Why your healthy lifestyle is making you unwell – with Sarah Ann Macklin

Age Better with Liz Earle

Liz Earle

Gut Health, Liz Earle, Women's Health, Supplements, Beauty, Education, Skincare, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness, Arts, Fitness, Midlife, Menopause, Healthy Ageing, Exercise, Fashion & Beauty, Better Second Half, Health, Wellbeing, Hormones

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 1 May 2026

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We have access to more health information than ever before, but for many midlife women, the overwhelm is negatively impacting our wellbeing. Nutritionist Sarah Ann Macklin talks to Liz about the unhealthy side of modern wellness culture and its effect on our bodies.

They discuss how conflicting advice and constantly changing diet trends create anxiety, and how this has the power to alter how we physically respond to food.

Sarah Ann also explains why she thinks health-tracking wearables should be used with caution, and the steps we can take to quiet toxic self-talk.

In this episode:

· The connection between mindset and metabolism

· The dangers of tracking health data with wearables

· Why perimenopausal women experience ‘sleep shame’

· How you can trick your hunger hormones

· Ways to rewire your wellbeing relationship

Links mentioned in the episode:

· Vitamin D3

· Creatine

· Magnesium

· Omega-3

· Podcast episode on the Mediterranean diet

More from Sarah Ann:

· Follow Sarah Ann on Instagram

· Listen to Sarah Ann's Live Well Be Well podcast

· Pre-order Sarah Ann’s book Healthy Shouldn’t Be This Hard

Get in touch with a question for Liz:

· Email: podcast@lizearlewellbeing.com

· WhatsApp: 07518 471 846

More from Liz:

· Order Liz's new book – How to Age

· A Better Second Half

· Follow Liz on Instagram

· Follow Liz Earle Wellbeing on Instagram

Host: Liz Earle

Producer: Anouszka Tate (Fresh Air Production)

Social Media Manager: Naomi van Geelen

Content Writer: Lucy Parley

Head of Brand: Ellie Smith

Some links may be affiliate links, which help support the show at no extra cost to you. Read our Affiliate Policy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	mindfulness is really important when it comes to building your plate with purpose because if you're more mindful, you're more present in that moment, so you're more aware of what you're consuming.
0:08.6	We know there's so much mindless eating.
0:10.9	We also know that that changes how we metabolize food, how we hormonially respond to it.
0:14.5	Our brain doesn't quite connect that we're actually consuming food.
0:17.8	Similar to drinking our food instead of eating our food, it's like we've
0:21.2	seem to have lost the ability to chew because drinking our calories is easier.
0:25.9	Your brain is sending hunger signals that you're still hungry.
0:29.4	Well, that is nutritionist Sarah Ann Maclin and she wonders if the way you are thinking
0:34.9	about your diet, your nutrition and your food is affecting the way your body is metabolising it.
0:42.7	This is Age Better with Liz Earle and I'm sure you know by now that it is my mission to change the conversation around ageing.
0:50.3	And what I'd love to show you is that small but powerful shifts in what you eat, how you move, the way you sleep and live can genuinely transform how you age.
1:01.6	Now, this isn't just about extending lifespan.
1:04.7	It's about extending health span.
1:07.1	You know, those precious years when we want to live well and feel bolder and more confident in our skin than we ever have done before?
1:15.5	Now, OK, have a guess at how much the wellness industry is worth.
1:20.3	Well, it's worth $8.5 trillion.
1:24.2	But leading UK nutritionist and host of the Live Well Be Well podcast, Sarah Ann Maclin,
1:31.2	reckons the industry is making us more anxious, disconnected and distrustful of our own bodies than ever
1:38.2	before. And that anxiety in itself is making us more unwell. Well, in her first book, Healthy Shouldn't Be This Hard, Sarah Ann blends the later science of gut health, neuroplasticity and psycho-neuroimmunology to show that self-criticism physically disrupts digestion and that how we think about food changes how our body responds to it.
2:04.9	Fascinating.
2:10.0	Sarah Ann, welcome.
2:12.1	This is going to be such an interesting and relevant conversation.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Liz Earle, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Liz Earle and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.