The Wellness Scoop - Stress Eating, Sugar Substitutes & Fixing Your Gut

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

Why do we reach for sweet food when we’re stressed? Are zero-sugar sweeteners actually better for our health? And can digestive enzymes really help if dairy doesn’t agree with you? This week, we unpack stress eating in busy seasons of life, the science behind low and zero-sugar substitutes like stevia and monk fruit, and whether digestive enzymes can support lactose intolerance. We also dive into fibre targets, plant counting and how to make small, practical shifts to improve your health in ways that work in real life. Send your questions for our weekly Q&A to ⁠[e-mail]⁠. Order your copy of Ella's new book: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Quick Wins: Healthy Cooking for Busy Lives⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Order your copy of Rhi's book: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Fibre Formula⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Wellness Scoop, your twice weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. And as always, we're here as your host, Simon Mill and Mills. And I'm Rihanna Lambert. And it really is our favourite time of the week because we get to answer questions that you have sent us across the course of the week. So let's dive into them. Before we get into your questions, we have to celebrate. This is episode number 100. Lucky number 100, let's say.

It just is very, very surreal. oh my goodness Ella, I've just seen the stat you've written down here. That's mad. One year, over 6 million downloads and listeners in 150 countries. It's unbelievable. There's no words for it really. Just thank you everybody for being here. And Ella and I are going to be thinking of things we can do. And yeah, it's an exciting time, isn't it? It really is. And I think with anything that you start, roughly a year or so, is a time, I think, that is a good moment to take stock. Is this working? Do we need to pivot massively? Do we need to completely change the course? And it's just really unbelievable and it's certainly way more than I expected a year in to have those stats and have this community here and have you guys listening in the way that you are.

Honestly, we always say it was our favorite time of the week, but like really from a working perspective, this is such a joy for us both. And I think we're both so kind of disillusioned and frustrated by health and wellness, by, again, by that paradox we spoke about on Monday. On the one hand, that our health has never been worse. we've eat fewer vegetables than in any time in the last 50 years, you know, over 50% of our calories or processed food, one in five or us get our five a day, all the rest of it. It's absolute pants. But yet we are absolutely inundated, overwhelmed with information about health and wellness and this disconnect. It feels so problematic to me. And I'm not saying that we will solve the disconnect just through one podcast. But I do hopefully feel like we're creating a space where we can bring you guys

that nuance, that sense of balance of reality that hopefully allows you. you to find a sense of balance in your own life with your own health. 100%. So we are here. Thank you for being here with us. Ella, have you got any recommendations for us this week? Oh, I read. I have read, I've watched quite a lot this week. I read over the weekend this fantastic book by an Irish author called Nesting. Oh my gosh. It's pretty harrowing and hard-hitting. You love a harrowing hard hitting. She's good with harrowing hard hitting. I'm a happy go lucky going out. I feel like I oscillate between rom-coms and harrowing and hard-ditting, but it's absolutely fantastic.

Yeah, it's really amazing. So my little girl kept asking me over the weekend, but does it all turn out right? She's her question about everything. Did they ask you how many pages? Because my kids have been seeing the fourth wing series. I've now finished all three of them. I can't believe there's so many pages.

Proud of you for getting 300 and hundreds of them. Wow, Mommy. And I'm like, yes. Yeah, we're actually really into kind of chapter book era for reading at night with the girls and we're reading Matilda at the moment. I'm actually taking the girls to see the show on the weekend. So I'm very excited about that. But they're always like, how many pages have we read?

And they're so proud of it. So yes, nesting. Absolutely fantastic book. Really recommend. And then we watched a movie called Eternity, which is on Apple TV. It's got Dua Leeper's boyfriend, Callum Turner in. I didn't know that.

He might not like being called Dua Leeper's boyfriend as the first thing, but she's so cool. Let's do it that way. And Elizabeth Olson, who, Mary Kate and Ashley's sister. Anyways, it's really good. It's quite quirky, but just as a slightly different rom-com, lighthearted, cute, feel good, lovely watch.

And I was about to start The House Maid, which you gave me. But I'm home alone for the next few of you guys. Not a good idea. Not the time to watch a thriller. It's definitely not that one. Or read a thriller. No. Can I ask a question?

So I saw this quote from, I just can't remember what he's famous for, Timothy. Shamelow. Yeah. Wow, did he mess up this week? You see the anger on my face. He is an actor. A heartthrob, I don't see it.

He doesn't do it for me. No, me neither. He's in all sorts of troubles all over the headlands. He's probably much younger than us. He's saying that like, is it opera and ballet and all these traditional things that kind of obsolete? He basically critiqued and criticized an entire industry and everyone's kicking. And quite rightly so, because without live theatre and music, the fundamental principle, anyone that's a dancer, one, you start with ballet and then you.

progress your way out. He basically just, yeah, bashed an entire industry. It was really badly done. And that wasn't what I was going to bring up today. I was going to say, I saw the new B documentary trailer on Disney Plus. Oh. And then it's epic. They've got this new footage of bees that you've just never seen before. And they show that bees are so intelligent that they can be trained like a dog to do different things. Oh my God. I love a nature dog. Yes. Yes. So anyway, that's the new dog that I can't wait. It's coming out very, very soon. And then as Ella recommended toast last week, I was, the sun came out. I was so, so happy, and I pan-fried some figs with some honey. And I put them with my blackberries on top of my hummus toast. Because I didn't have time

to make a butter bean dip and I had a jar of hummus. I put some hummus on. I wanted hot honey. And instead, I just, yeah, pan-fried and the tomatoes. And it was really delicious on toast. Also, your pets and your gut. That's what I loved it. They loved that one particularly. I can't say I was great the rest of the week. but we have some great recommendations from everybody else. We do. So Karen says I want to thank you specifically to Riannon for her recommendation. A while ago, I believe, she said to listen to Ludovico.

How do we say this? Iron Audi. Iron Audi. What a legend. The legend is an Italian composer and pianist. She said, I really enjoyed the album, the summer portraits last year, and his new album's solo piano just came out. I love to play the music for my kids.

They're four and a half and two at a certain time in the day for some calmness. and my daughter has recently been taking up piano lessons at home with my husband, so I like having something for her to listen to and point out someone is playing the piano. I wish I could play an audio. That's beautiful. Thank you, Karen. I'm glad you're enjoying it. Okay, and then from Debbie, you guys might remember my mum recommended to re the app Merlin Bird ID.

And we've had the same from Debbie. She said I would really like to mention that app. It records bird noises and then shows you the bird on the app, lovely on a spring day or on a dog walk. I am turning into quite the bird watcher. So I love these guys. This is very wholesome stuff. Okay, so our first question today comes from Katie and Ree.

She has a question for you. She says, overall, my diet is pretty good. However, I am a big stress eater. I have two young kids, a very full-time job, and my workload is increasing significantly for the next few months. And I'm already starting to notice it in my eating habits. I'm still eating well during the day, but then it gets to that tricky time of day

dealing with the kids' dinner and bedtime and all of a sudden, I will attempt to eat anything in sight, usually sweet things. What are your tips for avoiding this? I'm aware of it. I understand the triggers, but I actually just don't know how to stop myself from doing it. That's amazing. You're aware of the triggers, Katie. Thank you for sharing.

It's so common. Food is such an emotional crux for us. I'm such a stress eater. Me too. And I honestly think that it's something that, you know, first of all, don't feel guilty. Because if you've used food to self-sue, it's better than turning to alcohol or it's better than turning to drugs. and it depends how far obviously that relationship goes. But there are lots of things you can do.

The first one in our clinic could be stop delay tactics. So you need to kind of test yourself. Can you stop for five seconds before you reach for the item of food and just remind yourself right now, how am I feeling? Is it a fact that this is true that I believe this right now? Is what I'm going to do actually going to be helpful? And then you can still go ahead and embark upon that, what I would call binge eating evening array.

But then the technique gets longer. You go 10 seconds next time. Can you get up to a minute? Can you do deep breathing instead? And you often find that those feelings might change your behavior. But also when it comes to understanding the buffer that we put in, the planned buffer before the moment arrives, it might be helpful to eat something.

So you're busy. You get back from work. You've got two young kids. You've got bath and bedtime. And we all know how stressful that is. Is there any way you can eat something when you fed your kids or when just before they go to bed? Something filling and satisfying.

Yeah. You need that. I think a pre-planned snack, often I say to people on the way back from their commute, even though you're going to wait till you have dinner, if you are an emotional eater, it's better to have a planned snack in your handbag on the way back on the train or something that you can eat, some nuts, some fibre protein snacks, yogurt, snacks, yogurt, berries, anything, oat cakes, hummus, anything. So you're full. Because if you're full before you get to dinner, you're less likely to overeat it dinner and then snack. And also, maybe those items you're binging on or the ones that you go to replace those with the snack on the train. you'll be amazed because actually you won't be eating the same volume of them on your commute home rather than after you've had dinner when you're on your own. The kids are asleep and you've got that time to so of yourself. So obviously it's a bigger answer than that, Ella. It's hugely psychological. 100%.

I think in that it's really important also. It's so easy to say it but to be kind of compassionate with yourself that this is really normal as well with that level of overwhelm. Stress drives appetite. A hundred percent and you are then at that point much more prone. as you said to want sugary things, when you're feeling that overwhelmed, you're not going to be like, oh my gosh, I'm just craving an apple.

I don't think anybody works like that, although obviously for some people when they're really stressed, they don't want to eat anything. But that late afternoon evening window is one of the most kind of biologically vulnerable times for stress eating. So again, it's really quite normal.

And you've got to remember by that point in the day, especially with everything you're juggling, it sounds like, you know, your brain is going to be mentally fatigue. Your stress hormone sounds like they're probably quite elevated. You're kind of holding it together. And your body's looking for that quick source of energy,

which is why sweet foods are really hard to resist. 100%. So a bit of planning, a bit of sensible planning and try the stop delayed technique. But ultimately, you're not alone. And what you're doing is very normal just so you're aware. But let's not let it continue to a point where you're really getting you down. I think that's a way of looking at it. Okay, we actually have had, and when I said you're not alone there, Katie,

we have had so many questions about stress eating. So we thought we'd do another one to. as well. But this is a bit more focused on kind of listening to your body and how to do that when you've got a lot of structure and you're trying to build in those good routines, which I think is a very interesting question. So, Rie, will you talk us through it? Shea has said, hi, Ella and Rie. I'm a huge fan of the Wellness Scoop and have been a listener of Ella's podcast for a few years now. I cannot thank you both enough. You've inspired me to go plant-based and help me to realize that I actually really enjoy cooking. I love that.

How cool is that? That is such a win. It's amazing. It was just how. It was just handling raw meat that I really didn't like and has turned cooking from something that I dread to do as something I actually look forward to. So her question is about stress eating. A few years ago, I successfully lost weight by working out consistently eating intuitively, not restrictively, she's added in brackets. And by just learning to pay attention to my body's hunger cues, since then, a few things have changed and I found myself regularly, you know, stressed out, fast-paced job, and it's led to me stress eating again. To accommodate my business, schedule, I'm also meal prepping and freezing meals more, which sometimes makes it difficult to

eat based on my actual hunger levels since things are already pre-portioned. Do either of you have any tips on how to get back to intuitive eating and dealing with stress eating? Thank you all for what you both do and it's being such a bright spot on my Monday and Thursday mornings. I thought this was such a great question, Shea, and something that actually I certainly have noticed in my life sometimes when I've kind of planned out the week and I'm like, we're going to have this for supper, but then actually X, Y, Z has happened and I'm not that hungry or whatever. And I think when you're really busy, that intuitive eating and listening to your body, instead of ticking off kind of checklists, can actually be really, really difficult.

So I totally, totally understand what you're talking about and trying to find those hunger cues. It's actually really challenging when you're really busy and really stressed. Yeah, 100%. intuitive eating I actually do Give us the definition of intuitive eating because I think that all gets a bit lost and confusing as well So it's from a movement called Health at Every Size

and it was invented It's created by two dietitians actually as a way of looking at disordered eating patterns and improving relationships of food and it can be really effective because it's saying no to food rules that we don't realize maybe there long term so it's got some really lovely principles

that we kind of often combine intuitive eating in the clinic and it depends on the patient or the individual as to whether it's a good approach and not on how disordered their relationship with food is because you can't do intuitive eating and lose weight at the same time. So they just don't go together at all. Intuitive eating is about saying no to the diet police,

no to diet culture, no to tick boxes. Yeah, no to health optimization goals even. Intuitive eating really is just about being able to have food freedom allow yourself to eat when you want what you want in a lovely nourishing way. So actually, while trying to lose weight, which does require some diet calculation, it's not a good marriage made in heaven at all.

It's the complete opposite. So I would actually say it doesn't sound like intuitive eating is the best approach when you're very busy and stressed. I totally agree because not to be depressing, but I think it's really difficult to get core hunger cues when you're really, really busy. I think it's... You need to plan more.

Unless you're actually really, really hungry. Like you have done. You know, she's planned her meals. You're doing everything correctly there. And intuitive eating will come again when your life calms down again. And you can take still some principles from it and adapt it to your day. But I wouldn't be annoyed of yourself and not being able to fully eat it in that way at a time in your life when life is just busy. Yeah.

And I think we're just all prone to put too much pressure on ourselves. And it sounds like actually you're doing a great job. I think so. Just gently releasing the pressure valve would help you a lot. And maybe I know I always talk about it, but just having a few simple stress to management tools in there, something that works for you. Is it a walk?

Is a bit of mindfulness? Is it a little bit of meditation or breathing or coloring or knitting or running or swimming or any of the above? But something that allows you to connect with yourself again because actually when we're in our heads and we're rushing around, we're overstimulated little things that let us kind of settle back into ourselves. And as I said, it could be a run as much as it could be five minutes of breathing. Could even be lying on the sofa and giving yourself five minutes.

Yeah. There's so much. Have a bath. No stimulation to stare out the window or at the ceiling or at the water and just let yourself be still for a minute. And I think we are. We're bad at self-care. Yeah. And we're bad at being connected to ourselves.

Yeah. And wellness as a result can then sometimes feel like a tick box. And I certainly, that's what I notice in myself. sometimes that I'm so busy that I'm like, right, I've got to have some beans today, must make beans for supper, as opposed to being like, what do I really fancy? Marvel Television's Wonder Man, an eight episode series, now streaming on Disney Plus. A superhero remake, not exactly what we'd expect from an Oscar winning director. Action!

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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 purchase. I have answered every question from gut health and energy, cancers and heart disease to aging skin longevity and even microplastics.

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The next question we have is from Sam Norris. Hi, guys. I had a quick question on the fiber topic. I've been counting my plants each week to make sure I've had at least 30, but I'm finding it more difficult to count how much fibre. Yeah. I'm eating as I'm trying to aim for 30 grams per day, but is there any way to actually calculate how much fiber I eat in a day?

Or is it just meant to be roughly 30 grams? She says, thanks so much for the podcast. I'm studying nutrition science at A level, and you really help me learn more about the topics we cover as well as reinforcing good habits for my personal health. I love that. I love that. And good luck with the A level, Sam.

And, Rie, you might look at me like I've got three heads when I say this. But I was thinking about this for my kids the other day and just like getting a rough steer of kind of their diets and, you know, the amount of fibre they're eating. And I actually put into chat GPT. Obviously, it's not completely accurate. Like we always say food diaries aren't completely accurate. I didn't weigh how much they ate or anything. But I was like, okay, my children have eaten roughly this for the last four days. can you give me the breakdown, again, roughly of protein, of fibre, any like obvious nutrient gaps?

We were obviously speaking about that on Monday. You know, does it seem like there's nowhere near enough? Magnesium or iron or calcium, for example, in there? And it's really helpful. Obviously, I'm not suggesting. I don't think it's healthy to be tracking absolutely everything every day unless you've got a medical reason to be doing so. But if you want to get a really like gentle steer on what you're doing, it can be really helpful. Yeah, just putting a meal in, just knowing that porridge with a banana and some nuts can be around 9 grams with some added seeds, I think it's really helpful.

It's really helpful. And as I said, I would never just kind of like weigh what they're eating and put it all in there or anything. But it's actually, if you want to get a really general sense of your diet and how it shapes out and whether or not, you know, yeah, you've got nowhere near enough calcium or nowhere near enough iron or whatever it is or fiber. Yeah. It's really helpful. And actually if you want to look at it more, obviously in the fiber formula, I've got a. every food's amount of fiber under the sun in it. And you can add it all up? Yeah, and you can add it all up.

But it is a really good question because also you don't need to hit 30 every single day. It's just like a target. It's just a nice thing to do. And I think you'd surprise yourself if you did add it up. I actually have to say, I think if you're eating a plant first diet, where not solely vegetarian or anything, but you're eating lots of plants in your meals. Yeah, you'll probably surpass it very, very easily. It adds up really quickly.

Toast I mentioned at the beginning with my figs, berries and tomatoes, that's probably around eight, nine grams of fibre. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I often make, as you guys probably know by now, like a simple tuna pudding or something. And that's got half your amount of fibre. And it's so, so easy. So I think if you've got a plant-rich diet, you're probably doing it naturally. I love that you're looking at plant diversity because I think that's actually more important. Sometimes the diversity, rather than worrying too much about overall quantity unless obviously you know you are not getting. enough. Lovely question. Thank you so much and good luck. Question number four is from Regina. I have a question about some natural low or zero sugar substitutes that are widely available in the market right now. There's stavia, monk fruit sweetener, chickory syrup, etc. I've seen some articles about how these

sweeteners might mess with our sugar cravings and blood sugar levels as it's, you know, sending confusing signals to the brain. Do you guys mind elaborating on that or clarify the misconceptions? If we had to pick, is it still better to use other natural sweeteners like maple syrup, date syrup and honey? Is there any low zero sugar sweetener that you can actually recommend? I'd love to hear your suggestions and I can't wait for your next episode. Love you guys. Thank you for being on this wellness journey with us. How nice.

Look, the interesting thing is, and they're all different and there's different things to say about all of them individually, but the WHO, the World Health Organization, advises against non-sugar sweeteners. weight loss for weight control or to reduce the risk of non-communicable diseases. So that's things like diabetes. Exactly. And so their 2023 guidelines indicate that long-term use of sweetness does not provide significant benefits in terms of reducing body fat in adults or children. And may, and I say may, have potential undesirable effects such as increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease. And it then says mortality in adults on their website.

but that's obviously much more complicated nuance and a teeny bit of stevia and something. So you've got a question why use it? Exactly. Because... They were invented for weight loss. Yes, and they don't work for that reason. And so ultimately, we obviously want to have a kind of general, and I mean day-to-day, I don't mean on a birthday level of kind of balanced consumption of sugar.

Like you don't want to just eat cake, obviously, for every single meal. Oh, I don't think that's groundbreaking. But my general view of these things is like if you're going to have cake, and obviously I'm not talking about if you've got diabetes or a reason to be looking very specifically at sugar and talking for a normal, healthy adult. I would just say like have the most delicious cake that you can have that suits you, whatever your preference or dietary requirements are. I just think that it's a bit of a kind of, it's almost like a cond, a sweetener industry, I think, in so many ways. because I don't know, often I think it's not going to cut it. These diet foods are quite unsatisfying. And we talked about stress eating and binge eating.

I think when you're consistently unsatisfied by something, you're probably much more likely to feel a need to then want to overconsume something that feels restricted to you. And that might not be relevant to you specifically. But I think as a general rule of them, that's often the case. I think the only area, just to be devil's advocate, that I think sweeteners may play a role in is a tooth decay, of course. when you're looking at beverages and consumption of drinks

and reducing sugar in drinks and replacing with sweeteners. But we really just want to reduce consumption of those drinks. We do, we do. But you've got to look at... I mean, this is, again, I'll speak into a colleague the other day, Dr. Zoe Williams, about the use of sweetness and children's drinks that might be coming in and all sorts of different things and how we felt about it, you know, ethically,

but also the situation with the huge rates of sugar consumption in children's diets today. So to cover it, nutritionally speaking, there's so many different types and occasional uses of sweeteners are not harmful, but they just don't feed your gut bugs. Try and remember that food is meant to be food and these sweeteners don't offer any benefit at all to you. They're nutrient devoid if you look at it that way. But, you know, stavia is natural. It's derived from the stavia plant. It contains compounds called stavial glycosides and that provides the sweetness without the calories.

And it's so sweet. It's like 10 times sweeter than on your tongue as a molecule. And it makes no sense, though, because you're using it to be zero calorie and not to raise blood glucose levels. So for people with diabetes, perhaps if you are living with type 2 diabetes, that might be helpful for you to have a chocolate made with that for a milk chocolate instead. But my opinion would be trying to go for more dark chocolate because then you've got less sugar anyway. And then that's also going to give you fibre. So we've got to look at it on a whole level of different reasons of why you'd have it. And then the other thing is you'll see things like erythritol use for your.

example, that's quite common at the moment. Things then also like chikare root as well. I don't like arithetol. It's got really bad effects on your gut. That's what I was going to say as well is that these can really mess with your tummy and digestive discomfort. And again, I'm not sure it's worth it in that sense. Because chikery root syrups use a lot in the food industry at the moment because you can

make some granola and things. Claims about gut health and fibre and things like that. And so it's becoming increasing. popular in the food industry. But it's a Fodmap, it'll cause bloating. But it makes, and IBS is so common. Actually, it makes my tummy a bit funky. Yeah, and remember sugar's still sugar.

So equally, you know, if you're going for maple syrup or honey, it's still sugar. And it is going to impact your blood glucose. So ultimately, I prefer to just enjoy sugar and know how much I'm having than the not for sweeteners. But like I said, many scenarios where they may have a role still. Of course. Okay. Our fifth question today comes from Jenna.

She says, what are digestive enzymes and do they help people with lactose intolerance? Since my initial long list of food intolerances in the early 2010s, I've led a relatively healthy lifestyle and managed to reincorporate some of the foods I've previously been unable to tolerate back into my diet, I still really struggle, however, with cows milk products and I'm accepted this will probably be the case forever. But I've seen a lot of content online about digestive enzyme supplements, and it appears that people with the lactose intolerance take the supplement before they're planning to eat dairy. lactose intolerance 60% of the world are lactose intolerant and a digestive enzyme sadly isn't the answer you know if you lack an enzyme you lack an enzyme and remember I use it all the time so it just can't work in the same way there's some small evidence it may be helpful but it's not going to eliminate your issue every time before you eat popping a digestive enzyme then consuming dairy it might ease some discomfort but it's not going to change your biology you know the fact that you can't tolerate a certain food I think what's really important to remember is that the theory behind it makes sense. You've got to remember that, of course, well, if I put in lactase, you know, then it makes sense. Which is the enzyme that breaks down lactose, which is the sugar in dairy products.

Surely common sense would be like, well, I'm just going to take that. And then that would help break down a dairy product. But it doesn't work that way because our body breaks things down in different places, you know, saliva, with glands, stomach, pancreas, small intestine, all enzymes break down into different nutrients. you know, we need all these enzymes. Amelase breaks down carbs, lipase, for fats. When it comes to lactose, like the lactase enzyme, people actually produce lower amounts of the enzyme.

So a supplement taken before just isn't going to help you produce more of that enzyme. It's just going to perhaps ease a bit of discomfort. You can't add the end product to the broken engine, remember everyone? And this analogy is just going to run through nearly every podcast episode. But, you know, if your body isn't apt at producing some enzymes, you can't just add an enzyme in a synthetic form and expect it to replace what your body isn't already doing. So I hope that answers that in a broad way

because it's complicated and I understand their existence. Sometimes we use digestive enzymes in the clinic. I was actually recommended to use one with one of my daughters who really struggled with digestive issues in her first like six months. Yeah. And it definitely was helpful. Yeah, exactly.

The other thing that's interesting there as well with looking at lactose is that you do have some kind of there are now lactose free or much fewer, less reduced lactose, milks available, but also some cheeses, for example, contain very little lactose like parmesan. So it's a bit of a spectrum, isn't it? The harder the cheese, apparently, the less lactose. Interesting. And then we have our final question today. which is a really interesting one and you know we're like all for transparency on this podcast and so we

really wanted to answer it which was I'm interested in your views on simprove as a supplement it's one of the advertisers on the podcast and you mention in that that you've both used it and sometimes recommend it in the retrition clinic as well however haven't heard you mention it or recommend it in some of the episodes when you're talking about adding supplements to our diet from my understanding unless we have a specific medical condition or have been diagnosed with lacking a specific nutrient, the only supplement that's recommended is vitamin D and the rest we should be able to obtain from a well-balanced diet. So I wondered if you could share more about your recommending Simprove as an addition to well-balanced diet and someone without any medical questions. I just

find it all confusing. Of course you find it confusing. Everything's everywhere. Yeah, it's such a great question. So we've got someone to answer it, but just kind of personal experience first. I actually was recommended Simproved, gosh, this is back in 2012. So when I was unwell and I was in hospital and I had loads of digestive issues. I was recommended it initially by a gastroenterologist who was studying it totally separate to the company itself and who was seeing really interesting results. He was a consultant gastroenterologist, as I said. I was then also recommended it a year or two later by a nutritionist, a registered nutritionist that I was working with, and I started taking it then. I did that. I had really, really severe issues with digestive health and bloating. That's why I

started using it. And I think what's interesting is you're right, you don't have to take it as a supplement like we really should and have to take vitamin D in the winter. Because there's no deficiency. It's an enhancement, not replacing a deficiency. Exactly. Well, I guess you could call your gut microbes. You could have a deficiency of good one. Well, you could because most, and this is the bit that to me is the relevant thing, is that most of us are busy and we're struggling to get in our five a day as we know and getting in fermented foods and all these things that we should do for our gut health. And so lots of people just need more support from their gut health, antibiotic use, etc.

or take the bit of a swipe at our microbiome. But again, it's such a, again, a privileged conversation because it costs money to take. Not everyone, you know, you can get more benefits from food any day. Of course. And if you're having your fermented foods and you're getting your 30 plus pounds a week and you're getting your five a day and you're managing your stress, you know, that's phenomenal. And so you may not need it 100%, but not everyone's in that position. No, so we've actually asked to answer this question for you, because I think it's better to have someone, rather than us here explain.

Professor Simon Gaysford, he is from the UCL Faculty of Life Sciences. He's the vice dean there. He has done a lot of research on probiotics. He has. He said, I would say that some of the confusion here is coming from the term supplements. In the context of the question, I think supplement refers to something in the diet that might ordinarily obtain from the diet, so a vitamin or mineral. And vitamin D is mentioned because it's usually low, because we don't see the sun enough.

Of course, we often call Simprover supplement, but the meaning here is slightly different. I don't think people would ordinarily obtain a balanced microbiota from their diet, well, not these days anyway. So what he's referring to here in the context is that Simprove is a supplement taken in a to a balanced diet, but its role is to support and rebalance the gut microbiota. He said, hopefully that makes sense. And if the person asks the question wants some more mechanistic insight, then I would say, in his opinion, that Simprove works because the bacteria, it contains or produce lactic acid

when in the colon, and this has the effect of lowering local pH slightly. The types of bacteria, which should not be in the gut, seem to be killed by low pH. At the same time, the sum of the bacteria, that should be in the gut can use lactic acid as food. And in this way, the pH of the colon is kept in balance. So the bad bacteria numbers are reduced and the good bacteria numbers are enhanced. So I think what Simon explains beautifully, it's just a beneficial addition that could support your gut health nicely.

And I think that, yeah, you're right. Apart from vitamin D, obviously, because we have an issue. It's just nice to look at optimization. But that's definitely what that is. For sure. and we would, I would say as well as vitamin D, B12, if you are mostly plant-based and omega-3, unless you eat lots and lots of oily fish, which not that many of us do. No.

Well, yeah, definitely not. That was a fantastic episode of questions. Of course, episode 100 had to be good. Guys, if you've been listening to all 100, please let us know. Yeah, who are 100, 100 listeners? Yes, we want to know our 100 listeners. Please let us know where you are, where you're listening from. On Apple comments, on Spotify, it would mean the world.

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