Why you should eat more to stay heathy
Gut health expert Tim Spector offers his advice on Saga’s new podcast, Experience is Everything.
Gut health expert Tim Spector offers his advice on Saga’s new podcast, Experience is Everything.
From calorie-counting to keto, from veganism to no carbs, we’re constantly being bombarded with different advice when it comes to what we should be eating. And we’re always told that when it comes to portion size, the smaller the better.
However, Professor Tim Spector, 67, disagrees with that and says that what we put on our plates is more important than how much. In fact, he believes that if we’re eating the right things, we can have a lot more of it.
Spector – co-founder of ZOE, the science and nutrition company – was speaking to Jenni Murray on Saga’s new podcast Experience is Everything.
During the chat, he discusses the impact his father’s sudden death had on him, suffering a mini stroke in his 50s, why he couldn’t stay vegan and getting a second chance at life after his helicopter crash, as well as what is important when it comes to diet.
“I get hundreds of people coming up to me and saying how my books or the podcast have changed their lives and their family’s lives,” Spector tells Jenni on the podcast.
“I can say some people will find it difficult, but many who are looking for a new way to think about food and nutrition and dieting and health will embrace it because it’s actually empowering because it’s not about limiting food. It’s not about diets. It’s not about calorie restriction.
“It’s actually about enjoying food more. It’s putting more on your plate because generally your microbiomes want more different plants. They want more diversity. They want more spices and herbs and interesting foods. They don’t want restriction.
“So, it’s a message of abundance and pleasure, really. I think If you can get people to understand the link, then it’s relatively easy.”
Gut microbiome refers to the community of microscopic bugs that live in your body, with 99% living in the lower gut. Spector says it is important to understand them and then make our food choices around them as they have so much impact on both physical and mental health.
“They pull out chemicals that are key for our body,” he says.
“And those chemicals interact with our immune system, most of which is in our gut. And that’s important for reducing the speed of ageing, reducing things like cancer and controlling allergies and autoimmune disease.
“But they also send signals to our brain and that stops us getting depression, dementia. reduces inflammation in the brain, many other diseases, and it affects our metabolism, also controls how hungry we are, our weight control, reaction to sugars and getting diabetes etc.
“So fully that you can’t live without these microbiomes. And that’s really why I think it should be central to the foods we pick, not based on rubbish ideas like calories and things like that.”
Spector speaks about the importance of having 30 plants a week in your diet, which he insists is easier than it sounds.
“What most people don’t realise is, how do you define a plant? It doesn’t mean you’ve got to eat 30 types of kale. It’s a plant, it’s a fruit, it’s a vegetable, it’s a nut, it’s a seed, it’s a herb, it’s a spice. Even green or red peppers count as different species. So, once you get that concept, it’s actually not that hard to eat 30.
“And we did some studies a decade ago showing that around 30 was the sweet spot and we’ve done studies with Zoe similarly showing that the greater the range of plants you eat, the healthier your gut is.”
You can listen to Tim Spector’s chat with Jenni Murray for free, as well as previous episodes with Paul Merton, Tony Blackburn and Sir Trevor McDonald.
(Hero image credit: Saga)
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