ZOE Science & Nutrition - Most replayed moment: Which Wellness Trends Are Worth Your Time? | Liz Earle & Dr Federica Amati

Episode Date: May 26, 2026

Today we’re talking about wellness trends. Social media has supercharged the wellness world, with new trends popping up and spreading faster than ever. It feels like we’re constantly being sold the next must-have product - each one a guaranteed route to better health that you simply can’t live without. But how many of these trends are actually backed by science? And could some of them actually be doing more harm than good? I’m joined by wellness expert Liz Earle and nutritional scientist Dr Federica Amati to separate evidence from exaggeration. From red light therapy to cow fat, they’ll reveal which trends are worth your time - and which are best left behind. 🌱 Try our science-backed and tasty wholefood supplement Daily 30+ Get our brand-new app and Gut Health Test designed by world-leading gut health and nutrition scientists to build healthy eating habits 👉 Join ZOE Follow ZOE on Instagram. 📚Books by our ZOE Scientists The Food For Life Cookbook Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector Ferment by Prof. Tim Spector Free resources from ZOE Eating for Better Brain Health: Your brain-gut blueprint How to eat in 2026 - Discover ZOE’s 8 nutrition principles for long-term health Live Healthier: Top 10 Tips From ZOE Science & Nutrition Gut Guide - For a Healthier Microbiome in Weeks  Better Breakfast Guide Have feedback or a topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know here Listen to the full episode here

Hello and welcome to Zoe Recap, where each week we find the best bits from one of our podcast episodes to help you improve your health. Today we're talking about wellness trends. Social media has supercharged the wellness world, with new trends popping up and spreading faster than ever. It feels like we're constantly being sold the next must-have product. Each one a guaranteed route to better health that you simply can't live without. But how many of these trends are actually backed by? science? And could some of them actually be doing more harm than good? I'm joined by wellness expert Lizzo, a nutritional scientist, Dr Federica and Marty, to separate evidence from exaggeration.

Federica, I'm going to start with you, trend number one, detox drinks. What is that? Detox drinks appear in lots of different ways, whether it's detox teas, sometimes it's detox juices, cleanses. These are drinks that are supposed to help speed up. detoxing. I mean, I often see these sold as a way to lose weight, to be honest, and there is literally no science behind. These are some of the worst contenders. Sometimes they can be quite dangerous for health. Some of the supplements that are sold as detox supplements can make you go to the loomor, so they make you go wee more, basically. And that can actually be quite dangerous. It can lower your blood pressure, it can make you dehydrated. So it's really

important to not buy these products. First of all, we have an excellent detox system that works very well for us, our liver, our kidneys, and our large intestine, help us to get rid of anything we don't need. Any byproducts from the cellular mechanisms that are in our body are expelled through those ways. You know, if you're looking to help your natural detoxification systems, there's lots of things you can do, eat and drink water in a way that supports your liver, in a way that supports your kidneys, in a way that you go to the leregulate and allows your colon to work well. One of the worst scams, I would imagine, is these detox products, if I'm honest. Yeah, I think I completely agree.

And I think, you know, there's no drink that I've ever seen any evidence for that is going to remove any toxin from your body. And as you say, you know, the liver, the kidneys, the gut, those are the detox systems. And I think, yeah, drinking lots of water and the skin, definitely. And in fact, when it comes to the skin, one of my favorite ways, rather than buying a detox drink, is to just to do some dry skin body brushing. You said that with such confidence, dry skin body brushing. Do you not have a dry skin body brush? no idea what you're talking about. Oh my gosh. Okay. So help me out here. Literally it's like a bris, it's like an oversized nail brush with natural bristles. And you brush your body with it when your

body is dry. So you start normally at the feet, the soles of the feet. And if you're into Chinese medicine or traditional medicine, you might say that that's stimulating the reflex zones on the soles of your feet. And we don't need an eye roll for that because that does actually make you feel really good and tingly. And then you just work up the body, just using sweeping movements. You're following the lymphatic system. So you might want to just do a little bit of extra dry skin brushing around the lymph nodes, the groin, backs the knees, armpits, for example. And you're just gently helping to stimulate the lymphatics. And you do feel better for it. I don't know whether the science is there. I don't know how many RCTs have been done on dry skin body brushing. But it

certainly makes your skin glow. It looks brighter. It's very traditional. It's been around forever. and it does just help to remove dead skin and this upward movement is exactly what you would do with a lymphatic drainage massage, which does help, especially if you're somebody who does tend to have a bit of a slow lymph, which can happen. It's just one of the things that we can do, and there's absolutely no downside to it.

I think also it gives you a few minutes to yourself. I know that sounds a bit, but if you have young kids or you have caring responsibilities, just taking a couple of minutes to have a dry body brush before your shower can feel really good. And is this an everyday activity, to your only part of detox. I'm just trying to understand.

It depends on how good it makes you feel. I will word of warning. So when you go and buy your body brush, Donathan, start doing this, because clearly you're highly invested in this already, I can tell. I'm very sad. It sounds a lot better than a cold plunge. I'm more up to try this one. I'm also into that too.

But that would follow, you know. And it will feel quite hard and quite almost abrasive. Don't be too harsh. Harsh with it, exactly, especially if your skin is. broken or irritated in any way. But you get used to it and you almost become healthily addicted, I find. Amazing. So no detox drinks, but lots of water and dry skin body brushing. I'm going to be looking that up straight afterwards. Liz, trend number two, red light therapy. Oh, so this is something that I am actually a fan of. And I think, you know, when you think about

red light, you know, what is it? It's basically just the ancient practice of sunlight getting up at sunrise when we are surrounded by an abundance of natural red light and near infrared light, which is what we used to do in ancestral times. We would get up with the sun and we would go to bed with the sun. So that lovely light, that red light glow that you get early in the morning or at sunset has been shown to be incredibly beneficial. And again, there are studies that show that it will help with inflammation, reducing inflammation, speeding up the production of collagen, for example, within the skin. So I do think that there is merit. And I think that there is merit. And I think think we're going to be seeing more of red light therapy, sometimes known as photobiomodulation.

And there are clinical studies going on for all sorts of degenerative diseases and showing some quite impressive results, actually. Could you describe a bit? I mean, do you just put a red light bulb in your house? No, I mean, you do need to have a certain wavelength. So it's normally 630 to 850 nanometers range. So you can get various different devices. If you are going to get a home use device, My advice would be for go to something that's FDA approved or medically certified. You can get medically certified devices. And you can have everything from a face mask that you wear to a red light panel that you sit in front of during the day, for example. You can have whole saunas filled with red lights.

There are lots of different ways of doing it. And I think particularly because we've become so indoors and disconnected from that natural frequency, that wavelength, that I think as human beings, beings we are actually meant to connect with. And I think that there is some very interesting research when you look at circadian biology and the kind of rise of natural living and the circadian rhythm, red light very much taps into that. Yeah. So some of the exciting science is actually from Russell Foster's group where he looked at exposure to red light specifically exactly at dawn. It can help to program your body clock essentially. So there's some protocols if you're traveling to L.A., for example, Jonathan, where exposing yourself to a little bit of red light in the mornings can just

help shift your body clock to the new time zone. Now, in terms of skin benefits and inflammation benefits, the evidence is growing. It's still preliminary, but there are some exciting trials looking at, for example, patients in hospitals and how exposing them to red light can help speed up recovery. In terms of skin, some people report seeing benefits, and I think it's part of the toolbox that we can have. What I would say is these red light masks can be very expensive. So there's plenty of things you can do before investing in one that will really help your skin from good hydration to eating plenty of colourful fruits and vegetables to making sure that you're using topical skincare that can be helpful like retinol and moisturising regularly and all these other

things. And then if you are doing that and you have the extra money and you'd want to invest in a mask, it could be something that can be helpful. It's growing in popularity and there's evidence growing for its use in different applications. But I think that's a lot of it's it's one of the ones that we still don't have all of the evidence to say, oh, yes, this is 100% one of the best tools. But I'm excited about its role in circadian biology, and I am excited to see how it can help with inflammation and recovery. You know, some studies looking at arthritic joints have shown benefits. Yeah, definitely. I think there are studies looking at improved speed of wound healing, for example, collagen production. In acne as well, wasn't it? Yeah, acne as well. I think, you know,

improving the ATP energy cycle, so giving us a bit more energy. I think it is beneficial. I think you're right. I don't think it's an essential. I think it's a nice to have. And I think for me, it's something that I've been doing regularly now. I actually got first interested in red light therapy with my daughter who had a longstanding autoimmune condition. And I was literally, I went forensically down the drains with so many things. And it was one of the protocols that she was using that really seemed to help her. And what was interesting is that because she was, was doing a lot of red light therapy, even though she was a lot younger than me, her skin dramatically improved. And I thought, I'm going to try this. Hello. You know, if I can,

you know, just sit in front of a red light panel or a sauna or a mask or something and actually get on with something else, love a bit of multitasking. And the light is going to do something for me. And I have to say that, you know, I am an adopter of red light. I think it's useful. Not essential, but I think it can be beneficial, particularly as you age. I mean, I'm a lot older than you, Eddie. You do look fantastic. I mean, you're a good, I'm a good, but. I do a lot. I mean, I guess I have to because that's my job. But red light therapy for me is one of the tools, yeah.

And this trend, Jonathan, unlikely to be harmful. Because it is FTA regulated, the right devices, so you're not going to get harmful radiation or something. Talk to your wife. Your wife will know in dermatology terms about using light therapy for things like psoriasis. And so, you know, we've known about light therapy for a long time. This is not a new thing. But I think you can get great free red light therapy. By getting up in the morning.

By getting up early and just bathing in that natural red light. Trend number three, we mentioned this in the Q&A. Rich, my producer, described it as putting cow fat on your face. But I believe it has better marketing and it's called Beef tallow. What is Beef tallow and why are people sticking it on their face? That's a very good question. Beef tallow is having a moment because it's been considered as a very healthy fat to cook with, to put on your face. to put in your hair, to just bathe in.

I mean, it reminds me of when coconut oil had this glow up. Do you remember? It's the new coconut oil. It's being touted as miraculous for all sorts of things. And it is literally just the fat from beef. Traditionally, I think it's the fat that was around kidneys. You render it and you cook it down and strain it so much that it becomes flavorless, tasteless. It's just a very bland white fat.

You can do it and you can make it at home if you want to. So of course it's full of fat. fatty acids like other fats so that you can get in lots of other situations. And it will, if you put it on your skin, the fatty acids will protect your skin and make it glow. But I think that is not my number one option. It's like putting Vaseline on my face, basically. Is that what you're saying? Vaseline is petroleum jelly, so it's actually a bit different to that.

It is similar to putting coconut oil on your face or extra virgin olive oil on your face. Or actually, that would be better, obviously. But it's essentially putting pure fat on your face. And our skin does like to have some fats to protect it and to help keep the moisture in. What fats really do to keep our skin hydrated is they just prevent the moisture from leaving your skin. So we lose moisture throughout the day just through essentially evaporation and fat locks it in. So it can see moisturising, but there's way better ways to do it and less cruel ways to do it. We don't need to be putting beef as well as eating beef all the time.

It's just having a real moment. And it does remind me of coconut oil where people were just putting coconut oil everywhere and oil pulling and brushing their teeth with it. I think it'll swing back in a way, hopefully. Yeah, I wonder. I mean, I've been trialing beef tallow because obviously I'm aware of it as a trend. And I think it does have some pluses. It has a lot of good fat soluble vitamins, you know, so because it where it comes from. So A, D, E, K, for example, conjugated linoleinic acid.

It's very good. It's your point as a moisturiser, the transepidermal water loss, it's very good barrier. Having said that, if you are a tall spot prone, pimple prone, it's comitogenic. So it's going to block your pores. I would not use it on oily skin. I tell you where I have used it to quite success, and that's on my feet. So it makes a very nice overnight foot bomb. So you put that on your feet.

You can buy, it's non-fragrance. I don't actually like coconut oil, for example. I find it too, well, coconut-y. Yeah. But this is very neutral. And then you just slip on a pair of cotton socks to seal in your body heat and you wake up with super soft feet. But I don't think I put it on my face because I think if you're looking for a moisturiser, I would rather have ingredients, you know, niacinamide, azalec acid, you know, peptides. I think there's far more interesting ingredients, particularly as we age, that are going to help support the structure of the skin.

So it sounds like you're saying this is 90% hype and 10% well, it is. a fat and there are some benefits to put in something like that. I think there are some benefits. Am I understanding that right? Yeah, and it's using up a waste product perhaps that might otherwise not be used. And it's cheap. It's inexpensive. So, you know, if it floats your boat, great.

But I'm not going to rush out and buy it. Yeah. It's not the moisturiser that is... I need more for my aging skin, Jonathan. At my age, I think I need a bit more than beef tallow. Shear butter is great for your feet as well. Go for sheer butter. Love sheer butter.

Yeah, I also... It might just be. me, but putting direct animal product on my face. I just, no, no thanks. I'm good. I'll end this episode with something I think you'll like, a free Zoe gut health guide. If you're a regular listener, you know just how important it is to take care of your gut. Your gut microbiome is the gateway to better health, better sleep, energy and mood. The list just goes on. But many of us aren't sure how to best support our gut. I wasn't sure before doing Zoe. which is why we've developed an easy-to-follow gut health guide.

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