Thu, Nov-12-20, 10:22
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Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160
BF:
Progress: 109%
Location: UK
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Tim Spector: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About Food Is Wrong
From Dr Rangan Chatterjee's latest podcast:
Tim Spector: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About Food Is Wrong
https://drchatterjee.com/tim-specto...-food-is-wrong/
Quote:
It’s a bold claim: that (almost) everything we’ve been told about food is wrong. But my guest on this week’s episode of my Feel Better Live More podcast wants to expose some key myths surrounding what and how we eat. By the end of this fascinating conversation, I think you’ll be questioning much of what you thought you knew. And you’ll be embarking on a new way of eating that’s right for you.
I’m excited to welcome back Professor Tim Spector, who was my very first guest on this podcast. Tim is a professor of genetic epidemiology and Head of the Department of Twin Research at King’s College London. He’s a leading expert on the gut microbiome whose work has transformed what we know about nutrition and health.
When Tim’s research team surveyed 13 professors of nutrition and asked them to rank 100 common foods, they agreed on 50 per cent of them. The consensus was that vegetables, fruit and other plant-based foods (nuts, seeds, legumes) are healthy; ultra-processed junk foods are not. But when it came to the other 50 percent of foods there was no consensus at all.
So in his latest work, Tim has set out to highlight everything we really don’t know about food. He explains that so much of what we’ve been led to believe around calorie counting, saturated fat, meat and fish, and sugar has been manipulated by poor science, the food industry and advertising. He wants to get people talking, demanding change and, ultimately, to stop passing on this misinformation to our kids.
This conversation is a great way to start that movement. We talk about artificial sweeteners, the dangers of ultra-processed foods and how the food industry maintains that its products are healthy, simply because they’ve not been proven to be harmful. We discuss grazing versus gorging and the perception that you need to keep energy levels topped up all day. In fact, Tim’s research has shown that when people have a high-carb snack a couple of hours before a meal, their metabolic response is poorer at the next meal. Over time, this can lead to weight gain, hunger, low energy and increased diabetes risk. This is such an important finding to share. And yet the diet industry perpetuates the myth that if we don’t have a snack to hand at all times, we’ll have an energy dip, lack focus and we might even faint! As Tim explains, it’s the reverse that’s true.
With this in mind, we agree that huge change is needed in schools – chatting about why nutrition should be at the heart of the curriculum, how our children can cope at school without mid-morning and afternoon snacks, and why parents need more power. I agree with Tim that we should be teaching our children how to recognise real versus fake food with the same enthusiasm that we teach them to walk and talk.
We also cover the increasing body of evidence supporting fasting – whether intermittent fasting for one or two days per week, time-restricted eating over the course of 24 hours or simply skipping breakfast. If nothing else, he says, it’s a handy psychological trick that puts us back in touch with real hunger cues.
Tim’s overall message is that nutrition is highly individual. And I think his concept of personalised nutrition is very empowering. As Tim states in his book, ‘You are very unlikely to be average’. I’ve seen it first-hand with my patients, many of whom respond completely differently to the same ways of eating. It’s why I describe my approach as ‘diet agnostic’ and, like Tim, I’d actively encourage you to start experimenting with what, how and when you eat. I hope this podcast inspires you to explore what makes you thrive.
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