The Wellness Scoop - Reclaiming Our Attention, Cancer-Linked Ingredients & Fermented Foods

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

This week on The Wellness Scoop, we’re talking about why so many of us feel constantly distracted, what new research is revealing about cancer-linked ingredients in everyday foods, and why fermented foods are one of the most evidence-backed habits worth building into real life. We break down why attention feels so hard to hold onto right now, how scrolling, sleep and alcohol quietly shape focus and memory, and what the science actually shows helps us reclaim concentration without cutting technology out altogether. We also unpack major new studies linking long-term exposure to certain food preservatives with increased cancer and type 2 diabetes risk, what this says about how our food system has changed, and the realistic food swaps that matter most. We close by looking at fermented foods, why aiming to include them weekly, or ideally daily, is strongly linked to better gut health, lower inflammation and overall wellbeing, and how to do it simply. Send your questions for our weekly Q&A to [e-mail]. Find out more about today's contributor, Sophie Medlin at City Dietitions - and check out her work with Which? where she gives the lowdown on supplements Order your copy of Ella's new book: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Quick Wins: Healthy Cooking for Busy Lives⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Pre-order your copy of Rhi's upcoming book: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Fibre Formula⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

At Medcan, we know that life's greatest moments are built on a foundation of good health, from the big milestones to the quiet winds. That's why our annual health assessment offers a physician-led, full-body checkup that provides a clear picture of your health today, and may uncover early signs of conditions like heart disease and cancer. The healthier you means more moments to cherish. Take control of your well-being and book an assessment today. Medcan. Live well for life.

Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. Welcome to the Wellness Scoop, your twice weekly now dose of health and wellness inspiration. And as always, we are both here as your host. I'm Ella Males. And I'm Rihanna Lambert. And after a decade in the wellness industry, we know that it can be so overwhelming and confusing. And that's why we've created this podcast to cut through the noise and make all the healthier living, simple, fun and personal. We are exactly.

And we love being here. So hi, hi, guys. Welcome, Rhee. What have we got coming up in today's show today? Another big fantastic show to kickstart your Monday. We have got why our attention span feels under pressure, the habits that are quietly affecting focus and memory, and some new research on cancer-linked food additives, then simple swaps to reduce long-term exposure and why fermented foods keep showing up in the science, which I know I can't wait to delve into. And then our final point today is easy ways to add in those fermented foods to everyday life. Really, before we get into it all, how are you? I'm good, Ella.

I was just saying to Ella before we went on air today that I just need to go to bed earlier. I realize that I burn out. I know we've had this discussion quite a bit. Ella's been really open about her journey, but I'm following her projectory in not a healthy way. So I was like, I'm not. going to do it. And I messaged her last week and I was like, I am not good. So yeah, early night, seller. How about you? I am really good. I'm going to apologize. We are recording remotely today because I have to go to the girls' school later because they're both doing a poetry reading.

They're all learning poems. I think it's a head of World Book Day and anyways, which is very cute. But my house is like 96, 97% building site. Like literally every single room is a building site apart from my bedroom. So I'm currently back in bed, hunkering. down but if you hear banging, drilling, welcome to my life, we will keep calm and carry on. Oh, keep calm. Do you know that's the name of my friend Carrie Ellis's podcast, but she does keep calm and carry on. Love it. Love a good play on words. I know. Any musical theatre buffs, that's a good one to tune into. I think she did it in lockdown. So Ella, I've had a really crazy busy week because I did that big talk in Parliament and...

It's Siri. I'm watching her on the screen and she's about to be like, and then, you know, I made some like, Parmesan Parsnips or something, which obviously we have a lot of love for the Parmesan Parsnips, but let's not just like easy, breezy gloss over, speech in Parliament. Tell us about it. What were we talking about? How did it go? I'll do the deep dive then. So I was essentially invited to speak to raise the awareness of fibre because they knew my book. The fiber formula was coming out. I felt very, very grateful. And there was some new data, actually a new national survey that was commissioned by the brand warbitants because full disclosure, I did some work on a fiber loaf that they were working on.

But the study was conducted by UGov, and they do lots of different polls. You know all the different statistics we get each year. It's very interesting, very helpful. Even the MPs that were there, we all sort of gathered a consensus that we know that the online noise is not helpful for nutrition messaging in the public health space. There was a lot of talk about how the protein hype has detracted and created a lot of unnecessary noise from actually our healthy diets. And also it's contributed to the ultra-processed food space, as Ella knows. I mean, you can pump it into everything. You can pump it into literally

anything. And it's so, I just find the whole thing. Oh, so frustrating. It's like, obviously we talked about this last week. There's been so much in the news at the moment about the rise in bowel cancer and why and this kind of urgent need to get to the bottom of why we're seeing such huge rises in rates of diagnosis of bowel cancer versus other cancers, and what's going on beneath it. And you hear people talking all the time. There's researcher after scientist, after professor and oncologist research, and they're talking about the importance of our diets,

but there's sort of cancer in particular. And low-fiber diets being so problematic for it. And then you have health and wellness people promoting basically eating no fiber and just having like a carnival diet. And look, I'm not here saying don't eat any meat. I'm not here saying they're a vegetarian. That's completely an individual decision, toasty or prerogative.

But we all need a plant-rich diet. And this whole kind of don't eat any beans, pulses, fruit. Sweet potatoes, bananas, bananas are bad for you. They'll give you a blood sugar spike. I mean, honestly, I'm in a kind of straightforward mood today. It's ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous case and point.

It's very ridiculous. is when you remove yourself as well from the online world and I'm in an environment like Parliament and I'm speaking on a podium and I've got a room full of what I know is very important people listening and huge, you know, manufacturers and industry that are all agreeing. What I found so refreshing, Ella, is that obviously I got up there, kind of did a little heart on sleeve speech and said, my whole career, I've never had to single out a nutrient before ever. But, you know, the stats are we are one of the lowest countries in the world, the world, everybody, with fibre intake. And that's why I'm writing this book. And that's why I'm here

because I'm trying to cut through that noise. But I'll give you some of the stats. The wider picture is quite worrying. So basically, the UGov survey said that only 5% of people believe that the government is actually genuinely interested in their health. And I thought that was quite interesting because when asked what would make it easier for everybody, and I'd love to know what you think on the wellness scoop. And it's actually something that, you know, I write about the bit, but also I discuss in this little group I've got on Instagram now, the unfiltered group. People said they want clearer labelling on packets. They want lower cost food and better education. All of the things that we talk about all the time that I think should just be there. Common sense.

Oh, Tosi, Tosi, Tosi, Tosi, agree. No. Look, it's great that we're talking about it. I think that's, that is inherently the huge positive here. And we just need to keep shouting about. There's no reference intake, Ella, on the front of the pack for fibre. So what's so interesting is, you know, on the front of the pack, you can put traffic lights for fat, salt, sugar, rightly so, of course. Do you? I think they're nonsense. Well, I mean, red and orange.

To us, they're nonsense. But they're voluntary. For some people, they genuinely wouldn't know there was a lot of salt, I think, in their soup. I'm with you on salt. I think the others, though, first of all, they're voluntary. voluntary and almost no one puts them on the front. Yeah. But second of all, they're quite arbitrary.

Like, you know, sugar-free green jelly, which has got no nutritional profile whatsoever, would be all green traffic lights, like go ahead. And almonds have got a big fat red on them because of the fat intake. So I don't know. I think either you've got to use something on mass and it should be compulsory. Because otherwise, how do you navigate it? and it feels redundant, arbitrary and maybe a little bit outdated. I wonder what you think.

When you, I've done all of the ones in Europe. So what they use in Italy, they've got like a battery. And it's got no colors on it. And it's how full the battery is with nutrition or how small the battery is. And then other countries, yeah, how cool is that? So many different countries have different ways of measuring things. And I think we all just need to kind of agree on one thing. But essentially, we know 96% of us don't get enough.

We know that 20% of people don't know which foods contain fiber. It's quite staggering when you think about it. But the biggest thing that was raised to me was that the biggest gap is not in the younger generation. So actually, Gen Z, they're listening. I really hope you are. You already apparently are quite clued up. You know, you're probably following these Fibomax trends, you know. The problem is it's the generation that have kids and beyond that are educating younger people that aren't clued up on fiber.

And that's what's making this fiber gap even like. The fact that our generation L are essentially and above are the ones here that these stats relate to and only 7% of parents in their mid-30s know that 30 grams a day is a target. Yeah, I think that's really interesting. Although the 30 grams a day still feel like for most people is super arbitrary, you know, which is why I know it hasn't worked. 99% of us know about it and one in five of us do it when it comes to our five a day. but like something about 30 plants a week or five a day feels so tangible,

whereas 30 grams of fibre a day as you go around your day, knowing what you're eating, it's tricky, isn't it? But I think to me the most interesting point is that 80% of people think that fiber is only about digestion. Because I think it's true. You do think it's about your bowel habits. And maybe you have really regular bowel habits. So you're like, well, I don't need any more fiber. I'm good.

Or I'll just add a supplement that's not got any diversity for gut microbes. and then I'll just make sure I poo a lot. That's all people really refer it as. Yeah, understanding that actually fibre is, yes, it's brilliant for keeping you regular and that's really important. But it's so much more than that. And I think, again, that emphasis to me certainly really helps inspire, okay, no, I am going to make an effort.

I don't know. I was making dinner last night and we'd be now a birthday party all day. And like the kids had literally just eaten snacky, picnicy birthday party food all day. And I was like, okay, we need to have a property. dinner. And I was looking at it and I was thinking, oh, I'm on 28 plants this week. Okay, let's have because I'm really working on my God. I'm writing it down and playing my fun game. She's actually trying lots of new foods. She would normally, Ella would normally not have. So I'm really impressed. I'm really trying to branch out. And anyway, I was about it. So it's really

fun. I'm enjoying it. But anyway, with the kids last night, I was like, right, no, let's make sure we sit down and let's have a really proper dinner and let's include, you know, I put in the base. It's just a pasta pasta, but I did the base was cojure. leeks, garlic, shallots, chickpeas, lots of lemon, and then a pesto, which was half cashier nuts, half pine nuts. So suddenly you've got like eight different plants in there with pasta, you know, super, super straightforward, took me less than 15 minutes. And obviously the kids don't know that there's something like a leak in there. My kids do not go around. I think I love leaks. Oh my God, same. But I think leaks are really easy. If you blitz them up quite small as well,

like onions, you know, and your little blender thing. I use leaks loads with onions and garlic as the base of, I don't know, I did a mushroom lasagna on the weekend. Again, I used those in the base and I'll do the same with the pasta or something there. Yeah, they're really good for your digestion. Anyway, delicious. But as I said, I think it's that thing of knowing, okay, no, actually what we put in to our gut is how we feed our microbiome and that's so critical for health. So it's worth just making the effort to try adding in one new vegetable, one new bean, lagoon, nut, seed, whatever it is. And not falling victim to, I mean, we could go off in this. We'll talk about this

another time, but the supplement industry with fibre because we know it's coming and I think it's going to be a humongous boom. We're already seeing a few of them crop up and it's not a magic bullet everybody. But it was good. Hopefully people will have listened. Fiber isn't old fashioned anymore, Ella. And, you know, it is your whole diet, everyone. But fiber is just eating more plants, which is what we all need to do. Exactly. And you know, Rhee just said about fiber supplements. I think one thing that's worth doing is you've talked about it before, Re, but if what you are trying to do is get more diversity in, but we've got lots going on. I do think that kind of, you call it a diversity jar. It is a really great idea. You can make up, maybe you have two

different versions, like a breakfast version. Spinkles. Yeah, and a savory version, you know, in the breakfast version, like I really try and include, you know, flaxseed, hemp seeds, cheer seeds, for example. Even just in things like smoothies, you don't taste them. There's such a nutrition boost. And then you could do, you know, roast some nuts, some seeds, and you can do a whole kind of smorgasbord of whatever you've got, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, walnuts, anything. And you could add a bit of soy sauce or chili if you want to add a bit more flavor, roast them for 10 minutes or so, let it call pop minar jar and sprinkle it on salads, on soups. It's so easy. And in between the two, you've probably got like 10 different plants that you're just chucking on, as they said,

like porridge, smoothies, salads, soups. It's so easy. Do you know what? I've all. I've also so I've been doing, which is not a diversity jar, but I got addicted to buying those packs of chocolate frozen fruits. So I just make it now. I put it up on Instagram the other day and I just add dark chocolate to frozen fruit. Oh, it's just so good. It's just so delicious. And I feel let's just, should we just move on to our headlines that matter today? Parliament's done. We've covered all of that. Yes. Okay, perfect. Let's dive right into it. I only had really lowbrow things to say about my week. Like how I started watching. I know. Reno and he's here about this. I was going to tell you I started watching the summer I turned pretty. Oh, I tried. I couldn't get into it. Oh my God, I'm hooked. But I feel like a teenager. I'm like, I'm not sure this is really designed for me. I'm absolutely hooked. And also you were said to watch Bridgeton. I binged those four episodes. It was my favorite Bridgeton so far. And you know, you said you'd finished the night manager the other week. I hadn't seen the last bit. I could not watch that ending. I was absolutely devastated. Oh my God. It was intense. Traumatizing. And

I stayed up to like one in the morning finishing Bridgeton. Oh my God. I was so hooked. And now I'm like on countdown to the 26th of February when the expert comes out. You know I made our Bridgeton avatar things. Yeah, every WhatsApp me yesterday. Picture of us as Bridgeton. It was very complimentary.

I thought so. I quite liked it. Anyway, I told you I only had lowbrow things to say, right, the health headlines that matter what is of importance this week. It's not the summer I termed pretty or Bridgeton. It is, in fact, how to stay focus when you're constantly distracted. Our ability to concentrate is declining, and here is what we can do to sharpen our brains. That's it.

Ella was looking, and this was in the Times. And I feel like this really called out to you, Ella, because obviously, we know that Ella's doing an amazing job and inspiring us all to kind of cut back on the amount of screen time that we actually embark upon. When it comes to social media, I'm not talking about watching a film or a movie. I mean just scrolling on your phone. So the latest research and reporting shows, essentially, essentially that we are not concentrating at all. The article highlighted how common it is now

to struggle for more than a few minutes at time. We can't even concentrate on one task without thinking, oh, I need to pick up my phone. So this isn't framed as a personal, you know, failing from us. We're all trying our best, but it's a predictable outcome of daily habits like scrolling, multitasking, irregular sleep, all the things that I think all of us Ella are really facing right now that really puts impact on our brain, our memory. It's affecting us. It really is. And do you know what? Just like I think it's really exciting that fibre is becoming a really prevalent topic and we're really talking about the importance of our diet in that sense and that's becoming, yeah, very widespread. It's in lots of places. How much it gets picked up, I guess is the big question.

But it's definitely widely talked about. But I think the same is happening with our tech world. I also feel like when I'm looking for headlines and when I'm reading the news or podcast, there is so much emphasis on this at the moment. There's actually, I will bring more info to it next week. There's actually about to be a very big case against a lot of the social media platforms, you know, meta that was heralded as maybe this is like the tobacco moment. You know, maybe this is, yeah, basically saying you are knowingly inflicting harm on young people. Super interesting.

Anyway, as a result of there being so much conversation around our screens and the impact, they're having. I feel like it's brilliant for cultivating awareness. And I think, as you said, one of the things that to me is so important in all of this is it's the same with our health. Like we live in a very, very difficult as we know food landscape where there's just kind of rubbish essentially available literally everywhere. And eating well means like really making a discerning effort to do something a little bit different to the status quo. And to be honest, technology is not really any different. You know, if you decide to spend much less time on it, that's actually kind of counterculture to some extent. So I just think it's really important to show,

like if you're struggling with your attention, you know, potentially to some extent with your mood, it's really common and it's really normal and it's super affected by these habits. And that's why I quite like these articles because I think it really highlights that there is so much information behind all of this. It's not, you're not doing it wrong because you're struggling to focus. Yeah, and what Ella's just said actually, so it is crucial because what we now know is that irregular sleep patterns reduce the brain's ability to clear metabolic waste overnight and that directly affects our attention and memory the next day. And then if we're consuming more, you know, social media and more content that's going to do more harm, just like drinking alcohol and going above the limits, you know, that interferes of nutrient absorption. So what this is actually doing, it could be impacting our memory, Ella, you know, short term memory being impaired and our concentration and long-term memory. term impact too. So what the article said is that attention is the gateway to memory. And if we don't

fully attend to information, we can't properly store it or retrieve it later. And it makes sense because I still, if I have a lecture or an exam, I like to write things down or read it back to myself for it to be imprinted in my memory, whereas what we're doing today is just absorbing so much rapid scrolling, which fragments our attention and weakens our working memory. We need to set limits on scrolls. We need to set limits on scrolling time. We need short, intentional phone use that's less disruptive than frequent check-in. That's what the evidence says that we have to do to support our health LA. I think they've listed off a lot of things here, which I know we discuss. And do you know, they've shown that even just having your phone nearby, even if it's upside down on the table,

is clinically proven to still be distracting, even if it's phased out, even if it's on silent. And this is what the article talked about in a really interesting way in terms of why. why so many of us then find it hard to really focus is because our brains just aren't meant to switch really rapidly between different tasks. Like check a WhatsApp, write half an email. Do a quick scroll, finish the email. Our brains just aren't meant to jump around like that.

And so, yeah, as I said, if you're struggling to concentrate or feeling a bit scatty, just know that it's not you. You're not alone. I think this is absolutely everybody. and something that could help, you know, learning new skills or challenging yourself to do something different every single day. Even challenge yourself to watch that Bridgeton series without your phone. That is hard.

I mean, just sitting down without it next to you, Ella, that's a challenge. It really is. I'm trying really hard on that at the moment. But I have to say, I feel like I'm enjoying not to be too holier than now, but I do feel like I'm enjoying it more because I get more of the idiosyncrasies of the show, for example, that I, maybe missed before. Okay, so that was brief, but just to, I think, an important reminder, first of all, that this conversation is everywhere, which I think it's inherently really positive. And second of all, that you are not alone.

There's nothing wrong with you. This is completely normal. And just trying to find strategies that support you individually to kind of have a better focus is probably about less green time. You all know me. I'm about adding more in, not cutting things out, no fads, no diets, just evidence. and transparency. And right now in the UK, everyone, 96% of us, that's 96% are not getting enough fibre. It's one of the lowest figures in the world. And I couldn't ignore it. So we've spent

years obsessing over protein and other trends. And I'm delighted to share that after a year in the making, my new book, the fibre formula is available to pre-order. I have answered every question from gut health and energy, cancers and heart disease to AIDS. aging, skin, longevity and even microplastics. Built on over a decade of clinical research, it gives you my fibre formula, 30 grams of fibre a day, 30 different plants a week, 30 twos and 30 minute meals, plus 60 delicious minimally processed recipes to make it doable. I've done the hard work so the protein, fibre and plant points are all laid out for you.

I'm a small fish in a very big murky pond of wellness books And so your pre-orders really do matter and they help my message reach more people. If you head to the link in the show notes or any bookstore or on Amazon where you can get 15% off and a lowest price pre-order guarantee. Headline 2 is where we want to spend a lot of time today.

Yeah, it was World Cancer Day last week and I think that's why there was so many of them, Ella. Yeah, and look, this is actually, it's funny, Rie and I were swapping messages last week when we were looking at the scripts for this week. and the headlines we wanted to cover in the briefs. And you know, Rhee and anyone who's listened to this from the get-go that I haven't had like a huge amount of reservation talking about many things

and the kind of quite opinionated probably. And this was the first thing that I'm like, oh, my God, I'm nervous to talk about this just because we'll get into it. But it is, I don't want to say a watershed moment, but it is one of those moments to think, like, we have got to get rid of these ingredients from our lives. And it's extraordinary. Anyway, Reid, do you want to dive into what's going on here? I want to give a bit of context behind the particular article.

So the article had one of those awful headlines that I actually contributed to this article, but I didn't obviously know. I was asked to say, what food, you know, is linked to cancers. It was World Cancer. And I said, well, we know red and processed meats like we've discussed. You know, I just gave the evidence. And then the article came out and it said seven food swaps that could lower your cancer risk. And this was in the telegraph. Yeah.

So it essentially implies that, you know, if you eat these seven foods, you're basically increasing your risk of cancer every single day. And as with everything, there are underlying elements of truth like we've discussed before to make a headline get this far. But it completely, I feel these articles spread, Thea, like you've said. And we were both very hesitant to discuss it because. I know we both believe our food industry does need to change, but equally, we don't want to fare anyone. So I've got actually, I got a lovely rounded voice note that I'll share in a minute from a registered dietitian called Sophie Medellin, who runs city dietitians. And I feel that she's always very well placed to put kind of a voice of reason on this, but to give you a bit of background, Ella. So essentially, there's a very new and large study from France published in the BMJ that reports that people who consume,

higher amounts of certain food preservatives may face a slightly increased risk of developing cancer. Now, these additives are widely used in industrial processed foods and drinks. They extend the shelf life and early this year, January 2026, these two large studies analyzed data from more than 100,000 adults. Large study, everybody, enrolled in the French Nutrienet Sante study using detailed dietary and health information. It was collected between 2009 to 2023. It's quite a long space of time. And the findings were published in nature, communications and the BMJ. And they examined the associations, Ella, between the preservative intake and then the risk, the risk, I'll highlight that word, of cancer and type 2 diabetes.

Yeah. And look, it's a really interesting study. And I think, as we always says, this is not a moment to panic about, you know, one-time consumption of anything. But this is about dietary patterns. And I think what we've had up until this point, generally speaking, is research on, UPS as a whole, whether, you know, our huge increase in consumption of UPS is problematic in terms of various different disease risks. What this did, which is quite different, is that instead of analyzing UPS as a single category,

they looked at 17 different preservatives as individuals. And I think the important thing to say, actually, is reassurance as overall, what they found was preservative intake was not necessarily associated with cancer risk. And 11 of the 17 preservatives showed no link with cancer incidents, but six of the preservatives were associated with the higher incidence of overall cancer, including breast and prostate cancer. And I think that to me is really interesting because this is so important. We've talked so much on this show, and I know there's so much about this, that the kind of broad brush of UPFs can be problematic where you're labelling absolutely any UPF as one thing in terms of, you know, don't eat any of them.

And it's like, no, there is a continuum here. And the more information we can get, the better we can regulate the food industry, the better we can make food choices. We don't need to be really fearful of everything. But it's good to have this knowledge. And do more studies now on those six that have been found. Exactly. And what could we replace them with in the food industry? What's really going on with those six?

So, yeah, 11 of the 17 preservatives, just to be clear, not shown to link to cancer incidents. Six of them were. And those included potassium sorbate, potassium metabisulfite, sodium nitrite, potassium nitrate, acetic acid and sodium ethrothrobate. How do you say that one, Ray? Aretha bait, I think. And so unsurprisingly, the authors of this study are suggesting these findings warrant a re-evaluation of regulation when it comes to using these additives obviously as rey said it also prompts a need for

much more investigation into these six in particular for anyone listening that feels worried and look this is why i was messaging reed last week the more i read about these studies the more i read what the authors were saying it's hard not to feel fearful like it is you know because these are in super common things like ketchup kids foods ella you know and as i said just to be super clear this is not about having a really nourishing diet. And then on occasion, you know, at a party, you enjoy those foods. It's just not about that. It's about really the regular consumption of this combined with the low intake of the foods that we know are so important for our health.

Just so you know, the sodium nitrite and potassium nitrate, those are widely used in cured and processed meat. Potassium sorbate is found in foods like sometimes cheese or yogurt, wine, fruit juices, baked goods. Potassium metabise. sulfite is commonly used in alcoholic drinks and some dried fruit. Acetic acid is present in pickled vegetables, sauces and dressings, and sodium. And I'm going to need you to say, again, erythabate. Yeah, can be used in processed poultry and cured meats.

Now, that doesn't mean that all of those foods always contain these ingredients. That's just the more commonplace that you would find them. And they also increase risk of type 2 diabetes just to add as well. And that was in a study, a companion study in nature communications. So it's just important to note that compared with the lower levels of consumption, the risk was 47% higher for total preservatives, 49% higher for non- antioxidant preservatives and 40% higher for antioxidant additive. So what I'm essentially saying is of the 17 preservatives analyzed that the 12 were associated also with increased diabetes risk. And we're not talking low number increases.

We're talking nearly half, you know, 50% increases in most ways. And of course, when you've got a chronic condition like type 2, diabetes, other areas of your body are also impacted too. And, you know, several of the preservatives that were linked to high risk are already known from experimental studies to play a role as well negatively with our immune system, our inflammatory responses, our metabolic pathways, even I think damage with DNA. And it's long-term exposure and its cumulative effect of having these preservatives. And it's kind of in a very balanced way. Like I know Sophie Medlin gives us a lovely overview and her contribution today as well. But we don't want to fear here. We're just saying, please do better food industry.

Please. The thing is, Ella, they need the data too. They need these studies. We need these studies to be able to do change. Yeah, look, it's interesting. Someone I know is talking to someone else in the food industry. And they were saying, we just don't think UPFs are going to be a topic in a few years. years. You know, we think this is going to all wash over. I know it's shocking. But there we go.

Let's go with that. For now, that was the conversation. And it's interesting, though, because their point is like, it's just not proven enough. I don't think we have enough evidence. You know, how do you change a whole system where it's just early stage, not speculation, but it's... But it is early stage discovery. Totally. And, you know, it's, I don't want to say it's valid, but it's an excuse not to change products, but it's, but it's an excuse not to change products, but it's, but it's, in that incident. But it's also fair enough to the extent that like actually changing things is a multi-million pound or dollar project oftentimes. You know, consumers might not like the end product. It requires sometimes years of development, huge packaging changes when you're talking about

things that are selling hundreds of millions of units, billions, even in some cases. Like, that's not a small thing to do. And I think it is important to emphasize that. How many loaves of bread? We sell a week I learned at Parliament. nine million loaves of bread a week, warbott and sell. Yeah, which means it's tens of millions in total. And then you think of the big global brands on the long-shelf life products

that they make fizzy drinks and things like that. Anyways, so I think I'm not defending that facet of the food industry, but I think it's just important to say that it's fair as an argument to say we need concrete evidence that we shouldn't use these ingredients in order to undertake a multi-million dollar project to reformulate. I actually think that's fair. And the science links are still being discovered. So there's some suggestions of what we think perhaps are playing a role here with poor health. And of course, we know about the gut microbiome impact potentially. That may also be what's

happening. The preservatives are antimicrobials. So while they do prevent the food spoilage, it does potentially disrupt gut bacteria. I know that's being discussed a lot at the moment in nutrition science. Another hypothesis here focuses on cellular stress and DNA damage that when we have high intakes of these preservatives, potentially, you know, it's playing a role of stress on our cells. And then, of course, chronic low-grade inflammation, are we responding to these in our body as foreign bodies? And are we having teeny tiny inflammatory responses to over a long time period of consuming these foods? I think I watched the space with the science. I think it's really, really interesting. A final note on this is just to kind of remind yourself, and this isn't about things

we consume on occasion. As we pointed out on the type 2 diabetes, but the problem is it's continued kind of mass consumption. So please don't worry about these things on occasion. But I think it is another moment to say, look, we're still learning a lot about the repercussions of the speed of which our food system has changed over the last few decades. But what we do know is that we desperately need to eat more whole foods. We do. And so just, oh, you know, that positive nutrition that we always talks about, come back to that, like add in, add in, add in, make that diversity jar, sprinkle your seeds on a butnut squash soup,

you know, make a chickpeak curry because we know this stuff is really, really good. We do. And just to give you a little quick outline of what was in the Telegraph article, you know, I think I said swap process meats for different types of protein, you know, beans, pulses, you know, try and limit the sausages, the bacon, the things that we know, the salami in the packs that we know probably aren't the best options. Cordials are an interesting one and long life squash because often they do have those added extras. There are a few brands now though, but they cost a lot more, don't they? So again, we've got cost of living crisis versus making healthy swaps, which I think is quite difficult for people to do.

So, Ellie, you know, at home people can add fruit to water and then perhaps use leftover mushy bits at the bottom. in a recipe. I mean... Well, and we had that great recommendation the other day to buy some, for example, like the fruit teas. And you could add a bit of honey to it, for example, and actually make those to do like a big infusion. And the whole box of tea bags is like 95p or something. So you can make loads.

Salad dressings, making your own. I think I know in all of Ella's books and mine, we've got recipe alternatives to buying your, you know, common things because they're the ones that contain the acetic acid that we've discussed earlier. So swap for lemon or lime juice-based dressings, for instance. Another good swap in here was, now I'm on the fence with some brands of pasta sauces. Like you've got an amazing one at plants.

I don't think they're all bad. No, it's interesting. That was one the telegraph ones was to swap out jarred pasta sauces. I actually think for the most part now, when you look at back of pack on tomato sauce, because actually the tomato sauce industry came under fire. Yeah. But that was actually for sugar content.

But they did. there's been a massive amount of reformulation with jars of tomato sauce. So check back of fact, but I think all supermarkets sell a smorgasbord of actually pretty high quality ingredient. And I think sweets is like a no-brainer. I think when we eat sweets, we know they're not good for us. Like you said last week, they can say organic or anything. And there are cleaner deck sweets than others, of course. And it might be worth swapping to those.

But, you know, I think we know that sweets shouldn't be an everyday item. I mean, I have dark chocolate every day, but I have jelly sweets every day. I have chocolate every day. Yeah. And this is not a preservatives and additives, the darker you go most of the time. This was controversial crumpets. Popular item for so many people. You can buy other options now on Akado.

I get these amazing crumpets. I think they're M&S ones. You can definitely swap for like artisan or sourdough crumpets these days, Ella. Yeah. And then pretty unsurprising, but again, some like supermarket, ultra-process breads and things like that. again, sometimes to contain this ingredients, but that is changing and I think there's infinitely better options on our shelf. So I don't know. I think the article was sort of helpful for pointing people to the fact that this study has come out and we should have an awareness of it. I think

that's right from a kind of public health education perspective. But I've actually not convinced all the swaps were necessarily that help because it's so nuanced. Like to your point, like not all past resources contain X, Y, or Z. So I think it's just ultimately it's the simplicity, isn't it? I always say it's like if something, you could make it at home and it's got an ingredient list that you could just make with things that are in your cupboard, don't worry about it. If there's loads of things on the ingredient list, you're like, what on earth is that? It's probably a moment to say, I'm not going to have loads and loads of this on a day-to-day basis. 100%. So I think it's a really good discussion to have and good to have some extra insight. So if we do

Sophie, let's hand over to you for your view on it as well as a dietitian from city dietitian. I think my main takeaway from this article is that the title is very poorly chosen because it just causes so much additional stress to people, especially those whose lives have been touched by cancer already. We know that stress in the law itself is a risk for cancer development. So unfortunately, these types of articles stress and worry those who are already trying to be careful with their diet. And then also disadvantage those who are unable to make healthier food choices because of budget constraints and lifestyle problems that are socio-economic as opposed to through choice. It doesn't help anybody in the end, this type of article, but it just causes additional worry and stress, which isn't helpful. So I do think there are some aspects of this article, which we can

take away as useful bits of information. For example, perhaps understanding that some of the common foods we consume actually are ultra-processed or processed or contained ingredients that would put them into that category. I do believe that all of us being more aware of which foods within our diet are ultra-processed is helpful for us to generally try and steer away from them a little bit more and not include them on a regular basis. What we worry about as nutritional scientists, far more than individual ingredients or individual foods, is overall dietary patterns. And we know that those who, when we look at the research on ultra-processed foods, we know that even those with the lowest risk of poor health outcomes still consume some ultra-process foods. So nobody needs to worry about eliminating them

altogether or being too paranoid about ultra-process foods. What we do want people to be thinking about is what the overall dietary quality of their diet is and whether there are small ways that they can gradually start to improve that to reduce their health risks overall, not just cancer risk, but overall health risks. So I think we need to be aware that actually if we are drinking only squash, if we're eating jelly sweets, if we're eating jelly sweets, if we're are having processed pasta sauces and having processed bread products and bakery products, then yes, our overall dietary pattern is less positive for our overall health. But I don't think that everybody checking labels and scrutinising everything that is

ultimately going to lead us to having less cancer as a population overall. What I think is going to help with that is less fear, less worry and more focus on overall dietary patterns and our health as a whole, including our mental health and socioeconomic health, for that matter. And it's a really easy trap to fall into as healthcare professionals who are asked to quote for these kinds of articles. And often the journalists who have asked us for quotes, they don't know what the final title of the article is going to be themselves. It might be that it starts off as being something that's much more measured and ends up going through editorial teams who want to grab headlines and make things sensationalists.

so that more people reach out to read them. So I think my overall message is that it's easy to get quoted in these kinds of articles that end up being something that we never imagine they would be when we did the quote for them. But that there is still some useful takeaways in this article that we can help us to consider things and think about the foods that we consume on a daily basis. But we don't need to be fixating and worrying that a bit of squash or a crumpet is going to cause to have cancer because that's certainly not the case. And this article in some ways makes us or tries to make people believe that that is the case.

Okay, so thank you so much. I think really important. Now we move on to a positive headline because we saw a lot of demonisation of oats over the past few years thanks to certain glucose trends. But finally, we have the good oats guide, Ella. Lower your cholesterol in two days. Yep, a new study has found that oats are more of a superfood than we thought. Okay, so this study is actually quite interesting because this came out.

in January as well. And it basically found that participants at high risk of heart disease saw their LDL, their not so good cholesterol, fall by around 10% in just two days. Now, bear with me on this one. It was after following a very calorie-restricted oat heavy diet. Basically, they were just eating oats all day. And so obviously, you know, we haven't dwelt too much on that study because obviously that is not an approach that's representative of real-life eating habits. But I think it's interesting as a headline, just as a jumping off board, to what really said about people being confused about whether they can eat oats or not now. Because I think what it demonstrates is actually that oats are a real superfood

and they really have things. One of the benefits being they do have this cholesterol lowering effect. And interesting on that study, the cholesterol lowering effect was still detectable six weeks later. I love it. And it's what we've been discussing for decades in the nutrition industry. It's beta glucon and lots of you may have heard of that component. Which is in oats. It's type of fibre in oats. It's amazing. And I just think oats should be celebrated. Porridge has been misunderstood.

And for heart health, if you look at any heart charity in the UK and you go to your GP clinic, most doctors, unless they've been brainwashed by the glucose movement online, which I hope is quite rare or very, very rare, will tell you that oats are a wonderful way for type 2 diabetes as well as heart disease to mitigate risk. So, you know, let's try and up our oat intake every day, Ella, and mix it up. You can do overnight oats, porridge, so many different. ways to get them in smoothies. Pop them in your smoothies to make a balanced kind of breakfast dish. 100%. Yeah, there was another systematic review showed that consuming around 3 to 3.5 grams of

oat beta gluten a day, so the equivalent you'd get from like one bowl of porridge, lower's, again, your not so good LDL cholesterol over three to 12 weeks, which is obviously a key factor in reducing cardiovascular disease. So, oats are so great. I make little pancakes for the kids with oats and peanut butter and things like that in. Do you know what I do with leftover? Because sometimes you make a porridge bowl, you either can't finish it all or the kids are bit fussy. So actually in the book, I've put the one coming up in March, the leftover porridge. Porridge pancakes. I used to bake them for the kids into, I had like mini silicon muffin, like the little baby muffin trays and then I would bake my leftovers. Yeah. I had a bit more peanut butter into it just to thicken it up and then

bake it. When the kids were little, it was such a good to know. Yeah. And that you could do it again. know, it's such a good way to reduce waste because, you know, putting porridge in the bin once it's in a bowl is just grim. So yeah, mix it up again. I'd give it a bit more life. Give it another lease of life. Nice. And Re, give us another four or five facts about why are evidence-based health benefits of oats. Okay, so obviously I'm going to talk about the fibre because it slows the digestion. And there's a lot of fear mongering about glucose spikes. You know, if you eat an apple, it's going to spike glucose. It's not true. Same with oats because they contain fiber. What I would say is the quality of the quality of the of the oat does dictate how fast the glucose is released into your bloodstream. So whether they're

rolled oats that take a bit longer to break down the structure of the cell wall, or they've already been kind of finely ground down into finer oats that cook very quickly on the hob. Both are good for you. Both contain beta-glucin. However, you might get a tiny bit more and it might impact your blood sugars in a healthier way to have the rolled oats. So Ella's tip, soak them night before. Yeah, it makes all the difference. there for that one. Around three grams of beta glucaum that we've actually known for years is associated with lower LDL

cholesterol. That's good for our heart health. Remember they don't contain saturated fat plants in general don't contain the component of our diets that contributes to heart disease and that is saturated fat that furries up our arteries over a long period of time. Of course, really good for our gut health

as well. They act as a prebiotics of the food for our gut bugs. They want to eat all those oats and then they give off these amazing properties and short chain fatty acids. that help play a role protecting the lining of our gut and in other various symphyses in the bodies. They act as micronutrients. They provide B vitamins. A lot of people don't realize that plants contain not just vitamin C.

You know, fibres are the same. Carbs are the same. They contain magnesium, zinc, iron. I wouldn't look at oats as a source of iron because it's small and plant, but does contain tiny doses. Try and look at them more for B vitamins, I think. and B vitamins are involved in our energy productions a lot of the time as well. So it can help us fill energised.

And of course, looking at overall better metabolic health. So there's loads, Ella. I think oats are absolute powerhouses. It's funny that they're demonised. And yet they're great for satiety, really, really great for kind of long-term energy. B vitamins, again, energy support. But it's how you make them. I really don't want to see people just add water to oats and then honey.

because essentially then that is just sugar. No, exactly. You want some like full fat milk or yoga of some kind, exactly, or some nut butters, some berries, your diversity mix. Yes, and you can do the sweet as sweet version. Like if you roast that tray of nuts and seeds with a sprinkle of cinnamon and a little bit of just like a drop of honey or maple, you don't need loads. But actually that kind of a little sweet nugget in it,

super good on porridge. So yummy. And everybody, it moves us on in a very lovely way to what is trending today in wellness. So we've had lots of questions on, seen so much about fermented foods. And we also thought after that pretty heavy element in the episode about the preservatives, we wanted to end on something that will inspire you in terms of, again, that positive nutrition, very science-backed. Re, tell us about ferment and why it's a brilliant trend. It's really cool. And we had Professor Tim Specter on before, you know, discussing this if anyone remembers. And one of the big takeaways was how important it is to try and get some in our diet. And I remember saying to Ella, well, you know, I'm not a huge sauerkraut fan.

I am. I need to think of ways. I'm good with my kephyr. But Tim's research is data, basically, from the Zoe predict studies that show that people who regularly eat fermented foods do often tend to have greater gut microbiome diversities. We know that the bugs love these probiotics. but the bacteria that comes with infamented foods. They really thrive off growing a better gut garden. And that in turn can help lower levels of inflammation when we've got a healthy gut. And then the ferments also improve our metabolic health markers, Ella.

So including blood sugar response. So maybe on our porridge bowl, we need to pop some kaffir. I love that. I've been making, I think I said the other day, actually, the kids were breakfast in the mornings, these kaffir smoothies. and it's so, I mean, they obviously do not know what they're drinking, but they love them. They like chug them down and as it's so satisfying.

I do it as school pick up snacks, movies of khefer. It's amazing. It's such a great way to get, because they are, I mean, they are never going to eat sourcrout or kimchi, for example. Like I'm just not going to be able to get them to eat other fermented popular foods, but that they have. And I'll do like banana, all sorts of berries, peanut butter, some hemp, deeds and things like that. Anyway, so they're getting a really nice bucket of goodness. Essentially, by adding these items of food, you're reducing low-grade inflammation, supporting that gut barrier. And that in turn, we know it influences mental health as well, Ella. So there's that huge link

between the gut-brain axis. And what I love is that fermentation, I know having wrote about it, and I'm sure you have too, is that it's just one of the oldest techniques in the book. Thousands of years, we have been fermenting food, but obviously didn't know the benefits. 100% and I think with these trend sections it's really nice of it see to look at it because sometimes we have insanity in here and then with this one like no fermentation eating fermented foods is not a trend in that sense it is actually so so good for us it's something we should all be trying to do more of in terms of kind of popular things you could be eating really nice to know miso is a fermented food and I think miso is one of the easiest fermented foods to be eating because you can pop it like

even in a soup I'll add miso in just to have a bit more depth. Absolutely delicious. I made a miso butter bean dip the other day. It's so good. Can I ask a question about miso for people listening? Because I think it is a fairly unheard of ingredient unless you're in Asian culture. I don't think it's popular here and I don't think it's very known. Do you opt for the white one or do you go for a brown one? Because there's different types. I use both in different things. The white one is technically sweeter, a little bit lighter as a flavor. That's the one I think I really enjoy the white one. But they're

both delicious and you can use either. Like I'll do for example like a miso marinade on tofu so fry the tofu till it's really really crispy I think you always need way more oil than you think so it'd be pretty generous. Fry it for like 10 minutes so it's really crispy and golden on the outside

and then you can just whip up a marinade do soy sauce like maybe two tablespoons of soy sauce a generous teaspoon of miso and then a tablespoon of maple syrup, squeeze of lime, and then put that in, it will spit all over you the pan, so take a step back. But then just let that cook for a minute or two and delicious miso tofu.

But as I said, if you make like a soup for lunch today, right, you're just roasting some odds and ends while you're working at home. And it's nice, but it's missing a bit of flavour. Teaspoon of miso in there, it doesn't matter if it's white or brown. It will just give it more depth. So miso is such a nice amount of food to add in. And don't forget the four, K's. I remember it as the 4Ks like Kim said. So there you said kombucha Ella.

Combucha. kombucha, keffit, kimchi. And what was the 4k? Kimchi? And Khrush and Krami, wasn't it? Oh, Krout. Okay, there we go. That's very clever. That's just an easy way to remember it, although we just failed there. But I love that. And then also Tempe as well. I love Tempe. Yeah. So lots of different things you can have in. But as Re said, this has been an ancient tradition. And important to know, it is. so, so good for you and like I think it's impossible to over-emphasise how important it is to look after our gut health. It's so important. Femented foods are just absolutely phenomenal for that. So good. What you're doing, just to give you a little roundup before we close the episode, is that during the process, those microorganisms such as the bacteria, yeast or fungi,

which I know sounds scary. You're like, well, I don't want any of that. But honestly, in our food, there's lots of little living microorganisms and that's where we have best before dates and products. But in this instance, they convert into sugars and starches into acids or alcohol. And then those act as the preservatives. So while also changing the flavor of the food, you know, it becomes fizzy in kombucha or the texture of the food changes. It's also, you know, fermenting and tangy, salty, sour. And that's just wondrous for our gut bugs. They love all of these different types of organisms that are entering our body. And in an ultra-process world where we are not consuming any microorganisms like that because we kill them all off. Right, you so because we don't

want to get sick. But there is a way of consuming them that's safe and that is fermented foods. So I love the science behind this. I think they're also fun to try in your diet. They really are. I totally agree. And I think that's all we've got for today, guys. So thank you for listening. I am so interested to hear your thoughts and feedback on today's episode, kind of how you feel about that topic on preservatives and the impact they're having. Just very, very curious to get your read on it. So please let us know. And otherwise, thank you for listening.

We will be back as always on Thursday. Yep, we will be there. We cannot wait. Now, we've actually got so many incredible listener questions coming up this Thursday as well to cover for you from Savory versus Sweet Breakfast to Celebrity Supplements. I said we're going to go there. Apple cider vinegar shot, Zeller. we've got lots we have got lots so we will see you on thursday and as always remember if you've

got questions queries things you want us to talk about hello at wellness hyphen scoop dot com i think we've had like 500 emails in the last week so thank you guys keep them coming