5 foods I got wrong | Professor Tim Spector

Where were you in 2015? President Obama was in the White House, The UK was a member of the European Union, and you couldn’t escape Bruno Mars's global smash: Uptown Funk. More importantly, 2015 marked the release of Tim Spector’s first book: The Diet Myth.

If you think the world has felt different since 2015, wait until you hear about the advances in nutritional science. Since then, Tim has had a chance to rethink his position on dietary staples like bread, milk, ultra-processed foods and more.

He’s put everything he’s learnt into his new book Food for Life: The New Science of Eating Well.

In this episode, Tim speaks with Jonathan about what he got right, where he went wrong, and what the future holds for the world of nutrition.

Tim Spector is a co-founder at ZOE and one of the world's top 100 most cited scientists.

If you want to uncover the right foods for your body, head to joinZOE.com/podcast and get 10% off your personalized nutrition program.

Timecodes:
00:00 - Intro
00:10 - Topic introduction
02:53 - Quickfire questions
04:11 - Has Tim changed his opinion on anything while writing his new book?
04:57 - Tim’s new book: Food for Life
06:51 - Today’s topic: 5 foods Tim got wrong
08:11 - #1: Bread
11:56 - What has Tim’s opinion changed about bread?
14:20 - #2: Personalization
17:28 - How has Tim’s breakfast changed?
25:16 - #3: Milk
28:42 - Skim milk vs whole milk
31:50 - What kind of milk does Tim have?
33:59 - #4: Mushrooms
37:14 - #5: Ultra-processed foods
45:56 - Summary
47:50 - Will Tim write another book?
48:29 - Goodbyes
48:33 - Outro

[dawnkeckley]

One other thought. Three considerations were mentioned when choosing food — the effect on the body, the effect on the planet, and how the animal was treated. I’d like to add a fourth — how the grower / livestock raiser was treated. It’s hard work growing food, especially organically. While changing buying habits aren’t necessarily an option for all, perhaps a gratitude for that work could be practiced by all.

[keithholmes]

In the 1972 film Silent Running theres a scene where Bruce Dern remonstrates with his companions who only eat ultra processed food whilst he is an exponent of real food. Fascinating predictor of todays issues. And a superb film to boot!

[deefee]

Dr Spector, I really enjoyed The Diet Myth but I knew nutrition knowledge would continue to evolve because there's so much interest in it. Thanks for continuing to share your new finds.

[carolbahsoon]

I watched this whole video twice to try and find out why Tim changed his mind about salt, and what was the change but I still didn’t find out!

[CoralBalmoral]

Could listen to Tim for hours, down to earth, brainy and informed, self effacing, wanting to make a positive difference to people's and animals' lives and the planet 💕 🌎🌍🌳🌳🙏

[alexdevcamp]

Looking forward to reading the book. One of the major things I've learned in my health journey is that foods are not black and white healthy or unhealthy. They have healthy aspects and healthy aspects

[reimaravalk]

thank you dr. Tim and Mr. Jonathan for this insightful podcast. It is needed to share with the world the truth about the health benefits of certain foods and foods we should avoid in order to maintain our health. Reimara

[ritz]

Cows aren’t bad for the environment. They are necessary for agriculture. It’s the way they are kept that is the problem. Free roaming, grass fed cows are incredibly good at creating incredible nutrients that we can eat, from grass that we cannot eat. They also produce manure which we need to make any vegan food - without manure all fertilisers would have to be artificially produced.

[BeliSetip]

Thanks Tim for "Food for Life", it's already helping me - I've got my 30 plants for the week and counting.
Huge thanks also for keeping climate and the environment front and centre. As a grandparent I'm very concerned about what we're doing that these beautiful children will have to deal with and clean up.
Cheers, Steve. XRWA Grandparents member.

[JeffreyRGriese]

even at 1.75x speed this was a slog. 50 minute video of us watching a man come to the realization of what he ought to have known before publishing a book on food.

[janerossfield]

Half way through this discussion I ordered Tim´s new book. Can´t wait to read it. All so very fascinating. Thank you.

[andrevanderwalt]

Mushrooms: heard a talk by a real mushroom expert. He said that when they study dried mixed wild mushrooms one can buy everywhere, they frequently find new, unique types of mushrooms, some of which cause delayed reaction liver failure. One will never even know what caused it. Not everything natural is healthy.

[nicolacockett]

I've just fully signed up to the UK arm of the Zoe personalisation study and am waiting for my test kit to arrive. I feel excited that I will be able to learn what my body likes and dislikes, so to speak. I have my suspicions, but for example I would not have thought that porridge might be a tricky customer. I experience massive energy lows, to am really keen to figure out why.

[spanishpeaches]

This is interesting. My wife is from Macedonia and they have a salad with all main meals. Thus, from the earliest age our kids were introduced to salads and all veggies. They both eat lots of veggies and salads now even in their early 20, s.

[carmelgrace]

Thank you ! it's wonderful that you take the time to share this information!

[barbararowley]

Re:calcium and bone health - my 85yo, former RN, Aunt improved her bone density by regularly taking a boron supplement after reading research suggesting that was much more effective for bone health than calcium alone. Even though there have been quite a few studies on the importance of boron for calcium uptake by the bones it doesn’t seem to have become common knowledge yet the way that the relationship between vitamin C and iron, for instance, has.
I have a minor autonomic system dysfunction, so sometimes have no appetite for weeks on end. Mushrooms can be a lifesaver in those times, as their high levels of B group vitamins seem excellent at restarting appetite cues.

[doctorjenny]

Living as I do in Islamabad, we don’t have the choices you do, but the adage ‘ Eat (real) foods, not too much, mainly plants’ has really helped me as a guiding principle.

[jakesyaseen]

For a better life keep striving and searching for a healthy diet never give up keep striving and searching over and over again from Johannesburg South Africa 👍💕

[glyndk]

I was happy to hear "what is good for the planet" mentioned as one of Tim's considerations, as one of my questions of the Zoe recommendations was if avocado is so good for you, we would encourage everyone to eat it more, but it would not be sustainable in terms of transporting avocado to every corner of the world. In other words I am glad to hear that personalisation done well also means taking into account what ingredients are available to you in terms of both cost and carbon footprint.

[coventgarden]

Huge surprises from a guy who, until today, I thought lived in an academic ivory tower remote from real life issues. Hopefully Tim will now continue to address some questions which we face every time we go shopping AND discuss how we can balance nutrition with weight loss. It took years but he's starting to get real.