How to Be a Super-Ager and Reduce Inflammation

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0:57Welcome to Wellness Scoop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. and as always we are your hosts, I'm Ella Mills. And I'm Rhiannon Lambert and as always we're diving into the headlines and trends making waves in the world of health and wellness. Okay guys, today we are talking about how to be a super ager, that's something I think we probably all want. How many almonds do we need to be eating a day for optimum health? Serena Williams GLP1 advert that's caused a lot of controversy and split the internet, We're going to dive into our thoughts on that. Why reading might be your new wellness hack, everything that I want to hear as an obsessive reader, and Kim Kardashian's new face shapewear.

1:38Is it dystopian or are we all going to be snatched?

1:47Before we get into it, Rhi, how are you? This is the first day back at school. How are you feeling? Oh my goodness, overwhelm might be the big word, Ella. How about you? hit the nail on the head we are once this comes out on monday we're recording on wednesday we will be in our new house we will have spent the weekend there the kids will be at their new school we will have two new puppies because apparently we are not people who do things by halves but they're gorgeous they're so cute they're so amazing but we'll be in but yes it's definitely we've been kind of between family the summer which has been lovely but kind of everything's in a box or a suitcase.

2:23I have no idea where anything is. And the children are feral by the end of the school holidays. Oh my goodness. Getting them out the door this morning, Ella was just a little one, didn't want to go. He just wanted to stay at home, play in the playroom. And the eldest is totally fine, but this is so much to remember. I was going through my calendar of dates, of clubs, activities, work meetings, and trying to organize it all onto my planner. I bought a planner off Amazon I have to say I do like it it's quite therapeutic I did that last year and I was like I'm officially a grown-up oh dear so have you had any highlights Ella before we continue anything you've been up to that you want to share you know what we're just 100 % in house mode which obviously is a highlight in and of itself and the puppies which is just so sweet and gorgeous and one of the most wholesome moments and I think for anyone else who's kind of made big life decisions.

3:16Like for us, I was moving out of London and starting this new life. And it's such a big decision. And we ummed and had on it on two years and about commuting and moving the girls school. And, you know, we lived really close to family in London and we're further away now and all the rest of it. And I saw my daughter yesterday running around our garden, just so carefree being chased by both our dog, Austin and the little puppy. And the kids were going up and down a slide with them. And I just thought, oh my gosh, this is why we've done it. Like what an amazing childhood. And so I think that that's the big highlight, but you know what?

3:49I'm like so excited. Anyone who commutes will say to me, like, yeah, give it a couple of months, but I cannot wait to get on the train on Monday, come back into London and get a little bit more work routine going again after the summer. Oh, you're going to absolutely love it. Can I share the funny welly story very quickly that you said? I was telling Ella how it's like chucking it with rain, you know, standard first of September, you know, we're back to it. And I was like, well, I didn't realise because when you move to the country, you need to have welly boots. I was like, yeah, even the schools, you need welly boots.

4:20And yeah, it's a wonderful transition. You'll love the welly life, Ella. I think wellies are going to look good on you. Yeah, I thought they'd be fine at school for a few days without because they hadn't arrived yet. But it turns out there's torrential rain in their forest school on the first day. So I don't think so. Do you know, I've got one very random share for everybody. Do you know, remember ages ago, we were talking about the Dubai chocolate and we were discussing that trend, weren't we? How much it was costing, the amazing boom in this industry. If you haven't tried to buy chocolate, I'm sure you guys have seen it, but just as a refresher for anyone who hasn't, it's a kind of pistachio paste essentially in the middle.

4:55And because pistachios are one of the most expensive nuts and that's already expensive, it makes this chocolate wildly expensive. It's like 12 pounds or so to up to 20 pounds I've seen it, a bar and it's gone just absolutely wild. I have to say, I hate to be a breaker of bad news, but I thought I was away with the kids last weekend and I thought I saw one. I'm going to get it. I'm going to treat myself. But£12 on a bar of chocolate that's got like six cubes in it. My husband's like, what are you doing? Why are you spending this money on this small bar of chocolate? I was like, you don't understand.

5:30I want to try the real deal, like the actual Dubai chocolate. I was so disappointed. I honestly, Ella, I was devastated. I think because I'd been so used to our homemade versions with the gorgeous like gooey dates and the pistachio butter lashings and I just thought it was a bit of a disappointment. Oh no, you know what? I haven't tried it but yes, pistachios as a result feel like they're having a moment and every restaurant menu etc everywhere. I had a pistachio souffle. Oh that sounds good. It was so good but I think it leads us on today nicely to our headlines that matter. Okay, if you're new here, welcome.

6:11We love this community. And each week, Rhi and I go through and we look at what is everyone talking about in the news, in the papers, on the TV, radio, et cetera, and what are the headlines you guys probably have seen and want to know more about. And we are starting with such a nice one today, friendship, not fitness, linked to sharp memory in later life. And I just loved this headline. Anyone who's been listening for a while knows that I think both of us have this real, I would call it obsession with the fact that wellness gets so reductive so often, and it's often linked to you must do this one thing, or these are the four things that would change your life.

6:46And so often they're linked to food or to exercise. And both of those things really matter, but they don't sit in isolation. And if you ignore the rest of your health and wellness, it's very much your detriment. And actually our connections is such a huge part of it. And this was just an amazing illustration of that. So it was a new study published in alzheimer's and dementia and it looked at super ages yeah so people over 80 right that's right exactly and don't we all want to be a super ager and it was the people over 80 whose memory performed like someone 30 years younger so people in their 80s whose memory is behaving like they're in their 50s i want to be like this pray pray and the study was a good one it was small but it followed 290 of these super ages ella and they were asked to listen to 15 everyday words, then recall as many as possible half an hour later.

7:39I don't know how I'd even do it that now. Okay, I'm so glad you said that because I'm sitting here thinking, oh no, this isn't good. Maybe we can all take the test. It is a bit of a reminder, maybe we take on far too much in our lives. But most people in their 80s remember about five words basically, but the super ages remembered nine or more. Yeah, which is the same as someone in their 50s or 60s and me and ella yeah exactly so true oh my goodness okay and the thing that's i think so interesting here to this point of health being this 360 thing we've got to look at it in a more holistic way is these super ages didn't all live kind of quote-unquote perfect lives like they weren't perfect health influencers sort of thing some of them ate well they exercised and they slept properly but others actually were smoking they were drinking they skipped exercise they live stressful lives and we're not kind of encouraging those habits but I think the thing to pick out here is the one thing all these super ages had in common is they had very very strong social connections and they consistently rated their friendships and relationships more positively than their peers.

8:43Which is great because we've discussed before social interaction haven't we that without it it can be as harmful as smoking cigarettes and it's so important and the brain scans back this up. So super-agers had more specialized cells called von Economer neurons. So neurons are those firing elements in the brain and they're linked to social interaction. So they had a thicker anterior cingulate cortex and the brain region involved in empathy. So our feelings, our emotional regulation and motivation in social situations, and their brains showed less thinning with age. I think that's what we all want, don't we?

9:20Because that's the region that's linked to sociability. So I guess we just all want a thicker brain. It's absolutely extraordinary. And I think it's worth reminding, we've talked about this before, but one of the largest studies ever done was done. It was the Harvard study of adult development, and it tracked the lives of thousands of people across different socioeconomic groups over 80 years. And it found that the positive relationships were the number one predictor of health and wellbeing in those people. So this isn't a kind of standalone piece of research that was shared in the papers over the last few weeks.

9:53This is really a really, really important facet of health and wellness. And I think it's really forgotten about so much of the time. A hundred percent. And it's a really nice one because it's not telling you, I think food is a motive and exercise is based on what you're capable of doing and motivation and psychology, but social interactions is just something that's really nice. And I think with a world that's emerging with AI, and I know we can discuss this in more detail another time, it is really worrying that we're not really enhancing those physical contacts. I wonder if there is a study that will come out that follows now from starting from now, basically 2025 for the next 10 years, that follows the difference between social interactions using AI versus a physical human being.

10:43Yeah, I totally agree. I think it's fascinating to see. And there's also, we'll pick it up, I think maybe next week, there's been a lot of new information coming out about the state of mental health for young people. Again, more research, more evidence about what a difficult time we're having. And it's very hard to believe that all of this time online and lack of kind of real connection in this very, very busy and often quite transactional world isn't having a really detrimental impact on our health. And I think as Rhi said, like when we look at health and wellness, we do often think about how many grams of protein, how many grams of fiber, you know, 30 plants a week, et cetera, et cetera, ultra processed food.

11:19And I think, you know, it's not that that's not relevant, but I think when you boil it down, it's just really nice to know that actually really making time to like go on a walk with a friend, call someone that matters to you, take a, even like a 20 minute lunch break at work and chat to a colleague that you get on well with like these things really really really matter for your well-being and so you know and I say that to myself and I think probably read to you too like we need to make more time for these things I find it really I don't do it enough no I don't but often I find myself choosing between you know late nights of social interaction versus oh I'm a bit run down with a cold I need to get an early night and often it comes down to these these factors and it shouldn't do.

11:58I also thought the other day, I don't laugh as much as I used to. And I need to get that bag. And do you notice, like I was in stitches with my elders playing this board game yesterday. I know I'm like me and Ella are the coolest, but you know, we're playing this board game and in funny moments. And I just saw how he laughed, you know, with such pure innocence, like completely taken over and you feel really good after you laugh, it creates endorphins. And I just don't think we laugh enough anymore. There's something in it, isn't there? There's definitely something in it because we've got stats, of course, with rates of, you know, dementia at the moment, sadly, and lots of different areas of mental health.

12:36But it does pose the question, we need to make time for each other. Yeah, we really do. So that's the number one takeaway from this week, guys, is that health is not just broccoli and protein. It is very much about your friends and your social connections as well. but on the topic of food headline number two we have so many positives there i hope this is kind of going to give everyone a nice spring in their step as we go into that like back to school back to routine moment of september scientists reveal the number of almonds you should eat every day to boost your gut health and again this one's really a nice positive easy win for people because i think we've also always heard almonds are good for you we're talking about blueberries weren't we last week and they're kind of superfood status and i feel almonds kind of go into that group as well don't they where they've had a lot of good press for being so good for us but there's some new research out there that shows exactly how many almonds apparently we should all be eating every day to see some real benefits.

13:29Yeah 100 % almonds are actually one of the first ever nuts I worked with when I graduated from university and it's where I first met Dr Sarah Berry who works currently at King's College doing lots of research and I remember sitting on a board discussing that a handful of almonds a day are really beneficial for heart health, you know, keeps heart health at bay was the kind of phrase and messaging at the time. And this study in particular is from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. And it found that eating 50 grams of almonds a day, so roughly a handful or 45 to 50 almonds improve gut health.

14:08Now that does sound like a lot because actually a portion from memory, I think is 23, I think. So you kind of want to have two small handfuls a day to get the quota that's quoted in this study. And those participants develop more diverse beneficial gut bacteria, which is linked, of course, to our immune system, because remember, our gut bugs train our immune system, and it reduces inflammation, and even better mood and cognitive health. I just checked. You're right. 23 arms. I knew it. Officially one portion. That is such great, quite niche knowledge. I love it. Thanks, Ella. Do you know, I do retain something.

14:41Like I look back at my uni days, I'm like there are some things in my head which is just fab because it's such an easy thing to do and again like when you're at work and you want a little mid-morning snack almonds or obviously almond butter you can do so much with make homemade nut butter bars and oat bars and things like that chuck them in your granola or on your porridge also roasted almonds so good on salads adding that little bit of crunch you can roast them also if you pan fry them with some like sage and chili, loads of garlic, amazing on top of like grain bowls and things like that. So those are different ways to use your almonds.

15:15I prefer roasting or Ella's, she'll hate me saying this, but your chocolate almonds are my, um, my daily almond intake. Oh my God. I love you saying it. The delicious yellow chocolate almonds are one of the best things on the planet. The chocolate orange ones. They're my favorite. They're amazing, aren't they? Yeah, I am. The big packets obviously are meant to be for sharing. Oh, I have never shared one of them. no I mean if the kids are around they do get their hands on them but almonds are linked to so many benefits Ella do you want to list off the first few that we've got here exactly so we've got a kind of a multi-faceted range of benefits from an almond which again we just say this not to be like really dry but just in terms of inspiration to do these simple habits today chat to a friend have some almonds they're so good for your heart because they're full of your heart healthy monosaturated fats and so again a kind of 30 gram ish serving it's got about 15 grams of these healthy fats and that's the same kind of fact you're going to find in things like olive oil avocados and again all the research shows that adding almonds and this sort of fat your diet lowers your ldl your bad cholesterol so you don't need to be worrying about the fat in it it's actually so so good and you know those ldl levels are a major risk factor for heart disease which is obviously a big concern for so many people so getting nuts in is actually a really really beneficial thing as with your olive oil your avocados as re said also so good for your gut health you're getting about four grams of fiber in it feeding your good bacteria as we know obviously it's so important for your immune system it's inflammation control digestion and even maybe cognitive health later in life yeah absolutely and just to add as well this is why i'm not a fan of calorie counting per se because items like almonds are quite high in calories because they're fat content whereas actually the type of fat that we're discussing here linking to the heart health is good and also contains antioxidants because vitamin E is a fat soluble vitamin and almonds are abundant in them.

17:07It's basically packed with it. It's got handfuls of it. And if you have one handful of almonds, it provides around 7.5 milligrams, which is almost double the daily recommended intake of vitamin E. And that's just in one handful. So if you're worried about how to hit some of those healthy fats, it's just such an easy way, Ella, I think. And it's associated, of course, with prevention and reducing your risk of Alzheimer's and cancer. But that is a big statement for me to make. So you can't just have a handful of almonds a day and think that suddenly that's going to solve all our problems. But it contributes to lowering inflammation.

17:42It does. And vitamin E is the kind of beauty, one of the beauty vitamins, isn't it? Because it's so good for your skin and healthy skin. So you want to glow, eat some almonds. and then we thought it'd be helpful just to touch on whole almonds versus almond butter because we've seen some questions from you guys on that like what is the difference does it make any difference from nutritional perspective re will you give the kind of overview on that one yeah 100 this is a food matrix based question and when i discuss food matrix i mean how eating a food is absorbed in your body because of the process so we're back to the ultra processed food conversation that we have quite a bit on the podcast and i've discussed this in my my book the unprocessed plate.

18:22But if you eat a whole almond, you've got the structure still, it's intact. You've got all that fiber, all those lovely fats. And if you grind that down and you put it through a nut butter machine or you're making nut butter, you've got that lovely, lovely fat. It's more readily available. And the angle here is that you don't chew it. I mean, I don't know if you chew nut butter. It depends on the consistency of the nut butter, but often we're just spreading it on our toast, popping it into recipes like me this morning, putting it on a date because I'm obsessed with anything like that and it tastes really good.

18:57So what you're doing is absorbing more of the energy and more calories and more fats from it. And it's probably not the best choice for people that have insulin resistance, maybe type 2 diabetes to have a lot of nut butter. You're probably better off having the whole almonds if we're looking at it that way. but it doesn't mean they're bad and also almonds aren't high in sugar so I'm not worried about almonds as a food group being an unhealthy item that is not true I'm just talking about portion control they do offer the same nutrition practically when it comes to the vitamin content the mineral content but you do the studies here are not really using nut butter they're using the whole almond so you're better off chewing that almond it's good for your gut to chew we don't chew enough everybody I know that sounds bizarre it's something I'm writing behind the scenes at the moment but we are not chewing and there's some studies that suggest that children now are not chewing so much that it's going to impact the structure and shape of their jaw and impact their speech later in life how interesting is that oh my gosh yeah I mean there's so much around that isn't there that an amount of ultra processed foods again that children eating and how it's really affecting their palate, their jaw, their ability to eat different foods.

20:15It's absolutely fascinating. And check the nut butter, Ella. We know this, don't we? Look for palm oil, added sugars, all sorts of things, because not all nut butters are equal. 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. I recently moved and one of the very first things I added to my new living room was my bubble cuddle blanket from Cozy Earth.

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21:58at sierra discover top workout gear at incredible prices which might lead to another discovery your headphones haven't been connected this whole time awkward discover top brands at unexpectedly low prices sierra let's get moving okay headline three is quite a juicy one today we've gone from like make friends eat some almonds it's all really nice to yeah a little bit more controversial and this is I've never had more dms from you guys as in our listeners than with this one I think Rhi you had the exact same so thank you guys so much for sharing it this was Serena Williams shares her weight loss journey with GLP-1 injections and there's a real kind of mix of reactions to this some people saying she's breaking the stigma some people really pointing out that she has had this extraordinary and really tough, I imagine, to take consistent narrative on her body image and her weight and how she looks.

22:57And I think there's been arguments of misogyny, of racism peppered in there and what a difficult time she's had and now she's feeling good and that's really positive. But also we've obviously talked about GLP-1s and these weight loss medications a lot on the podcast and it was just a really interesting angle on it. And Rhi, have you watch the whole ad? No. Can you play, have you got it? Can we watch it quickly now? Okay, here we go. Yes, I'm on Ro. They say GLP-1s for weight loss is a shortcut. It's not, it's science. After kids, it's the medicine my body needed. GLP-1s helped me lose 31 pounds.

23:36One app to hit my goals. this is healthcare this is row i'm serena williams and i'm a real row member what's your reaction my reaction is to go straight to my clinical hat and you know i'm a master practitioner with the psychological interventions to disordered eating so straight away in my head i'm going oh red flag you said how much weight you lost oh you know red flag you're saying you know this is science first of all before I'd heard that video my response also was I'm obsessed with Serena Williams she is just iconic she embodies strength right she is everything that we're fighting for being female she's just you cannot dispute her talent and her strength and her will and her drive and what she's been through like you said but the company name mentioned x times you know it's like three times she mentioned the name of the product right and it's selling it's selling disguised obviously as my personal journey and a big red flag as an evidence-based nutrition professional is anecdotal advice it worked for me it'll work for you too and she's not wrong it will work for lots of people but we have to remember medications have side effects I could go on Ella but I think my initial response is that she's not a health professional so she can say those things but you're blurring a moral compass there by saying those sorts of things and it might be true but it is a moral that you can see why there's a lot of fire behind this discussion yeah and i think there's a lot of curiosity in the discussion because as we've talked about these glp1s these weight loss medications are really changing the health and wellness landscape so so quickly and obviously they're in trials to come in pill form which i'm sure will kind of speed it up no end especially because it will bring the price down and the price is currently going up.

25:34So even more relevant at the moment. But I just, I don't know. I think it's this really interesting balance of, there's obviously a huge benefit to lots of people with these drugs and it's not taking away from that, but there's a kind of glamorization and a popular culture, which I just really struggle sometimes with the link between kind of celebrity culture and popular culture and the glamorization of that sort of thing and the health industry. And obviously those lines are blurred every day whether you look on Instagram and the what I eat in a day and this is how I manage my health. And so maybe it's no different to that, but there's, you know, obviously these drugs do have side effects.

26:13And one of the big things I saw, we've talked about her before, was Jamelia Jamil, who's very outspoken on conversations around female bodies and weight loss, making the point that these drugs do have side effects. and it's very different for Serena Williams with huge amounts of disposable income and resources to take them and potentially deal with the side effects later on to anyone else. And as you said, so many people look up to her and is it saying we all now need to lose 31 pounds? I mean, she may have felt, and there was a lot of narrative on her body and she may have felt she needed to lose weight, but equally she was one of the most successful women in sport ever.

26:53to your point she was such a huge inspiration is such a huge inspiration is a completely extraordinary woman in terms of her sporting achievements and her body and so then for her not to feel comfortable with her body you know yes in a way it's normalizing it but equally it's actually really sad and I don't know I have quite a difficult time with it I I hear you I hear you and you can tell Ella and I just want to be very neutral about the fact that you can decide what you want to do with your body. I think at the end of the day, there's no shame for wanting to lose the weight. And it's not Serena Williams' fault that she's an icon, that she is who she is.

27:30But when you put your messaging across and you share your story in this way for financial gain, that there is an odd, because she could have done this privately, you know, she didn't have to endorse a GLP-1 company. And I think what it's done inadvertently is kind of give the message that women's bodies should always bounce back or look a certain way after childbirth, which isn't true because we're not meant to stay the same after childbirth. Sometimes it depends on your unique genetics, where your body fat sits and hormonal changes and what we're predisposed to be because there is evidence that constant exposure to body ideal messaging can worsen body dissatisfaction, especially in younger women too.

28:10So we've got to remember young kids growing up now are going to think, oh, well, I'm just going to have a baby, then go on GLP ones like Serena Williams did. And we're losing the support on people that want to do it naturally. I'm not anti GLP-1s either, because we see a lot of success in the clinic. But I would like to share anonymously, of course, one story we had recently where the side effects were so serious that there was vomiting, which we thought initially was suspected salmonella poisoning, because we just could not put it down initially to the GLP-1. And it lasted for about a month. and the side effects of the severe vomiting, the nausea, the cramping, the headaches for an individual that was taking this medication on a very low dose.