Can Foods Boost Weight Loss Hormones? Fruit Juice & Supplement Myths

26:55There are some absolutely absurd things, but we need more transparency in the way food is produced and made. I'm sure a lot of people listening didn't know that orange juice could also be pasteurized. You know, I'm sure that might come as a bit of a shock. So, Rea, okay, let's then take whole fruit versus juice versus smoothies, assuming you're making it at home, because I think that's a really helpful way of thinking about these things as well. It's a great hierarchy. Smoothies will always come first in terms of being slightly better, depending how you make them, everyone. And again, shop bought smoothies versus a homemade smoothie, I would say are worlds apart.

27:31Considering what most tend to be made palatable, they have to be quite sweet. So you're unlikely to get a large percentage of a vegetable added to a shop bought smoothie, even if it claims to have kale in it. It's negligible. It's like no point drinking it for the vegetable they've added to their concoction or mix. Whereas at home, you have the beauty of being able to add a protein source like a nut butter. You've got cashew this morning, Ella, in yours. Let's use yours as an example. Kefir also contains protein. It contains live bacteria cultures. It's an absolutely incredible sauce to add to a smoothie.

28:07What a win for your gut health. Then you could go a step further and add some flaxseed or something or chia seeds for some omega threes for some extra fiber and protein. And then you add your banana or your fruit. And let's not forget how demonized all these items of fruits have been. But in conjunction and a big concoction, then add your favorite type of milk, be it oat milk, almond milk, whatever you want to add to your smoothie. They're so delicious frozen berries are the biggest asset in my opinion you can add to any smoothie for the flavanols and cost and affordability so smoothies are definitely number one for me because i think they can be really nutritionally balanced but most people in the newspapers and the headlines we discuss will not be comparing that kefir cashew berry smoothie they'll be comparing the ones that you see that are vibrant blue on the shop shelves they've got a bit of added spirulina to make them sound healthy, which are purely just fast releasing insulin into your bloodstream because it lacks the fiber and it does lack the protein and the healthy fat.

29:08So the gold standard is your homemade smoothie like Ella's got this morning. I'm very envious. It's making me want to go and make one now. And then the silver standard would be to buy a smoothie still over a fruit juice, I would say in the shop shelves, because you are likely to get a bit more diversity for your gut health. I wouldn't really go off fiber claims ever with bottled juices or smoothies. Very, very difficult to gain with the texture. I think texture is another big issue. Some you can get that are slightly thicker than others or have added yogurt and things. And that might be a slightly better choice because it slows the release of sugars.

29:42And then the final option would still be the homemade fruit juice. And then underneath that, the shop board. That would be my top four. I love it. Very, very helpful, Reet. Is there anything else we need to know? glucose spikes, nutrient content absorption, what else is important? Well, it's like you said, a recent study from Newcastle Uni recruited adults who were eating fewer than two portions of fruit and veg a day, and they asked them to increase their intake to five a day. And one group did this by using whole fruit and vegetables, and then another replaced one portion with a daily fruit juice or smoothie.

30:15And after four weeks, their researchers didn't find any difference or any adverse effects or metabolic health markers on the ones that chose to do the fruit and smoothies. So I think it just goes to show that you just need to up the variety in your diet. And this is where the demonization of one food group is just not okay. I would really advise people to try and stick to portion control. Measure out a fruit juice just once, just out of interest, just so you've got a visual of what 150 ml looks like. That counts as one of your five a day obviously it's better to eat the fruit and vegetables but you know we're living in let's be realistic here it's hard some people there's also different reasons why people go for different types of foods adversity to textures different sensory issues there's so much that's involved yeah let's just try and encourage more fruit and vegetables let's not fear fruit from fearing fruit is one of the biggest issues we have today in the wellness industry she gets your number one bug bet like if you were going to look at the wellness industry and you're like this is the thing that pisses me off what would it be oh that should have been my answer I did the longevity show last week and I said carnivore diets but I should have said fear mongering of fruit really that's what pisses you off the most are we allowed to swear on this podcast oh I don't think that is that swearing okay really annoys you um sorry guys yeah that's interesting I actually think that's really valid because I think carnivore diet will go like it you know like any trend I don't think he'll stay whereas I feel like the fear of fruit has you know it kind of started with your like duke and an atkins and it's sort of every time a carnivore keto whatever comes to light which it feels like there's always a cycle of these sorts of very very similar diets just rebranded a different name that same thing continues if we just ate another apple an orange a banana a day we'd all be better off for it our gut bugs would love us for it and there's such a fear around it i understand appreciate if you're type 1 diabetic and you need different things for different reasons, that's very different.

32:19And again, if you are type two, there's also a different reason to be watching your sugars more closely. But for the bulk of the population, that will help your satiety. It will help your regulation. It helps to eat the skin on the fruit. Remember, you can eat the skin on the apples just like you can different kiwis. Just let's embrace the fruit. Maybe this is the empowering episode where we just say, come on, guys, more heat waves to come. Let's eat more fruit. Yeah, you go, girl. You eat a banana. it. Don't be scared. You're a rebel. Get that apple.

32:55Two of my top priorities in the summer are swimming during the day and staying cool at night. And Cozy Earth has made both of those goals possible with their bamboo sheet set and beach towels. I have their classic stripe resort towel set. They're so soft and plush, but they're still quick drying so you don't have to worry about hauling wet towels everywhere and they're kind of oversized so you really do get the like resort luxury vibe along with really fun colors and then after a long day at the beach I absolutely love slipping into my cozy earth bamboo sheets they genuinely get softer every time I wash them and they stay cool so even through a heat wave I'm not tossing and turning at night plus cozy earth has a 10-year warranty and 100 nights of hassle free returns on bedding so you know they stand behind everything they make and they should because their products are truly amazing.

33:49Made from viscose from bamboo, breathable, soft, and built for summer. Head to CozyEarth.com and use my code SCOOP for an exclusive 20 % off. That's code SCOOP for an exclusive 20 % off and if you see a post-purchase survey mention that you heard about Cozy Earth right here. Moving on to a very different headline, Ella. This was a really inspiring one, actually. And we can talk about it more generally as well. But yoga improves mood, fatigue and sleep among cancer survivors. And I thought this was so interesting because obviously we've talked a lot before about the benefits of movement for our physical health.

34:29That's been in the headlines massively over the last few months, but maybe a little bit less so for mental health. And there were some researchers who were showing some new findings that they've had at this year's American Society of Clinical Oncology. And that was suggesting that yoga could help address some of the most common and actually really hard to treat symptoms that are experienced by cancer survivors, including fatigue, anxiety and sleep problems, which is so interesting. Do you know, all of us know someone that's impacted by cancer. I know Ella's shared a lot of her personal with Matt and lots of different things.

35:04then. My mom has cancer, my stepdad. I think that first of all, just to nod to that, that we're really happy when we can see anything that comes up that is a help or a helpful kind of resource for anyone that's experiencing that as well. But also how we can apply this to everybody. The fact that it's really beneficial for our mental health is fascinating. So this came from research that was presented at this year's American Society of Clinical Oncology. And it suggested that some of the most common difficult to treat symptoms that were experienced by cancer survivors, like the fatigue and the anxiety and the sleep problems could be helped, Ella, by yoga.

35:43Yeah. So that study in particular had 400 people who've survived cancer involved in it. And half of those people received just standard follow-up care, which includes things like therapy and obviously medical appointments. The other half also, as well as that, took part in a structured yoga program three times a week and they did that for a month and that program which was called yoga for cancer survivors included just 18 really gentle yoga poses alongside mindfulness practices and breathing exercises so this is a kind of really applicable idea and the results were really really really interesting so the people that took part in the yoga program experienced significant improvements in mood fatigue and sleep compared to those just having the standard care they had a five point improvement on a 65 point scale for their mood and anxiety, which the researchers describe as a moderate to large effect.

36:39And then also about one and a half point improvement in fatigue, which the researchers also classified as a medium to large effect. So it's quite interesting, like everything that we talk about in the world of health, like there are never magic answers to things. But it's really interesting to see these kind of quite simple, quite widely available, so many of these tools available for free online as well for anybody, just to see kind of, yeah, how impactful they could be. Do you know what I like about it is that exercises like this can be done at any level? Because of course, you'll all be in a different physiological state and everybody is in a different category of their ability to move.

37:18But I feel like mindfulness and yoga is somewhere where you can start sitting on a chair and incorporating that type of movement. So there's a real psychological and physical gain. And just by focusing, again, it's amazing how your meditation aspect comes up, Ella, so many times. You know, it's breathing through movement. It's trying to really focus and perhaps take our attention away from all the other aspects of the world. And it's just low cost. It's accessible. Do you know, there are so many things on YouTube and the internet now. I mean, the kids love that cosmic yoga program on YouTube. Yeah, that's brilliant.

37:53The cosmic kids. There's also like the app Insight Timer, which has hundreds and hundreds of thousands of practices and so many of them, the vast majority are free, which is amazing. But yoga is obviously one of our actually most well-studied wellness practices that we have. I mean, there's decades and decades of research looking more kind of generally at the impact of it, particularly on our mental health. And as a result, it's kind of one of the most effective evidence-based practices that I think we can all include in our lives in some capacity. And that's because it can be really helpful at shifting the nervous system kind of from this fight or flight, this stress state into a more relaxed, restorative mode, which is amazing.

38:35But also there was research to show that it can influence, yoga can influence the brain itself. So some studies using brain imagery have found that regular yoga practitioners tend to have greater volume in areas like the hippocampus, which is involved in our learning and our memory, and as well as the cerebral cortex, which is really important for attention, our awareness, our information processing. It's really interesting. And same with meditation, like they're really, really well studied for being able to reduce our stress hormones, which is really cool. I mean, we're all too stressed. And there's this area in the brain that's often referred to called GABA.

39:10And there is evidence as well that it may increase levels of this GABA, which is a neurotransmitter, is something that sends all these signals across, which is associated with mood and anxiety. So I'm really taking from this that the more we can try and disconnect and breathe and move, it's just so beneficial for our brain and actually being hooked into the tech world, which we have to be, you know, for work. It's like, it's just, there's no avoiding it for society today but the more we can take a step back and try and do something for us I would just never have put yoga with my brain in that way together I knew about the breath work and I knew about the fight or flight but I didn't know Ella that there was so much concrete research behind it for hippocampus volume and and GABA which is is really interesting most people probably just assume that you have to break a sweat to get any sort of neurological a cool benefit.

40:03No, yoga is so powerful. And I think it's amazing as well, because you can keep coming back to it because it can be quite gentle on your body. Anyway, if you've been struggling with stress or overwhelm, I do really, you guys know, I'm obviously such an advocate for this kind of 360 viewpoint on wellness. And, but I really, really would suggest just, just trying it, like just be open-minded to it. And I think lots of people say, I can't meditate or I can't do these practices because I can't be with myself. You know, I can't sit still. I would almost say, I don't mean this in a passive aggressive way, but if you feel like you can't sit still with yourself, it's probably a sign to just, we might need it in our lives.

40:42Like just two minutes, start small, baby steps. It could be just a phoneless walk. Doesn't need to be kind of, you don't need to sit cross legged and, you know, traditional meditation posture, but like you just think, yeah, open-minded to it because it is one of the best studied, most evidence-based practices for our mental well-being. I love that. So everybody, if we're going to give something new a try, perhaps it's yoga or it's the Tai Chi and just something new that is really beneficial.

41:14It moves us on to our trend for today, which again is related to exercise. Now it is a trend that I know Ella and I don't actually partake in. However, I get emotional when I watch anyone running the marathon, Ella. And it's a new running boom. There are now lots and lots of runners. We've got a nutrition running community club starting with my head nutritionist, Abby. Like people love to run. I know. It's so cool, isn't it? I have said I did do a half marathon. It was really hard and I almost did a whole marathon and then I got pregnant and Matt had to run it by himself, which was hilarious. But really cool news.

41:51You know, we talk a lot about like, ah, it's so depressing, the space of health and wellness. It's co-opted by kind of marketing gimmicks and our health's getting worse. But there is good news. There are green shoots happening right now. And one of them is that running has become so popular that just recently the London Marathon announced that next year, so 2027, it's so oversubscribed that they will become a two-day event. So it's not just going to be one day on the weekend, it's going to be Saturday and Sunday. and that means that up to 100 ,000 people can now participate. So that's almost double the size of the current event.

42:26More than 50 ,000 additional amateur runners, so just like normal people can take par. 1.33 million people though have entered the ballot, which I just think that shows how popular running has become. And it's so cool. It's another free, well-researched, amazing tool for health. Obviously marathon running is different, but just general running, 5Ks, park runs, so cool. I want to hug everyone that runs the marathon the organizers estimate that the expanded event could raise listen to this 150 million for charity like it's one of the biggest fundraising causes in the world we spoke about um oh what was his name ele he ran with the fridge on his back for um neurodegenerative diseases and we did a big feature on it and it was incredible I find it's such a wonderful thing to showcase different causes as well.

43:17And to everyone, what a personal goal. I mean, did you see that Kate, our lovely princess, completed the Three Peaks Challenge recently as well? Something she said that she feels so blessed with her body that she's able to now do this after obviously her cancer journey. And any event like this is so inspiring. I know. I saw those pictures actually at the weekend. Oh my God, it's so... Did you shed a tear? Because I shed a tear. I was about to be like, she's a legend. I'm like, can you say that about a princess? But it's really cool. And it's amazing that highlight of what can be done. And then I saw she met a young child who was fundraising for their health condition.

43:55And now she's contributed to their GoFundMe. Anyway, guys, this was our empowering episode. This is our feel good episode. We've got to share it all. I'm loving our feel good episode. It makes me very happy. So all you need is a pair of trainers and somewhere to put one foot in front of the other. And off you go. what I will caveat with is running on hard surfaces can be very wearing down for joints. So if that's you, perhaps part runs are the thing to do, you know, go and get some grass running in or make sure your trainers are nice and tight and we don't want any twisted ankles. And that's all I can think of really to caveat with running, but running's great.

44:30I'll regret saying it, but I do think I would like to run a marathon one day. I will regret saying that in public out loud. I'm not holding myself to it but I do think what an amazing physical achievement and like challenge I'm just not sure I can but I like the idea I would walk it I would power walk a marathon I would power walk a marathon can you do that maybe this is what we should say we've done it we've done it but I don't even know can you power walk a marathon are you allowed to do that well of course you are because there's people of all abilities that do it there's some people that can barely walk that have done the marathon on crutches the whole way around it's the most inspiring inspiring thing to see we i'm not holding us to it but i'm just saying according to google thousands of people walk or power walk marathons every year and it takes six to nine hours to cover it so proper preparation is required but i believe i could do that i could do that let me get this baby out and then let's let's let's have a think about if we're gonna power walk.

45:29It does. Google does say to me, you cannot wing a marathon. It requires gradual training. No, I would really hope everyone took their nutrition and hydration very seriously and your muscular, look after your muscles for a marathon. Can I just say, sorry, I'm going to also regret this as well. And this doesn't need to be a marathon, but wouldn't it be quite cool as a community of wellness scoop, if we did a physical challenge, like I'm not saying it has be the three peaks either. I'm actually not that aware of different physical challenges, but something that's kind of feasible for most of us are busy, often working, mostly women juggling, lots of different things.

46:06But wouldn't it be quite cool if we collectively did a physical challenge and an achievable physical challenge and raise those money together? If anyone has any ideas on that, do send them our way. Obviously, Ria's pregnant right now. So, you know, this is a 2027 thought process. It could be an amazing, amazing, amazing thing to do. So if anyone, because I bet we have listeners who are really well-versed in all of this, if anyone has an idea, I'm actually so keen. I'm really putting Rhi on the spot here. I'm a thousand percent in for it. We've been thinking about things we can do for you all in 2027.

46:41And I think that is one of the most wonderful things. You will see me cry multiple points when I speak to you all, I'm sure. Let's do it, Ella. I want to do that. Okay. If anyone has a great idea, please tell us, because I think this could be a really nice thing that we could all take part in. So nothing too impossible. We're not doing like six day marathons in 40 degree heat, but like something that we could all do that would challenge us in an empowered way. It's all about empowerment today, everybody's, and also something to help get us past the post-Christmas blues is something to look forward and work towards.

47:12And raise those money together. Okay. I love it. of course. Okay. I love that. Now we will discuss the NHS staff that are spending their time debunking supplement myths because we talk about it all the time. I got the running order wrong today, guys. I'm so sorry. I feel like we're on such a high and now I've just checked in something depressing. So I'm really sorry. We will come back to a high, I swear to you. This was our empowering episode. This was really crazy. This is a new report from the World Cancer Research Fund. and they're basically suggesting that the misinformation that we talk about loads on here about supplements has become so widespread that nhs staff are now regularly spending consultation time which we know is so squeezed and so short at the best of times correcting false claims that patients have picked up online so they polled just shy of um 800 frontline nhs workers and found that two in five healthcare professionals encounter inaccurate or misleading information about supplements at least once a week.

48:09And then if you look at nurses and midwives, that figure actually rises to more than half of them. Yes. Now, this is incredibly important. Just full disclosure, I did work with World Cancer Research Fund on conveying some of this information as well in a campaign. And the survey was actually commissioned ahead of Cancer Prevention Week. So they wanted to highlight the growing concern we have around the nutrition and health misinformation, because we know that the adequate and correct nutrition can be beneficial, but how harmful it can be for patients to receive incorrect, wrong advice. And I think this is something that's really underestimated.

48:47You wouldn't want a surgeon operating on you that's done no training. You wouldn't want someone to give you supplement advice that has zero information about the human body. Yet for some reason, we accept it all the time because cancer prevention advice is not glamorous and you know it centers around things like not smoking just maintaining a healthy weight being active you know alcohol we know isn't great uh obviously eat your fiber but those are not glamorous messages they sound very mundane boring healthy advice and what's the problem is that something we discussed bell gibson a long time ago you know how miraculous claims around certain types of food and living, when you are going through something where your health is impacted, you become very vulnerable to misinformation because of course you're desperate to see a way out.

49:37But the problem starts when these supplements are also taking your money alongside that as well. It's a massive issue, Ella. Yeah, exactly. So they were saying particularly, the report particularly highlights things like apricot kernels, which actually we have had a few emails about because people have seen that, which can cause cyanide toxicity. The seeding claims about vitamin C, sugar, turmeric, magnesium, St. John's wort, even horse wormers being used to prevent or treat cancer, apparently. That was in the report. Anyways, so we just wanted to highlight it again here. Now, obviously, an ingredient like turmeric can be a great thing to include in your diet, very, very anti-inflammatory, but in like, we're just taking stuff wildly out of context in that kind of example.

50:25And then in other things like horsewormers, I mean, that's really concerning. Anyway, I just think it's so important that we just, yeah, almost nothing. I feel like this is true in life in general. Like nothing's really ever as good as it seems. Like if something is meant to be the best thing ever, it's probably not. and I feel like that's a really important thing to put in here like there is no one miracle cure unfortunately in the vast majority of cases and it's certainly not going to be like a magnesium pill and likewise the same like I feel you were talking about the one thing that really annoys us better word for you there in health and wellness like that's the one thing that really annoys me is people kind of saying like oh you're stressed I fixed my stress by taking magnesium it's like you are not going to fix a structural issue.

51:13If stress is a structural issue where it's like the cost of childcare with working hours with your mortgage or, you know, maybe difficult relationships and magnesium can't solve that. And even if it is more like just day-to-day stress, things that are going to get on top of it is batch cooking meals. So you have healthy things to eat, going to bed a little bit earlier, trying to exercise and see natural daylight where you can having some kind of mindfulness meditation, gentle yoga, calm walking, things like that in your life, a singular magnesium pill cannot solve that. Your magnesium might be depleted from stress.

51:48Maybe if that's the case, it could be one of a multitude of things that will help you. But anyway, I just find the whole like one simple thing, fixing a complex issue, really irritating. I agree. So let's go back to the empowerment of let's eat the fruit. Let's eat the fruit, everybody because one food in isolation as we discuss all the time is not a panacea for health it's the overall things we do and the supplement industry is wildly unregulated and the fact that it's taking what i what i really feel strongly about is that world cancer research is taking valuable time away from them to have to dispel these myths now it's got to a point where major organizations are having to put out these messages.

52:31So come on social media platforms, step up, regulate. When will the government regulate health professionals of who can and can't give out nutrition information? I find the whole thing immensely frustrating, but I want to end on let's do something as a community together to make a difference. I love it, Ella. Yeah, please let's email us hello at wellness-scoop.com. If you have an idea, we would absolutely love to hear from you. I just love the sense of community that we have. So thank you guys. Thank you for being here. We will be back as always on Thursday. We're keeping going all summer. We just love being with you guys.

53:06We're going to be talking about foods for healing. Lots of questions on that. Are oats good? Mindset shifts, how to make delicious brothy meals, how long before bed you should stop eating, full fat versus semi-skimmed, all sorts of things. So we'll be back here. Oh, and blood sugar and acne is another interesting one that we're going to talk about Thursday. So We will see you then. We can't wait. Have a fantastic day, guys. Feel empowered. Feel empowered. See you Thursday.