The Wellness Scoop - The ’Best’ Five-a-Day, Strength Training & Sleepmaxxing

Episode Date: June 29, 2026

Are all fruit and vegetables created equal? This week, we explore the new research suggesting that flavanol-rich foods like berries, apples, green tea and broad beans may be some of the most powerful additions to your diet, with potential benefits for heart health, brain health and even longevity. We also unpack the surprising impact of weight-loss drugs on Britain's food industry, after new figures suggested GLP-1 medications have already wiped £780 million from grocery spending and are beginning to reshape supermarket shelves. Plus, the strength training sweet spot linked to a longer life, and the wellness trends taking over America, from cortisol cocktails and sleepmaxxing to salt therapy and t'ai chi walking. kickbigsodaout.org 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

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. Wayfair, every style, every home. Welcome to the Wellness Scoop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. And as always, we're both here as your host today. I'm Alam Mills. And I'm Rianna Lambert. And after a decade in this industry, we know that wellness can be overwhelming and confusing and that's why we're here with our podcast to cut through the noise and make healthier living, simple, fun and of course personal.

Good morning, everybody. It is a heat wave, which is an anomaly or actually increasingly less an anomaly in the UK. But we have got a fantastic episode planned for you guys today. Ree, what is coming up? So we first of all, we have the plant foods that are linked to a 27% lower risk of cardiovascular disease. And why two? two hours of strength training. So the number seems to change with every headline we get. Maybe the longevity sweet spot. Then how weight loss drugs are changing the food industry and a new term sleep maxing. So you've gone from fibromaxing to sleep maxing, cortisol cocktails and the wellness trends that are heading our way. Plus should Coca-Cola and McDonald's be sponsoring

the World Cup? That's a question that has been a big debate in my life for a long long time so excited to get into that. Re, before we delve into this eclectic mix of topics today, how are you? I'm good, Ella. I feel like I've had a lot of in the nutrition landscape at the moment. I feel like I should probably raise this a little bit that more than ever before, of course, with social media algorithms working in different ways, just be very wary of unregulated voices claiming to be nutritionists online. I feel that's something I should probably raise. It's something we've had to deal with a lot actually in the clinic with some quite concerning worrying cases over the last week. What kind of things are you seeing then in clinic, Ray? So we've had some

alarming cases of obviously extortionate prices and different dietary courses, but some severe side effects, obviously personal cases, but the amount of supplements people are taking that could be harmful actually as well. And then dangerous health advice and what's very concerning, it's particularly in the menopause area. It's been brought to our attention because I'm currently running this, you know, menopause method journey on nutrition plus. But what's actually happening is you get a lot of people that say, I'm a menopause nutritionist or, you know, I specialize in women's health as a nutritionist. And then you ask what qualifications do you have? And like, I've got this one certificate from this course that isn't even regulated. You know, there's no scientific

degree or background or understanding of how the human body works. So just have your little red flag detective hat on everybody. And on that note, we are building our food freedom course at the moment, Ella. So I'm very excited to talk about relationships of food because I feel the feedback we had from that episode where we discussed weight and body image was massive as well. Yes. And thank you guys, as always for feeding back. I think it's interesting. But we like talking about things that are hard to talk about because it feels important to have those conversations. We have heard and thank you guys for flagging that there seems to be some kind of radio spot ads coming through for weight loss drugs. Obviously, it's not something that we would promote in this way or are happy about.

And we have, and are currently in the process, are trying to ensure that those don't get through to you. So I'm really, really sorry about that. Yeah. Thank you so much, everyone, for bearing with us. And this is why we love getting your feedback literally in real time, which is so helpful. Apart from that, Ella, I am busy finishing up some written projects that I'll announce the end of August. and how are you? I know you had all your family, didn't you, this weekend? I did. I had the most wholesome weekend. It was my nephew who is, I mean, all kids are sweet, but he is literally, like, so yummy, I can't explain to you. He was four on Saturday and all he wanted to do is

celebrate with his cousins. We had a bouncy castle. We went swimming. We just had, like, disco on the bouncy castle. It was such a fun day. I had all my siblings staying with me for the weekend, which I just don't know that last time he did something like that. And then it was my grandpa's 94th, and my great aunt's 80th birthday. So we had a big family party yesterday. Anyway, so it's been a very, very sweet family-orientated, wholesome weekend. And he just loved it. Beautiful. I love that. I mean, honestly, it goes to show that I think sometimes that's actually just as much wellness as anything else is spending some time with the family. So, Ella, maybe you should pick us up today with the campaign that is launched by Byteback, which is to actually

do something finally about who is spot. sponsoring our major events in the world, especially ones that children and schools get behind. You know, we're talking about the World Cup here and food sponsors. We are. I think I've been wanting to talk about this for almost 15 years. So this is an exciting moment in my life. Here we go. Here we go.

No, I remember it was. So I changed the way that I ate and became interested in health and well-being back in 2011. And then obviously 2012, we had the UK Olympics. And so this was when I was very interested in health and promoting nutrition and, you know, ensuring was starting to eat properly again and realizing that the Olympics was sponsored by McDonald's. And being really horrified by it, if I'm honest, at the time, because it felt so wrong to be promoting sport, which is obviously a fantastic thing. But to be doing that in line with something that showed the antithesis of that, it just felt really at odds to me. And I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate,

very strongly the glamorization of things that are so bad for us. And it's not about saying you can never eat these things. But it's like the glorification, you know, the glamorization, it really, really irritates me when like mega celebs, you know, multi, multi, multi millionaires promote these sorts of things because it's like you just don't need that cash. Like I'm happy for you to promote something else. But I hate, yes, I said, the glamorization of that kind of industry. Anyways, obviously, welcome at the moment. And guess who are there? sponsors, McDonald's. Again, they sponsor all of these things to make themselves look healthier than they are. Coca-Cola and then obviously it's in the US. So my understanding for my research is

that their other big sponsor is Lays, which I would say is like the US equivalent of walkers. So the campaign is called Kick Big Soda Out by Byteback, which are the youth of the UK that I've had enough of all of this nonsense. And thank you so much for everything you're doing. because let's be honest, we're not interested in policing individual choices here. This is about the fact that these role models and that they are role models, these footballers, be it the Olympics, the footballers, regardless of whether you want to be a role model or not, that is exactly what you become on the world stage and millions of impressionable young children. All I had to see growing up, I was Britney Spears of a can of Pepsi to think, yeah. Pepsi's cool. Pepsi's cool.

It's what you do. And to see people with enormous credibility in their field come to consume these items as parts of sponsorship is really concerning. It's the normalisation, isn't it? And it's very, very clever marketing by these large food companies. As you said, they're not inadvertently saying they're healthy. It's just the association. Yeah, the adjacency to sports and athleticism. It's incredibly clever.

But I just think it's an amazing campaign, as you said, very bite back. absolutely fantastic. If you're interested, definitely, definitely look it up because their campaign is calling for an end for Big Soda. But for me, it goes beyond that in terms of these fast food companies, but it's to stop the big soda sponsorship of football by 2030 to create a sporting environment that actually better reflects health and well-being values that we want to promote to future generations. And I'm not trying to be facetious here, but like how much of an amazing role model would it be if like the World Cup was sponsored by carrots. Now, I know we talked about this the other day that part of the reason you see these huge marketing campaigns and promotional

activities, both kind of on your TV screens or socials in supermarket landscapes is because these items are owned by large conglomerates and generally speaking large conglomerates aren't the people selling you a bag of carrots. And as a result of you don't obviously generally speaking have the cash to sponsor something like this. But imagine the impact on future generations if they saw these people who were complete idols to them, as you said, Ray, and these enormous events that are such cultural moments and shape the landscape that we live in. Imagine if all they were creating was like broccoli and carrots and healthy cooking, like how much you would inspire children because it's like if they do it, I want to do it too. And instead, what you have is the glamorization of products that really aren't very good for us. And my frustration with this, and I remember saying this so early on in my career, when people were across that I was like, we've got to be more of these foods.

It's like, everyone really thinks pizza's cool. Everyone really thinks Coca-Cola's cool. Everyone already thinks, you know, whatever it is. People see these items as quite cool. No one sees lentils as cool. And ultimately, if we're going to have a healthier environment for us all to live in, we've got to put carrots and lentils on par with pizza and crisps. and if we can't do that, we're not going to change our health landscape. And these events, again, it just plays into the, like, this stuff is cool and this stuff isn't.

And I find it really, really frustrating. And I think it's really taking the piss to pull on the adjacency of sitting next to spore to have this subtle implication that these can fuel your body because they can't. And that's not to say you can never, ever eat them and you should feel guilty for having them on occasion. But like, these are not things to fuel your body. I think you've summarised that extremely well. I mean, if you want to learn more, then you add your name to kickbig soda out.org. That's the kickbig soda out.org. That's not an ad for us.

That's a campaign that I feel that you guys can all go and support if you feel passionately about this too. As a mum to two football crazy boys, I mean, it would just make parents' lives so much easier across the country. If the people that are on their walls in their bedroom that they idolize, they want to collect their football cards. You know, I've got all of that at home. My kids are just absolutely, they want their shirts, they want everything. Let's kick these big companies out. So Ella, moving on to our first headline this week, which is of the fitness ilk, and it's two hours of strength training a week may help you live longer.

Now we've gone to two hours, Ella. I think before it was a complete different number, but it's an interesting new study, and we found this one in The Times. Yes. Do you know what? I was just thinking one last thought on our last comment was, you probably being like realistic they're never going to as it stands it's going to not they need the cash i would imagine they're not going to be able to remove these sponsors because they wouldn't be

able to replace them as i said with a carrot brand that had as much money but i wish that to sit at least alongside it and i think that that would be the right thing that feels like a really plausible intervention but it's all food why can't it be a different type of industry no but it's also sponsored by like Qatar airways and things like that so there are other companies but i just wish that it's like if you're going to, like I said, if we've got to put this stuff on parallel, then there should be kind of education or support in terms of fueling your body for sport that sits alongside it. At least like try. But I do wonder if they do have things like that and that's how they're getting around the initial. I haven't actually looked on the MD's website to see if they

have like a sports campaign or something. Maybe they're doing things alongside. Yes, strength training. So we've spoken recently about the study that suggested around 10 hours of exercise a week is the sweet spot. And the research found that the biggest reduction in mortality risk among people doing roughly 300 to 600 minutes now of moderate physical activity a week, which is actually far above the current guidelines. And I have to say, Ella, as someone that can only fit in one strength session a week, it is very overwhelming when you're constantly hear that you're just not doing enough how it can fit into modern life. star. A hundred percent. And I think we talked about that a few weeks ago when we talked about this 10 hour a week study that it's quite overwhelming. But interestingly, just to kind of add on to that conversation, there's a new study that's come out as well, always so much on exercise, but there's

another one that's come out. Because that 10 hours was saying that it's good to have a mix of things, but to add to the kind of breakdown of it, a new study suggests that when it comes to strength training specifically, the sweet spot may actually be smaller. So maybe we're not spending all 10 hours doing our strength training. This came from Harvard University who followed just shy of 150,000 adults in the US for up to 30 years. So Ree's favorite kind of study. And it tracked their exercise habits and their long-term health outcomes. And what they found was that people who did between 90 and 120 minutes of strength training a week were 13% less likely to die from any cause than those who didn't do any resistance exercise, which is interesting. And those benefits did go beyond

overall longevity as well. I can well believe it. It just makes perfect sense that we use our body, we use our muscles, we build our capillaries, you know, everything that makes sense because doing regular strength training also had a 19% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, so anything heart-related, including heart attacks and strokes, which is, of course, one of the biggest killers in the Western world for men and women, and a 27% lower risk of dying from neurological diseases. Now that's the interesting things such as Alzheimer's because of course there's lots of research debating and still looking into causes of neurodegenerative diseases themselves. But I think one of the most interesting findings was that more Ella, like you said, isn't better.

And the benefits did plateau beyond the two hours a week. So it's finding what you can do between 90 to 120 minutes. I was thinking about this. I was thinking, right, if I can only do, you. you, especially being pregnant now, I'm knackered all the time, like 40 minutes of strength training once a week. The rest of it would be picking up the kids or the shopping bags and all of that perhaps would add up over the course of a week. A hundred percent. And I think what's nice is when we were talking about that 10-hour studies, which is why we brought it back in line with this one, is that that was saying, like mowing the lawn or hoovering and those sorts of things are also exercise. So for anyone who was stressed by that 10 hours, I think this is quite nice to

look at actually together, because what this is saying is like 90 to 120 minutes, it's still a lot, but it's much more plausible across a week. And then actually you're thinking that lots of the rest of your 10 hours is just about moving, like going for a walk, doing your admin chores, whatever it is walking up escalators and letting that add up, which is interesting. And actually, they also saw in this study on strength training that the best benefits came when the strength training was combined with aerobic exercise. So the two together. Because I think also I certainly see a lot online of like just strength train, just strength train. And what this was showing was like for your health. I'm not talking about for aesthetics for your health. Doing the two together is so much more effective.

Joe, what I like doing. And the reason I love my one session a week is that I'm not just using machine weights. You know that section of the gym where you just sit down at a machine. And you like lift one leg up or something. Of course, that has a place. And it's definitely helped me when I felt nauseous or fatigued or with my pelvic pain and not able to do some things. But when you're able to move your whole body and get multiple benefits from it, you know, like a walking lunch or people that are able to do exercises like that.

And I think it's crucial because we're just so sedentary. And naturally we lose muscle mass and strength as we age. So from 25 years, which is very depressing. Warrows. Yeah. We're not really gaining. we are we're kind of slowly losing and we need to preserve and maintain. That doesn't mean that you can't gain, but it's very difficult.

You have to be very disciplined. So if you've been focusing on cardio only, little reminder to get strength. And if you've just been doing strength, little reminder you're doing great, but let's add in a bit more movement. And I think we can all just take on board little tweaks. I love that really. That was a very nice summary. Do you know what?

Having never ever done any strength training in my life, when we moved there's a lovely trainer near me who's just a really nice little group classes anyway I started going and they're not like super heavy ways but it's the first time I've really done anything with weights and I've been seeing and going to her classes most weeks for what like nine months now and I feel so good for it like so so so good I have to say

as someone who's always done more like yoga and nothing in that arena I do I feel amazing for it I'm so pleased talking of celebrity influence This is where I feel like the J-Lo kind of vibe comes in. You know, she's so inspiring. Not yet. It's on my, I still, I need time. Office Romance.

It's on my list. It is on my list of films to watch. But yeah, she's incredible. And she puts her age, I mean, obviously she's got tons of pennies in the bank to be able to afford lots of different things. But strength training, she does a lot of it. So, headline two, Ella, green tea, broad beans and berries. Are you eating the best?

best five a day. Let's pick on which individual foods in the press again have potential benefits. It's a times feature here, but it's one that we see similarly kind of floating around. Yes, it's funny, you know, because you're like, this is when we talk about the overwhelm of the wellness industry, right, it's like exercise for 10 hours a week. Oh, you're getting your five a day, which makes you good, but is it the best five a day? So don't stress. You're doing a great job. If you're getting your five a day, you are beating the vast majority of people. Now, life's not competition, but I'm just saying you're doing it brilliantly. But actually when you read the peas and then you start looking at the research and as we said,

this study was picked up in lots of places, actually it's really helpful and constructive. It's just slightly a kind of click baity headline as usual. But essentially, and it taps on to some research we've talked about before on here with you guys, that whilst obviously all fruit and veg, all plant foods are really good for us, as we know, they're great for gut health, fibre, etc., etc., some are even better in some areas than others, and some new research that comes from Harvard Medical School, the University of Reading, and the University of California, Davis, have highlighted the importance of something called flavanols within these products that you guys, I'm sure, have heard us talk about on here before,

because there's been quite a lot of new research on these naturally incurring compounds over the last year or two. And they're the sort of things you find in berries, apples, grapes, kale, tea, beans. But before we go into the research and why some by the day may be superior to the other or not, what are flavonels? So flavonels, think of them like you've probably heard of antioxidants. I feel most people have heard of antioxidants rather than polyphenols or flavonels. And there's a differentiation that's ever so slight depending on the plant family where they originate from and the job and the protective mechanism that they contain. But every day without getting too heavy on the science, oxidation occurs. In our body, we are exposed to what we call pathogens or things we breathe in through the air, perhaps, with pollution or little bugs that might be on our food that aren't the best, you know, alongside, of course, lots of bugs that are good for us to be.

consuming as well. And our body has a natural defense mechanism where we neutralize all of those things and our immune system works very efficiently. But what plants can do for our body, which is why it's absurd, there are camps on the internet that are anti-plants. But plants actually help us with that neutralization process and help us protect our body and fight off these free radicals, things that we do not want circulating in our body. Now, they particularly, they're known to be stronger, these antioxidants or flavanol components, in particular foods like berries is one we've discussed a lot on the podcast, dark coloured fruits. They have different names, these antioxidants like anthocyanins. Flavannols are often discussed in context of grapes or red wine, particularly researched chocolate.

You'll find that as well. But also in the wild, if you took a stinging nettle and it stings you, that's its natural antioxidant. It's its protective mechanism. But that nettle might have benefits for us when consumed as food. So it's really interesting that it's a plant's natural defense mechanism. And once we digest and consume it, it's really helpful for us, if that makes sense. It's just some foods have higher percentages known to researchers than others, which is why I've always been on a mission to make dark chocolate a health food. I love that.

Exactly. So we've got these specific foods that are plant foods that are higher in these flavonols. and they are, you could say, in a really simple way, good for anti-inflammatory the nature of them in terms of the oxidisation? Yeah, so what you're doing is keeping your immune system from acting all the time in advance, which causes inflammation, it causes widespread release of white blood cells. And what you're doing by having these circulating flavonols and antioxidants, yeah, is just supporting your immune system.

It's like working in tandem, which does, of course, and have a knock-on effect on inflammation. And it's also supporting your gut bugs because these foods that contain these antioxidants and flavonels contain fiber. And that's helping support the short chain fatty acid production in your gut, which helps support our immune system, which helps keep inflammation low. It's like a nice circle of cogs. And obviously they still contain the fibre, etc. that other plants do. So they're still taking all those boxes as well. Absolutely. And we have talked about a few studies over the last. a year or so on flavanols and why they're so good for us. But in this study in particular,

the researchers were analysing dietary data and urine. So are we biomarkers for more than 30,000 people both here in the UK and over in the US. And what they found during that time was that people consuming around 500 milligrams of flavonols a day had a 27% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, which is very interesting. So I think as with every study, there's always different conclusions that can be drawn from it. But I do think potentially, you know, is it that people that consume this amount of flavonels are having more of a plant-based diet and less animal produce that contains saturated fat? Are they naturally more health conscious to begin with? There's lots of reasons when you look at data to draw different conclusions from it.

But a 30% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease is just positive inherently. And that's why we just need to eat more plants. But, you know, five a day, is something people know about, but we're just not getting it, are we, Ella? So it's just very important that we do keep showcasing these studies in the media because let's hope that they make a positive impact. Totally. And like just to circle back to the conversation that we were having on the World Cup and this need to like promote lentils and carrots as sitting equally to McDonald's. Like this is why.

And if we look in the UK, one fewer than one in five people are thought to consume enough flavonels. So, you know, we're seeing these being so beneficial. and yet we're really, really struggling with them. And that was even interestingly among people who broadly follow healthy eating guidelines. So what the researchers were saying in this paper was that obviously five a day is excellent advice, although it doesn't cut through for a multitude of reasons, as we know. But that we might need to also on top of that, think about the specific plants we're eating and trying to include some of these more flavanol-rich ones, which is very, very interesting.

But it also builds on, as I said, some of these other studies we've talked to, about recently. So we talked last year about the study that had over 124,000 participants from the UK Biobank, and that showed that the people consuming the widest variety of flavol rich foods had a 6 to 20% lower risk of overall premature death and the research from earlier this year that showed that higher flavino intake was associated with a sustained 3 to 16% improvement in mood. Do you remember when we were like strawberries, improve your mood by X% and all the rest of apples by X%? Anyways, that's what that was. So, it is interesting when you look at this overall picture on flavonels. And as we said, obviously,

you've got to take into account other lifestyle factors. But equally, I think really promising research to show we do want to be prioritising this. And it's such a simple amount. And Ella's got a lovely breakdown here. It's just, you know, 500 milligrams of flavanols a day. I mean, I've had that already in my two to three cups of green tea. Two apples a day. Yeah, you could even just have a Kiwi and an apple. You know, one large portion of berries, a handful of piquet nuts, broad beans, pinto beans or other legumes. These sorts of things should be part of a healthy balanced diet. I appreciate we obviously have a cost of living crisis at the moment, but you can buy the frozen bags of berries as well, which are actually, I would argue, more nutritious than fresh, which we've

discussed before and Wood can still have that high flavonol content as well, Ella. Yeah, exactly. So you're going to stress. You don't start like tracking it. obsessively, but just seeing if, you know, like a frozen berry compot that you can pop on your breakfast throughout the week, like that would be amazing, having some apples, just being aware of this, like knowing green tea is really healthy for you, like just a little bit more of it in your life can be very positive. We'll be back very shortly after a quick ad break, everyone, with our next headline. This spring, denim gets a softer, lighter update. Introducing Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg, a new fit that moves with.

with you. It's everything you want denim to feel like for summer. Easy, breathable and effortlessly cool. With a fit that creates natural movement and a wide leg that feels modern, not overwhelming. Plus that signature, wait, for this price? Moment. Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg. Very different headline next though. Yeah, here we go. The title is fat jabs. I don't like that term, but again, the title of the feature was fat jabs have cut 780 million from Britain's grocery bills. And we actually discussed this trend emerging at the very beginning of the conception of the Wellness Scoop with Walmart in America and shopping baskets changing, didn't we, with overall size of produce that people are consuming, cost of everything when it comes to being

on the jabs. But now it says that the rise of weight loss drugs such as Manjara and Wagovi is already changing healthcare. It's a new data. suggest they're starting to reshape our food industry as well. And this research is from a world panel by numerator households, which contains someone who's taking a JLP1 medication and says they're spending significantly less on food and drink than previously, Ella. Exactly that. And I guess no surprise, but the biggest reductions are in categories like chocolate, crisp, snack foods, because users are reporting fewer cravings, reduced appetite. The researchers, and again, there's very slightly, but about 1.9 million adults in UK now taking

these medications, over 6% of households containing at least one user, which is three times higher than two years ago, which is a lot. Anyway, when scaled up across the population, the impact on the kind of grocery market is really huge because the estimation is their households containing a GLP1 user have collectively reduced grocery spending by about 780 million. I mean, it's enormous. It's humongous. It's one of the clearest examples I think we've had yet of how these, you know, these

medications because they are life-changing for people can also impact entire industries. You know, we've seen these major food manufacturers, SNAP brands, discussing, you know, what it means of future cells and creating ranges, of course, to accommodate those people that are currently on the drugs or pills, will say, now moving forward, coming up. But it's really indicative as well of the fact that it's not also equating to health and just taking this medication and changing that shopping basket doesn't mean you're then still consuming the right foods and adopting healthy eating behaviors. And there are so many side effects we have to just say because the data tells us people are just buying less food overall. It doesn't tell us that they're then adopting

a Mediterranean diet or they're aware of their fiber, their gut bugs, their protein, whilst they're polyphenols. Yeah, they're polyphenols and their diet getting those 500 milligrams in a day. I mean, what a game-changing time, though, to be alive to see these humongous shifts in the food industry. it's nuts anyways it's not a big headline not loads to say except for i think just the numbers were staggering and again we're just curious to watch this space i've also had an update on um how the weight loss jug ads were coming through to you and i just think this is interesting as an aside we ban and block like lots of industries from advertising on these like radio ads like gambling obviously and things like that and we had blocked any um medication brands from being it for this exact

reason, but online pharmacies. That's how they're doing it. So it's online pharmacies because there's so much money to be made. I mean, I didn't even think to block online pharmacies, you know, when we did the like forms at the beginning because I just didn't even imagine. Do you know what I mean? I just think it's such an interesting indication of the speed at which these industries are all changing. I mean, they're making, must be making a fortune. Anyways, quite interesting. That's the update. They're now blocked two guys, so these ads should stop. All within recording this episode. It's just quite, isn't it revolutionary just to think that there's so many loopholes to absolutely everything these days.

It's almost impossible to narrow it all down. But we appreciate your feedback so do keep it coming because it really helps us shape this podcast to be the safe space that we know that it already is for so many of you. Now, supermarkets over here in the UK have already adapted. We've got examples like that nutrient dense range, MNS launched, which interestingly has become. kind of seen by the media as a go-to for people on JLP1s. I know other retailers have similar offerings. Arcado has launched a dedicated GLP1 support shop. 100 gram steaks.

Do you know, I'm all for that reduction, though, because we know that less red meat is probably healthy for most people overall. Morrison's has partnered with Applied Nutrition to Launch its small and balanced range. You've got Iceland expanding calorie-conscious ranges, but that's a My Protein collab. I question a lot of these collaborations. But I think they're on this bandwork and like they're trying because, you know,

they don't want to lose hundreds of millions of pounds of sales. So what can they sell to these people instead? And I would say in some ways, it's probably a shift to healthier things. Like if we're seeing categories like chocolate and crisps going down as a result and what we're seeing is a development of products like this nutrient dense range,

which when you look at it is like packed with quinoa and those sorts of ingredients. I'm a big fan of that one. Yeah, that's a good one. And maybe this is actually pushing through really quite a positive change. As you said, we don't know, you know, exactly what people are doing, but actually that inherently feels positive. And I do know speaking to other retailers, just like in meetings that I've had anyway, that there are other retailers launching very similar things. And surprisingly, again, so it's just like they need to. But I think the focus is on quite nutrient heavy, which is interesting.

Nutrient heavy is fantastic. But I do question a collaboration. with a brand called My Protein, you know, putting a health halo again on just protein being the answer here, collaborating with a frozen supermarket like Iceland that offer predominantly frozen goods. I do wonder what that range would look like. So perhaps that's something for me to go away and have a big, big look at as well. Very interesting, Ella. Let's watch that space. And let's move on to what's trending in wellness. What's trending in wellness? Well, a lot, apparently. So there was an article that said basically these are the trends in the US.

So this might be what's coming to the UK next because so many of our trends in the health and wellness industry do stem from America. So according to a new report, these are the big health and wellness trends currently booming in America. So we thought we talked you through them. So you heard it here first, guys. Always trying to also set the trends and discuss the trends ahead. So let's discuss the first one, which is the 12-330 workout. It's an uphill treadmill workout that went viral thanks to an influencer. I haven't heard of her called Lauren.

Is it Giroldo? Goraldo? Have a look, Ella. Get the phone out and block the brick. The premise is simple. Set a treadmill up to a 12% incline and walk at three miles per hour and continue for 30 minutes. I think I could probably do that because the appeal is that it feels more a approachable than running while still providing a challenging cardiovascular workout.

And it advocates that it helps, obviously, with weight management, particularly while being gentler on joints. This just sounds like common sense to me. Using an incline is something I know PTs always suggest. And we know that walking taps into fat stores rather than quick sprints, which uses your glycogen and different mechanisms in your bodies, you switch from aerobic to anaerobic with different various forms of training. Have you found her?

Oh yeah, I'm like deep, sorry, I am listening, but I'm quite deep on our Instagram now. She's unlocked, don't do it, not while we're recording. Yeah, look, it's interesting. It's definitely like many of these trans and aesthetic focus. But then again, like if something has an aesthetic focus and then it gets you moving in a healthy and plausible way, then like in my book, that's not a bad thing. And also it's really nice. Like she's in London at the moment, according to Instagram. And she's doing a big meetup of her community.

It feels really nice and wholesome. do you know what i've never done a treadmill workout maybe one day if i'm ever near a treadmill i will give it a try but i think one caveat that i have seen people know is that 12% incline is apparently very very steep so maybe if you're newer to this you just start a little bit slower and then just build up gradually but i think it does seem to align with this kind of nicer approach so like more compassionate way of doing things where you're not necessarily having to like push yourself to your max It's like, no, 30 minutes of walking. You could watch a show while you do it, listen to a podcast.

That feels quite nice, quite sustainable. I'm into it. I'm definitely into it. Not the 12% obviously being pregnant. I probably shouldn't do that. But I will try this week in the heat wave because the gym is the only aircon place I can kind of escape to, apart from here in the studio. And yeah, I'm going to give it a go.

So thank you. Then number two, we have also discussed as being a trend, Ella, before. It was Tai Chi, but this is Tai Chi. Tai Chi walking. Yeah, we've talked about Tai Chi as well because there's a lot of research on it being so good for us because it's so calming and soothing and a bit like yoga, incredibly well-studied as such an obviously ancient and well-respected practice. This is interesting because it's walking, which is very popular quite rightly, in terms of a health and wellness thing. Everyone's a bit obsessed for their steps. And then principles from Tai Chi. So there was a senior teacher at the

Tai Chi Foundation in New York, Jonathan Stowe. And he explained it. He's a He said it's nothing like regular walking. Instead of striding, you shift your weight from one foot to the other in a very controlled way like a cat. You need to keep the knees slightly bend, which removes pressure from the lower back, and move as if suspended from the heavens and everything is relaxing around you. I was like, that sounds quite nice. You might look a bit of funny as you do it, but like, sounds nice. It sounds great.

I'd love to see a load of Tai Chi walkers through London. You wouldn't even bat an eyelid in the city either because it would also be seen as, you know, group of people out walking you can get used to all sorts of things in the cities in the countryside maybe would be looked at as a bit odd um cortisol cocktails number three i'm afraid this is one i'm not down with but there was an award for the most 2026 wellness trend cortisol cocktails gosh if there was an award it would win wouldn't it ella it's everywhere oh my gosh and we've talked about this before so we don't need to dwell on it i think you guys know we think this is insane i would say we've already seen this over here

personally, but essentially, if you miss our episode talking about it in the past, there are claims these homemade cocktails, or obviously minus the alcohol, mocktails, can lower your cortisol, your stress hormone. And that's become a big social media explanation, as we know cortisol has for everything, from like weight gain to fatigue, you know, being puffy, and it's kind of upset, insane, and like a huge oversimplification, an incredibly reductive way to talk about something very complicated. to make this cocktail you just mix orange juice coconut water salt and sometimes magnesium or electrolyte supplements the theory being they can reduce symptoms of stress that is just not true and not safe yeah and cortisol also isn't inherently bad very very important to be saying that like you need cortisol to get out of bed in the morning it's an essential hormone it's involved in your energy regulation your sleep weight cycle it is not bad we need to stop demonizing cortisol what is bad is chronic living in permanent chronic stress that is very very bad

for our health, but we don't need to be quite so obsessed, I would say with cortisol. Anyway, I think this is the ultimate thing of like taking a complicated physiological concept and also something that's very normal and turning it into like something we can market and make money and create clickbait from. Wholeheartedly agree. Health warning, like I said, it's dangerous. Taking one drink like this is not going to have any impact whatsoever on your hormone levels in your body. And actually for and most people, that's an immense amount of salt suddenly to take it in and could do more harm than good. Oh, we've now gone from treadmill walking to trend number four, which is a weights only gym.

So we discussed the new research earlier that 90 to 120 minutes of strength training is associated with the low risks, of course, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer's premature death. But in response, there's a new concept of gyms that's emerging. CrossFit's obviously very different, but we do already have gyms that exist here in the UK. like CrossFit, which are designed for that purpose alone. But these facilities focus almost entirely on free weight stations, Ella, strength equipment. Yeah, I haven't seen this in the UK. Let me know if you guys have. I think it's really interesting.

So it's essentially just a really stripped back gym. And so you just got, yes, reset kind of free weights and strength equipment. And as a result, it's much, much cheaper to run. And I think it's really interesting because actually, as we talked about, it's quite easy. I know you can do your treadmill work. like as we just talked about, but for loads of us, getting cardio in in terms of like walking, you know, if you have a dog, walk the dog, if you have children, you're outside maybe with them,

or you like to go for a walk in your lunch break, or you chat to a friend and walk with them, you hoover the house, as we said, you mowed the lawn. Like, there's quite a lot of cardio that you can inherently get into your life. You don't necessarily need to pay to go somewhere to use it, whereas a rack of weights, not many people have in their house or have space for in their house. and then so this could be much cheaper and simpler to be able to do those two hours of strength training a week or so I think it was really interesting I'd be very curious to see these like simple simple strip back

small accessible gyms yeah I hope it can appeal to both sexes I have this image in my head of an old like 1950s weight gym or moving forward to an Arnie Schwarzenegger isn't it kind of you know concept of that type environment so yeah very interesting let's watch the space there Number five, sleep maxing. It's optimization culture, of course, to have the perfect bedtime routine would indeed now be sleep maxing and it's simple.

Oh, if only I can sleep max, Ella, to achieve the perfect night's sleep using every tool available, similar to a morning shed but for sleep. So mouth tape, sunrise alarm clocks, sleep trackers, magnesium supplements, cooling mattresses, smart masks, increasingly expensive technology, Ella. Yeah, I mean, I actually put this in for us at all. about next week because I'm now seeing maxing everything I saw sperm maxing I saw vagina maxing I'm telling you I'm seeing maxing everywhere I'm sure you guys are as well and it's like can we just leave ourselves alone now I don't need to max everything actually I mean this is why you're bricked out I mean I would not want to be on your algorithm it's not just in the papers like sperm maxing was in the guardian is that link to oh no we'll just we'll discuss it another week before I go down around

okay next week guys we'll go but anyway I just and there was a can't read which paper it was in that was about vagina maxing and like perfect vaginas. Anyway, I just kind of had enough. I just don't want to max things in my life. I just want to max like having a nice time and like feeling peaceful and balanced and sane. I don't want to max all this stuff. It's nonsense. But this optimization of sleep we talked about last week, how much stress it's causing. But it is huge. We are seeing like gadget after gadget after gadget come out. So I can completely see that trend continuing over here. Same. Me too. And our final trend of today is called halo therapy. So better known as salt therapy, again, be careful here everyone, but it does sound futuristic and it's actually simple. It's just sessions that take place

in rooms that are designed to resemble salt caves, salt covered walls, pharmaceutical grade salt dispersed into the air. Now, I will say we already have Himalayan salt walls in a lot of these gyms and outlets. The advocates claim the benefits are respiratory health, skin condition, muscle recovery and relaxation, but the growth is huge Ella. In 2013, there are about 50 salt caves in the States. Today, more than 3,000 practices are registered with the Salt Therapy Association. And market analysts predict that this is going to be rapid growth over the next decade. Yeah, there's an association for everything, right?

Do you see my face when I read that out loud? I was like, hang on, what association? I think with this kind of thing, my general sense on it, is like we all know that we, you know, there is an issue with chronic stress and finding time to kind of relax and recover. And so for me, I'm like, if that's something that's part of your gym or like your community and you go there with a friend and you enjoy it, I can completely believe you are in the kind of cocoon and you're probably really, really, really relaxed. And it's sort of a like soothing, nourishing spa type environment. And if that's the case, then like crack on. But I think

is probably the research I can only imagine, and I can't say I know the answer to this, but I imagine there's not a huge amount of research and whether it really, really helps, like, respiratory health. But we do know that, like, real relaxation is incredibly good for your health. And so, if this is a tool for that, then kind of crack on. I love sitting in a Himalayan salt, pink, beautiful room with, you know, dimmed lighting, lovely music at life. I don't know if I'd like the scent of salt, but I do quite like a sparse scent. Of course, we do know, that salt plays an incredibly important role in our body. But once again, most of us are actually getting too much salt when it comes to ingesting it.

So surrounding yourself in these environments and relaxing, like Ella said, is great. You just don't need to be ingesting salt. Muscle recovery, an absent salt bath, all those sorts of things, fantastic. I'm awful that I love an absent salt bath. Me too. Like the best thing in the world, although not in the heat wave. I mean, and maybe that's why I'm my sleep routine and I'm just not sleep maxing Ella, because I just can't deba baths in a heat wave.

I'm not sleep maxing because my five-year-old literally elbows me in their head every night. I know. I know. I just think sleep maxing if you're a parent is probably a zero-go trend. So everyone, I hope you've enjoyed today's episode. It has been eclectic to say the least. It really has. I've loved it.

Let us know, guys, what you think, as always. And we will be back on Thursday. This Thursday, we're talking about all sorts of things. We've had lots of questions on IV drip. so we're going to finally talk about them. We are going to be talking a little bit about some social media bits, the reflection on real life. We're going to be talking about peanut butter powder.

We're going to be talking about some matcher things. We've got loads and loads and loads of recommendations for you. Healthy aging. It's a really, and it's another eclectic mix. So we'll see you on Thursday. See you that, everyone. Bye. Are you one of those media strategy people clicking through slides, scrolling spreadsheets?

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