The Wellness Scoop - The Best UPF-Free Chocolate, Greens Powders and Calories v Protein

Episode Date: December 11, 2025

This week we’re answering your biggest end-of-year questions, from greens powders and plant points to calories versus protein and how to make sense of it all. We look at what actually matters, what doesn’t, and the simple shifts that make eating well feel easier rather than overwhelming. We’re also doing a proper chocolate tasting to find the best UPF-free options. We break down what to look for, how to spot the clever marketing, and which ones genuinely deliver. Plus, we dive into your questions on sourdough starters, prebiotic fibres like Myota, berberine, and how to support your gut without getting lost in the noise. It’s a practical, down-to-earth Q&A to help you end the year feeling clearer, calmer and more confident about what actually works. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Wellness Scoop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. And as always, we're here as your host. I'm Ella Mills. And I'm Rihanna Lambert. And today we are taking on the most amazing questions as chosen by you. Let's go. Okay, today is most definitely, I think, one of the most enjoyable episodes we've ever had to record because we are trying chocolate as chosen by you. We're chocolate tasting, guys. It's Chris Mers. We promise this would come. Thanks to you.

Exactly. You had also sent us so many recommendations on the best, no UPF dark chocolate because we've waxed lyrical about how dark chocolate actually does have lots of health benefits. Counts us one of your 30 plant points each week. So, Rie, let's talk about what chocolates are in the running. Okay, so we've got a selection here. Lola's just bought them in this morning and everyone's having a go here. So producer will is also taking part. Lola's taking part.

We've got. You guys recommended these. So we have, okay, there are six chocolates here. We have the Divine 85%, exquisitely smooth dark chocolate. On Bar, great small brand, bean to bar, super chocolate, 72%. Hugh, which comes from America, get back to Hugh and simple dark chocolate. That's 70%. We have the one, I forget the name of our listener who recommended this,

but that kickstarted this whole chocolate challenge. The Madagascan Sainsbury's Taste the Difference, Dark Chocolate. Tesco's finest Peru dark chocolate single origin 85% and then nice packaging I'd say at the collection the M&S single origin dark chocolate from Ecuador 75%.

So we all have to have a little bit of each Oh this is so exciting Let's start with Eminus because they had it locked Should we get Lola and World to go first? Yeah Okay you get first dibs Now I want feedback on texture of chocolate mouth feel apparently

Oh my god that's It tastes like milk chocolate What do you think? Creamy. We got creamy. I don't want to skip the whole exercise But that's the best dark chocolate I think I've ever had I know Okay, we're going to the Tesco one next

Okay Right, Lola No one near as good as the M&S Underwhelmed I wouldn't buy this It's a bit one dimensional It just doesn't have that palette The M&S one did Slightly acidic?

Yeah, it doesn't taste quite right, does it? Okay. Okay, let's try the Saints'Reach one that kicked started this whole thing as to what the best dark chocolate is. Hmm. That's very good. I like this one, yeah. I feel like I could have more of this than the M&S one. It's really rich.

This is the divine. The divine one is excellent. This is on a par with the M&S with me. It's 85% as well. And it doesn't, I much prefer it to the Sainsbury's one. That's our highest. percentage yeah it doesn't take percentage and so it's got the extra health benefits and it is absolutely delicious it's got very satisfying chunkiness to it it does it's a really nice

I agree so so far emmnes and divine emmnes and divine are topping the leaderboard okay now we're going to try the two smaller brands of this the ombar and the hue this is ombar and it only has three ingredients Yeah, I like this one. Is that your favourite? Okay, producer will's favourite so far. It's very, very creamy. Has it been like a coffee aftertaste?

Hmm. Interesting. Oh my God, this is so fun. Okay, last chocolate today is Hugh, which is H-U. And that is thick. Ella's having a hard time chain breaking it into chunks. I love this brand. Also uses coconut sugar as does Omba.

It's not as creamy as Onba. It's not as creamy as Enbar. I really like this. So we have our four, favorites are on bar divine hue and eminass what who you're going to win a two well the thing is on bar for will on bar lola divine divine i'm going to say emin s hmm okay re deciding though who's the winner oh it's really really hard to choose but as much as i love the taste of all four of those i think based on sugar content which as a nutritionist i'm going to do i think i'm going to go for divine

because it's got the lowest sugar content and it's co-owned by Cocoa Farmers. So that means Divine is our Christmas winner. The Divine 85% Coco, as you said, co-owned by the farmers. That's the Christmas winner. With a runner-up going to the M&S and the Ombar. Fantastic. Well, thank you everybody.

Okay, you know what's put in your stockings now, guys. We know which chocolate to go for. Anything else like that you'd like us to do again. You know, please don't hesitate to ask. If we have to. Ria, I think you've got another actual Christmas recommendation with a book, right? I have a book wreck, and it's called How to Be Selfish. And I actually think this time of year, I needed this.

I needed something. I find it really easy, and I'm sure so many listeners do, to be all consumed. It's really difficult to take a step back. And it's by Susie Redding, and this book is essentially written for people who couldn't be selfish if they tried. So anyone that feels guilty for resting, I mean, I know. I know I feel like they're saying no or leaning on people. It questions everything that we've been told about selfishness. And selflessness is the compassionate guide to developing the skills of self-advocacy.

And it's got seven steps in it which help you kind of bring back your power to yourself. And I think, Ella, you know, I remember before mentioning when I did one little thing for myself and, you know, the comments you can get for even saying you did something for yourself sometimes. As a society, I think we all need to change a little bit. this kind of forefront of how we deal with self-care. So that's my recommendation, how to be selfish by Susie Redding. Can I just say at the risk of being wildly judged by people, I used to really struggle with this.

And over the last little bit, I have got so much better at it because I just noticed when I get really overwhelmed, I get really overstimulated, and I'm just not great. Like, I'm not the best mom. I'm not the best partner because I'm just, oh my goodness, I just need a second. And I never used to ask for it. And then I'd sort of make myself like a martyr. And my husband used to be like, go. Like go and exercise.

Like just go. Like I've got the kids. Like, why are you making this a problem? And I've really tried hard, actually, in the last year or two to get better on a Saturday afternoon or something. And saying like, no, you know what, we're not going to come to that birthday party. It's not my daughter's best friend sort of thing. We're just going to skip it. We're going to be at home.

We're going to chill out. And the kids can watch TV. And I'm going to watch TV for a minute too. I don't have to always be doing something. And I have to say, it's really difficult to start with. It's so hard. But now I'm loving it. Oh, Ella, that's brilliant.

I mean, look, it's easier because the kids are older, right? They're five and six. And so, you know, they love the idea of, like, getting into bed and watching something on one of our iPads for an hour and I'll have a bath and chill out. And it's lovely. And it's that's so much easier. I could never have done that when they are one and two. Obviously, they have to be supervised. So it is different.

I think it's also coming into your 30s and progressing on what's 30s, 40s, 50s. You're out of, well, as you know, there is still a compelling drive to be doing everything and everything at once. And I'm really glad you shared that because it's hard work to get to that point. Yeah, and it feels quite alien to start with. But having worked through that alien, now I love it. Well done. So recommender. And I think we also need to call out some questions from our listeners for our nutrition myths.

So we are going to have Dr. Sarah Berry on in January. We are a huge fan. She's got the biggest data pool where you could, you could, you could, possibly pull from with research and we thought with new year you know coming up new year new me who knows how many slogans we could reel off yeah January detoxes and fans and trans and all the rest of it we thought what a great moment to do a kind of nutrition myth um busting episodes so whether that's seed oils whether that's keto diets whether that's Atkins diets whether that's like carbs versus fat versus sugar for weight loss all that sort of thing any of these like

nundrums, questions, queries that have bothered you, you know, I read this in a magazine and I wondered what it really means or I want to do X, Y or Z in the New Year. What does that mean? Should I be doing? Why? Send them in either email me Ella at Deliciousyellow.com or pop them in the Spotify comments, Apple podcast comments. We want all your confusion about nutrition and the various different myths and legends that have been told over the last few decades. And we will clear them all up so we can start 2026 with the best foot forward. we're prioritising our health, we're empowered with our well-being, but we are not overwhelmed and we are not chasing quick-fix fats.

We also have today tons of questions from you, and the first one is on green powders. Yes, this was a great one. We talked about green powders, obviously, was last week. Wasn't it all the week before? I think it was the week before. Oh gosh, the time, Ellis slips my mind right now. No judgment. Okay.

Recently we talked about green powders, and we had a follow-up question from Killer Ends. who is listening all the way from Sunny Australia they said thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and advice on all the research you do I love listening to the pod on my daily walk on our family farm in regional New South Wales, Australia Oh beautiful I know how nice does that sound

A question on greens powder I'm eight months postpartum with our second baby and still breastfeeding I'm feeling a little depleted I'm starting to get back into a regular routine with sleep, exercise and paying a little more attention to the nutritional benefits of our family meals I recently purchased a daily greens powder containing things like organic barley grass, organic wheat grass, organic spirulina, chlorilla, ingredient this below.

It kind of goes on in that remit. While I know you caution on quote unquote magic potions and vitamins making big health claims, I wonder if adding a greens powder like this is beneficial. Could a product like this perhaps contribute to my weekly 30 plants? I feel it would be unlikely I'd get some of these ingredients, my usual meals and food choices. I can't say I've noticed any physical benefits, perhaps brighten my skin. a little, but mentally it makes me feel like I'm doing a little good for myself and I would love to know your thoughts. Such an nicely phrased question. Really beautifully phrased question because I think that Keller and you're doing an incredible job because just to say first of all,

you know, having babies and juggling a family and breastfeeding and life and finding space for yourself is really, really tricky and I think wanting something like we said at the beginning that feels like an act of self-care does make sense. You want to do something for yourself. What I would say is that the green powders, while they're not harmful for most people, and it might be a good psychological kind of or emotional boost, but nutritionally, they don't actually do what they probably promise on the packet that they're doing. Essentially, you know, they don't replace whole foods. You know, they're dried, their process, they're ground into a powder. You lose what we've called and discussed as the food matrix before, which is that natural

structure of food that helps us absorb the vitamins, the minerals, you know, the fiber. And I discuss this so much in the next book I've written the fiber formula because those phytonutrients that come within that food matrix only really work in a certain way. And once you ground them down into a powder, you know, spirulina, wheatgrass or chlorella, you know, they do sound like impressive powders, don't they? They're like these big green, vibrant, you think vibrant green, wow, you know, that's going to give me everything I could possibly need. But it just doesn't count towards your 30 plant points for the week. It's just a sprinkle of powder and it does not count as an additional 30 plant points. So what I would say instead is just focus more on that

extra snack. You can save yourself some money. You don't need to be taking these magic potions. If anything, they can be dangerous. Sometimes you have a look at the back of the packet and you don't know what form of vitamin A it actually is, especially if you're breastfeeding, you might be taking supplements to support that you could be overdoing it on a fat soluble vitamin as well and I personally just feel like rebuilding yourself and caring for someone else is really hard and green powders probably aren't going to do it. But I love what you were talking about and I really recommend this genuinely for absolutely everybody about the things that give you that emotional boost because actually looking after yourself is not easy in a world where most people are overcommitted,

over-stimulated, very busy. And so I personally get to a lot from those little hooks or routines or things that you might start the day with. Yeah, I completely agree, Ella, because sometimes it can just be a handful of almonds in the morning or it could be some cacao powder like a hot chocolate drink instead of the expensive green powders. Like it shouldn't have to cost so much money for these green powders. But my big problem is the deception of the message of green powders. It's not that you're taking something for yourself. It's that it's deceptive. But I think what you could maybe swap it with instead that would give you buckets of nutrition and goodness.

And probably the same like, yes, go me. I'm looking after myself is just a morning like green smoothie. Yes, a smoothie. And you could do frozen banana. You could do spinach or other greens. Exactly. Various different nut butters. Pop some chia seeds in there, some oats, maybe some berries if you've got them.

But so you could be getting five, six, seven plants easily in there. So you're getting those plant points, but you're also getting the fiber. You're getting, as you said, all the vitamins, minerals, all of that. it only takes two or three minutes to do you can even if it's helpful like pre-preprap that for the week so you can portion out one smoothies worth and do seven of them

that's probably more realistic when you've got an eight month old totally pop in little freezer bags and then you just literally pop that straight from the freezer into the blender with any liquid of choice and then blend it up so again it probably would take you 10 minutes to prep it for the week

but then it will take you literally one minute to make and it gives you that same emotional connection which I really relate to and appreciate. I certainly feel like I need those pillars every day. And I think you will be physically depleted until you're, I know this is an awful statistic, but until you're two years postpartum, that's when research suggests you feel more like yourself. So eight months, you know, you're still in the thick of it. I think it's a hard time to feel completely replenished. Yeah. But I think for anyone who likes the emotional signal of a green powder, try a green smoothie. As I said, you'd be getting way more fiber. You'll be

definitely getting those five to eight, depending what you use, plant points. Super, super easy to do. But we'll give you a bit more. I completely agree. And it leads us on to our question from Julie, who has a question about calories versus fibre and fat versus nutrition. So I love the way you titled that question, Julie. She said, I'm Julie, I'm 17. I live in Florida.

We've got all the sunny locations today. Yeah, we're exotic today. We are exotic today. I love your podcast. It helps everything makes sense. I have a dilemma I think many people share. She said, I'm genetically predisposed to obesity. So maintaining a healthy weight has been a lifelong effort.

And I'm not just aiming to be thin. I just want to be healthy. For context, she's given her details about her height and weight here. And she says she's on statins for genetically high cholesterol. So I struggle to fit all the required nutrition into a day. For example, to get enough fiber, I eat a cup of oatmeal, porridge over here in the UK with banana flax chiro and a small bit of fat-free Greek yogurt and nuts, over 500 calories for a breakfast I don't even

enjoy. The rest of the day, I'm trying to work in a cup of beans, lots of vegetables, protein and sometimes grains, cheese feels like a luxury. Coconut milk is high in saturated fat and cashew-based sauces are high in calories. It feels like everything healthy conflicts with something else. So the subject of Julie's email was, as you read, calories versus fibre versus fat versus nutrition and I really agree with Julie that she's kind of hitting the nail on the head with I think other people are confused about this with this like consistent conflicting messaging where you know you need to have X but then you need to have Y and the idea of trying to fit it all into a day gets really really overwhelming and reimagined you just see this the whole time

where people are trying to get you know we've talked about this before suddenly 30 grams of protein in every single meal well if you want to get 30 grams of protein every single meal is going to be quite difficult to also get 10 grams of fiber in every single meal and also get the amount of plant diversity that you need but also get the omega-3s and also get this and also enjoy your meals and so I totally agree with her it feels like everything's at the compromise of something else and how how do you simplify that down as a kind of simple messaging that you can just gently weave into your meals I think we need to stop looking at meals in isolation I think this might be helpful for you actually with this question and just start thinking about weekly

patterns instead because it's just too much you know when you're looking at food in isolation you lose the fact that we eat food for so many different reasons as well and it becomes a very numerical methodical almost like a sports nutrition plan for the everyday person and I appreciate that you've got struggles here you've mentioned with obesity and looking at cholesterol and food it can feel incredibly overwhelming but you know it's small swaps like if you are looking at calories it's I don't think this should be for everybody but it's things like swapping a banana for berries or something in the morning but we have to remember calories don't all work in the same way so instead of focusing on the numbers in your food just go back to the visual aspect of is this portion

too large for me because you can have all those components on your plate you don't have to weigh it out to hit 30 grams or to hit that amount of fiber and sometimes it helps to just remove the numbers And like you said, cashew sauce, just a spoonful is totally okay. You don't have to saturate your plate with it. Go half, half on things. And protein and fibre, the easiest way of upping both is to do plant-based options because beans and pulses are lowering calories, higher in fibre and also contain protein. So if you're having a look at things like that, that might be helpful as well.

And I think enjoyment and it's really hard. And I hear you. What I'm also hearing coming through here is years of diet culture, years of being saturated like we get in the Retrition Clinic of someone online, a PT telling you this is the 30 gram or a nutritionist somewhere saying this is the goal, everyone has to fit this one size. It's usually when we have all these numbers and targets in our heads that it becomes an overwhelming mission and it's actually incredibly difficult to let go of that. So let's just start by looking at the week congratulating yourself that you are actually getting diversity in your

breakfast bowl. Just try halving the portions of that and try not to worry that you're not hitting the 30 grams in each meal or each day and just start looking at the types of food on your plate rather than hitting an exact number or portion size. It's very difficult to give one-to-one advice like this ethically without knowing your health history, your clinic sessions. But I hope that by removing all those external voices and just looking at the positive aspects of food, that might be helpful. Yeah, because it gets really overwhelming, doesn't it? If you're consistently trying to measure everything and it's the same, like you know, look at the whole week for diversity. It's not about every single meal or every single day.

It's like your collective diet that counts. So you don't need to have cheer and flax in every meal. Like have it one day, have flax another day, but also enjoy it. Like it sounds like you're hating your breakfast. So scrap that. Let's get you something new. I completely agree. And we have an anonymous question next, Ella, talking of something new.

She said she's really, really intrigued by your sour dough baking, Ella, thinking of by my husband, Artiquette for Christmas and he loves it, but I have no idea where to begin. Any recommendations, please? Oh yeah, I absolutely love this. I anonymised this one just in the off chance that her husband was a listener. Okay, look, first of all, I want to just clarify, I'm very new into this world. By no means, am I an expert, but I am absolutely loving it. It's so fun making your own bread. I started making my own bread rolls, bagels are next, and I just, I really, really enjoy it. And I think also, like I did calculate, we've talked about bread before and it's quite hard to get hold of like high quality bread sometimes. There's a lot, you know, it's one of the most UPF items. And it actually doesn't take that long to make it in terms of hands-on time.

It's just something to do like on a day you're working from home because you just need to have an eye on it. But I reckon each loaf is costing me sub one pound for like a big sourdough loaf, which is pretty cool actually compared to if you went to a bakery in central London, they'd want to charge you seven pounds for that. easily. So that's quite fun. But you honestly don't need much. The only thing you need to do is you need to find someone who has a starter. You can make your own starter, which is the fermented flour and water that kickstarts the process. But my understanding from anyone I've ever spoken to, making your own start is quite hard and a strong starter is the key to good sourdough. So you're going to need to find someone really who can give you some. But if you make sourdough, you have so much starter going on that like having extra is just not a problem in any shape or four.

and then you don't need much still you need a jar to put it in empty jam jars or bean jars easy pieces of you want to get quite a big one though don't you quite a big one but if you have like a big butter bean jar excellent or like a big kind of the like bon mamon size jam jar great I mean you can also buy a starter jar on amazon or whatever but you don't need a banneton proofing basket and a little scorer

but I mean great present 20 pounds for everything you need and of course there's probably loads of YouTube tutorials on So many. And my only thing I would say I have learned so far we're trying to make my own bread is that basically there is no recipe. Okay. So there is a ratio of kind of flour to water and starter. But the time it takes is so dependent on the strength of your starter, the heat of your kitchen or the coldness of your kitchen. The science of baking.

Yeah. It's a very scientific process. And I would say the best thing I've done is send chat GPT photos of my bread as I go to ask. Like is it proved yet? How does it look? That's transformed the whole thing. I mean, chat GPT is a baker now. Someone criticised me a few weeks ago for saying I use chat GPT for my sourdough saying we shouldn't use it. The thing is I don't have an expert like in my pocket. I'm sorry, I don't see the harm in asking it about some bread. But also it's a bit silly to bake a pancake like or like wildly dense loaf of bread that ends up unusable. So what's amazing is that

because there's no specific method to follow, I send pictures at every single stage and then I send pictures of my bread afterwards and ask it for tips and tricks and that has transformed my loaves into like airy light gems. I am flabbergasted in like a really wonderful way. I mean, I can't yeah. So you literally, you need a starter and you need a jar for it. You need a proofing basket and a scoring knife. You need lots of strong bread flour. Maybe you could give them a nice teetown and cover their brave with. You need to block out time to do this. It doesn't actually take very long. Like it's probably hands-on like 20 minutes. It's just you need to be at home because, like, I haven't bought YOLO for bread today because I didn't feed my starter in time.

I've forgotten all about that, Ella, but next week now I won't, so, you know. I know. Well, it's fine. I'm at home so I can feed my starter. Sally, to the next question, has said, I just wondered, what are your thoughts on prebiotic fiber supplements like meota? Would you say meota, meoita? I wasn't sure. I'd say, myota, meota.

I have a relatively a healthy diet and probably get 30 plant points as I'm a vegetarian. I take a probiotic, but would pre-abotic fibres like meota help? Well, well done, Sally. I'm getting your 30 plant points. That's absolutely fantastic. I can't see any reason why you would need to take prebiotic fibres. As a vegetarian as well. No, if you're eating 30 plants and you're therefore almost certainly getting at least most of the fibre you need every single day. but if you're not, I would focus on like a little cheer and oat pudding a few times a week or something like that, just for that extra boost of fibre, because it sounds like you're doing

an excellent job. I mean, I actually didn't know my o-tip, just looking it up. So it contains partially hydrolyzed goo-ar gum, wheat fiber, oat fiber, cellulose, ghouer fiber, and zinc. I just can't see why you would need that, if I'm completely honest. Yeah, the only time we'd ever recommend these things in clinic, as if there's something else, a condition or a reason why you wouldn't be able to consume the foods that contain the fibers, the food matrix again, naturally within them. Now, pre-obartic fibres, like Inulin, things that people add to products to give them high-fiber claims, like Ella and I have discussed in a few previous episodes.

What they do as a job is they feed the gut bacteria. So think of pre-bartics as feeding the bugs in your tummy and the probiotics as already being live bugs that are going down to work and colonize and be happy with the bugs that are already there. That's such a helpful differentiation. So probiotics is the bugs themselves, and you're giving a little extra boost of the colony, and prebiotics is a little nibble for the bugs to enjoy. 100%. But prebiotics are therefore abundant.

They're in foods. Exactly. In plants. In plants, yeah, which is why we have a problem in this country with 96% of us not eating enough fiber, which is prebartics, right? Yeah, and I think that's actually, I know this is slightly off topic, but not really. A really relevant point. We talked about supplements and maybe overly buying things. if you're taking lots of proberties then you're not getting you're not actually eating plants

you're spending money on the bugs but then you're not feeding the bugs i know it's a cycle they're pets they need food it's a pet and do you know what in this country in particular um we need to do ourselves justice and for the next book the fiber formula i wrote a table comparing every fiber supplement or like the most common ones in the book i can't wait to show you um you're going to get an early copy soon i let me through oh my gosh i'm desperate for that and i think you'll like that page and And some of the first fibre supplements were created like 40, 50 years ago, like famous bars and things people used to take. But I cannot reiterate enough.

Unless you're on antibiotics, you need a bit of extra support. I don't think they're a good idea for most people. Even if you're experiencing constipation in the clinic, our first point of call is never take a fibre supplement. We try and address the underlying causes and the diet, and then we would introduce that next. So the next question is very different, Ella. We've got adverts in social media.

Yes, this was a really great question. We just see it so much. It means completely different to the question before asking about fibre supplements. But there is just this consistent theme, I would say. And I think just to circle back to that last question from Sally, I think it's so indicative of my current obsession or ongoing obsession with the irony of the world of wellness. So I was doing some research for something this week. and I was looking at the most recent figures of the size of the wellness industry.

And McKinsey, which is, you know, one of the world's largest consultancy firms, they value it around $2 trillion. Trillion. Trillion, trillion or billion, trillion. I can't even figure out how many noughts that is right now. Other people are over $6 trillion. And so we just have to kind of, and it depends what you include, right? Some of it includes it's like travel wellness and things like that. But I think it's very indicative.

The wellness industry is enormous. and it is booming and it's growing like a weed and it is growing like a weed at a moment in which we eat fewer vegetables than at any time in the last 50 years and I just think it's so ironic and absurd and these people are making and we talked about it in Monday's episode

about this premise of wellness washing and this like focus part of the Lancet's report is just saying look the marketing that goes towards these UPF items supplements are included in that in my opinion yeah it's just madness and I think and Natalia don't offer a word of judgment on this. I just mean, I think that question is really indicative of this challenge,

where we have Sally here, who's doing clearly a fantastic job, where she's got a relatively healthy diet, excellent, probably getting 30 plant points a week, excellent. But there's still this need of like, should I also spend my money on a fibre supplement? And I think that's why we're also having these questions about loads of green powders, and now we're seeing it again with Burboreen, which is another supplement for weight loss. And it's like, people actually, I think, generally speaking, I bet our listeners are doing a really great job. and yet they're still feeling the pressure to do more, spend more. But I just think it's a really important, like, just note to reflect on,

which is there is this humongous marketing focus on making us feel like we need more. But actually, oftentimes, what we really need for our health is, like, peace and calm. I agree completely. Anyway, I digress. Charlotte's question. It's very valid. It is I have been seeing adverts on social media pop up all the time about Burboreen. claiming to be the natural way to regulate your body weight and burn fats, regulate blood sugars.

Is this true? Could you possibly expand on this for me? Reid, let's go into this. What is berberine? It's a plant compound, like loads of these supplements are that you see marketed to burn fat most years, because plant compounds are good for us. You know, you can't, but you can't pick it out in isolation and expect it to work in our body in the way that often they're marketed to do. So it's found in herbs. This one in particular is from something called Berberis or Barbary Golden Seal. It's got various different names, Oregon grape. It's popular for blood glucose control, and I think a certain influencer raised this a year or two ago.

Cholesterol management, apparently, a metabolic health. Now, to most people, that's like, yay, something I can take that's going to activate, you know, pathways in my cells that help me lose weight. But the research that we've got, basically, is about insulin sensitivity, often in diabetics. So we can't apply research that's taken place in a diabetic population to the general public anyway. But there have been a few randomized control trials that have worked with this particular berberine. But again, remember, the dose in this particular supplement in a trial is way higher than you'd get on a generic high street like supplement dose. And it can reduce the HBA 1C. So that's your readers when you get a blood test.

Basically, your fasting glucose and the bad cholesterol. So it's kind of said that it can reduce that in some tiny trials. But these studies are, you know, they're short-term, small sample sizes. And what you don't know is what's going on in those particular individuals' diets, how much exercise they do, how much sleep they get, what food they eat. So rather than saying that it is conclusive, I'd say there's evidence emerging. It might be a beneficial component to have in your diet. But it can interact with medicine, Ella, and it isn't recommended in pregnancy or breastfeeding.

So whenever I see these types of fat, burners or, you know, miracle antioxidants plucked out of a food. We just have to remember as a society that ultimately you will still get more benefits from eating blueberries. Again, that's exactly what I was going to say is that this is super small scale, whereas what we have is like a mountain of research to show that a Mediterranean style, very plant-rich diet. That's the same thing. But also that you can't guarantee that these pills don't get destroyed by your stomach acid and even make it into doing what they need to do. Yeah. And you could just waste money so quickly. It's so expensive. And it actually leads us on really nicely to questions about children, Ella,

from Amy. Yes, I really thought this is a nice question, actually. Amy said I have a two and a half year old, and she's always been a great eater so far. She loves fruits and vegetables and needs lots of spice foods too. I make almost all her meals from scratch and avoid UPFs as much as possible, both of which are time and money dependent. Sounds like Amy's doing a 10 out of 10 job. I want to make sure I'm doing the best for her in terms of vitamins, minerals and gut health in general, so I'm interested in plant points for children. Do they need 32? And what's their requirement for fermented foods? Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated. No, really helpful. So I sent a quick message to Federica Armati, who is the head nutritionist at Zoe. She loves this area of

Nutritional, as we know. We've had her on the podcast before. And she's got a voice note here for us to contribute. It sounds like you're doing an amazing job for your lovely two and a half year old. What I would say is that we don't have enough data to know exactly how many plants per week children should eat, but we can definitely model the same concept and try and get as much variety as possible in their diets. And the exposure to lots of different plant foods is really beneficial for children. So just focusing on that is great. Try to include nuts and seeds unless they're allergic, whole grains and legumes as much as possible. And in terms of fermented foods, there isn't like a minimum requirement there,

but we do know it's good for children too, things like yoghurt and kaffir, introducing sauerkraut at a young age. All of these are really nice practices to have and helps your children to expand their palate and get used to the flavours so they can continue to choose these brilliant foods later in life. I think one of the simplest ways to do this is actually just to focus on getting your children used to eating plain and natural live yogurt, whether it's Greek or not, is so good for them, full of nutrients, and of course, a fermented food.

Another really simple way and lovely way to introduce children to fermented foods is to actually mix sauerkraut in with some cream cheese. Cream cheese has actually got live ferments in them, live microbes. We analysed some of the nation's favorite cream cheese brands. And as long as you're buying them without any added emulsifiers or flavors, it's actually a fermented food. and we also can stir us with sauerkraut, it makes for a delicious spread. They can have that on a lovely piece of brown bread or you can put it on their favorite cracker. And it's another way of introducing lovely live ferment in their diet.

I hope that helps. Amazing. It's a nice episode. And guys, we only have one more episode before we take just two weeks off for Christmas. So we will see you back here on Monday and then Thursday next week. And then we will all be resting and enjoying our various different bars. of dark chocolate oh my goodness divine hue ombar m and s it's so exciting and then we're about the first week of january to get you for your commutes don't worry we're not going to

leave you hanging we are there so we'll see you on monday guys can't wait