they launched for $3 billion. And Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, was one of the big backers. And just three years on, I mean, that is not a long time when it comes to medical advancements. They're starting to publish peer-reviewed data. And I think it's really important to include that.

And I know Ree is nodding here, but this isn't them saying, oh, we've got the secret to aging. This is peer-reviewed data coming out of what they're doing that could genuinely reshape the way that we age, the way that we get older. And obviously, we're a long way off it. But it is genuinely the possibility of a new area of medicine. And I think to me that's really interesting. We've obviously got GLP-1s. There's quite a lot we need to pick up there in terms of quite a big backlash against it, some lawsuits of some side effects. that's also going viral at the moment. We'll pick that up next week. But basically it feels to me that medicine is changing, changing quite fast. And this is an interesting example of that.

Yeah, it is extraordinary because if you think about it, it doesn't help with muscle decline and looking after your bone strength. Like we discussed before, we still have to eat well and resistance train. It's not a magic bullet. But what it's doing is looking after our DNA and trying to keep it young, which is fascinating. So as we age our telomers at the end of our. kind of DNA chains they shorten and we age and eventually of course we kind of frazzle we kind of frasel out but treatments could be designed to keep our DNA young and the application of AI could one day allow us in the words of one of the studies to escape aging entirely so it's like at a cellular level it would be targeting cells at a cellular level and I would say this probably is going to be used in cancer treatments potentially as well if they're looking at changing cellular DNA. This is unbelievable. Didn't one of them win the Nobel Prize? So exactly that. They're looking at essentially reprogramming the body at a cellular level,

which, as I said, it's really, really quite extraordinary. And so there's a scientist, and I hope I pronounce this correctly, but Shinya Yamanaka. And they won the 2012 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. So, you know, we're talking about very, very serious, well-respected people here. They're an unpaid advisor, apparently, to this company, Altos. And two decades ago, they kind of stunned the world by showing that mature skin cells could be reprogrammed back into pliable embryonic-like state. So you could genuinely shift the cell back decades, essentially. And these induced a type of stem cells, as they then became known. And that has obviously had a huge impact on the world. And again, we're looking at this same sort of technology for essentially de-aging

here. And it was all achieved by bathing the cells in four proteins. And that is now called the Yamanaka factors. And obviously, that's named after this scientist. And again, as we said, bear with us here because it's a little bit complicated. But that is what we're basically looking at in terms of this new frontier of medicine. It's this Yamanaka factor where you're bathing the cell with four different proteins that can potentially repropeachial. program it and make it essentially much more pliable and much younger. It's very black mirror to me again. It's very because it's so new and it's so exciting, but it's going against nature.

There's something kind of, I can't put my finger on it. It doesn't feel, it doesn't sit quite right with me, although it's exciting. But there is one vital difference, the control element, because while cellular reprogramming works, we have to remember it's also risky, you know, push it too far and those cells can lose their identity entirely or this is what's even worse than form tumours. Just to explain that, if you think about it, if you push your immune system into overdrive, we don't want to do that. And that's why we don't use the claim boost your immune system, which lots of influences use online, because you don't want your immune system to go into overdrive, because that's when we get sick and we see raised

levels of inflammation. And what we're saying is if we pushed it too far, we can actually trigger those things we're trying to heal from in the first place. And that's why one of Oato's key, breakthroughs has come from Professor Wolfe Reich's team in Cambridge who've uncovered a transcriptional clock and this clock times when embryonic cells specialize so if scientists can harness that clock essentially that tells the time every day they might be able to reset our biological age without erasing the identity of us the cell you know what makes us unique this to me is almost sounding like a sci-fi film it honestly years and they're thinking that you could potentially extend human life spans by up to 50 years.

What? Yeah. I mean, it's just mind blowing. As we said, this is very early on. You know, this is not in practice yet. But this company has only been going three years. As we said, it's exceptionally well funded by some very kind of prominent people. And the fact that in three years they're starting to see this, it does really make you wonder, it's dazzling science. Like, there's this huge quest for longevity, to your point, there is this interesting kind of tipping point, you know, between the kind of moral philosophical part of it. But nonetheless, it's incredibly exciting. And then to me, this is where my brain goes, everyone listening. So don't think I'm morbid all the time. But, you know, sometimes there's deep thoughts going on.

And for me, when I hear this, I think this is amazing, but it's all very well. But if we don't look after the planet that we've been given in the first place, why would you want to to live 150 years on a planet that we're not respecting that's declining. And I do feel if they can pump all this money into longevity research, they can pump it into reducing greenhouse gas emissions, looking at a way of supporting the climate. That's where I guess the activist side of my nutrition science hat goes as well. When I read these sorts of headlines, I'm thinking that's so much money that we also need invested into what we actually need to sustain life. Because at some point, I think I saw Dr. Jane Goodall, she's the most remarkable, remarkable supporter of peace and the planet.

And she was saying, if we don't start being kind to one another and support our planet, one day we're going to be having wars over the last river that's left on the planet for a water source, you know. So we're looking at living 150 years here, you know, with these three billion. But what about the planet we live on? I've taken it way off the brief. I'm sorry. No, it's totally valid. I think for me, my other reflection is just, again, it's this just weird. At the beginning of our second headline when we were talking about resistant training,

the scientist behind it had that quote that you read out that they believe that the world is going in two directions. One, down the path of sedentary behaviour, physical dysfunction, chronic disease, and one where physical habits and strength are not something unusual, but simply the standard. And I think that's a really succinct way of looking at it, And certainly how I see it, I think you've got one path at the moment where people are obsessed with biohacking, with infrared saunas, with ice baths, with fibromaxing, with their protein and their exercise. And you've got a cohort of people who are probably healthier than humans have been in a very, very long time. And then you've got, unfortunately, a much, much larger cohort of

people where healthy food feels inaccessible, where it feels expensive, where it feels the world of wellness and health feels totally out of reach or not interesting or not relevant and their habits so shifted from healthy to unhealthy at such a young age. And I think to me, this is also scary because also is it very kind of handmade's tail, do you end up with one section of society with much more disposable income who end up on GLP-1s, who end up doing this kind of amazing longevity kind of experimental treatments and who are very invested in their health are who are exceptionally healthy and who are living at 250. And you have another section of society who unfortunately are having 80% of their calories from ultra processed food. And you have

extraordinary high rates of metabolic disease and chronic disease. And that, to me, kind of completely terrifying. It's very Victorian era in terms of a kind of divide between people. that I also find absolutely terrifying. Yeah, the divide's got bigger. It's almost like the headlines we see and it's discussed a lot on TV at the moment with the fact that we're not apparently having enough children yet the infrastructure doesn't support that.

So who are these people that are going to benefit from this research? Like you said, the divide, the poverty gap's going to get bigger and bigger. Oh, we've taken it far bigger than just describing what this research is because it's what we want to do is to just give everybody actionable, helpful. advice, which is that you can lift a shopping bag extra a week and you can eat your walnuts and you can get that fibre in. And that is also going to help us live longer every single day.

Yet there is that section of society, the immensely, immensely, immensely privileged that will be doing cellular DNA treatments in 50 years time. Okay, so we're going from the dystopian to the very joyous, simple win. for our transaction today, which is Re and I both got an email into our inbox with the subject World Avocado Day, which peaked both by interest. And it turns out there is such a thing as International Guacamole Day. And that is celebrated on September the 16th. So it just happened. And the World Avocado Organization, again, you probably didn't know that was a thing. It is. They were sending out a classic recipe, but also a bit of history on guacamole and where it came

from. And we thought, what a fun trend to end the show on. Oh, I love this. It's basically from Mexico to the rest of the world. Do you remember when avocados first became popular? This was definitely the start of your career, LR, I think, as well, when everybody was making everything with avocados. And then there were the headlines saying, well, what about the emissions of shipping avocados?

And the whole question came in, didn't it? But I feel like now we've figured out that food chain. Did you make avocado chocolate mousse? Obviously. I still do. I think I still do for the kids. I think I even put it in the... I think I did.

put it in the unprocessed plate and did some tweaks. I just think it's a staple. Yeah. Did you work in the health and wellness in the 2010s if you didn't make avocado mousse? No. Was there anything you put it in that you were like, I would never do that again? So what I used to do when I worked in that cafe and pars and screen, I was making all the food for the customers in the gym. I tried blending kale because I was making kale oat pots once. And I remember trying to mix kale with an avocado chocolate moose, it just doesn't work because obviously you've got bits in it. It was the biggest fail I've ever done, I think, ever.

And I learnt from it. Guys, I was very young. That sounds so horrid. I have to say, I think avocado chocolate moose is quite awful. I wouldn't make that again. What you can put in chocolate moose, and honestly, I'm going to have some eye rolls, I'm sure as I say this, but just try it and trust me.

Tofu in chocolate moose, I swear, because obviously tofu has no flavour unless you cook it. It genuinely works. And that was quite a viral recipe recently. Melted dark chocolate, some tofu, some sweetener, whip it all up. But it was silken tofu, yeah? Not the hard, or did it work?

At Delicious Sierra, we actually did an experiment where we did it with both. And I actually would say both work. The firm one makes it quite airy. And then the silken one makes it quite smooth. I actually think both worked. Some nut butter in there really is delicious as well. I will actually pop a recipe in the show notes if everyone wants to try it. But if you, as like an easy little sweet treat on a Monday night where you want chocolate,

but you're like, you know what? I didn't eat that well today. I could do with a little bit of a kind of nutrient protein boost in it. Genuinely, that is, tastes really nice. Whereas I would say the avocado moose is health trying too hard. It's like, avocado, put it on your toast. Put it with your black beans. Yes.

Do you know what? We need this recipe, Ella, because we're not getting enough of tofu. Hold your horses. I'm going to get it for you right now. I've got it. Get it, get it. Okay. Share this recipe because honestly, I did it with silk and tofu, which I really like, but I quite

fancy a bubbly one. But to me, in my heart of hearts, I will always prefer a white chocolate moose because I love a really, really sweet, creamy white chocolate moose in a wine glass with raspberries on top. That's like my favourite thing in the world. But give us this chocolate one. Okay, well, I mean, obviously that's the real deal in comparison. What I will say, guys, is that avocado chocolate moose, it is all right. I still eat it and think it's okay.

But if you do have a tofu pack to use up, which I do, Ella, which is where I want this recipe right now, I normally, you see, with the quadrant tofu pack, sometimes I roast them in the oven and make little tofu bites for the kids. But today, I might before the school run, whip up a quick chocolate mousse. Okay, 100 grams of dark chocolate, which you just melt. And then you blend that up. You need a tablespoon of maple syrup, honey, some kind of sweetener, a packet of silken tofu. And then I would recommend a tablespoon of peanut butter or almond butter as well.

And then you blend it for just two or three minutes and then let it sit for like ideally kind of six hours or so. And that's it. That's it. Super easy. I made this trend, but I didn't put peanut butter in it. I think that's what I need. That's what I was missing. I'm doing it. And a good amount of dark chocolate.

I think like 100 to 150 grams. You need, it's the kind of thing if you skimp on it, then you've just got like lightly flavoured, blended tofu with a bit of sweetener. Oh, no. Do you know what? I went through all my chocolate this weekend. I think with the weather changing,

I've had this real immense, and I do this all of time. I got through all my stashes of dark chocolate and that's why I found the sweets, the wild things sweets. Yeah, I think everyone craves more sugar at this time of year, don't they? Okay, so shall we give some facts about avocados though as well?

While we're there, I feel like you guys just need to know. although they are out of season and I have noticed that my avocados are a bit anemic looking now. They're not as green. They're not as green, but they're still good for you. Let's close the show with why we can feel good

about ourselves when we eat avocados. This is a positive end, Della. We've got like amazing chocolate moose recipes to boost protein intake. Get those isoflavones and now we're going to give some healthy fats from avocados. So they can lower your risk of bad cholesterol, which is linked to, of course, heart disease.

A study from the American Heart Association actually showed that eating two avocados per week can reduce the risk over all of cardiovascular disease. So I know they're not the cheapest of items, but if you are an avocado lover, then you're definitely doing something good for your health. They're packed with vitamins and minerals. You've obviously got those fatty soluble ones. You've got vitamin E, which is really good for glowing skin, people say. You want to get a lot of vitamin E, but you also get that from nuts guys as well. Don't forget to eat your walnuts. I don't know what would be more cost effective, actually. Probably the walnuts, because they sit for longer than an avocado.

So don't think you're going to buy an avocado and suddenly see glowing skin. You're probably better off with the nuts, actually. But in terms of fibre, wonderful source of fibre, wonderful carotenoids and antioxidants and brain power, apparently. So thanks to lutin, which is a powerful antioxidant, avocados can help protect vision

and support cognitive function. So overall, Ella, in terms of keeping your blood levels stable, you know, increasing fiber intake, Sometimes for lunch, if you just do avocado on toast with some seeds, that's really good at stabilising blood sugar. So any type 2 diabetics out there, it's a really good option because of those healthy fats and the fibre. You're not spiking your blood sugar levels. But we just love an avocado. You can't go wrong.

There's nothing wrong with an avocado. And I even saw an influencer growing their own avocado plant from the stone. Oh, maybe I'm going to try that in my greenhouse. And I'll tell you what, it's a very long standing staple as well. more than five centuries ago in Mexico it was around it initially came from a word that meant avocado sauce and originally the dish was prepared just avocado sometimes a little bit of lime juice and a pinch of salt or sugar that's it I love this yeah and then obviously now there's all kinds of things you can put in there make it spicy and spring onions even at coriander you could do

pickled ginger as an idea like you can do a million of different things what a way to close the show eat some avocados get your kids on the monkey bars get your muscles fan going i have to say i think this episode out of all the episodes we've probably done has felt the most eclectic it feels like we've gone on a real deep dive into so many different areas my brain feels a bit frazzled i hope you've enjoyed it everybody yeah i feel like we've covered kind of the good the bad the ugly this week let us know your thoughts as always we love hearing from you if you've got questions for our Q&A episodes, drop them in the Spotify comments, Apple comments, or email me Ella at deliciousiello.com.

I'm loving having so many of you in my inbox every week. And this Thursday, we are going to be talking about 10 simple nutrition wins, whole grains, chickory fibre. We have had quite a few questions on that, some IBS things in there, mushrooms and a whole lot more. So we will see you on Thursday for those 10 easy nutrition wins and so much more. Have a great day, guys. Bye.

Thank you.