Beef Tallow Skincare Trend Analysis

Hello and welcome to Zoey Recap. whereere each week we find the best bits from one of our podcast episodes to help you improve your health Today we're talking about wellness trends Social media has supercharged the wellness world with new trends popping up and spreading faster than ever It feels like we're constantly being sold the next must have product Each one a guaranteed route to better health that you simply can't live without But how many of these trends are actually backed by science? And could some of them actually be doing more harm than good I'm joined by wellness expert Lizo Nutritional scientist, Dr. Federica Ramarti. to separate evidence, from exaggeration. Federic, I' to start with you trend number one Detox drinks. What is that Detox drinks ar in lots of different ways, whether it's detox teas, sometimes it's detox juices cleans. These are drinks that are supposed to help speed up etox I mean, I often see these sold as a way to lose weight, to be honest. And there is literally no science behind. 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 lom 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 did 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 You know, if you're looking to your natural detoxification systems, there's lots of things you can do and drink water in a way that supports your liver, in a way that supports your kidneys in a way that you go to theally regulate 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. And I of course Yeah, drinking lots of water and the skin. Definitely. And in fact when it comes to skin, one of my favorite ways rather than buying a detox drink is to just to do some dry skin body brushing. You said that with such confidence dry skinned body brush. I Do you not have a dry skinn body brush? I literally have no idea what you're talking about. Oh my gosh. Okay, so helpp me out here. Literally, it's like a 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 In 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. 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 RCDs have been done on dry skin body brushing, but it certainly makes your skin glow, it looks brighter. 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're somebody who does tend to have a bit of a slow lymph whichich 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 self I know that sounds a bit If you have kids or you have caring responsibilities, just takeaking a couple of mines to have a dry body brush before your shower can feel really good. And is this an everyday activity or c the detox like I'm just trying to understand. It depends on how good it makes you feel. I will word a warning. so when you go and buy your body brush, Jonathan, start doing this becausearly highly invested in this already, I can tell. it sounds a lot better than a cold plunge. I'm more up. We're 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. Amazing. So no detox drinks No. 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 gettingetting 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. 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. 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? mean you do need to have a certain wavelength. So it's normally six thirty to eight fifty nanometers range and you can get various different devices. If you are going to get a home use device, my advice would be to go to 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. 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, red 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 a dawn can help program your body clock essentially. So there's some protocols if you're travelling 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 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 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 colourful 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 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 one hundred percent one of the best tools. but I'm excited about its role in circadum 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 In acne as well, Yeah acne as well. I think know 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. 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 automune 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. and I thought, I'm going to try this. let me just hello. You know If I can 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. 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, Fddie. You do look fantastic. I mean you Thank you. I do a lot. You know, I mean, I guess I have to because that's my job. But know but Red lightight therapy for me is one of the tools, ye. And this trend, Jonathan unlikely to be harmful Because it is FDA regulated the right devices, so you're not going to get like harmful radiation T 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 not a new thing. But I think you can get great free red light therapy by getting off in the morning by getting up early and just bathing in that natural red light. Trend number three, we mentioned this in the Q and 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 on their face That'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. Do you remember?'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. 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 do it, You can make it at home if you want to. So of course it's full of fatty acids like other fats that you can get in lots of other situations. 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. It's like putting Vaseline on my face, basically is that we'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 ure 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 that 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 be 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 would just putting ccon oil everywhere and oil pulling and brushing their teeth with it. I think it'll swing back in a way, hopefully. Yeah, I wonder. I mean, I've been triing 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 at where it comes from. so A D EK, for example, conjugated linolenic acid. It's very good as your point as a moisturizer, the transpidermal water loss, very good barrier. Having said that, If you are a tall spot prone, pimple prone, it's comodogenic, 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's non fragrance,'s not I don't actually like coconut oil for example. I find it too well coconutty. 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. But I don't think I put it on my face because think If you're looking for a moisturizer, I would rather have ingredients, know niacinamide, acelic 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 ninety percent hype And ten percent, well it is a fat and there are some benefits to putting something there are some benefits.. ha' understand that right? Yeah. And it's using up a waste product, perhaps that might otherwise not be used and it's cheap know, it's inexpensive. so you know, if it floats your boat, great, but I'm not going to rush out and buy it It's not the moisturizer that is I need more for my aging skin, Jonathan my age. I think I need a bit more than beef tallally Sheer butter is great for your feet as well Go for Sheer 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 Hosting this podcast means I get to quiz world leading scientists every week about how to improve my health But I'll be honest with you But for a long time my snacking habit was completely out of sync with the science. I' hit an energy slum grab a snack bar and usually inhale it in two bites while looking at my phone I knew that the ingredients were a bunch of artificial additives and emulsifiers But honestly, I was hungry And usually there was nothing else healthy to eat It wasn't until our chief scientist Sarah Berry explained the physics of snack foods on this show that it finally clicked. Highly processed bars are engineered to be eaten fast and release their sugar immediately. whichich in my case caused a shock. Spike and then crash in my blood sugar. leading a few minutes later to a collapse in my energy and a spike in my h In my opinion This is a cynical move by big food companies to make us eat more. I was furious