The Wellness Scoop - Supercharge Your Diet, The Secret to Happiness & Are Ice Baths Over?

Episode Date: July 27, 2026

Could a few simple food pairings help you get more from every meal? Is the secret to happiness actually giving up the pursuit of being extraordinary? And have we got carried away with the ice bath trend? This week, we explore the science of food synergy and the easy meal combinations that can help your body absorb more nutrients, unpack the philosophy challenging our obsession with constant self-improvement, and take a deep dive into the evidence behind cold plunges. Plus, why beans are having a major moment, England's ban on energy drinks for under-16s, and the growing debate over swapping beef for lentils. For your 30-day free trial of The Way: https://www.thewayapp.com/wellnessscoop Send your questions for our weekly Q&A to ⁠⁠⁠[e-mail]⁠⁠⁠ For more from Rhi and Ella:  Order your copy of Ella's new book: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Quick Wins: Healthy Cooking for Busy Lives⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Order your copy of Rhi's new book: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Fibre Formula⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up to ⁠⁠Rhitrition+⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's just because it has had such a big impact on me. I've meditated on and off for 15 years or so now. But using the way, it's honestly the first time we've become so consistent with this daily practice and I've just seen the most unbelievable results as a result of that. The app is just incredible and what I love is every day you open it and there's a meditation waiting for you so you don't scroll that you don't have to choose between hundreds of options. There's no wondering what to do. It just takes you on a path. Well I think that's why it works so well because you know most of us just don't need more big decisions every day to make Ella. No exactly that. We've got

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it really is a nice intro in for me. Yeah, it is, and I'm so glad. Anyway, it's helped me feel so much calmer, less reactive, more present. It all sounds like huge claims, but I just say, please, please, please try it if you're struggling with stress or overwhelm. You just got to give it a go. And the lovely thing is that everyone listening can definitely try it themselves. Exactly. So you can get a 30-day free trial, so just try it every day for a month. It'll change your life. All you do is head to thewayapp.com forward slash wellness scoop. Yeah, that's thewayapp.com forward slash wellness scoop.

Welcome to the Wellness Scoop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. And as always, we're both here as your host. I'm LMLS. And I'm Riannon Lambert. And after a decade in the wellness industry, we know how overwhelming and confusing health advice can be. And that's why we're both here with our podcast to cut through the noise and make healthier living, simple fun and personal. We've got a great show today. Ree, what are we talking about? Okay, today we have why the pursuit of being.

special could actually be making us less happy than the simple food pairings that can help you absorb more nutrients. And I think we're quite happy to discuss this. The truth about cold plunges whether the science actually stacks up and why beans are booming the new energy drink ban for under 16s and the latest debate over beef versus lentils. I mean, we've got it all, Ella. We have got it all. Also, guys, so cool. I don't know why, but I'm like really obsessive. for tracking this because you know I'm obsessed with the way. The meditation app. I've just hit over 2,000 minutes of meditation over the last few months anyways.

Guys, since we've been working with them, you have done over 83,000 minutes of meditation. That's just in three weeks. That's insane. I mean, I want to work it out per day. That's incredible. Well done, everybody. That's an amazing achievement, to be honest with you. What a fab thing to start your day with or end it with.

I absolutely love it. Anyways, I've got all sorts of random notes in. here like re remind me to talk about a cinema McDonald's ad but before we get a squish mallow oh yeah it was macdonald's time squish mallo i've got thoughts on it i don't even know what squish mallow is okay before i go on a rant and all my all sorts of random notes here i'm going to pass over to you re how are you no i'm good um i got back very late last night from greece um which is actually going to be our last family holidays a family of four which is

very scary what oh my gosh it's not long sorry i don't want freak you out It's actually not that long. I know, I know. And I have to say, it's hot anyway everywhere. But for me being pregnant and I've just hit third trimester, I didn't sit in the sun once the entire holiday. It just felt far too hot. But it was beautiful.

We stayed at this place called Candia Park and the kids had the best time. They went to that the sea is so clear in the Mediterranean still. I really hope it stays that way for a long time. Greece is just beautiful. The food. and longevity has found its way to Greece, Ella. I had to note that for you.

Yes, you said it was like longevity this, longevity that. It was really interesting because I've never done this before. I left the family. This sounds so bad. It doesn't sound bad. I left the kids resort where we were staying, which is beautiful, unperfect everybody, just so you know. But I was offered this incredible chance to visit the adults-only resort down the road.

So I got on a cab by myself. I've never done this before, five minutes down the road. And I went to check out the spa there thinking, do you know what? I'm not going to get this chance again for maybe another six years. Who knows? And everywhere was this hyper-tech. I think it's like called Neo-Longevity at Minas Palace. And they've got these infrared seats where you sit.

Yeah, you've got the Himalayan salt wall, infrared seats that go all the way up your spine on your back that switch on when you sit down. And meditation pod rooms, you'd love this. Ella, where the vibrations of the music and the audio go through the seat. And then it's deadpan silence. They've been made like caves, the rooms. And I was just thinking, Ella would love that room. And it's got like a rainbow circle in front. It was all planned. Even the gym there is built for your brain. So even the cross, imagine a normal cross trainer. I hope I'm describing this well, or treadmill. It's built on like a balance rack. So it tests your balance in different corners of your brain whilst you're using the treadmill.

Wow. Anyway, so I was a gobsmack that they have a whole facility in Greece built to longevity. So longevity is obviously a trend that's definitely here to stay. Honestly, not in my notes would say, but I just feel like everything I read at the moment is about longevity. Like obsessive, obsessive, obsessive. Do you think it's linked to climate change as well? Well, interestingly, what I was reading last night, it was actually an interview with the

founders of a company called Health, you know, H-E-A-L-L. F, like health with an F, yeah. As fast as growing company in Europe, I think Ree has thoughts on it. I can see Bree's face. I can know that Rehe has thoughts on it. Anyways, they sell all sorts of things about wellness. But I was reading an interview with them and about how they started their company. Amazing entrepreneurs, huge respect for that.

But that's interestingly, one of the things the journalists was saying was that in the kind of terrifying nature of the world today, with climate change, with huge kind of geopolitical uncertainty, yeah, war. and obviously huge economic challenge. You know, obviously we're just cycling through prime ministers. You know, there's all these things that used to feel stable, don't feel stable. These things that, you know, maybe our parents or grandparents' generation that felt more plausible, like owning a house, etc.

As all of that kind of moves away, it's almost trying to control the things that we can control, and one of those is health and wellness. And so they're seeing more and more kind of particularly looking at like Jen said, investing, over-investing potentially versus kind of relative to income in their health and wellness because these are things they can control when the rest of the world and these much more macro trends or kind of influences aren't in their control. And I actually think that makes a humongous amount of sense. I completely agree. I think we'll see it from health anxiety rates,

eating disorder rates. I think we'll see it in many different areas of aspects of our lives we can control. But yeah, it is weird, isn't it? I was also in the Cotswolds before we went to by a lake, lakes by you it was called. It was really nice. But again, too hot to even take the children outside to walk when we were having that 36 degree week. And when you feel that even walking is out of your control, it must be completely and utterly overwhelming.

Well, what can I actually do with myself every day? Ella, anyway, I'm on a waffle now. What about the cinema McDonald's in the Squish mallet ad? Because it's just glaring at me on the screen. What is this? Yeah, I like randomly, what's that, Riannon from the... I never call you Riannon. No, you don't.

You've never called me around and it's always really. It's so funny. It was very serious. It was very serious. No, honestly, you guys, we were talking obviously the other day about the World Cup and it being sponsored by these large corporations which, you know, generally sell incredibly unhealthy food items and how frustrating that feels and the frustration when you have generations of children who are looking up to people and looking up to certain events and that's kind of the epicenter of what they eye lies or, you know, come to consider cool.

and it's associated with these sorts of things and how frustrating we both find that and obviously lots and lots of like-minded people, lots of our listeners find frustrating too. And so I went to see Toy Story 5 at the weekend with the girls, which was obviously great influence for my screen-free summer. We are watching movies, so it's not like absolutely no screens, but we are having very controlled, considered screen time anyways.

That's another topic. But just before the movie came on, there was this ad. And so Squish Malo's, maybe because you're a boy, mum. Yeah, probably maybe. I don't know. Squish Mallor is a big thing in our house. They're like, they're just teddy bears, but they don't have kind of arms or anything. They're like pillows, sort of squishy pillows. Anyway, they're very cute.

They're very cuddly. Being a boy, mom, we don't have those in our house. They do little ones, big ones. Anyways, Squish mallows. My girls love them as well. And it was Squish Mallows Times McDonald's sort of Times World Cup vibe. and all these little cute squish mallows on the pitch. And it was just this sense.

And so then the girls were like, ooh, what's McDonald's? Do we get squish mallows if we go to McDonald's? It's just like, oh! Go away! Go away. Like, it's hard enough anyway. It's hard. And then I was reading an article.

This is so off topic, but I was reading an article, obviously, there's so much the moment about the rights and cancer in under 50s and what's going on and all these things. And I actually have it in as a pickup in our headlines. which was an article in the Times, and it was that quoted the fact that adults born in 1995 or at least eight times more likely to contract bowel cancer before turning 50 than those born in 1960. That's from a recent study in the journal of the National Cancer Institute. Anyways, they had lots of experts in there talking about why, you know, no one understands

why often, you know, it's seemingly quite healthy people where this is happening. And one of the thoughts they had, this is just, you know, a thought from a scientist, this is not currently fact, but one of the working hypothesis as a potential is poor gut health in childhood. And I've just been obsessed with this over the last few days and realizing, and, you know, I don't mean it in a judgmental way. It's just the norm for children is not to eat 30 plants a week. And it is not to have huge diversity. And it is not to eat fermented foods or anything like this. And instead, they're just being fed this like, eat me, eat me from McDonald's versus squish mallets. I'm sure they do it with, you know, all sorts of other things that appeal to all sorts

demographics anyways. I just thought, this is just insane, isn't it? What kind of world do we live in? It's the dystopian aspect. And what's so interesting is I'd love to see, well, not love to see it's really sad, but the data around the world, because it just makes me reflect on being abroad in the Mediterranean. They just don't raise their children in that way. And there is a separate area where they serve pasta that's plain and then the homemade tomato

sauce next to it. But there's no ketchup or there. So there's no, I mean, you might get the odd fish finger being served in that area, but they still encourage vegetables. They've got delicious home-cooked peas and carrots and things that children will eat. There's always a salad bar. We just have it completely wrong over here. So I imagine that hypothesis is completely and utterly correct. We just live in a very different environment today.

And actually, I will fill you all in next week, but I'm off to do a big charity campaign for veg power on children's microbiomes and beans in particular next after this podcast. I actually did not know that. I did not set that up. Okay, I'm excited to him more because I've been like, I've just been thinking about it so much the last few days. And not in, as I said, not in a judgmental way. I just know, like, through friends and things like that, like most of what their children eat is, quote, unquote, children's food.

And it's a lot of chicken nuggets and chips. And I know there's lots of reasons for it. I'm not trying to criticize it. But I guess it's just the concern of the culture. And, you know, anyway, it's just. There's only a McDonald's at Paris Airport and the terminal coming back from Lizziland, just to flag that, there's something I'll never forget. And again, coming back from Crete, there was only a burger joint or a pastry joint. There was not one single portion of fruit

anywhere. And I think it's because the demand is not there. Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, as we got, I'm sure, well, you know, lots of you guys are the same as we got towards the kind of end of term, obviously, like routines are a bit out of the windows, lots of celebrations and parties and things like that and habits get a little bit out of kilter. We're on a bit of a kind of health kick, essentially at home at the moment, just really getting back into kind of good meal time habits and sitting down together and having that diversity and things like that. And the girls are like, but why can't I just eat this? And I really trying to explain it to them. I'm like, honestly, because you have to feed your bugs. And if you don't feed your bugs, it does not set

you up for help and happiness. Anyway, very interesting. I'm sure we all have the same arguments and debates and constant tests. Let's call them tests rather than arguments because that's what my field parenthood and childhood nutrition is about. Ella, let's go on to our headlines that matter today because our first is the key to happiness and it's actually asking us in the times to stop trying to be special. Yes, this obviously, you guys know we've been talking about the era of maxing and our desperate desire to kind of move away from that because it's just I think we both feel too much pressure.

It's over optimization. Actually, I think, just for so many of us, she's induces stress. And it's so interesting, there's a Japanese philosopher. I'm nervous about pronunciation. Sorry, apologize in advance. I'm sure this isn't correct book called Itchiro Kishimi. And he's written a new book called The Courage to be ordinary. And it's basically all about like stop, trying so hard to be special. Like we've been told, optimise this, optimize this, build a personal brand, stand out from the crowd, be the the best version of yourself, like be different, be great. And basically, the argument here is this like relentless pursuit of being exceptional is actually in the most part making us more unhappy. It just makes perfect sense. And I do feel that I definitely was of maybe the last

generational, the one just below us, millennials and Gen Z, brought up to feel like if you wanted to excel at anything, you have to be the best. It's quite toxic. And I think it puts immense pressure on children at exams, start this off from a young age. Yeah. It's, it's. start so early. I mean, look, I think if you want to really succeed in an area of your life, you do kind of have to be the best, but it's like singular, right? You know, as in like if you apply it to work or apply it to one part of your life, it's applying it to every single facet of your life that I think is what's so incredibly exhausting. The word special stands out in such a, I think it's in a really odd way. I mean, the psychologist here, they said they drew on the work

of the psychologist Alfred Adler. And he suggests, that so much of our anxiety comes from that comparing ourselves of other people. We know we discussed that a lot on the wellness scoop. Believing our worth depends on being better than someone else. And it stems back to social media with, I mean, I hate the light counts. I got rid of those a long time ago when you could. But the desire to be better, to stand out, you know, feeling that it only matters if we're exceptional.

It just cannot be sustainable. And then we question our own values. Yeah, anyway, he had a point which I think was just one for you guys and us to sit with, which is that people who are genuinely very, very capable, don't spend much time comparing themselves to other people and the idea that kind of confidence is actually required. I think it is really interesting. Like if there's something, you know, that four burner theory we were talking about the other day, like the things, the one or two things in your life that really, really matter to you,

where you do really want to excel, apply that focus there. But it's that kind of 360 optimization. and being better than everyone else. And, you know, the keeping up with the Jones is element of it, that I think is so incredibly exhausting. And I do think it's right. Like, I like this stay in your lane. You know, if you're really able to do something,

just focus on you, focus on that, but stop trying to feel like you have to be. No one can be the best at everything. It is literally impossible. So impossible and exhausting. And then you're, you know, calling yourself a failure if you can't be the best at something. It's just a toxic fish.

cycle. Yeah, it is. And I think interestingly, one of the other things that he pointed out that I thought it's worth noting is there's a very big difference between putting effort into something that matters to you. Like we were just saying maybe it's your career or something else in your life that's really, really important to you and putting in huge effort there

or just constantly trying to beat everyone else win their approval, like be great, almost for the sake of being great when it doesn't necessarily matter, but equally that pressure to always be unique. Like, I know we're all technically unique, but we're not that you think there's that pressure. See, I wonder, so no, we're not. Well, we are genetic. Anyway,

let's not go there. But what's so interesting is that I wonder if this comes of age. Because as a teenager with social media and all these different areas, and I would say people don't want to be unique. They want to all look the same. It appears. Maybe this is just me being completely out of touch. In beauty, there is a weird homogenization. Tell me about it. And it comes from the Love Island shows. And obviously, they all, it's changed since Love Island began, obviously, to now, they do want to look the same. Yeah, it's a weirdly homogenized look. And then also, and again, this isn't like a personal criticism, but I just find the more than people tweak their faces, the more they then look like each other, because

it's, again, it's following like almost a singular standard of beauty. And I find it very, very weird. It is. Do you know, it is. So this is a really interesting article to raise because I want people to embrace being unique, but we don't want people to go, it's almost like the Barbie quote that came out from that film. Do you remember, you've got to be the best, but not be too much of the best. You don't know what fend people, but you've got to sit politely in the middle. It's like this all over again is, but we have to learn to, it's okay to be wonderfully average. It really is. I think choose what matters to you and apply yourself there, but the rest of your life, just be average. His final quote in the article that Ella's written here for us today is the only life that you get to live

is your own and I do think that realisation does come with age a lot and also how and who you surround yourself with when you're growing up can really shape how you view that type of phrase. And also life's so subjective, isn't it? Like what's meaningful to you might be different to me to do someone else than everybody listening and I think it is that interesting idea. Anyway, I just love anything that says take the pressure off basically because I think too much pressure at the moment. But our second headline is something completely different. I know you you contributed to this article and I'm super excited to get your thoughts on it. So it's called the food pairings that could make you healthier. Funny enough, Matt, my husband read it. And then

he's literally been quoting it back to me. He's like, I was like, oh, do you want some fruit? He was like, we should have dark chocolate with our raspberries because I read that it's much, much better. And anyways, I went in check the article. And I was like, right, let's go through this whole idea of food pairing, food synergy, how much of it is true. And we can go through some of the individual pairs. But first or three, how true is it that we need to be thinking about how we pair our food together? Look, when I'm approached with articles like this, there's always something in the back of my mind with, it has to have a positive outcome for the reader. So I'm thinking, okay, let's just look at a positive thing we can add to our meals rather than takeout.

So I was okay to contribute to this because I thought, do you know what? Some people may not know the classic don't drink your cup of tea in the morning with your breakfast because it inhibits iron absorption you know have it an hour later or something or half an hour later and having the dark chocolate means you're you know getting the most of the flavonels and the healthy fats with the raspberries so when i'm approached you something about food pairings it does not mean you have to live your life like this every single day it's still okay i'd rather you just eat the raspberry i love matt that you're that invested honestly don't worry if you don't have dark I told you you you were on a health kick.

I know. I know. Don't worry too much if you don't have the broccoli with the salmon, but we can go into it and we can break down the selections that we had picked here for the article. Okay, so let's start with that first one, dark chocolate and raspberries. Why does it help your fruit absorption to have dark chocolate with it? This was more just about maximizing your antioxidant load. Right. So they don't have to be together?

Well, ideally if you eat the items together, you're getting a big flurry of flavanols and polyphenols from the raspberries and dark colors and berries that contribute anthocyanes for brain health, all that sort of thing. But you can still eat it separately and have benefit throughout the whole diet. It doesn't have to be combined in that moment. But we all need more of that. People that are very stressed, please try and eat more fruit and veg in general to get your antioxidants up. If you have dark chocolate, look at it as a health food. I swear dark chocolate if you're going 75, 80.

Plus is a health food. Okay, I tell you what's so delicious. Get a bag of frozen raspberries and then just gently cook them for like five minutes or so. Add a little bit of cheer seed just because it helps thicken it up and then freeze them in the like little discs. You can do it with a lollipop stick if you want. Just put them on a part from paper, freeze them. Then once they're hard, dip them in melted dark chocolate and you have like, yeah, raspberry dark chocolate lollies, a little bit of sea salt on the top of the dark chocolate.

So good. We're very into that. Oh, I'm so obsessed with that sort of thing, especially in the heat right now. And then the second one was on the egg front because lots of people have gone towards the social media trends of savory breakfast. So I don't know if you. Yeah. So much on that. We get a lot of questions on that.

It's like, am I a terrible person for eating sweet breakfast? Also then on my feed, I get a lot of like, if you think that sourdough with two eggs is a good breakfast, you've got it all wrong. And I'm like, oh, go away. I think people who are doing that are doing a great job. This is all a bit much now. But tell me about eggs and spinach. Do you know what? Spinish is a tricky one because of Popeye.

You just start back to the association that it's the best source of iron. It's actually not the best source of iron for many different reasons with absorption. But one thing that you can do is get a lot of spinach which contains lutein and xizanthin, antioxidants that help protect our eyes as we aid. So it's mainly the vitamin K that you're getting, but they need the fat soluble yolk in the egg. Don't take the yolk out because then you're not helping your body absorb this nutrition. If you keep the yellow bit, the golden sunshine bit of the egg, which is really nice, my youngest is going for a phase of wanting to remove the yolk. Mine hates the yolk. One of them eats it. One of them hates the yolk.

I mean, they'll love it again in a month or two or a year. Who knows? They go through these phases. but the fat, the natural fats and all the nutrition tends to be in the yolk and then the protein is just in the white. So having the yolk with the spinach helps you absorb all those lovely vitamins and minerals. Love that. But basically, it's not exclusive to X, right? So what we're saying is that you're going to get better absorption with your spinach with fat. I would always try with spinach to have fat with it. It's one of the key foods actually that you do need, yeah, the oliveola or the avocado and the salad.

And without it, there's no point of having a dry salad. I mean, yuck anyway, but just on its own. Or if you're like sorting spinach, just add some olive oil at the end. Yep, drizzle. Perfect. So you just want eggs great, but fat, particularly with your spinach fruit. See, these are actually really helpful tips, I think. Good.

You know how we were joking the other day on the extra scoop on like, what was it, like, reed nutrition myths or reed nutrition nuggets? These are nutrition nuggets. Like just knowing you want some fat with your spinach for extra absorption. I think that's so helpful. Okay, the next one, salmon and broccoli. Yeah. And this is because of the vitamin D in Amiga-3s.

And broccoli is actually a better source of calcium on some other fruits and vegetables, which people will be surprised of the same with oranges, actually a good source of calcium. And I don't think people quite realize. But you can only really absorb calcium more effectively alongside vitamin D. So having the salmon that contains a bit of that within the diet is crucial. And the reason we're so low on both of those nutrients, Amiga-3 and vitamin D is because we don't eat a lot of oily fish. sustainability-wise, I'm questioning now, how do we even do that? And that's why we also have to supplement.

So if you are ever having salmon and broccoli together, that's just a beautiful combination to help your bones. Love that. Okay, our next one is tomatoes with avocado and olive oil. Why do we want all three of those together? Do it's interesting because this is very Mediterranean. And of course... And also it sounds so delicious, doesn't it?

So delicious. Like the ultimate combination. And also there's research, and I'm not saying this is something you should go and try. but having the lycopene also helps protect against sun protection. And the lycopines are the tomatoes, right? That's the antioxidant. And it's better when it's cooked, actually. So you can still get a benefit from it raw,

but you release a lot more lichopine when your tomatoes are slightly heated or cooked. So just a little nugget to remember that. Nice. And again, fat's olive balls. So your avocado and your olive oil are delivering the fat here. 100%. That's the one there. And then the next one was potatoes of vinaigrette.

This is one of the ones Matt's been quite. It's the raspberries and chocolate mostly because he just loves those two things together. But the potatoes with vinegar, so I'm obsessed with these smashed potatoes. I was talking about them the other day. And he was like, I'm just going to get some vinegar. I was like, I don't think he was going to go that well with this meal. It's like, yeah, I know, but I read it. It's much better for my blood glucose.

I'm so sorry, Matt. Do you know what? Do you just got to love your food and... But he had lots of protein with it as well. So I was like, oh, I think... And we had lots of veggies and I was like, I think the fiber and the protein is going to help more with your blood sugar than the vinaigrat, but I will hand over to you now. No, do you know what?

It's just another reason to enjoy those cooling potato salads and things over the summer, because if you cook the potatoes, then allow them to cool with the vinaigret in particular. That's where studies have shown that this process creates a lot of resistant starch. And that's what feeds our microbes, produces the slower rises in blood sugar. And it's the dressing itself that slows emptying further in the studies, which I think we've spoken about before, and I don't want to encourage this, the reason why people were having shots of apple cider vinegar. It's about to ask you the exact same question.

Yeah, before they eat is because of those small-scale studies that say it helps reduce blood sugar spikes. But I'm saying, have a beautiful Nisois salad or something of loads of potatoes that you've already cooked that have cooled down, chuck on your vinegar, have a delicious feast, and that's really good for your gut bugs. Amazing. but surely your glucose is helped more by having like lots of fibre, healthy fats, good proteins with the potatoes, even more than the vinaigrette? Yeah, no, I think so. Yeah.

But I would say the vinaigret is key here as well because I'm not talking about just going out and buying any old salad dressing. You know, please remember this as very specifically those that contain vinegar, not actually a, what are the examples of the really sugary? What do people love? Like ranch. Oh, like a ranch dressing or something. Yeah, you know those. The one I used to love when I used to work in Subway as a sandwich artist. When I was a teen, what was it called, honey mustard or something?

I can't remember. But those don't count, just so you know. And any type of vinegar? Apple cider is a lot of the research. But I would say any type of vinegar still will give you benefit here. Love it. I mean, I don't love vinegar, which is such a shame. Controversial.

I like it in things. I love balsamic. I would put balsamic. But you like ready sold to crisp, whereas I don't. Yeah, I like tangy. salty, I'm like more there than I am sweet. Well, I go for the cheesy ones. I just fine. I don't know. It doesn't do with me.

Nothing grosses me out more than a cheese nine in flavour or no actually prong cocktail. Oh no, I can't. That brings back childhood memories. There's pink packets and Walker's crisps. So revolting. I just could never get my head around them. Bacon and oh my God, the barbecue flavor. Yeah, but everyone loved them and the monster munch. See, I couldn't get my head around the pigod onions. All of that. I found them so rank. I was so. boring ready salted and i love obviously salt vinegar it's so bougie but you know that brand of chris i know truck christ that everyone's obsessed with yeah but they're good the vinegar version you've never

tasted something so vinegar in your life if you love vinegar it's fantastic if you don't have vinegar you will just spice them if you're like me and you're kind of a bit gross with that it's so good i love that um anyways yeah i'm actually quite gross to this kind of i'm also obsessed with like garlic aoli at the moment ate a whole tub and this garlic aoli mustard over the last I had on holiday. It was like loads of early, Tatsiki. I love it all. I can eat like a very gross amount. Anyway. Yeah. Okay. So I've got just to round off the final. Yeah. We got two more. Before we go to our weird habits. Green tea and lemon and turmeric and black pepper. Tell me about those. And yogurt and berries. Oh, I miss yogurt and berries. Oh, I miss yogurt and berries. I'll whispered

them quickly. So yogurt and berries, just pick a good type of Greek yogurt, um, beneficial bacteria, strains within the yogurt combined with your berries with water microbiome feet. And then... So that's less about the absorption and that's more you're just like doubling up the good stuff here. Yeah, absolutely. Green tea and lemon. Now this is one that I do think is a bit more interesting

that we can definitely delve into because everyone talks about coffee so much. And as Ella knows, I'm a massive green tea fan and she brought me a matcher again today. It's just a good day for me today. Green tea is packed full of what we call catechins, which is one of the best studied antioxidant compounds. And it also contains a lot of Ltheonis.

It's been research for Gabba. It's helpful for meditation with Buddhist monks if you look back. And the antioxidant component in itself of green tea is vast. And if you add lemon as well, you provide the vitamin C. And that stabilizes those particular antioxidants. And some studies have shown that it increases the absorption. So if you're having lemon in your tea, that's great. But what I will say is that's not great for your teeth, actually.

and it's just a catch, what do you call it again? Is it catch 22? Do you see what I mean? Every time this happens to me, 21, 22, I don't know why I can't remember which phrase it was. Then my final, I feel like we all know on the water on the scumric and black pepper or turmeric, however you'd like to pronounce. But curcumin, which is the active compound in. Tumric has anti-inflammatory properties, which is really beneficial for the body. However, in vitro studies in the laboratories have really high doses of turmeric.

I'm talking really concentrated, really, really high, served in often pill form. And we don't get that just from the little shots we make at home. However, it's still beneficial and probably is helpful. So add a bit of black pepper to your turmeric drinks. Love it. That's the whole article. That was so helpful. But the main thing is there are certain foods, basically, that actually like spinach,

light tomatoes that need fat for better absorption. Exactly. And then if you're having anything with turmeric, make sure you get some pepper in there. Hey y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old.

You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. Okay, now instead of one third headline, we have two short ones for you today. because both these were very short, but they're more, I guess, updates.

Headline number three, under 16s to be banned from buying energy drinks. I think this is obviously great news. But from April next year, it will actually be illegal in England to sell high caffeine energy drinks to anyone under 16. That's in shop, supermarkets, cafes, restaurants, online retailers, even vending machines. So like literally everywhere. And it will apply to drinks containing more than 150 milligrams of caffeine per litre. So we're thinking like Prime, which obviously is very much targeted at young children. or teens, Relentless, Monster, Red Bull, tea, coffee and lower caffeine soft drinks aren't included.

I find it really interesting that this isn't already in place. And actually, from being a boy mom and football culture, I see a lot of parents giving their children these drinks or lucidates and all sorts of different things. It's just completely unnecessary. But I think the marketing behind them has been very clever because even though they're not direct, or I don't know, Red Bull Advertise, they sponsor F1, don't they? So there's also this sporting narrative alongside these energy drinks, which appeals to younger generations massively, which I also think is a very blurry line because a lot of these athletes most definitely are not taking those drinks. I mean, Red Bull has the best marketing in the world.

I mean, who can forget that slogan? And all these crazy athletes that they sponsor. I mean, I got into this deep algorithm of these Red Bull divers who free dive off like huge cliffs. I mean, it's the best content ever. I do really recommend having a look. They're extraordinary. I shall. And it has obviously nothing to do with the drink,

but the association between kind of being brave and being extraordinary, as we just talked about, but really superhuman. And it's a very, I just think it's a genius association. Like these athletes who aren't necessarily conventional athletes, but they're doing the absolute extreme with their bodies. It's so interesting. I mean, I'm not a huge fan, obviously, of the product,

but I think the marketing is so clever. Gives you wings. Yeah, it makes you be extraordinary. Anyway, and then our final headline up today, again, a short and snappy one. It was quite controversial was whether farmers should swap beef for lentils. Obviously, we've just had a change in government, so whether anything comes from this, that's see you. But a couple of weeks ago, the government published its very long-awaited farming roadmap, setting out its vision for British agriculture over the next decade.

And one of the proposals in there is to help farmers transition away from some of the high. highest emission farming, including beef production, towards growing more plant-based foods, like pulses, including lentils. Anyway, it was hit with a huge amount of criticism, and I think, Yup, couldn't have landed worse. No, and it's going to rub up a lot of feathers in the wrong way completely. I personally think this should have been done decades ago, and I think this sort of initiative to help farmers out of such a tricky predicament they're now currently in. They're faced with so many difficult things. Cost of living, greenhouse gas emission, ethical concerns, all sorts of things, land.

But then now, how has anyone even meant to grow any crops with this heat wave? Do you know, it's a real, real tricky time for farmers at the moment. Personally, from my point of view, being removed from that completely. Scientifically, this is a no-brainer and should have been done years. ago swapping as much agriculture for plant-based options. But I get that not everyone's going to be receptive to that at all. No, I think it's an exceptionally difficult time for that industry. Obviously, they've been hit incredibly hard over the last few years. Jeremy Clarkson's Clarkson-Finds amazing job of highlighting that it's almost an impossible and viable industry at this point. So we think the idea

that asking them to make these changes and also so much of grazing land isn't suitable for growing crops and it's so complicated and I think it's slightly classic. Do you remember the tractors at Parliament? So I walk past them with Zachary. That's by inheritance tax. That was the inheritance tax. Yeah, and the changes in that. It's just been a very difficult few years, I think.

This landed really badly because practically speaking, the way it's presented maybe wasn't right. But I think as a top line viewpoint, it is interesting because agriculture is obviously a humongous admitter of greenhouse gases. It's one of the worst industries. Well, it's the largest contributor. food-wise that we have. Yeah, and we do need to gently make changes, but it's got to be done in the right way at the right time. And this probably wasn't it? But anyway, that was interesting

to see. And then we move on to our trends. So our trends are beans. They're having their big moment because I'm working with them later today. The Food Foundation's banging some beans campaign sets out to double bean consumption in the UK by 2028 Ella. And it's all moving in the right direction. Yes, exactly. So we were talking about that campaign a few months. ago when it launched and then the new news here in terms of trends is that Marks and Spencers. And to be fair, all of the retailers have really jumped on board this campaign, which is amazing. Marks and Spencers have now launched their own campaign as part of this called Better with Beans. That's in partnership with Boul Cancer UK, which is amazing.

They're running the campaign this summer across July and August, donating 50,000 pounds to Bale Cancer UK. and basically kind of given their beans and pulses a josh, a glow-up, making them more appealing. They've then put them into jars. They start from just 55P as well, which is quite amazing. And then they have the like super premium jars at £2.50, which is a fair bit cheaper. Tricky for people like Bold Bean who really started this category to have that happen. But equally, a very interesting move, I think, in terms of, getting beans, pulses, lentils, front and centre for people.

Jo, I would love to just see all beans embraced. I don't like get your can of Heinz, get your bowl beans, get your any jar you possibly can because that is far more affordable in a cost of living crisis as a portion of protein with 96% of us as we know not getting enough fibre in this country, 86% of children not eating enough fibre, the bowel cancer rates going up. I mean, two-thirds of us eat less than one portion of beans a week. I know, and ideally we'd eat them almost every day. Because it makes financial sense and it makes gut health sense.

But I'm actually being asked later today and I'll discuss it more next week about how we introduce beans to children's diets. Because lots of people don't know you can even wean children on beans. Yeah. So we've got a complete and utter disconnect from how to use this particular food group. It's interesting. I actually obviously love them. But when it comes to kids, for example, like, often they don't have huge flavor. Unless it's baked beans, which is still okay.

Oh, yeah, completely. But I mean, in terms of, like, putting them into things, they don't necessarily change. You can obviously have them as the absolute center of your meal and make them delicious and amazing. But I also find you can just add, like, a couple of spoons of lentils to a pasto pasta and really change it very much. Yeah, it's not going to change the taste of your food. The only thing it does is look at it like a piece of chicken doesn't really. really change the taste of your food or depending on the fat type of cut of chicken. But you've got to look at beans as this is protein and this is bulk is going to keep me full and the fibre and you can

just get so versatile with it, adding it to stews, mashed potatoes, all sorts of things. I just, I love this. I love that beans are having a moment. I love that charity donation aspect. That's really great. I also really like, as we said, this kind of bang, what's it called banging the beans, campaign which launched earlier in the year. I really have seen in supermarkets when I've been going in a really concerted effort to highlight them. They're in kind of gondola ends in like the end of Ilebit way and they really do feel like a prominent position and like they are genuinely making a big effort and you know obviously you went to that round table with the Tesco CEO the other day. It does feel there is this kind of collective desire to move in the right direction with food,

which is really exciting. I really feel that as someone. And I know Ella and myself have been immensely frustrated with the food industry for a very, very long time. But it genuinely does feel that way. Now, we have another trend to discuss, which I love, which is our cold plungers really worth the hype. Because I think you've been listening to us for a while, you know, that they're not really Ella and I's thing. No, but they kind of like have floated around for years and you obviously see them ever, Wimhoff obviously has kind of built this huge movement around them, but you see loads of celebs. I think even like David Beckham on his Instagram and things like that. And people make so many claims about them, we get loads of questions. So we thought, okay, this is actually a good moment for a trend section to go through lots of the claims that are kind of generally made and how much evidence there is behind them. But essentially, as a, of a, not to spoil the segment, but essentially more studies are required. Like all the big claims that people make are pretty anecdotal, and there's not huge research there.

On balance, they're probably not bad, but more not great than they are good. I think there's more risk factors to this particular trend for your health. And actually there was a warning that came out in the UK with the heat waves that we've had for such a prolonged stretch of time that actually suddenly immersing yourself in extremely cold water can be incredibly dangerous for your heart health as well. And it could be such a shock to your body actually. The same with cold water swimming during a heat wave, the two extremes completely. So that this isn't something that you should embark upon. But I bet more people have bought these cold plunge pools in a heat wave. Yeah. Well, and they kind of look great on Instagram. Okay, so we go through it. Number one,

The thing it almost certainly does do is boost alertness. That's one of the strong findings because obviously when you get into very, very cold water, your sympathetic part of your nervous system, that kind of stress, fight, flight response, that gets activated. So your breathing is going to be faster. Your heart rate goes up and you're going to release stress hormones, ignore adrenaline. And that is going to make you feel like, wow, let's go. Like, I can take on the world and that's the kind of buzz that people describe.

That's completely real. Yeah. And obviously for some people, that's life-changing. But that's really the only thing where it's kind of very crystal clear that it works. So yes, I think it's a really interesting one. It makes perfect sense to me that people feel more alert from it. But there's also lots of therapeutic reasons people do use it with specific conditions. But we'll go into all of the points now.

So let's start with does it improve mood? Maybe. And again, you're coming out, you're feeling like, yes, I can take on the world as we just talked about, but also you're probably outside, you might be exercising associated with it, you might be spending time in nature, it might be socialising. It's generally got like quite a lot of tangents involved in that sense. And so I think if you look at the research, it's quite difficult to pinpoint. It may improve your mood. Is it the cold water or is it because you're doing it with a friend? Is it because you're doing it in nature, which we know is clinically proven to improve our mood?

is it because you're taking some time out of work and you're disconnected from social media and all the rest of it. So it's like I think no one can say, yes, it alone categorically improves your mood. But obviously some people might say it makes me feel better. And it's probably because you're getting this sense of like, yes, I can take on the world.

And you've probably disconnected from the rest of life for a little bit and enjoyed some downtime in that sense. I think that's explained beautiful. It's like people that have those cold showers in the morning. I don't know how you do it, but it's a sense of accomplishment when you do it. You start the day, right. And that counts for a lot.

The connection between weight loss, and this is so vague, so, so vague. Cold exposure activates brown fat, which burns calories to help maintain body temperature. That's the claim. But actually, you know, just a short cold plunge, which, let's be honest, most people aren't in there a long time anyway, it's not enough to burn anything in terms of caloric value or muscle mass and fat mass and have an impact on boosting anything or losing any meaningful weight. So this is definitely a, I would not call plunge for weight loss means. No, and I think oftentimes people are like, oh, it's helped me lose weight. It's probably also

part of this, like, you know, it's a cycle, isn't it? You're probably also exercising and then you, maybe it's helping you then feel motivated to eat well and, you know, playing that role. Absolutely. It's not that it's meaningless in that sense, but it alone, there's no mechanism as of yet that people have discovered. With brown fat. Yeah, that would create a kind of clear link, between the cold plunge itself and weight loss. But it may be that as part of an exercise routine and a wellness journey for want to a better work, that helps you.

But in and of itself, it doesn't. No, 100%. And then this is the one that I think is really, really misunderstood, actually, because of course can be beneficial for professional athletes, but there's lots of varying research, and that's does it help recovery after exercise? Because for most of us, Ella, the answers probably no. And there's a 20-23 review of 20 studies that found that ice baths can reduce the perception of muscle saunas.

So, you know, if you are an athlete after the football pitch or a tennis player, you know, that could be really, really useful. But reducing soreness isn't the same as improving recovery. You see all these devices that athletes are given. You know, the big blow-up compression. Oh, yeah, they're like leg compression, kind of lymphatic. All of it. You know, they've got all of it back there when they leave. the pitch or the court.

And then we've got more studies, a 2025 study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science and Sports, only involved 18 adults, but did find that cold water immersion after high intensity exercise didn't reduce the fatigue or improve muscle strength the following day. So I would argue that perhaps placebo and just doing that instant cold pack and heat pack is probably enough. You don't need to completely submerge. Yeah, exactly.

And then there's more studies that come. out that I think we've mentioned in the past because it's been more recent, 2024, European Journal of Sports, Science, that was showing that an ice bath immediately after resistant training can actually reduce gains in muscle size because of the restriction to blood flow from the cold. In 2025, another paper published in medicine and science. In sport and exercise, found that 20 minutes of cold water,

immersion reduced muscle blood flow by around 70% and reduced the incorporation of amino acids into muscle tissue. again talking about this and building a muscle by around 30%. So I don't think there's argument. Unless you're obviously a professional athlete, it's completely different. And that could be placebo as well. Yeah, I think that's, I don't think there's a reason for any, for, for any of us. For, as like, quote, unquote, and more people to go and buy it.

Same with you boosting immunity. Again, evidence really weak there, that there's going to be kind of meaningful impact. There was one study compared cold water swimmers, indoor swimmers and their partners. So people who are doing cold water and indoor, so like normal pool temperature water swimmers. And both group of swimmers reported fewer respiratory infections than their partners. But there wasn't a difference between the cold water swimmers and the indoor swimmers.

So I think we're looking at exercise there, regular exercise, as opposed to the cold, which is interesting. And again, with like inflammation, there's not much there. So it's funny because I think some people love the shock of it. They love the dopamine hit. They're like, yes. But I think for most of us, you're maybe enduring something you don't need to endure. I think so, honestly.

And once again, what works for you works for you? If you enjoy these sorts of things, then it's probably going to be more beneficial by the fact you enjoy it. But you cannot go off embarking upon a trend like this thinking it's going to have miraculous benefits to our immune system, inflammation, muscle repair, tissue. So ultimately, you've just got to do you. But I actually think the risks of this are far greater. And I would also argue because of muscle mass and body fat percentage on men versus women, that it probably has a very different impact again on women versus men. And particularly around different stages of a woman's cycle,

or whether they're going through menopause. I would love to see more research into them. But for now, I believe the research for saunas is far stronger than that of cold plunges. Yeah. And I think lots of people find saunas more relaxing. way more enjoyable. I mean, I personally find them way more enjoyable. But if you love a cold plunge, I'd love to hear from you. Yeah, lad us know. I have to say, though, if I live near the coast, I do understand. The happy pair vibe. Yeah, I do understand that because I think there is a sense of

kind of swimming in the ocean or in lakes where you are really absorbed in nature and it's often as a community. And I think that there's something about that that I really, really understand, or like my sister-in-law swims kind of all year-round Hampstead Heath Pond and like I totally get that but they're kind of sitting in a bucket of ice in the gym it's just it's pretty like sharp you know it's quite stark I guess is what I mean whereas I think the absorption in nature and that combined with the cold I completely understand the appeal of that and I think if I live near water I could see myself being quite curious about that cold or the ice cold seems more of a mental resilience challenge to me rather than the

like you've just mentioned the community aspect or a nature connection aspect like you said it's a challenge if you guys don't know there's two guys called the happy pair yeah Dave and Steve in off the East Coast yeah of Ireland I'm sure it's the East Coast isn't it just below Dublin

anyway and they do it and they go as a community and they swim where they live and I did it once with them they do it at some rise it was so beautiful it was amazing it was so uplifting it felt so inherently positive. What month did you go? So when I visited... September. Yeah, see.

Probably like the jammiest time of year to do it. Yeah, I couldn't. I was actually, they didn't know, obviously, but early days pregnant when I went there and it was November and I was like, no, I can't do it. Yeah, no, I think I was quite lucky. I think so at Hamill was a 10 out of time time. They do it all year round. A huge respect to them and the community looks lovely. So that's the end of our episode for today. But we have a fantastic extra scoop on Thursday where we are featuring all sorts of things. things. We're talking about fiber hacks. We've got lots on healthy swaps, fresh versus frozen.

We've got a few facts and little nuggets that I've got in. We've got some feedbacks from our Wellness Scoop Challenge. Rehas a skin update I've seen. There's all kinds of stuff. We've got more on my screen free summer and some voice notes from an amazing psychologist there. So loads and loads. We will see you on Thursday. We can't wait. And yeah, have a great day, guys. Have a great start to summer. Bye.