"The 14 Foods to Eat Every Week" & the £2,000 Wellness Trap

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0:39Gain skills you can learn today and apply tomorrow. Get ready to go from make it happen to made it happen and keep striving. Visit Strayer.edu slash Jack Welch MBA to learn more. Strayer University is certified to operate in Virginia by Shev and as many campuses, including at 2121 15th Street North in Arlington, Virginia. Welcome to The Wellness Scoop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. 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.

1:24And guys, after five months, we've had two and a quarter million lessons. Is that what it is? yeah oh my gosh that's amazing how amazing is that so that's a shock to me everyone because i don't look at the numbers ella looks at the numbers and reports back to me two and a quarter two and a quarter million in five months on the nose that's amazing so thank you guys for tuning in honestly we're so grateful because that is definitely money more than we expected and we just love doing this it's the highlight of my week i know we're set but like god i look forward to it I mean, after meeting so many of you at the live show, which, first of all, wow.

2:01Ella, I did nearly cry on stage. I had to stop. We only just walked on. Me too. And then we just saw those people in front of us and we had Beyonce playing Who Run The World girls. I really, yeah, had to hold it together. Me too. I thought, oh, no, this is just the start of the show. We have to get through two hours. Let's do this. But, no, you were all so kind. And, as always, the comments, the feedback, your inspiration for the show. oh, you know, we get so much from you. So thank you. You know, it was so fun. My favourite part about the show, I mean, so many favourite parts, but was, we said it when we were doing the show, but every week Ria and I sit here and we're like, oh, I wish we could hear your answers to this.

2:40Like how many of you struggle with X? How many of you struggle with Y? How many of you do X, Y or Z? And it was so nice to be able to ask the audience in real time and kind of just gauge that what we were thinking and what we were worried about, what we were seeing was the same as them. Yeah, a hundred percent. there's nothing quite like it you know how people that do theater over time say you can't beat a live audience or even the emotions in the room I could feel the energy we had a moment where we had a what would you call it Ella like a non-doing mindfulness section yeah a bit of very gentle breath work and gratitude from Cordelia and I was sat there thinking I'm never going to be able to do this in front of all these people in this room I'd close my eyes and sit there but everybody else was doing the same thing and I genuinely felt the energy in the room like a Reiki moment it was amazing was it although my sister was like yeah I kept opening my eyes to check if you two were doing it too okay I knew people would do that I actually nearly fell asleep so I was very emerged in the experience me too so anyway everyone that came thank you so much I think as Rhi said there's nothing better than being actually in a community of people although this is amazing you are talking into a void to some extent so that's why we just love your feedback so please keep it coming so we don't feel we're talking into a void.

3:51But Rhi, what are we talking about in today's show? Okay, so today we've got the 14 foods that we should all be eating each week. Why school lunches are still packed with processed meat and what that means for our children's health. Then we've got plastic particles found in beer. So the microplastic conversation continues. And the banned additive that's still turning up in thousands of snacks. Should we actually be wearing sunscreen? TikTok says no, Ella, but we've got thoughts on this. Is soy bad for our hormones or just another wellness myth? And why Gen Z are now spending nearly 2 ,000 a year on wellness?

4:35Rhi, what have you been up to this week? This is a big week for you. It's book launch week. Yeah, it's a very overwhelming, busy week. I feel like we've just come from live show, which thank you to everyone that brought copies of the book what was really surreal Ella was seeing something that isn't out until well it will have been out Thursday when you guys listen now in people's hands people are making the recipes already and that is a really strange feeling but I think the best bit of advice or rather feedback I should say on the book was that somebody that read it said I wasn't expecting to actually learn something new about ultra processed foods and to reassure me so that's been my week it's a busy week how about you?

5:13It's a strange feeling isn't it a book because it's years of work and then suddenly it's out there in the world and it's a kind of very vulnerable moment I think waiting for feedback as well in terms of this whole you write into a void you speak into a void and suddenly it's like gosh I really want to hear what people think but it is amazing so go out and buy it guys the old process play. Thank you and Ella what about you busy week because you're also finishing up yours and I remember that feeling the deadline's looming but you want it to be the best bit of work you've ever done and you know you're up against the clock the deadline is looming I feel like I've talked about some months now but it has consumed my life for months now but yes the final final push for my recipe book is happening as we speak but we are so nearly there and I cannot wait but there are so many recipes in there I'm like oh I've got to keep making that one apparently we'll have seven recipes again curious what our audience think but that is the average number of recipes that people in the UK make and you might switch out a veg so you've got like a stir fry recipe come back to time and time again and you'd use like edamame one day and peas another you know veggies to that extent and I think I sometimes get those habits too and when I'm recipe testing I start eating so many more things like made a marinated fennel salad yesterday yeah I never eat marinated fennel and I was like why not this is delish loads and loads of lime quite tangy crunchy with avocado oh it was 10.

6:30I am completely with you I definitely have recipes I roll out on repeat and when you came in actually ella shared something she'd been testing for the book that she had for lunch and i was like yeah i'm gonna try and do that at home it's like the orzo craze you got me on completely obsessed i think all our listeners are obsessed with orzo ella do you have any recommendations for our listeners this week i have none okay okay i have a few maybe marinades and fennel no i was like you know what i'm not gonna make it up i've been so busy i haven't kind of done seen watched anything of particular note to be honest so yeah please compensate for my lack of that's okay that's okay I think we all have those um weeks completely where we feel that way so my first one is you gave some amazing tv show recs last week and I have started watching the one with the guy from madmen your friends and neighbors yeah really really good I wasn't expecting him to go and do that anyway I'm only like two episodes in mine is Ginny and Georgia I love Ginny Georgia.

7:28Have you seen it? Nobody's always served to me as you might like this on Netflix. I really recommend watching it on Netflix because now you'll have like two series to go back to. Really good. Really addictive. And the actress that plays Ginny and Georgia, they are captivating. But the stories, there's quite a lot of triggering storylines of what they go through. It's basically about a single mother and the adversities of life she's thrown into and her background. It's 10 out of 10 for me. Really good. Okay, I need that. The second one might come across as a bit odd, but, you know, I've wanted to mention this before and I didn't want it to come out in the wrong way.

8:02But I had this one bag of breast milk in the freezer from well past its sell by date. And it was sitting there and I thought, why am I not throwing this out? It's this weird emotional attachment, but I'm not the only one because I came across an Instagram page called Mother's Love Jewelry. And full disclosure, I'm paying for this myself, but I want to give her a shout out. She makes breast milk jewelry, Ella. A momentum. yeah a momentum so I'm doing that that's my second recommendation if anyone's a sentimental softy like me and the third of course my book The Unprocessed Plate but if you want to learn more about 30 plants specifically we had Kath on before Catherine Robert she's a dietician from the nutrition clinic and we had her on for our gut health episode yeah that's right bloating yes bloating exactly and what's normal yeah go back and listen to that on the extra scoop because we've lot of feedback about the bloating episode recently on Spotify but she's got a book called the 30 plan and it's a paperback and it's quite a good size so it fits into your bag and it's really good for travel they're my recommendations this was so good I'm sorry guys for my absolute hand next week I will bring some good recommendations but we have brought you guys good headlines if you are new to the show this is a section where we talk about the biggest health stories that are making news.

9:18So Rhi, what have we got on the agenda for the health headlines that matter this week? It's so huge. I mean, the latest National Diet and Nutrition Survey is out. That is big, Ella. Okay, so walk us through this. I haven't gone through this yet. Having looked today, but I thought I'm going to take a bit longer, condense the information and put it into next week's episode for you all. But every few years, we have an update on what the UK is doing. That's where we get the stats, like how many of you are not eating your five a day or how many of you consume a certain amount of fibre. And it spans across the age range all the way up from infancy, teenagers to adulthood.

9:51And it gives us the basic UK nutrition lowdown. So it's just been released from 2000 and I think it's 2019 to 2023. Have you got any top line headlines for us on that report before we go into it in depth next week? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, when it comes to looking at the national diet, the nutrition survey that we have, people are already starting to say fiber is more important now and finally we're seeing a shift also it links to the cancer rates that we've had the increased cancer rates and there's more lobbying coming from action on sugar action on salt because this data coming out shows how much sugar we are over consuming in this country basically how many ultra processed foods i would say we're over consuming versus whole foods and the data that's coming out is only getting bigger and bigger the gap each year.

10:41That was my question is, is this new data section from 2019 to 2023 worse than the previous data section? Sadly, it looks so everybody, but I will dissect further. Okay, I'm on tender hooks for next week. I know it's going to be good. But Ella, do you remember your date Dubai chocolate-esque trend that you mentioned? Yes, Dubai chocolate has been one of the trends of 2025 so far, hasn't it? Now, we have a bit of news here on the Dubai chocolate trend. So the FSA, that's the Food Standards Agency, I think it was yesterday at the time of recording this or maybe two days ago, they've issued a warning, Ella, because potential health risks now are posed by rogue imports of Dubai chocolate.

11:20I know it's not funny because there's some obviously, particularly they're referencing allergens and things, it can be very, very serious. So that's obviously not funny. But I think it to me, there is that part aside, something just funny and like how extreme we are when it comes to trends and how much how viral they go and how obsessed we become then we need counterfeit versions of chocolate bars because we've all gone so deolally I know for a pistachio in chocolate so basically in 2021 it was created by Sarah Hermuda she became an overnight sensation she's from Dubai and she really started this whole viral trend I think but what's happening is obviously without the proper English labeling like Ella mentioned, the allergens and the extra additives that are included.

12:06You can't see what's in the product. And what's worse, Ella, is some of these additives are banned and they've been found in a lot of these kind of counterfeit Dubai bars that people are buying online. So the FSA is having to collaborate with local councils to remove these non-compliant products from shelves and basically push it out there to the consumer. I know, it's incentive to advising consumers to purchase only from trusted UK retailers. I know there's parts of it that's absolutely not funny there's nothing funny about allergies but there is just something funny about like our herd mentality and how we have to all jump on something and we've become so obsessed with something like this that we have to make counterfeit versions it's it's completely mad um we have one more pickup actually because I think one of the things I found interesting we said at the top of the show was being with the audience live on Saturday was so amazing to say we're worried about this are you worried about this and the most unanimous bit of feedback we got was about microplastics and about environmental toxins and in that case we were talking about headline referring to a toxicity in tampons and glyphosate levels 40 times higher than the legal limit of water which is absolutely shocking in and of itself but interestingly rey and i on a personal level talk quite a lot about how actually this is the one bit i think of health and wellness that we are both quite concerned about at the moment it comes into our lives every single day and how do you know what the right household care products etc etc and not trying to ruin your life with it but also be very aware of it and this was just another thing that came up it feels like this is such a huge topic of conversation at the moment and i'm actually not a beer drinker i hate beer me too i've always hated the smell but i'm from wiltshire where they're cider drinkers and i grew up with a lot of that i think cider's delicious yeah see people love it but this was just one more thing on these forever chemicals these pfas which just seemed to be turning up everywhere and this was actually a u.s study and they tested 23 different beers including craft brews some really big domestic brands and a few different international labels and all but one so 22 of the beers tested had detectable levels of pfas so these forever chemicals in them and some even exceeded drinking water safety limits interestingly and so just a reminder your pfas they're a class of about 15 000 chemical compounds most often used to make products water stain grease resistant and they've been linked to cancer birth defects high cholesterol kidney disease decreased immunity and a whole range of other serious health problems and the reason they're called forever chemicals they don't naturally break down the environment it's heavy isn't it and obviously take all of those conditions linked with a pinch of salt it's always an increased risk or a correlation but it is something we should i think we should be talking about so i'm glad we've got it here to discuss because the study found that beers brewed in areas with contaminated water so we're talking over in the states north carolina's cape fear river basin michigan's kalamazoo county they had the highest levels ella but there's a bit of hope too because two international brands one from mexico and the netherlands showed low or no detectable pfas so perhaps it is just about the sourcing and where we're making it but that's i think why i feel concerned about forever chemicals microplastics and these environmental toxins at the moment personally and I don't mean it in a fear-mongering way I just think as I said I think almost 100 % of our audience were nervous about it too I know you are because how on earth is anybody meant to know you know you're shopping you're in your Tesco your Sainsbury's your Walmart wherever it is that you shop and you've got a whole wall of products and like how are you meant to know that this beer has levels of um PFAs higher than is safe in water and which ones have none like at the moment these sorts of things don't have to be labeled they're not regulated in this way.

15:54I would also add that I don't think most people going for beer are actually interested in reading that type of thing either. So that's a big general statement for me to make. I realise that's sweeping and there will be some people but I think when you're going to buy an alcoholic drink or beverage it's usually... Health isn't top of mind. Health isn't the top of the list. So that's why people perhaps aren't saying they need regulating or sticking labels on. It's so backward, isn't it? But it just feels like it's now everywhere. these different environmental toxins and it's just very i find it's the one thing that i find really frightening like when i look at diet and lifestyle and exercise i'm like great i can do a good job of looking after myself my family and actually with this it's like i don't want to go and live in a cave by myself and shut myself away from the environment but i am just conscious of the level of exposure i think we're all getting is probably higher than we think and i find it quite concerning i'm with you but this was published in the guardian guides and i think you know we just need to be aware of it it's almost like um tap water is an interesting comparison to make because i was always told at university you don't need to worry english tap water is great but now we know that it's one of the lowest quality tap waters we have in europe so even though it is safe to consume perhaps we need to be looking at water filters this isn't i don't want to fear monger i do now because of the plastics i have dr german newman recommended a burkey yeah it's i have that huge like I got the big one because I didn't want to have to keep filling up when you've got kids are you like oh my gosh like constantly filling up and they can kind of help themselves to the little tap funnel bit but I got that one after doing lots of different research but now there's so many brands I'm really interested in the one that Bear Grylls said that you just attach to your tap I might not for my new house yeah I might get something like that but I don't want to tell everybody it's still better to drink water than not to drink water and hey it's not going to make us sick like it can do in other countries so we are lucky guys yeah exactly it's that medium grand isn't it like if we become scared of water then that's health anxiety gone mad so it's it's so difficult to navigate but i think it's probably worth saying that we both find that difficult to navigate too even though this is our industry okay this is actually technically our first headline technically those were pickups junkier than planned okay re the 14 foods you should eat every week let me just ask you before we talk about this headline how do you feel about headlines like this like a definitive thing to be like these are the 14 foods to eat yeah but i just look at them and know that's not true so for me it's it's i've got a trained eye to it so for me it's almost like i had that feature in the telegraph came up that said what the nutritionist bans in her fridge or something and you know it's clickbait and you the person that writes the article doesn't write the headlines and it's very hard to get a headline retracted but i think people are more interested didn't oh so there's a positive aspect isn't there people might think oh i want to see what these foods are maybe i'll give them a try but then there's the health anxiety of oh these are the only foods i can ever eat and then there's what about all the other foods there's hundreds of vegetables out there or i don't like one of those foods and also we know we need for example 30 different plants a week and diversity is king when it comes to gut health so let's talk about these 14 so this came from an article in the times and actually there's loads of evidence behind lots the things they included but it did open with some new research that came out of harvard that i think was really worth noting today and it was just again it's more of the same but it was showing that a more diverse diet so thinking fruits veg whole grains healthy fats snacks legumes a little bit of fish and some dairy like yogurt is linked to a higher chance of reaching old age in good physical cognitive and mental health and then meanwhile a study of 450 000 so huge cohort of people in nine different countries found those eating the most varied diets had a 23 % lower risk of developing gastrointestinal cancers according to research supported by the World Cancer Research Fund and published in the European Journal of Cancer so interesting framing of things basically just back to how important your Mediterranean style diet is I mean yeah it's a good thing to phrase isn't it because I think it depends on how we use those lists like we said as an inspiration because you don't want them to create rigid rules but I would argue this is always an eternal ongoing debate in the world of nutrition is that there's a fine line between an emotional relationship with food and inspiration and harm the line is so thin and it's so difficult to tread in the right way and to tread in the right way to write or contribute to these type of articles or conduct this research you have to be aware of the fact that there's so many different opinions to what you're doing and everything is so nuanced and that's what makes nutritional science so hard but i will say you know it doesn't mean beetroots better than carrots it's just a review ella do you want to go through some of those 14 foods i think so i think it's a fun game right okay and i want to hear what you think about each one so the first one game guys you know organized fun is my cup of tea i'm really cool person no she is really really want to be my friend okay right first up bananas as we know now the nation's favorite rich in potassium magnesium and fibrolla.

21:01So we put them on our list? Yeah, but we had our stat about bananas. I think bananas are an amazing staple and research suggests that if you have more potassium rich foods to your diet, you have a greater positive impact on your blood pressure. And that's even better than just cutting the salt in your diet. So potassium is good. Okay, love it. Oats, who's the next one on the list? Packed with beta-glucan, which we know is a soluble type of fibre that's linked to heart health, you know, cardiovascular disease, helping with blood sugar management. There's so many elements i've got microbiome but ella there is a hierarchy of oats do you want to share with which one you probably want to go for yes before we go into the hierarchy of oats though i want to note one thing which i think is the ultimate example of why we do the show and why nutrition is so complicated because here's the times in this instance publishing the definitive 14 foods you should eat every week and then you go on tiktok and it's like if you eat porridge for breakfast you will be so fat and so unhealthy and you will die because your blood sugar will be as high as eating 87 miles bars i'm being facetious but that is the impression and it's like people go online and they're like oh it's a terrible porridge is terrible i'm going to die if i have a sweet breakfast i mean it's just so crazy and then you have the time saying the 14 foods you see every week tick them off oats and no wonder that people are so confused and what on earth to eat so just to debunk this you're on the times aside here tick vibes right oh my gosh major i'm so done with fear-mongering on food ella so far banana and oats i mean i think i'm gonna love nearly every item on this list to be honest because they should all be part of a balanced diet but the oat stuff is mad because actually they like have a lower glycemic load if they are the whole oat it's when they're kind of ground down into like a ready breck or something that they release a bit more quickly.

22:50But even then, Ready Breaks are way better option than Frosties. Totally. I mean, I make, so that was the hierarchy of oats, by the way. Oh, yes, yes. So the kind of jumbo steel cut oats, the top end of your hierarchy, but to your point, oats are still great. We often make in the morning like easy little oaty pancakes. It's a great, really, the girls eat a lot of that when I make that preschool and actually I make a little batch of it and things, again, super fun. I love batch cooking and organized fun. But in that case, you're grinding them down but it's great it's great and then next up we've got beetroot which in the world like beetroot do you know i only like it in a juice i love beetroot in a juice i love beetroot but it has to be with carrot and ginger or something the traditional vibe do you put it in recipes my mom loves beetroot so i feel like she's really pushed hard on beetroot i would say if you really roast it so it genuinely is soft and tender the problem is I think to be genuinely kind of soft and tender and to get that little bit of sweetness coming out even a medium-sized beetroot you're roasting for over an hour it's quite a lot of work for a beetroot it is and then the ones you buy that are pre-packaged I know my kids eat that and they would love that but I still don't like that either no I'm not as obsessed with it but if you do roast it and then you blend it for example into like white bean miso hummus that can be really delicious I then quite like if you slice it roast it really well and you can slice it let it cool this is a long recipe for what you're getting but slice it really really thinly and then you can do like a cider vinegar maple kind of vinaigretti type thing and you do it so it's almost like looking like carpaccio with lots of rocket it can be delicious I hate my joke but I I think it's I'm with you I'm with you and also you can make barbie pasta with it because when that trend came out in the Barbie movie if you blend it with cheese you get a pink cheese which is which is pretty fun it's pretty cool okay but tell us why we should all be persuaded to try Barbie pasta or beetroot carpaccio or something sure I think I even put a beetroot tray bake in the book no sports nutrition this is all from the sports nutrition world so it's about ability to perform well with nitrates and blood vessels and basically your circulation and your health in a review of Over 2 ,600 participants found that beetroot was found to boost muscular endurance and sprint power.

25:09So genuinely, athletes do take shots of beetroot in amongst their training schedule, something we do all the time in the nutrition clinic. And a Penn State study found that daily beetroot juice helped middle-aged women maintain vascular health and reduce heart disease risk. I mean, that's pretty big. But remember, so many other factors could have been within that study. But basically, beetroot's a win-win. It just stains your teeth. And your hands. And your hands. and your wooden chopping board. And it takes over an hour to roast. But guys, let's make some beetroot. But that's why it's a convenience in the pack, right?

25:40Okay, let's move on from beetroot, Ella. Black tea, go for it. Black tea, yes. I'm not a big tea. I'm sorry, I'm so on a tangent today. I did the same last week. So sorry, guys, I'll be focused next week. But my challenge when I see these articles, right, and I'm seeing it, I'm just going through my own mind right now. As I see, oh, black tea is number four on the list. I should really be having black tea. I don't like black tea at all. And then you suddenly feel like you're failing because you're being told definitively, these are 14 things to eat and you don't like some of them. And do you know what I mean?

26:09And I really worry about that. That people feel like, oh, I'm not doing a good job, so I'm not going to try. I mean, we've had headlines just to give you guys an idea. We'll whiz through them, actually, as far as we could be all day, I think, if we go through each one individually. But coffee could easily be on this list and it's not. Green tea could be on this list and it's not. All these foods that are praised should be on this list and they're not. In fact, when I look at the overall, I'll let you read them out in a minute, Ella, but there's so many amazing vegetables. Even broccoli isn't on this list.

26:35That was my question for you. The end is what's missing. OK, so black tea. I think the big headline here was there was a 24 year study that involved over 85 ,000 people. So again, really meaningful data. And it was suggesting that flavonoid rich foods, of which black tea is one, may support healthier aging, can reduce inflammation and support gut health. But to your point, so does green tea. Yeah, it's the L-theanine in the tea. it's like this amazing amino acid or amino acid and also the link with GABA response in our brain there's so many areas with tea it's almost a form of fermentation as well and the way things are brewed and created and made I could go on forever but so enjoy your cuppa enjoy your cuppa if you like it I'm with you I don't like black tea I as you know I'm a green tea drink meaning that we've got next on the list we've got we can group these ones because they're maybe not as exciting we've got nuts we've got oranges we've got apples and we've got white button mushrooms I would say with these i like that they're just like normal everyday items i think mushrooms by the way highly underrated i love mushrooms me too the taste the texture and they're so good in plant-based dishes but we do have one amazing fact here because i think people think of them as really bland but they offer antioxidant protection and studies have shown that even 18 grams daily can cut cancer risk by 45 i know there was a trial at a place called city of hope and they found that white button mushroom supplements this was supplements for the whole food may slow prostate cancer spread which is pretty extraordinary oranges again this mad harvard study suggested that an orange a day could reduce depression risk by 20 nuts we know obviously high in fiber mega threes polyphenols we saw our university of reading trial that we talked about a while ago that showed that 50 grams of walnuts at breakfast can improve brain function in the day and apples participants who up their flavonoid intake and apples are really rich in flavonoids by three servings a day had up to 15 % low risk of mental and physical decline.

28:25I love that. Fun little fact about apples they all have different gut bugs that are good for your gut depending on where you pick them from which country the type of skin color and they all live just kind of like below the skin a lot of the nutrition in apples to get so please don't peel them if you can keep skin on. Anyway Ella this list goes on we've got amazing yogurt, olive oil, eggs, beans, pulses, berries and like I said last week guys dark chocolate is on the list. I'm so happy to see dark chocolate in the list. If people now go out and buy a load of the wrong type of dark chocolate, this is the problem with this article as well.

28:55It does say steer toys 70 % or higher, but I know the studies say 85 % or higher most of the time. So that may not be a good move for some people to just have more dark chocolate. Interesting on the yogurt one, the world's oldest woman reportedly credited yogurt for her long life. And a study of 150 ,000 people linked two or more weekly servings to lower colorectal cancer risk. one of the things i often think as well when i read this list is like if you think about it as we said lots of these are just like normal everyday items an apple and orange a couple of almonds but when you put it together the power of these little everyday food choices is huge in terms of your health and so i think it's just that reminder that actually just adding a portion of chickpeas to your dinner tonight or making the effort to cut up some apple slices with your breakfast you know it's okay to have toast but put some apple on the side sort of thing we all need the reminder Ella because even us you know I find myself I get stuck in a rut we all do which is why I think listening to podcasts like this and going oh yeah the walnut so yes the yogurt I will keep going.

29:56I totally agree but Ria was really curious of that 14 what else would you add to the list of like really try and eat this? I mean I'd add nearly everything that's fruit and veg but if I had to pick one thing I find it interesting when they say oranges because kiwis actually contain more vitamin C than oranges per portion and they're linked to improve digestive health so even hospitals now are referring to two kiwis to ease constipation which is amazing there's actually a 2012 study that was published about kiwis and it said that just two a day improve bowel function and reduce constipation in adults so it's like an amazing natural digestive aid and then I'd do bread Ella.

30:33Nice tell us where you'd have bread I love that I think people would expect you to have chosen that one. No I know I just think because it's something that's achievable. I think everybody likes bread. You can mostly tailor it to every dietary requirement. Often they're fortified, which suits all different backgrounds and choices for nutrition. It's such an easy way. I mean, you can make, in the book, I've got recipes, I'm sure you have two out of the most amazing fresh bread that does not take an actual baker to make. And you can add whatever you want to it, the seeds, the fruit, the nuts. I even did like a strawberry and chocolate cottage cheese loaf, you know, when it was trending.

31:07I did it when strawberries came into season a month ago and it was so good but i was eating something it tasted amazing it's like comfort food that's good for my gut i also think bread's just like i know it's obvious but i think people don't oh it's not that healthy but actually like it's also the most amazing base like yeah chuck on whatever you've got and you can make it healthier this was made with oats predominantly so it wasn't just white flour you do have to pick a good loaf and there is a way of doing that maybe we should do a bread episode yeah let us know if that would be helpful We do the hierarchy of bread.

31:38Yeah.

31:42It is so important to me that my home feels like a calm and cozy sanctuary from the chaos of the world. I found that beyond decorating, sensory things like warm smells and soft textures make the biggest impact for that. And especially as it cools down outside, I'm looking for the best ways to snuggle up on my couch. I recently moved and one of the very first things I added to my new living room was my bubble cuddle blanket from Cozy Earth. It's a faux fur material that is so incredibly soft and has this cool bubble design that makes it look and feel very plush. It's a mid-weight construction, so I've honestly decided against getting a weighted blanket because it's not too heavy, but you still get that feeling of security when you lie under it.

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33:42So schools, and in inverted commas, must expel ham from canteens due to bowel cancer risk. Now, the Food Foundation has blamed the meaty menus found in schools for preventing basically children from eating meals rich in plants and fibre. And I think the question everyone wanted to know is should schools stop serving, I suppose, those sausage rolls and ham sandwiches because this increased risk? And the analysis they had was based on NHS dietary surveys. And this is from thousands of people, Ella. More than a third, so 36 % of the meat eaten by children, this is quite shocking, is processed or ultra-processed.

34:19It's far too high. Things like ham, sausages, chicken nuggets. And by the way, the chicken isn't linked to increased cancer risk, but it's the processed form of the chicken, which isn't great. And then children are also eating proportionately more processed meat than adults now. and I think that's because it's commonly found in school lunches and then the second highest ranking was sausages with sausage rolls then coming in fifth so the World Cancer Research Fund Ella have backed these findings they've basically said you know we agree with this we need to be talking about the risks of processed and high quantities of red meat and the report basically calls for government intervention to set policies up.

34:59Yeah I mean it is quite shocking when you kind of just step back from it that like the first, second and fifth most commonly eaten meat by children in this country are widely acknowledged by the World Health Organization to be carcinogenic. I think if you needed one pretty sobering fact that sums up the absolutely atrocious nature of nutrition in our country, it is that. Because really that is absolutely appalling and I know this isn't political. No, we're not being political. It really is abysmal. Like how on earth have we got to a stay where the first, second and fifth most common eaten meats are things that are acknowledged by the World Health Organization to be carcinogenic?

35:42That is quite frankly absurd. And it's because it's more available. It's everywhere. It's a socialized norm and it's cheaper. But I mean, I think if you put it as starkly as that, like literally, yeah, as we were just saying, three of the top five are classes of carcinogen by the World Health Organization. Like if you actually stamp that in the aisle where those things are sold or on the menus, I don't think people will be eating them. But the information just isn't available widely enough. I don't believe to people. It's not clear enough. It's all deeply confusing. It's really not helped by having things like the carnivore diet trending.

36:19And I don't say that with any bias, like it doesn't matter if I'm veggie or not veggie. The problem to me is that you're then kind of really okaying a diet based solely on meat, which is just fundamentally unhealthy for an average person. Anyway, I don't want to be all soapboxy about it, but it really, really, to me, it's like kind of criminal that just successive governments have got to a point that we have such little intervention with nutrition that that's the case. It's just wrong. And that's training people from their earliest days to think that that's normal. Dr. Panagiotta Mitro from the World Cancer Research Fund, Ella, she said the evidence is clear.

36:54Eating high amounts of red meat and any amount of processed meat are both causes of colorectal cancer. And they recommend no more than three portions of red meat per week. Ideally, none of it to be processed. I think the problem also comes from the traditions and the values we have of how we create a meal. Like we said, in restaurants, you know, they build a meal around. Meat and two veg. Yeah, meat and two veg. and they're trained to cook meat and decorate around it with chorizo and all these extra, you know, very flavoursome cured meats, which are full of flavour, but actually they are processed and they're not good for our health.

37:27But when most parents are in a rush and they're thinking, what am I going to buy for the week? They probably do just buy a thing of ham. Think, oh, that's the protein done. Boom, kids will eat that. And it isn't even crossed their mind that it's not a healthful item because they think it's protein. therefore they think it's healthy because the protein halo is that all protein is healthy you know to be a conspiracy theorist again no but i don't know i don't want to be a conspiracy theorist i just want to clarify that to the listeners but also like you do then trust it it's like okay well if the state is creating these menus for children they wouldn't be putting foods that are classed as carcinogens so commonly on the menu do you know what i mean and so obviously you're you're going to trust that it's insane but this i thought was interesting was this was picked up absolutely everywhere and and other newspapers do too but i just noted the one on the times they were running a live poll alongside the article and it asked should process meats be removed from school lunch menus now obviously the times is a certain demographic of readers like i totally appreciate that it is absolutely not representative of an entire country of course it's not but 73 percent of people have clicked yes which is a very strong public mandate it is strong it just reinforces how important it is to shift the system but But, you know, we can't expect individuals to make better choices when healthier options are hard to find.

38:44It's the same when you look at nursery schools or there's so many hoops to jump through to get changes. And there's so many different age ranges and demographics and preferences to deal with. The problem is most people don't know it's carcinogenic. And I think, like you said, if there were signs like there are on packs of cigarettes, that this is a risk because it's in the same category as cigarettes. it should have a packet do you know i'll tell you something i know we're not meant to be political which is that my mother-in-law helped bring in all that labeling on cigarettes she did your family is so entrepreneurial so when she was working in government so it's hard for me not to be political okay headline number three this oh i feel like we're being depressing today guys we'll we'll make this like okay this is from the guardian and it's food additive titanium dioxide likely has more toxic effects than thought new study finds and i think obviously reason your book is all about ultra processed food ultra processed food conversations are everywhere at the moment and i think we've talked about this when we talk about red diet number three and all these other things this is such an ever-changing conversation and i think again like i remember when i changed my diet and saying i'm really trying to eat a natural diet people are so confused by it and the science it feels like is now iterating by the day in terms of actually understanding that these foods really aren't very good for us so rey will you talk us through what this one in particular titanium dioxide what that's about yeah a hundred percent now i don't want to scare people and this is actually from the u.s so it was a new study that came out from the giaksin nanhu university and it suggested that titanium dioxide's nanoparticles so really tiny are commonly used as food additives and they basically brighten whites they enhance the color in the food but they now maybe and they they write it in such a you know passive way they might be more harmful than previously thought i always find it fascinating when these things come up and these nanoparticles are found in up to 11 000 u.s food products especially the ones that children eat so you've got candies and snacks like the classic we all love m &ms chips ahoy which are crisps over here in the uk and the study found ella that they disrupt hormonal signals in the gut impair glucose regulation and may contribute to obesity type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance so while we need more research always you cannot deny that some additives should not be in our food and we now know better and i think if you are someone that's trying to limit your ultra processed food again i'm not a conspiracy theorist or on a soapbox but i think this is just increasing evidence that like that's not the wrong thing to do and i think in an environment where it is kind of almost counterculture to try and eat in a way that is much more natural and not want to have lots of these foods in our diets it does show that that is not a silly thing to do like you're not mad to want to do that and i think i'm sure lots of people will be saying oh well you mentioned the us what about the european union what about the uk so technically despite these findings the u.s fda does still deem titanium dioxide safe for consumption obviously there's a lot happening in the world of health regulation in the u.s at the moment maybe that will change but the european union did ban this in use in food products in 2022 after other studies indicated potential neurotoxic immunotoxic and genotoxic effects and it is interesting to remember when i came back from the u.s and i was saying to you products that are like an M &M or like a ketchup, for example, that you'd think are the same in the two countries, their ingredient decks are really, really very different.