Self-Obsessed or Happy? Plus Chocolate & Heart Health

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0:40Get started today at linkedin.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply. Welcome to The 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 after a decade in the wellness industry, we know how overwhelming and confusing health advice can be. so that's why we created this podcast to cut through the noise and make healthier living simple fun and personal and we're back together recording this morning so it feels like a great day the sun is shining the sun is definitely shining and i feel like we have been overwhelmed again to reach number two in the charts that are with this podcast what is happening you guys are just the best of the best of the best this is a highlight of my week every single week i know and you all just make it and i really so appreciate your support there was actually something i was about on my way in this morning that i would also love your feedback on guys how long episodes are please let us know like do you prefer over an hour so we're talking about more do you prefer kind of 40 minutes probably a bit more akin to a dog walk or a commute it would be really really helpful because we can flex up or down and it was something i was thinking about this morning so if you have any strong feelings thoughts opinions please send us a message on instagram pop it in the reviews comment section let us know because we do just want these to be the best they can be for you yeah because i've definitely seen on the spotify comments a few people saying oh i wish it was longer and then you had one that said oh it's the perfect time so we need to get a general consensus everyone so thank you so much ella what is coming up in our show today okay so in today's show we are talking about are we too obsessed with ourselves to be happy i'm so excited to dive into this one.

2:24Magic mushrooms for depression, promising or over-hyped. Butter, cheese and heart health. What's the real story? Saturated versus unsaturated fat. We've got the 101 there guys. The sweetest strawberries in decades, plus some recipe tips from me. Should we drop the guilt from chocolate, wine, sweets? Let's talk about food guilt. New nursery nutrition rules and what they mean for kids and some personal recs from both of us. Ella, you've had a crazy week. Tell us all, how's it all going? Well, we are imminently moving house. By the time this comes out, I will have the keys to my new house or our new house as a family.

3:04And it's so surreal. I cannot believe it. So, yeah, that's kind of taking over everything. The girls finished their schools this week. We have nursery graduation tonight, which Mae keeps calling her coronation. I love that. I love that. I know me too so yeah it's huge and then I'm taking the kids down to Cornwall for the weekend to stay with my mum and my brother and their cousins so that would be absolutely lovely but yeah house move that is the big thing I can't believe it's such an end of an era we're leaving London I think we'll all need to know next week when we touch base you know what are your packing tips and then also I need tips on how do you drive down to Cornwall with two kids because is it ah the train is this a long drive and I was like I'm taking the kids to Devon in the summer and I'm a bit nervous.

3:48Yeah, we're taking the train. Matt's working, so I'm taking them by myself. That's better, it's faster, right? Yeah, it's so much easier. So yeah, we're jumping on the train, eight o 'clock on Friday morning for a summer holiday. It feels very nostalgic going down there. I can't wait. The girls basically just want to eat ice cream and it will be brilliant. And how about you? I'm just trying to think what happened. I mean, this week has again been so busy because the book was literally number 11 in the charts this week. Again, I just cannot get over it. For me, it's just huge. and I think it's because ultra processed foods is so topical right now as well Ella with the change in the government and the lots of things that we're going to be discussing in our briefs but my big thing is I did my first ever aqua aerobics class I saw that in the show notes and I had this image of you I think of it as more of an older person activity if no one minds me saying so I was the youngest in the class my friend Tessa and I they all had gray hair but they were lovely and I mean half of me was thinking because I did my first night away in a year with a friend this weekend a year was it just bliss do you know it was but I had to really psych myself up to doing it for some reason and we would have sat there by the side of the pool thinking I will go for a swim once the class finishes and the instructor comes over and you know when you just feel really awkward he's like oh you should join in you should join in and we both kind of looked at each other was like yeah okay you know we just did so we're like okay and we just got in the back of the pool with everyone.

5:14Was it fun? It was great. I have to say, keeps you very fit. I think I'd be so into that. I remember doing a Zumba class once and I'm literally up there with the least coordinated people that have ever lived on this planet. So dancing, you can imagine, it's not like my forte, but goodness me, it was so fun. You would love it in the water. So perhaps when you move some aqua aerobics. I do have a big update for everyone. Now we are asked so often in the Apple reviews and the Spotify DMs, what is going on with food in this country when it comes to early year settings. And I've also been having these talks with my nursery because I wasn't happy with the food changes in my son's nursery.

5:50And I was lucky enough to get to speak to the head of food in the country. This particular nursery owns 300 nurseries in the UK. And there's some new guidance, Ella, that's coming in in September. And it's called the Early Years Foundation Stage. So it's the nutrition guidance. And there's some really key points here. And it means literally nurseries are expected to follow this. And when I spoke to the head of food, he said, yeah, we're no longer going to be able to serve things like Rice Krispies because they're low in fiber. We're going to be actually ensuring that children are having balanced meals.

6:20Hallelujah. I mean, that's extraordinary. Why is it taking this long? So this is for under fives. Yeah. Coming in in September. Break down this nutrition guidance for us because I think it's segregated, isn't it? Babies. So sub 12 months and then children. What does it mean? Well, finally, and I don't know why it's taken this long for babies to have this guidance, but obviously no added sugar, salt, honey, juice and nuts and things in nurseries. The fact that some of that wasn't even in place baffles me completely. And the baby guidance is pretty standard, you know, with how to safely prepare a formula or weaning, that sort of thing.

6:53But it really gets interesting when you hit the ages of one to five. So they want you to follow the four food groups, which makes perfect sense. But there's a real focus here on plant-based proteins as well for those that can't have meat. And then dairy alternatives, which hasn't been in place before, Ella, in the same way. So now they're looking at those. And I think the biggest thing as well was also fiber. So the fiber content has to be hit because every nursery pretty much was scoring low on fiber. There wasn't a differentiation on let's try and get a whole grain bread. They would obviously just go for the bread that's more affordable and the bread that most kids will eat.

7:29so now the nursery setting is going to become a place where they offer free meals and two to three healthy snacks and they're only allowed milk or water to drink and then you have to limit ultra processed foods so fried foods to once a week and that includes a juice that would be your one a week item or your sugary treat would be your one a week item and it's about not forcing children to eat it's basically to summarize it all the change that we've needed for so long but the difference comes in when they're nurseries that don't cater so for parents that have to prepare packed lunch boxes nurseries are going to have to communicate and help support which does put a lot of pressure on the nursery as well I think it does but it's really exciting really exciting so everyone that was saying how do I contact mine what do I do there is framework coming and you can just reference the early years framework for food in this country from September and tell your nursery provider and ask them about it.

8:26Say, are you making these changes for September? Because I'm not going to be happy if my nursery don't put it in. It is brilliant though, isn't it? I love a bit of good news. Me too, me too. Such good news to start with. So Ella, let's move on to our recommendations now. Do you have anything for us this week? Okay, I have to tell you, I have been obsessed with my step count. And we're going to talk about is all our self-monitoring making us paranoid and miserable later on, which was an article I read in the New York Times. and it got me thinking massively. So I hear my irony in them saying I've been obsessed with my step count, but lots of things going on, lots of big personal changes, obviously moving out of London, moving schools, all the rest of it felt a bit overwhelmed.

9:08As humans, we don't love uncertainty, do we? And I definitely am not brilliant in it and I kind of, yeah, cling to the no. I've been really trying to focus on those, like just simple day-to-day habits that keep me feeling balanced and kind of mentally my best and walking it's one of them so I've actually said okay well let me I love a goal let me try and do my 10 ,000 steps and I've done it every day for the last 10 days and I have to say as much as we'll talk about this later being obsessed with numbers and all the rest of it can become a very slippery slope and all the rest of it I have to say walking that little bit more and making effort like this morning and you know instead of getting on the bus I walked that bit more and I do think it's making a massive difference to my mood.

9:51My step count is double on average what it's been the last few months. And it's just that like stopping yourself from being lazy. Yeah. Do you know, I was thinking when I walked up the escalator today, sometimes I would just stand on the side of the escalator, you know, when I got into London to come here to the studio. And I thought, no, I'm going to walk up the steps because I can. And it does hurt. You do feel your muscles. You do feel glutes like yes multiple lunges going on but actually we should try and make ourselves do that more but I'm I'm a culprit of not looking I'm really the opposite so you know what I'm like I don't look at the numbers for this show I don't look at my step count and I'm like the total opposite but when I do tell myself to make a change I do always feel a difference so that's a really good one yeah it's really good and the other thing I have been doing is part of this like yeah keep yourself well when there's lots of different things going on I have been really diligent at leaving my phone downstairs at night time because otherwise I'm just scrolling goodness knows what mostly things that terrify me because that's what the algorithm serves me till midnight then you're tired your kind of dopamine your brain is all over the shop and so I've been really strict to myself leave your phone downstairs again sleeping better going to bed earlier I just feel good for it thank you i needed that reminder i was being served at like 11 p.m in bed the other night those um beds in china that if there's an earthquake or something it kind of splits and then you fall down underneath the bed into a little bunker which is stocked with water and cans of food how weird is the internet like i don't know sometimes i keep thinking to myself like we live in this dystopian world and i think when it's just like the idea that you could be lying in bed watching videos like it's just so random terrifying because i was thinking you know the whole it's there's going to be a war here or something and I need to pack my right and I was sending my husband like these videos of we need to pack our bag this is the bed we should buy for the children and I'm like losing the plot and then I wake up I was like that wasn't a good idea why did I do that but um on one note I did find this week you know we were talking about those deodorants natural deodorants I'm seeing them everywhere now even my favorite I've got this almond oil shower gel from lox town i love little shout out to them they now do deodorant like fussy style so i think we're going to see the rise of shells being filled with natural deodorants yeah look i don't want to sound like an overly capitalist person but i do think it's it's a great thing while deodorant which is one of the other which i have to say i don't think is as good personally as fussy but they sold to unilever earlier this year for 100 million 100 million pounds that is And I think it's one of those things like it shows people that actually these more natural focused companies, like it's worth putting big investment, big time, big money into developing them.

12:38And I know some people will listen thinking like, oh, you know, the world doesn't need that. All the rest of it is overly capitalist. And I appreciate that stance. But equally, that is the world that we live in. And so I think it's when you see companies like that do really, really well, get sold to one of the huge companies, all this investment going into a more natural approach. It does encourage more people to start companies in this space, to develop them, to list them on retail shelves, etc. Which to me is really exciting because ultimately, I think to make change, you often got to do it on a big scale.

13:09And I think the wild deodorant is a really great example of that. Oh, wonderful. I didn't realise there would be opposition for creating a natural deodorant. Isn't that so interesting? I just wouldn't have known that. Yeah, it's good. There we go. So let's move on to the health headlines that matter.

13:27OK, so guys, if you're new to the show, the health headlines that matter just every week, Rhi and I scour the Internet and scour the papers and what's going on to really bring to you the biggest stories that are making news in health and wellness. And Rhi, what have we got on the agenda this week? Well, Ella's put a really interesting pickup about bananas. So I think you can lead on that one because you've got these fantastic stats. And then do you know what happens is I sometimes repeat your statistics in other interviews. I'm like, oh, yeah, I've learned that from Ella this week. Go on. I love a random stat and they seem to kind of percolate in my brain.

13:59I can't get rid of them. So I've got to share them somewhere, guys. But yeah, do you remember a few weeks ago we were talking about bananas and the number of bananas now sold in the UK has jumped up by 70 million last year. So that means that each adult now in the UK is buying an average of more than 80 bananas a year. They are the country's favourite fruit, but they're having a run for their money because in our fruit fact section that apparently we're going to do, shoppers bought 2 ,400 packs of strawberries every minute over the last month. Strawberries have gone mad and there was lots of pieces in the papers over the last few weeks showing growers and scientists, So farmers and scientists were talking about the fact that this year's strawberry crop is the sweetest in decades.

14:40Also, guys, these are British berries. Can we celebrate the fact that, you know, like what was my stat? Things like 95 % of berries in this country are British. That's amazing for the UK. Yeah, exactly. So British berries, we've had this kind of rare combination of cool spring nights and then record levels of sunshine. And it created optimal conditions for strawberries this year for the sugars to develop. In the garden, I've still got them. I've never had such a good strawberry patch in my only four years of growing, but it's amazing. Raspberries and strawberries everywhere. Yeah. So if you're not eating strawberries this year, guys, get on it.

15:12But 2 ,400 packs a minute, that is quite something, isn't it? They are flying off the shelves. And I have to give you a recipe recommendation for strawberries. Roast them. Roasted strawberries are one of the most delicious things in the world. It's so easy. Say you have like 500 grams or so of strawberries. chop them in half take the tops off and then you want a squeeze of lemon or sort of half a lemon about two tablespoons of maple syrup or honey or cane sugar and then roast them at 180 degrees kind of 15 to 20 minutes the strawberries will soften you'll have this like syrupy liquid around them and you can pop them on yogurt granola bowls eat them just as they are they're so delicious or you could put them like in a victoria sponge cake or something but the roasting them draws out all those flavors the sweetness and i swear to you roasted strawberries are one of the most delicious things in the world i mean i just love any fruit roast that's just delicious like you know like roasted nectarines and things but i've never thought to do strawberries so yes i'm gonna do it ella controversial i don't love just like plain fruit i know it's off brand what is it because of texture so i would say i don't love a plain apple sometimes my kids are obsessed i would prefer to roast an apple as well but I will eat plain berries.

16:28Yeah it's a texture thing I just much prefer the texture. The soft. The softness exactly. But also the sugar I mean that's so delicious when you roast anything. Let's discuss we have to go there the M &S sandwich. I feel like M &S has had quite a lot of prime time on our podcast last two weeks. You know what their marketing team is doing a 10 out of 10 job. They really are from punishment juices to strawberry sandwiches. Okay so if you haven't seen it yet they've basically created this strawberries and cream sandwich. I think it is literally it's sweetened white bread and then cream and strawberries they're selling apparently around 20 000 of this sandwich a day it's only been in market a few weeks and then it's become so viral you can see these people queuing up before the shops open to get the sandwich and like rushing in to get them it's mind-boggling ella this hilarious reel there was this guy and he was doing some comedy sketch thing like oh i'm just walking in with this very droll voice walking into my local M &S.

17:23Oh, yeah, there's the queue for the strawberry cream sandwich. Might as well give it a go. So I picked it up, gave it a bite, thought, nah, tastes like cardboard this. You know that comedy style reels and that monotone voice? And I was just cracking up. But he said it's more like a dessert than a sandwich. It's just, honestly, I don't think I'd like it. I don't like whipped cream. That's controversial. I will eat clotted cream, not whipped cream. Ooh. I don't know why. Yeah, so they describe it as sweet and juicy British red diamond strawberries with a thick layer of whipped cream cheese on a sweetened bread.

17:55So guys, if you've tried it, let us know. But it's, again, to be honest, it's one of those things as well that I know strawberries are always popular and lots of fruits are more popular than beetroots, as we were talking about the other day, or like artichokes, which I'm currently obsessed with, or fennel. Unless you roast them. Roast it all. Roast it all. Roast everything. Keep your oven on forever. But no, but I do, I think anything like this that then puts a fruit, a veg, a plant that we all, as we know, desperately need more of in the centre of the map. I am actually a mega fan of. Me too.

18:24And especially when they're British berries, because that means we're supporting this country and that's great. And also it's kind of the creativity around it as well, because I think part of the reason, I certainly wouldn't the reasons that I didn't love fruit or veg growing up. Sorry to my mum, because I know you're amazing. That's so interesting, but I wouldn't have had you down as a non-liker as a child. I just found it all really boring. You know, I found fruit and veg, generally speaking, really, really dull, like steamed broccoli, just generally speaking for most of us, isn't that delicious.

18:51And that's why you're now, you created Deliciously Ella, to make it delicious. To make it delicious, that's why it has its name. And exactly this. And so I think all these kind of more interesting ways to present something, actually, I'm a huge, huge fan of. I love that, Ella. Thank you for sharing that. I think it makes everyone feel a bit more like, yeah, you know, we can introduce and try something new. And it leads me on to our first headline, Ella. Now, I am chocolate obsessed. You're chocolate obsessed. I am obsessed with chocolate. We both are. I eat it every day. And then I saw this article in The Guardian and it said, healthy chocolate, low hangover wine and nutritious breakfast cereal, 10 guilty pleasures without guilt.

19:29And I thought, oh gosh, that's one for the wellness scoop. It really, really is. And it's funny, I was reading this last night. I was a bit late to the party this week with moving house and things like that on our scripts. and I cannot count the number of times in interviews I have been asked I reckon it's like two-thirds of interviews I've ever done what's your guilty pleasure I'm now really really up front about it I've always say like that is an oxymoron like you've got to be able to hear that if something makes you feel guilty it's inherently speaking not a pleasure there's nothing pleasurable about feeling guilty and it's one of those amazing things as well kind of why we created the show isn't it?

20:10The confusing nature of headlines versus reality, because actually when you read the article, I thought it was really helpful. And I added in quite a lot of questions to ask you about it today, because I think it is really helpful to look at these foods. We don't all just want a plain apple all the time. We want sweeter, more indulgent, more creamy, luscious, whatever it is, flavours and textures in our lives. And so we do want lots of different foods and lots of different ways of eating them but it's nice to know what's a healthier angle on it but you put guilty and you majorly create this like really complicated moral complex that you always talk about that's so frustrating because actually the information is phenomenal but stop associating any food with guilt it's so frustrating it also drives us as consumers to then see these items as something morally bad therefore we can't help but want more of it or it becomes a real thing and if we put something on a pedestal like that like chocolate and these items you are just creating binge eating tendencies that we cannot help it you know I discussed at the beginning of the podcast how I used to give clients chocolate for breakfast to break a mold or sometimes I'd say let's have it every day for a week let's see how you feel and then suddenly it doesn't become a thing anymore and you're like oh I'm a bit bored of that now you know it's not this when you know you can have something anytime you want you lose that emphasis and that morality behind it and then you're not driven to behave disordered you don't have disordered relationship with food because of it so yeah I wonder how many of our listeners have tried as we know the average person in this country tries 126 fad diets in their lifetime which is quite extraordinary and I think I'd be so curious for people listening like how many times have you said okay I'm going to stop eating X, Y or Z and then being quite fixated on it because you can't have it.

22:02And therefore you've created this like food noise around it because it's just going around your mind. But this is the messaging that's everywhere. And because we're obviously a very small chunk of the population. I mean, there's lots of you. We love our wellness group. But, you know, we're a very small minority that are open to these conversations. This is not the type of nuanced conversation around food labelling that most places are having. I bet if you just walk to the end of your road, if there's a cafe, you'll see a moral label of food. It might be on the blackboard outside saying, come and have a girl free brownie or it's everywhere you go.

22:34And it's almost unavoidable. Like we feel like we need permission to eat and it stems in the house. It stems from parents, stems from cafes, stems from restaurants, newspapers and chocolate's good for you. Let's talk about the fact that we love good quality chocolate. Exactly. So let's delve into some of these things. but quickly before we do that I've always loved this like simple way of thinking about it that if you're going to kind of think about 70 or 80 percent of your diet grounded in nourishing whole food ingredients lots of peas and quinoa and whatever it is that you eat but healthy food essentially and then the other 20-30 percent of the time you just enjoy it you're out for dinner you know you grab a treat like that's brilliant but if you're doing it and not enjoying it It almost kind of dissolves the point of it.

23:20And I think it is really important to try and give yourself that freedom, that flexibility. Like if you're having a lovely slice of chocolate cake, enjoy all of the mouthfuls of chocolate cake. Don't inhale it and then think I shouldn't have eaten it. It's really difficult for people to do. I mean, this is something that we could spend years with clients working on, breaking that initial food rule, breaking what they know and see the food world to be. it definitely is a huge psychological component to this conversation. What's your top tip before we go into this? The first one is to identify that you have a disordered relationship with it.

23:55If you are feeling guilty every time you eat food or you feel like you need permission there's a rule or there's a little voice in the back of your head, that niggly voice. That's something you can work on. I promise you it can get better. It comes with a lot of compassion. It comes with a lot of work on yourself and you can get there. So I think personally journaling these types of things can be really helpful for people just to capture that inner voice, because sometimes you can forget how cruel you can be to yourself. And I don't want to step on the toes of my psychologist in the clinic, but there's a lot of the work they do is often trying to identify how you speak to yourself about food as well.

24:33So if you can get that down on paper and actually look back and think, wow, I said that to myself, start the journey and then you might need support, I think, with it. But most people can definitely do a stop pause, you know, stop for a minute before you eat, set a timer, do deep breaths, think about why you're going to do it. Are you doing this to enjoy the food item? Are you doing it to numb another feeling? Like this comes from deep inner critic work, I'd say. It's amazing what inner critic we all have. Oh, my goodness. OK, so I picked out some of the sections in the article, right, because I think that this idea, as I said, like we're not rabbits.

25:07We don't just want to eat, you know, lettuce and cruder taste forevermore. Definitely not. And, you know, there's so many lovely things, but actually it's nice to know what's the healthier version of it. So one of the things in the article was crisps, which I thought was really interesting. So Federica Amati, who we've had on the Extra Scoop, who's absolutely brilliant, especially her love of fibre, a big fan of it. And she was pointing out this idea that we'll often think a chickpea crisp or a lentil crisp is better. But actually, sometimes, again, those can be so laden with flavourings, emulsifiers, additives.

25:40they're not necessarily better. So let's talk about crisps first, if possible. Oh my goodness, 100%. It's funny because when we do articles together, Fadi and I, I feel like we're saying the same thing a thousand times. And crisps aren't just crisps. And I think, Ella, you might actually be better at explaining the factory process. I know you've seen it happen. But you know, you want a crisp that's a potato. And believe it or not, when you look at packets of crisps sometimes they're not potato they're potato flakes that have been like mashed about and reformulated and stuck together and what you really want is the ones with the nice quality oil if you can roasted with olive oil or baked and actually baked can be difficult it could also be flakes i think you have to get used to reading the ingredients on the back but actually going for this like simpler ingredients list like you're kind of more standard just classic crisps that are ready salted and they will only have three or four ingredients exactly potato salt and oil basically versus some of the others i remember um staying at my dad's once and he'd really sweetly bought these lentil crisps or something and i turned over the back of pack and there were literally like 35 40 ingredients or something in there and it was one of those really great things were on the front it looked such a healthy alternative exactly and they were so compelling but actually they were if we were kind of talking about nutrition I mean crisps are never going to be nutritious fundamentally but actually your kind of classic version were much much better so I think it is that reading label element isn't it but it's not fooling for I don't mean that in a condescending way but just like not being sucked in by a marketing claim on the front actually sometimes your classic is just the best it is but we do fall for it and also there's a price difference in those crisps for some reason those ones tend to be i think a bit more expensive than the more processed version and then secondly if we go back to chocolate for a second something can say dark chocolate and not be dark chocolate it could have um 50 something percent of cocoa compared to one that's got 70 to 80 and the difference in nutrition is huge because the studies that show the beneficial antioxidants are in the higher percentage but the front of the pack bourneville i'm talking about you dark chocolate because that's my um father-in-law's favorite chocolate he's always got this like dark chocolate bar in the fridge and he's like yeah i love my dark chocolate and i'm looking at it i'm like it's not really dark chocolate it's in disguise it's a disguise yeah it's funny once you start reading food ingredients yeah and not in like an obsessive compulsive way but just in a kind of a mindfulness of of your kind of total diet i do think it's really startling and actually lots of times they're like the simplest is the best and i think food labels can be really overwhelming and really confusing can i tell you my big bugbear tell me it's something that i'm asked about in these articles it's the new cereals that are cropping up and i've been approached by so many brands to do what they're calling high protein healthy cereals and for me that's just full of artificial sweeteners full of extra unnecessary ingredients they're pumping into a cereal to market it as healthy and actually you're just better off going for a normal one that contains nuts and seeds i can't bear it the level of sweetness and some of them i think we have the same one in our mind right now is absolutely mind-boggling and it's normally using erythritol i can never say that word which contributes to upset tummies and in quite large quantities because these things are so sweet and then they say it's sugar free and it really gets me me too so i always think with your labels flip it over and i just think the easiest thing to ask yourself is like could i make this at home i know do i have all these ingredients at home if the answer is yes thumbs up if it's no but one ingredient probably fine and then once you've got more than one and if you don't know what the name is just um i've got so many pages in the unprocessed plate of what all the ingredients are and you can learn and find out all about it It is so important to me that my home feels like a calm and cozy sanctuary from the chaos of the world.

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31:33Shopify is the commerce platform behind 10 % of all e-commerce in the US. Sign up for your$1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com slash promo. Go to shopify.com slash promo. Okay, there were two more, particularly from that article that I wanted to ask you about. The first one was the kind of low sugar or healthier sweets, because I'm a sucker for these. I'll hold my hands up for that. They are really popular. They're doing very well in market. You see them more and more across kind of all of the big retailers the kind of yeah new wave of sweets and candy sort of thing is it any better okay because some of them say like no nasties on them which really fascinates me because again when you flip over the packet you're like yeah I appreciate that maybe not as many but I'm not sure anything in here is actually a real food I consume them they wanted me to put no nasties page in the book I couldn't because I can't get on board with that type of language it's really really interesting so originally these sweets were created for diabetics which ones the low sugar ones because we take the sugar out and we put in artificial sweetness so they could still enjoy things and you used to just find at the very beginning of the development of these things used to find them in boots or in a pharmacy and they'd have a little section and that would be what it was for you know diabetic chocolate it would be called diabetic sweets and now obviously we're trying to reduce our sugar intakes the companies are reformulating and thinking how can I do that?

32:58And what they've done is just switch it over from sugar to artificial sweeteners. But with that comes extra ingredients that need to be added to make that taste palette work, right? I mean, Ella, you'd understand that more than anyone, what has to go into an item to keep that taste preference. And actually, a lot of the time, it depends on who you are as a person. If you have a real, you feel like you're addicted to food, you feel like you are consuming bags of the stuff the sweeteners per se could help you lower your overall sugar intake however that hasn't worked with soft drinks take the example on the world health organization that they say do not use these artificial sweetener options because they are not a good weight management tool you will still crave them they still leave you feeling like you want more it doesn't negate what you've done with the sugar drinks before so my view is that i would rather you have the full sugar version but less of it and enjoy it but i'm aware most people don't have that healthy relationship with food where they can do that so they do have a place if you're looking at tooth decay for children that is huge we have never had higher rates of dental problems in this country number one reason children have a general anesthetic is tooth decay it's just so sad it really is so so sad but it's because they creep in to items that you think are healthy that contain a lot of sugar.

34:20It's not just because kids are eating loads of sweets. Okay and then what about the more natural sweets? The ones that say sort of yeah no nasties etc as I said those are the ones that I'm definitely a consumer of. I think those are really good options. I would much rather have a sweet where I conceal the ingredients listed that I actually know what they mean. I don't want gelatin in my sweets. I don't want to consume that personally. I would rather have it made from vegetable extracts and get the colourings and the dyes from vegetables and fruit rather than from artificial flavorings and coloring.

34:51So there's a definite hierarchy of the quality of sweet, but those are much more expensive for people. So I personally would rather give my kids, and I do give them those sweets rather than... Like candy kitten type sweets. I would give candy kittens over Haribo every single day of the week. Yeah, no, me too. Me too. And I do really like them and the kids call them kitty sweets. But they're still sugar. I just have to caveat, still sugar in them. Yeah, and that's, I guess, the interesting thing is it's still, as you said it's continuum and i always find the frustrating idea that you would swap a sweet for an apple because they're just two different occasions but therefore if you do want something sweet again like it genuinely it's not just marketing it is actually better it's basically what you're saying um i think it is better for your body but it's still sugar so i just have to have that out there and guys we may be into health and wellness but we love sweets too so you're not alone we all do no but i think it's really interesting so what we're saying is like lentil crisp for example not always better than your regular crisp because actually often a huge number of additives versus like a classic ready salted but when we're talking about sweets actually the kind of more natural ones generally speaking probably are a better swap and a listener sent me a video she wanted us to put it on the podcast we didn't have time for it in the brief on truffle oil and different ingredients they use in restaurants you also have to check if it's actually truffle and you've got to check what's going in these crisps a lot of the time the flavors that they've added to them guys you know like the meat flavors in bacon crisps or something or um you know glutamate and different things people add it's not what you think it is and then what about chocolate chocolate oh my goodness top tips is you look if you're eating chocolate just eat the one you really enjoy and be mindful of the portion is my ultimate message but if you're eating chocolate for benefits you have to go i'd say 75 80 plus that's the type of chocolate that I have every single day of the week, like I had this morning after breakfast.