Can Vegetables Protect Your Heart? Rethinking Screen Time & AI Wearables

0:00This episode is brought to you by Facebook. So you were scrolling on Marketplace, and there it was, the bike you'd been searching for. You sent a message, and it turned out the seller was super chatty, kind of funny, and an avid cyclist. The next thing you know, you're in a cycling crew. Well, a community cycling group. The thing about Facebook, you might find more than what you're looking for. From a browse to a bike ride, this summer, find more on Facebook. Hey friends, Olivia from Oli. between new routines and the ultimate group project known as parenting, you need science-backed solutions that work with your life.

0:38That's where Oli comes in. Start your mornings off right with Maltese made to support nutrition and immune health. Choose from our lineup of gut-supporting probiotics, and we've got occasional sleep support to help the whole fam chase their big dreams. Head back to class with the number one gummy supplement brand. Stock up on Oli.com today. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. I am genuinely so excited about today's sponsor because it's the way. Honestly, if you have listened to me any time over the last few months, you know I have become a little bit evangelical about this app and I honestly recommend it to everyone.

1:14My friends, my family, people on Instagram, everyone. And she recommended it to me, so it's true. I've heard so much about it. It's just because it has had such a big impact on me. I've meditated on and off for 15 years or so now. But using the way is honestly the first time we've become so consistent with this daily practice. And I've just seen the most unbelievable results as a result of that. The app is just incredible. And what I love is every day you open it and there's a meditation waiting for you. So you don't scroll, that you don't have to choose between hundreds of options. There's no wondering what to do.

1:48It just takes you on a path. Well, I think that's why it works so well, because, you know, most of us just don't need more big decisions every day to make, Ella. No, exactly that. We've got decision fatigue, haven't we? So this is so nice because you just follow this path of meditation, which is led by Henry, the founder, who's just the most amazing teacher. And he makes it seem somehow just incredibly simple, but exceptionally profound at the same time, which is a very rare skill. And I've been using it too. Yes, I've now finally begun my meditation journey and I've been doing some of the shorter practices on busy days because I completely understand why you talk about it so much, Ella.

2:26It really is a nice intro in for me. Yeah, it is. And I'm so glad. Anyway, it's helped me feel so much calmer, less reactive, more present. It all sounds like huge claims, but I just say, please, please, please try it. If you're struggling with stress or overwhelm, you just got to give it a go. And the lovely thing is that everyone listening can definitely try it themselves. Exactly. So you can get a 30 day free trial. So just try it every day per month. It'll change your life. All you do is head to thewayapp.com forward slash wellness scoop. Yeah, that's thewayapp.com forward slash wellness scoop.

3:05Welcome to The Wellness Scoop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. And as always, we're here as your hosts I'm Ella Mills and I'm Rhiannon Lambert and after a decade in the wellness industry we know that it can be very overwhelming confusing and that's why we're here with our podcast to cut through the noise and make healthier living simple fun and personal

3:32it's funny because this time of the year obviously the whole show is about what you guys are seeing, reading, hearing, what's viral on your socials, what's in the headlines, etc. And I'm always thinking, oh gosh, we'll have nothing to talk about July, August time. You know, things tend to go quite quiet. Oh my gosh, we are like swimming in things to talk about. I have a running tab of goodness even knows how many headlines that we can't get to at the moment because there's too many it's insane it's I mean it's great like yay for us obviously there's so much to talk about but I can't believe it we've been messaging each other so much with different things that are cropping up also trends that you're sending us there are so many um yeah the world of wellness seems to be really really kicking off at the moment so Ella what do we have coming up in today's show okay we are going to be talking about whether different veggies can protect men and women's heart health in particular differently.

4:32Why experts are saying the UK is raising one of the unhealthiest generations of children, which is very worrying. The latest evidence, a bit more on screen time, some very interesting updates and some unsurprising ones there. And is fiber finally replacing protein? And also some interesting developments in AI wearables. We've talked a lot about wearables recently. This one's about women's hormones. So loads to talk about. But then there were other huge headlines that we just couldn't fit in because it was just too much this week. A new UN report showing that healthy diet is now too expensive for one in three people globally.

5:08Obviously super concerning. We're going to talk about that in depth next week. We didn't, it came in quite late and we didn't want to rush it because it's very, very important. And then also so many of you guys have sent us, we'll do it in trends next week this insane video of this woman explaining why like adding a banana to your smoothie will basically just kill you I was nearly going to do an Instagram reel on it but I actually saw that the particular woman in question replied to another colleague's reel I saw and I thought oh do I really want that oh I saw that yeah do I want that no you know what that's why it's so funny I I was on Instagram this morning and this really lovely yoga teacher I've known a very long time put something on her Instagram stories.

5:50Just saying, you know, I kind of struggle to show up here. I have so much I want to talk about. There's so much I want to share. There's so many ideas. But I just feel so kind of, ooh, like confined by this strange algorithm and the way that people respond to stuff on here. And it's so how I feel. And then I love bringing stuff to the show. Like, I find this, I don't really post on Instagram anymore. So I'm just like, it's so lacking in nuance and depth and it's either a bit like I'm having a really nice day and if you're not I feel a bit weird sharing that and vice versa and I don't want to share it in such a kind of two second way anyway it's so nice to take those bigger things and those bigger conversations and have them here where we can like actually unpack them and chat.

6:33Yeah exactly we have the time here to voice opinions and different sides of the equation so Ella before we go into the health headlines that matter today how have you been and what have you been up to I am yeah I'm so good I am um really enjoying the slower pace of the middle of summer and like not rushing in the mornings in the same way trying to get everybody ready and out the door and fed and all the rest of it which is so nice I do always find these days a bit not strange because I'm really enjoying them but where I keep having, you know, we're talking about the four hob theory recently and how like you can really dial up one on it, but you can't really, really dial up four.

7:18And I, as someone that's quite an all or nothing person inherently, I find that a really helpful concept because I, as you know, had worked dialed up very, very, very, very high above and beyond anything else for 15 years. And I've since dialed it down, but over the summer holidays, I've got the kids, and so I'm really trying to kind of yeah just be a bit more present a bit more focused on things and say like it's okay you know what I can pick that back up in a second I don't have to do everything today don't have to do it all perfectly and that's my kind of thing that I'm working on at the moment I don't know about anyone else but I find that quite hard to always feel like you've got to do the best job of everything but you can't do the best job of everything at once and when they're here all day I find that kind of being sort of semi-present not great because it's bad work and it's bad parenting.

8:07I just think being present is really difficult, full stop sometimes. I think for so many of us today, like we discuss on the podcast, it's nice to share that actually, Alex, I'm sure lots of people right now are feeling that way across the summer. And also to add, as you all know, I discuss or I touch on ever so slightly, this is not what the wellness group is about, but I touch on the issues of the climate at the moment. And we've officially just been declared in the UK with certain areas having drought and Wales for the first time in 190 years so it's kind of I'm feeling at the moment like it's a very big day I'm almost praying in a way I never have before for the heavens to open and rain Ella oh my gosh Rhi I'm exactly the same because we've been a little cloudy at points this week and I've looked at the sky and I'm like you can do it I mean the grass in our house is like I mean it's honestly it's like a desert like it's crisp and it's so dead I don't know if there's any way it can come back to life anyways I just um yeah I I completely agree with you and it's funny I saw someone else on Instagram posting like a long sleeve top and shorts being saying like how used to living in a hot country have we all become because it's 27 degrees and I'm wearing long sleeves wow everybody do correct us if we're wrong but I read as well on social media it takes your body two weeks to adapt to the climate change and the heat wave.

9:31Personally, I do not feel like I'm adapting. I'm just too hot 24-7. But apparently lots of us have adapted. And that's what's happening is that we're finding it cold when it drops to 23 one day. I actually think that's true. And like the kids this morning came down and it was say 20 and they're like, oh, it's freezing. I know. And before we'd have been like, wow, that's so warm. And so anyway, before we become very stereotypically British discussing the weather, we don't bury our head in the sand. we are very very aware of what's going on as well but we also have a job to do here which is to dissect these mountains of wellness headlines because goodness me ella shall we move on to our health headlines that matter we shall and you know what we've had it in for another episode but on that what you just said very very quickly apparently we are also going to see some real shortages particularly on things like cucumber potatoes potatoes as a result of these really unusual conditions that we've had, obviously not just in the UK, the cucumber, I think very affected by countries like Morocco, if I'm understanding it correctly.

10:33Anyway, we'll pick back up on it, but yeah, we're going to see some, some big shortages as a result. I have to say, you know, I got into my veggie garden this year and I just took this mentality of like, I've never done this before. I'm just going to give it a go. I'm, you know, some things are going to work. Some things are not going to work. Definitely has been the case, but I did a few cucumber seeds and I have a very small greenhouse there was space for a few tomatoes one cucumber and but I had three more cucumber little plants so I thought well I'll put them outside if they don't work it just doesn't matter I've got nothing to lose I am swimming in cucumbers that's not me gloating in the face of the drought just to be super clear but just to say it's nuts because cucumbers I don't think are meant to grow in a garden outside in the UK this quickly, but I have got so many.

11:20And it's just because it has been so hot, I'm getting more than in my greenhouse. It's wild. It is wild. And it's also just another example. So for anyone listening, you have to imagine on a mass scale producing, obviously with hose pipe bands and all sorts of things that we've got, we cannot be watering the crops in the field to the degree they probably need consistently. And then the heat is evaporating from the ground. So what we've had with these consistent heat waves there's a constant evaporation of moisture which means that we're just drying out the soil down so that you know it makes sense to me that in your own garden your crops might be able to thrive but obviously on a mass scale it's just another story also other countries who provide lots of the produce in our supermarkets have had obviously even more extreme weather than we have I'd be really interested as well I know some of our listeners work in farming or our farmers as well because what I have noticed is like there's lots of farms around where we are and there's one that we can see from the house and I think they're already starting harvesting crops that you don't normally see till August so let us know.

12:25Well also trying to stop wildfires right I just keep seeing these videos of tractors trying desperately to cut back and stop spreading So yeah, let us know what's going on, everyone. If you're in these industries, we really are thinking of you. And then our first health headline today is another kind of wake up call, Ella, in a very different genre. It is. Yeah, it's interesting that you said that. This was picked up absolutely everywhere. I think this headline was from the BBC. The UK is raising one of the unhealthiest generations in decades. No, sorry, that was actually from The Guardian. But The Guardian then had a second follow up on this, looking at some letters from readers.

13:05And the headline there was yet another wake up call on declining child health. It's really scary. And exactly as it says on the tin, essentially, there was a big report, a publication that came out on the state of child health from the Royal College of Pediatricians and Child Health. And what it showed was that nearly a decade on from the first report on the same topics, um children's health across the uk has either worsened or completely stalled across almost every major measure that obviously in and of itself is super concerning but where this leaves us is that children in the uk are among the unhealthiest in western europe and there's some absolutely terrifying stats in there really quickly before we get on to this i also think maybe this is ridiculous to have to caveat you tell me but we don't share headlines on children because we're parents.

13:58This would be very relevant whether we were parents or not parents. This is so critical to all of us because ultimately the state of each generation's health has huge economic implications above and beyond to some extent in terms of the effect on everyone, almost anything else. The colossal weight of this on the welfare system, on the NHS, it is absolutely vast and so it affects all of us and so I think it's just important to note that because it is a kind of it's not an individual issue it's a collective problem for want of a better word for the whole of the country and kind of every component part in terms of how it impacts kids to work through.

14:41So let's reel off some of these statistics because you know whether you'd I'd also want to know if any of you work in primary school settings what you see and what you witness it's really interesting to hear your feedback as working professionals that maybe work with children as well. So one in five children aged eight to 16 now have a probable mental health disorder. So we know that mental health is declining in children in this country. The UK now, and this is for me, this is absolutely wild, Ella. We have the lowest childhood vaccination rates of any G7 country. I mean, we can discuss this in depth another time.

15:20I obviously think these things stemmed from COVID probably moving forwards and misinformation online, but let's get into that. Children living in the most deprived communities are four times more likely to die from asthma, which is something that should be available at your GP and inhaler, you know, something that should be checked out, something this just should not be happening. Then we've got babies born into the most deprived communities are more than twice as likely to die during infancy. God, it makes me sad when I speak about it. One in four children starting primary school are overweight or living with obesity.

15:56So that means we're rising to more than one in three. It used to be one in four of children now in primary school in England will be overweight or obese. And then children in the most deprived areas, again, are more than four times more likely to be living with severe obesity by 10 to 11. And the issue with this is that if you are obese or overweight as a child, as we've discussed before, Ella, and I think we discussed with Professor Giles Yeo in one of our episodes last year as well, that this means that they are far more likely to carry that through to adulthood. And it just means there's a consistent strain on that child's health their entire life.

16:29It's challenging. It's so challenging. And as we said a sec ago, that's not to put, you know, blame at the feet of parents by any means. As we said, this is such a kind of collective issue to solve, looking at, you know, government, food industry, health bodies, community funding. You know, this is a very, very, very nuanced and complex issue. But as you said, that's the big concern is that excess weight in childhood significantly increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease liver disease obstructive sleep apnea musculoskeletal conditions and some cancers later in life and moderate to severe obesity has even been linked to reduction in life expectancy of between two and ten years so and then obviously beyond that um the physical health children of the obesity are also unfortunately um proven to be more likely to experience bullying anxiety depression lower self-esteem and poor educational outcomes so it's so worrying and then obviously most worrying of all is that there's obviously this huge thread from everything that we um read out there the kind of headlines from the report that inequality is as we know one of the biggest issues at play here in almost every stage of childhood outcomes are substantially worse for children growing up in the most deprived communities in this country whether that's asthma infant mortality obesity deprivation constantly has this really big impact on poor health and it's you know it's obviously wrong on every level and it's it's just really worrying it's incredibly worrying and reading this off you know it's why I've also wanted to professionally throw a lot of weight towards children's nutrition recently because one of the areas of course that we can improve is access to nutrition isn't it nutritious food the school meal discussion but then we have to look at the health uptake of vaccination rates and all sorts of things there for healthier children so like Ella said this will impact all of us in the years to come rather than now potentially.

18:28And it's one that I think we should raise because on the wellness scoop, we like to talk about preventative health just as much as just discussing dire statistics. We do believe there's hope. There always has to be hope. And hopefully with these types of headlines, perhaps it will wake up a few of the people that are in the positions of power to make a change. Yeah, I hope so. And I think it is, yeah, it's incredibly important to talk about. You know, I think we like to, as we always say, kind of cover the huge topics and the really serious and quite frankly difficult to talk about or upsetting topics just as much as we like to talk about viral videos about why bananas and smoothies will apparently be absolutely terrible for your health.

19:11Spoiler, that's obviously not true. And actually interesting, again, to this whole point of all of the millions different headlines that we can't fit in at the moment. But we'll talk about this soon. there was another new report that came out almost simultaneously showing that restoring Britain's health to just 2014 levels, which were better than today, not phenomenal, but statistically better than today, could add 2 % to the UK's GDP. This came out from a paper published by the Health Foundation, obviously, which was arguing that health is an economic asset, which is something I would totally agree with.

19:43And showing that, as I said, restoring Britain's health to 2014 levels not only would add 2 % to the UK's GDP, but also could generate 72 billion for public finances. I'm sure that is a combination of both savings in healthcare, but also increase in productivity, because obviously the huge impact on our health is detrimental to productivity, which is incredibly important for our economy, which we do need to grow for everyone's sake. So yeah, it's really interesting. There's so many different angles to look at on this, but lots more to talk about anything you guys have read or any interesting inputs you have on this conversation we would love love love to hear from you exactly ella there are so many facts to consider here so i think actually it moves us on in a different way to the other types of headlines that we're experiencing in the country at the moment which it's so bizarre isn't it to think that we are actually literally striving for 2014 rates of health yet we are still divvying up these sorts of headlines.

20:42The headline two is beans for blokes, broccoli for women, which veggies protect young hearts? Now, I always find it fascinating when we look at gender divides as well when it comes to nutrition conversations and food, because there are stereotypes, of course, that exist. But this is actually based on a new study, which came from Edith Cohen University in Australia. And it suggested that vegetables are offered the greatest protection against future heart disease and type to diabetes do differ potentially between men and women. Yeah, exactly. And this is definitely early thoughts on the topic, but it is interesting.

21:19So the researchers in the study that we mentioned were looking at health and dietary data from 638 young adults. And those were people who were taking part in a long running study called the RAIN study. And they did find some really interesting differences. So young men who ate more legumes, so we're talking about like chickpeas and white beans, et cetera, as well as peas and lentils, were significantly less likely to show early warning signs of heart disease. Whereas young women who ate more cruciferous veg, so we're talking like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage there, were significantly less likely to show early warning signs of both heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

21:55Exactly. And I think, look, older people already, of course, living with the disease weren't mentioned here. This was people in their 20s. And it's quite interesting for us researchers to look at data that early on, because often we are looking at an older adult sample when we look at a lot of nutritional research with things that involve diseases. But because these sorts of things are moving forwards and they're getting younger and younger with different generations, this is where we're starting to look. Researchers were looking at the warning signs of future health problems. Now, these warning signs that they looked at included the waist circumference, the blood pressure, cholesterol and triglyceride counts, blood sugar.

22:33In fact, almost one in five participants already had multiple cardiometabolic risk factors despite being so young in age. It's like we're saying that these risk factors are occurring now in younger generations like they haven't done before. So why do we think men and women respond differently? Now, this is what I love, the thought process behind it. The researchers think it could come down to the different plant compounds found in these vegetables. So perhaps the most encouraging finding was that you just have to add one extra serving a day of relevant vegetables and that is associated with a substantially lower risk.

23:09So legumes contain compounds that may have a greater influence on the sex hormones testosterone while the cruciferous vegetables contain the compounds that were strongly associated with us females. So things like estrogen, progesterone. I mean that's a theory Ella but you know it's interesting. It is interesting. And obviously it was an observational study, so it can only just show an association. It's not going to prove, and obviously nothing in isolation is going to do this. So it doesn't prove that just eating more broccoli is going to prevent diabetes in women, or that just eating chickpeas are going to directly protect men's health.

23:47It's one study, just over 600 people. But it's just interesting, as you said, to look at how the certain compounds could potentially particularly be beneficial for some of us actually on the cruciferous veg I do see that a lot on social media in terms of women's cycles and excess estrogen at points so that's interesting to see again I actually just made a video yesterday talking of on seed cycling and discussing it in depth so oh my gosh that's so funny because my sister what's that made the other day and was like what do you think about seed cycling is it legit we just you can't say that and then not give us an overview?

24:23Well, you have to look at my post, everybody, because these posts tend to flop because they're just health information. It's about splitting the types of seeds at the first half of your cycle and the second half of your cycle. Which seeds go at the start, if you're following it? Off the top of my head, I'm pretty sure that the second half were the flax seeds and the first half were the things like the sunflower seeds. Sesames and things. Yeah. And honestly, the evidence isn't there. But what's so interesting is that we just need to include more of these things in our diets. You know, we're talking once again about all of us having more wonderful vegetables, seeds, pulses, nuts, fiber, fiber, everybody, healthy fats in our diets.

25:04And we're just overcomplicating it consistently, just like we'll go back to the banana example. we should not be isolating foods in this way. We really should just be trying to include them every single day or every other day of the week and embrace them and enjoy them. Sometimes I think we almost want to complicate it because it's almost like if we have rules to follow, there's a structure and a guideline and we kind of know what we're doing. It's really interesting. I think we are, I said earlier, I'm an all or nothing person. I definitely am. I think quite a lot of people maybe lean towards that and the sort of ambiguity of flexibility can be a bit overwhelming to some extent and so it's almost like okay if someone says do you have a tablespoon of this on day one this seed on day two this on day three it's like a rule a boundary feels quite safe to some extent and you feel like that might answer the issue whereas i think the kind of more general i know we just need many many more seeds and the seeds are so beneficial for you but as alongside the lentils and the chickpeas and the avocados and the olive oil etc well this is the issue that it's rules it's diet culture it's we've lost intuitive eating we've lost the ability to just live and just be because that's why we need rules because society is so hard we have honestly lost the just being it's so interesting and obvious you know i'm teaching a lot of meditation at the moment and so much of that is just this learning to sit not for long i mean we're talking about like 10, 15 minutes here, but it's amazing how difficult it is actually for most of us today to just be, to like just sit and just be, even if we're talking about 15 minutes in a whole day.

26:45And I don't say that in a critical way, like it's taken me a long time to learn to do that, but it is, it's interesting. And often when you say to people about meditation, they're like, oh, I just could never sit with myself for that much time. I think we just are very used to not feeling anything and because it makes us uncomfortable and that's why the algorithms should be banned for under 16s and all these discussions we're having because we want to try and help us all break away from those feelings and learn that we shouldn't feel uncomfortable ourselves. And what I don't want to see from us discussing this particular study is that women should eat broccoli and men should eat beans.

27:22It's just a reminder that all veg are very powerful. But you know what? When I post that seed cycling video, everyone, come on, show me some love. It's just poor. Sorry. At least you're still trying. I literally just don't try anymore on social media. I'm just like every now and again, I'm like, oh, I should give it a go. And then I'm like, I hate it. I actually just hate it. I'm on Meditation Guys Wellness Coop community. now 112 ,000 minutes of meditation. And there's only been 24 days since we started sharing this. So I'm proud. I'm really happy about it. It's incredible. And one other positive thing, you know, you said that fruits are coming out earlier.

28:00I've just looked outside my window while we're recording this. And there's like a rogue blackberry bush that's poking out through my normal hedgerow. And normally that comes out in autumn. I know. I love blackberries. I'm really excited about that. Where we're moving to in a few weeks, oh my goodness gracious, in the back of the garden is the biggest blackberry bush I've ever seen. So I'm very excited about that. They're there now, Ella. You need to go early and start stalking them. You don't need to get going. I do need to get going. Anyway, but I also forgot to say at the beginning of the show on meditation, I also took part in a really cool free course on Insight Timer, which is a really nice free app or pretty much everything on there is free if you just want to kind of dabble.

28:40And they did a 10 day course to support kind of exhaustion and that feeling of burnout. Anyway, I taught the first class in the course. It's completely free. You can still join it. I'll put a link in the show notes, but it's just, they're all under 10 minutes, 10 days. If you just want to dip your toe in something quite fun.

29:02This episode is brought to you by Facebook. So you were scrolling on marketplace and there it was the bike you'd been searching for. You sent a message, and it turned out the seller was super chatty, kind of funny, and an avid cyclist. The next thing you know, you're in a cycling crew. Well, a community cycling group. The thing about Facebook, you might find more than what you're looking for. From a browse to a bike ride, this summer, find more on Facebook. Hey friends, Olivia from Oli. Between new routines and the ultimate group project known as parenting, you need science-backed solutions that work with your life.

29:39That's where Oli comes in. Start your mornings off right with Maltese made to support nutrition and immune health. Choose from our lineup of gut-supporting probiotics, and we've got occasional sleep support to help the whole fam chase their big dreams. Head back to class with the number one gummy supplement brand. Stock up on oli.com today. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Headline three does link nicely. We have segued unintentionally again from gender vegetables and food into screen time for children with two major new studies.