2 wellness trends worth trying (and 3 to avoid) with Liz Earle MBE and Dr. Federica Amati

This spring, are you bombarded by wellness trends promising miraculous results? From detox juices to the surprising popularity of beef tallow, it's easy to get swept up in the hype.

But what if some of these "healthy" habits are doing more harm than good?

Alongside Liz is Dr. Federica Amati, a scientist from Imperial College London, ZOE's Head Nutritionist, and author of the bestseller "Every Body Should Know This."

Together, we'll put five popular trends under the microscope: detox drinks, red light therapy, beef tallow for skin, creatine, and high-cost probiotics. Discover what's fact and what's fiction, empowering you to make evidence-based choices.

Finally, we'll share practical ZOE-approved tips for embracing spring with genuine, science-backed wellness strategies, helping you navigate the season of renewal with confidence.

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Transcript

Jonathan Wolf: Liz, we have a tradition here at ZOE where we always start with a quick-fire round of questions from our listeners. Please give us a yes, a no, or a one-sentence answer if you can. 

If a trend is popular, is that a good sign that it will be effective?

Liz Earle: No. 

Jonathan Wolf: Can wellness trends sometimes cause more harm than good?

Liz Earle: Yes. 

Jonathan Wolf: Federica, are natural remedies safe because they're natural? 

Dr. Federica Amati: No. 

Jonathan Wolf: If I put cow fat on my face, will it make my skin glow? 

Dr. Federica Amati: Yes, but there's other ways. 

Jonathan Wolf: And finally, Liz, what's the most important thing to consider before adopting a new wellness trend? 

Liz Earle: It has to be consistency. I think things only work if they're repeated little and often. So if you can't commit, don't do it. 

Jonathan Wolf: 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 building communities to support them, we know is 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?

Liz Earle: I 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? 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. 

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 could see a money-making opportunity. 

But there's so much out there that's free and easy, and I think, you know, the sun shines, we go outdoors more. We are 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. 

Jonathan Wolf: Why is it that a wellness trend, something new, is so tempting, even if it doesn't have all this scientific proof and all the rest of it, versus maybe something that we all heard about five years ago?

Liz Earle: I guess there's novelty, isn't there? It's a conversation point, and we just think, Ooh, I've not tried that, I'll give it a go. And it is a talking point, isn't it?  Whether you're in the cafe or down the pub, you just think, Oh, have you heard about this? 

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. We don't necessarily want the same old, same old. And if somebody comes up, maybe with a tempting new promise, you might think, Ooh, do you know what?  I'm going to give that a go and see what happens. 

Jonathan Wolf: What role does social media, you know, TikTok, Instagram, play in this?

Liz Earle: It’s massive. I personally don't do TikTok, but my team do, and my kids do. And yeah, things will just suddenly blow up. I think that is new, isn't it?  I mean, I'm now in my sixties. 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. And 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.

Jonathan Wolf: And you said something in the quick-fire questions about popularity not being a good indicator of effectiveness. Can I get you to explain that? 

Liz Earle: Not necessarily. I mean, as you know, fad diets come and go. And it can be extremely dangerous and not particularly effective. 

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 water went all brown and slimy, and everyone said, Look, there are all the toxins in the water. 

It was just a metal reaction with the copper wires in the bath. So, you know, that kind of died a death.

Then you had the pedicures that you went to with the little fish that nibbled away the dead skin. And I think that died a death because I don't know whether…

Dr. Federica Amati: People got infections.

Liz Earle: So that's an example, I think, of things that can come and go very quickly, thankfully.

Jonathan Wolf: 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. 

Dr. Federica Amati: Yeah, I mean, I think the most famous one, which came from Vogue Magazine, was the cigarette and coffee diet. Do you remember?

It was considered this diet that you could take. It was a glass of white wine for breakfast with a cigarette and a coffee, and then I think it was a steak and another glass of white wine, and cigarette, and coffee, and that was the diet. 

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It was seriously put forward as a way to maintain a healthy weight, a French lifestyle, obviously not. And it persisted, it was quite a nineties staple. 

Jonathan Wolf: Were you living on that diet at the time, Federica? 

Dr. Federica Amati: I certainly wasn't. In the nineties, I was a bit young for it. But, 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 favorite ones that I encountered a lot when I was living in New York in the early 2010s was the blood type diet as well.

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. 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 backing it. I'm glad that, I think that's dead. 

Liz Earle: You don't hear about it now, do you? 

Dr. Federica Amati: So those two are certainly on my hit list of things that I'm glad are gone. 

Jonathan Wolf: What are the characteristics of a trend that make it take off? And for people to say, I buy into [that] and I want to do it. 

Liz Earle: I think it's a shortcut, isn't it? It'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. 

Dr. Federica Amati: 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, well, it must have some scientific background. 

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. 

So I remember the fish. I mean, I always thought it was disgusting, but the fish pedicure spas it was just a quite 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? 

Jonathan Wolf: So what about the ones that have stood the test of time?

Dr. Federica Amati: It is things like healthy fats, so you were definitely one of the earliest proponents of healthy fats with your books.

Liz Earle: Yeah, but I was taken to task at the time because one of my first books, Vital Oils, was all about vital oils. They are oils and fats. 

I was coming at it at the time more from a skin angle. Because I had a tendency towards eczema, very dry skin. Of 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. 

Dr. Federica Amati: It has stuck now, hasn't it? 

Liz Earle: It has stuck. I think the pendulum is coming back, in favor of healthy fats and more away from the unhealthy sugars. 

Dr. Federica Amati: So that's one that should stay, and we're glad to see people understand also the difference between healthy fats and unhealthy 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.

I think there is still a risk of certain groups taking it too far and fasting for too long, especially premenopausal women. But overall, this understanding that we shouldn't be eating all day and late into the night has stuck, I think, as a really good habit to include in your day. 

Liz Earle: I think the time-restricted eating is really interesting.

Back in the day, we just used to call it detoxing or just having this kind of 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.

Dr. Federica Amati: It's exactly what we saw in our snacking study, Jonathan. We found that people who snacked after 9:00 PM 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. 

Liz Earle: 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. 

Jonathan Wolf: I think we've understood a little bit why these trends are so appealing and that for every one that stands the test of time, maybe five don't. 

I'd love to look at this spring's hottest trends, and I know the two of you have conferred and come up with five. 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? 

Fede, I start with you. Trend number one, detox drinks. What is that? 

Dr. Federica Amati: Detox drinks appear in lots of different ways, whether it's detox teas, sometimes it's detox juices, or cleanses. These are drinks that are supposed to help speed up detoxing. 

I often see these sold as a way to lose weight, to be honest. And 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 not to 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. 

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 loo regularly, and allows your colon to work well.

One of the worst scams I would imagine is these detox products, if I'm honest. 

Liz Earle: I think I completely agree, and I think there's no drink that I've ever seen any evidence for that is going to remove any toxin from your body. As you say, the liver, the kidneys, the gut, those are the detox systems. Drinking lots of water…

Dr. Federica Amati: And the skin, of course.

Liz Earle: And the skin, definitely. And in fact, when it comes to the skin, one of my favorite ways, rather than buying a detox drink, is to just do some dry skin body brushing. 

Jonathan Wolf: You said that with such confidence, dry skin body brushing.

Liz Earle: Do you not have a dry skin body brush? 

Jonathan Wolf: I literally have no idea what you're talking about.

Liz Earle: Oh my gosh. Okay, so literally, it's like an oversized nail brush with natural bristles. You brush your body with it when your body is dry. 

So you start normally at the soles of the feet. And if you are into Chinese medicine or traditional medicine, you might say that that's stimulating the reflex zones on the soles of your feet. And we don't need an eye roll for that, because that does actually make you feel really good and tingly. 

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, back of 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 [randomized controlled trials] have been done on dry skin body brushing, but it certainly makes your skin glow. It looks brighter, so as we step into summer, there's perhaps another reason to consider doing it.

Dr. Federica Amati: It's very traditional, it'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 are 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 it also gives you a few minutes to yourself. 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.

Jonathan Wolf: Is this an everyday activity or only part of the detox... I'm just trying to understand. 

Liz Earle: It depends on how good it makes you feel. I will word a warning so when you go and buy your body brush, Jonathan, and start doing this, because clearly you're highly invested in this already.

Jonathan Wolf: It sounds a lot better than a cold plunge. I'm more up for trying this one. 

Liz Earle: But that would follow. It will feel quite hard and quite, almost abrasive. Don't be too harsh with it. 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 

Jonathan Wolf: Amazing. 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. 

Liz Earle: Ooh. So this is something that I am actually a fan of, and 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 reducing inflammation, speeding up the production of collagen, for example, within the skin. 

So 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. There are clinical studies going on for all sorts of degenerative diseases and showing some quite impressive results, actually. 

Jonathan Wolf: Could you describe a bit, I mean, do you just put a red light bulb in your house or…?

Liz Earle: No, I mean, you do need to have a certain wavelength, so it's normally 630 to 850 nanometers range.

And you can get various different devices. If you are going to get a home-use device, my advice would be go for something that's FDA-approved or medically certified. You 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. 

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. Red light very much taps into that. 

Dr. Federica Amati: Yeah, so some of the exciting sciences 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 are some protocols if you are 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.

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In 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 that 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. 

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. 

It'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 a hundred 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. Some studies looking at arthritic joints have shown benefits. 

Liz Earle: Yeah, definitely. I think there are studies looking at improved speed of wound healing, for example, collagen production. 

Dr. Federica Amati: And acne as well, wasn't it? 

Liz Earle: Yeah, acne as well. I think improving the ATP energy cycle.  So, giving us a bit more energy.

I think it is beneficial. I think you're right. I don't think it's essential. I think it's a nice-to-have. 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 longstanding autoimmune condition, and I went forensically down the rabbit hole 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. And 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. 

I have to say that, you know, I am an adopter of red light. I think it's useful, not essential, but I think it can be beneficial, particularly as you age. I mean, I'm a lot older than you. 

Dr. Federica Amati: You do look fantastic. I 

Liz Earle: Well, thank you. I do a lot, I guess I have to because that's my job. Red light therapy for me is one of the tools. 

Dr. Federica Amati: And this trend, Jonathan, is unlikely to be harmful. 

Jonathan Wolf: Because it is FDA regulated, the right devices, so you're not going to get harmful radiation or something.

Liz Earle: And talk to your wife. Your wife will know, in dermatology terms, about using light therapy for things like psoriasis. And so we've known about light therapy for a long time. This is not a new thing.

But I think you can get great free red light therapy by getting up early and just bathing in that natural red light.

Jonathan Wolf: Trend number three. We mentioned this in the Q and A. Rich, my produce,r 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? 

Dr. Federica Amati: That's a very good question. Beef tallow is having a moment because it's being considered as a very healthy fat to cook with, to put on your face, to put in your hair, to just bathe in. 

It reminds me of when coconut oil had this glow up, didn't it? 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. 

Liz Earle: Traditionally, I think it's the fat that was around the kidneys. You render it and you cook it down and strain it so much that it becomes flavorless, tasteless, fat.

It's just a very bland, white fat. You can do it, and you can make it at home if you want to. 

Dr. Federica Amati: So, of course, it's full of fatty acids, like other fats that 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 my number one option. 

Jonathan Wolf: It's like putting Vaseline on my face basically. Is that what you're saying? 

Dr. Federica Amati: Well, 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. 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 seem 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 it'll swing back in a way. Hopefully. 

Liz Earle: 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. Because of where it comes from. So A, D, E, K, for example, conjugated linolenic acid. It's very good as your point, as a moisturizer. The transepidermal water loss, very good barrier. 

Having said that, if you are at all 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. You can buy it non-fragranced, I don't actually like coconut oil, for example. I find it too coconuty. 

But this is very 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. 

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But I don't think I put it on my face because I think if you are looking for a moisturizer, I would rather have ingredients like niacinamide, azellic 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.

Jonathan Wolf: 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… am I understanding that right? 

Liz Earle: And it's using up a waste product, perhaps that might otherwise not be used. And it's cheap, it's inexpensive, so if it floats your boat, great.

But I'm not going to rush out and buy it. 

Jonathan Wolf: It's not the moisturizer that is…

Liz Earle: I need more for my aging skin, Jonathan. At my age, I think I need a bit more than beef tallow. 

Dr. Federica Amati: Shea butter is great for your feet as well. Go for shea butter. It might just be me, but putting direct animal product on my face, I just, no, thanks. I'm good. 

Jonathan Wolf: I feel like it's got a better brand than 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? It's something unusual that we haven't thought about doing before. 

Liz Earle: That's just the imagination. Youngsters are thinking, Ooh, this is cool and novel and new. And of course it's not new. It's probably one of the most ancient forms of moisturization. 

Dr. Federica Amati: It's one of these ones that I think harks back to ancient wisdom that we've maybe lost. That's how it's been marketed. So it's like, you know, tap back into this. They don't want you to know that beef tarlow is so great.

And well, no, it's just a fat and there's lots of other things that work. 

Jonathan Wolf: I think you're right. In some sense, it sounds like this a natural product. It's a thing we’ve done for ages, but what I'm hearing is more for the feet than for the face. 

Liz, I'd like to move to trend number four, which is creatine. What is that? 

Liz Earle: Love a bit of creatine. So it is a very simple single substance, creatine monohydrate, that has come out of the world of gyms and testosterone-ridden bodybuilders for improving muscle strength and muscle mass into mainstream wellness. 

I started lifting weights in my fifties for the first time ever, and feeling much stronger and fitter and happier in my sixties than ever before. I wish I'd picked up weights earlier, so I then began to look at what I needed to help support muscle loss as I age.

Creatine was really well up there, and it seems to be one of, if not the most highly researched supplement. Not only just for building and maintaining muscle mass, but also interestingly for cognitive function now and brain health.

Dr. Federica Amati: Creatine is super well-researched. 

It's a combination of two amino acids, so as a compound, it's not found in nature by itself, but you can, of course, get the same amino acids from eating a variety of foods. 

But creatine specifically is really evidence-based, and it's cheap. You just need to get creatine monohydrate. You can buy it for relatively little money, and it's considered safe.

The most common side effect of it is bloating. So, for some people it can lead to gastric bloating. If that's you, don't take it. It's also simple to take. You take between three and five grams.

The jury's still out on whether you have to take it every day. It's one of those things where, for sure, the ideal situation is that you are training regularly and you take it on training days. 

So then it does become one of these things that you are taking habitually. There is some evidence to show that you have to have a loading phase, which essentially means that you're taking it every day for a week, which saturates your creatine, and then you can go back to just taking it when you train.

The evidence shows that it can make your workouts more efficient, so you have a little bit more power, so you maybe do a couple of more of those heavy reps. It helps speed up recovery after weight training, and as it is said, it does actually lead to greater muscle mass growth. So you actually put on more lean muscle mass if you take creatine.

Now, in terms of other benefits, the cellular energy improvement, there's emerging evidence. The brain health evidence is still quite small. So, there was one really encouraging trial where creatine supplementation alongside antidepressants had better outcomes. 

But we think it's to do with the interaction of the creatine with the antidepressants. So the creatine alone wasn't the answer. But very exciting. So there's more research happening in that space. 

And we love talking about gut health at ZOE, of course, Jonathan and our gut cells are really busy every day. They need a lot of energy to create more mucin and to make sure that the gut barrier is really strong, and it seems that creatine could help.

So, I'm really watching the space on the research in that field, because it could become something that can actually help with gut health as well, as long as you're not one of the people who gets the bloating. 

I started taking creatine, so I've started lifting heavy weights with the trainer, and creatine is one of the only things. You know how I feel about supplements.

Jonathan Wolf: I was going to say, Federica, you tend to be very anti-supplements. So I would say that's about the most positive I think I've ever heard you be. 

Dr. Federica Amati: Creatine is the one that, for me, has the evidence. I've seen personal benefits. I get DEXA scans quite regularly, and the combination, of course, you can't just take creatine and sit on the sofa.

But the combination of creatine and progressive load weight training has resulted in increased lean body mass, so it's exciting. 

Jonathan Wolf: So, just to be clear, you're saying the evidence is quite good for it working? But it only works if I'm also doing weight training. I can't just pop the pills and get all the benefits.

Dr. Federica Amati: However, if you are over the age of 65 and you're worried about sarcopenia, or muscle mass loss, and there's some indication of benefit for bone mineral density, so for keeping strong bones as well, taking creatine could actually be helpful anyway. 

You really do need to do the movement too, but it could have a protective effect. Also, what I love about it is it doesn't replace any food, Jonathan. It is an add-on. 

Oftentimes, the problem with supplementation is that people take the supplement instead of having a balanced diet. Creatine is one of these supplements that sits outside of that space because it's specifically for a purpose and it doesn't replace food.

Jonathan Wolf: A lot of people listening will be saying, so do I need to combine that with some sort of protein powder if I'm doing the weights? 

Dr. Federica Amati: No, absolutely no. This is really important, actually. So, protein requirements do change with age, and they change, for example, in women after the menopause.

However, the majority of U.K. adults and U.S. adults that eat enough food, so as long as you're not restricting your calories. So, whether that's because of extreme dieting or other, or taking Ozempic for GLP one agonist, for example, if you're eating enough high quality food or food in general, you will be getting more than enough protein according to the guidelines.

So I guess the message around protein is make sure you're getting good quality protein from good quality sources. That's the most important thing. 

If you're doing that and then you take creatine and you move your body, you're setting yourself up for a strong musculoskeletal system. So, muscles and bones.

Taking a protein supplement on top of that is not likely to do any benefit or have any positive effect. And if you are taking the protein supplement instead of a healthy diet, you are missing out on all the other benefits of having a good diet, which the protein supplement cannot replace.

So good quality protein, creatine, working out, strong bones, and muscles.

Jonathan Wolf: What's your experience been with it? Liz? 

Liz Earle: I love creatine, and one of the good things, I think, as you said, Fede, is that it's inexpensive. It's highly available.

I started to avoid the bloating with just two to three grams daily. I just popped it in my coffee in the morning. I keep it by my coffee machine, and now I have five grams daily, and I do find it beneficial.

Is it making me work out more? I'm not sure. I'm not really a gym bunny, but I just kind of do that maintenance, and I think the evidence is there. It's one of the things that probably will stand the test of time, to be honest. 

Jonathan Wolf: Liz, I'd like to come to the fifth trend, which is probiotic pills.

Liz Earle: Yes. So I take probiotics. I mean, I love anything to do with the gut. I wrote one of the first consumer books on gut health, and that kind of started my journey. 

I remember going to interview Tim when he was at King's in his amazing corner office overlooking the House of Commons. So that was, you know, back in the day.

And for me, it's all about increasing diversity. And I think back to when I first used to buy probiotic supplements, I used to buy sachets of powders and things that would declare they had billions of colony-forming units. And that was the best thing, but only one strain. 

Now, of course, I think we've swung the other way, haven't we? That we need lots of different things, whether it's from foods, and all our different fermented foods, and our kimchi and our kefirs, and all the rest of it. 

I think for me, as a midlife woman, and I write a lot about menopause and post menopause, one of the significant issues that flares up for women is recurrent UTIs, bacterial vaginosis, and other pelvic issues. 

I think there are some interesting studies looking at strains like rhamnosus and reuteri, which have been shown to be very beneficial. In fact, I was with a professor of urology not long ago who specializes in this and he gives it to all his patients.

So, how do we make sure that we get those strains? Well, yes, they're likely to be in kefir. Do we know they're there? No. 

If you buy a clinically analyzed supplement that has a certain number of regulated colony-forming units of a particular bacterial strain, then you know that that's what you're getting, rather than just risk that that particular food stuff contains it.

So for me. I think it's about having both. It's about having plenty of fermented foods and lots of diversity in all the plant foods, and et cetera, to feed all my lovely gut bugs. 

But I do specifically dip into certain supplements as well that I buy from the probiotic world. 

Dr. Federica Amati: It's interesting with probiotics, there’s, as Liz touched on, specific strains, have a lot of research for specific outcomes. So where supplementing with probiotics could work is if you're doing it for a specific health reason. 

When it comes to multi-strain probiotics, there's very few companies that test their multi-strain product to show any effect. 

So, for general wellbeing without a specific target, fermented foods are going to serve you better because they not only provide the live microbes, but they also critically provide the prebiotic fibers that are necessary for the microbes to do their job. 

The thing with probiotics, Jonathan, is when you take them, they are transient visitors, so on their way down, down, they're producing all the helpful postbiotics, but then you essentially poop them out.

I'm not going to go into too much detail, but there is niche theory. So your gut microbiome doesn't have a specific niche space for the probiotics you're giving it. It will not stick. 

So you have to take that probiotic every day for that output and maintain that. So, generally speaking, the most important thing we need to do is get enough prebiotic fibers from a variety of plants. 

So we know over 30 plants a week is a really nice metric of this. And at ZOE, of course, we've developed Daily 30 specifically to support this. Having those fibers every day is going to help support all the beneficial bacteria and make them thrive, and make them the most abundant species in your gut.

Then, introducing new strains. The primary way of doing that is through fermented foods. So if you're going to take a probiotic, I would say go for a very well researched… Well, first of all, ask yourself, why am I taking it? If it's because you want to just feel better and be healthier, do the diet bit first. 

If you have a specific goal, then you can work with your healthcare professional. You can find out if there are specific strains that have really good evidence to help you achieve that specific goal. Just chucking a load of probiotic pills is not going to make you healthy. 

Jonathan Wolf: How can listeners cast a critical eye on the next trend that is going to appear on their phone and sort of separate fact from fiction?

Dr. Federica Amati: I think, unfortunately, we always see big trends for rapid weight loss around this time of year, specifically aimed at women, right? 

So remember the cabbage soup diet, where you ate cabbage for a week, but starve yourself for a week. Anything that's promising instant, rapid weight loss or telling you that your body should look a certain way in a bikini, just move on.

That is toxic in its nature, and it's definitely not going to be helpful. So that's one quick way to get rid of them. I think it's important to ask yourself, is this something that I'm trying to achieve? 

So sometimes trends will come along, and it'll be like, do this amazing thing and you'll be able to, I don't know, run five marathons. Are you planning on running five marathons this summer? 

So just stick to what you think you need for your health. Some of the things we talked about today, I think are really helpful actually. So get up in the morning. Why don't you go for a nice walk first thing in the morning when the light is still, when the sun's still a bit lower or in the evening after work. 

Expose yourself to some of that lovely red light as we get sunny days. You can do things that are evidence-based and helpful, and aren't these faddy trends trying to sell you something that you don't need. 

Jonathan Wolf: Liz, you've been navigating this for a long time and talking about this for a long time. What would you add? 

Liz Earle: I would think, especially as it does get warmer, definitely get out in nature. There is just so many benefits. Even the microbiome of forests and trees, and leaves, and all of that is so extraordinary. 

If you can slip off your shoes and socks, I have also got to believe in grounding. It's a bit woo, but there is a little bit of science there again for connecting with the Earth's negative ions. For helping to reduce inflammation. So that's something perhaps to watch and discuss in the future. 

But I think also bear in mind that with the warmer weather, we need to stay hydrated. I think one of the things that I've learned over the years is, you know, if I'm aiming for my one and a half, two liters of water a day, is to sip little and often. 

I used to, in the past, think, oh my gosh, I haven't achieved the amount. I'm just going to lug back a huge amount of water, which actually is then depleting my electrolytes and all of that, and overloading my system potentially.

So just to be always on the go with a glass, a refillable water bottle. Just something to remind me to stay hydrated because, even just in practical terms, they say that some of the most common persistent headaches is just due to dehydration. And if we can just stay hydrated, remember that we're likely to be losing more water and more moisture in the warmer months. 

Jonathan Wolf: And Liz, I know you talk about food a lot. Are there any seasonal foods that we should be looking to cook more that maybe also help us with the wellness trend, as well as just tasting great? 

Liz Earle: Well, I unfortunately, like so many, suffer from hay fever, and I have got to love quercetin. An amazing polyphenol has antihistamine properties. 

Again, I came out at it through my daughter, who had MCAS, mast cell activation syndrome. And again, was advised to have antihistamines and, interestingly, by her conventional medic, quercetin.

So I take it as a supplement if I need to, but I also look for quercetin in foods. So red-skinned apples, red onions, red berries, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, you know, bring them on because they are bursting with quercetin. 

Jonathan Wolf: What's quercetin? 

Liz Earle: So quercetin is a natural antihistamine, and it's a polyphenol. It's a plant pigment, so it's going to be very beneficial for our gut bacteria and diversity and all of that. And it has added benefits. It's a friend with benefits. 

Jonathan Wolf: And so you're saying that if I was eating red skin apples and red berries, I could actually reduce my allergies? 

Liz Earle: Potentially, yes. You know, it does have a mild antihistamine benefit. If you want to up your quercetin, you might want to look at a specific supplement.

But certainly, for younger members of the family who might not be taking supplements or might not be able to, interestingly elderberries are one of the richest sources of quercetin, and I know a lot of people will look at elderberry syrup, for example, in the wintertime as being very beneficial for all sorts of things.

One of its key compounds is quercetin. 

Dr. Federica Amati: And what's nice is these are all fresh fruits. So fresh fruits and vegetables are wonderful for summer. A, because they're in season, B, they're naturally hydrating. 

So when you're making a chopped salad or a fruit salad, you are delivering on the polyphenols, on the fiber. You are also delivering on natural hydration. On top of drinking water, and maybe making some iced green tea and things like that. 

There's a reason why all these juicy fruits and veg are in season in summer, right? It's actually good for us to eat them fresh and get that hydration from them. 

Jonathan Wolf: Amazing. I'd love to jump to some really actionable advice now. I'm going to ask you both about one science-backed trend that you think people should start tomorrow. 

Liz Earle: The most important thing that I've learned over the years of wellness is prioritizing sleep. 

We now know that sleep is not just falling into bed and crashing out and switching off. It's that regenerative process that happens, and it's active. I think that's the thing that I've really learned to understand is that our sleep is active.

So we have to set ourselves up for more successful sleep. So, for me, I don't set an alarm to wake up in the morning. I set my alarm for what time I need to go to bed to make sure that I'm not, you know, doom-scrolling and endlessly watching box sets. 

Jonathan Wolf: Does that work? 

Liz Earle: It does, because it reminds me, and it reminds me to get rid of my blue light, to put on my blue blockers, or to just dim the lights and not sit under these bright, glaring lights that's going to upset my circadian rhythm.

I do take a bit of magnesium glycinate before bed just to kind of help calm my nervous system. I like having Epsom salt baths. I’ve got my ritual. I put a few drops of lavender on my pillow. 

Lavender has been shown, again clinically, to actually affect the way the brain works and be quite sedating, and it's just this ritual that my body is going, Oh, now it's time to switch off.

Dr. Federica Amati: I want to come for a sleepover. It sounds very relaxing. 

Liz Earle: Excellent. Let’s get your PJs, come join me.

Dr. Federica Amati: I think the trend I'd love to see stick this summer is increasing our fresh fruit intake. We know that globally, there is a lack of fresh fruit in our diet. And when I talk about fresh fruit, I mean the whole fruit, not juices, not smoothies.

Really getting the fruit yourself, chopping it up if you want to, or eating it whole. Fresh whole fruit's important, especially for cardiovascular health. So that's heart health and your vascular system. 

You know, heart disease is still the number one killer. So we should all be working to keep our heart healthy, and eating fres,h whole fruit every day is hugely beneficial for our health. Our gut microbiome loves it. It's satiating, it's delicious. 

It's like nature's dessert, right? So make yourself a fresh fruit salad. Have some apples in your bag on the go, and it re-embrace fresh whole fruit, especially in summer when you get this variety of delicious fruits.

And yeah, make the most of it, make the most of the season. I think that's a trend that would really benefit everyone. 

Jonathan Wolf: Finally, I'd love to come back to these trends, and I'd love to hear about the one trend that you have adopted recently that you think everyone should try. 

Liz Earle: I think, actually, really thinking about it is probably the creatine, because that seems to have sprung out of almost nowhere into daily life, and I think it's beneficial, particularly for midlife women. 

I think that we're going to be seeing even more evidence to support it. I don't think it's going to do any harm. It's cheap, it's easily available. It's something, to your point, Fede, that we don't naturally find in foods, and I think it's one of those things that actually is here to stay. 

Dr. Federica Amati: Same. I've recently adopted creatine, and if I had to choose another one, I've been really careful about my sleep as well.

So really scheduling that time where I stop, put my devices away, I've left my phone in the office. All of those things I've been much stricter with. 

I agree that sleep is super important and part of that for me, and ZOE have done research on this is making sure that I have very regular mealtimes for dinner.

So unless I'm celebrating a birthday or something, I will have finished my dinner by latest 8:00 PM before heading to bed later that evening. 

Jonathan Wolf: Not very Italian of you, is it? 

Dr. Federica Amati: Well, sleep is important. I'll embrace that. 

Jonathan Wolf: I was fascinated, Liz, by what you said, because I think there are a lot of listeners who will be thinking about this and who are saying both, I really want to sleep better because sleep is a real challenge and I feel tired.

And that's, I think, because our modern life is so at odds with sleeping. I have this, and I think so many people do. It's like, Oh, I've just got this one more thing I want to do. And somehow something pops up, and before you know it, you're scrolling away at something that tomorrow you'll have no idea where you did it, and yet it is preventing you from just going to bed. 

So I do think it's genuinely… I find it hard. 

Dr. Federica Amati: Write a list, though, don't you find? 

Liz Earle: Yes, to have a pencil and paper beside the bed is really helpful. It's also good if you've got something on your mind because you get it out of your head and you've committed it to paper, your brain can kind of shut down and let it go because it knows that it's going to come back to it in the morning.

But actually, just to finish off, we talked about getting up earlier and seeing that early morning light. What we're doing there is setting up the circadian rhythm and that hormone cascade. And if we see early morning light, it helps the production of melatonin, which helps us sleep better. 

So bizarrely, getting up early and looking at that early morning light outdoors is going to help to give us that better night's sleep. 

Jonathan Wolf: I love this. I think this has been a beautiful whistle-stop tour of the wellness trends around us. I'd love to do a quick summary or maybe it's really just honestly, the things have stuck in my mind as we shot around it.

So the first one is, I never knew there was a cigarette and steak diet. I'm rather disappointed to hear that it doesn't work, but maybe not really surprised. So, Vogue, that diet is out. 

On the other hand, I think the thing that I'm really struck by is just how positive you both are about creatine, and particularly Federica, I know you're generally very anti-supplement and pro-foods, so the fact that you are so positive is really interesting. 

What I heard is it's cheap, it's well-researched. You don't need to sort of combine it with protein powders or anything, you can take it on its own. But you do need to also do some sort of exercise with weights.

It doesn't work on its own. And you said might be good for people over 65 as well, so it's not just thinking about people who are sort of building up lots of muscle. 

Dr. Federica Amati: Oh, no, no. It's far beyond just being a big, muscly bodybuilder. It's for general health and good musculoskeletal mass, essentially. 

Jonathan Wolf: Yeah, I love it. I heard you both say be aware of bloating, so you may need to sort of bring it up slowly, and I assume, as always, dependent upon the rest of your diet, that might be better, or worse. 

Beef tallow also now known as cow fat. Now that's been explained to me. For your feet, quite possibly, yes. 

Liz Earle: Better than the fish.

Jonathan Wolf: Maybe fish fat is next year's trend. Well, we'll come back and report.

Detox drinks. No science, can be dangerous, you said, because actually they're really, they can be making you urinate more, have all sorts of things. So, do not take a detox drink; instead, stay hydrated, which means lots of water. 

Dr. Federica Amati: And support your liver. Your liver is the main guy here. Support your liver with a liver-friendly diet, which you won't be surprised to hear, is the same as a gut-friendly diet. 

High fiber, plenty of plants and polyphenols will help your liver do its job, and good quality fats. Our liver doesn't like cow fat. It likes oil from fish. It likes extra virgin olive oil, olives, nuts, and seeds. 

Jonathan Wolf: Dry skin, body brushing, which Liz is like, well, that's not a trend. Everyone's known about that for thousands of years. New for me. Oversized nail brush. Brush dry, starting from the feet up, and apparently it's going to make me feel magic. 

Liz Earle: Give it a go, but just go gently to start with because your skin will start to tingle. But if you stand in the light and you do it, you see all those dead skin cells being whisked away. 

So you're helping to speed up cell turnover, and you're improving your blood circulation and you just feel really zingy and energized. 

Jonathan Wolf: I love it. And I can also see Liz is very worried that I'm going to do it wrong. 

Dr. Federica Amati: Go to a spa first.

Jonathan Wolf: I'm going to, I'll report back. Maybe I'll take one leg, give it a minute, and just check. 

Then lastly, but definitely not least, try getting up early and see the early morning light. You get the red light, but also you're just sort of setting yourself up for this rhythm that might help you with sleep late.

We've talked a lot about the amazing things from sleep.  

Liz Earle: Yeah.