Go with your gut: why food isn’t just fuel with Professor Tim Spector, OBE

Podcast

Show Notes

Professor Tim Spector OBE is an expert on nutrition and gut health. He has been ranked in the top 1% globally for most-cited scientists, and in March 2020 he launched what is now the world’s largest ongoing study: the ZOE covid symptom study app. Since then he has gained more than 4 million users recording their daily symptoms and helped millions improve their health.

Diving deep into the world of gut health this week, Tim and I discuss how the foods we eat play a key role in our health. We talk about personalised nutrition and how you can optimise your health.  We cover how our nutrition can help increase our longevity and what drugs are on the horizon here too. I’m so honoured to speak to Tim in this episode, as he is one of the world’s top scientists in his field.

Grab a pen and get ready to make some notes! We explore how the ZOE data can inform our treatment of chronic disease, the foods that Tim swears by, and how we can all improve our gut health with nutrition.

Timestamps

0:00 - Introduction & Overview

5:35 - ZOE App

10:54 - Effect of diet on COVID severity

14:16 - Gut microbiome and the immune system

18:34 - Age-related microbiome changes

21:14 - Predict Studies

24:08 - Glucose monitoring

27:09 - The blue poop challenge/gut transit time

34:10 - Metformin

41:10 - Probiotics and mental health

44:59 - Probiotic foods

47:15 - Personalised nutrition package

54:20 - Reductionist view of food

1:00:36 - Improving your gut health

1:03:51 - Meaning of Live Well Be Well