Best Foods for Brain & Gut Health + The Social Media Reckoning

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0:33You know those friends who support your preference for podcasts over music on road trips? That's the energy State Farm brings to insurance. With over 19 ,000 local agents, they help you find the coverage that fits your needs. So you can spend less time worrying about insurance and more time enjoying the ride. Download the State Farm app or go online at statefarm.com. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. welcome to the wellness scoop your twice weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration and as always we're both here as your hosts i'm ella milves and i'm riannon lambert and after a decade in this wellness industry we know how overwhelming and confusing health advice can be and that's why we're here to cut through the noise and make healthier living simple fun and very personal Exactly that.

1:24And we have so much great stuff coming up for you in today's show. Rhi, will you tell everyone what's coming? Of course, we have got a wonderful show today. Now, first up, we've got how fast modern kids content has become and why it matters and why adults are stepping back from social media. That's something Ella and I discuss a lot. And the new research questioning microplastic data. We've got the Mind Diet and its link to brain aging and dementia risk, the best foods to support your gut health and what to limit, and a landmark social media trial of what it could change. And of course, we had to bring this one in today, why dog ownership might be one of the most underrated health habits, Ella.

2:07So it's a big show.

2:15First of all, how are you? Yeah, I'm good, Ella. I feel like we've had a bit of sunshine in the UK and I hate to be that Brit that just talks about the weather, but we all know it does definitely boost our mood. I'm one of those Brits that loves to talk about the weather. I worked it out and we only have something like, I think it's like four months of guaranteed sunshine each year, which is quite depressing when you think about it. So it's no wonder, but I got my salad game on and I'm working hard, obviously, on RePlus. Retrition Plus is the new area that I'm building, the new website. So we'll be talking about that more soon.

2:51And I feel very positive, Ella, about the year to come because I feel like a lot of big retailers are really trying to make health a focus. And it's something that with our work, I feel it's a really positive change. I'm not saying all, but I definitely am going to be teaming up with some good ones. um and then aside from that oh the environment worries there's just there's a lot isn't there I don't even know where to begin really how about you I love that I feel that was a smorgasbord of thoughts and activities just a little bit I love it I am all good we've had um kids Easter holidays which has been so nice like don't get me wrong they have moments of being kind of feral and horrid but it has just been so nice to potter at home together as you said the weather's been really nice they've learned to ride non-stabilizer bikes as they call them um we went to Stonehenge which was really fun went down to see my mum and yeah we just had a really nice couple of weeks of very calm lots of lovely food and I've also started teaching a Sunday night weekly breathwork meditation practice, which I'm just, I cannot tell you how much I'm enjoying.

4:06Oh, and it's also so good for you. It's such a nice way to sort of close, close the weekend. And talking of Stonehenge, so I lived in Wiltshire as a child and I used to pop, I say pop down, the one of the main A roads goes past Stonehenge frequently. And there's always people selling fresh strawberries in the summer on the side of the road there, Ellis. You'll have to go back as well in the summer just to get the strawberry sellers. Oh yeah, definitely. I know I'm really excited to go picking. Oh, and tomorrow I am planting most of my veggie garden. So I'm so excited. So are we. No way. Good timing.

4:40This is the day, the selected day. I'm a bit nervous. Oh, I wouldn't be. You've got some lovely space. And I do think that you're going to get a really nice selection, Ella. Beginner's luck, they call it, don't they, as well. So you've got that on your side too. Yeah, my mum keeps saying she's like, gardening feels a bit like cooking. If you don't do it, it can feel so intimidating. And like, you don't even know where to start. But once you get going, like some stuff won't work, but it's rarely like a mega disaster. No, exactly. My biggest learning has been to space out things because I wasn't putting enough space between the carrots when I planted them.

5:15And it's all it's like little tiny learning curves. So I had kind of like micro carrots instead of actual carrots one year. Cute. Good for crudités. They didn't look cute. When I say micro, I mean micro. Crudité ready. They weren't even big enough, I'd say, to cut into a crudity. But anyway, it moves us on in a very different way to our health headlines today that matter. And we've got a few pickups. Oh my gosh, we have so many pickups at the moment. We're trying to space them out so you don't think we're just repeating ourselves. But it feels like a lot of the conversations we've been having just have new elements added to them that we want to bring you.

5:51The first was interestingly, obviously, last week we were talking about how the new legislation on kids screen time and how screen time has changed so much since most of us listening were little and previous periods before that. and then interestingly I was reading the papers over the weekend this was a week ago and the Sunday Times had done a big research paper basically into looking at screen time the impact of it but interestingly they had looked at how much faster modern content had become particularly across YouTube and some of those newer children's TV shows so we thought that was quite interesting just to add to that conversation from last week so basically almost all YouTube videos had much faster cuts so the second of which they jump from one thing to the other than traditional broadcast shows and we were talking about how that and that's not just for children but I think exacerbated with kids can stimulate more of a fight or flight response which is so interesting I think it becomes stressful doesn't it you know when I'm watching the tv so so what you mean by how many seconds is how long the image stays on the screen for because it can, you know, when you watch an old film, like I was watching Sleeping Beauty, one of the old 19, what, 1930s?

7:08I need to have a look at when that was made, 40s. And it's very slow with the children, but you feel more relaxed watching it. And I have to say, when something like that Cocomelon program comes on, which is a really good example of like a one point second shift between pictures on the screen, it is stressful. I don't enjoy it. I don't feel relaxed. Yeah, it's kind of overly stimulating. So Cocomelon, which if you haven't watched, it you are very lucky it really is it's like torture i would say yeah we didn't we didn't actually allow it in our house after i'd seen one or two oh well it was very sensible it cuts every 1.2 seconds little baby bum which is as hideous and torturous is 0.9 seconds whereas if you have like traditional cbbc programs they're cutting about every 16.7 seconds so it's really interesting there's really the old old things um and more traditional things and that's why now because they're boring anyway it's just an interesting um couple of stats to add to that conversation about why screen time feels more overly stimulating and why that becomes problematic i'm sure it's the same with adults and hollywood films when you look back at old school ones that were on a set you know how many screen changes they have to it must impact us as well i remember reading that for a child it should be at least three seconds long on the screen I can't remember where I pulled that from but it's always been in my head and I have always been conscious of counting the clips but it does lead you on to our next pickup which is that adults are actually now less active on social media and fewer believe it's good for you so it is breaking through Ella.

8:40Yeah this was so interesting this was an Ofcom report that just came out and obviously as Rhi said we've talked a lot about social media and kind of that whole space and you know it's I guess it's sort of adjacent to the wellness scoop but it's just because there's such a big impact on our mental health and obviously you know we see health as something holistic here where it's you know all different facets of our social emotional physical mental health it's not just kind of one dimensional element of it but interestingly that this Ofcom report it's surveyed seven and a half thousand people for its adults media use and attitudes rapport and it gave a very very clear snapshot basically of kind of our behavior and perceptions in this country and really interestingly active engagement so posting or commenting has fallen quite significantly 61 % of people were actively engaging in 2024 and it's down to 49%.

9:37So perhaps the the way the companies have changed this whole algorithm you know in the last um year that you alerted me to ella you know the reason that content just doesn't perform in the same way anymore it's a very different space to navigate they're losing people rather than retaining them yeah it's so interesting the strategy that's so damaging to our mental health may also not be working um kind of commercially which is and now only 36 percent of users say social media is good for their mental health that was at 42 percent and the year before. So it's dropped in terms of people seeing it as a positive, going into more of a negative.

10:1559 % of adults now believe the benefits of social media and being online outweigh the risks. It used to be 72%. So 72 % thought the benefits were better than the negative. So that's quite a big drop in just a year. And just overall, fewer and fewer people reported feeling positive about being online compared to the year before. So it's really interesting and I think it also shows so many conversations feel like they happen in a little wellness bubble but clearly this isn't and actually this kind of big conversation that's happening about social media and the impact on our kind of well-being and particularly our anxiety and mental well-being it's really clearly cutting through because those are some pretty significant changes in quite a short period of time.

11:00It's reached a peak you know you could almost feel it as well you know when those big cinematic productions of podcasts came in you know the real big click baits and you really felt the tide turning didn't you you felt a huge shift in the way content was being thrown at you really in your face type of thing and I think it is backfiring a little bit people are a bit fed up maybe yeah it's really interesting and I think everyone who's made a lot of noise about you know this kind of like smartphone free generation and all of that it's really having cut through yeah I love that and then our final pickup is something that I love talking about because a ella and i have a bit of anxiety around it but second of all it is fascinating contamination from lab gloves casts doubt on microplastic crisis so ella perhaps this reassures us a tiny bit yeah i think it does and i think it also shows that you know as we've said before with some of these more environmental things the reality is there's interesting research coming out is definitely something to be aware of but we don't have concrete evidence for lots of things just yet and i think it's so easy to jump down a rabbit hole of don't do this don't do that be worried about microwaves and everything and actually the data is not always there for that and i think microplastics is a really interesting one um we've just had some really really sensationalist headlines around it and actually some new research has come out just questioning how accurate some of that data actually is.

12:30Like you might remember, we talked about how, you know, there's some research that shows everyone has a spoonful of plastic in their brains, for example. But actually, interestingly, you know, in that microplastics were in our blood, our breast milk, our brain, like literally everywhere. And there's always been a bit, I think, of a question mark on exactly how accurate that is, how reliable it is, and what does it actually mean from a health perspective. But there was a new study published in analytical methods which is part of the Royal Society of Chemistry suggesting some microplastic findings may actually be coming from the lab gloves used in the experiments so these gloves can shed tiny residues called sterate I think that's how you say it salts and those salts can be mistaken for plastics like polyethylene in common testing methods and standard techniques and those techniques can struggle sometimes to distinguish between the compounds of the salts from the gloves and the microplastics themselves.

13:29So in experiments, just simple contact with the gloves produce false positives of around 2000 particles per square milliliter. So it could suggest that it's just really over exaggerated potentially. And that's not to say that microplastics are not a problem. I think the real answer is, is we just don't know at this point, but potentially some of the really scary headlines actually are not fabricated by any means, but potentially accidentally over-exaggerated. But also what's really reassuring is, you know, like I wrote about in the book, is that, you know, if you eat more fibre, you can help your body just excrete those extra things that aren't meant to be there in the first place.

14:11And there is obviously elements of truth within the studies that came out. It's in breast milk. Yes, you don't want to microwave of plastic, we know that does increase shedding of microplastics. There are some things that I think are pretty concrete with emerging research, but measuring it and saying something as drastic as a spoon in your brain of plastic, it's quite a scary visual. So let's watch this one. Let's watch it emerge, Ella. Let's keep an eye on it. I love that pickup because we're going to see a lot more about it now scientists are taking it very seriously, I think. For sure. And I think it's just an example of like how easy it is to worry when we read some headlines and it's not to say that you don't need to worry or you don't need to change any lifestyle habits or factors as a result of some research but sometimes to say like we can also you know watch things unfold before we panic a hundred percent and with that in mind before we panic let's move on to our first headline of the day, the simple diet that will reduce your dementia risk.

15:15So this is positive. Now it's the mind diet that's been linked to slower brain aging and a lower dementia risk. And it's a really lovely one. It's a conversation around diet and brain health, you know, sharper focus. I think how our cognitive abilities function as we age and a new analysis, it was actually covered in the Telegraph, I think where Ella found this and it was picked up in many different places show that with long-term data, we can reduce risk. It was published, the study itself, in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. And it draws on the Framingham Heart Study and followed adults.

15:50So this is older adults, age 60 and over for more than a decade. And that's what we want when we're talking about dementia, because of course, that's the more prominent age group where we find neurodegenerative diseases and all sorts of things there. and research tracked both dietary patterns and changes in brain structure using repeated MRI scans and what they found was that those who closely followed this mind diet showed slower structural brain aging how wonderful is that less shrinking and gray matter and gray matter is that part of the brain that we need is associated with memory decision making and I think that's really really wonderful to show that diet again this Mediterranean style diet is really beneficial Exactly that.

16:33So the MIND diet was actually interestingly designed originally specifically to support brain health and researchers took two of the most well established dietary patterns, the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet and DASH stands for dietary approaches to stop hypertension, both of which are known to protect cardiovascular disease and then combined elements of the two. and not to go off on a tangent or a soapbox but um just quickly to interject i always think this is so interesting because we see so many trends and you know at the moment the big trend is things like carnivore s diets and you know 150 grams of protein a day and it's protein protein protein and as we always say we're not saying protein's bad protein's very important but i find it so interesting because the most well-established dietary patterns as we're seeing here are things like the Mediterranean diet which absolutely have protein but they have an abundance of fiber as well and I just think that's always worth just noting that that's where the core bits of research for health sit so don't be swayed no 100 but that link is really important because so many um as in the link to them being really well researched these diets for cardiovascular health is very important because um many cardiovascular risk factors like high blood pressure are also strongly linked to dementia risk.

17:49So what they did, the researchers is they combined them and looking to prioritise the nutrients that would be particularly important for cognitive function from the two. So the Mediterranean diet, as you guys probably well know, but it's rich in olive oil, fish, veggies, legumes, and as we said, long associated with better heart health and increasingly better brain health too. And then the DASH diet is not dissimilar. It's focused on lowering blood pressure through whole foods, veggies, whole grains and lean proteins. Yeah, they're the diets your GP will prescribe you if you are, for instance, on statins often.

18:24They'll say, look at the DASH diet, all sorts of things. So they're very, very heavily researched. They've been around a long time. And once again, as Ella just said, it's fiber rich. It supports our gut bacteria, helps nutrient absorption, metabolic health or brain function. I often think, Ella, that actually, apart from on this podcast because we love talking about these things our brain health is so overlooked isn't it i find so many people just aren't thinking about their brain long term we're just thinking about the aesthetic still yeah i totally agree and interestingly with the mind diet um then there's so much to read about it if you're interested but it's more specific than like kind of general healthy living guidance so instead of saying eat five a day but you could obviously choose any fiber day it's a bit more specific so it will say it recommends for example at least one portion of green vegetables daily it recommends specific fruits particularly berries multiple times a week and then yeah it's just got this targeted inclusion of foods linked to cognitive health so it's a bit more of a prescriptive diet that people were following but still very diverse fiber rich and then there were some amazing studies amazing findings in that study Unbelievable.

19:36And remember berries, when we talk about berries and brain health, it's because often they're dark colors and we've got this amazing component called anthocyanins in berries. And that's really researched as one of those, I mean, you could call it in layman's terms like a brain antioxidant, for instance. So I think it's amazing that it is slightly more prescriptive. And the key findings we've got, so remember these adults were followed for over 12 years, 60 plus, so all the age group that we want. So a higher adherence to the MyDiet was linked to 20 % less gray matter shrinkage. So that's really significant.

20:05And that's equivalent to around a two and a half year delay in brain aging. And those that follow the diet more closely had a greater overall brain volume over town, over time as well. And then there was a 2025 study, Ella, on 93 ,000 US adults, and that found a 25 % lower dementia risk in those who had improved endurance over 10 years. So all it takes is just sticking to that diet more broadly to experience such incredible benefits because those that follow the diet were 9 % less likely to develop dementia, you know, versus the people that have the lowest adherence to the diet. And then earlier research also has showed us that 53 % lower Alzheimer's risk was common in those with the highest amount of following this diet too.

20:53So, I mean, there's a huge list here, you know, slower rates of general cognitive decline some studies show slower decline after a stroke there's just so many benefits and having these inclusion of leafy greens and blueberries and all sorts of dietary elements here swapping red and processed meat for you know leaner meats or cuts or plant-based diet beans pulses all of this is just so impactful and it's the things we don't see now it's what we'll see when we're 60. Exactly that so if you're thinking about trying to bring more of this into your life with the mind diet there's 10 foods to prioritize leafy greens says at least six times a week so spinach kale etc other vegetables daily especially as we always says the more colorful varieties berries at least twice a week nuts most days whole grains regularly oats brown rice quinoa etc fish at least once a week poultry twice a week beans and legumes several times a week olive oil as your main cooking fat wine optional but in moderation and then to limit to adhere to this diet you are limiting red and processed meat no more than and ideally less than three times a week butter and margarine less than a tablespoon a day limit cheese and sweets and pastries occasionally and fried and fast food rarely yeah i mean it's quite to be honest that that's pretty common sense for us on the wellness group but it's still advice that is not mainstream believe it or not this is still incredibly difficult for people to adhere to and then we have to remember the cost of living crisis that you know berries unless you're buying frozen cuts of meat fish is a whole other subject but frozen berries are fantastic i love frozen berries you know you can buy big bags of frozen berries pop them into an easy compote they're so great that's what everybody if they have a freezer that is exactly what you need to be doing is stocking up on frozen berries they're absolute winner do remember um as always there are caveats to research so it's observational shows associations rather than the direct cause so what we do know is that having a diet like this has been linked in people that have better outcomes so i think it's a no-brainer excuse the pun that we do we all just adopt these mediterranean style diet cello with particular focus on more greens and berries i love it we're going to talk about this next week um so i don't want to go too much on another tangent but it is really interesting there's been this kind of move away from um vegetarianism or veganism and this as we said this huge trend for a carnivore or kind of carnivore adjacent diet and i just find it so interesting when you see research like this um and it's the ultimate example of like there is a middle ground yeah you know and this is recommending you know nuts most days beans pulses several times a week a little bit of fish a little bit of white meat so that's a very middle ground approach and it's just this interesting thing we'll talk about it in detail next week and if there's anything you guys want us to cover let us know because it's an interesting topic I don't know it's just the world of wellness feels like always swinging from one to the other so we're 100 % vegan or 100 % carnivore and in lots of this stuff about people moving to from a vegan diet to a carnivore diet they're swapping yeah a plant based diet for one that's kind of um really really rich and like awful and i just find there's something about the kind of swing of extremes really really interesting i um as you know i'm not a fan of what i eat in a day so any of that but i also know the damage of just remind people why yes sorry i and i know i may sound very bar humbug and i've seen other health professionals do it because it goes viral because it grows your social media platforms.

24:38Essentially, what I eat in a day is not representative of what you actually eat in a day. And everyone's different. Everybody's unique. And I think they really instill disordered eating patterns. And yes, they can provide some elements of inspiration. I completely understand that. But it's not reality. And it's so curated. A lot of the time, you don't know someone's budget. You don't know their health issues. You don't know how much to sleep, how much time they have. And for somebody to achieve a lot of these aspirational videos is really unlikely. And it puts the element of failure on you by watching them before you even begin.

25:11And I'm very uncomfortable with that. It doesn't sit right with me. But I also question with our desire to share our own dietary experiences. I don't think a lot of people realize the harm they do by saying, oh, I was vegetarian my whole life and now I'm eating red meat. where hey or i ate red meat and now i've gone vegan you know i get it that these extreme stories are helpful but everyone is so different that just keep it to yourself sometimes do you know what i just find it hard yeah look we'll dive into it more next week um but i'm just very very interested in the psychology of one extreme to another and then all of the research we have sits gently in the middle and you can sway that into being more veggie focused or slightly more meat focused but it the evidence doesn't really sit in in extremes often no it really it really does i completely agree ella we are going to take a quick at break here and then when we get back we are going to talk about the nine best foods for your gut and the five worst starting or growing your own business can be intimidating and lonely at times.

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29:19Let me know how you get on. Okay, welcome back, everyone. So we now have the nine best foods for your gut and the five worst. Now, I am always very wary, Ella, whenever I'm approached with articles like this, because I don't like labelling the worst foods in a feature. And often I decline to comment on these types of things. But, you know, it's what to prioritise your gut health and what to limit, which is helpful. And they did have a dietician comment in the feature, and this was in the Times. And we thought, I totally agree, it's not very wellness, scoopy to say and the five worst it's the sensationalism that we were just criticizing a second ago but it's an interesting comment on gut health and what we should be really prioritizing in our diets 100 so i mean they listed five i have my thoughts on the ones listed of course but generically speaking i think they were quite good so they listed off prioritizing kefir which is true um kefir is a fermented drink we know that um you can actually get a vegan and dairy alternatives and options of this now made with bacteria and yeast.

30:27It supports the gut microbiome, thousands of lovely strains of bacteria. But the details do matter here because authentic kefir is made of kefir grains. And they're the ones that have the broader range of microbes. And the problem is these bacteria are transient, consistency matters, and there is something that you benefit from having regularly. So you'd need to have kefir, I would say in your diet most days that's the one fermented food ella I feel like I'm actually able to get in and my children I do enjoy cafe yeah I have to say I'm not obsessed with the flavor the kind of because it's quite tangy if you get a properly fermented one but I mean I put it in smoothies that me and the kids both have and if you've got lovely frozen banana and berries and some nut butter you cannot taste it whatsoever so I reckon we get it in yeah like three or four times a week um and I find it easier to be totally honest than loads of other fermented foods like I just don't I really do like kimchi but it's quite specific I don't really want it every day and sauerkraut it's nice but again I don't think I could eat it more than like once a week same it's one of those things that um unless you're brought up having it it's a very difficult one to introduce because of the taste it's really a refined taste isn't it the other fermented options but you know as tim specter says he aims for two to three fermented foods a day i am still happy to get two to three a week is a good goal i think we're all doing well if we're still hitting that i think honestly to be honest at this point if you're getting any in that is amazing because there's not a huge number of fermented foods you've obviously got kefir no miso is a nice one actually like i find um white miso is a little bit sweeter the brown miso is a little bit kind richer and deeper.

32:13But if you're making a soup or something like that, it does add a really nice kind of umami depth to a simple carrot butterbeen soup or something. So miso is actually one you could get in a few times a week, I think quite easily. Yeah, 100%. If you're a wellness scooper and you know about it, 100%. The next one they listed is, I am up and down with, again, Ella, I know that lots of people are huge fans. Coffee, often overlooked, but coffee is rich in polyphenols. And I do recall on our podcast episode saying that those that are coffee drinkers have a very unique bacterial gut bug compared to those that aren't coffee drinkers that has been researched.

32:55So it helps support gut microbiome diversity. But again, we have to have a look at evidence here that a lot of people just take coffee to help them with the daily bowel movements. So we know that it helps with bar regularity the main caveat i think is timing and quantity most people overdo it you've got to keep it it says in the article to under four cups a day i would actually say two for optimal sleep i don't know your thoughts there ella i mean i love coffee you know that and um uh it does sometimes yeah i get quite into it and but for me personally yeah i think that feels good but also trying not to have coffee after kind of 1, 2 p.m.

33:34really helps your sleep as well. You can have decaf coffee and still get, depending on the quality, some of the benefits, the bacteria benefits, I remember reading about that. And they have got research, everybody coming out with green tea, because I would have argued as well, there is also research for maturin green tea with the benefits there that might also be now looked into for the gut microbiome but currently it's coffee it makes sense ella it's from a bean exactly and fiber it just fiber and coffee it just makes perfect sense to me um so the next two of the nine they had were apples because they're high in fiber particularly pectin um and pectin can be particularly helpful for nourishing beneficial bacteria and supporting your digestion and then kiwi fruit you might remember actually a few months ago we were talking about um how two kiwis a day are now being recommended in the nhs for supporting um gut mobility bowel regularity helping constipation which is super interesting because there's lots of research in that they have a particular enzyme in them called acetindin how do you say that ray some scientists say acetindin i say acetindin so you know what do you call it potato potato yes so apples and kiwis so so far to support your gut health you're going to be having some kefir some coffee some apples some kiwi and then some cold pasta.

34:51Love. I mean, do you know, okay, so apples, yes, keep the skin on. Kiwi fruit, yes, I would have definitely put kiwis in this article. Cold pasta, yes, because of the resistant starch. When you cool something down, you reheat it again, you get that new starch. And that starch is amazing because that's what feeds our short chain fatty acids further down in our gut. So there's different areas of our gut that have different types of microbes doing different types of jobs. And having resistant starch has been shown to be really beneficial for our gut lining. So to help the junctions, keep them tight, prevent things leaking into your bloodstream that you don't really want to go there.

35:28And then the next food they listed was yogurt with live cultures. I would say as kefir was already in here, I probably wouldn't have put yogurt in. But the key is live cultures and also not to get a yogurt that's full of artificial sweeteners, because I think that would kind of diffuse the point. I'll tell you one thing quickly on potatoes we have been obsessed with recently is I love potatoes yeah so we're going back to our cooled potatoes quickly I love in the summer I don't like a normal potato salad I just not my cup of tea but what I love is some kind of slightly cooled but still warm niçoise yeah chopped boiled potatoes and then you just douse them in olive oil and salt and then with rocket you can do some grilled asparagus this time of year and capers and then like a tangy lemon and mustard dressing.