The truth about the 5 biggest wellness trends this spring | Liz Earle MBE & Dr. Federica Amati

0:00Welcome to ZOE Science & Nutrition, where world leading scientists explain how their research can improve your health.

0:13I love it when spring comes around. And not just because it means winter is behind us. The longer days, warmer weather, new leaves on the trees create that wonderful feeling of a fresh start. The perfect time to embrace a new healthy habit. But it's not just flowers blossoming in spring. This time of year also welcomes a bloom of wellness trends. You've probably seen them sprouting online. A brand new this or a groundbreaking that. All promising to revolutionize your health in a few simple steps. So how do you separate the facts from the fiction? The helpful health hacks from the hype?

0:55Today I'm joined by two experts who will help us to do just that. Journalist and best-selling author Liz Earle has been tracking health and wellness trends for more than 40 years. She's been consistently ahead of the curve on health advice, and as a result has millions of people listening to her podcast and reading her books. Liz also isn't afraid to try out some of the latest therapies on herself, even if they're a bit of an ordeal, as we'll hear during the episode. We're also joined by Dr. Federica Amati. Federica is a scientist at Imperial College London, the author of the best-selling book, Everybody Should Know This, and head nutritionist here at Zoe.

1:34By the end of today's episode, you'll know which wellness trends are worth a shot and the ones to avoid at all costs.

1:43Liz, we have a tradition here at Zoe where we always start with a quickfire round of questions from our listeners. Just give us a yes or a no or a one sentence answer if you can. If a trend is popular, is that a good sign it will be effective? No. Can wellness trends sometimes cause more harm than good? Yes. Federica, are natural remedies safe because they're natural? No. If I put cow fat on my face, will it make my skin glow? Yes, but there's other ways. And finally, Liz, what's the most important thing to consider before adopting a new wellness trend? It has to be consistency. I think things only work if they're repeated little and often.

2:29So if you can't commit, don't do it. I feel deeply conflicted about wellness trends because on the one hand, I think it's great to see people actively saying, I want to do something to improve my health and be active about it and sort of building communities to support them. We know it's really important to have that success. On the other hand, these trends often seem to be driven by very commercial marketing rather than actual scientific effectiveness. There's always something that has all this traction on social media around this time of year. Why is it these health trends spike in spring? And what is it that's driving people to try them?

3:07I think we all want to live better, don't we? I mean, we know that we're living longer. And how do we live well for longer? Because there's no point in having years on our life unless we have that life in our years. So I think we are spurred on by that. And knowledge is power, isn't it? And it is empowering to think that there are things that we can do to change our lives. I think we don't want to be feeble and not have empowerment, not have our own autonomy to go and do stuff to make a difference. And I think there's always a risk, isn't there, with commercialization, that it's going to get taken up by the big greedy guys who see a money making opportunity.

3:43But there's so much out there that's free and easy. And I think, you know, the sun shines, we go outdoors more, we're just more uplifted. And I kind of just think we have the vibe that we want to get out there and make a difference for ourselves. And why is it that a wellness trend, like something new, is so tempting, even if it doesn't have like all this scientific proof and all the rest of it versus maybe something that we all heard about five years ago? I guess there's novelty, isn't there? It's a conversation point. And we just think, oh, I've not tried that. I'll give it a go. and it is a talking point isn't it you know whether you're in the cafe or down the pub you just think oh have you heard about this so but some things do pop up from time to time I think that do have real value and they might not necessarily always be new I think there's a lot of ancestral living that we're kind of reconnecting with so it doesn't always have to be new it just suddenly becomes front of mind for whatever reason it's a fresh impetus you know we don't necessarily want the same old same old and if somebody comes up maybe with a tempting new promise you might think oh do you know what I'm going to give that a go and see what happens and what role does social media you know TikTok Instagram play in this I personally don't do TikTok but you know my team do and my kids do and yeah things will just suddenly blow up and I think that is new isn't it I mean I'm now in my 60s I didn't grow up with that I didn't have any social media at all so this is a whole new landscape working in wellness having written about it for 40 years, suddenly finding that things are coming up to bite you on the bum that you hadn't really thought about overnight.

5:16And that's the speed of it. And I think that's the difficulty, isn't it? Because I always say I want to be considered with my answers and my approach to something. I'm famous actually within my team for saying, if it has to be now, then it has to be no, because I need time to think about it and process it and dig into the evidence. But now it's all fast, fast, fast, react, react, react. And I think that's the danger that we get caught up without having time for that consideration. And you said something in the quickfire questions about sort of popularity not being a good indicator of effectiveness.

5:48Can I get you to explain that? Yeah, not necessarily. I mean, you know, as you know, fad diets come and go and it can be extremely dangerous and not particularly effective. And I remember there was a fad one time for putting your feet in a little supposed to be toxin drawing foot bath and you put your feet in and then the sort of water went all brown and slimy and everyone said, look there, there are all the toxins in the water. And it was just a metal reaction with the copper wires in the bath. So, you know, that kind of died a death. And then you had the pedicures that you went to with the little fish that nibbled away all the dead skin.

6:24And I think that died a death because I don't know whether... People got infections. Yeah. So, you know, so that is not, that's an example, I think, of things that can come and go very quickly, thankfully. I'd actually love, we just started to talk about a few, but I'd love to hear about some of the spring health trends that have come and gone that you've seen maybe with some shock and horror and are pleased to see the back of. Yeah, I mean, I think my most famous one, which came from Vogue magazine, was the cigarette and coffee diet. Do you remember? Oh my gosh. It was considered this diet that you could take and it was a glass of white wine for breakfast with a cigarette and a coffee.

6:57And then I think it was a steak and another glass of white wine and cigarette and coffee. And that was the diet. And it was seriously put forward as a way to maintain a healthy weight, French lifestyle living. Obviously not. And it persisted. It was quite a 90s staple. Were you living on that diet at the time, Federica? I certainly wasn't. In the 90s, I was a bit young for it. But, you know, back to what Liz was saying, pre-social media, the things we were exposed to in traditional media were quite shocking, actually, when you look back now. One of my favourite ones that I encountered a lot when I was living in New York in the early 2010s was the blood type diet as well.

7:33Yes. You know, at the time I'd already done my undergraduate degree and my master's. And I just had to explain to people that it doesn't work like that. Like your blood type cannot tell you which foods you should be eating. But the book was super popular and I knew a lot of people that were following this blood type diet. And there's no science back here. I'm glad that, I think that's dead. You don't hear about it now, do you? Yeah, so those two are certainly on my hit list of things that I'm glad are gone. If you're a regular listener to this podcast, you've probably heard me and many of our guests talk about eating 30 plants a week.

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9:20If you tune in regularly, you know what we think about this focus on single chemicals. But honestly, we prefer to let the benefits of Daily 30 speak for themselves. Ready to improve your week? All it takes is a scoop to make every day a good gut day. Just go to zoe.com slash daily30 to start adding it to your meals. Right now, we're offering our listeners a free Zoe tin and magnetic scoop with every order. So order yours today at zoe.com slash daily30. What are the characteristics of a trend that makes that take off? And for people to say like that, I sort of buy into and I want to do it. I think it's a shortcut, isn't it?

10:04It's tempting to think I can do this the easy way. All I need to do is tell you my blood type and you're going to give me a list of everything that's going to make me feel fabulous and be thin forever. And it's got a bit of a pseudoscience to it. It sounds like there's some science maybe behind it because it includes a real biomarker. It's like, oh, blood type. Oh, well, it must have some scientific background. And I think that's often the trap. Some of these trends have different pulls and draws to them. Some of them feel like they could be scientific and others feel like if you do them, you might be a bit cooler.

10:36So I remember the fish. I mean, I always thought it was disgusting, but the fish pedicure spas, it was just quite a cool thing to do. And if you didn't do it, you didn't get it. So it separates in those two camps quite often. doesn't it? So what about the ones that have stood the test of time? It is things like healthy fats. So that you were definitely one of the earliest proponents of healthy fats. I was taken to task at the time because, you know, one of my first books, Vital Oils, was all about vital oils. They are, you know, oils and fats. I was coming at it at the time more from a skin angle because I had tendencies towards eczema, very dry skin.

11:11Of course, if you take all the healthy fats out of your diet, you know, your skin falls apart, let alone all your vital organs and what's going on inside. So when I was writing about that at the time, it was really counterculture. It has stuck now, hasn't it? It has stuck. I think the pendulum is coming back, isn't it, in favour of healthy fats and more away from the unhealthy sugars. Yeah, so that's one that should stay. And we're glad to see people understand also the difference between healthy fats and unhealthier fats. So really educating ourselves on that is important. Other trends that have stuck around, I think that fasting and specifically time-restricted eating or time-restricted feeding is one that people are learning to use in their daily lives.

11:49I think there is still a risk of certain groups taking it too far and fasting for too long, especially pre-menopausal women. But overall, this understanding that we shouldn't be eating all day and late into the night has stuck, I think, is a really good habit to include into your day. I think the time-restricted eating is really interesting. Back in the day, we just used to call it detoxing or just having this fasting period. But now it's really accepted and known. And I think it's good that we get away from this continual snacking culture. For me, understanding that my body needs a break, the digestion needs that time to gather its good bacteria and rest and digest and all of that.

12:32That is exactly what we saw in our snacking study, Jonathan. We found that people who snacked after 9pm were more likely to have worse metabolic responses the next day. So not eating late into the night and not snacking on unhealthy foods is really important. And I found personally, because I track all sorts of things, and tracking my sleep, if I don't have that late night snack, my deep sleep is longer, the quality of my sleep is better. So that for me is an absolute win. I think we've understood a little bit like why these trends are so appealing and that for everyone that stands the test of time, maybe five don't.

13:09I'd love to look at this spring's hottest trends. And I know the two of you have conferred and come up with five. And for each one, I want to know, firstly, what is it? What does the science say about it? What's the experience of actually doing it? And is it worth a try or something that we should avoid altogether? Federica, I'm going to start with you. Trend number one, detox drinks. What is that? Detox drinks appear in lots of different ways, whether it's detox teas, sometimes it's detox juices, cleansers. These are drinks that are supposed to help speed up detoxing. I mean, I often see these sold as a way to lose weight, to be honest.

13:50And there is literally no science behind it. These are some of the worst contenders. Sometimes they can be quite dangerous for health. Some of the supplements that are sold as detox supplements can make you go to the loo more. So they make you go wee more, basically. And that can actually be quite dangerous. It can lower your blood pressure. It can make you dehydrated. So it's really important to not buy these products. First of all, we have an excellent detox system that works very well for us. Our liver, our kidneys and our large intestine help us to get rid of anything we don't need. Any byproducts from the cellular mechanisms that are in our body are expelled through those ways.

14:25You know, if you're looking to help your natural detoxification systems, there's lots of things you can do. Eat and drink water in a way that supports your liver, in a way that supports your kidneys, in a way that you go to the regulator and allows your colon to work well. One of the worst scams, I would imagine, is these detox products, if I'm honest. Yeah, I think I completely agree. and I think, you know, there's no drink that I've ever seen any evidence for that is going to remove any toxin from your body. And as you say, you know, the liver, the kidneys, the gut, those are the detox systems.

15:00And the skin, of course. Yeah, drinking lots of water and the skin, definitely. And in fact, when it comes to the skin, one of my favourite ways, rather than buying a detox drink, is just to do some dry skin body brushing. You said that with such confidence, dry skin body brushing. Do you not have a dry skin body brush? I literally have no idea what you're talking about. Oh my gosh. Okay, so literally it's like an oversized nail brush with natural bristles and you brush your body with it when your body is dry. So you start normally at the feet, the soles of the feet. And if you're into Chinese medicine or traditional medicine, you might say that that's stimulating the reflex zones on the soles of your feet.

15:39And we don't need an eye roll for that because that does actually make you feel really good and tingly. And then you just work up the body just using sweeping movements. You're following the lymphatic system, so you might want to just do a little bit of extra dry skin brushing around the lymph nodes, the groin, backs, the knees, armpits, for example. And you're just gently helping to stimulate the lymphatics. And you do feel better for it. I don't know whether the science is there. I don't know how many RCTs have been done on dry skin body brushing, but it certainly makes your skin glow. It looks brighter.

16:09So as we step into summer, there's perhaps another reason to consider doing it. It's very traditional. that's been around forever. And it does just help to remove dead skin. And this upward movement is exactly what you would do with a lymphatic drainage massage, which does help, especially if you're somebody who does tend to have a bit of a slow lymph, which can happen. It's just one of the things that we can do, and there's absolutely no downside to it. I think also it gives you a few minutes to yourself. I know that sounds a bit... But if you have young kids or you have caring responsibilities, just taking a couple of minutes to have a dry body brush before your shower can feel really good.

16:43And is this an everyday activity or only part of the detox? I'm just trying to understand. It depends on how good it makes you feel. Word of warning, so when you go and buy your body brush, Jonathan, and start doing this, because clearly you're highly invested in this already, I can tell. It sounds a lot better than a cold plunge. I'm more up to trying this one. I'm also into that too. But that would follow, you know. And it will feel quite hard and quite almost abrasive. Don't be too harsh with it, exactly, especially if your skin is broken or irritated in any way. But you get used to it and you almost become healthily addicted, I find.

17:20Amazing. So no detox drinks, but lots of water and dry skin body brushing. I'm going to be looking that up straight afterwards. Liz, trend number two, red light therapy. Oh, so this is something that I am actually a fan of. And I think, you know, when you think about red light, you know, what is it? it's basically just the ancient practice of sunlight getting up at sunrise when we are surrounded by an abundance of natural red light and near infrared light which is what we used to do in ancestral times we would get up with the sun and we would go to bed with the sun so that lovely light that red light glow that you get early in the morning or at sunset has been shown to be incredibly beneficial and again there are studies that show that it will help with inflammation, reducing inflammation, speeding up the production of collagen, for example, within the skin.

18:12So I do think that there is merit. And I think we're going to be seeing more of red light therapy, sometimes known as photobiomodulation. And there are clinical studies going on for all sorts of degenerative diseases and showing some quite impressive results, actually. Could you describe a bit? I mean, do you just put a red light bulb in your house? No, I mean, you do need to have a certain wavelength. So it's normally 630 to 850 nanometers range. So you can get various different devices. If you are going to get a home use device, my advice would be for something that's FDA approved or medically certified.

18:46You can get medically certified devices. And you can have everything from a face mask that you wear to a red light panel that you sit in front of during the day. For example, you can have whole saunas filled with red lights. There are lots of different ways of doing it. And I think particularly because we've become so indoors and disconnected from that natural frequency, that wavelength, that I think as human beings we are actually meant to connect with. And I think that there is some very interesting research when you look at circadian biology and the kind of rise of natural living and the circadian rhythm.

19:22Red light very much taps into that. Yeah, so some of the exciting science is actually from Russell Foster's group, where he looked at exposure to red light specifically exactly at dawn. It can help to program your body clock essentially. So there's some protocols if you're traveling to LA, for example, Jonathan, where exposing yourself to a little bit of red light in the mornings can just help shift your body clock to the new time zone. Now, in terms of skin benefits and inflammation benefits, the evidence is growing. It's still preliminary, but there are some exciting trials looking at, for example, patients in hospitals and how exposing them to red light can help speed up recovery.

19:58In terms of skin, some people report seeing benefits. And I think it's part of the toolbox that we can have. What I would say is these red light masks can be very expensive. So there's plenty of things you can do before investing in one that will really help your skin from good hydration to eating plenty of colorful fruits and vegetables to making sure that you're using topical skincare that can be helpful like retinol and moisturizing regularly and all these other things. And then if you are doing that and you have the extra money and you'd want to invest in a mask, it could be something that can be helpful.

20:32It's growing in popularity and there's evidence growing for its use in different applications. But I think it's one of the ones that we still don't have all of the evidence to say, oh, yes, this is 100 percent one of the best tools. But I'm excited about its role in circadian biology and I am excited to see how it can help with inflammation recovery. You know, some studies looking at arthritic joints have shown benefits. Yeah, definitely. I think there are studies looking at improved speed of wound healing, for example, collagen production. And acne as well. Yeah, acne as well. I think, you know, improving the ATP energy cycle.

21:09So giving us a bit more energy. I think it is beneficial. I think you're right. I don't think it's an essential. I think it's a nice to have. And I think for me, it's something that I've been doing regularly now. I actually got first interested in red light therapy with my daughter, who had a long standing autoimmune condition. And I was literally I went forensically down the drains with so many things. And it was one of the protocols that she was using that really seemed to help her. And what was interesting is that because she was doing a lot of red light therapy, even though she was a lot younger than me, her skin dramatically improved.

21:41And I thought, I'm going to try this. Hello. You know, if I can, you know, just sit in front of a red light panel or a sauna or a mask or something and actually get on with something else, love a bit of multitasking. And the light is going to do something for me. And I have to say that, you know, I am an adopter of red light therapy. I think it's useful. Not essential, but I think it can be beneficial, particularly as we age. I mean, I'm a lot older than you, Eddie. You do look fantastic. I mean, you're going to have it for us. I do a lot. I mean, I guess I have to because that's my job. But red light therapy for me is one of the tools.

22:13And this trend, Jonathan, unlikely to be harmful. Because it is FDA regulated, the right devices, so you're not going to get harmful radiation or something. Talk to your wife. Your wife will know in dermatology terms about using light therapy for things like psoriasis. and so you know we've known about light therapy for a long time this is this is not a new thing but I think you can get great free red light therapy by getting up in the morning by getting up early and just bathing in that natural red light yeah trend number three we mentioned this in the Q &A rich my producer described it as putting cow fat on your face but I believe it has better marketing and is called beef tallow what is beef tallow and why are people sticking it on their face?

22:58That's a very good question. Beef tallow is having a moment because it's been considered as a very healthy fat to cook with, to put on your face, to put in your hair, to just bathe in. I mean, it reminds me of when coconut oil had this glow up. Do you remember? It's the new coconut oil. It's being touted as miraculous for all sorts of things. And it is literally just the fat from beef. Traditionally, I think it's the fat that was around kidneys you render it and you cook it down and strain it so much that it becomes flavorless tasteless it's just a very bland white fat you can do it you can make it at home if you want to so of course it's full of fatty acids uh like other fats so you can get in lots of other situations and it will if you put it on your skin the fatty acids will protect your skin and make it glow but i think that is not the my number one option it's like putting vaseline on my face basically is that what you're saying vaseline is petroleum jelly so it's actually a bit different to that it is similar to putting coconut oil on your face or extra virgin olive oil on your face or actually that would be better obviously but it's essentially putting pure fat on your face and our skin does like to have some fats to protect it and to help keep the moisture in what fats really do to keep our skin hydrated is they just prevent the moisture from leaving your skin so we lose moisture throughout the day just through essentially evaporation and fat locks it in so it can see moisturizing but there's way better ways to do it and less cruel ways to do it we don't need to be putting beef fat as well as eating beef all the time it's just having a real moment and it does remind me of coconut oil where people were just putting coconut oil everywhere and oil pulling and brushing their teeth with it i think we'll it'll swing back in away hopefully yeah i wonder i mean i've been trialing beef tallow because obviously i'm aware of it as a trend and i think it does have some pluses it has a lot of good fat soluble vitamins you know so because it where it comes from so a d e k for example conjugated linoleic acid it's very good as your point as a moisturizer the transepidermal water loss very good barrier having said that if you are a tall spot prone pimple prone it's comedogenic so it's going to block your pores i would not use it on oily skin i tell you where i have used it to quite success and that's on my feet so it makes a very nice overnight foot balm so you put that on your feet it's it's you can buy it's non-fragranced it's not like i don't actually like coconut oil for example i find it too well coconutty yeah but it's very uh neutral and then you just slip on a pair of cotton socks to seal in your body heat and you wake up with super soft feet.

25:40But I don't think I put it on my face because I think if you're looking for a moisturiser, I would rather have ingredients, you know, niacinamide, azelaic acid, you know, peptides. I think there's far more interesting ingredients, particularly as we age, that are going to help support the structure of the skin. So it sounds like you're saying this is 90 % hype and 10%, well, it is a fat and there are some benefits to putting something like that. I think there are some benefits. Am I understanding that right? Yeah, and it's using up a waste product, perhaps, that might otherwise not be used. And it's cheap.

26:13It's inexpensive. So, you know, if it floats your boat, great. But I'm not going to rush out and buy it. Yeah. It's not the moisturizer that is... I need more for my aging skin, Jonathan. At my age, I think I need a bit more than beef tallow. Shear butter is great for your feet as well. Go for shear butter. Love shear butter. Yeah, I also... It might just be me, but putting direct animal product on my face. I just, no, no thanks. I'm good. I feel like it's got a better brand than like cow fat, which is a funny thing to decide to smear all over your face. But that is part of the trend, isn't it?