Dr Rupy: Every week I sit down with some of the world's greatest minds to talk to them about nutrition, psychology and overall health and wellbeing. And these are five things that I've learned in 2025 that I think have been most impactful to me and the team, and I want to share with you in one podcast episode today.
Dr Rupy: Hi, I'm Dr Rupy. I'm a medical doctor and nutritionist. And when I suffered a heart condition years ago, I was able to reverse it with diet and lifestyle. This opened up my eyes to the world of food as medicine to improve our health. On this podcast, I discuss ways in which you can use nutrition and lifestyle to improve your own wellbeing every day. I speak with expert guests and we lean into the science, but whilst making it as practical and as easiest possible so you can take steps to change your life today. Welcome to The Doctor's Kitchen podcast.
Dr Rupy: We've recorded over 50 podcasts in 2025. We've had world experts come into The Doctor's Kitchen studio, meet the team, and sit right here in this room and let me tease their brains, challenge their ideas and help us bring you the most up-to-date practical advice out there. And as I was looking back on all the conversations that we've had in 2025, something really struck me. And that was I didn't just learn things for myself, I actually changed a lot, and my team did as well. These guests changed the way I eat, the way I move, the way I recover, the way I think, and even the way I structure my day. So in today's episode, I want to share the 10 health habits that I changed this year because of this very podcast that you're listening to right now, because I'm actually on this journey with you.
Dr Rupy: What I've realised throughout my medical career is that we have to evolve and to adapt to our changing circumstances. I'm 40 now, I have a young child, and there are trade-offs I need to make, shortcuts I need to take, hacks I need to entertain that weren't relevant to me in my 20s. And my wish and my intention with this podcast is for you to gain a number of golden nuggets of wisdom along the way. And trust me, I'm collecting them along with you. I do not have all the answers and I hope I'm not pretending to, but with my experience and knowledge, I really hope I can open the doors to help you find them as well. So I really hope you enjoy this podcast of the five influential things that I've learned in 2025. There are some bonuses there as well. And I hope this is going to help you get excited for what we're going to be bringing you in 2026.
Dr Rupy: My opinion on meat has changed a lot in the last few years. I used to think it was really bad for your cholesterol and your heart health, and for that reason, I would recommend people avoid red meat as much as possible. There are studies that consistently link red meat consumption with cancer risk, diabetes, dementia, and an overall higher chance of dying earlier. These are all not great things. And it's true to say that from the available evidence, if you eat more red meat, the data would conclude that you have a higher risk of worse outcomes. There also appears to be what's called a dose response. This is the more people eat red meat, the higher the risk of these conditions. And this all points in the direction of red meat causing the issues that it's linked with, which is impossible to prove because these sorts of observational studies are not the ones that we rely on for causation. But these dose response analyses indicate that each extra 100 grams per day of red meat that you consume is associated with an increase of 14 to 22% in things like colorectal cancer risk. These are all pretty worrying when you look at these stats. And that 14 to 22% is relative risk increase. That's very, very important to note. And with all these said and done, all these studies, it's resulted in the IARC, this is the International Agency for Research on Cancer, labelling both processed meat, so these are the salamis and cold cuts and things that are fixed with nitrates and other preservatives, to be labelled as a class one carcinogen, up there with smoking, very, very worrying, and unprocessed red meat, so these are just your cuts of sirloin or venison or even whole sausages that without the preservatives and stuff, as probable carcinogens. This is class 2A. Now, the most influential evidence came from large prospective cohort studies conducted over the last 20 years. These are not the best sorts of studies to rely on. And it's likely that there are multiple confounding variables. Confounding variables are essentially things that confound the data, they confuse the data, they can show an association when actually there might not be something there, or it's not caused by the thing that you're looking at, in this case, red meat. And what they've generally shown is that people who eat the most red and processed meat roughly have a 15 to 20% higher risk of developing colorectal cancer. That's compared to those who eat the least.
Dr Rupy: Now, you've probably heard a lot of this through headlines or people of a vegan persuasion or plant-based doctors. It all sounds super scary. But the issue with these sorts of studies that you don't often hear are that even if we were to believe that these studies are representative of a true rise in things like cancer risk, the effect size is generally very weak. So when we're looking at this 18% increase in relative risk, we're actually talking about 0.7 extra colorectal cancer cases per 1,000 people or an additional one case per 1,400 people who eat over 100 grams of red meat per day, which is a lot of red meat, by the way. That's very, very low on an individual scale, but significant at a population level, which is why you can understand the prudent and respectable public health guidelines and the consensus opinion from IARC. But when we drill down to the individual and what this means for someone who wants to eat a bit of red meat but is afraid of the increased risk of cancer, this doesn't actually give me that much to hang my hat on that I should be recommending people avoid red meat at all costs because these are observational studies, multiple confounders, and even when we control for those, it's still very, very murky. So this isn't comparable in any way to the effect size of smoking as an example and what people often put together. And just because the IARC has recommended or stated that this is a known carcinogen, they're looking at the available evidence. That isn't to say that the available evidence is actually of good quality.
Dr Rupy: People who eat large amounts of red meat in their diet, and we're talking above 100 to 120 grams per day, tend to lead far less healthier lives than those who eat less. They're more likely to smoke, they're less likely to exercise, they're less likely to have enough variety and fruits and vegetables in their diet. And even when studies adjust for these variables, it is so, so hard to tease out these associations. It is more than likely that in these big analyses that we're basing our recommendations on, high red meat consumption is actually a marker of low fruit, vegetable and fibre consumption. And even in these very sophisticated analyses using multiple studies, it is so hard to adjust for these. Let's not forget what red meat could actually be contributing to your diet. It's hard to get this from other sources. Good quality protein, choline, B vitamins, niacin, B12, heme iron, zinc, and so much more. In fact, red meat ranks as one of the highest in nutrient density per gram and per calorie.
Dr Rupy: I want to be really clear here. I am absolutely not suggesting that people should be eating more red meat. If you look at this graph, you'll notice that we eat more than enough red meat already. In the West, in the UK and the US, we eat enough. In the UK, we average about a kilo a week. In the US, it's almost double that. They have 100 kilograms per year on average in the States, which is far too much in my opinion. And overall, the UK and the US, the consumption of red meat is not increasing or decreasing. It's pretty much steady, although the global average is definitely increasing, as you can see in this graph. My take is most people could do with diversifying their core protein sources to include more plants, more oily fish, which is why I'm such a fan of things like tempeh, tofu, sardines, mackerel, nuts and seeds. But I'm not in the business of scaring people away from red meat if they choose to eat red meat based on this limited evidence that it causes cancer, diabetes, or will shorten your lifespan if you eat an appropriate amount. Avoid it if you wish, but I'm personally not touting this flawed data and scaring people away from red meat because if you pair it with enough fibre, herbs, spices, things like lentils, a side of fermented vegetables, a good collection of colourful ingredients, this is a perfectly healthy way to eat, especially if you're going for lean red meats as well. So I've got a few top tips for those who do eat red meat to ensure that they're doing it in a healthy way, because a lot of people rely on this food as a source of nutrients. So the first thing is, you want to avoid processed red meat as much as possible. Even though again, the associations are not really that robust, the ingredients tend to have a stronger and more consistent association with cancer. A piece of salami is not going to kill you, but it's a monthly treat rather than a weekly staple.
Dr Rupy: Number two, you want to choose lean cuts. Now, a fatty ribeye or a rump steak, they are both classified as unprocessed red meat, but there's a huge disparity between these two cuts. Ribeye has got 10 times more saturated fat and less protein per 100 grams compared to rump or even venison as well. So the impact of these two different meat cuts is likely to be significantly different to the person who's consuming them. And to my knowledge, these studies that we've been looking at do not account for the vast differences between these two different cuts. So again, this is another reason why I don't want to hang my hat on some of these studies and say that everyone should be removing red meat from their diet because they can be a very important source of nutrients in one's diet. So the leanest cuts are things like sirloin, rump, bavette, flank, flat iron as it's sometimes called, tenderloin, and venison. Venison is in season right now, and it tends to be a very lean cut of meat. And you can even go for less than 5% fat beef mince as well. Like I'm saying, I'm a big fan of tofu and tempeh. I don't think you need to rely on red meat to have a healthy diet, but I also don't think you need to exclude it either. A third thing is, you definitely do not want to be burning your meat. There is a concern around the generation of something called heterocyclic amines or HCAs and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PAHs, during high temperature cooking. This is grilling or frying. This can induce these genetic mutations in colon cells contributing to cancer potentially. So in the same way we don't want to burn our food, whether that's vegetables and other ingredients, we definitely don't want to burn and eat burnt meat regularly.
Dr Rupy: You want to pair your red meat with high fibre, colourful foods, herbs and spices. Not only can this mitigate some of the potential downside effects of things like burnt edges and grilling, but fibre is one of the best tools in our armoury against colon cancer. So I'd recommend focusing on increasing fibre daily and pairing your meat with vegetables, especially things like greens. It could be super beneficial. And lastly, it's also about the amount. So I mentioned earlier that on average we're eating about a kilo of red meat per week in the UK. We need to be doing less than half of that. So I advise for a safe amount, looking at the available evidence now, it could be higher or less, it really depends on the individual, but around 350 grams per week of lean red meat. That's about two portions a week. That's essentially what I consume myself, in my family, in my household. I think this is definitely a safe amount to consume each week. This could be split up through the week if you prefer, around 50 grams per day of lean unprocessed red meat. This has been shown to have a neutral effect on things like LDL cholesterol, inflammation and overall cardiometabolic risk, as long as diet quality and fibre intake is high. Now, if you follow any of The Doctor's Kitchen recipes, we do have some red meat recipes on the app. You won't see them if you've chosen vegetarian or vegan as your dietary preference. But for those who are omnivores, which is the vast majority of our Doctor's Kitchen users, I believe it's around 80 to 85% of our users, you will find red meat always paired with things like puy lentils, beans, other colourful vegetables because we want to ensure that whilst we're getting the nutrition from the red meat, we are pairing that with other ingredients that would mitigate any potential effect or downside of over-consuming red meat that again, we're not sure of. So ensuring that you've got a real diverse plate of food, especially when you're consuming red meat, I think is a really safe way of consuming red meat whilst also benefiting from the nutrients that it can present to us.
Dr Rupy: So overall, my takeaway is, if you eat meat, focus on unprocessed meat, keep it lean and add small amounts to your diet whilst also ensuring that you're adding plenty of plants, plenty of herbs and spices and plenty of fibre. And the risk, I believe, from my diet is largely attributed to the four white poisons: sugar, salt, saturated fat, refined starches, rather than lean red meat itself. And this is something that we talked about on the podcast with Dr Kevin Mackey, who is an epidemiologist, and really opened my eyes to this idea that red meat doesn't need to be the boogeyman. Actually, we need to focus our efforts on the things that are yielding the worst impact on our health, and it appears to be those four white poisons: salt, saturated fat, refined starches and sugar.
Dr Rupy: The second thing I've learned from the podcast in 2025 is about adding fibre variety, not just the total amount of fibre. Now, we've spoken to a number of researchers and doctors who are gastro specialists. One of which is Dr James Kinross, who is an incredible researcher as well as practitioner. We talked to him on episode 285, and we also spoke to Dr Amrita Vijay, who's done research on fish oils and how that can improve your gut health as well. I thought I was eating enough fibre until James and Amrita explained why diversity matters more than just grams of fibre. And it's actually one of the reasons why we started a progress tracker on The Doctor's Kitchen app where you can take a picture of your food and it will analyse your plate using AI, and it won't only just give you the total amount of fibre and the total amount of protein, it will map your inflammation score that we've developed in-house, influenced by the dietary inflammation index, but it also gives you plant points. And that's an indication of the variety that you're getting on your plate. Diversity matters more than just grams of fibre, and it's so, so important because not all fibre is the same. Different fibres feed different microbes in your digestive tract. Now, as a reminder, I always say this, your microbiota or your microbiome, which is this genetic makeup of all the microbes, are largely concentrated in the distal portion of your digestive tract, also known as the large intestine or the colon. And these house trillions of microbes of all different varieties, not just bacteria, but also viruses, nematodes, fungi. I mean, it's a real ecosystem there. And we have to think, and this is something that really stuck with me when Dr James Kinross told us about it, you really got to think about it like you're a conservationist. You're looking after a rainforest, an ecosystem that thrives on so many different inputs. And giving yourself as much variety as possible is ensuring that each part of that ecosystem has enough to feed on, has enough to thrive. And so mixing up your fibre varieties throughout the week and also on different weeks is a really important strategy if you're looking to optimise your gut health, which I believe everyone should be. And microbial diversity improves a number of different things, but specifically in what we I feel that we have most evidence for is this production of short-chain fatty acids or SCFAs. These are things like butyrate, propionate and acetate, and they do a number of different things. They regulate our immune system, they ensure that the gut lining is maintained, is made integral, it's maintaining the integrity of that barrier, and it's also ensuring that inflammation levels are maintained at an appropriate level in the gut system, in the gut, but also in the in the blood as well. And the gut barrier that we've spoken about at length, actually I did a podcast all about the gut barrier, is not just one thing. I think of the gut defence system as everything from the saliva in your mouth that has things like IgA and is actually the start of your immune defence system, all the way down to your gastric acid, the juices in your the early part of your digestive system that is throwing acid on anything that could be a pathogen. And then the bile that comes in, and they've got immune cells on them as well, and they're attacking anything that could be again problematic if it's ingested into your system. And then when you get to the gut, you know, you've got your microbes and they've got antimicrobial chemicals that they spray on the food that you've just consumed. You've got the mucin layer, which is this mucus lining that protects literally creates a barrier between anything that you've put into your gut system into the lumen, which is the internal portion of your digestive tract, and the gut cell walls, which are only a couple of cells thick. And so you've got all these different defence systems. When you're consuming enough fibre, you're ensuring that certain parts of that gut barrier, that gut defence system are working appropriately. So diversity is a really, really good strategy combined with getting enough of the fibre itself. Eating the same high fibre foods, whilst that is great, repeatedly, that doesn't create a diverse microbiome. So variety matters a lot. So an action that I've actually personally taken is rotating the grains that I consume every week, the beans, the fruit and veg, the nuts and seeds, and I switch things up as much as possible. And I've tried to add a few things to add diversity. So one strategy that me and my wife have been doing is having themed weeks. So one week we'll have Mexican. And in a Mexican week, we'll have things like black beans and pinto beans. We'll put them into quesadillas, I'll put them into tacos, we'll have like a Mexican stew with like paprika and a specific type of Mexican chilli like chipotle. And then we'll have that with avocado, which is a really good source of fibre. I used to think of just avocado as like a really good source of fat, but it's actually really high in fibre. That way you're getting a diversity of not only meals, but also different fibre sources that are relevant to that particular cuisine. So black beans and pintos are sort of things that you tend to get in that kind of Mexican cuisine. Another week, we'll do Indian. So we'll have parathas using whole wheat, we'll have red kidney beans in a dish called rajma, chicken curry or butter chicken, much less butter than the typical butter chicken that you buy from a takeaway, mushroom curry. We have a chickpea curry on the app that we generally batch cook and we ensure that we freeze. And it's 20 minutes, it's full of things like turmeric, it's got coconut in, we've got two different lentils, the chickpeas themselves, it's super high in fibre and it's absolutely delicious and it's so easy to cook.
Dr Rupy: Another week we'll do Italian. We'll cook cacciatore with cannellini beans, chicken thighs, cavolo nero, tomatoes, onion. We'll do brodo, which is like a broth. You can either make that with chicken or beef, and we'll add chickpea pasta to that. My wife is gluten-free, other sort of green, leafy green, might be Swiss chard. And we're not sponsored by Riverford, but I'm really getting into my Riverford box right now because every week I know that I'm getting seasonal, fresh vegetables that have not been flown from far away. They're organic, they're pesticide-free, and because we just don't know what we're getting in the box, it's sort of we just type in whatever's in the box into The Doctor's Kitchen app and then we get a recipe. And that's why we can theme our weeks according to what we've got in the kitchen and what how we're getting more diversity into our meals. So this is a really good strategy and I know using the evidence available to us and from the podcast that we've been conducting this year, that I'm doing the best I can for my microbes. I don't need to measure my microbial health. I know that I'm doing the best thing because I'm adding all this diversity to my meals and so can you as well. It's a really good strategy and that would be one of my key recommendations.
Dr Rupy: Number three is all about movement. So on episode 320, we spoke with Anthony Goj, who's a consultant spinal surgeon about back pain myths. And the thing that I'm bringing into 2026 is going to be movement snacking to beat long blocks of sitting, which is exactly what I'm doing right now. So after this, I'm going to be doing one of these movement snacks. Now, I'm pretty good with my workouts, but this year, I also realised it's not just about the workout itself, but it's also about what I do in between emails, in between working at my desk. And my usual routine of waking up super early in the morning, I'm a 5:00 a.m. kind of guy, I stretch, I meditate, I hit the gym, I have my breakfast at 10:00 a.m. This has been completely decimated because I'm fortunate to have a healthy boy that likes to wake me up very, very early. And you know, we've gone through the sleep regressions and all that kind of stuff this year. And I realised I need a new strategy because I can't be so selfish as to just wake up and put my trainers on and go straight to the gym because I want to enjoy the presence that I have with my son and also I have the responsibility as well. But I don't want to forgo the anti-inflammatory benefits of movement. And luckily for me, after speaking to people like Anthony Goj, as well as a number of other physiologists that we've had on the podcast this year and in previous episodes on previous episodes as well, what I've realised is it doesn't need to be a gym workout. You don't need to have to go to the gym to experience those anti-inflammatory benefits. Obviously, it's great if you have the time, but when you can't, there are other options. And this has been really impactful and important for me to recognise because I've had this degree of frustration of not being able to go to the gym and do my normal routines. We now have multiple studies where researchers didn't just ask people how active they were, how many times they went to the gym. These can be quite unreliable. They actually strapped accelerometers onto them. So these are devices that objectively measure how much you move throughout the day. It can be a watch, it can be a ring, a number of different devices out there. And what these studies consistently show is that the more you move and the less time you spend sitting still, the lower your levels of inflammation. This is really reassuring for me as someone who cannot go to the gym right now because I still want to enjoy those anti-inflammatory benefits. And when we look at these studies, we're talking about real biological markers that we can measure in terms of in the blood, things like CRP, IL-6, fibrinogen, even white blood cell count. These are the same markers linked to heart disease, metabolic disease and ageing. And I'm almost in a position where I know too much. So I know that if I'm not going to the gym or I'm not moving like I was, I'm at higher risk of things like heart disease that runs in my family. And also I'm at higher risk because of my genetics being a male from South Asian heritage. And so it's reassuring to me to know that as long as I move throughout the day, I can still mitigate against these issues. And it's not just about intense exercise. Yes, moderate to vigorous activity has the strongest effect. I can't sort of sugarcoat that for myself, especially for lowering things like CRP and IL-6, but even light movement, it makes a difference. Standing up more often, walking, breaking up long sitting periods, all of this gently pushes inflammation down. And we have long-term studies that follow people for years and they show something again, really reassuring. If you stick to regular movement over time, nothing extreme, just consistent activity, your inflammation levels stay lower. And this effect holds up regardless of age, sex, body weight or other conditions.
Dr Rupy: So few, whilst I'm in a pickle at the moment with my workout routine, I can still look after my health. And one of my favourite types of research actually looks at what happens if you swap certain activities. So instead of sitting for an hour, what if you replace that time with light movement or with a brisk walk? These are isotemporal substitution studies. And they show that if you replace sitting with moderate to vigorous activity, this has the biggest impact on lowering CRP, but even replacing sitting with light movement can reduce other inflammatory markers like fibrinogen. So one of the things that I've been doing is just putting in my AirPods and then taking a walk when I'm doing a meeting or doing a walking meeting with one of my team members or just getting outside and actually doing my thinking or dictating into my phone if I need to take notes for something. Or if I'm writing a newsletter, instead of just sat at my desk and writing a newsletter inside, I go outside and I basically dictate it onto my phone. That way I'm not like heads down on my phone, I'm still walking out and I'm still enjoying some of the anti-inflammatory activity of light movement. So put it simply, movement, especially when it includes some moderate to vigorous activity, is one of the most reliable ways we know to lower systemic inflammation. And if you've heard me talk about inflammation before, you know that I wax lyrical about this being the fundamental process that we need to adjust and ensure that we are addressing when it comes to reducing the risk of chronic disease down the line. And what I love about this is that you don't need equipment, you don't need a gym membership. I've got a gym membership that I'm not using as much as I should be right now, and you don't need a perfect routine. Just moving your body more throughout the day can genuinely shift your inflammation levels in a direction that protects your brain, your heart and your metabolism in the long run. So for me, and you'll probably see this on Instagram, I'm regularly, not just moving, but jumping on one of the poles that we've got in The Doctor's Kitchen studio here and doing chin-ups every hour or so. I do three to five minute strength snacks during long sitting periods. So I'll get on the stairs, I'll do some lunges, I'll do some sitting squats. Me and my team members, particularly my researcher, will just do micro stretching whenever we're doing coffee or whatever. So it's just a little nudge to like, oh, I'm making a coffee or I'm making a hot drink, I'm going to do a little bit of exercise. Breaking up sitting at 60 minutes improves insulin sensitivity and lowers triglycerides. This is actual research that demonstrates this. You don't need to rely on little hacks, you don't need to take supplements, you don't need to do anything that costs you money to actually look after your health. It's this small consistent activity and just reminding yourself to do that every single day. This is what's given me hope that I'm not going to be putting my health at risk because of my baby boy. And obviously, I'm still doing some workouts, but I'm doing them at home instead of in the gym and they're only lasting 10 minutes. As an example, this morning, I ended up doing squats and press-ups interchangeably for 10 minutes whilst my wife was in the shower and I was looking after Raphael. So I was doing it whilst he was just like walking around bumping into things like our sofa and his toys in the living room, which is a bit chaotic at the moment, but I still got my hit workout in, which is great because I know that I'm looking after my health, which means I'm going to be sticking around in his life for as long as possible.
Dr Rupy: Number four is diving into ancient stresses to build resilience. So we had a fascinating conversation with Dr Leo Pruimboom. I think I'm saying that right, Pruimboom, on episode 306, all about counteracting modern comfort. I realised I'm too comfortable. And Leo showed me the value of small uncomfortable moments or challenges throughout the day and throughout the week. So just reflecting on how comfortable I am, and I'm sure people will resonate with this, I sit in an air-conditioned or heated car and ride to work. I'm constantly entertained, I'm well-fed, I'm well-hydrated at all times. We live in this constant state of ease. And this isn't how we've evolved at all. We've constantly had to deal with the elements and this is an evolutionary drive that's actually resulted in health. And so because we live in a modern environment where we're so comfortable, we have to artificially expose ourselves to things that make us uncomfortable because there are genuine benefits in the resolution of that uncomfortability. So I'll give you an example that he's used on this episode. And if you're interested, I highly recommend people look at his work as well. Cold exposure, which I really dislike, just at a personal level, but it's important, increases things like norepinephrine, improving metabolic rate, it can improve your focus, your immune alertness. People describe it as like having a couple of espressos of coffee without any stimulating after effects or any impacts on your sleep later on. In fact, it may even have beneficial impacts on your sleep. Heat exposure, things like sauna, hot baths, steam, you don't need to go for a sauna, you can just have a hot bath, increases something called heat shock proteins. They repair damaged proteins, they improve your resilience. Brief, controlled stresses, they mimic this metabolic environment that humans evolved in and counteract this modern, too comfortable living. So this is something that we, like I said, have to artificially introduce or reintroduce into our lives. And I'll be honest, I was sceptical about sauna for a long time, but I was wrong. Sauna is supported by substantial observational and interventional evidence for health and longevity benefits, particularly for cardiovascular health, heart health, and inflammatory disease risk reduction. So these large studies, a lot of them come from Finland, they demonstrate that increased frequency, so four to seven sessions a week, which I admit is quite a lot, and long duration, over 19 minutes a session, which again, is a lot. If you've ever been into a really hot sauna, you know, five minutes can feel like a lot, 10 minutes is really uncomfortable, 19 minutes, you know, it's up there with like a hit workout. It can be very uncomfortable. These are all associated with significantly lower risks of sudden cardiac death, coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease, all-cause mortality, any cause of mortality. And there's a clear dose response relationship, which points in the direction of this being causal. I.e., it's because of the sauna, not because of some other confounder. So a confounder in this respect could be, well, those who go to the sauna probably also have a gym membership, and then they exercise regularly, and so that's probably the reason why, not because of the sauna itself. Actually, when you tease out all these things, which I, you know, can be quite hard to do, less hard when it comes to non-food related interventions like sauna, there appears to be this strong relationship. And these benefits are independent of other conventional risk factors, and they're potentially mediated by reductions in this inflammation as evidenced by lower levels of high sensitivity CRP and leukocyte count in frequent sauna users. So these are measures of inflammation that we use frequently in research studies and in clinic as well. Mechanistically, so if we look at the potential biological reasons as to why sauna is having this effect, well, it induces mild hyperthermia, similar to what you would get if you're doing like a real pacey workout, like you're doing a Joe Wicks extreme hit workout, let's say. And what that does is that it leads to improved endothelial function. So this is the cell lining that you have in your arteries, and it reduces arterial stiffness. You don't want your arteries to be stiff, you want them to be nice and flexible and fluid and wide and patent. That lowers your blood pressure, and this is what sauna use can potentially do, actually lower your blood pressure, which is one of the silent causes of cardiovascular disease. And it has some beneficial effects on your autonomic nervous system as well. You know, there are benefits to your musculoskeletal system, there are benefits to your brain health, including symptom relief in rheumatic disease. I mean, the list goes on when it comes to sauna. It's pretty, pretty impressive. And when we're looking at these protocols, like I mentioned, you know, four to seven sessions a week, each session lasting over nine minutes, 19 minutes is the best. And then we're looking at temperatures between 80 and 100 degrees centigrade, which is super, super hot.
Dr Rupy: So one action that I'm going to take away is when I get the time back, this is something that I don't have the time or the inclination to invest in right now, but when I do get the time back, I'm going to start gradually increasing my exposure to sauna at least once a month and then go to once a week where possible when I get back into the gym. And I'm going to make sure that I get a gym membership with a sauna as well. In the meantime, I'm going to be doing hot baths and exposing myself to cold. Now, you don't need to jump into an ice bath. You can very simply just not wear as thick of a jacket when you're walking outside or you're commuting. I know that might sound a little bit silly, but just having a little bit of this uncomfortableness is going to create a counteractive response in your body that leads to benefits down the line. It's essentially something that we call hormesis. So if you can't do sauna, if you can't do cold exposure, there are a few things that you can do to just increase a little bit of uncomfortability. And if you want to learn a bit more, I'd listen to that episode with Leo on episode 306.
Dr Rupy: Number five is cutting down evening screen time for better sleep and focus. This is probably one of the hardest things, I think, and it was definitely brought to my attention by TJ Power, who's a neuroscientist. We had him on episode 281, how phone fasting and nature can build dopamine and support your brain. Um, and this led to a number of things. It's been very impactful for me actually throughout 2025. There's a couple of things that I've done. And the one thing is a silent retreat. So I did a silent retreat at the start of this year. Regular listeners are probably bored of me talking about this, but I honestly recommend it to everyone. I think it's one of the most impactful things that I've done for my health and clarity and focus. Three days, no email, no reading, no listening, no writing, no talking, no interaction with the outside world, walking outside in nature. I took myself to Lake District. We did very, very light yoga that was guided as part of the silent retreat. It didn't have to be anything fancy. It wasn't expensive whatsoever. You don't need to do a retreat. You could do this yourself. You could go to a cabin. There's a number of different services out there now like Unyoked and Unplugged and a whole bunch of others that have sprung up because of people recognising this real need to reconnect with themselves, let alone other people. It's just reconnecting with yourself and removing yourself from the device that has stolen our attention. This has been a running theme actually throughout the podcast with people like, you know, Johann Hari who's been on the podcast talking about stolen focus, a number of other people talking about the importance of sleep and the impact that our phones and our reliance on digital devices is having on our on our health. So the silent retreat for me was an extreme intervention to address an extreme modern phenomena, which is just how much time I spend on my phone. But aside from doing a silent retreat, what other things can we do to create distance between our devices, whether it's our laptops, our TVs or our phones? And just before I go into that, you know, constant phone use has been demonstrated to overstimulate dopamine signalling, lowering the receptor sensitivity. Phone fasting, on the other hand, which we would describe as short, intentional breaks, so when you're being intentional about actually removing yourself from your phone, this restores dopamine balance, improving mood and focus and motivation. And screen removal before bed reduces things like cortisol and improves melatonin release as well. So these are all things that have been demonstrated in the literature to actually have a positive effect. Conversely, prolonged screen time is associated with increased reward-seeking behaviour. You're constantly looking for that next dopamine hit. And this leads to an alteration in the neural circuitry related to dopamine signalling in your brain, particularly in something called the frontostriatal pathways. And these neuroimaging studies, where they've done them in adolescents and children, they indicate that frequent and extended screen use is linked to less efficient cognitive control and a preference for immediate rewards. So this is all sort of painting a picture, and it's not just in adolescents and kids, you know, even adults, I see this in myself and I see this in other people, we're constantly looking for a fix for dopamine. And the attention span, I believe, is reducing as a result of our modern phenomena, as a result of our phones. So creating this intentional space by doing the silent retreat, I think is one strategy. It's not for everyone, but there are two other things that I've done on the back of that silent retreat and on the back of doing the podcast with TJ Power, and something that my team are also doing as well. So one action I take every night now is I keep my phone on plane mode if it needs to be near me, or I put my phone in another room after 8:00 p.m. And I do not use social media in the evenings when I'm at home, unless I really, really have to, like I have to check on a post or I need to do something for Doctor's Kitchen. I'm really trying to be intentional about not consuming social media in the evenings where it can disrupt my brain circuitry and lead to overconsumption of that content as well, because we're really fighting against an algorithm that is playing our brains like an instrument. It is so, so good. It is so enjoyable, which is why we need to limit it because of of that reliance on on that sort of that that dopamine effect. So that's one thing I've been doing throughout the week. And then the other thing, which is a bigger step change, is I have a kale phone. So there was a blog post by George Mack a number of years ago where he talked about the concept of a cocaine phone and a kale phone. A cocaine phone is a phone that has all your apps. It's got all your social media apps, TikTok, Instagram, all pure, pure dopamine. It's got email, it's got calendar, it's got LinkedIn, it's got all your notifications. It's just constantly vying for your attention. You have another phone, which is pure serotonin. It's it's got the numbers of your loved ones. It's got everything you need, like a messenger, like a iMessage or maybe WhatsApp if you turn the notifications off. Google Maps and Uber to get around and your payment cards if that's what you need for your for payments. But nothing else. It's got nothing that can steal your attention. And it's grayscale. So this is literally what I have. I have a grayscale small iPhone Mini because I went through all the different phones you can think of. I bought one from China that was a tiny mini iPhone, didn't work. I bought a Nokia, but then I couldn't get access to WhatsApp. I bought another what they call dumb phone, which didn't have connectivity, but then I realised, well, I need maps. And then sometimes when I'm in a pickle and I need to pay for parking, I need to download one of the parking apps, of which we have like three in London. And I need in an emergency to have access to my my my Google Maps, you know, just to just to get around. And so I came up with the solution for me that works, which is literally a physical phone, grayscale, very limited apps and a strict rule in that I will not download any of the social media apps or my email or anything like that. That is my kale phone. And because of the friction of having to download an app and then remember your password, even if I wanted to check Instagram or another social media app, I just would I don't even know my passwords to it. So it's working really well. I use it from Friday night to Sunday night. You can only find me on my kale phone. And just creating that space, that distance between the constant barrage of notifications from my cocaine phone, as it's as we're calling it, is um, is brilliant. So I highly recommend it. If you can't do a silent retreat, if you can't do phones outside your bedroom, try and get a kale phone. It cost me about 120 quid. I bought it second hand. Um, and that investment in uh, in in the phone and having a separate number is worth it multiple times over. So I'm really grateful to TJ Power for bringing to our attention the impact of screen time and all these other things actually stealing our attention and the impact on dopamine. You can listen to that episode on 281 of the podcast.
Dr Rupy: Bonus tip from the podcast, we had Dr Louise Nicola a number of times on. She was telling me about two things that I've definitely changed this year. One is my sleeping environment. I had a proper aha moment about my bedroom environment. So I sleep in a relatively small room with my wife and my dog, Nutmeg. And I realised it might be impacting my sleep in a way that I didn't realise. And that was because of CO2 buildup. So because we have not two but three mouths in our bedroom with poor ventilation in our room because we're trying to keep the the warmth in, um, the CO2 builds up over time. And actually I got a CO2 monitor. I just bought one from Amazon. There's a number of different brands. Aranet appears to be one of the highest rated ones. I uh, I bought one of those and I realised that our CO2 was building up really, really high in the middle of the night, above 1,000. So, and we've also had Dr. Andy Galpin on the podcast talking about the importance of ensuring adequate ventilation and a cool room, which can increase slow wave sleep. So not only am I ventilating my room better because of that CO2 buildup, I'm also trying to keep my room cool by ensuring proper ventilation as well. And hopefully this is going to have an improvement on my morning alertness and HRV overnight. Now, this isn't something that I've noticed a significant impact on with my Oura ring, which I use for sleep monitoring. But keeping that CO2 level nice and consistent and low is something that's giving me a bit of a dopamine kick myself because it means that I know that I'm keeping my environment optimised as much as possible. And this is actually impacting me and the other team members as well. We've put a CO2 monitor in this very room where we do the podcast, we have multiple mouths breathing and talking simultaneously in again a relatively small room with poor ventilation. So when we notice that our CO2 monitor is showing that it's going above 500, my video producer and podcast producer, Mitch, will open up the windows that are just behind this camera and then allow some air to circulate so we reduce the CO2 levels, which is, you know, anecdotally been great for us and ensuring that we are keeping our guests as safe as possible. So that's one thing that I've been doing. The other thing that Louise has definitely been impactful for me on is the amount of creatine that I'm now taking. So I used to think 5 grams of creatine monohydrate were enough every single day. She's pointed me in the direction of new research that states that maybe, particularly if you are sleep deprived, you should be aiming for 10, 15, even upwards of 20 grams per day to optimise brain health. Now, the studies around that are pretty preliminary, so I can't really hang my hat on it, but as someone who doesn't have any GI distress from taking creatine and somebody who has titrated it up gradually to monitor for any issues, I don't have any kidney problems. I think the concerns around kidney health in healthy kidneys are unfounded. This is something I'm personally experimenting with. And anecdotally, I feel great on it. My exercise resilience and everything has is is great despite me not actually exercising that much. So this is something that I'm going to be continuing doing myself personally. But I think as a minimum level, 5 grams of creatine monohydrate is something that I think is kind of like a no-brainer at this point because it's such a cheap, readily available supplement. Just ensure you're getting a third-party tested product and making sure that you're not having the gummies because a lot of the gummies, not only are they high in sugar or artificial sweeteners, I mean, I don't know why people want to eat gummies every day. Personally, I don't think it's very good for your gut health. But a lot of them don't even have creatine in. So be really wary of those because there's a huge scam and a lot of people are just being, just a lot of people are wasting their money on it.
Dr Rupy: And an extra bonus, we did an episode with Dr Victoria Sampson, who is my personal dentist. She is a functional dentist. She is incredibly well researched and she she went to the Karolinska Institute, which is a centre of excellence globally. She's really pushing the boundaries for functional dentistry. And one of the biggest blind spots I think I've had is my teeth. Inflammation in the mouth leads to systemic inflammation. There's a lot of evidence to suggest this. Gum disease can raise the risk of heart disease, diabetes and even dementia. And having a strong daily oral routine is really important. So not only do I brush, not only do I floss, but I choose a toothpaste that does not have SLS in, and I personally choose hydroxyapatite as well. The nanohydroxyapatite is the toothpaste that I go for because it's remineralising and it's been used in a number of other countries to good effect without necessary needing fluoride in the toothpaste. We're about to do another episode with Dr Stacy Williams about fluoride and her perspectives on fluoride in the water as well as fluoride in toothpaste. And I'm now of the opinion that it's unnecessary, and there are other safe ingredients that we can have in our toothpaste that are not going to have a detrimental impact on the biome, the microbes in our mouth or the microbes in our digestive system as well. And there are two things that Victoria brought my attention to that I thought were complete junk. One is tongue scraping. So tongue scraping is a popular Ayurvedic technique to improve oral health. Turns out, when you use a proper tongue scraper that's made out of stainless steel, it may improve your oral health. So that's something I had to apologise to my wife for because she is an avid tongue scraper and I thought it was just a wellness fad and it turns out there's actually some evidence for it. And the other thing is propolis. So propolis is a raw sort of product that you get from bees and it has a genuine antimicrobial impact when you take it. So Dr Victoria Sampson thinks having some propolis as a dropper every day or when you feel like a sore throat coming on is something that is evidence-based. So propolis for the win. It is expensive though, so I would say you want to focus on oral hygiene first and maybe even tongue scraping, but propolis is not the fad that I thought it was. So all the propolis users out there, apologies, I was wrong.
Dr Rupy: I really hope you've enjoyed this journey that we've been on in 2025 with the podcast. I'm really looking forward to the conversations that we've already recorded and they're going to be released in early 2026, but also the ones that we've planned as well. We're going to be talking about breathwork, mouth taping, obviously food and the latest research looking at fats and I'm really excited about what we're going to be sharing on this podcast. And it's an absolute privilege for me to be able to speak to you directly, whether you're listening to this on a podcast player or you're watching this on YouTube. As a medical doctor, as someone who is trying to promote the concept and the idea of food as medicine, but also give you practical tips as to how you can practice this in your own kitchens, it's the privilege of a lifetime and you enable me to be able to do this with you, sit down here and converse with you and have an educational conversation and hopefully give you some golden nuggets. So I really hope I've done that today and I hope to continue to do that into 2026 as well.
Dr Rupy: Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Doctor's Kitchen podcast. Remember, you can support the pod by rating on Apple, follow along by hitting the subscribe button on Spotify, and you can catch all of our podcasts on YouTube if you enjoy seeing our smiley faces. Review show notes on thedoctorskitchen.com website and sign up to our free weekly newsletters where we do deep dives into ingredients, the latest nutrition news, and of course, lots of recipes by subscribing to the Eat, Listen, Read newsletter by going to thedoctorskitchen.com/newsletter. And if you're looking to take your health further, why not download The Doctor's Kitchen app for free from the App Store. I will see you here next time.
