The Rising Cost of Healthy Eating, Beach Body Anxiety & Peak Optimisation

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0:56Welcome to The Wellness Scoop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. and as always we're both here as your host 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're both here with our podcast to cut through the noise and make healthier living simple fun and personal.

1:24I have to say I have a very old sleeping dog on my feet and he's being so sweet. But if you hear a little dog action, guys, that is my very old Cocker Spaniel who is going, I know it's actually, he's going a little bit mad. Anyways, Rhi, what is coming up on today's show other than my slightly old and mad dog? Today, we have got a very big show actually. We're discussing the new broken plate report and the alarming state of our food system here in the UK. Then we're moving on to sleep trackers. Are they actually making our sleep worse? Then why one in four Gen Z adults avoid the beach and the Stephen Bartlett backlash and whether we have actually reached peak optimization.

2:07Plus, when does healthy become unhealthy? So Ella, what a show. I actually kind of forgot what we were talking about today, if I'm completely honest, but now I remember it. Guys, it's going to be quite a chatty show, I'm going to say today. The broken plate report probably less so, but I feel like we have a lot of personal opinion here and I'm very excited about it. And we've had a really busy morning, Ella and I. I know there's always different things going on in the morning. I'm surrounded by scaffolding, so apologies in advance for me there as well with any bangs in the background. I'd much rather have a sleepy dog that needs cuddles than the scaffolding I've got.

2:45But Ella, what have you been up to this week? I'll tell you what, Rhea, I'm just back from the gym. I have been exercising a lot recently and I'm just feeling so good for it. Lots of like 20 minute, 30 minute, nothing kind of really hardcore, but very consistent. And I've been very consistent kind of on and off, obviously for the last like nine months. And I really feel like my back is stronger. I feel like my posture is getting better. I feel really good. I'll tell you that. But what have I been up to? First of all, guys, amazing news. Hot off the press as of yesterday, social media ban, a serious social media ban, ID checks under 16s, late night scrolling, looking like it's going to be stopped.

3:25I mean, I think this is a million miles past what either of us, or really, I think what anybody expected. And it's very, very different to the noises that the government had been making when they really were very against any intervention. Interestingly, lots of people saying this is, you know, maybe Keir Starmer trying to create a positive legacy because I think the general consensus has not been a particularly impactful government. Anyway, it's whatever reason it's happened and there's been this crazy U-turn. It's unbelievable news and I am so thrilled. We were so happy to see it. And I have to say, my entire social media feed yesterday was just filled with the speech that he gave, everybody giving and voicing their opinions.

4:05There's always two sides to everything. And I'm sure for current teenagers that are this age, it must be extremely hard to have been exposed to social media and then suddenly have this ban come in place. But for those like Ella and I, who are parents of children that are younger, and this is going to hopefully protect in the years to come. I got emotional, Ella. I was welling up when I saw the parents of those that sadly, their children have lost their lives. And social media being the main cause, they were all sat they're on the BBC news feature desk and they were all celebrating it was very emotional.

4:40I actually feel very emotional about it as well and I have to say I feel exceptionally grateful I don't think parenting a teenager is not easy at the best of times but you know from everyone you you know you talk to I think parenting a teenager in the age of social media and the comparison culture and all of the things that come with it is incredibly difficult and I just feel really really lucky honestly with the help that we have been given by having this taken out of our hands same with smoking taken away for our children I think it's a gift and we'll talk about this a bit in the broken plate report but it is a gift to parents I think to bring in some of this legislation I'll tell you one cool thing I did really you'll love this on Friday my daughter who's in reception her teacher was like oh we love having some of the children's teachers in to chat about like their jobs and what they do one of the moms is a dentist and came to talk them about their teeth and she was like come and chat to them about what you do and teaching people about healthy food and then it ended up being like reception year one year two so many children they were so cute and we read the belly bugs book yeah he has recommended this so many times it is absolutely amazing and talked all about our belly bugs and how we have to feed the belly bugs and it's unbelievable and like one of this reception teachers was saying at lunch yesterday you know some of the children like i don't want my vegetables and she was like well you fed you what about your bugs?

5:56And then they like gobbled them up. Anyway, so that was very cool. I really enjoyed that. I love that. It just goes to show, I think there's ways of framing conversations and we're moving well past that old boiled bit of carrot or broccoli that as children, Ella and I were definitely faced with. But we're the same, aren't we, as adults? Like, I don't want to be told you've got to do this. I'm like, why do I need to do this? It's like eat your five a day. Cool. Over 99 % of the population know we need to do it. We don't do it. Don't just tell people to do it. Explain like, this is why it will help you to do it.

6:28And I think it's really interesting when you, when you give that to people, cause I find that I know for me, when I changed my diet, it was when I went and I read all about, okay, well, this is how energy is made. This is how your brain is fired. And this is how your body works. And so it needs these vitamins and these minerals. And you're like, oh, okay, cool. I'm suddenly so motivated to make broccoli delicious or make lentils delicious. Cause I understand that I really need it as opposed to being told eat your vegetables and make their grows. I think we're definitely at this crossover point as a generation on a whole.

6:58I think if you're a millennial, you are or were one of the first generations exposed to in many walks of life. Let's explain the why. And I think previously, we were just told this is right. This is wrong. Black and white. Yes, no. And we're opening our minds a bit more. And that includes how we eat our vegetables. And Ella, you've been meditating. So actually, you have been busy. Oh, my gosh, turning into a monk day by day. silent retreat is coming oh my god yeah one day one day actually do you know what someone emailed us at the wellness scoops tell me about some places to go but actually lots of those ones are 10 days and it's a bit much obviously at the moment but do you know I've been so I've run um my zoom meditation and breath work and and the focus is really like community and just helping people find a slice of peace in their life essentially anyway I can't tell you how much I enjoy teaching it it's like such a highlight along with this of my week but it's like 50 people in each class at the moment.

7:53I just love it. That's so nice. Anyway, if anyone ever wants to join, I send the links out every week in my Substack newsletter. And we normally do 12.30s, 12.30s, 12.30 midweek lunchtimes, and then Sunday evenings. And it is bliss. Absolute bliss. It's exactly what I need in my day. Yeah. Rhi, tell me about you. We've just been busy at Rhi Trishon on a whole. I'm finishing up a big written project, which I'll hopefully be able to share soon. But with the campaigning side of things, there's a lot of movement in the food space for children. I've mentioned on here before, but I'm really throwing a lot of my weight behind work that we're doing alongside the Food Foundation and VegPower.

8:34So that's keeping me very, very busy as well. It's actually the US pub day of Fibre Formula today as we're recording. Congratulations. So anyone in the US, yeah, you can finally get your hands on the Fibre Formula. And then it's the menopause journey on the Retrition Plus community that I have that honestly, Ella, I have been reading people's experiences and we've got a lovely group chat that comes alongside this. And I have cried. I'm just going to be honest. I've cried because it just feels like we're really all in it together. And I know that the women paving and carving the way right now by sharing their experiences and speaking out and the education that we are able to provide at Retrition Plus, the eight week course is hopefully helping and then we're going to launch the food um freedom course very soon and that'll be a four-week nutrition psychology journey as well so i will really have to keep everyone posted on that because that's something we get so many questions about but um no let's why you do what you do isn't it it's absolutely amazing meaningful week everybody for both ella and i so talking a meaningful ella let's do the headlines that matter yes let's and also have to say though we want to be in the loop with your campaigning and how any of us can support you as well as we go into that, because obviously children's nutrition is absolutely vital for a healthy population as a whole as well.

9:53So please keep us updated as I know you will, but broken plate report. This is huge guys. If you were listening last year, first of all, thanks for staying with us. But this comes out every single year. This is from an amazing organization called the Food Foundation who really started to work with. They're absolutely fantastic. And they produce this report every year, looking at the state of the cost of food and healthy food and the gaps that we see between different households in this country. It's a very, very important piece of research. I'm going to hand over to Reid to talk through the headlines of it.

10:31I'm going to be honest, we're going to move. End of the episode is going to be chatty. I think it's going to be fun. This is, please don't turn this off. It's really, really important. It's not fun. It's actually dire. And as a result, it's incredibly important. It is dire. I'll reel off a few of the stats and Ella, I'll let you discuss the affordability factor actually as well. I think we could both dissect this quite well. But the reason that we're having a hard time in the world is many different factors. But we have to face that families with children in the lower income group in the UK currently would need to spend 85 % of their disposable income just to meet the standards that we have here in this country, the Eat Well Guide, which every country has its different standards.

11:14You may remember we've discussed the American food pyramid before. We've discussed Scandinavia's different Eat Well criteria. And healthy foods remain twice as expensive per calorie as less healthy food. So I think there's always that big debate, oh, it's cheaper if you just cook. Actually, it's not anymore because of so many factors that, you know, we could go into, but there's lots of wars in the world. There's lots of reasons that food costs are going up, demands on population, agriculture, global warming, all those sorts of things. I don't want to be all doom and gloom. Concerning for me as well, because I feel like teenagers are a forgotten group, Ella, is that 95 % of teens consume more free sugars than recommended.

11:55And then for children, only one in 10 children's breakfast cereals on the shelves are high in fiber, while one in five are high in sugar. And there's now a nearly 20 year gap, which we've discussed from the headlines before, in a healthy life expectancy between the most and the least deprived communities. You may recall Ella and I discussing different boroughs in the UK and London. So Richmond being one of those, it's quite affluent and they had a better life expectancy than those that perhaps lived in a different borough in London. And I think it's really, really important that we don't dismiss this report because we had a similar, equally damning one last 2025 in January.

12:38Yeah. And that's what I really wanted to pick up on there. And thank you for that, is that when we looked at this last year, so the exact same report, same data inputs, just a year ago, we haven't moved on a huge amount, you'd think, in a year, except we have. So if we look at the report from 2025, it showed the most deprived fifth of the population in the UK would need to spend 45 % on their disposable income on food to afford the eat well play as we said. But that would rise to 70 % for households with children. Well, we just talked about the fact that just one year later, it's now 85%. That is an absolutely staggering jump.

13:19And obviously, if that trend continued, it's already impossible. 70%, 85 % is even more impossible for a better word. But obviously, we see the same continuum, same kind of chart, then it just becomes absurd as a concept. And I think that's a really, really important thing. We're seeing this inflation hit food so badly. And I know everyone will notice it on their shops. I'm sure lots of you are feeling that as well. But the impact it's having on making healthy eating plausible for people is huge. For everybody as a whole, healthy eating healthier foods, it's the same. It remains almost twice as expensive per calorie and that's the same as it was last year.

14:03So sort of generally awful, but because of those small shifts in price incrementally, that has added up to that significant rise for people in lower income groups. So it's incredibly concerning. And this is why Ella and I wax lyrical about beans and impulses is one thing because some of the stats we have was that if you're buying pre-prepared, you know, plant-based alternatives, they are 56 % more expensive per calorie than the equivalent options, the more unhealthy options, I would say, or the meat-based ones. And there was a quote, I was, you know, it was an LBC News Ella and I was listening, I think it was the day this report came out.

14:42And one of the presenters, I think it was James O 'Brien, was reporting that it's just insane that we can buy a chicken based meal for two pounds and expect that to be nourishing and quality food for us whereas the healthier options and he's quite right to say it that contain the beans and the pulses if you're buying it pre-packaged rather than making it at home as we've got here is 56 percent um more expensive and then the unhealthy food that's what dominates the price promotions Ella and you'll understand all of this and you could explain it a bit more but we've got 40 % of all food non-alcoholic drink promotions the foods that are high in fat salt or sugar basically are just more expensive you know are the cheaper options than the healthy options this country's got it all backwards yeah and in that note on promotions I mean generally speaking what that is, is that unhealthy foods, foods that are made less of like actual food, and that also have very, very long shelf lives, they have really high margins.

15:48So they have scope to be able to do, you know, buy one, get one free, you know, buy two, get one free, whatever, all of these different offers, because they can afford it. Essentially, they've got massive, massive room, generally speaking in their margins. And the real challenge that people have when you're creating healthier options, or it's just like a single item is generally speaking, these things are much more expensive to produce. And so you just don't have that same margin. Like I would imagine that the margin that our supermarkets make on a broccoli is much, much lower than the margin that they will make on crisps that allows these really deep promotions.

16:27And also it's a kind of mechanism and where these supermarkets now run on promotions, people expect them all the time. You know, they shop by promotion, you go to the category and you're like, oh, what's the offer on biscuits today? And then that's how people shop. So it's a huge sort of, yeah, consumer man. And then, you know, we see fruit and fed account for just 3 % of advertising spent. That's because like, you think, right, if you imagine now, like bring to the front of mind five massive food brands, I think you'd be thinking like Heinz baked beans or Heinz tomato ketchup or like - Cadbury's.

16:57Yeah. Cadbury's Dairy Milk or like Walker's Salt-N-Villinger Crisps or something like that. I feel like these are the brands that we would be thinking. Well, like Jaffa Cakes, Diet Coke, those sorts of things. Not Gala Apples or anything like that. These are mega brands, right? These are multinational brands. They have these multi-million pound marketing budgets. Can anybody think of a fruit and veg brand? Like they're not like brands, they're just products as they should be, but they're like Tesco own brand most of the time or, you know, whoever own brand. And so, yeah, it's just not, it's not marketing because you don't, you're not trying to get people, you know, all of these big companies that are always trying to get themselves front of mind.

17:38It's like the Coke Christmas advert, you know, they're trying to get Coke to be at the front of your mind. And let's be honest, Ella, that's a legendary advert. I mean, holidays are coming. Everyone knows it. Excellent ad. Yeah. And that's all about exactly putting the brand front and center. and you know the budgets just aren't there for for the fruit and veg so it's a kind of margin um and sort of company thing anyway there might be people listening who who work for companies that make fruit and veg like produce and sell so if you you know please please tell us um your experience in it as well but that's my experience within within the food industry and it is you know and and also what then happens is big companies you know they have joint business plans for supermarkets So it's all like, how do we sell more?

18:22And I think the other thing to say is that supermarkets in this country also, although they're enormous, their margins are tiny. And so they also need these companies or they'd all go bust. So it's a very, very complicated situation. It's not as simple as if they all just stop selling these products tomorrow, they'd probably all go bust. So we have no food system. So it's very, very complicated. Well, we'd be going back to corner shops, but equally those are closing down left, right and center. No one can afford to have their own business anymore. It's a very difficult time. And what is also very concerning, especially, and it's been on the news a lot recently, is the infant and toddler food market.

18:59Because of course, all these UPF packaged foods also make up a high percentage. And what's scary is that 74 % of baby and toddler snacks still carry, you know, front of pack claims. and they all do have medium or high levels of sugar. They're not healthy items, a lot of them, Ella, that are being marketed towards children that are being sold. So our food environment at the moment that we live in is driving the health of our nation and we cannot step away from that fact at all. Interestingly, though, there are more guidelines coming in about what can be sold to babies and toddlers and a lot of products being up-aged.

19:38So that's quite interesting. again shows these things can be done anyway but you read this and you just think first of all you know for anyone struggling with including all these foods in their life clearly it's a structural issue and i think that's a really important point but second of all i think you know everyone's personal advocacy for change is incredibly important it really is like we do need huge wholesale change there needs to be pressure on governments and you see what just happened with social media bans. We've just seen it with smoking. These things can be done. It is completely possible, complicated as it is.

20:14And so I think that conversation just needs to keep going. And that's why reports like this are really, really important. And it does have in here healthy, we've talked about this before, but healthy life expectancy, not life expectancy a whole that hasn't really changed, but healthy life expectancy is now at its lowest level since around 2013 to 2015. So yeah, we're really, really going backwards. Well, the outlets that are targeted at those people that are in the lower demographics that are really suffering from these statistics here is that one in four outlets in the UK overall are fast food.

20:47Now, we know that these should be occasional items, but they do become everyday items when you have a low budget. And that rises to more than one in three outlets in the most deprived communities. And this is where we're going wrong. I mean, you'll have heard me go on and on about the fiber crisis. We've only 4 % of adults getting enough. But when we talk about children, 86 % of children aren't hitting the fiber targets. We're consuming too many UPFs and the entire food landscape 100 % needs to change. So I think we can round it up there with it just being, it's not black and white. Like we said at the beginning, there's always factors.

21:22And like Ella said, supermarkets have to make money. These small fast food chains are probably family-run businesses sometimes they need to make money so where do we break the circle yeah it's a very complex um circle to break and as i said with people like we just shouldn't sell it it's like well we can't just stop selling overnight because retailers can't afford to do that and we need retailers to buy the healthy items too so yeah it's very very complicated but let's watch this space okay headline two is quite interesting i saw this in the times why gen zedders is that how you say it? Do we think Gen Z is?

21:58I would say Gen Z because it's American, but yeah, I guess over here we should say Gen Zedders. Gen Zedders. Okay, why Gen Zedders? Like me, avoid the beach. A quarter of young Brits feel insecure about being seen in swimwear. I felt that my whole life, Ella. But equally, I don't actually like the beach because I don't like sand sticking to my feet after the water and it gets in all my bags and I cannot bear it. I am actually more of a poor gal as well. We really don't live life on the edge. My boys love the beach. My boys love the beach. One of the girls feels the same about sand as we do. But no, I do like the beach.

22:35A nationwide survey of 15 ,000 adults in the UK found that 82 % of Britons feel embarrassed or self-conscious about their bodies. 63 % said that those feelings affect their daily lives. 39 % said they never speak about these feelings with anyone, which really made me feel this was important for the wellness scoop. And then among Gen ZZ, however we want to call it adults 24 % then said as a result they avoid going to the beach which is where um the headlines come from even though the actual study itself is the nationwide survey that we don't feel secure in our body image yeah and I just think you know what as you said really like this is a I don't want to say but it's kind of a tale as old as time like I don't think there's anything crazy here but I just feel ahead of summer heat wave hitting I just think it's important to say it's a very sad statistic, but you know, four fifths of us feel embarrassed or self-conscious about our bodies.

23:30So if you are in that cohort, please don't feel alone in it. I think the really concerning stat as well is that almost, you know, over a third of people don't want to talk to people about that. And actually it turns out it is actually very normal to feel self-conscious about your body. So I think we've got to talk about it. Let's just put a little bit of emphasis on why everybody here in the UK also perhaps may also be feeling self-conscious. And this isn't detracting from the psychological components of this type of survey, but we are covered up most of the year. And then summer suddenly hits, which is why there's always this big press jargon around that time of year.

24:08Because we get ready for what, six, eight weeks of the year of sun. And then the rest of the time we're in jumpers and trousers. And that's a complete separate side note to how we're feeling about our body image. But it just stems into, once again, we're not the healthiest nation we could be. And that also probably impacts our mental health massively. There's so many facets to this conversation of which direction it could go. But the fact we're not speaking about it is really worrying. And the trend that we discussed before with going back to size zero and all these different sorts of things circulating, it feels like we don't belong anywhere and we don't fit in our bodies and any type of ideal that's portrayed in the media and that's worrying it's a very good point i actually think you're so right though it's funny it's like obviously when we had the last heat wave a few weeks ago you know before that it was horrible last week it was literally pouring with rain all day every single day i was freezing i was like back in a winter coat it's like december and now it's gonna be 30 degrees again and so it is you are as you write you're like super covered up and then suddenly you're like i've got to stand in a bikini in front of everyone.

25:13Probably not quite so dramatic as that. Most of us aren't doing like bikini competitions, but you get the gist. Anyway, I just think it's, you know, I think we've all felt that way. It's completely normal or feel that way at points. But I agree. I think it's, I don't know. It's hard to say that the online world in general, and I don't just mean social media, I mean like a Daily Mail online or any of the rest of it where we just see loads and loads of images of people's bodies doesn't make it worse. As I said, like I've been going to gym more and like feeling great for it. But now my whole algorithm, whenever I go on, it's like, you know, how to tone up in six weeks and like how to do this.

25:52And I'm like, I don't want to do that. I just really fed up of having hunched over posture. We don't see everyone's shapes here, do we? That's what I mean is, is that if you live in a warmer climate all year round, you're exposed to different body shapes I think more because you will be wearing less and around lots of different body ideas whereas here you're just exposed to that algorithm yeah and it's very it's just super unrealistic isn't it and then as you said at the same time there's the kind of celebrity size zero return that's you know very very very dominant it's really hard to miss and then if you start thinking that that's normal then you're not going to feel great I mean if I I was looking at that all day, every day.

26:32It doesn't make me feel great. Especially as we age. And I think there's this very strange, as we've discussed a lot, anti-aging kind of culture comes down to muscle mass, cellulite, body fat storage. But especially for women, we go through so much in so many different phases. And this is what we were discussing on the menopause journey is the fact that when you've got celebrities in their 50s, 60s going through menopause who appear on the outside, the aesthetic of not having an ounce of body fat and all these different things. Yeah, that's one of the most common concerns that women have is they're changing body as our hormones fluctuate.

27:06We don't have many role models that are out there existing today. I think it's the same for the men and it leads us back to that conversation we had on the manosphere, you know, how toxically shocking that is for men as well. So this and the social media ban, thank goodness, because maybe that will take a few teenage minds off body ideals when they are going through that hard time. I know, but don't we? Maybe we all need it. So look, you are not alone. I think it's a very important thing to do. But if you are feeling like it's affecting you, it's so important to talk to someone, just talk to a friend.