Davinia Taylor: 9 life lessons I'd tell my younger self

Davinia Taylor, 45, is best known professionally for playing Jude Cunningham in Hollyoaks in the mid-90s, but the actress has equally been open about her personal journey over the years – documenting her struggles with her hormones, stress levels and looking after her body, amid alcoholic addiction and being put on anti-depressants. 

Some of her well-earned lessons were the subject of her 2021 title, It's Not A Diet. Now, to coincide with the launch of her brand new podcast, The Davinia Taylor - Hack Your Health podcast, the former Hollyoaks star is about to share more of her wisdom, together with that of a line-up of high-profile guests including Tim Spector, Gary Brecka, Dr Barbara Sturm, Dr Cate Shanahan, Dave Asprey, Dr Tamsin Lewis, Pippa Campbell.

As the first season kicks off, we sat down with Davinia to discover, in an exclusive interview, the lessons she'd tell her younger self, from the practical ('Get more daylight!') to the life-changing things Davinia discovered about herself over her life, including her ADHD diagnosis. 

Getting out in daylight first thing in the morning is free and really helps with your mental and physical health. Your body registers that morning light, and it will boost your sleep later on. Try walking without sunglasses to make sure your body knows it's the morning time – wearing those dark Ray-Bans may look cool around Primrose Hill, but it will make it think it's early afternoon. Also, try going barefoot. It will help you feel grounded. Finally, keep a food and mood diary and just look at what happens! It will show you how healthy you are and help you look after yourself. 

Don't be scared! Your body will adapt after you've done it about four times. Also, you really don't have to do it for 15 minutes. Instead, do 10 seconds - five seconds on your chest, five seconds on your back. That's enough, and will will help you boost your dopamine levels for hours, which you'll realise that you need. 

Support your liver when you drink any alcohol or have fast food to avoid any long-term impact and to mitigate unnecessary weight gain and water retention. You can do this by taking brilliant antioxidants like NAC gluconate, which will support your very sluggish detox capabilities which you’ve inherited from your mother! 

Avoid low-fat foods! Anything that has had its natural fat content removed instantly becomes more sugar and carbohydrate dense. Which for you, Davinia, leads to brain fog, low mood and the inevitable weight gain and cravings. What you eat directly affects your mood, not just the size of your body.  So, instead, always eat things in their natural form: like full fat yoghurt, and raw milk.  Load up on good fats and protein and always have a decent protein shake to hand with an abundance of MCT Oil. Also: eggs are not the enemies are a superfood whenever you feel hungry make scrambled egg with loads of butter and salt. This will power you through the day. 

Calories are impossible to calculate because it depends on how you metabolise each food type. So for example, your body will respond completely differently to 100 calories of bread then it would to 100 calories of avocado. One will trigger addiction to eat more, and one will fuel you and make you forget about snacking. Look out for inflammatory ingredients such as sucralose and vegetable and seed oils like rapeseed oil and soybean oil. These ingredients trigger not only bloating and inflammation, but actually trigger addictive, eating and lower your mood. Low calorie means low mood! Be particularly aware of packaging that says low calorie sugar-free or plant-based because it is inevitably going to be a chemical shit-storm and will be more detrimental than calories. In other words: stop buying those Lean Cuisine meals that you pop in the microwave. 

Remember: abs are made in the kitchen first. Instead, focus on exercise for boosting your mood, confidence and bone density. Doing hours of cardio won’t offset the takeaways – but it might make you feel better. 

Saturated fats are your friend. They're fundamental in the production of cholesterol, which is also your friend. It’s a building block for your feel good hormones. Lean into a high fat diet, but make sure you don’t get confused with processed fats like vegetable oil and rapeseed oil which are really detrimental. Stick with coconut oil, MCT oil, olive oil, grass, fed butter and anything from animals, such as goose fat on your roast potatoes, or steak cooked in butter with salt, pepper and garlic. 

Davinia, you can do everything in your own time and that's OK. You got married at 24, and you were comparing yourself to your mum who was married at 18, and your friends who had already settled down. But compare means despair. And deep down in your gut, you didn't want to settle down yet – you loved David, but you wanted to travel the world with him instead.

Instead, learn to meditate and practise breathwork (three minutes will do). It will boost your dopamine levels, switch on your vagus nerve and help you scramble through your ADHD that you lived with all your life without knowing. Best get checked before you are 45 eh! Once you get diagnosed, this will explain why you’re incapable of doing mundane things that make you feel overwhelmed, like tidying the house and packing your children's stuff. You always forget your passport on the way to the airport and you jump from subject to subject in a conversation. It is ADHD, otherwise known as the creative superpower. Embrace it, do not fear it: it gives you hyper-focus, for instance when you learn about biohacking. Your risk-taking personality will serve you well in the near future.

The Davinia Taylor - Hack Your Health podcast is available to listen to wherever you get your podcasts.

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