Former Hollyoaks star turned health guru Davinia Taylor has revealed how she 'biohacked' her way into reducing her body age by 28 years. The actress appeared on This Morning to discuss her health journey, which has seen her reverse her biological age to just 20.
Davinia Taylor's Biohacking Journey
Davinia, 47, joined Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard to promote her new book, Kitchen Rehab, which offers food hacks to help reduce body age. Instead of cutting down on food, she emphasised that the book focuses on adding ingredients to a diet to promote youth from the inside out.
She explained: 'What I've written here, it's about adding in, and it's just about, even if you can change one meal a week, it's about adding in more ancestral nutrition. We're missing out on things like bone broth, with all the minerals and vitamins that are naturally there that mother nature gave us.'
Davinia, who is not a chef, shared that her community called the 'For Fat's Sake group' includes 30,000 mothers who share recipes. 'It's just making a couple of little tweaks... Basically, it's like meat and two veg, it's what our grandmothers would have thought was normal but we've forgotten how to use these amazing ingredients that nature put on the planet.'
Dietary Guidelines and Biohacking Tips
She noted that before the 1950s and even the 1970s, there were no dietary guidelines from doctors, and people listened to their parents. Chronic disease was lower then. 'We need to listen to our gut, our intuition, and listen to when we're hungry, and we've got to feed the brain first because the body will follow.'
Davinia also discussed 'making your own Ozempic', referring to the blockbuster drug for overeating. She claimed that introducing good fats can dampen food noise and snack attacks. She advised washing fruits and vegetables thoroughly to remove pesticides.
Other biohacking methods include using an infra-red sauna, which she described as 'like my night club, after 20 minutes you really detox.' Cold exposure is also beneficial for boosting dopamine.
Past Struggles with Alcohol
Davinia opened up about her alcoholic past, stating that if she had 'one more drink, she could have died.' She was part of the Primrose Hill party set with Kate Moss and Jude Law. After 17 years of sobriety, she credits biohacking for her youthful biological age.
She told The Sun: 'I was constantly hungover, riddled with anxiety, and alcohol didn't work for me any more. Not even a glass of red wine would lift me. I was shown these awful videos of myself drunk, and numerous times I was told by doctors, 'one more drink will kill you'.'
After a 12-week rehab stint in South Africa, she kicked her habits. She described her battle with alcoholism as an 'eternal hell'. Once clean, she became addicted to eating, gaining stones before finding balance.
Family and ADHD
Davinia shares son Grey, 17, with ex-husband Dave Gardner, and Luxx, 13, whose father is unknown, as well as Asa, six, and Jude, seven, with partner Matthew Leyden. She wishes her mother, who died in 2013, could see her now: 'For her to see me now, as a mother – happy, settled and not needing the fineries to support my ego – would have made her really proud.'
She explained her wild younger years as a symptom of ADHD, which is underdiagnosed in women. 'A girl with ADHD will be referred to as 'Dolly Daydream', and that was me.'
After giving birth to Grey in 2007, she suffered postnatal depression and was prescribed medication for bipolar disorder. She now believes it was a crash of supportive hormones from IVF. She hopes her struggle encourages more women to seek hormone replacement therapy.
Davinia's mother sent her to rehab during her divorce in 2009. 'By the time I was out the other side of the divorce, I was beyond any relapse. It was a blessing in disguise, because it put me in fight mode.'
Current Health Practices
After ditching alcohol, she turned to sugars and unhealthy foods, which caused joint pain and memory issues. She now reads up on dietary knowledge and feels happier. She doesn't obsess over health, joking that she recently had a fry-up. When feeling low, she increases fats and protein, takes a cold shower, and goes for a run.
This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV1 and ITVX.
