How to Feel Happier at Work, Age Better & Rethink Protein

0:00As soccer takes center stage this summer, Comcast helps bring the experience home to America. As the exclusive Spanish-language home of the tournament in the U.S., Telemundo is set to present its most expansive coverage ever. 700 hours of programming, live on-site presence at all 104 matches, and with multi-view and real-time 4K, Xfinity will deliver the most innovative and immersive sports viewing experience for fans watching on Telemundo, Peacock, Fox, and FS1. Learn more at comcastcorporation.com. Lululemon's new drop of daily essentials feels like a deep breath of fresh air. breezily is a collection of drapey pants shorts and tanks designed to mix and match with your wardrobe as the weather warms up it's all made in our lightweight stretchy swift fabric throw on these everyday staples after practice and bring an airy feel to your daily moves shop the breezily collection now at lululemon.com i am genuinely so excited about today's sponsor because it's the way honestly if you have listened to me anytime over the last few months you know i have become a little bit evangelical about this app and i honestly recommend it to everyone my 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 it's honestly the first time i've become so consistent with this daily practice.

1:30And 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. It just takes you on a path. Well, I think that's why it works so well, because 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.

2:03And 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. It 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

3:01Welcome to The Wellness Scoop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. And as always, we're both here as your host today. I'm Ella Mills. And I'm Rhiannon Lambert. And after a decade in the wellness industry, we know that it can be incredibly overwhelming and confusing. And that's why we're here with our podcast to cut through the noise and make healthier living simple, fun and personal.

3:27so welcome guys we have got such a jam-packed show is unbelievable Marie will you run us through quickly what is coming up today I definitely can jam-packed is the right word for today we have got the five minute walk that could boost your mood and productivity and then why scientists think that today's under 50s are aging faster than the Dutch tradition that's helping raise happier and healthier children and have we reached peak protein i cannot wait to delve into this one and what protein washing actually really means and then the wellness trend that's become trademarked ella so we have got a big one and i believe you've got a pickup first of all from our conversation on meta glasses yes we have well you know if you were listening a few weeks ago ria and i were talking about the kind of dystopian black mirror, quite nerve wracking element of these new meta glasses that Kylie Jenner amongst others is advertising where you can kind of walk down the street and take photos of people.

4:29But really important that we had two listeners who emailed in about this and it feels incredibly important. Sophia said that I totally agree that those that are cited, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. However, I work for the charity Guide Dogs for New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory. And our clients use those glasses as a mobility aid. Think about it like this. The glasses can describe what's in front of a person. So let's say they're looking for the eggs in the supermarket. The glasses can read out what's in front of them, or they want to know what date their food expires. For example, with their chicken, the glasses can help them there too.

5:05They also help the person wearing them, let them know that there's a person with a dog walking towards them so they can prepare if that's a problem. Assistive technology is an area that's growing for people who are blind or have no vision. So more things might come out that benefit blind people, but sighted people, I agree, should be marketed for different uses. I thought that's really, really cool. And sometimes with these technologies, it's easy to see it one way, but actually being reminded of the other ways is so important. I had a very similar message from another listener who said, I totally agree, they can seem troubling or kind of black mirror, but I wanted to give you a positive example.

5:40my dad is legally blind due to a genetic condition he's been losing his eyesight gradually since i was very young and he was in his mid-30s my siblings and i gave him a pair of thematic glasses for his last birthday and they've allowed him not to rely on others to read things like a menu for him when out for dinner it'll tell him what he's looking at when he's unable to tell has read books and documents to him and so on they've really given him a huge jolt of hope anyway i love that it just shows everything has a positive it's made me really happy and warm and fuzzy is that type of feeling because what would be incredible meta is if you then worked with some particular charities or associations to make these glasses available for everybody that is living with sight loss or a condition like this wouldn't that be a remarkable thing for meta to do ella because it sounds like that is a massive positive for that particular community.

6:34So thank you for sharing that. But yeah, for the rest of us, it does freak me out still ever so slightly. But for that, very, very lovely to hear. What a wonderful invention for that purpose. I totally agree. We also had a funny message from Andy. We've been talking obviously about maxing. And I think I was pretty clear that I'm a bit fed out with maxing. And he said, isn't Ella just suggesting average maxing? I was like, But maybe I am, you know, it's that whole good enough idea. And so maybe I am advocating for good enough maxing. I love the concept of average maxing. Can we make the word average just sound a bit more less average?

7:12Do you know what I mean? Can we really big up this word? Do you know what? I so agree. Being average is so great. Like being, as in it's normal, it's like run of the mill. It's just like good enough. I think good enough is such an important thing. People talk about it a lot in parenting, but I think it goes so far beyond that. and on that good enough really cool as you guys know um if you've been listening we're working with the app the way which i'm obsessed with you guys know i'm about to hit 2 000 minutes of meditation through the app which i'm really proud of but i had a look in the dashboard and our wellness scoopers over the last couple of weeks have spent about 30 000 minutes meditating which is so cool so i just wanted to shout that out well done guys i love it that is incredible everybody i was also at happy place of phone cottage day and i had someone mention this app as well at the book signing and we had lots of wellness scoopers saying thank you for the podcast and we're really enjoying the recommendations so that is a fantastic achievement everybody well done ella how has your week been yeah do you know what quickly though actually if you want to do it and try it for 30 days for free it's just the way app.com forward slash wellness scoop 10 out of 10 recommend but um my week has been so good weird actually i'm very anxious today about a whole manner of different things like i think it's that whole thing that so many of us myself very much included a terrible with uncertainty and not knowing what's happening with our lives and i feel like personally professionally just on lots of different levels i've got that today and i actually feel completely all over the shop and you know what i think it's okay to acknowledge it and sometimes realize that that's the different place we can sit within and live within.

8:55Otherwise, you know, no one's in a constant state of being OK. We all fluctuate and go up and down. But you really start to realize different things. You know, health is wealth is a saying I really like because, you know, you get older and you think about that more. You know, the word average, once again, our average maxing, you know, the stability and the normality of life is something we can just take for granted, I think, sometimes. And then when it's there, we just don't notice, do we? It's like when you have a poorly tummy, you know, when you've got a sickness bug and then you're so relieved the day it passes.

9:28And then you remember what it's like to feel normal and you appreciate it. Yeah, no, it really is. My husband had a bit of a health scare. We ended up in hospital on Friday. Anyway, I met him there from work and he was just like, God, it just really like reminds you. It's really the only thing that matters at the end of the day. Anyway. It is. And you know what, Ella deals with everything so phenomenally, incredibly well. It must be also, I think it must be the meditation as well as everything else being level headed. But it makes a big difference. I had a very, I don't know how to describe it.

10:03An interesting week, Ella, with this talk that I attended that I remember discussing with you before I went. So I was umming and ahhing. I was invited to a Guardian Roundtable event that you probably can all read now in the paper, actually, by the time this episode. has aired on children's nutrition and it was a very intimate roundtable with some key players in the children nutrition sphere we both have a mutual friend there didn't we ella as well we had the ceo of tesco obviously the hero group the vice president of denon in europe British Nutrition Foundation CEO Elaine who I know well and the MD of Nestle we had charities there like Bite Back who we've mentioned before that are more of an activation charity Kids Food and Drink Collective, Diabetes UK, Nestor, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research you name it we were all all there and I felt very honoured to be there to have this conversation But what really dawned on me, Ella, from it is that everybody does genuinely want to achieve the same collective goal of improving nutrition in this country for children.

11:15So in the UK, it's acknowledged that once a child hits the age of three, there's kind of no guidance, especially when it comes to supermarket navigation, packaging, advice for parents, how to progress out of that stage of toddlerhood into school aged children up to teens throughout the entire spectrum. and I was chatting to Ashwin who's the CEO of Tesco about various different roles that they want to try and adapt to make a change in this area but what was very clear that really saddened me Ella is that with all these incredible voices in the room there was no one that owns this area in this country.

11:57I know that's what's so interesting so speaking to my colleague who runs the Hero Group in the UK their business which is who now owns Delicious the other and I've worked with her since she joined us the very beginning of the Delicious The Other journey in 2016 and it's exactly what she was saying and it's so true which is that like there's no place in British supermarkets where you would go I mean we have similar age children and if you're doing lunch boxes and things like that they're all scattered in different bits of the supermarket and the problem you know I always find when I go into them the supermarket with the kids is then they see all the haribo and they see all the like adults crisps and then they want them and so I end up trying to shepherd my kids into like the baby and toddler area where I'm like guys you can choose anything because I'm like you know whether they're perfect or not it's one question but like they're not loaded with like insane amounts of UPFs or insane amounts of sugar so I'm like I would rather anyway so they end up eating like toddler snacks often I mean not always but like often because I'm like at least then you have the sense of choice whereas otherwise if you go down all these main aisles all they want is complete junk it's a real conundrum that i feel um on one end you've got massive companies like denon that say well we've met 90 of our high fat salt sugar targets and we're just waiting to be told now by a government what do you want us to do next you know just tell us we'll jump how high we'll do it then you've got other companies that are much more reserved i would say the nestle's and sorts of things and Then you had the suggestion of the how do we navigate the supermarket aisles.

13:36And one of the good examples that Ashwin used from Tesco, and this was chaired by Rosamund Dean, who's an incredible journalist at The Guardian. And he raised the whole when confectionery used to be at tills. And he said what we didn't like for our customers was that we were almost causing these awful situations between mums and children. And he did generalize and say it's a mum. Of course, it could be a dad. It could be a caregiver. But, you know, either way, he said the minute we saw the impact this was happening, you know, to families that are coming in, the peer pressure, the constant arguments, the horrendous situation of the till.

14:14And once we'd removed that policy, of course, which is one positive thing in the UK, wasn't it? Do you remember when that confectionery went from the end? I'm not saying it's perfect now. We know there's so many issues. But he admitted the choices we make as retailers, as people in charge, really filtrate all the way down to the very bottom of anybody that shops here. We can influence and we have the power to influence positive nutrition. That was interesting. But then the conversation from the Tony Blair Institute, so we had a representative from there, really went back to GLP ones. And it was quite quick, Ella.

14:48And it was quite interesting how also none of them knew the stats that I'd reeled off about, you know, 86 percent of kids don't get enough fiber, how much UPF is being consumed. That seemed to be quite a shocking revelation when I shared them around the table. And the rollout of NHS GLP-1s has been so shockingly bad that I feel that was also a major part of the conversation because of how shopping baskets are changing when you're on GLP-1s. And they think that could be a positive way of changing the structure of the supermarket. Anyway, it was a humongous discussion. And you will read a far more eloquent write up of that by Rosamund in The Guardian, I'm sure.

15:27And then when we get it, we can also perhaps feature again what Ella and I, what our views are within it. But what I really had hoped was that there'd be someone kind of guiding this conversation that I'm campaigning for, you know, better children's nutrition. and I've realised very much that it does take a few voices to stand up to try and shift a movement. And it's a sad realisation actually when you think about it. I also do agree that it's likely that the GLP ones will shift the supermarkets because ultimately they need to have consumer spending power move. And the more, you know, like we said, how meal deal is then the hard-boiled eggs are out selling McCoys.

16:06The more that's happening, the more space they'll be able to give to hard-boiled eggs, essentially. It's crisp. So yeah, it's going to be so interesting. Obviously, they've just come out in pill form as we speak only a few days ago. So this will be really interesting to see. Anyway, so much to talk about at the moment. It's insane. I'm going to just recap you on one thing from my side, which is I told you, I was struggling with the kids and screens and watched during the summer. So we are having, it's probably a little bit, not entirely accurate, but I'm going to call it a screen-free summer, essentially.

16:40So we're like week two now. Oh my gosh, it's amazing. So I put up about it on Instagram. I had so many people say, either give great advice or say like, I need to do this as well. I just found everyone is so different. Look, I've spent so many of the last few years trying to regulate my own emotions and limit my own screen time with my children. What I see is the issue is not sitting down and watching Zootropolis or, you know, like Madagascar. Those are not the issues. Those are great. I think they're really great. They're amazing movies. We sit as a family, we watch them, they have a beginning and an end.

17:21You're at home all day. That's great. And we're going to continue to do that, but we keep the controller. So like we actually sit down and you have the attention span and you watch the plot unfold and then it ends, the tv's off and we go back to our day and what we're not going to do is this like you know the netflix issue of like it's just you can change shows every four minutes so it's no unstructured tv time a couple of times a week we will sit down and watch a movie together we keep the controller but otherwise no screens and as i said a couple of weeks in their personalities are so different the amount of creative play that's happening and to start with it felt like such a huge effort on our part and this morning it's a Sunday we looked at each other it's like 11 a.m and I was like I literally haven't parented today like giving them some pancakes that is it I can hear them in the background but I literally haven't seen them they were doing dance routines they were doing this they were doing that they're like they've made up shops they've done so many things and they're like can I watch TV it's like no and they just go away and for two hours they completely seem to entertain themselves it's like magic I mean I'm delighted for you because I feel like it really does ring true to that saying that children in today's generation don't know how to be bored and from boredom stems creativity and fluidity for children it helps them learn how to be flexible it's it is amazing how when you leave them to get on with it sometimes that they've got oh well you know I've got no choice or let's just go play with this let's let's do this they will find a way but I imagine if you're someone listening and your children are very addicted to the iPad that you're thinking oh my gosh how do I do it but I'm glad you shared it Alex I think it gives a lot of people hope that they can do that too.

19:07All the advice I was given was you need to wait sort of four or five days during that time it can be quite painful I mean my children told me I was like the worst mum ever many times because they just you know they want to do something and you're saying no and they were like you're so strict you're so boring and that sort of thing but then it lessened and it lessened and it lessened and I think the other advice was like try and be for part of it, like a bit more hands-on in terms of doing crafts or things like, you know, if they're a certain age, they need a little bit more help with, be really patient, but also empower them, you know, of like, I know that you're creative.

19:41Like, I know you have great ideas, go and execute them. So kind of you're like, you trust them, you believe in them. And I think that was, that was good advice. And then we like bought some of those, you know, very inexpensive from flying tiger, like drawing boards, you know, where you can draw and then delete it that's been great because they're doing like noughts and crosses and hangman except for i don't know if we should call it hangman anymore been doing loads of drawing this guy's been writing songs and notebooks just so creative i know i thought you'd love that anyway it's really cool and as i said two and a half weeks in they're like really different children i love that so if you are someone listening with young children and you haven't started an ipad yet don't do it I was also on the cusp so I've only ever used it for like the film purpose for travel and I'm really glad I hadn't introduced it yet my kids are just a year younger than Ella's like each of them and I was thinking am I am I going to cause my boys to be behind because they don't know how to navigate screens but my goodness me when you even give them a phone to take a picture they pick it up so quickly so I'm starting to realize from hearing what Ella's sharing what other parents to sharing, it's just not worth introducing it if you haven't done it yet.

20:48So that is amazing how our brain can adapt. We also have in our health headlines that matter today, quite a big pickup, Ella, that links to how we started discussing the show back at the very beginning, actually. This is a really interesting one to talk about. And Rhea and I have been chatting about this over the last few days. But obviously, you know, we want to bring you everything that you're seeing, hearing and kind of dissect it and chat about it, but it is an interesting one. So you guys probably remember if you've been listening for a while, I was talking about or you would have seen more about him, Brian Johnson, who is this American entrepreneur, extraordinarily successful and therefore very wealthy.

21:30And he is spending about$2 million a year on this blueprint of, I think, I mean, it's anti-aging in the most literal sense. He's trying to completely reverse and or sort of halt his biological aging and try and live forever. And there's a Netflix documentary on him and he did so much press around it. And this all came out about 18 months ago. And he takes something wild, like 200 supplements a day. As I said, he spends$2 million a year on these protocols. He's had his blood, his son's blood. Stem cells. Yeah, he's had a stem cell transplant. Very experimental to say the least. Anyway, he's been back in the headlines.

22:07Yes, he has. Now, I think what's really sad here is that it's not for positive reasons. And Ella and I do not at all take any joy in sharing anyone's negative news. I think that's really important to lay out, first of all. But it is a really important reminder for us that nobody is invincible, that we are all human beings and we can experiment as much as we like with the world of wellness and all these new gadgets and injections and things that we discuss on this podcast all the time. But it doesn't create an invincible human being. Now, he's just been diagnosed with an autoimmune condition, autoimmune gastritis, known as AIG, which is a chronic inflammatory condition where the immune system mistakenly attacks acid producing cells in the stomach lining.

22:59This happened in May 2026. He was undergoing extensive testing at the time, his blood work, doing endoscopies, biopsies to try and find out what was potentially leading to low iron levels that he had. And of course, then it would have been malabsorption in the gut, which was found. And there's actually no cure for this disease, Ella. There's no cure. And he has started treatments, you know, for iron drips and B12 therapies. Of course, they're both linked to anemia and these side effects he'll have now of this autoimmune gastritis. arthritis so I think it's just such a reminder that no matter how much money you have wellness actually still is down to your biology your genetics but lifestyle of course plays a huge role but how far do we go because no one is invincible I know and it's such an important message because we were saying to each other like this headlines everywhere but what what should we say about it because I think I would say maybe wrongly I don't know what you think really but Like, I think some people are kind of like, ha.

24:07They are. That's what the press have been responding with. I have noticed that tone. A bit like, ha ha, like, you know, sucks for you. And as you said at the beginning, it's very odd to take pleasure in somebody else's misery. And I really, like, fundamentally, unsurprisingly, morally against that. So I'm really sorry for him. And I don't believe by any means, you know, and I also people will be like, oh, he's caused it by it being so extreme. I've seen people, for example, say maybe it's because he's so stressed by how much he's doing that he's caused it. I mean, look, who knows? Not a role to speculate.

24:41Suffice to say, I think it is a great illustration of the fact that like you can be quote unquote perfect and you can spend your life chasing perfection. I would say, and I know you would say really like huge cost, you know, in this documentary he had on Netflix, he was saying like how he can't date really, because, you know, he can't go on dates because he does not eat after, I can't remember what it was, but like lunchtime or so. So he can't go on a date because he can't eat, you know, a dinner date, which is a conventional day or like a drink. So he obviously wouldn't drink anything. And so, you know, his life was sort of, you know, it was limited to a degree in terms of what he could and couldn't do by this wellness protocol.

25:21And it doesn't protect you at all costs. And I just think it is interesting in this pursue perfection it doesn't make you infallible and that's not to take an ounce of pleasure in his pain i'm genuinely really sorry for him i just think that as you said re it's a really great example of like you know health and the foundations of our health are really important and we you know this isn't an example of a reason like not to try and look after yourself but i think it's also an example of like don't do it to the point in which like you don't enjoy your life anymore and you don't go out with your friends on a Friday evening and stay up late having so much fun because life is a balancing act and wellness shouldn't be at the expense of everything else it's definitely something that we want to remind ourselves it's okay to be average I think like we said at the very beginning that links nicely back to um let's appreciate those moments where we feel well where we feel okay and you know we can't buy our way out of certain situations with health either and I think I think that's really really important that that free walk that we can do that interaction with our friends all the things we discuss on the wellness scoop is important so it leads us on to our first headline Ella in a really lovely way.

26:38Do you know what we'll tell you something it's so interesting last week we were away for a few nights with Matt my husband's best friend from when he used to live in America, they've been friends for almost 30 years now. And he has children. He has got three children, similar age to ours. Anyways, we had so much fun together, you know, but it was so interesting for those five, six days, whatever it was that we were there, you know, I was having cocktails every day, mango margaritas, you know, it was all about just being super present with our families, with the kids, with them, you know, we don't see them very often, lots of pizza and fries and just, you know, staying up later.

27:18And I felt so good. And I'm not like advocate, obviously, you know, that's not the right protocol for 365 days a year, but I do just think it's so interesting because you're so relaxed, right? You're just like, so present. So there is that sense of kind of connection and love for other people. And actually those are like paramount pillars of wellness and as I said I'm definitely not advocating like cocktails pizzas and fries as a daily diet just to be clear but it's just this interesting thing of like you know we can spend so much time trying to be perfect at the expense of just having a really nice time and you have to have fun and I think as adults we can you sometimes think when do I laugh how often do I laugh and I was like I'm feel so well and I think I feel so well because I'm so here and I'm just having such a nice time and I'm feeling really connected to people.

28:12I couldn't agree more, Ella. I'm really, really glad that you had a lovely holiday because I feel like we just need to remind ourselves, let's go make some more actual physical, in-person conversation connections because the first headline that we've got today is want to feel happier at work. You know, we're seeking this now. And the answer to this, they've said, is take a five minute walk. And it was from the BBC, a headline that was absolutely everywhere this week that Ella found that it does sound a bit too good to be true. Yes, I love this. This is the most wellness scoop headline you could ever have, isn't it?

28:44This was in the BBC, you know, that wording, but it was everywhere. And it's just so great, isn't it? Which is that most people, most adults, you know, and actually children at school spend so much of their day at a desk. And the advice is so straightforward. Essentially, we need to take a five minute walk every hour. So this is from new research from a study that was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine for researchers at Columbia University and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. And this five minutes per hour was basically the sweet spot for improving mood, reducing fatigue and also helping us stay productive.

29:23Now it's a large sample size. So 19 ,000 adults took part in what's called a workplace movement challenge and over 11 ,000 people completed the full three week study. So I would love that personally. Can I just say when I'm sat down for long periods of time, I always feel so much better of once I get up or I just go for a toilet break and then I come back. Now participants first carried on with their normal routine for a week. So that would be measured before trying one of the three schedules for the following two weeks. So either a five minute walk break every 30 minutes, every hour or every two hours.

29:59And what they found was that the every 30 minutes gave the biggest improvements in mood and fatigue. Now, I don't know if all of you can leave. It's unlikely you could just leave a meeting room half an hour in when you're in a conference call or something like that. But most people found that walking every two hours was way more easier, you know, to fit into your everyday life. But it didn't have the same benefits. And I think it does just go to show when we've got we're looking at workplace productivity and our mental health oh we just live in a society that doesn't make it easy for us to achieve being optimally happy and also that's good for our digestion i actually spoke about that today when i gave a talk that we sat down for too long and our poor digestive system needs to be stretched out yeah exactly and And that's why this hour, like the five minutes every hour was the winner because 30 minutes, biggest impact, but way too disruptive.

30:57And every two hours, not enough impact. And I think the idea was five minutes sweet spot has a great impact, but it's plausible. It's realistic, easy to maintain and still delivers meaningful improvements in mood, alertness and energy and no evidence that it reduced productivity. And you were reducing productivity at 30 minutes. As you said, it's quite hard to walk around every 30 minutes, five minutes. Anyway, I just think it's so interesting, you know, not to be too doom and gloom, but spending loads of time being very sedentary, we know it's not good for us to sink to a high risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, even some cancers.

31:30So don't like panic. It's very normal to have to sit down. But these, I think, are the little things we could try and build into our day. Yeah, I completely agree. So I love that headline.

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