The Wellness Scoop - The Protein Divide, The Optimism Effect & Britain’s Favourite Veg

Episode Date: April 27, 2026

This week on The Wellness Scoop, we unpack some of the biggest conversations shaping how we think about health right now, from what we should actually be eating for heart health to the growing evidence that mindset plays a measurable role in physical wellbeing. We break down the clash between new US dietary guidelines and heart health advice, exploring the debate around plant vs animal protein, red meat and saturated fats. We also dive into the science of optimism and why a more positive outlook is linked to better cardiovascular health, sleep and immunity. Plus, we look at Britain’s favourite vegetables and what they’re really doing for your health, before finishing with the rising trend of cosmeticorexia and what it reveals about our relationship with appearance. Send your questions for our weekly Q&A to ⁠[e-mail]⁠ Recommendations:  Order your copy of Ella's new book: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Quick Wins: Healthy Cooking for Busy Lives⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Pre-order your copy of Rhi's upcoming book: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Fibre Formula⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up to the wait list for ⁠Rhitrition+⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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and still spacious enough for weekend getaways. While available 4-motion all-wheel drive gives confidence in rain and snow, the capable Taos, you deserve more confidence. Visit vw.ca to learn more. SUVW, German engineered for all. 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 Ella Mills. And I'm Rianna Lambert. And after a decade in the wellness industry,

we know that it can be incredibly overwhelming and confusing. And that's why this podcast is here to cut through the noise and make healthier living, simple, fun and personal. Exactly that. And, Re, what have we got coming up in today's show? Okay, in today's show, we have got the protein divide. Gosh, and what the latest heart health guidance actually says, are we falling out of love with a veggie lifestyle, new data shows some interesting trends,

the optimism effect and how mindset shapes physical health, and then Britain's favourite vegetables, ranked for nutrition and gut health, and the trend of the week we've got today, cosmetichorexia, the growing pressure to optimise appearance. First, Ella, what has? have you been up to this week? Well, do you know what, spoiler? We always record on a Monday

ready for this next Monday, so we're doing it very much semi in real time, I'd say, but we're recording two weeks early because I think we're both away next week. We're away celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary. So we are off. Yeah, I know. We're off to Sicily with the kids, obviously. We're a romantic trip. But yeah, I can't believe it. So yeah, that's my personal news. Oh, that's so lovely. Ten year, Wednesday. I've never been to Sicily. I've always wanted to go. How beautiful. Yeah, I'm so excited.

So we go in a couple of days. We've got five days there. I can't wait. Lovely. Do you know, I've been really totally different from Sicily topic, but I've been sharing the Artemis journey with the kids. You know, the space shuttle that has gone the furthest. Is it that the people, the astronauts have gone the furthest

they've ever traveled away from planet Earth before in a different direction around the moon. This is the furthest that humans have ever been from planet Earth. I mean, round trip of something like 700,000 miles. I have been so emotionally invested. Obviously, we're recording this on the Monday and the astronauts landed back Friday night. So it will be two weeks by the time this actually comes out. But it's kind of, yeah, just happened as we record this. I have been obsessed with it.

I honestly, I woke up on Saturday. morning and it was like 5.30 in the morning and I was like oh my gosh oh my gosh I had this like trepidation opening up the news to see like they've landed safely and I I honestly bawled my eyes out it's just this crazy intersection of kind of faith belief curiosity scientific discovery just amazing innovation all coming together and it's just the epicenter of that it's just extraordinary it really is and my um my eldest asked me mommy How fast does that spaceship go? And I looked it up 30,000 miles per hour, Ella.

It's unthinkable. And it brings you back to remembering we are essentially like a tiny ant on this planet. When you look at space, I almost don't like thinking about it. I find it hard to conceptualize because I don't like the idea that I have no control, really. I actually love her. Do you? I find the whole idea of us floating in the unknown abyss, really. Yeah, it's hard to even put it into words how to describe how that makes you feel.

I find it really soothing. It's like you're so small that, you know, you might as well let go. And we're stressing over these things that are so like minuscule in the kind of state of the universe. And actually, interestingly, read that. She brings the calm. She brings the gut. But that's what the female astronaut said. Yeah.

She said the thing that struck her most, almost from the whole experience when she was doing a press conference afterwards was actually, looking back down at earth and the smallness of earth in the kind of black abyss. And I don't know. I think it's actually in a way like a really reassuring and calming perspective. Like the world's going on around us and the universe is going on around us and we get so het up and so stuck in our little day-to-day to do lists. So I like that approach. I think I need to adopt that because my head was spiraling.

This goes to show where our different thought processes go into the scary environmental challenges at the moment that are going on in relation to obviously different wars that are imploding and things happening on the planet. And the fact we only get one planet Earth and we are not looking after it. You know, the species of penguins now for the first time that haven't survived because of global warming over in Antarctica. And there's a lot going on in the world. And when I think about planet Earth being this very special place, I just feel we need to

or remember that sometimes that we are just a tiny ant and we have to do our job to look after it as well. But that's where my brain goes, Ella. I want to lean into the calm side now. I hope you started tapping you. Do you know, I haven't and it's on my agenda this week. This week, finally, everyone's back at school. I feel I can focus and really get my head stuck down into new projects. I've got the new Retrition Plus area launching any day now and I just cannot wait to be able to offer. By the way, there's a link to that in the bio if you want to sign up. to the nutrition space, but it is, I just want to get stuck in now, Ella. I feel like that time, you know, after Easter holidays, when you're back in April, May is

emerging and do you feel like you've got this maximum opportunity to really do what you want to achieve that year? I totally agree. Well, I can't wait for you. Here we go. So, Ella, headlines that matter this week. Right, we promised you this last week, guys. We are going to be talking about all sorts of different things.

But before we do that, we're going to have a bit of a pickup, which is on that conversation we said where plant-based eating appears to be getting less popular. So some new stats that came out from YouGov very, very recently showed that vegans, have dropped from 10% of the population in 2021 to 7% in 26. And at the same time, meat consumption's rising again. 73% of adults now identifying as meat eaters, which is up from 66% in 2021. The great thing, I would say, is there's a clear shift towards a flexitarian middle ground. with around half of people now eating mostly plant-based but including some animal products,

which, you know, that's grey. But more on that behaviour change, over half of office workers say they've increased meat or fish intake and one in four, say they used to be vegetarian but no longer are. And the key drivers appear to be that there's obsessive protein narrative. I'm going to call it obsessive because I think that's what it looks like online. I'm not saying everyone doing this is obsessive. and some concerns as well that plant-based diets rely too heavily on ultra-processed foods or could miss key nutrients. So yeah, it's really interesting.

No, I completely and utterly agree. And I actually turned down discussing this on the news because I think there's so many more nuances. And I don't think it's a positive thing to be discussing if I'm being completely honest when a fifth of adults get their five a day, when we're 4% of us are hitting our fiber goals, when we know we're not eating enough. plants. We know our health is getting worse. And I don't really want, and I would have said these things, of course, on a news feature, but it's very hard that you're not usually given the time, are you, to delve into those sorts of nuances. So I actually turn this one down, Ella, because I do not see this as a positive thing, apart from the flexitarian angle. I find it kind of worrying. No, no, look, I totally hear that. And I think I said this last week when we mentioned this

data point. I think where I sit is just this real frustration and I think it's very, very symptomatic of the health and wellness industry to go from one extreme to the other. And what I see so much of on social media and look at it's because it creates really good content, so it goes quite viral and that's why I see it. But it's people who are like, I was a vegan for 10 years and they were a very hardcore vegan, you know, completely committed to it. And a lot of it was maybe raw vegan at points, no oil, you know, it's very, very dedicated. And now they're like, and I missed all sorts of things. So now I'm committed carnival. And it's like awful for breakfast. And I just find it really frustrating because I'm such a believer in individualism and you've got to find a lifestyle and

within that you a diet and a way of eating that suits you. And it's not for me or anyone else to tell you what to do when it comes to that. Only you will know what really, really suits you. But what we do know is that we desperately need to feed our microbiome and we desperately need to eat lots of plants. Eating plants is both good for our health and good for the planet. And so this sway from one to the other is really frustrating because it's like great, move to be a flexitarian. Fantastic. You don't have to eat awful for breakfast every day and have like organ supplements and eat, yeah, steak five times a week. You could just eat a little bit more. Animal product, that's fine. But I don't know why we have to be extreme. It is very sad. You can probably

hear our voice. I find the whole thing quite emotionally triggering, actually, the extremes, the dichotomy, the awful, like everything Ella has just described. But I really just want to hammer home that we are not talking about our planet and our sustainability enough at all. And I feel it's completely overlooked in conversations. And it's factual that we are not helping the planet with the food that we're choosing to eat either. And something has to shift. I don't know when it's going to shift. And like I said, you don't have to be vegetarian. You don't have to be vegan. Flexitarian's great. You just need to eat more plants and make some swabs. Can I say some controversial, really? Yeah, go on, do it. Please don't be cross with me for saying this, but not you just kind of in general.

I think, as I see it, extremes for most people aren't a sustainable choice. And the thing is, is I think, in around 2020, 2020, 2021, when we're seeing the peaks that we're now comparing the data to, that was kind of peak like beyond meat, Oatley and that, you know, post-milk generation slogan. Post-COVID as well, Ella, it was all very... Yeah, and this sense of a kind of paradigm shift when it comes to food in a new world and a kind of maybe pressure for people to become vegan or vegetarian and feel like that was the right thing to do. And whilst there is obviously health benefit and there's lots of research we talked about the other day, for example, you know, vegetarian diets linked to up to a third

lower cancerist. Like, there's so many research points around a plant, very, very rich, um, diet being incredibly beneficial for our health and obviously as well, more sustainable. For loads of people, that's actually just not how they want to eat. They do like bacon and they do like steak and they do like lots of parmesan. And that is fine. But it's almost like by pressurizing people to go to one extreme, we're always like forcing them to go to the other extreme. You. You know, Yeah, that's kind of how I'm seeing it. Yeah, it does. And there's almost, again, like a gleeful element to it, like, had the vegans failed.

I think it was just a bit much for most people to feel they had to become completely vegetarian. And I think, yeah, that's how I see it. I don't think that's controversial to say. I'm probably better at wording it now because when I first started, I did an interview, and please don't me cross for me for this one. But I said, and I didn't mean it how I said it, but I said an interview, it's my first big interview. It's like the front cover of, I can't remember which paper. I said, I don't like vegans.

And there's not what I meant. What I meant was I don't like the pressure to have to go all in or all out. That that's really difficult for most people. And it's just not a sustainable approach for the vast majority of people. It's also psychology, Ella. This is psychology. We're talking about people's beliefs. And this is going to be a motive, it's a motive language.

And if you try to tell anybody how they should live or what they should do, anybody's going to rebel against it. That's just human nature. So I completely agree with you. I've always believed in just we have to do what works for you, but let's try and optimize that and be informed. Education is power and that informs you. I think what you've said sums that up perfectly, apart from the I don't like vegan bit, which the pay property clearly pulled out in and that wasn't in context. Yeah, it was so sensationalist because what, as I said, what to me was like actually for most people, a complete overhaul of their lives done in that way, it's just

not realistic. Not possible. And so let's give people like excitement to include more. more broccoli, more lentils, more carrots. Like, let's just do more. Positive nutrition. And this is what I mean. This is why we just need to get, in my campaign this summer, children cooking more. We just need to get people to embrace the joy of food. For sure.

And so I think part of the reason that I feel sad or frustrated or kind of whichever word in the continuum we want to use, when I read all of this, is not because I want everyone to become veggie. I really don't. That's never been a goal of mine. What I really want is people to eat more healthy. And eating more healthily is eating a very plant-rich diet. And ultimately, it just feels like a step back from that because it almost insinuates, I think, in lots of this, that eating a plant-rich diet's not a good idea. And again, if we look at the data and we look at the research, it really

sits in, as we talked about last week, the kind of dash-type diet or the Mediterranean diet and the mine diet. And all of that is so plant-rich. So plant-rich and beautiful for you. And it does lead us nicely on to our first headline today, which is the US dietary guidelines versus heart health advice seller. So a growing divide now again on red meat, fats and plant-based eating. It's all very linked it's very, very linked. And I'll give you one final, just comment, sorry, to keep going on this, is I think that it's really tempting, honestly, when you're on social media now to want to do a kind of carnivore-esque diet because people are back to being like, eat like this and you'll look amazing and all your bloating will be gone and all the rest of it. And I would just say,

please take that with like, not just a pinch of salt, like a ton of salt, not because I want you to be vegetarian, but because you need vegetables. You just really need plants in your life. We're going to that more now. But you really, really do. And that's just going from one trend to another. And we've got to stop going from trend to trend. We just got to root ourselves in fundamental basics. That's exactly correct. Fundamental basics. And that's why it's interesting to discuss this today because, you know, it does feel like there's a genuine inflection point in the nutrition conversation at the moment that's happening. And I don't know if you all remember, but back in January, we discussed this on the podcast. If you scroll back, the US updated

its dietary guidelines replacing my plate, which was their traditional, like we've got the eat well plate in the UK. And they created a new, almost inverted food pyramid designed to simplify the messaging around what they call real food. So basically an aim to. And reduce ultra-processed food products, but of course we all know on here that there's so much nuance surrounding that conversation entirely on its own anyway. But at first glance, while it sounds really aligned, as we discussed before, if you look closely to what's prioritised, it's not all great. And how the American Heart Association has responded to it is very clear. They've said that there's a clear divergence in what healthy eating really means. So Ella, do you want to recap

what was introduced earlier this year? Yes, exactly. So you can Google. Google it if you're at a computer or something. It's quite interesting to see it's an upside down pyramid. So with the wider bit being the top and saying eat loads of this. And at the top is things like red meat, which as we know, I'm not demonising ever eating red meat, but it's not something you want to be eating in abundance on a daily basis. It's something to have as part of as we're saying, like a plant rich diet. So the top is much more focused on like meat, basically, and eggs, fats they're talking

about having butter and really prioritising animal fats like beef tallow, which I just don't think beef tallow has really made it over to the UK. Thank goodness. Yeah, dairy full fat options. But like at the bottom of the image is things like bananas, oats are the very like apex of the pyramid, kind of insinuating that you shouldn't eat much oats and you've got like a whole stick of butter way above oats or nuts. Yes. And we know, again, we talked about this last week. like it's not that you should never ever consume butter, but you do want to be consuming it in moderation, whereas what this pyramid has got is like chicken, cheese,

two different types of red meat, fish, eggs and butter at the top. And then at the bottom it's got oats, bananas, oranges. And it's a really confusing message, I think, to send to people because obviously there's been headlines for a long, long time now, about things like reducing red meat content in your diet, reducing things like animal fats to cook, not saying never, but just less. And it's almost, as I said, trying to say that whole grains, carbohydrates are bad by making them in the like almost never eat teeny, teeny, teeny, tiny bit of the pyramid. Red meat is that actively included as a core everyday protein, lots of

saturated fats. And basically, what's just come out in April is the American Heart Association, have released their own new guidance that directly challenges that and their headline messages eat more plant-based protein instead of meat. So it's quite a huge contradiction, interestingly, to what came out from the American government in January, which is just very, very interesting to see. And it caused so much controversy when this obviously came out. And when we discuss this, we have to remember completely that eating more plants, heart-based protein is more beneficial for most people when it comes to heart health, isn't it?

You can't deny the contradictions. It must be immensely frustrating to be the American Heart Association and to see this guidance come out because you've been trying so hard for so long to prioritize plants, fibres, whole grains, to recommend plant proteins over meats to because if we remember over in America and please anybody that lives there listening, please do let us know, write to us, tell us on Spotify, send us an email, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's already very animal heavy, right? You already get a lot of saturated fat from meat consumption. So more than ever, it's important to recommend more beans and pulses and plant-based proteins over meat a few times a week if that's a possibility. And I think everybody agrees that reducing Ocho Process Foods is

going to be beneficial. But it's not the best starting point, Ella, is it? We really need to be cautious about saturated fat intake, particularly over in the America and the UK, I'd say, we're both on a par there with heart health. Exactly. So, yeah, January guidance is referencing fats like butter, beef tallow as part of this whole food approach, as you're saying, read, those are high and saturated fats and the American Heart Association is reinforcing that diets high and saturated fats, particularly from these animal sources, consistently linked to a high rate of heart disease and other chronic conditions. So I also think, A, this speaks directly to what we were just saying about this kind of like

veggie versus carnival debate. But B, I think ultimately, have we ever had a better example of how absurdly confusing and misleading and how on earthen unit meant to know what to do? We said on Thursday's episode, it's kind of like you need an encyclopedia to eat a meal these days. And honestly, this is the best example of it. Like, no wonder people do not know what to do?

If you did follow the pyramid, just for example, I remember calculating it and looking at some, I think Dr. Idris also posted that, you would exceed your daily intake saturated fat if you cooked and ate in the way that the food pyramid recommends. And the current saturated fat intake should make up less than 10% of your overall diet, which is roughly like 20 to 25 grams a day for most adults. And you would definitely exceed that if you were cooking everything in beef tallow, you were eating that much animal protein. You were having the amount of dairy they were suggesting a day. But what we haven't discussed here, Ella, as well, was of course there were debates about industry funding surrounding this pyramid too.

but it's a big conversation. I'd love to hear what Americans have to say about it. Yeah, and I do think I just, God, not in a condescending way, but I just sympathize with the overall confusion when it comes to like, how should I cook for myself? How should I cook for my family, for my flatmate, whoever it is? Like, how should we collectively eat? Because when you're having the government say,

cook with beef tallow and butter, more butter than merrier, more red meat. And then you have the heart association saying, no, no, no, no, no, please don't eat so much red meat. please just use a little bit of butter, please include more beans and pulses. What are you meant to do? It is so confusing everybody. I just am terribly sorry that this is the way the world is going. I feel like I need to apologise to everybody and I'm hoping that we are here to provide a safe space to debate this, to chat about it,

to talk it through, to hear opinions. I think to close that particular conversation, just remember there's no shame in believing a certain way of eating is better for you or not better for you. You're all entitled to your own, you know, opinion about what to do with your body. I think that's also something that we have to remember sometimes is that it is completely up to you. But I do always say this. I believe education is power and then you can make an informed decision. And, Rhee, just from your professional perspective, if you are advising people who are looking at this being like, I am so confused, what would you recommend? Not following the pyramid, if I'm being completely honest,

and following a Mediterranean-star diet, which is the most research linked to health benefits around the world, cooking with olive oil, not beef tallow, getting more fiber, getting more plants. You can still eat meat, just try and have some plant-based meals across the week as well. Check your portion sizes of meat on the plate because even lean meats, if you overdo it on portion sizes, you are still increasing a bit of saturated fat intake, and we're all already getting enough of that. And heart disease is still the leading cause of death, and especially for women, people who do not. don't realize that as we had our lovely spokesperson for the British Heart Foundation on a week or two ago. My advice is always try and stick to where research points, which for most people is a variation of the med diet. I love that. Okay, after the break, we're going to come back with the five ways optimism can improve your health. But first, a word from today's sponsors.

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Welcome back. Okay, we now lead on to headline two, which is the five ways optimism improves your health. I love this headline from blood pressure to immunity. Why Our Mindset Matters, Ella. Yeah, this is such a nice one. And again, we always say it's just so helpful to remind yourself that health isn't just about how we eat as we were just talking about or the exercise that we do. It's actually so shaped by how we think, which is so interesting. And it's a really emerging part of science when it comes to health is looking at the extent to which our mindset and our belief actually shapes our genuine physical health, which is so interesting. And that looks way beyond just mood. and you know it's why we often see the placebo effect work.

The mind can be incredibly powerful, I think more so than we often believe. Oh, 100%. I'm such a believer in that. You know, I think at the very beginning of the Wellness Coat, back in January 2025, I remember saying to Ella, and I don't know if it's being an ex-performer, but a lot of people that are in showbiz, as you say, you're able to put on a smile and sometimes just transform your entire mood for the day just with your mindset approaching something. And I'm such a believer that we do control so many elements of our health.

So the research behind these headlines start with blood pressure risk. And a large 2020 study from Harvard analyzed over 100,000 people, so pretty substantial there, found that those with the highest optimism scores had a 22% lower risk of developing hypertension over 3.5 years. So Ella, their glass was always half full, not half empty. I know. And I know this is all so much easier said than done. But also it's like, you know, we can create new pathways in our brains. Like we can shift the way we think and it's not going to be overnight.

But it's like there's lots of research looking at, you know, if you take time every day, for example, to know what you're grateful for. Over time, you can shift yourself to more of a glass half full person. but it's going to take time, you know, you can imagine like those pathways, I don't know, say it's snowed and you've got a path from your door to the street and it's well shoveled and it's your kind of over, you know, you're monkeying around mind worrying about things.

You're naturally just going to take that pathway on you. It's well shoveled. It's easy. It's going to take you a long time to shovel another pathway. But over time, when you have it, it'll be just as easy to go down the new one. And I always think that's quite a nice analogy to think about shifting your mindset.

So obviously you're not going to just become like a raging optimist overnight. But you can, you really can gently shift that with kind of some real focus. Well, apparently it's linked to our cortisol. So researchers point to lower levels of chronic stress hormones like cortisol with being, you know, having optimism. So that's very interesting because of course I think your outlook on life naturally will subject you to either secreting more of that stress hormone or not. So that is a really, really interesting area. And then the second point the researchers have said is that it can evoke a stronger immune response. So a study from Tel Aviv University that was published in nature medicine showed that training people to think more positively activated those brain circuits linked to optimism.

Like Ella said with the shovel path, you have to train it over a period of time. And when those participants were vaccinated, this is interesting, they showed a stronger immune response suggesting optimism may influence how effectively the body response. responds to infection. I mean, this one is a little bit more out there, but I think it's really, really interesting that, for instance, I was up three times last night with my little one. I have not slept. I was feeling so low. And I just thought, no, I've got the wellness scoop today. I'm going to manifest a good day. Don't ask how Ella, this does not happen every single day. I'm going to eat better. I'm going to enjoy my conversation with Ella. And I'm not going to let myself get run down and sick. And sometimes just telling yourself those things, I do believe it makes a

difference. Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, manifesting obviously, we should probably do it as a trend actually coming up. Let us know your thoughts on that. That was obviously an enormous trend. There are some interesting bits in that of consistently bringing like the front of mind what you want to achieve and really honing in on it. It can be super, super powerful. It's very, yeah, as I said, it feels like pretty cutting edge research, the effect of which our mind shapes are our health. But It also, optimism is linked to better sleep quality, interestingly. So that rate search was in behavioral medicine. It found that people with higher optimism scores had 22% greater odds at better sleep. And obviously that makes so much sense, I think, as a link with more negative thinking,

obviously increases stress, rumination, and that rumination can make it particularly hard to fall and stay asleep. But there's also evidence that people with more negative outlooks are more effective by sleep trackers, which actually again makes sense because you're already feeling a bit anxious and then, yeah, that anxiety can actually then worsen sleep because you're worried about your scores. That's what happened to me as someone that is a naturally prone to be anxious person and has spent a decade trying to swap myself into the glass half full camp. I would say now quite effectively, the sleep tracker was like a surefire way to become an anxious wreck again. That's so interesting. You've come to that, yeah, that concrete conclusion. I mean, we have to

discussed it before, but it's a lot to be said for those trackers, Ella. And the final, I know we've got two more that the research is listed. One is on healthier aging. This really fascinates me physically and cognitively. So a long-time study from Yale School of Public Health followed adults, so over 65 for up to 12 years, and they found that those of more positive views of aging were significantly more likely to maintain and even improve their cognitive functions, so how well their brain is doing and their physical ability.

that again, I think this makes perfect sense. If you're more positive, you're more likely to be able to motivate yourself to get out for a walk. But again, it's chicken and air gala. It's like when we discussed depression before, you know, the benefits, of course, of exercise and all sorts of things on mental health. But when you are in a low mood and you don't have that level of optimism, how do you kickstart that? I know. I completely, completely agree. And I think you have to be very concerted in starting that and realize it's going to take a long time, but it's worth persevering with.

Yeah, absolutely. And then our final point is heart health. And again, it makes a lot of sense. A 15-year study, only 3,000 adults here, but they did find that optimism was linked to lower total levels of what we call the bad cholesterol, the one you don't want so much of the LDL. And a large review of 15 studies on a larger sample size of 230,000 people found that optimists had a 35% lower risk of cardiovascular events. I mean, ultimately here, Ella is all. How do you measure optimism? What type of psychological scale are they using? or study. There's so much you could critique with these types of studies. But ultimately, I think there's definitely something so inherently positive to come out of it, that behaviour and biology isn't the only thing here. It really is how our body responds to stress and how our mind has power over that as well. That mindset is so, I think it's actually one of the hardest bits to shift. If you think about shifting like what you cook for supper or going on a quick walk today, shifting your mindset certainly for me like who's overhauled every aspect of their life like I didn't use like vegetable or so didn't like exercise I feel like I have changed every element of my

lifestyle over the last 15 years and I think by far in a way the most difficult thing has been shifting my mindset to be a more glass half full relaxed easy going easy breezy kind of person that has for sure been the biggest log in all 100% I'm totally with you there um I think Ella's done a wonderful job at sharing us, well, sharing with me especially as well, that it takes a lot to shift mindset and create new habits. And it's definitely worth doing if you can focus in on it, everybody. So our final headline today is the UK's favorite veg. I have to say, I have done a feature on this before. I did it when the plant-based book came out and I had to go through all of different vegetables. But they've been ranked for health here

and it's based on Tesco's top 10 bestsellers and which are actually best for you out of the top 10 bestsellers. Now, we know there's no one superfood, but I am intrigued, which ones have they pulled out? I know, yeah. So Tesco is the UK's biggest retailer. So their top 10 bestselling veg is pretty indicative of the country's top 10 bestselling veg.

And those are potatoes, carrots, broccoli, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, cabbage, cauliflower, green beans and garlic. Before we go into the ins and ounce of which is the best of them all, I'll tell you nothing and always me more. sorry, then in interviews when people are like, what is the one food I need to eat? I know. No, no, no. I get it every single time, Ella.

Every single time. What do you normally answer it with? No one food is superior to another. They've all got wonderful elements. But there are a few if you enjoy them that you can definitely prioritize in your diet. But, you know, when it comes to comparing vegetables, like I recently had a company approached me for a PR campaign trying to compare confectionery to vegetables. What? Yeah, it was a bit dodgy. But it was an interesting one, but they listened to me. You know, I went back and I said, look, I can't ethically do this. I understand where you're

coming from. It happens all the time, Ella. This is where I spent, most of you may not know, but my retrition business, we do a lot of consultancy. So behind the scenes, we're helping brands formulate and develop their new products or work on their marketing schemes and then make sure they're in line with what the correct thing to say is. And a lot of the time, we end up saying, based on the fact that you can't compare, for instance, not this particular campaign, but let's say you can't compare a Mars bar to an avocado because it's just totally nonsensical. But looking at all the vegetables on a whole, I think it's okay. And then this one here, they rated broccoli as the winner, Ella, which is so cliche.

Would you have put it as the winner? Well, okay, so the list they've got everybody, apparently the UK's top 10 best selling veg. Potatoes are number one. I'm not surprised by that at all. then carrots, then broccoli, then onions, then tomatoes, mushrooms, cabbage, cauliflower, green beans and garlic. I would not have put broccoli as number one out of that list, no. Who would you crown? I don't want to say I want to crown any of them, but I would definitely put onion or garlic

because I feel there a base for so many people for most of the mills. But then I see green beans in there, and I'm seeing the amount of protein you can get from beans and the fibre and the nutrients from the green beans. It's a really difficult one, but I would not have picked broccoli. interestingly enough, but, you know, each to their own. If most people eat broccoli, that's fantastic. Yeah, so it was picked for being one of the most nutrient-dent veggies that we commonly eat with an 80 grand portion giving you a full daily vitamin C allowance.

I think that is quite interesting. Yeah, but so does a pepper. So does a red pepper give you a full daily vitamin C allowance. And that's not in the top 10 list. I totally agree. No, I mean interesting because people think vitamin C they've got to eat loads of orange juice. That's true, or fruit. They don't think veg.

they think fruit. Exactly. High in fibre and rich in vitamin K, folate, calcium, iron. I wouldn't say it was rich in iron, is it? No. And this is, again, language used in paper. So you wouldn't be able to say something like that as well. And also it contains iron, but it's not rich.

And also you'd need to pair it with vitamin C for absorption anyway with other areas of your meal, even though it contains a bit itself. So there's all these caveats to these types of articles. But hey, big up broccoli. I do love broccoli. Yeah, they gave second place to carry. Would you give them second place to carrots? No, but once again, you know, everybody loves carrots.

Most children and adults alike will eat a carrot. So that's great. They're cheap. They're sustainable. Cotone beta carotene, which is lovely. It's a nice orange food. So, you know, fair enough. But the veg of the year, Ella, that Vogue said was the veg of the year, only came in at number three.

Yeah, cabbage. To be fair, I'm amazed that cabbage is a top 10 veg compared to peppers, as you said. And we were saying this when we're talking about them being on folks one to watch, basically, this year. They're pretty underrated, but they are great high in fibre, great for prebiotic fibre for your gut health, vitamin C, red cabbage because of that lovely dark colour. Also great for antioxidants. And obviously you can ferment it, which is then great for your sourcrite with your kimchi, so you're getting those probiotics. But yeah, it's interesting. What would you pick out as a kind of facts that people should take from this top 10 list?

Like what should we be getting more of or what should we know? Just vegetables in general. And if you only eat broccoli every week, then try something else on the list. That is what we need to be talking about here. It's how to get more variety because most people just eat peas, carrots, broccoli, potatoes, onions. You know, we need to broaden our vegetable horizon as such. But also, you could take from this list that, right, garlic's number four. I'm going to add more garlic to everything.

That is so inherently positive. So it depends, again, how you, we'll go back to optimism a little bit, but how you look at an article like this and what you take from it. Mushrooms are number five, and I am surprised by that, Ella, because I don't think everybody likes the texture. I do, but I don't think it is as popular as I would have put on here. Obviously, it's been wild garlic season, and we have just been making so many bowls of wild garlic pasto,

and then with pan-fried, slightly crispy mushrooms on sour dough, like a bath of olive oil and sea salt, perfect meal for me. Absolutely. That sounds like the most delicious way to go. And then we finish with tomatoes in at number six, seven cauliflower, eight potatoes, nine onions and ten green beans. And again, I would have moved that right up to the top. It's so, so interesting. But it's a good bit of fun.

It's good to poke fun at these types of articles. And ultimately, we on the Wellness Scoop just want everyone eating more. veg. Yeah, I totally agree. I wouldn't be like, oh, we're going to take green beans off my shopping list because they're number 10. They're still right. Oh, please don't look at the article that way. That's what I mean by half full, though, how you look at your glass. I would say everything on here. Interesting cauliflower being number seven, because cauliflower I did not think was that popular for most people in the UK, but perhaps in what context, are they just eating a lot of cauliflower cheese? Do you remember talking about trends and swings when cauliflower was literally just like everything? And

there were all these memes like if cauliflower can be the steak yeah if cauliflower can be rice and stakes and all the rest of it then like i can be x y or i was there but i mean there was a moment where i was like i'm sorry i just want rice i just don't want blitz up cornflower it was funny it served a purpose for some but for most people was just diet culture inverted it yeah poor cauliflower really went through it back in 2000 and whenever that was what 16 17 it was a fun moment to show the versatility of these things I think it was fun to show you can put sweet potatoes and brownies and you can put cauliflower into fried rice and you can get more veg and fibre and nutrients into your diet in different ways

but then there was a moment where it was like I just don't want my pizza my rice my everything to be made of cauliflower. No and I'm sorry but a Thai curry with cauliflower rice is definitely not the same. Right, let's move on to what's trending and wellness. This is a deeply concerning trend at the moment. It's called cosmetacorexia I'm obviously taking the word from anorexia and obsession and eating disorder there, seriously and linked it with cosmetics. So it's when skincare becomes an obsession.

Yeah, it's sometimes referred to as dermorexia, so like dermatology. And it's a term that's being used to describe a growing very much culturally reinforced obsession with achieving, quote unquote, flawless skin. And it leads to this compulsive, excessive, oftentimes interestingly age inappropriate. use of skincare products and routines. And I think it's not a follow one from looks maxing because actually is really talking to a different group of people. We were saying looks maxing actually talks a lot to young men. This is actually looking a lot more at younger women.

But it feels like it's very much adjacent to that. And obviously we've been having the conversation about looks maxing over the last few weeks. But it's the same underlying idea, isn't it? It's this idea that appearance is something to be consistently focused on to constantly optimize, refine and perfect. in this sense, the lens is skincare rather than the kind of facial aesthetics of looks maxing. Yeah, so this isn't limited to one group. It's showing up across all ages, which is interesting too.

It's really brought into focus recently with how it's moved into younger generations, particularly tweens, early teenagers, but I've also seen Ella, which is more alarming. And I think they've done lots of features on TV recently with young children, young girls. I'm talking primary school age girls. So in the UK, that's around what, 6 to 10, roughly, girls that are being subjected. to not cosmetic procedures, but, you know, facial creams and all sorts of things that they really probably shouldn't be. So why is it everywhere? Oh, TikTok. TikTok, Instagram, we discussed last week on the fact that there are claims about the harm these platforms can do, but they reward this highly

visual routine-based content. They love a routine, especially get ready with me videos. And that sort of opened up the door, an environment for these people to come in where, you know, multi-step skincare, routines are now normalized and aspirational and even for children. And that's where it becomes more alarming because we're feeding into this broader cultural shift where appearance is constantly visible, constantly elevated, there's pressure to maintain a filtered look. And everybody's looking the same. And I know we've discussed that before as well. And even aging is being framed as something to prevent, not accept. Yeah, it's so interesting. And then if you look at some of the stats that have come out recently when we're looking at kids, for example, over 25% of British,

girls between 9 and 12 are already using retinal, for example. And retinol is like a very active anti-aging ingredient. Like it's- That's shocking. It's completely inappropriate and unnecessary in every sense for that age. 10% of 8-year-olds are using an eye cream. Children are following five to six step daily routines. And over 600,000 videos referencing retinol exist already on TikTok. So there's this crazy thing.

going on here. And then interestingly, a lot of this also came to light because there's some interesting, not legislation, but investigations going on in Italy at the moment. Yeah, this has moved beyond a social trend there. So regulators over there looking specifically it began in March, so not that long ago. Italy's Competition Authority launched an investigation into Sephora and Benefit Cosmetics. They're owned by LVMH and over concerns that they may be using misleading or insidious marketing strategies to target children. Now, that is deeply concerning. And these are two companies that are huge. And the focus is on the use of very young micro-influencers. I mean, that's not something that's ever hit my algorithm, Ella, I'm sure it's not on yours either,

but they exist, they're out there and they market skincare routines for children under 10. And whether this is encouraging compulsive buying behaviors, I honestly was in shock when I read that these young micro-influencers exist and there's a place for it. And that's another reason why I think we need to get kids off socials at young age. Yeah, it's crazy. And I think what for me is interesting for us in this conversation, obviously awareness of it, of course, but this like just general, broader shift that it feels we're having and you see it looks maxing. You see this. You see the rise in cosmetic surgery, etc., etc. And it's just this shift towards constant appearance optimization. It's sort of the baseline of what's normal.

It feels like it's completely changed. And it's all about this kind of perfect image. And that's really dangerous. And obviously it's hard as well. And really, you're so well informed in this. But it's hard for me to look at this and think, looks maxing, cosmetorexia,

any of this kind of perfectionism around our appearances and then also move into our food habits and our look at our weight and our body image as well. And again, it moves it away from like what is, going to give me the most energy and longevity and feel brilliant and kind of, you know, if I want to do anything, optimise my day-to-day health into how do I optimise my day-to-day aesthetics. And that is not the same as health.

No, it's not. Aesthetics do not equate to health, how someone looks. You can look at someone online that you might think in your head is the perfect ideal or vision of health and they most likely are not. You don't know what's going on internally. And also, we have to remember that these new trends and phases would not be here without social media. So it does have such a lot to answer for because there is nothing healthy about a shift towards constant appearance optimization. There's nothing healthy about it.

You're just putting yourself on a pedestal for failure again because we cannot possibly achieve AI ideals or expensive routines and regimes that are constantly pushed at people. And Ella and I, both for trying things out, you know, Ella's firsthand said she does microneedling. I'm willing to give things are try. I've actually not really used retinal, controversial, my whole life. I'm always a believer in less as kind of more with skincare, but, you know, now I'm getting on a bit. Perhaps, perhaps I'll try it, perhaps I'll give it a go. But to say that a young child under the age of, what was it, 10 to 12 needs retinal. Yeah, 9 to 12. It's just unbelievably shocking, isn't it? And of course it manifests into your relationship with food, because it's all image led. For sure. And it's just this

sense of like multi-generational you need fixing and I think that's where I feel is very wellness scoop appropriate. It's just ensuring that like you probably don't need fixing. You're probably great. And it doesn't mean that you can't like, you know, we talked about that headline the other week about all these little tweaks you can make to optimize your health like 11 minutes more sleep or one extra serving or fruit or vegetables can be meaningful. Like, you know, that's one thing. But this like fixing and optimizing just feels as you say, like, like, like a deeply unsustainable, but B really just like reinforces that you're not right as you are. And I think that we already live in a world of like so normal to have deep rooted insecurities.

I just don't think we need to play on that anymore. We can say goodbye to deep rooted insecurities here on the wellness group. We are in it together and we all get them. We all do. But these sorts of things are not helping. So we need to keep the conversation open, everybody. And we as always, we just want to say thank you for listening and be. being here on the Wellness Group, we really do get to tackle some incredibly big conversations

in wellness and they're not always easy to do so, are they, Ella? No, they're not. So we just really, really appreciate your support. Yeah, it's just amazing to be here and we will be back as always. On Thursday, we're talking about all sorts of different things. We're talking about protein powders. We're talking about balancing protein and fiber, easy snacks, different types of yoghuts, flaxseeds, iodine, seaweed supplements, antibiotics, all sorts of things. So we will see you back here on Thursday. Have a lovely day, guys. Have a good one. Bye.