We Need to Rethink Ageing, Strength, Confidence & Starting Later in Life With Callum Weir & Jane Thurnell Read
Plant Fuelled PodcastShow Notes
At 78 years old, Jane Thurnell-Read is deadlifting, strength training, and redefining what ageing looks like.In this episode of the Plant Fuelled Podcast, we talk strength training over 70, plant-based ageing, and why it’s never too late to start. What if ageing didn’t mean slowing down… What if strength had no expiry date? In this episode of the Plant Fuelled Podcast, I’m joined by Jane Thurnell-Read, author, strength trainee, and at 78 years old, someone who’s redefining what ageing actually looks like. After a short break heading into 2026, this conversation felt essential especially if your New Year motivation is already fading or you’ve caught yourself thinking “it’s too late for me now.” Jane proves calmly, confidently, and without hype that it isn’t. We dive into ageing, strength training, mindset, independence, and why building muscle later in life isn’t about aesthetics it’s about protecting your future self. We talk longevity, resilience, and what it really means to age well, not just longer.
And yes we explore all of this through the lens of a plant-based lifestyle, without protein panic, fear-mongering, or outdated assumptions about what older bodies are “allowed” to do. This isn’t motivation porn. 🧠 In This Episode, We Cover:
• Why it’s never too late to start strength training — at any age • Ageing vs decline: why the two are not the same thing • The role of resistance training in bone health, balance, confidence & independence • Why strength matters more than aesthetics as we get older • How mindset shapes physical capability later in life • The quiet danger of being told to “take it easy” as you age • Training for life — not just the gym • Building strength, resilience, and longevity on a plant-based diet • Challenging the low expectations society places on ageing bodies (especially women) • What Jane wants people to understand about getting older — before it’s too late
More from Plant Fuelled Podcast
Karen Lee is an award-winning plant-based nutritionist, author and retired ITU nurse who manages her own multiple sclerosis through a whole food plant-based diet. She also wrote the book on it, literally.This one covers autoimmune disease properly. What's actually happening in the body, why there are over 100 recognised conditions and most people only know about a handful, the role of the gut microbiome in immune function, how ultra-processed foods affect autoimmune health, the autoimmune protocol and what the evidence actually says about it, leaky gut, chronic inflammation, and why the supplement and wellness industry has found autoimmune patients to be an extremely profitable group of people to target with things that don't work.We also talk about evidence-based nutrition and why blanket advice fails people with autoimmune conditions, the nuance that gets stripped out of most health content, and what practical management actually looks like when you're living with a chronic illness rather than just reading about one.Karen has MS. She's not theorising.Get Karen's book Healing From the Inside Out: use code VEG2026 for 25% off at hammersmithbooks.co.ukFind her:Website: thesensitivefoodiekitchen.comInstagram: @the.sensitive.foodieFacebook: TheSensitiveFoodie
70,000 followers. You asked, I answered. Some of the questions were brilliant. Some of them were the same question I've answered about fifteen times. I answered those too.We get into vegan nutrition during pregnancy and after giving birth, because this deserves more than a one liner. Oil-free plant-based diets and where I actually stand on them. Selenium sources that aren't Brazil nuts for anyone with a nut sensitivity. The best protein sources after tofu when you genuinely can't get on with tempeh. Why having nutritional yeast in your diet is not a substitute for a B12 supplement. How much meal repetition is actually a problem. Whether the Soyciety is coming back. The male loneliness epidemic and whether I've experienced it myself. London Marathon training. How I handle hate online. Upcoming guests. And whether I'm having kids.That one gets a short answer.
Dr Matthew Nagra is a naturopathic doctor whose practice is built entirely around evidence-based nutrition, and this conversation goes through the topics with the most misinformation around them right now.Seed oils and why the panic doesn't match the peer reviewed evidence. The carnivore diet, its rise and its decline, and what the research actually shows. Cholesterol, LDL and heart disease. Omega-3s and supplementation. Plant toxins, oxalates and lectins, and whether anyone pushing fear about them has read a credible study. Industry funding and how it shapes research in ways most people never account for when they share a nutrition headline. How to actually read a study without being manipulated by the way it's presented.We also get into looks maxing and masculinity culture and diet. It's a corner of the internet that's been radicalising young men through food and nobody in the plant-based space is talking about it seriously.If you've ever shared a headline about seed oils or the carnivore diet and felt slightly unsure whether it was actually true, this is the episode.
Dr Gemma Newman is a British GP with over twenty years in medicine, additional qualifications in gynaecology and family planning, and a specialist interest in plant-based nutrition. She is also one of the clearest voices on women's health in a space that is absolutely riddled with people trying to make money from it.This one covers menopause and perimenopause properly. Estrogen, HRT, soy and why the fear around it has never matched the evidence, supplements worth taking versus the ones being aggressively marketed at women going through this, and why menopause has become such fertile ground for grifters. We also talk about why women become less visible as they age, how that makes them uniquely vulnerable to online marketing, the cultural differences in how menopause is experienced and talked about, and what a plant-based approach actually offers at this stage of life.Gemma has spent two decades in medicine watching this play out in her practice. She has no interest in selling you anything.
George Hearn is a life coach and Cambridge graduate who walked away from a corporate career in London, moved to Sydney, and now spends his time coaching young professionals who are good at life on paper and know something is still missing.We talk about the rock bottom paradox, why most people wait until things are genuinely falling apart before making changes they could have made years earlier, and what it looks like to start before you get there. The arrival fallacy, what happens when you finally hit the goal and feel nothing. Telic versus atelic activities and why the balance between them matters more than most productivity advice will ever tell you. Using envy as a signal instead of something to be ashamed of. Social media, the manufactured feeling of being behind, comparison, perfection, and what designing your life deliberately actually looks like versus just letting it accumulate.