The Wellness Scoop
10 Hours of Exercise a Week? The Omega-3 Debate & Brain-Boosting Beans
08 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to The Wellness Scoop, your twice weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. And as always, we're both here as your hosts. I'm Ella Mills.
And I'm Rhiannon Lambert. And after a decade in the wellness industry, we know how overwhelming and confusing health advice can be. And that's why we created this podcast to cut through the noise and make healthier living simple, fun and personal. Rhi, we've got some really nice stuff today, right? What have we got coming up? It is a good show today.
We've got the new exercise study everyone's talking about. Why fiber keeps winning in nutrition science. The confusing Omega-3 headlines explained. The surprising link between beans and brain health, the two Bs now, and which celeb has been telling everyone that fiber is cool. And the most bizarre trend, again, pickle parties, pickle lip balm and the fermented food boom.
Oh, my gosh. Pickle, handbags, pickles, everything, guys. I actually love pickles. I can't wait to talk about it. But first up, how are you? I'm good, thank you.
It's been half term. It was super sunny. It made my week. And it was your birthday.
It was my birthday, yeah. You went to Spain? We went to Spain for a few days, which was lovely. Had a lovely... My sister and her boyfriend came down today from the weekend over my birthday. And we just potted around. We obviously had the heat wave, which has just been so nice. But I'm officially a grown-up because last night when the rain came, I looked out the window and I was like, yes!
my lawn. This is so good for the grass.
The crispy yellow grass everywhere.
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Chapter 2: What are the latest findings on exercise and heart health?
I tried so hard as well to protect it. And it's just my lettuce died in a day on the 30, like four degree day or whatever it was. And we've had a heat wave in the UK, guys, and it was hotter than Europe, actually.
So I was in Spain and I reckon it was like 10 degrees cooler in Spain than it was at home.
Which is very unusual for us. And today is the eighth of
june as this comes out so my menopause journey has begun on retrition plus which is exciting so that's the eight-week program we've got the most incredible guest speakers um dr philippa k who's the author of the science of menopause just loads of incredible people from my clinic joe warner loads of people so if you sign up this morning you may be just in time
That's so cool. I love what you're doing with these journeys and giving people these deep dives in a really kind of considered accessible way. I mean, eight weeks for a fraction of the cost of a one to one clinic.
You get a session every week for eight weeks. So, yeah, hopefully it can help help a lot of you out there understand yourselves. And yeah, it's been a turbulent time, Ella. It has.
And I think you have a little news for us that you're a bit nervous to share this morning.
I am nervous and I think I'm nervous because I know personally how triggering and difficult fertility journeys can be. I'm actually pregnant with my third, which is very exciting. As many of you may know, I didn't actually share it on the podcast. I had a loss last October. I didn't share it because I find it hard to talk about without crying.
But I have made it past the 20-week mark, which is why I feel it's been a journey, hasn't it, guys? I mean, I'm on crutches for pelvic girdle pain in the evening. You wouldn't know it if you look at me. Oh, my God. You've been feeling so poorly and so sick. Sick. I've been on anti-sickness meds since the Fibre Formula book launch.
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Chapter 3: How do omega-3 supplements impact cognitive decline?
And it feels so overwhelming. So that's a little reassurance and a bit of humor. But if you are feeling that sense of I need to do this, I need to do that, I can't do it all. You are clearly confused. Clearly not alone.
50 million others feel exactly the same, probably more that aren't online. So Ella, we have our first pick up today, which is a quick one, but very, very important because we know that the smartphone free childhood movement is incredibly, well, vocal right now. Thank goodness.
Yeah, it's interesting, actually.
Because the government in the UK is doing this big consultancy period looking at as much data and information from as many groups as possible in order to make the most informed decision on what they do with legislation around smartphones and children, there are so many headlines at the moment around social media because there's so many different groups submitting their reports and often they then make the headlines.
And this was one, as Rhi said, this was one of the reports submitted from Smart Frame Free Childhood, and they were looking at the potential cost of the impact of social media on teenage mental health.
Now, not everyone agrees with these figures, so we'll be super clear about that from the outset, but their estimation from their report is that it may now be costing the UK economy between two and three billion pounds a year, the toll of social media, because of the impact on teenage mental health.
And to get that data, they were pulling together reports from the NHS, the ONS, as well as data from research groups like the Resolution Foundation and the Health Foundation.
And it just showed these very, very stark trends that we're all really aware of, but essentially around hospital admissions for teenage mental health conditions, which have risen by 65% in a decade with almost 1 million children increasing. now in contact with NHS mental health services and youth worklessness linked to ill health, which has also doubled over the last 10 years.
So, as I said, not everyone agrees with how directly all of these various costs can be attributed to social media. There was a quote actually from a woman called Sonia Livingston, who's from LSE, the London School of Economics, and she said, the science is not going to support a simple causal claim because adolescence is not simple and social media is not one thing.
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Chapter 4: What surprising benefits do beans have for brain health?
they were seeing about a 30% reduction in cardiovascular events. So that is really meaningful.
I think it just makes sense. I think we all have to remember as human beings, our hearts are muscle. And the more you exercise that muscle, the more reward and benefit and strength you will get from it. Of course, oxygen and all the benefits that come within your body from exercise. I just want to throw in that I feel at the moment, knowing most people aren't even hitting the 150 minutes a week,
10 hours can feel. I mean, you heard my initial reaction. I was like, whoa, okay. Very overwhelming. But I think it's an important reminder just to raise our heart rate a little bit. So take the steps, take the escalators and those sorts of things that raise your heart rate, because those are the things that push our muscle a little bit more and make it, you know, keep it stronger. So
It's just adding. And actually, one of the baseline fitness levels that was mentioned here was that we need to just exercise slightly more to achieve the same cardiovascular benefits as fitter people that are already doing it. So even just 30 to 50 additional minutes a week can be really beneficial for your heart.
And for me, for instance, right now, that would be trying to walk up the stairs in the weird way that I do at the moment. So
it's little things Ella yeah it really is and as we were saying what they're talking about here is moderate plus exercise so out of breath well like exactly you can't keep doing it for hours and hours and hours but brisk walking is part of that and so yes you could go jogging yes you go swimming all these things but those are quite hard to fit into like the middle of your day you're in your office right now I mean I'm looking at me I'm in like
shirt and jeans. Like I'm in my work clothes, but I could easily, you know, go for a 20 minute walk for sure. Instead of getting the bus, for example, from where I'm going next, I could walk there. It was torrential rain today, so we both didn't do that.
But yes, we could have walked. Next, later she might do it. And she may go up a hill. I might go up a hill.
I don't think there's a hill where I'm going, but you never know. But I just think it is, it's so easy to think
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Chapter 5: Why is Gen Z obsessed with pickles and pickle-themed products?
That's what Ella just said.
The key is it's cumulative movement, not necessarily 10 hours in the gym. And I think that's what is really important to reinforce. And humans historically move throughout the day without thinking they need to go to the gym or exercise. I'm not saying we were healthier many years ago. We weren't. We are living longer now. But modern lifestyle is incredibly sedentary. We know that.
And what the research has listed here was that, you know, it could even be picking up children, gardening, running around more in general, just picking up the pace if you're running late for the train. Dancing. Dancing in the kitchen. Going out with your friends and dancing. Yeah, dancing around the house. Cycling to work. Exactly. All of that.
So let's just try and remind ourselves to get our heart rates up a little bit more every day.
yeah absolutely that and also as reset it's like it is actually quite addictive exercise and that's in this case can be positive like once you start the desire to keep going and get those endorphins and that feel good boost it is quite a good cycle we are going to take a quick ad break guys and when we come back we are going to dive into some very confusing conflicting headlines that we've seen on omega-3s and whether they speed or reverse cognitive decline
So moving on to headline two. Wow. Okay, there's a lot about omega-3s, but we've had lots of headlines at the moment that are stating omega-3 supplementation may increase your risk of cognitive decline and there are warnings from scientists.
It's so confusing. I WhatsApp this to read exactly that and the headline's literally like, study links omega-3 supplements to faster cognitive decline and it feels so confusing because all the time you read We need omega-3. We need fish oil for our brains. We've got to have omega-3 for our brains. We break this down for us. What on earth?
I actually am very disappointed with these headlines once again, because it's not what the research and the findings have actually said, which is typical. We know this happens. It's just that from... We need to update our data, essentially, first of all, for the benefits of omega-3. But we also need to recognize that large human trials have been inconsistent.
And all that it said is that the quality of supplementation has declined. So the quality of the supplements that people are taking, just to double check? 100%. These fish oils that have been marketed for years as being brain protective. But actually, when you look behind the signs, the headlines, it's so much more nuanced. It's not that omega-3 is causing dementia at all.
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Chapter 6: How much exercise do we really need for optimal health?
I mean, if people think carrying pickle handbags is cool, surely that's good for us eating more veg.
I can deal with a few pink onions. I did put some of those in the five-former book. I can cope with that. But what's so interesting, Ella's right. Retailers are seeing a huge spike in demand. So Ocado said searches for mini pickles online. are up 380% year-on-year, while sandwich-packed pickle searches have jumped up to 627%. Then Tesco has increased its range of pickles,
And fermented foods, which is great, by two thirds. I mean, that's pretty cool. I do agree.
I know. So basically, I'm a big fan because I feel like it's a nice way of getting us to eat more veg. Obviously, we know that's just so, so important. They're also so easy to make yourself. But I've seen so many articles being like, it's so good for your gut. No, it's not. Can you explain it? And it's just not. Okay, Ella, give us the logo.
I'm sorry, that's actually partly why I wanted to include it. So obviously... Look, pickles are good for your gut because they have vegetables. And eating vegetables is incredibly good for your gut health. We don't eat enough vegetables. So if that's a way to get another serving in and more fibre in your life, that's absolutely... And it saves money. You can preserve things for a long time.
For sure. That's absolutely amazing. But... It doesn't have the benefit that fermented food has, unfortunately. So if you're pickling something, you're normally doing that in a vinegar or even lime juice, but you're not fermenting it. Whereas things like kimchi or sauerkraut, these are what contain the live bacteria that
Not that all vegetables don't support your gut health, they do, but the particular benefits of these live bacteria, they come from fermented foods, not from pickles. And especially if you're buying supermarket pickles, which are preserved in vinegar quite often, pasteurized, et cetera, they just don't have your live cultures. So please don't think they're bad.
It's eating more veg, that's eating more fiber, that's all excellent. But it's a bit of a misnomer. They're not the same as fermented foods. I mean, it's just a win-win. Pickles for everybody then. Let us know. Please do let us know on Spotify. Apple, are you a pickle lover? Oh my God, I'm such a pickle fan. But I tell you what, you know that really bougie crisp brand, Torres? Yeah.
You know, they're made like the truffle crisp that everyone's obsessed with. I love truffle. I put truffle on everything. So they do a vinegar one, which I'm telling you is the best crisp.
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