Sugar Swaps, Keto & Broccoli Shots

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0:47Welcome to The Wellness Scoop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. And as always, we're here as 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. and that's why we created this podcast to cut through the noise and make healthier living simple fun and personal and welcome guys it is always such a treat to be in here it's genuinely the highlight of my week i've been really looking forward to this morning i guess a few things to say which is that this is going to be our second to last show before a little three week summer break we will still be releasing some bits over those three weeks so don't worry we're not going to leave you fully stranded but we both have a few things going on taking a bit of time off with the kids and going to be recharged and full of ideas when we come back a hundred percent because the show is built by you the listeners and honestly we have so much to get organized and compile from your feedback your comments on apple on spotify we're going to go through it all over the summer as well ella and i and make sure that we actually create something in september as well that's really tailored for you so thank you also for keeping in touch with us ella a listener sent me you know how I'm insect obsessed at the moment in a positive way they sent me a lovely video of a bee and it just cheered up my whole day it's the little thoughtful touches honestly that you all bring to this podcast and to Ella and I the kindness that we're so grateful for we really really are as I said just the highlight of the week your messages your feedback seeing pictures of you listening to the show we love it so keep it coming because as I said it's so rewarding and We so appreciate it.

2:26But, Rhi, what have we got coming up in today's show? Yes, so today we've got, is the keto diet effective or just another wellness myth? Coca-Cola and Donald Trump and possible sugar swaps? Could common sweeteners be linked to early puberty in kids? And then why grip strength might predict how long you live? Broccoli shots, can't wait to discuss this, a new trend. And can food help support hormonal health? We've also got his matcha being too trendy now for its own good and why bacon, cancer and misinformation are back in the headlines.

3:06Rhi, how are you? What have you been up to? Anything good? Yeah, do you know what? It's been really busy because I've been teaming up with British berry growers recently, Ella, to do the breakfast charter I discussed with you at the beginning of the year. So we've been working on this for quite a long time and it follows the government's rollout of the school breakfast pilot in April. And that saw 750 schools provide free daily breakfast clubs and the recent extension of free school meals program. So the charter calls on the government to basically refine those current guidelines because the nutritional quality just, oh, it has to improve.

3:39And it comes after research that found that two-thirds, that's 68 % of parents, support the government action. They want healthier meals. It's not like we're not asking for them. And an overwhelming majority, so 96 % of those parents, think the government should do more. And that's why I've teamed up with British Berry Growers basically to try and get MPs to make a difference here to the National Breakfast Charter. I want to see more fruit and veg and see changes. So that's been busy, Ella. That's been keeping me pretty busy over the last week. How about you, Ella? Busy week. I know, but I love it.

4:14I mean what a mission to get more fruit for kids it's you know what I remember seeing when my children were little some things saying sometimes it can be really difficult to get kids and adults to eat different vegetables and we're easy to kind of put veg number one and fruit a little bit lower but actually fruit is so nutritious and often more well liked by adults and kids alike and so actually it's such a good reminder as well that fruit is one of your five a day one of your 30 plants a week vegetables aren't inherently better than fruit I think that's all that kind of sugar fear-mongering so a nice reminder to get some fruit in.

4:49I think so exactly and on the subject of fruit and veg I saw a little sneak peek of your amazing collection online. Yes oh my gosh so this has been so funny I'm like it's been a really secret project for almost two years now that I've been working on which is this huge cookware kitchenware range with John Lewis. It's been almost two years in the making there's 60 pieces in the collection that we've designed together it's just been a really different job and I've really enjoyed the creativity of it so it's but there's all this yeah fruit and veg inspired like the sweetest little beetroot salt and pepper shakers little tomato candle holder artichoke jugs and plates little pea pot bowls are so cute and then very practical yeah great cooking pans and amazing roasters and silicon storage for your batch cooking in the freezer which is such an improvement on freeze bags so it's all singing or dancing it's all about kind of everyday cooking and making it more fun more delicious um easier and it comes out first of october but yes we just announced it which is so cool it's a real milestone moment i know what i'm gonna get everyone for christmas now oh my goodness i'm gonna buy the little salt and pepper shakers and all the real cute bits and we also just announced as well a few days ago the new cookbook which is called quick wins healthy cooking for busy lives so that's obviously what i've been working on as well this year and that's all about yeah simple shortcuts essentially like we're all so busy and i think i think most of us probably have got 15 minutes at the end of the day to cook but they're like emotional load the mental load the exhaustion means it's quite tempting to like eat toast or order takeaway and so i think for me it was really that was the inspiration of actually what can we do in a short period of time with what we've got in the cupboard and then there's also eight weeks of meal plans in there so you've kind of got all the work done for you so we just announced that as well that's coming out for the first time in time for Christmas so 18th of December.

6:49Amazing I'm a bit lost for words I also think it's just incredible because if you look at how you've progressed I guess and now obviously you are a mum as well you've got lots of different plates excuse the pun plates to spin plates to spin literally and I think that's what everybody needs you now see things in such different way I guess as well and that's reflected in the books you write and the work and the things that you produce because like you said I mean I was that person that did the takeaway the other night I was so overwhelmed our car broke and I was like oh my goodness got takeaway ate toast this morning for breakfast and there's nothing wrong with it we all do it I do it too but I think it's that was very much my inspiration exactly it's like what do you do because actually sometimes the takeaway is really disappointing you know restaurant foods are amazing but sometimes the takeaway is disappointing always I'm so always underwhelmed but yeah I just do it so this is going to be the book we all need just in time for winter as well Ella when it's so hard to stay on track so thank you for writing that I can't wait to see it okay have you got any recs for us this week I actually have a few I'm gonna start with Nancy Birtwistle who was introduced to me by all of you lovely listeners and people on my social media pages on my little repage I couldn't get sunscreen stains out of the boys clothes after holiday I can't believe this is how exciting my life gets now but honestly I tried everything I soaked them for a day with fairy up liquid then I tried soaking them with baking powder or bicarb and then putting them in the wash and none of that removed the stains and then Nancy was recommended to me she's such a sweet lady and everything she makes is from scratch eco-friendly and she's just got all these amazing hacks and I think her Instagram page is fantastic oh and this is what I need okay so it's all kind of natural natural homemade cleaning hacks yeah I didn't know so I actually made a comment and said oh you know you should definitely wear gloves if you're mixing all that cream with your hands and everyone was saying no she makes it all from scratch oh my goodness I know so she's like a cleaning gurry okay I know what I'm doing when I leave here will you put the her handle in the show notes so we'll all be following everyone wants to clean like Nancy What have you made so far?

8:52So far it was the cream that you put on the shorts. So I highly recommend, I can't remember now what I did. Yeah, on the stains. What did you make it with? Yeah, no, it was honestly so easy. I had everything in the house. I can't remember exactly what it was. Something like bicarb, you mix it all together, vinegar she uses and things. And it worked? It worked. It worked. And I was like, why did I spend all this money on fancy stain removers with a little brush on top? And I'm like scrubbing on the shorts. So go and check out Nancy's page, everyone. Oh, I'm really inspired. Great. Then my second rec, I told you I had a good one this week, is that kids go free in a variety of restaurant chains this summer.

9:25And I think it's such a good move for lots of people out there just to be aware of this. You know, places like Yo's Sushi, Bills, they eat free on weekdays. Asda have offerings, Tesco, lots of different restaurant chains around the UK do that. And I think that's really good to be aware of. It can be really helpful. And then theatre, there's one week every year. And I've known about this since childhood because my mum used to apply in the ballot and we managed to get tickets sometimes and it inspired my love for West End theatre because we never could have afforded to go without that. And there's this Kids Love Theatre Week that happens every year in the summer.

9:58Go and check it out, just Google it and it should come up and you get tickets to leading West End shows that are suitable for children at like half price or a fraction of the price of what they usually are and it's an activation that the West End does every single year for kids and I think it's so cool. God, you're really full of the good racks. I know, I know. When I saw the brief, I said, oh, no, I need to squeeze it all in before we head off for summer. I was like, that's the next one. But yeah, so I had loads of things to contribute this week. Ella, what are yours? OK, I actually have loads, but I'm going to keep them short.

10:28First is I've started listening on audiobook to the book, Your Body Keeps the Score, which is obviously such a bestseller. I've seen it around for ages. I haven't finished it yet, so I'm going to save it for after the summer. We can discuss it in depth. but it is fascinating about the kind of the way that stress and traumatic events stay in your body and have real physiological effects and it's so many people have recommended it anyway I'm listening to an audiobook and I am absolutely devouring it's fantastic I'm also reading a phenomenal book called Blue Sisters which again has been this big bestseller but if you're looking for a summer read for holiday it's that brilliant mix of beautifully written really gripping but nice and easy to read at the same time it's the story of four sisters I love human stories that kind of follow the development of people's lives and I just can't put it down it's absolutely amazing so those are two quick ones the third one was recommended to me by my sister-in-law about two weeks ago it's called brick I will link it in the show notes but as we've talked about too many times on here I find it impossible to put my phone down and my sister-in-law was talking about this and I found it really I hope she doesn't mind me saying I really appreciated the honesty where she was like, I've had a full day at work and I'll get home.

11:39And I've got an hour with my kids and I find myself looking at Instagram and you just think, why am I doing this? And I'm nodding along thinking, yes, I'm the same. We all are, or whether it's late at night and you need to go to sleep and you're like, why am I looking at this random rubbish? Anyway, it's maybe most of you have better self-control than we do, but it's this device that you basically tap your phone on and it will lock your social media. So you cannot use it. But then how does it unlock? You then tap it back in. Oh, so it's like a physical brick. It's a physical brick. It's a small, I mean, it's not the size of a brick.

12:11It's little. It's like, I don't know, an inch, a couple of inches. It's a small thing you keep on your desk or your bedside table. But it's basically like tapping in and out your phone and then you can lock whatever platforms it is for you. So then you just can't use them. And as I said, maybe you guys have got better self-control than I do. But I find I have good intentions. And so actually then you just can't get into it. I love that. I might try doing it overnight. Because if I give it to my husband to hide until the morning, then I switch it on. Then I can't unlock it until I wake up. Yeah, but like ultimately the thing is, is the people who've designed social media are so clever.

12:47I mean, they are using brilliant minds to create things that are deliberately addictive and hard to put down. So you don't have bad willpower for not seeing through, you know, lack of scrolling. No, but I think it's really important to say that actually. Like, you know, it's designed to make you addicted because that's how they succeed. I also read that they're the people, the ones that own these tech. I don't know if this is true or not. They own the tech companies that don't let their kids have technology, that don't let their kids have phones and screens. And they're really hot on it. You do often read that.

13:17Anyway, so as I said, it's just a really helpful thing. Or when I'm working, you know, I've been finishing my book edits and I'll find myself just procrastinating and I don't have time to procrastinate. So I've just been locking it. and then for two hours for example I just can't use social media yeah and I'm finding it a really effective but then great to not I've been reading at night instead of scrolling so good okay I'm going to be getting a break you'd be so proud of me at the weekend I went to David Lloyd to do the usual like tennis lessons with the kids and stuff and I said to my husband I was like look I really just need half an hour and I actually went I cannot believe I did this the most unbelievable thing in the world I don't know why I've never used this spa before properly there's a spa there or the side of the gym.

13:56I never, ever use it. Like I've been going there for so long. I never have time. And I said, I'm going to go and sit in it for half an hour. And I didn't put my phone on. And there were people in the hot tub with their phones. Like sat there in the hot tub looking at their phones. And I was just sat there by myself feeling very uncomfortable. You know, you feel really awkward. It's like, right, I haven't got earphones in. Oh my gosh, anyone could talk to me. And I just sat there in the hot tub like, please don't look at me. But I actually was really proud of myself doing half an hour of no phone.

14:24because I just thought I'm going to try it. But how awkward that that's an actual challenge I'm having to put to myself. I know, but we all are. And that's why I said it. I don't think you should be hard on yourself for it. No. Okay, so shall we move in to the health headlines that matter?

14:39So let's pick up on our matcha chat, Ella, because there's loads to discuss. And last week, the Times ran a piece, didn't they, by Claire Cohen titled, There's a matcha shortage, blame me. Yes, it was quite a funny piece, but I think we picked up on this, haven't we, a few times this year that basically the crux for all is that matcha demand is massively outpacing supply. The UK market alone was worth apparently 45.5 million last year and is predicted to jump to 72 million by 2030. And essentially Japan's farmers can't hire enough workers to harvest and mill the tea quick enough. And then I got into a kind of deep dive on this because I was quite interested in it and there was a piece on the bbc titled who drank all the matcha how tourism drained a japanese town and it dives into this place and apologies if this isn't the right pronunciation called uji or ujai uji and it's the historic matcha capital in japan and so they've obviously got this huge surge of tourism of people going there because of the tea and there was amazing stories how every morning at 10 o 'clock in the morning when matcha shops open there they have crowds waiting and they were talking about one shop in particular that's a particularly famous shop who used to supply matcha to the emperor of japan and the tourists there are literally pouncing on the shelves and they had people describing it like people frantically trying to grab a single tin and this scrum that was forming and people shouting it's gone the matcha's gone and by five past ten it's all gone and they're now rationing it so that you can't buy too much because they've been saying they often sell like a whole month of ceremonial matcha in a single day um so yeah these like very prestigious stops have had to put on limits so it's very very interesting but essentially the problem which i thought was interesting personally to read about which i wanted to include it in the way that basically proper matcha like the high grade ceremonial matcha cannot be mass-produced but we are now wanting it to be mass-produced because we're putting it in cookies and loaves and all of these things.

16:47I hate that Ella I feel sad I think we really should be respecting it I mean the word in itself ceremonial matcha. Well that's the interesting thing and basically the leaves are grown under shade and that's what creates this like really intense umami flavour but that really slows the growth of it and so then the leaves are ground down in traditional stone mills and they only produce about 400 grams of matcha after eight hours so that is you know frankly like a very inefficient process and that's what you need to create this like really beautiful product so in eight hours that's 13 tins what they're going to have to do is just it becomes a very very expensive exclusive product right because i don't think you should try a mass farm matcha you do lose that aspect you do lose the quality there's certain regions in japan that produce that young baby leaf and that's what makes it so special it's bursting in antioxidants i um it made me feel like we need to have you know how you have like really a protection chocolate and then you have cooking chocolate i feel like we need to have premium matcha where you're really tasting it and enjoying it slowly and it is expensive because it is done in this like very crafted way which is amazing and to your point should be respected but then we need kind of cooking matcha which is not creating the same which is what you're then putting in because if we are going to you see it in recipes for everything be it as i said things you're baking as well like cookies or loaves and you can tell the difference when you look at the color of the the green in the matcha the darker more vibrant type of green versus it when it's gone a bit browny and it's been exposed to oxygen it's had a lot of oxidation or it's been sat for a while and you can definitely tell and i think those coffee houses and chains that we know the really big ones that now sell matcha they definitely don't have good quality matcha in there well good quality matcha is so expensive yeah i mean one tin is incredibly expensive i used to buy um years ago because you remember I spoke on this podcast if anyone goes back a few episodes about my journey with tea pigs matcha 15 years ago when I first learned about matcha before the hype today and I used to also um try this lalani and co matcha and it really came back to me the discussion on the quality but I was looking at the costs of matcha on a cardo this week so I was like oh I need to buy I need to buy a new one you are looking at 20 pound plus for a little tin of matcha it's very privileged it's a privileged item to have actually and I think we've lost touch of like you said the quality versus a trend yeah it's really trying to when possible respect where our food comes from and just enjoy it slowly which is so hard in our busy busy culture but like it's really interesting in our new house the previous owners the husband just tended to the garden so beautifully it was so much love and care and respect and he's left us this amazing veg patch and this beautiful greenhouse and it's obviously just like the most amazing gift and so generous of him to keep it up for us but I was getting our own courgettes and tomatoes and it was so fun to do with the kids because they were like whoa this is where it all comes from which was amazing to show them but cooking with it I was like these are sacred like these are our own tomatoes they're so special anyway I can't wait for more of that but right let's get in I thought you were about to say he grew his own little matcha patch on the side of the garden I was waiting Maybe that would be my side hustle.

19:59You could try it. I don't know. I think Japan have got the edge on the climate or something. Anyway. But we have got fig trees, which I just can't believe. I've tried to grow a fig plant in my garden for the last five years and I've failed. Yeah, he's been so amazing. Anyway, so we have to come over. We can have figs at the end of the summer. Yes, please. I'm already dreaming up all the recipes I can make with them, roasting them slowly and then with some honey. Figs are my favourite fruit in the world. Do you know what? I don't like them unless they're roasted. Really? Yeah. I don't really like raw fruit.

20:25It's a really off-rand of me. I used to do health retreats with an old lecturer at uni. When I was at uni, another random part-time job. I've had so many part-time jobs. And we used to pick the figs off the trees in the south of France. And I tell you, the taste and texture, you would eat that fig. But when they're slow roasted. Yeah, the caramelisation. I think I should have a really sweet tooth. I think that's what it is. Wasn't your wreck last week roasted strawberries? Yeah, exactly. It's the same like apples. I much prefer a roasted apple with a crumble. I love crumble. okay we move on to the headlines we're already in the headlines that matter we are but we're going to get into our first one which is the keto diet this is a kind of half headline half listener question so we had a listener question could you talk about the keto diet my friend had amazing results but it seems too unnatural to be truly helpful long term and we've been wanting to include this in an episode so many of you have also sent in questions about keto but then at the same time there was a piece in the telegraph this week titled ketosis is built as the key to weight loss but what exactly is it so we thought let's use this headline and the question amalgamated into one to kind of springboard and break it all down so re give us the lowdown what actually is a ketogenic diet so this one originally was developed for children with epilepsy so we have to remember that it was full specific conditions to help um see if that could make a difference and it was actually quite successful for children in that particular cohort but simply put it's high fat very low carb and then you shift your body into a state of ketosis which means instead of using carbohydrates as its primary fuel source because your brain's preferred source of fuel is glucose glycogen we've got a blood-brain barrier in our brain that really only effectively lets carbs up and it kind of stops at proteins and fats it's very difficult for it to process them i'm really simplifying this by the way everybody because we've got all sorts of different pathways ways to our metabolism called the Krebs cycle you can get something called gluconeogenesis and you can turn proteins into carbs and there's all sorts of complications but essentially per it's not really a high protein diet it's more just that it's really low carb so you start using and high fat and high fat so yeah instead of using carbs you start using those fats so 90 of your calories daily comes from fat instead of our preferred brain source and as a byproduct you get all sorts of side effects because you're now using fat instead of carb you can get bad breath and all sorts of side effects to ketosis i think the fact that it's high fat not high protein is one of the biggest myths of it because i think obviously to your point it was developed back in the 1920s so almost well over 100 years ago now by a man called dr russell wilder and he was as you said looking at treating epilepsy in children, which is absolutely fascinating.

23:12And it's still used today in medical settings and has been, to your point, really powerful and very, very effective for things like drug resistant epilepsy. So it's a really well studied and well understood diet versus a lot of, I don't want to say it's a fad diet, because I think that's wrong in the sense of medically speaking, it's actually has some real benefits. But if we kind of just talking about it from a kind of cultural lifestyle perspective versus a lot of fad diets which have no evidence behind them and a kind of a little bit wild and funky the ketogenic diet is well studied from a medical perspective and has some amazing benefits but it's been kind of translated into the lifestyle space and i think people have misunderstood it not in a condescending way but i think it got kind of mixed up with atkins and duken and all these diets which again a very very low carb but those are actually high protein whereas this is much more focused on high fat and i think to me what's really interesting is what to actually reach ketosis so for this actually to work you need to limit carbs to such an extraordinary degree yeah because your liver needs to start breaking down the stored fat into ketone bodies and that's where your body and brain then use them like i said as the alternative fuel so it's it's technically not called high fat but The diet in itself is just based around lower carbs, which means automatically a lot of your food does come from fat sources.

24:35But it's about what you choose. So it's not high protein, like people say, Ella. Now, let's have a think about the fact that it depends on, is it a saturated fat, which is the one you don't want too much of, which comes from things that are normally solid at room temperature, like a block of butter? Or is it coming from unsaturated fats like avocados, nuts and seeds? So there's different ways of approaching this diet completely. You have to kind of be very educated on you don't want to go over that 20 to 50 grams of carbs a day. And for individuals, what's so interesting, Ella, is that back when I used to do the clinic in Harley Street around London Fashion Week, I would have all of the models coming to me for ketosis diets, the ones I used to send away a lot of the time.

25:16And for quick weight loss, for quick weight loss, because it's not really weight loss. It's just stripping your body of stored carbs called glycogen, which you store around your muscles, which gives you a leaner kind of aesthetic. Because if you've shifted all that extra water that's being held around your body from stored glycogen, you look leaner. So they're often used as quick fix diets, but not everyone. It doesn't work for everyone. For some people, that might be 20 grams of carbs a day. For other individuals, they could have 50 a day. But even 50 is nothing. It's nothing. most of us eat around 250 grams of carbohydrates a day and i think an average banana has 27 grams of carbohydrate so you can kind of see how quickly that adds up so that means you you can't you can't have a banana well no not some people some people could and they take ketosis sticks and then they measure their urine to see every day if they're in ketosis or out of it because once you've broken it it's very hard to then get back into it yeah i think it's so limiting and it takes my understanding like sort of two to four days or so to actually get into ketosis so again this isn't something that happens automatically or you can do from a single meal which again i think is just worth knowing it's not to a point you can't like dip in and out of it you're either kind of doing it or you're not doing it to your point you then need to test urine for example and those pea sticks to see if you have it but lots of people say they get things to your point like keto flu i think it's often described as in this transition period things like headaches fatigue dizziness low appetite, irritability, constipation, diarrhea.

26:47I know. I mean, I always used to say to clients, I said, look, if you want to do this, this is a short term fix. It's not something that's sustainable long term. It's really, really difficult for the majority of people. There will always be anomalies to the, you know, major consensus. But it's generally thought of as a weight loss diet, even though the evidence for it is, of course, on epilepsy for strong evidence anyway so a review of 13 studies found that keto is more effective than the standard low-fat diet with more people losing two pounds on average but i will say like i said earlier it's water weight through glycogen and you know there's also some research that a lot of people on instagram will pull out they'll pull out these individual studies to try and support their claims you know for using keto generically that keto can help with blood sugar and type 2 diabetes but that's purely because you're not eating any carbs.

27:36But we're back talking about a medicinal setting here, which I think to your point, like that has been well studied. And if you are really, really struggling with type two diabetes, for example, then potentially from, you know, very, very well managed with a doctor or medical professional, then potentially for a short term strategy, this is an interesting route. And as you said, it's, but I think to me, this is a diet that belongs so firmly outside of lifestyle and belongs so much in a medical setting because it is so restrictive and obviously within that there are loads of downsides there was a recent study at the university of bath they found that just after 12 weeks people who are following a keto diet had lower fiber intake which is obviously having then reduced levels of beneficial gut bacteria which they saw there's also higher ldl cholesterol which as we talked about the other the week is the cholesterol you don't want because you you do have to eat quite a lot of saturated fat really to get enough calories because you know you can't be leaning on things like plant proteins your beans legumes because those have too much carbohydrate really for it to work and then again obviously because you're not eating you know any high carb veg like sweet potatoes carrots or apples and all of that's what we're talking about how good fruit is for you in terms of vitamin mineral content at the beginning you're then again quite often low in vitamins like a b C6, CE, folate, calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, like a whole mixture of vitamins and minerals that are really important because you can't have whole grains, legumes, so many different fruit and veg.

29:07So I think to me, it's a really interesting question. It was an interesting, very clickbaity headline, obviously very linked to kind of summer and weight loss and things like that. But to me, I definitely feel like it is really interesting. And I think if you have a genuine health need, the more I looked at it, the more, as I said, there is a lot of research from a very specific health perspective but from a lifestyle perspective I feel like it's quite a dangerous game to play and also you need to do it so specifically for it to work. I completely agree I think it has to be medically supervised because ultimately this is serious you know if you are just increasing your LDL cholesterol and you're just having a lot of fat and protein your kidneys your liver can take a huge strain and I have actually had stories and somebody I know has a damaged kidney from following a high protein i mean it's very extreme but high protein sudden shift in diet um whilst going through the menopause and there's lots of different things to consider here guys but becoming constipated it's not good for bowel movements that in itself the digestive discomfort it can cause some people when you're not having those frequent bowel movements because you're not getting the fiber so i think our overall take home is that for some people great please do it supervised but for most of us it is one of those that has to be really really carefully thought through.

30:21Yeah so I guess going back to the top there I think I worry a headline saying ketosis is billed as the key to weight loss makes it a bit too tempting for people to jump on the bandwagon and I think same with what you're saying for our listener who's friended it and them having amazing results you know I think just yeah word of caution there are no magic answers in anything in life and I think this is something that yeah isn't a magic answer. No what I have found is that people that try it have very good success very quickly but then the minute you go to eat normally again, that's, you know, it all goes back on and more.

30:52So it's one of those type of diets, I think, for most people. But that's just a generic statement. Please seek advice.

31:02Eczema isn't always obvious, but it's real. And so is the relief from EBCLIS. After an initial dosing phase, about four in 10 people taking EBCLIS achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin at 16 weeks. And most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year with monthly dosing.

32:16We'll be right back. So no one forgets mom's 60th and never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end-to-end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone. Learn more at whatsapp.com. Okay, headline two. I have been, no exaggeration, like reeling about this all week. And I just so look forward to these episodes. I can't wait to sit down with you and talk to you about it. I'm scared about this one because this is a tricky one. It's quite something, this one, though. I was really quite shocked. OK, this is about sweetener in kids and whether there's a hidden risk in artificial sweeteners.

32:54And there was a big new study that was presented at Endo25. That's the Endocrine Society annual meeting, which is in San Francisco. This happened this month. And they were going through research that was carried out by Taipei Medical University in Taiwan. And what they were looking at was common sweeteners, things like aspartame. I don't know how you say that. Aspartame, some people say, but I used to go aspartame as well. it's aspartame okay sucralose this one it can't say no glycerin glycerin glycerin okay anyway you will have seen licorice your favorite you will have seen oh i love licorice you would have seen them on the back of packs but basically they're the kind of no added sugar sugar and they have a potential linked early puberty in children and i'm sure you guys have all seen headlines over the years about puberty happening earlier in our children which is something that i've kind of had an eye on and been quite wary of anyway this study followed about 1400 children in taiwan and it found that those consuming more sweeteners whether through zero sugar drinks which obviously people are choosing trying to be healthier because very compelling on the front things like flavored yogurt certain processed snacks again with lots of these kind of low sugar zero sugar claims were significantly more likely to experience early puberty with 481 children diagnosed with central precocious puberty, which is when puberty starts earlier than average.

34:15I mean, my science brain is going straight away. Well, how old were these children? They shouldn't really be consuming sugar sweetened beverages anyway, or artificially sweetened ones, flavoured yoghurt. It sounds like a UPF heavy diet. So there's so many angles you could go down with this to really break it down. And 1 ,400 children isn't the largest sample, but it is really important to take this seriously because it means more research can happen. So the breakdown was quite specific the fact that in boys they found higher sucralose intake and the sweetener found in things like you know coke zero sugar was associated with early puberty and then for girls it was a combination of sucralose aspartame and glycerin that added sugars and it was also an increased risk and i think keller early puberty is definitely an interesting one because they're saying our girls as early as like nine you know they're still in primary school are going through this and i think the average age when we were growing up it used to be what teenage years yeah I mean that's certainly how I remember it and yeah exactly they were looking at children kind of as young as eight and even younger and I think what's interesting is when I started to look at it and I have to say like I'm not a consumer of no sugar zero sugar things because for me as you to your point it's kind of key to UPF is it's so common in things like extra sugar-free chewing gum coke zero diet coke and all these things where you think maybe you're choosing the healthier choice and anyway what they were saying is that from the research they believe these sweeteners might be disrupting hormone signaling and altering gut bacteria which are both closely linked to puberty timing and this was one of the first large scale studies your point really obviously could be bigger but it's one of the first kind of bigger studies to look at this interaction between sweetener intake and genetics and obviously as our intake of upfs gets bigger and we you know a lot of companies are reformulating things to get those claims like zero sugar for example particularly in drinks obviously we've seen that in the uk with this drive to have lower sugar but the sugar is not not replaced it's being replaced by things like these artificial sweeteners and i think it's just absolutely fascinating they tested for 19 genes associated with early puberty and found the highest risk was in children who had both a genetic predisposition and the highest sweetener consumption so obviously important to note that there was a genetic component to this but it's i just think it's really to a point there's obviously so much more research to do and i think the question is like if it affects children's hormone signaling and gut bacteria surely that's the same in adults to some degree as well it's such a huge huge topic in the health professional world as well because you know individually these sweeteners are deemed safe you know that's the whole thing that they are safe guys we have to reiterate that, that they're safe for consumption.

36:58I would argue I don't think children should ever be consuming artificial sweeteners. That's just my stance on the subject. But then I have to say they're safe. So it's one of those interesting red tape areas for us because the studies say they're safe. And, you know, this is why it's such an alarming thing that comes out. I was approached by the board of artificial sweeteners. I turned it down last year. I saw other colleagues and friends take the job didn't sit right with me you know they're right to take the job because technically it's safe but for me it just felt uncomfortable you know and you have to really think about your boundaries of where your professional opinion lies or your stance but I've also got to say you know early puberty is definitely no joke because the emotional stress it also is linked to shorter adult height increased risks of metabolic and reproductive health issues later on and we just don't know enough about puberty in general anyway I don't think any sexual education really is up to par is it I mean I was just really alarmed by this to be honest and I didn't want to include it as like a fear-mongering exercise but I think obviously we've spoken so much in the media in the whole kind of world of health and nutrition I feel like there have been two topics of 2025 it's been GLP-1s and UPFs and UPFs and the various different ingredients included in the labeling of UPFs has been such a huge topic and you know it's all quite murky and quite hard to distill what's what which obviously is obviously so much of your work this year but i think for me this article is such an interesting springboard for that question of like we just don't know you know we've these so many of these formulations and these ingredients and this way of eating that we have today is so new and we just don't know what it all means and to your point like there is research to show these are safe and then there's other things coming out saying but it also can have these effects so it is safe it's not a kind of toxin but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have an impact on the body it does because i mean i'm personally convinced and i wrote about it in the unprocessed plate that you know there are those six additives that are linked to hyperactivity so it makes sense if we've established that with additives that sweeteners probably are linked to a disruption in hormones i mean there's some fertility research now not for children this is for children particularly we're discussing now but for females they are encouraged for adults yeah adult females they're encouraged to reduce their intake of artificial sweeteners and additives and certain products with endocrine disruptors and plastic particles is the world we live in now is very very different to 30 years ago yeah for fertility you're saying they're encouraged to exactly so it makes sense if they're encouraged for fertility that it does impact us from a younger age and we're just not discussing it yet yeah it was really interesting and then so But anyway, I was absolutely gripped by this study because I think it's just so telling.

39:41And again, it's so difficult both for everybody to read these labels because you do think zero sugar, that must be better. Because I think for so long, sugar was like the demon and it was so demonized. It was this idea that anything that was zero sugar must inherently be better. But actually would say, like, look at the ingredients because actually. Well, let's take the slushy headline again, for example. You know, I saw it again. there was actually a blessing a young boy that was on this morning yeah and I saw him telling his story of how he was hospitalized and really felt unwell very life life-threatening from drinking a slushy and the mum was like I did not know and I people are probably bored of me harping on about slushy drinks but they're not safe for consumption and they're now not recommended for was it under eight wasn't it yeah under the age of eight but let's take that as a perfect example of perhaps we have gone a bit too far with the artificial sweetness and additives.

40:34Anyway, our listeners in America would have seen this, but I thought it was quite interesting on the same topic. We won't go into too much detail, but just to note it, basically Trump claimed on a Truth Social post that he had persuaded Coca-Cola to switch their sugars from high fructose corn syrup to real cane sugar and was kind of lording out sort of success. But Coca-Cola have not confirmed the change. But what was really interesting is when Coca-Cola came out not confirming this change, they had a quote that said, please be assured that Coca-Cola brand soft drinks do not contain any harmful substances.

41:05But they do contain all these artificial sweeteners we've just been talking about. And yes, to this point, it's early research and it could be a larger cohort and we're looking at children. But it's showing that the sweetness in it can prompt early puberty, which I would say is they don't feel wildly safe. Do you know what's so fascinating? And I think a lot of people know this, like, you know, you see the clips from people discussing health in America. And for those listening, please do contribute and let us know what you know. And we've discussed ingredient lists being wildly different from America to the UK.

41:36But Coca-Cola is so different in the UK. It's just made with cane sugar. We don't have high fructose corn syrup here for use in the UK. It's just not something we use because we know that it's not linked to good health outcomes. It's so highly industrialized as a form of sugar. the processing is next level yeah give us an overview of it because i think to your point it's same it's like i noticed when i was over there it's in ketchup whereas it's not in ketchup my understanding is that high fructose corn syrup is not used much at all in the uk or europe but it's widely used in the us and they must be making a bomb in the us that's why yeah it's so cheap but we were talking about it weren't we the other day that like generally speaking most sugars sit quite equally but high fructose corn syrup that is not the case for yeah no exactly and we we definitely don't use it really here in the UK at all.