Cold Plunges, Morning Routines & The 3 Bursts of Ageing 

0:26Race the rudders! The Jack Welch Management Institute at Strayer University helps you go from I know the way to I've arrived with our top 10 ranked online MBA. Gain skills you can learn today and apply tomorrow. Get ready to go from make it happen to made it happen and keep striving. Visit Strayer.edu slash Jack Welch MBA to learn more. Strayer University is certified to operate in Virginia by Shev and as many campuses, including at 2121 15th Street North in Arlington, Virginia. Welcome to The Wellness Scoop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. And we are your hosts. I'm Ella Mills.

1:09And I'm Rhiannon Lambert. And after a decade in the wellness industry, we know how overwhelming and confusing health advice can be. And that's why we've created this podcast to cut through the noise and make healthier living simple, fun and personal. A hundred percent. And we love that you guys are feeling so inspired and so empowered. I wanted to shout out a listener message from Alice which just brought so much joy to us both Alice said just wanted to say how much my whole family is loving the wellness scoop my sister and I always debrief after every episode and just bought tickets for the 14th of June cannot wait we've also got my parents into it which I love and tonight my 61 year old dad asked me what on earth a hot girl walk is and if he's allowed to go on one tell your dad 100 % hot girl walks are for everyone.

1:58Get out there, listen to something that inspires you and just walk off your day. I learn so much every week and really feel that a mental weight has been lifted off. I no longer have to do all the mental gymnastics that comes with figuring out what's fact and what's bad and can instead focus on delicious nourishing food and moving my body in a way that makes me happy. Thank you both so much. See you in June. And I just love that because that's everything we're about, right? Just nourish yourself, look after yourself, empower your health in ways that feel delicious juicy great empowering inspiring and not overwhelming i love that do you know my dad's bought a ticket as well in june oh i love it yeah my mom's coming as well yeah we'll have to get camilla and my dad to sit together 100 from row fans um if you guys haven't got your tickets yet we'll pop the link again in the show notes 14th of june the wellness scoop live our big community event it's going to be fab it's going to be good so ella what have we got coming up in today's show okay so first up we age in three dramatic bursts apparently the new science that suggests your body speeds up the clock at three distinct ages and what that could mean for how we approach our health span.

3:00Cold plunges, this has been everywhere for a long time, but do they kill your muscle gains? Olive oil shots are having a real moment. Do they live up to the hype? We're going to unpack that trend. Plus the rise of wellness morning routines and are they getting a little bit extreme? Pets versus partners, the surprising research showing our furry friends may make us happier than our relationship oh yeah no surprise there yeah sorry hubbies um or our salaries plus an important conversation around alcohol and breast cancer risk with a new global report urging women to rethink even moderate drinking and then this week's listener question is all about how do you talk to kids about unhealthy food without creating guilt shame or fear around what they eat and i think that speaks to a society as a whole in the way we talk about this kind of food so loads to cover and just as a note if you hear any noise we're in a new space again today

3:56Rhi how are you what have you been up to do you know I've had a good week it's been interesting to say the least but um my am drams you know I'm doing my musical theatre show on the side still in the evenings it's going very well but I've been in a state of sleep deprivation for like a week and a half now and a little shout out to Lucy and the cast because we were on stage Ella and they put you in points of where you're meant to be in a big dance number and I think I just zoned out I think I was just stood there asleep on stage it was like that and she just kind of pushed me into position as she walked forward like this nudge and I looked over I'm like oh gosh thanks Lucy I think she knows that I'm juggling a lot right now but I really appreciated that so big out to my amdram fam and then this i thought this would make everybody laugh i had the cat on the roof at one in the morning so there i am in the middle of the night pouring rain another thing to add to my sleep deprivation mode trying to get a cat who is sat on the top of the roof off with cat treats leaning out a window holding my husband's legs you know so he doesn't fall down to the ground that is it i have no other exciting updates apart from a cat on the roof i love both of those what i love about them is that they shatter the illusion of perfection you know we're always here to say like what you see online you know it's not real it's just snapshots and I think to your point like everyone's doing their best but life happens it's part of it and then we just look after ourselves as best we can around the edges of that and I still love that you're pursuing a hobby because I think that's something that so many of us myself included would benefit from massively.

5:33It is hard when you're tired to motivate yourself to go to rehearsal till 10 o 'clock but I always benefit from the social, the love, the music. But Ella, tell me about your week. We celebrated our nine year anniversary this week. So that was really romantic and nice. Yeah, it feels like a long, long time. Did you go out for dinner? Go out for dinner, exactly. The kids love Bluey and so they call it a romance night because they think that's what they had on Bluey. Do you celebrate the day you met or the wedding anniversary? Wedding anniversary. Ah, interesting. But we've certainly done a lot in the nine years we've been married.

6:06So Ella's relationship, I'm sure everyone that follows Ella knows, was just a total whirlwind. Total whirlwind. Moved in together after a week on our third date. I think three months later, we had a dog, had started the business together and Matt had quit his job and were engaged. And then within the year, were married, had opened our first cafe, were in the works for the products starting so I think talking about putting all eggs in one basket and I was not romantic growing up actually didn't really believe in marriage but this is like a Disney film totally when you know you know and I have to say 10 years and it's 10 years since we've been together then I could say it has worked that instinct was right but yeah celebrated nine years I think it's wonderful congratulations oh thank you no I really appreciate that and I have two recommendations for us this week both movies are you guys probably seen maybe lots of you have have watched it but there were loads of reviews about a film called we live in time it has andrew garfield and florence pew in it it is phenomenal so i do need to watch it i did see it's a tearjerker we both watched it on the plane but separately from one another so that one could concentrate while the other one kind of had eyes and ears on the kids yeah and both of us sobbed relentlessly like I could see the cabin crew looking at our family being like are these people okay the mum and dad have been crying for hours so it must have looked really really odd it's a long flight as well it's a long flight and you've got the both parents just in floods and I was like fully in floods of tears anyway it's I'm just really in my personal life really trying to focus on kind of be more present appreciate each day stop looking ahead because the future is so uncertain and just really try and enjoy every minute as best you can and this film just spoke to that so beautifully so I just couldn't recommend that more and then I had to tell you that I watched Wicked the musical film didn't think I'd be into it so into it that I've watched it three times in a week I mean I didn't think you'd be into it I thought it was just me and my musical theatre world but you loved it obsessed obsessed and I think you know what it was and the reason I wanted to recommend it not because I'm suddenly like some movie buff but because the world is so uncertain and it has been so uncertain for years now but it feels like the news is terrifying overwhelming deeply frightening and it's so easy to get sucked into all of that let alone all the kind of social media noise the pressure people have at work whatever it is and I think in that there's something so much to be said about finding like real feel good things and sitting down with no phone with a snag watching wicked the it's just really feel good and I just think it's so as I said it's so easy to be sucked into the bad news of the world and the stress of life and all the rest of it and I think yeah as I said I'm trying to be more present more grateful more in the moment and I think these things that just make you feel really good but equally kind of totally distract you there's so much to be said for that for your kind of mental well-being.

9:12You've watched it three times. Three times. Even I haven't watched, like I went to the cinema and then watched it at home, but even I haven't watched it three times. Yeah, twice on the plane. Wow, Ella. I'm so happy now we can chat wicked things. We'll go see the show. What have you got? I really want to, by the way. Yeah, I will definitely take to the show. My two recommendations this week, let me find the book. I went over my friend's house for a play date with the kids the other day. And I actually very sadly lost a friend And coming up to this time last year, anyway, I was chatting to my friend.

9:45She said, oh, my goodness, this book is incredible. It will give you faith in the world. And it's called Signs, The Secret Language of the Universe. And it's by Laura Lynn Jackson. And it was a New York Times bestseller. And it's about opening your mind to the other side, regardless of what you think. You can tell I'm struggling to get the words out here. Will you think about heaven or if there's another place? Oh, I didn't think I got this emotional talking about it. But I think the book's really important because it's really empowering to know that you can feel connected and that there are ways of knowing that people are still watching over you, which is really beautiful.

10:26So I'm going to kind of just say that's a good book recommendation. And then on to something completely different, which is totally off topic. But I'm Philippa Gregory obsessed. Oh, I love her. Do you as well? Oh, my goodness. My whole life, I just have the entire, I was obsessed with the Tudor period of history. You do? Yes. I love all that kind of thing. King Henry VIII, our producer Will is like, what is going on? He's like, how have you flipped from morbid books to the Tudor history? But we love the Tudor history. And I was obsessed with that TV show, The Tudors, that were based on the book.

10:57And then The Other Berlin Girl came out. Anyway, this is about Mary, Queen of Scots. It's called Reign, spelled R-E-I-G-N, you know, as in the reign of a monarch. and it's nothing to do with the period. The clothing's not the same as that period of time at all, but it's really quite gripping and there's nothing remotely real about it, which takes you away. Like you said about Wicked, it takes you away from what's going on in the world and it just transforms you to that period of life and I just love it. So rain's a good watch if you're into that kind of stuff like me. Oh, I'm so into that kind of stuff, so I'm going to take you up on that.

11:31I think the overall recommendation this week is to give yourself some time away from your busy life away from pressure, away from overwhelm, and try and switch off with something that makes you feel good.

11:43So what do we have in the headlines that matter today? Okay, so we put in headline one, and I turn 34 in a couple of weeks, so this really freaked me out. But guys, we age more rapidly at 34, 60, and 78. So some new research has come out about the concept of three births of aging, And it's referring to this idea that the aging process doesn't occur kind of smoothly and gradually. Certainly, that's how I always imagined it. But actually, in distinct phases marked by very accelerated changes in biological systems. And this research suggests that these three big births happen around the ages of 34.

12:22So in six weeks time, I'm going to be very different. Do you know what, though? Because obviously I'm older. I did notice a difference at 34. but I didn't know at the time it's only now that I look back at 34 I'm like oh that is when I noticed tiny change but it's not scary panic stations setting in okay yes it's 34, 60 and 78 be very curious if anyone else has just been through any of those three markers if you had noticed it like we had when I say markers I'm not saying I suddenly felt old at 34 what I noticed was the eye lines and things like just a little bit more but then that could just because we're sleep deprived parents or you're just very busy in life and I reckon it must happen for people at different points in their 30s but it is like that first moment of oh I'm not early 20s anymore and it kind of hits you.

13:13I have to say I've noticed it massively over the last six months so I've maybe I've had it tiny prematurely I hope it's not going to massively accelerate. And though guys we're not we're not being negative about aging it's just how interesting that there's three rapid points in your life. So interesting but I think also and you know maybe it's a conversation for an extra scoop because I think it is an interesting conversation. I do think especially in the world today where you're faced with your image so often that actually getting comfortable with quite a serious change in how you look I would say for me personally it's mildly uncomfortable and equally on the other hand I'm personally not keen to do Botox and other procedures just for me personally so I need to sit with being uncomfortable with it and invest in great face creams but I do think it's like it's a marker of a different chapter of your life and whilst this different chapter is great you are getting older and you know it's not just about age lines so I know because I'm one and a half to two years older than Ella and I noticed I got more moles and I remember when we went to that Necco health scan place and he said to me when you are pregnant or as a woman you suddenly get more moles because your skin changes I can't describe this correctly because I'm not a qualified dermatologist but your skin changes and you do grow more moles and some moles are genetic moles that you have in the same place as your mum or your dad that you'll always have in the same place on your body and I noticed that because my boys have got moles in the same place that I've got one and it's so interesting and then some of them grow through different ages and growth spurts so it's not just aging and how you look with wrinkles it's all sorts of things totally it's very much what's going on in the biological systems in your body but to reese point i think it's just interesting to this new research showing again it also just speaks to how complicated our bodies are but that the aging process is more complex than previously thought with those three distinct periods of accelerated change interspread with periods of actual relative stability which as i said i think it just has interesting implications how we approach aging maybe try and kind of mitigate some of the effects not just physically like joint health it must be things like how you feel so i notice when i sit down for a long time now and my body's desperate to move like i feel that itch and i didn't used to have that like an aching feeling it's really interesting so yeah for example there's also a study in nature medicine found the aging process again it's not a steady decline but rather a series of surges in molecular changes and so it's looking at things like protein levels in the blood etc so research is still ongoing but i think an interesting thing for our audience to think about is that actually again it shows how complicated your body is how brilliant your body is but actually that yes we're not just day-to-day aging and kind of slightly declining in biological function we're actually having these moments of really speeding up so maybe those moments as well to really look after your body a little bit more in order to support it as it's going through so much change yeah a hundred percent and that's what we're here for we all want to age well and how fascinating.

16:16So look out for those three, those three age markers around that time. And it does actually lead us nicely into our headline number two. I feel this was everywhere, Ella. Cold plunges reduce muscle growth. So there was a huge hype about, you know, exposing yourself to cold temperatures. I've never quite been down with this because I find it really difficult. And I did try once, Ella, to do a plunge pool at the gym. Have you done it? I did it once personally I hated it me too I hate being cold I couldn't get my shoulders under yeah I kind of scream this pathetic scream I'm not brave enough don't know I'm dumbed out um so it says while some research suggests that cold plunges can um actually help muscle growth the 66 reduction claim is not widely supported by scientific evidence studies do indicate that post-exercise cold water immersion may reduce long-term muscle gains basically in mass and strength.

17:14And it does interfere with key processes involved in muscle protein synthesis. So it's basically saying that we now know it's not going to help you repair your muscle and repair and extend that growth you want. But the extent of this reduction and its specific impact can vary. So we've got the reduced muscle growth. So the research shows that it hinders this, and it's called hypertrophy. Anyone that's a PT out there will know that's the growth of the muscle after resistance training. It also interferes with the mechanism so that anabolic signaling pathways, which is crucial for the growth of protein, protein synthesis, lots of little signals and chatting going on between helping your muscles grow bigger.

17:56And then the benefits that were always there is that, you know, it might not be ideal for muscle building, but cold plunges can reduce soreness and inflammation and improve mood. but what I remember Ella is doing nutrition for footballers at premiership level at the start of my career so I remember them combining cold and hot therapy and that was really effective so it's so interesting how people suddenly just focus on the cold you know there's this huge thing you have to do an ice bath how many people have we seen online with ice baths in their garden I know I've seen a lot of ice baths in the garden and even though I hate it I have been tempted same I don't have anywhere to put one right now but tempted to get one because I feel oh I must be missing out I must be doing it wrong by not doing this maybe I should wake up at 5 30 in the morning too and take an ice bath yeah I mean I had one experience I did that cryo chamber where you go into that cold room once and it was in a gym in South Ken and you have to dance to the music and cover your face you know in your hands with the gloves and you have a little shorts and things and it didn't feel as cold as I thought it would it was at minus 28 or something silly you know probably way more than that I can't remember really really cold and I just didn't enjoy it I didn't last the full three minute goal I only did two minutes and I decided from that point onwards no I prefer a sauna yeah and just being gentle with yourself on chirotherapy very I say is interesting it's also absolutely tragic um but in this whole conversation we're having about kind of wellness going too far and trying to rein it back in and focus on your simple building blocks i think it is just worth noticing that these kind of extreme treatments can be dangerous and actually when we're recording this the day beforehand there was a really tragic reminder about some of these wellness trends just becoming actual real risks and i was not necessarily phasing into that enough and a 29 year old woman died in Paris after a suspected nitrogen leak in a chirotherapy chamber at a very same thing I did yeah exactly and then the incident also left a client in critical condition we as of recording don't know what the outcome of that will be it will probably be clear by the time this comes out also forced the evacuation of 150 people from the building the gym since been shut down investigation is ongoing not the first time chirotherapy has made headlines for the wrong reason though in 2015 someone in Las Vegas also died after using a chirochamber therapy alone we've seen this from some cold water as well exposure again there have been deaths from that so I'm not trying to fear monger on the flip side but I do think that as I said these it's such engaging content and it has some research behind cold therapy being helpful not loads it may hinder to your gym performance which it might be a reason lots of people are doing it equally it can be really dangerous and also in the case of like a chiro therapy chamber incredibly expensive i mean it was i remember i was offered it as part of a work partnership so i couldn't even tell you how much it was but it wouldn't be something i'd choose to pay for anyway but now i've heard that story you know i think oh my goodness that could have been me i think it's such a reminder like You said things like IV drips out there, the risks are there.

21:22But because they're normalized by seeing people do it everywhere on social media, I also get FOMO. I think, oh, my goodness, should I be doing this ice bath? You know, I see people jump in it every morning and say, yeah, now I feel amazing. I had a really cold shower today. But I will flip it and say we need to do next week an episode with saunas in it because the research benefits coming out about saunas are apparently better. and there's this big ice versus fire debate. Yeah, and there's a huge amount of research behind saunas. So we'll pick that up in our transaction next week because I think it's very, very interesting and yeah, lots of interesting research on saunas and actually being very, very beneficial.

22:00I would also be just so interested to get our listeners feedback on this because I think we're both in the same place where we talked last week a lot about this kind of pressure to self-optimize, to be perfect, to be on this hamster wheel of perfectionism, maximizing, trying to self-improve all day every day and I think in that that content is super super engaging in there you do start to feel this pressure of should I be doing this too and I'm just so curious how many of our audience are feeling that within the health and wellness space where eating carrots and lentils and going for a hot girl walk on your lunch break doesn't feel like enough and you feel you're not doing health properly if you're not engaging in some of these kind of jazzy extras and I'm very curious if you feel the same because I sometimes feel like because I can only work out once a week and I've always been so transparent about that and I know that's even a good thing for me it's still a good goal but I feel like oh well I can't do a push-up therefore I'm not strong enough yet until I can do this one thing but it shouldn't be like that it's just not fair the pressure we put upon ourselves all the time in every aspect of our lives I totally agree and we feel like we need to go to various boot camps instead of taking a walk but as I said very curious please give us your feedback because it's something I'm becoming acutely aware of is this pressure to feel like you're kind of almost needing to perform to be healthy yes and are you guys feeling that too because yeah I think a lot of it feels quite performative now yes and I've said so many times like I understand it because if you think about a video online or headline how much more interesting is ice baths versus carrots yeah you know one's novel and one's certainly not but equally the research on carrots is stronger and the ability to fit it into your life is stronger like crudités and hummus winning in my book and I'm just very curious whether you guys feel that that's not enough to some extent because it's not really ticking the kind of wellness content curation totally vibes online it is so important to me that my home feels like a calm and cozy sanctuary from the chaos of the world I found that beyond decorating sensory things like warm smells and soft textures make the biggest impact for that And especially as it cools down outside, I'm looking for the best ways to snuggle up on my couch.

24:16I recently moved and one of the very first things I added to my new living room was my bubble cuddle blanket from Cozy Earth. It's a faux fur material that is so incredibly soft and has this cool bubble design that makes it look and feel very plush. It's a mid-weight construction, so I've honestly decided against getting a weighted blanket because it's not too heavy, but you still get that feeling of security when you lie under it. My roommate has said it's her new favorite blanket, and we've been keeping it on the couch at all times instead of the blanket basket with the rest of our options. I've also been loving my bamboo sheets from Cozy Earth.

24:51The temperature regulating capabilities were great for the summer, and now that it's getting a little cooler at night, I'm just really appreciating the softness of the sheets and pillowcases. It's like I'm slipping into a cloud every night. Plus, you can try them risk-free with Cozy Earth's 100-night sleep trial. If you don't love them, you just return them hassle-free, but believe me, you're going to be hooked after the first night. So if you're looking to make your home a little more cozy this fall, head to CozyEarth.com and use my code SCOOP for 20 % off. That's CozyEarth.com code SCOOP. And if you get a post-purchase survey, make sure you let them know you heard about Cozy Earth right here.

25:25Because home isn't just where you live, it's how you feel. So let's go home with Cozy Earth. At Sierra, discover great deals on top brand workout gear, like high-quality walking shoes, which might lead to another discovery. 40 ,000 steps, baby. Who's on top now, Karen? You've taken the office step challenge a step too far. Don't worry, though. Sierra also has yoga gear. It might be a good place to find your zen. Discover top brands at unexpectedly low prices. Sierra, let's get moving. I'm excited to quickly share with you all that you can pre-order my new book, The Unprocessed Plate, now. And Ella and I discuss this all the time, that the world of food and nutrition is currently full of conversations surrounding ultra-processed foods.

26:09And this is for good reason. And in my book, The Unprocessed Plate, I dive into what UPFs actually are, explore the latest evidence on how they impact our health, and most importantly, how we can reduce our reliance on them without overhauling our entire lives. And remember, there's a lot of nuance, guys. There's a privileged conversation, lots of things here. But I want to cut through the noise and offer actual practical solutions. There's incredible diagrams to make the science more accessible. And there's 60 amazing recipes, family friendly, everything from breakfast, weekday dinners, quick lunches, simple swaps and snacks and things you can have on the go that make such a difference.

26:44And trust me, whether you're a busy parent or you're just trying to reduce these in your diet on your everyday workload, this book is here to support and empower you to get back to basics with food without the pressure of this perfectionism. So if you want to feel more informed and inspired in the kitchen, then you can pre-order your copy of The Unprocessed Plate now. It's out June the 19th. And back to me and Ella. our next headline everybody is something that we should all be very aware of and i think it's really really significant in the fact that we all know alcohol is not good for us i think everybody knows that you know your body sees alcohol as a toxin it just wants to get rid of it as soon as possible but i don't think we're all fully aware of the risks still to this day and the headline said that women should avoid all alcohol to reduce risk of breast cancer so a major new report from World Cancer Research Fund in collaboration with Harvard Uni and the Health Research Institute of the Balearic Islands and they have issued a significant warning alert and they've said that even small amounts of alcohol can increase a woman's risk of breast cancer and this research basically indicates that just one glass of wine per day raises the risk by nine percent in post menopausal women and five percent in younger women and the recommendation is really clear women should consider giving up alcohol entirely to reduce their breast cancer risk.

28:10Now, just to touch on this, if you have someone in your family that has breast cancer, I would say this is really significant. And even if you don't, you need to be so mindful. And I don't think we should be drinking alcohol every day. No, I think it's a really, I was really struck by reading this, there's guidance, obviously, of actually recommending that we potentially give it up, essentially almost entirely or massively reduced drinking goes a lot further than current UK and World Health Organization recommendations in terms of kind of more gently limiting alcohol intake. And I thought this was very interesting that nearly 80 % of European women were actually unaware of the link between alcohol consumption and breast cancer.

28:55So there's this clear link in the research, but a massive gap in public awareness, which, as I said, to me is very interesting obviously very important to say that it's not about drinking drinking alone there's also a lot of information around maintaining a healthy weight regular physical exercise diets rich in fruits and veg avoiding smoking i mean not to trivialize a very important conversation but i think this comes back to again this like cut the noise to feel you need to keep doing these optional wellness extras and focus on this where all the research is in terms of supporting a healthy lifestyle but I just think it's very very very interesting and again one of the studies authors noted very clearly that the biggest benefit in terms of prevention comes from adhering to multiple healthy lifestyle choices simultaneously so cutting back on drinking as per that report but also the other lifestyle factors that we just mentioned in terms of the kind of core of a healthy life.

29:50A hundred percent it's a public health message that's missing I don't think I ever grew up thinking, oh, there's a link between cancer and alcohol. I knew, of course, about liver damage. I think that's really, you know, hammered into us from a young age. And there was a culture when Ella and I were younger of binge drinking at universities. And I do think that's died out with the rise of sobriety and the rise of the alcohol free, you know, the alternatives, mocktails, all sorts of things, which is fantastic. But this just wasn't in our spectrum at all. So there you have it and in a related study alcohol change uk found that even low risk drinking so within nhs guidelines that's fewer than 14 units per week and it's associated with increased risk of cancer and heart disease as well as poor sleep daily functioning and the charity is basically advocating for better labeling on alcoholic drinks to communicate the risk because i don't remember ever picking up um i mean i've never been i'm very rad i've never been a big drinker even at uni because I was singing, but I'd never pick up a drink and look at the label.

30:54No, I don't think many people do. I don't think anyone, like I get a Bailey's at Christmas. I don't think anyone looks at the label on the Bailey's. No, and interestingly, back in early January, the US Surgeon General, who's the US's top doctor, kind of the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government, he came out and called for risk warnings to be added to alcohol beverages like labels and cigarettes following new research that had come out back then that linked drinking to seven different types of cancer and he was saying the exact same thing obviously this study that we were referring to is specifically about breast cancer but his point there was again this gulf of information in terms of public awareness of drinking calling to the fact that the majority of americans are unaware of this risk which yeah as i said is very very interesting his point there being the direct link between alcohol consumption and cancer risk is well established.

31:46Do you know what I think doesn't help is the positive headlines for alcohol. So I understand a Mediterranean diet. I understand that having a really good quality red wine grown in a certain way within a certain setting with a meal or something else could be good for relaxing or reducing blood pressure, all that sort of thing. You've got the data, but we're constantly bombarded with headlines. What's the best alcohol? What's the lowest calorie alcohol? glass of red wine is good for you to have every week and the problem is they're taken out of context those headlines and actually I mean I don't want to be a killjoy because I love having a glass of wine and bubbly celebrations I'll be doing that this Friday because my son's turning five and I'm really excited to celebrate and I will have a little glass but we shouldn't be praising something so flippantly that is actually just a toxin for our body and provides nothing for us.

32:39Yeah, it's a very interesting one. And I think it's one of the harder ones. Personally, I find it quite a harder topic to talk about. Yeah, because it's so kind of cemented in the fabric of society. It is a society. And we talked about this when we were talking about the rise in kind of no alcohol drinks and a change in kind of cultural sentiment there. But there is a sentiment that not drinking is boring. And then you have this clear research where drinking is very, very, very bad for us. And I think my big question is in 20, 30 years, I mean, a long time from today, when we're looking at some ultra processed foods, when we're looking at alcohol, will our retail landscape, like our big supermarkets look very different because the warnings that we have on cigarettes will start to exist on some of these other things?

33:24Who knows? Who knows? Watch this space on a totally different topic. I'm just reading our next headline, Ella. I love it. It's the pet one. can your pet make you happier than your partner yeah we're moving from really serious to much lesser but that's the fun of the show okay so there was a brand new study that came out in the uk that found that owning a cat or a dog can improve your well-being just as much as getting married can or earning new money so this was researchers from the university of kent and they were looking at data from two and a half thousand households in the uk and they found that having a pet gave people a three to four point boost in life satisfaction and that life satisfaction is only measured on a seven point scale so three to four point move is mega and that is the same happiness bump those three to four points that you would get from getting married or wait for it bringing in extra 70 000 pounds a year no yeah interestingly just one note the effect was strongest in women and those under 65 and i wonder if that's because we're having this real spike in loneliness in younger generations and the pets combating and we know that obviously loneliness is so bad for our health and potentially yeah the kind of massive boost is in people who are feeling lonelier and that is now younger generations versus elder ones it makes sense i do see a lot more people getting a dog before they have kids now or something like that you know before they do it and i can say on a nutritional perspective that having a pet is good for your gut microbiome so it exposes you to different types of bugs and that is known and shown in research to be really beneficial and then you take them outside more I mean I'm a cat owner but I still go outside with my cat I have a cat lead because after my cat was sadly in an accident last year you she got hit by a car she survived she definitely has nine lives the air tag saved her because we found her she was wearing an air tag on her collar everybody but I got a cat lead so she could get fresh air while she was recovering from her injury in the garden and it meant I got outside more.

35:29I love that. Yeah I mean getting having a dog definitely gets you walking as you said so you've got the kind of loneliness connection you've got time in nature which is amazing you've got gut health support so again a nice illustration of the fact the wellness is very 360. And I believe on a spiritual level and I do believe animals can feel our emotions. I know whenever I'm down or a bit sad or just not feeling right my cat just comes and sits next to me or lies on me or gives me a cuddle there must be something in emotional support massively absolutely and as we know loneliness is one of the key indicators of good health so there we go guys yeah so maybe it's more beneficial to get a pet than it is to get an ice bath or have a husband

36:17Ella what is trending in wellness this week? Okay so morning routines this is a kind of never-ending trend right and I'm just going to preface this with I really like a morning routine it does not happen every morning not even a tiny bit but I love to aim for a morning routine but there was a feature that we wanted to pick up of that was in the times and it was called how extreme is your daily routine and the feature dives into the extreme wellness routines that i think to be honest have massively popularized online and we've all seen and i think again just to circle back to what we were saying a moment ago about curiosity of our listeners are feeling the same pressure to kind of do all these things and add all these extra steps into their day in the name of health and well-being to me a lots of it comes from these types of morning routine morning sheds that you showed me exactly and so in this one it was taking three kind of relatively high profile influencers people in the wellness space and looking at their morning routines all three of them started around five o 'clock in the morning and by 9 a.m they'd done red light therapy nad plus injections mouth taping or taking that off from the overnight hyperbaric oxygen sessions electromagnetic field therapy meditation journaling cold plunges workouts tailored to their mental cycles supplements customized to their dna something called intranasal photobiomodulation which is basically shining light up your nose to stimulate your brain and i'm not criticizing any of those three women in their individual life i think if these things make you happy and they make you feel amazing it's your prerogative within reason but this proliferation of the conversation I think is the bit that I wanted to pick up on because to me and we've talked about this so much recently I just worry a lot and again very curious what our listeners think that this is now seen as what wellness is.

38:11Cost of fortune Ella the first thing I was thinking when you're reading off I don't even know what a hyperbaric oxygen session is how do you even do that in your house you know and then they're saying they're tailoring what did this photo biomodulation thing and then the NADD plus injections we've discussed, you know, they cost a fortune as well. This is expensive and you've got to have a lot of kit to do this sort of thing. And I would prefer to get an extra hour's sleep. Maybe even two. Yeah, definitely. A hundred percent. I think again, this isn't wellness, is it at all? This is stress. Yeah, that's a really interesting way of putting it.

38:48For me, it's pressure, but I think it's also stress in the pressure. And I think it is, again we've talked about it last week but I'm quite maybe single-minded on it in this concern about this self-optimization and I'm very vulnerable and open earlier in the episode like I'm very conscious of aging and definitely you know want to look after myself and feel good in myself but there is a sensible balance of also just enjoying life and kind of going with the flow and doing what you can to feel great but equally not putting so much pressure on yourself that you You have like a three hour routine before the day starts.

39:22And like Ella said, if this works for you, that is actually really cool. But I think it's just not accessible to so many that it can, like I said, it feels very overwhelming. My concern is that, and then again, this is where I'm so interested to hear your guys' thoughts on it. My concern is that people are starting to feel that they're doing wellness wrong. If they're not doing this sort of thing, which is so popularized on TikTok and social media, etc. etc because they're not engaging in the trends and so they feel like they're not really participating in wellness but as we've seen from all these leading scientists and researchers and amazing data analysts the research in terms of what wellness actually is is getting a pet but no I mean it is your diet it's the kind of foundations it's your stress it's your sleep it's these kind of more basic things and I worry that it's all just becoming too intense and even in this article they were talking about sleep tracking rings and having a kind of essentially I think it's scored out of 100 and this person was getting kind of 97 98 score so again this now we're putting pressure on ourselves to sleep perfectly and I know sleep is vital to health and I'm not devaluing some routine around sleep leaving your phone downstairs maybe doing a quiet meditation before bed doing things to help you actively unwind to get a better night's sleep massive advocate for that because sleep so crucial to health but I'm just worrying that we're now getting competitive and optimizing everything and is it fun it's not fun it's almost like orthorexia the pursuit of cleanness in the eating disorder territory it's almost like this yeah pursuit of perfection in wellness and it's very all or nothing what happens if you do have one bad night of sleep is the whole routine then off the next day yeah and am I almost like morally a bad person yeah because I've got it wrong oh Well, that was a listener question that we had so many people saying they loved our mention of the morality behind food.

41:14And we should definitely delve into that more because I feel like there's moral compasses with lots of things that we could potentially discuss. But, you know, I consult for on the side of Retrition, a health tech app called Rio. And it's one of the things they always say is we're building the car whilst driving it. Because tech and all these wellness trends are so fast, it takes so long. The studies are slow. so like with the cold therapy we discussed they were all the rage last year even in lockdown I think everyone was doing it and now suddenly the research is coming out saying hang on a minute guys this could kill you or this is and it's not all is cracked up yeah and it takes time so what can we say I don't think it sounds very fun have you got any kind of morning routine well it's just the green tea I think I said that last week I wake up and I cannot start my day without my green tea in a mug and to be honest I would like to try a bit more of a morning routine but my focus is very much the children and I don't put myself first and my problem is I get to bed too late to wake up earlier so I need to work on my night time routine first so then I can have a morning routine.

42:23That sounds very sensible have you got any like daily non-negotiables? The green tea is definitely the only thing I definitely need to start my day with my day does not start unless I've had my hydration in the morning my non-negotiable would be what's a really good question Ella dark chocolate blueberries food wise cannot live without them every day there's not a day and this whole year where I haven't had dark chocolate or blueberries every day isn't that funny it's quite expensive but you know it's my one look the card shop is full of the food for the kids the meals I'm gonna make for them the one thing I get for myself are those two things and the berries can be frozen and I eat them every single day how about you I try with a morning routine you do you're good though yeah I give it a good go definitely didn't do it last this morning I just find the days are so busy and the mornings for the kids are so busy that having even 20 minutes or so where you're kind of prioritizing yourself a bit and carving out a bit of calm before whatever unfolds really helpful and generally I do a five to 15 minute depending how much time I feel I have meditation or breath work which I find very helpful someone who's a real overthinker I'm fascinated by this because I just don't think I could do that breath work is very helpful because it's so guided in terms of if it feels very new to you and my brain just runs at a million miles an hour and I get really I overthink everything I get way too concerned and het up and anyway and I find it a very helpful way to kind of set my mind up for for the day and I'm definitely happier calmer person when I do it regularly not necessarily every day and then I make coffee and we just drink coffee my husband and I pretty quietly and it's so nice and then by the time the kids are awake and the day unfolds I feel ready I mean you have to be changed before they're awake oh my goodness yeah if I haven't showered and got changed before they wake up it's just game over just not good that's really good so I think my my goal now is going to be to try and do some breath work in the morning maybe I'm going to set myself that and put my phone away at bed just five minutes makes such a difference and I think yeah as I said I I'm quite an advocate for morning routines but I think I just was also much bigger advocate for taking the pressure off ourselves and I think that's definitely the kind of overarching theme do you I think you're a night owl or an early bird.

44:49Early bird. You're an early bird. Yeah, see, I think I am a bit of a night owl and I wish I wasn't. I wish I was an early bird. But I've got better since having children. Guys, trend number two, olive oil shots, Ella. Yes, I've been seeing these around for a little while. But I noticed in the last couple of weeks, Women's Health, Glamour magazine, Evening Standard, loads of big publications talking about it. So we thought we'd bring it today. glamour for example had the headline i tried olive oil shots for a week and the effects were immediate so are olive oil shots a wellness elixir or another fad and basically if you haven't seen it yet the idea is you take a shot of extra virgin olive oil first thing in the morning and the claims are it boosts energy improves gut health people talk about lining your gut reduces cravings as i said glamour uk women's health both put this two-week trend to the test also saw it in vogue literally everywhere those writers were trying it for two weeks and they did both personally report things like better digestion reduce bloating feeling fuller for longer but we first of all let's start with the fact that olive oil as a general food has loads of research behind it being beneficial i'd love to dive into that with you i have to say don't know where you sit i spent a couple of hours researching this and cannot find a single shred of evidence that having olive oil on an empty stomach first thing in the morning has the benefits.