6p Superfoods, 8,241 Steps for Better Health & The Salty Sandwich Debate

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0:59Welcome to The Wellness Scoop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. And as always, We're both here as your hosts. I'm Ella Mills. And I'm Rhiannon Lambert. And after a decade in the wellness industry, we know how overwhelming and confusing health advice can be. That's why we're here with this podcast to cut through the noise and make healthier living simple, fun and personal.

1:26Welcome, guys. I have to start the episode with an apology. I actually lost my voice on Friday night completely. It is so much better today, Monday morning, but it's not perfect. So apologies if I'm a little croaky. I am sipping away on some ginger lemon tea to help me out. She is. And she's under my strict instructions with vocal rest and steaming and all sorts of things we can possibly get in. I know. Ree was like, just go on vocal rest. I was like, my kids don't really understand vocal rest. It is impossible when you've got children. But don't worry, because we're still here to discuss everything in the world of wellness.

2:03And this is what we've got coming up in today's show. So we have the sandwich salt headlines and why one Gail's sandwich sparked a huge conversation in the media. How much salt we actually need and why nutrition comparisons can be misleading. We've got lots to discuss there. Why carrots may be one of the most underrated foods in the supermarket. Ella's been saying it for years. The study suggesting arts and culture could help slow biological ageing. Why 8 ,241, to be precise, daily steps may help prevent weight gain after dieting. The smart underwear that tracks your farts in real time. We can thank my mum for that one.

2:46Thanks, Camilla. The London Vegetable Orchestra and the rise of carrot flutes. You really can't make up how eclectic today's wonderful episode is for you all. So Ella, before we begin, apart from losing your voice, how have you been? Yeah, I've been good. I have nearly finished my meditation teacher training as well, which I've just kind of tell you how much I've enjoyed the last sort of six months or so of this. I'm now teaching every Sunday night, desperate to teach every day because I'm just obsessed. And I love people coming, I say into the room as virtual, but into the room feeling stressed and kind of not uptight, but just like, oh, that tension.

3:26And 20 minutes later, you can just see that kind of sense of softening and release. Anyways, we did a really lovely one last night, croaking away from me, on how we speak to ourselves and just inviting in a bit of kind of kindness and compassion, which was a really lovely exercise. Anyway, so that's what I'm most enjoying. I've been spending a lot of time with all plants. We've just gone into Sainsbury's, which I think I said. So that's all very exciting. We're doing lots of new products. We've got a big shoot on Friday for brand new packaging and these new products, which are very exciting. I think we can keep this one in because I think it will be done by Monday.

3:58But Matt has decided to buy a new factory. He is now the proud owner of a soup factory. It's so funny. Will, our producer, is like, hello, I don't really think you do things by halves, do you? I've got to learn what half is. Matt, come on. Yeah. No, that is very exciting. I'm delighted for him. I love soup. So, you know, I can't complain. I mean, is it going to stay soup or can we not divulge? Soup and sort of soup adjacent. Oh, soup adjacent. Soup adjacent. Very exciting. He's so pumped. Oh, great. Oh, Matt, I can't wait to catch up with you about that. This sounds fantastic. How are you? Today you have officially launched Free Plus, right?

4:35I mean, this will be a week later because today is the week before this comes out. But it's live. It's ready. We stuck to the timeline because I was a bit hesitant of saying it would have launched on Monday the 18th of May because as Ella and I both know, so many hiccups can happen. But yes, we are live. So this space, this safe space is there for you all for nutrition. I'm actually doing my first live with you all, or I will have done it by now. I get so confused with dates. What are you doing it on? So, well, I'm introducing the platform and then I will take nutrition questions and then we're launching the nutrition journeys.

5:08Amazing. So what journeys can people expect? So the first one we're going to do for the inner community is the eight-week menopause. So women that want to learn about perimenopause and menopause. Then we've got the runners probably because of the next marathon and dates to get our group together for that. And then we'll have our gut health and, of course, relationships with food. Lots of different programs with the clinic and the clinic team. With different specials. With different specialists and special guests that will appear. So it's out there, everybody. So Retrition Plus is live. I honestly feel like that's all I've been doing.

5:39My time has been consumed every night with checking that you can actually log in. I love it. I'm so happy for you. Do you know what I did last night? I planted my courgettes into the ground. Oh, well done. Oh, my God, I'm so excited. They're beautiful when they come up because I love the flower that you get on courgettes. Me too. And one of the ones that I've done is like, that's its speciality, is the flowers. So basically, I mean, I only planted them not even 24 hours ago. And all I want to do is go and check them and see how they're doing. Well, we've got scheduled. I mean, this is such a British thing to do again.

6:06I apologise to everyone around the world, but we have a heat wave coming in the UK as we record this this week. So let's just keep sprinkling the water because I made the mistake one year of drenching. Yeah, they don't like to be drenched. They don't like to be drenched. They like a subtle sprinkling. Subtle sprinkling. I have to say, just I'll stop waffling now, but I felt a bit kind of funky yesterday. Just lots of different things going on. And I thought, oh, what should I do? And I went and I just spent a couple of hours in the garden. And I know it's such a kind of privilege to be able to do stuff in the garden.

6:39But God, it is good for the soul. Yeah, well, do you know what's good for my soul? Good cleaning out. I mean, I'm gutting. She's on a cleanse mission at home. I am. I'm gutting every single blooming room in the house, Ella. I mean, it's amazing how many cupboards gather dust at the back. My God, the random stuff you find at the back of the cupboards. We've also been battling my cat bringing in. I love my cat and everyone listening knows I'm a big animal lover, but she did bring it. We saved a mouse this week and I do find that quite traumatising. I do struggle. She has a bell to try and give them a warning as she's coming.

7:09Oh, my God. Well, our mini sausage dog loves a dead mouse. Oh, no. Don't love a dead mouse. She does. OK, we're moving on to the health headlines that matter. I have a fear of mice as well, so it's not good. Oh, do you? I think they're quite cute. I just want to, like, save them all. No, give me a snake, a spider. I'm fine. A mouse. Oh, my gosh. Heebie-jeebies. Right. Good to know.

7:32Let's talk about posh sandwiches versus cheeseburgers. Let's do it. So you've probably seen the headlines this week that posh sandwiches, a.k.a. a sandwich from somewhere like Gale's, may have more salt than nearly five cheeseburgers. This is quite a misleading headline, but it was in the BBC. It was everywhere. It was everywhere. Guardian did a piece, I believe. Yeah, the Times-Telegraph, it was literally everywhere. And it was pitting all of it. There's a big research report came out from Action on salt and sugar, looking at the amount of salt in particular in ready-to-go sandwiches. and basically the number one salt offender was from Gales.

8:09And so what happened? Obviously, if you're not from the UK, Gales is a kind of, let's call it a bougie sandwich, sort of coffee shop, fresh bread. Potisserie type place. Yeah, and people are quite weirdly Marmite-y. It's quite polarised. Apparently it can bring up the value of a house just by having a Gales in radius. Yeah, and people are obsessed. Anyways, all of these headlines in literally every outlet was so bougie Gale's sandwich versus McDonald's cheeseburgers. And I want to talk about those headlines in a sec, because I think it's part of what we talk about all the time, how confusing it is, because the natural implication there is that it would be better to eat the five McDonald's cheeseburgers than the one Gale's sandwich.

8:52But before that, Rhi, can you talk us through, because obviously you're involved in this campaign with Action on Salt and Sugar, what's going on? What's the kind of real deal behind the headlines? Full disclosure, thank you for saying that, Ella. Every year I team up with an activation group called Action on Salt and Sugar. And we're campaigning just to help public awareness on the fact that we are over-consuming salt in the UK and over-consuming sugar. Emery, very quickly remind us, why is it not brilliant for us, not in a certain meal, but as a whole, to over-consume salt? So many reasons. I think blood pressure and the risk of heart disease, the main one.

9:30we're also looking as well at links with cancers and the overall diet palatability quantity that's then consumed but the problem we also have is the amount of salt per individual at any age as well so we consume on average in the uk eight grams a day and the upper limit is actually six grams and this could be something that stemmed down through generations you know that salt shaker on the table i actually please don't hate me i find them very unnecessary in restaurants sometimes because you know restaurants and chefs have already put a lot of salt in your food to add flavor. But there seems to be a habitual element of, oh, let's reach for the salt shaker and let's add some extra salt to our food.

10:11But it's not really helping our health in any way. But in a survey of over 500 supermarkets and high street sandwiches, 44 % of them were high in salt, 97%, 97 % were low in fiber. You don't need me to go on about fiber anymore. You will know I'm very hot on this topic and 25 % of those that they surveyed were classified as less healthy because of all the salt and sugar and fat so if we chat first about the fact that to get traction on a boring topic like we're eating too much salt that most people know you have to have something that's press worthy yeah it's so interesting because we sent me over the whole report and I was reading it and I guess it was just being transparent when it was embargoed yeah before yeah we were looking at it it feels important but it feels boring and funnily enough we put this in as a pickup not a whole headline because we thought we'll just note it and then all the headlines started coming out and all of the headlines were literally you know what i'm just gonna get get the main one up now well i just say that you know i think the worrying thing here is that the uk is overloaded and sold from every area the ones that you buy out of the home from the cafes the bakeries the coffee shops So most people are still going towards those sandwiches as their main lunch that day.

11:28And one in 10 sandwiches also failed to meet government salt targets that were due two years ago. So we're really highlighting years of weak action from government and industry. And that is such an important point as well, because, and I know sometimes you get frustrated when we have a political opinion. So I'm just going to have a quick one today. They do. I have read the Spotify comments and I have read the feedback. But this does link into the headlines. And I won't be facetious, but I do think it's important that we have opinions. And I think that women should have opinions and should be able to speak freely about them.

11:59But I'm not here to annoy everyone this morning. I'm glad you said that, Ella, because you read the headline. What I just want to say on that really quickly is that ultimately one of the things that we get frustrated by is that these things are all guidelines oftentimes. times. And ultimately, if you don't have strong legislation with repercussions, this is sort of what happens, which is that, yeah, 97 % still don't have enough fibre, almost half of them are too high in salt. And as you said, this is the core lunch that we all consume. So I think it's an interesting example of that. A couple of years later, guidelines are set and then just not met.

12:32Virtually no sandwich you could possibly buy has enough fibre in this country. That's quite sad. Yeah, so all the headlines, so BBC, Posh Sandwich has more salt than nearly five cheeseburgers. The Telegraph, the High Street Sandwich with almost five cheeseburgers worth of salt. The Times, Gail's Club Sandwich has the salt of five McDonald's cheeseburgers. They're all the same, essentially. but you would read these all and almost, I'm not kind of doing down people's intelligence, but there's almost a subtle implication in there that it would be okay to eat five McDonald's cheeseburgers and it would almost maybe be better than your Gale sandwich.

13:06Rather than seeing it as the cheeseburgers are stereotypically unhealthy anyway, so why would you go with something that costs a lot more money, that has more salt? So it's how you read it. And I think you're right. Most consumers would read that and think, oh wow. Gale sandwich bad. Not necessarily McDonald's good because there's obviously so much more conversation around that, but there is this weird implication. It might change their perception. Exactly. And I wanted to talk about that because I think that becomes so confusing and it's almost this issue, again, of this reductive nature of things where now we're only looking at salt and now it's not that salt's not important.

13:38As you've just illustrated, salt is important, but I can't help these things. I then went and did a deep dive and tried to get all the ingredients for the two and the nutritionals and compare them. Because if you look at it, for example, the mcdonald's burger you'll get 15 in one of these cheeseburgers not in the five you'd get about 15 grams of protein but only two grams of fiber so very low in fiber very important for re in your gales sandwich that they're talking about there's obviously too much salt so i'm not kind of quote-unquote defending that but you'd get 40 grams of protein and you'd get six grams of fiber and i would say the salt comes from the choice of sandwich in this case because it's got streaky bacon within it um you know that's preserved with a lot of salt exactly but then when you look at the ingredient deck for the two they are really different and again kind of from a sort of upf perspective the gales one is so much better they've published the recipe for their season's law and again we've got some tomatoes we've got some rocket we've got the smoked chicken we also do have some bacon but it's whole foods added into a sandwich ella do you want to with a bit too much soul with a bit too much soul but read off what's in a burger i think it's really interesting for people to see and also our mcdonald's version of burgers are very different to in the states so if you are listening in the states you'll have an even longer list of ingredients yeah and they obviously do these really effective ads saying like 100 beef in the patty but then even if you look around there it's like for the bun as far as i could understand from my research the bun has obviously wheat flour but it has sugar it has cream yeast it has um different emulsifiers There's proteins, starches, maltodextrin, dextrose, maize maltodextrin, maize starch, blah, blah, blah.

15:19Again, like the cheese isn't just cheese. It's also got whey powder. It's got emulsifying salts. It's got natural cheese flavouring. Why do we need to add cheese flavouring to cheese? And extra salt within the cheese. It tastes like cheese. Anti-caking agent. Colours. Colours. Add it to the cheese. Yeah. To make it very yellow. I do think flavouring cheese. Really. I don't know. It's not funny. but there's something about it as a kind of great example of the insanity of the world that we live in where cheese is so processed it no longer even tastes like cheese so we must flavour cheese with cheese it's when scientists were given free reign to create a product that was the most perfect palatable visual preserved item in the world and that's exactly what um macadies are an example of do you remember all that stuff about how you could like leave it out for months at a time and it would kind of like wilt and look a bit dry and not that nice as a result but it wouldn't like mold.

16:10I look at McDonald's as food engineering science in food form. I don't look at it as food I'm eating. I look at it as engineered food but that perception I think has only just come into public realm because of the conversation on ultra-processed foods. Yeah no no I totally agree. It's this idea it's like Chris Van Tullican often talks about it and you hear it elsewhere there's like food like substance is as opposed to food. What I really dislike is that brands like that try and pull you in with marketing to pretend they're all natural. Well, like 100 % beef patty. Yeah, that's the deception that I really am not keen on.

16:45But you're right, when you break down those two sandwiches... I would rather have a bit... Same, I would go for the Gales. It surely... But what I would add, just to add another nuance to this, is that Gales is very expensive compared to most retailers that are selling sandwiches. I doubt the average person is purchasing that triple decker classic as an everyday option. Or if you are, you know, maybe now you want to think about it with the salt. But, you know, it's a huge investment of money to purchase something like that every single day. And I don't think most people go for that type of choice as a daily item.

17:18No, I don't think so either. Whereas McDonald's is still a daily item and the other retailers that are still responsible, which need to be highlighted with 97 % of them low in fiber and nearly 50 % of them over in salt. they need pulling up because those everyday sandwiches are what people buy every day in every supermarket and that's the thing isn't it as we always talk about is like have what you want for a treat like go for it that's great that's all about kind of balance in life but when we have the foundations of our diet too high in sugar salt fat too low in fiber etc that's kind of where the problems creep in anyway I just found those headlines frustrating I don't know how you guys listening feel because I think it just the whole water around nutrition is so muddy it's also murky it's also hard to understand what the quote quote right thing to do is there's so many different camps and dogmas and approaches and it all feels so conflicting and then you have something like this that implies although too high in salt this kind of yeah slightly fresher sandwich is worse than McDonald's burgers I find it very frustrating because I don't think it's the educational advice that people need to make informed decisions.

18:24But I do understand it makes headlines. Yeah. And that's the constant tension, isn't it? That's why I love the Wellness Scoop. We've got time here to discuss all of those different angles. So thank you for sticking with us. The first headline we've got today is very different. It's on cheap and cheerful carrots. It says they don't get the respect they deserve, how the 6P vegetable could support your immune system, skin and eyesight. Well, that's what the Daily Mail headline actually started with anyway, Ella. It did. And you know what? We don't normally take headlines from the Daily Mail. We don't.

18:55To be honest. But this one we thought, you know what? This is a good one. This is helpful. Let's PR the carrot. I'm always family time. Just to explain why. It's more because we don't like fear-mongering headlines. And I tend to find that they're much more drastic in that particular media outlet, which is the reason why a lot of the time the headlines we choose don't come from there. Just to say why. If people say, oh, why? Yes. Very helpful, Ruth. Thank you. That's why. Yes. They're often quite sensationalized. Anyway, the article starts by saying, probably quite true Daily Mail style, Andy Warhol predicted that in the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.

19:29How right was he? Yeah, he was. Is it finally the turn of the humble carrot? Arguably the most recognisable of all root vegetables. For decades, carrots have been resigned to the status of a side dish. Or even worse, just grated and dumped onto plates as an insipid garnish. Then they made the case as to why we should all be paying more attention to carrots. And I thought that was brilliant. I think it's pretty brilliant too, because it makes a compelling case. The piece highlighted that the UK produces around 700 ,000 tonnes of carrots every year. And that is worth an estimated 290 million to the economy.

20:05And yet we still tend to think of them as an afterthought, you know, rather than a powerful everyday food. And I just want to say, you know, I think everybody will know, or most of you will think carrots, vitamin A, orange, helped me see in the dark. Just to quickly explain that one, it's the beta carotene that is good for retinol in your eye and protecting your eyes, which is why that myth or that old wives' tale came about. So it's got an element of underlying truth, but one carrot can provide 10 % of the fibre that people are missing every day, everybody. Like my kids will take, because they're odd, a whole carrot.

20:39I think lots of kids like raw carrot for some reason rather than cooked. Yeah, that's so... They'll take a whole one out the fridge and just chop it. I think roasted carrots are so delicious. But my kids don't like them. They prefer raw. I made a tart the other day with like roasted balsamic red onions and like roasted carrots and kind of pastry, etc. And it was so delicious. Heritage tart. Yeah, the girls don't like roasted carrots, but they love a crudité. And I think it's one of those things that is actually fair play, just as long as they eat the carrots. It's fantastic for them because you get all of that vitamin A.

21:10You get the fiber. and that type of fiber soluble as well helps your lower your ldl what we call bad cholesterol of course within your gut it's just helping feed your gut bugs packed with antioxidants lots of you may have heard of things called carotenoids they're linked to lower inflammation purely because of the the help with the gut bugs which then talk to your immune system inside your gut and i've also tried with the boys rainbow carrots yes i'm growing rainbow carrots i'm growing them I love that. Good luck to them. Exactly. I don't know if they'll come through. Well, let's have a look because I have said I've had a problem growing carrots.

21:46But you can buy these rainbow packs in supermarkets. They don't contain beta-carotene when you get the white ones or the yellow ones or the purple ones. But they contain other types of anthocyanins. Like the purple ones, they're the ones that support your brain predominantly. Same as in dark-colored berries. And actually a 2024 study found that eating carrots three times a week increased your carotenoids. at that antioxidant level in the skin. And that's associated with the stronger immune function. And just to add as well, that when women are pregnant, the studies that we have predominantly on preferences for food in the womb and infants in the first 1 ,000 years was initially one of the first studies.

22:231 ,000 years, can you imagine? 1 ,000 days. If only we'd be around that long. But there are studies that the women who drank carrot juice when they were pregnant, their children had a preference for carrots. and that's one of the first ever studies that we did with preferences for infants i mean they're cheap and affordable here because we grow them in bulk in the uk they're not traveling miles yeah so the headline exactly was talking about there's like 6b superfood anyway it's a nice one because yeah often superfoods are these like more powders it's all quite expensive you've got to get all these fancy things and now it's like no celebrate the humble carrot anyway thanks for that daily mail i actually really appreciated it i really appreciate those types of headlines i'd love more of them to be honest and the same with this one so headline two really made me smile but first let's just head to a quick ad break and then we'll be back with the headline

23:16girl winter is so last season and now spring's got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes your algorithm is feeding you cut-offs you're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders that perfect hang on the patio sundress those sandals you can wear all day and all night and you've had enough of shopping from your couch done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear open that envelope it's time for a little in-person spring treat it's time for a trip to Ross work your magic if we knew more about our sleep what would we do differently would we go to bed at a consistent time or take steps to reduce interruptions to our sleep with SleepScore Apple Watch measures your bedtime consistency

24:06We'll be right back.

24:42Welcome back, guys. Okay, headline two, made we smile. Enjoying the arts has the same effect on aging as a weekly workout. Yeah, it's a really interesting study this week. And it makes perfect sense. We've discussed hobbies before on here, but regularly engaging with the arts and culture may help slow our aging process. Now, I think a lot of people may think of this as, oh, learn a new skill, like play piano. It helps with your brain development. But researchers were comparing here just the impact of adding extra weekly kind of workout into your routine when it comes to listening, engaging in cultural activities once a week.

25:19Music, art galleries, theatre, singing, painting and drawing. Do you remember when we were discussing, you know, I've got my son into, because he needs to calm down. Anyone that's raising boys will know, like, my boy is football obsessed. And before bed, I give him a colouring book. And I quite enjoy it. I love it. I love colouring books. I'm like, what do you want me to do with you this week? Sadly, I get a lot of superheroes and I want to, you know, do something else. But I'm enjoying it. And actually, I see Fern does a lot of painting, Fern Cotton. And it's really interesting. the university researchers from UCL, University College London, found that the group engaging regularly with culture appeared to age up to 4 % more slowly than those who didn't, which translated roughly, if you look at it in years, to around one year biologically younger in terms of your overall health.