Morning Routines, Motivation and the Ozempic Backlash

0:00At 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. Welcome to The Wellness Scoop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. We are your hosts. I'm Ella Mills. And I'm Rhiannon Lambert. And after a decade in this wellness industry, we know that it can be overwhelming, can feel quite stressful and even confusing sometimes. So that's why we created this podcast to cut through the noise and make healthy living fun.

0:39Exactly. And this is a fun episode. I'm really excited. It feels juicy. So before we get into anything, Rhi, what have we got coming up? What can everyone look forward to? So we have today the rising pressure to lose weight and why it matters. The exemplary backlash and what 1 ,800 lawsuits actually reveals. and then one that I think I can definitely get on board with, why the 5am club is outdated and how to build smarter routines that actually work for you. And in a really nice headline here, how nature boosts wellbeing. If you really pay attention to it and something that I think Ella and I definitely can't wait to discuss, are you an Apple Watch or Aura Ring?

1:21What your wearable says about you. Exactly. We've got new wellness tribes.

1:30okay rey so how are you it's been a huge week i don't even know where to start i guess the first big news is that my book is out there i can't believe that we're finally sharing it but the fiber formula is essentially what we've been talking about on this podcast for forever it's goodbye hype say bye-bye protein trends and things that actually are not helping us create those lifestyle changes we need you know we need to be eating more whole foods we need to be getting more fiber 96 percent of us are deficient in this country we know fiber impacts gut health it has an impact on our long-term health so i've broken it all down ella the fiber formula gives you my ultimate key that i've been using in clinic for over a decade with how to increase your daily target get that plant diversity there's kind of like a running number theme throughout it that's helpful like the 30 30 you know 30 chews a mouthful 30 grams of fiber a day 30 plants a week it's something you can easily remember and I've never actually done that before in a book I've never had a formula but I feel like with fiber there's so much to learn and so much to discuss so before I waffle on that's out you can pre-order it and we'll put the link in the show notes congratulations and when is it actually coming out next year right it's March the 12th so you've got time guys you've got time but every pre-order makes such a difference so if you want to learn more about actually helping your gut health and learning how to get that 30 gram target because we are all not hitting it well the majority of us then yeah check it out oh congratulations i am so thrilled and so impressed as well oh thanks as you know it was a um yeah passion project beyond belief and it it came quite naturally i think after the ultra processed food conversation of course because the UPF conversation isn't going anywhere and we need to change the landscape and I think that if people understand that the more UPFs you consume the less fiber you probably consume I'm hoping it's a nice lead-on from the unprocessed plate.

3:28Okay while we're on unprocessed foods I need to talk to you as well so when this comes out neither of us have seen it yet but the same day that this episode comes out the sixth channel four is releasing a big documentary Joe Wick's License to Kill. He kind of set out on this very interesting challenge to create what he describes as the UK's most dangerous health bar. Essentially what he's tried to do in creating this bar called Killer, which is a protein bar, he wants to expose the truth of ultra processed food and highlight the harmful ingredients that are permitted by all the food regulators to be sold on our shelves, not just in this country.

4:05He's done it with Professor Chris Van Tullican, who wrote Ultra Process People and has been a huge voice in this conversation. And as I said, they're basically trying to do this really provocative stunt by launching a product that says on it, you know, don't eat this, it will kill you, essentially. And in the documentary, I think he's going to also go around kind of uncovering as much as possible about the country's health crisis as a result of overconsumption of ultra processed foods. So it's all absolutely fascinating. But Rhee went to the launch this week and she has seen the bar, tried the bar, heard more about the bar, So we'll talk about the documentary next week once we've all seen it.

4:40And you guys can watch it too. But Rhi, tell us about Killer, the protein bar that's so terrible for us. I didn't want to eat it. Dr. Chris made me eat it on camera. As in he came over to myself and Dr. Federico Ramati, who we've had on the podcast before, and said, right, I've not tried this yet. Let's all try it together. And I was thinking, oh, no, this is the last thing I want to do right now. I have a surprise. It's here in my bag. Is it? Oh, my God. But it's the only one from the day. I've been texting Rhi being like, I want to hear about it, but I can't ask you about it because I've got to ask you about it when we're recording.

5:11It is a bit open, but look at the amount of the bite that I took. Look how tiny it is. OK, this is like a ant nibble that she's had. Can I see it? Yeah, go for it. Go for it. Don't smell it. It's revolting. So it's called Killer Deathly Protein Bar. And it says on the front, excessive consumption may increase the risk of diarrhea, cancer, stroke, early death. Has a quote. do not eat this bar from joe wicks it says high in calories high in sugar high in saturated fat contains sweeteners not recommended for children on the back you've got the kind of claims 200 plus health and nutrition benefits 19 grams of protein low salt high fiber yeah contains 27 vitamins and minerals and it's really interesting because one side of the bar has these positive health The green side.

5:59The green side. And the brown, murky side is the... Yeah, it has Joe holding a kettlebell looking strong and vital. It has an orange. It has some chocolate. And then you turn it over to the side that has the, it could cause cancer. It could cause early death. And his image looks like he's rotting. And it has a kind of symbol of death, like a ghoul holding a kind of sickle behind him. Like this is going to come and kill you. And I honestly, as someone who works in the food industry or has worked in the food industry for a long time, think this is so interesting because honestly, what he's put in here now, there's over 100 ingredients.

6:35Is that right? Do you want me to dissect it? Yeah, definitely. But one thing I want to say just quickly is the ingredients list is it's so long. And that's to me the thing that stands out to other protein bars. They wouldn't be as long as this. Probably half of that, but still long enough. But they contain all these ingredients. Yeah. And I think this is the thing that's going to be so interesting to watch how it unfolds. And I'm so curious for everyone listening to hear your take on it, because, as I said, whilst this is an excessively long ingredient list, you wouldn't find all of this in a singular bar on shelf.

7:04It's so fascinating. And as I said, I'm so curious how the public take this. I'm so curious how everyone listening take this. I can't wait to see the documentary. But re-break down. Yeah, please. These ingredients for us. I hope that the PR message is understood because I've already seen just in 24 hours, a lot of backlash as in people not understanding the purpose of the bar. It's not about shaming anybody for eating a protein bar. It's actually, oh my gosh, Ella, did you actually smell it? I was about to, yeah, I was about to have it and then I couldn't even break a piece off. The amount of protein powder in that, it smells, yeah, there's an aftertaste as well.

7:39That's why I had such a small amount. So what they've done deliberately is they've added a multivitamin in there, as in everything that would go in a multivitamin, all the different fortification, which is how you get the claims. And as Ella will know, adding different elements to get the fiber up. But what they've deliberately done is add all the artificial sweeteners and components that are linked in excessive consumption to poor health. So, for instance, they added a lot of molotov, which is a type of sugar alcohol, and that provides the moisture. It gives like the bulk that the bar is dense, by the way, guys, but it looks the same as every other protein bar out there.

8:13So these sugar alcohols aren't actually sugar. So companies can label their products as no added sugar or low sugar, but it caused diarrhea in excess. We know these things about these sweeteners is also to make it chewy. And rather than, you know, needing to like bite into something hard, that's why they add the glycerol syrup. and we've discussed glycerol syrup tons because of slushy drinks. We will do a bigger dive on the documentary next week and all the learnings from it and what it means and the food system that we live in and all the rest of it. But I wanted to raise it today. So yeah, watch it.

8:46Let us know. There's no shaming here of food. This is purely about will this bar make a difference in the food industry? So yeah, it was a very interesting event, Ella, but I wish I hadn't had to eat it. To put it straight. anyway so yeah let us know your thoughts as well if anyone has anything they want to contribute before we discuss it in more detail next and how was your week ella we haven't heard about your week yet oh my week uh yeah you don't get out of it i was like what if i done this of any interest not a huge amount i lost my dog one night which was absolutely terrifying so i've now been like deep in research of what dog tracker to get i've got a new one so that's exciting um did you go attractive in the end.

9:31Tractive. Because I tried it on my cat after she went missing but it's too big for her little neck but I think on a dog it won't be too heavy. Oh have they done a cat one now? Yeah they've done a cat one. Because you have to pay the membership though don't you for the year? Yeah. That was why I was probably being stingy first off with the trackers I got which just doesn't work. Yes. So when he was lost all night and my kids were crying my daughter was like mummy where's your phone you can track him and I was like yeah it doesn't work. Oh no. He's been gone for four hours and haven't pinged up a signal yet.

9:59I think that's quite traumatic. When you lose a pet, half of you, it's like a child is missing, essentially. Oh, no, and the girls were very traumatised.

10:11Okay, so we're going to dive into our headlines for this week. If you're new to the show or just catching up, the reminder, this is when we take the big topics of conversation that have been going on and try and digest them and give you kind of tangible take-homes. What's true, what's not true, what's clickbait, what's not, and what you could take into your own lives. Now, this press release landed in my inbox this week and I thought it was really interesting, very telling. So it was a new UK survey and this survey found that two in five Brits adults feel more pressure to lose weight now than they did just two years ago.

10:47I mean, is that probably because of the introduction of, yeah, GLPs? That's exactly right. And I am really curious. This is when I wish I could like see everyone while they're listening and wonder if people are nodding along and, you know, maybe you feel comfortable to tell us whether you feel that way or maybe you don't. But I am really interested if other people feel that pressure to how many of our audience do. But you're absolutely right, Rhi. Basically, there was 2000 people in this survey and about a third of them believe that it was the changing body trends that are adding to it. And we have, as you said, seen this huge shift since GLP1s, your Zenpigs, your Wegavis, Manjaros, since they came in.

11:25And we obviously saw this kind of big shift in beauty standards and social media celebrities where people were shrinking and shrinking. And then almost a quarter of people said fashion and beauty ideals made them feel negative about their own way. Do you know, it's really interesting because when we were on set doing the 60 recipes in the new book and when we had, you know, the prop styling and the wonderful people that were helping cook all those recipes in the day, they were actually sharing some personal insights on how they felt there has been a shift in weight. It's just reminded me. And this knock on effect is that I think people are looking for faster and actually what's scary, Ella, is riskier solutions.

11:58Because the same survey pointed out that 41 % of people who are on weight loss jabs had sourced them without the prescription. And I think what's so interesting is I did this Channel 4 documentary, I think it was like a year or two ago. and we discussed the black market and how anybody, GPs are kind of buying them in and selling them essentially on the side, privately on Harley Street. It's really concerning. And more than a third in the survey said that they'd got them through friends and family. And that's a concern, Ella, because, you know, doses change, side effects can happen. What's your starting point?

12:33These are designed for a certain category of the public. It's funny, I remember really early on when we started the show recently, So maybe it was like February, March time. It was around kind of award season and we'd seen the Oscars and all those kind of big, big red carpet moments. And there was quite a lot of noise in the media about the return of size zero and that return of kind of the lollipop aesthetic. You know, when people's bodies are so small, their heads look like lollipops on a stick. And we were quite nervous discussing it, actually, I think, because, you know, as Rhi is always so good at pointing out, it's not about shaming anyone or judging anyone.

13:09But I think it's very difficult in a show where we're trying to kind of take everything that you guys see and everything that we see and discuss, like what's the landscape look like and how do we feel about it and what does that mean for our own lives? It's very hard to ignore this. And I think this was just such evidence of actually the fact that in the last year or so, those shifts in beauty standard that we're seeing, they have really infiltrated the kind of general public, the mass media. And as a result, people are feeling this pressure. And I think it's just, I just felt it was a really important headline to acknowledge so that if anyone's sitting at home and they're listening to this and they're saying, I am really feeling that pressure.

13:44It's affecting my self-esteem. It's affecting the way that I see myself in the mirror when actually you're a kind of healthy weight, but you're not a size zero. I think it's really important acknowledgement, like you're not alone. You're clearly not alone. The statistics are quite clear in that. And I think the other thing that this pointed out, which we will be so unsurprised to hear. But again, I think it's validating for people listening is that more than half of people said they feel quite overwhelmed by the conflicting advice on weight loss. And more than a quarter said they'd actually prefer a more natural approach, focusing on things like fiber, metabolism, building satiety through their diet.

14:19But I think the whole thing just really highlights how confusing this has become and how commonplace the pressure is. People have lost their role models. Look at Serena Williams. It's like if, you know, people have lost the fact because it looks or appears to most people in the media that they all want to lose weight and not everybody wants to lose weight and be a one size fits all approach. Or needs to lose weight. And I think that's what I really reflected on. As I said, for me, I was I guess I've been in quite like a reflective period over the last month. And, you know, I thought about the show not to go like to become a therapy session or to existential about it.

14:55but I was like, you know, why do I want to make this show? Like what role does it play? Like what's the meaning? What's the purpose of my life? And as I said, not to get too existential here, but I think it is, it's this sense of, it is such an overwhelming space, the health and wellness landscape. There are so many trends. And I think there is, there's just so much pressure. And I think there's like, there's people who want to healthily lose weight and that's great. And I don't think anyone should be discouraged or feel shameful for that. But there's lots of people in like healthy, normal bodies who should, you know, yes, let's get into the 4 % of the people who eat enough fibre and like let's move our health goals along the way.

15:33But don't feel pressure to lose weight. And I think it's just, I just felt it was a really important headline to acknowledge that. Absolutely, Ella. Also, you can't apply what people in the media are doing to you because, you know, celebrities have personal trainers, diet chefs, you know, they have to look a certain way for a role on a film. You cannot even, I mean, I can't imagine the inner pressures they must have psychologically as well around this conversation and then every single day it makes us um general public feel like we need to do the same we really don't no one size fits all and weight loss should be sustainable it should be long-term focus on this is what i discussed in the fiber formula focus on the bulk of your meals being whole grains beans pulses whole foods move away from upfs every now and again it's absolutely fine i still eat upfs everybody but the bulk of my diet is more whole vegetables and fruits and it can be absolutely delicious and what i always found in the nutrition clinic and this is what our weight loss dietitians and nutritionists look at as well is the minute we switch to eating whole foods just like the study this year finally showed people lose weight without even trying they reach a healthy happy place so it's what works for your body there's set point theory that we're actually not meant to shift beyond two or three kilos shows so everybody's got a natural point where their body should sit where they don't get sick where they have more energy where they feel better that's where your body's happiest not a set number that someone in a magazine years ago told you you should be yeah and as you always say that set point is going to be a little bit different for everybody and what's kind of natural to our bodies now this moves us on to kind of headline 1.5 oh bring it on i'm so excited to discuss this now this has been quite viral on social media so i am sure lots of you have probably seen kind of iconographic type posts on this i would say it's had some pickup in the media in the uk but not a huge amount much more in the us but i have seen it a lot on my instagram feed for example now a zempic which obviously is the most well-known glp1 which is the diabetes drug turned global weight loss phenomenon is now facing one of the biggest pharmaceutical legal battles in years.

17:49Basically, obviously, it's been this very interesting breakthrough drug and people are now using it, obviously, to lose weight, as we know. But it is facing this increasing intense legal and medical scrutiny. Now, I want to just say at the top here, there's lots of medical professionals. You know, we spoke to Tim Spector yesterday. He thinks that on balance, these are really interesting drugs. This is not to kind of say these are terrible, but it's a very interesting development. And so essentially the first lawsuit was filed apparently in August 2023 by a woman in the US called Jacqueline Bjorklund, and she developed stomach paralysis and vision loss after using a Zempik.

18:27It's a tricky one because like you said, the research for these weight loss injections, we haven't had a 10 year period using them, but we have looked at peptide hormones. And I remember on my master's degree looking at obesity, we were discussing peptide hormones and how they're going to be used for obesity. And sure enough, 10 years later, we now have all these GLP-1 injections. But the problem is there's always going to be a percentage of anybody that takes a prescriptive medication or drug where you get side effects. And sadly, things can happen. It's never going to be 100 % fully safe with no cases.

19:02But the number of these cases of people obviously reporting this sort of thing quickly spiralled that by February 2024, the US courts consolidated them into what's called a multi-district litigation in Pennsylvania. And that means instead of hundreds of different courts trying to handle the same scientific questions, one judge now manages all the pretrial work, coordinating evidence, expert testimony and even potential settlement talk. So one judge. Yes, exactly. Because basically by kind of springtime May-ish this year to 2025, there are more than 1 ,800 cases already pending. And I think there's a viewpoint that there'll be hundreds more.

19:42Now, the reason this went viral is essentially when you add up these 1 ,800 cases, that accounts to more than$2 billion worth of suing, essentially. And there's very serious side effects reported in this gastroparesis, which is stomach paralysis, intestinal blockages, persistent vomiting, gallbladder inflammation, sudden vision loss linked to a condition called NAION. Also reports of pancreatitis, kidney damage. Now, to Ree's point, these are probably all on the label like these, you know, all serious medications and strong medications have side effects. But I think it's just an interesting thing.

20:18A, as I said, it's gone quite viral. So we wanted to pick it up and kind of break down what's actually going on. But I think it's also this point that they have, we obviously were just looking at this report saying that people feel pressure to lose weight. And as a result, you've got a very large number of people taking these where they haven't personally been prescribed it on an individual basis by a doctor who's overseeing them taking some quite serious medication. and I think for me it was just a reminder that these are a serious drug and they do have a lot of side effects and there's as we said there's also lots of interesting positive evidence behind them which obviously many more people taking them are seeing but I think it's just to say like I wouldn't flippantly because you're feeling pressure because celebrities are shrinking don't succumb to the pressure when you don't need this medication to some extent I think this was what was interesting.

21:09And you need to go through the risks. You need to sit with a professional that's going to say, this is a potential. You know, you need to be aware of what you're consuming. We have sadly seen in the retraction clinic, a few cases, the persistent vomiting actually has been more common. We've had several cases of that in the clinic. I haven't seen the other more serious claims that they've got here. Thank goodness. We don't, I don't think we have a lot of Zempick cases. It's more Monjaro. But a 2023 study in JAMA Internal Medicine found that people using GOP-1 drugs had a high risk of not just gastroparesis, the non-users, but eye specialists, Ella, have also reported is the vision loss.

21:46That to me is really terrifying. That's the reason I haven't done laser eye surgery. It's that tiny percentage of cases where it does go wrong. But I guess what happens next? Exactly. So the litigation's, you know, still going on. They're still in what they call the discovery phase as of late this summer, gathering documents, reviewing the data etc but as i said i think for me this was important to pick up just because i think it highlights that there's no such thing as a quick fix there's no such thing as a miracle and whilst these drugs are very interesting and there's a lot of interesting things coming out of them and i i don't mean to i didn't want to include this to kind of do it down i think it just felt so relevant when i saw that study come in saying how many people are feeling the pressure to lose weight how many people you know 41 % of people on these weight loss injection sourcing them without a prescription third people getting them through friends and family because the price has gone up now as well there's going to be more black market purchases exactly and I think it's just this reminder that yes there's some really interesting developments in these glp ones being reported maybe effects on inflammation and things like that or even supermarket choices do you remember you discussed the walmart change in shopping baskets exactly shopping bars that's going down people going more towards blueberries airplane fuel yeah exactly being safe obviously great for the environment because you know there's so many interesting things in here but i think it was just really important to understand a why there's this variety of two billion against a zempick and it's essentially a accumulation of different individual lawsuits coming together because of side effects now lots of these sides effects your point is in jammer like they are known but i think we want to believe something's a miracle and it's a quick fix.

23:28And I think it's just, as I said, this to me was just an important reminder that nothing's too good to be true. And we don't have to conform to one body, shape, size or ideal, but equally lots of people have benefited of these. So let's watch this space.

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25:57I think I'm a nighttime routine. I have tried. You know, I genuinely think I'm not a night owl, but I have a wind down routine now, which is really working for me. But the morning is just rushed. I have no evening routine whatsoever, but I love a morning routine. Okay, you start. Okay, so Ree sent this to me. This is actually a sub stack that this came from. But just to kind of recap, the 5am club, for anyone who can't remember, is this self improvement concept. And it was really popularized by an author called Robin Sharma. He had a book in 2018 called the 5am club, own your morning, elevate your life.

26:34I love titles like that. I can do this. Yes. I actually interviewed him for the original podcast. Yeah, essentially the idea here is that by getting up at five o 'clock in the morning every day, you dedicate your first hour of the morning, which in this book is dubbed victory hour. It's really kind of empowering. Yes, we can do this language. You dedicate that victory hour to personal development and you follow, in the case of this very, very popular book, a 20-20-20 formula. 20 minutes moving, 20 minutes reflecting, 20 minutes growing. And Ella, he sold over 15 million copies of that book. So it was hailed such a success at the time.