Eating for your Unique Biology | Dr Tim Spector | The Proof Podcast EP 224
In Episode #224, I sit down with Dr Tim Spector to discuss eating to optimise your specific biology.
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When we place so much focus on population-level data for health outcomes, it can be easy to lose sight of the unique biology that defines the way each person interacts with food. Dr Tim Spector joins me today to discuss how personalised nutrition may be the key to unlocking the healthiest version of ourselves.
Dr Tim Spector is a medically qualified professor of epidemiology, director of the TwinsUK Registry, and co-founder of data science company ZOE. He is ranked as one of the top 100 most cited scientists, having published more than 900 research articles. His current work focuses on the microbiome and nutrition, positioning him as an expert in the field.
In today’s episode, we establish what personalised nutrition is and why it is so important. We discuss research on twins, exploring nature versus nurture; the role of the microbiome in health outcomes; and whether conditions such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes are genetic. Dr Spector also offers advice on adapting your diet to your specific needs.
Specifically, we discuss:
0:00 Intro
2:33 The Twin Study
7:24 How Medicine Has Changed
13:30 Obesity: Genetics & The Microbiome
23:36 How much Genetics plays a role
32:36 Zooming in on the Microbiome
54:37 Big Picture
1:05:30 Artificial Sweeteners
1:14:58 Changing the Microbiome
1:18:18 Blood Glucose
1:26:40 Blood Lipids
1:32:22 Vision for the Future
1:35:45 Outro
This episode adds important nuance to a broader conversation. As Dr Tim Spector says in this episode, individualised nutrition is another tool you can use to feel your best. It represents an important mindset shift in nutrition conversation and can help people feel more empowered in their food choices.
Nutrition science can be overwhelming, especially with so much conflicting information available. I hope you gained value from this conversation as we draw focus away from calories and towards other factors including gut microbes, nutrients, and food quality.
Connect with Tim:
• Instagram: instagram.com/tim.spector...
• Twitter: / timspector
• Website: tim-spector.co.uk/
• Website ZOE: joinzoe.com/
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Enjoy, friends.
Simon
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I discovered your podcast Simon by listening to Dr. Will Bulsiewicz on a Zoe podcast about the gut microbiome - that started my fascination with everything to do with personalised nutrition, the gut microbiome and lifestyle. I think Dr. Tim Spector is incredible. The research that he is involved in is changing science. His book, Spoon Fed, is a must read as it busts so many common myths about food. His advice to add diversity to your diet, to eat predominantly plant based whole foods and to minimise ultra processed foods should replace the standard dietary guidelines of most Western countries. I cannot wait for your next interview with him :)
So interesting this subject! As a retired RN, I can see how traditional medicine has failed us in the last 50 years. Personally and professionally food IS the key to our taking our health into our own hands. As much as we can control ingredients or the way big agricultural has altered how food is grown or processed for the worse. My trust of all of it is nearly naught by now. Science is our way forward in humans. We have been the Guinea pigs for big pharma and big agriculture and even medicine. People need to help fund research. Human survival is in the balance if we don’t get a handle on these diseases.
Fabulous! I just joined the ZOE study and can hardly wait to get started and see the results! So happy that the word about the microbiome and nutrition is getting out!
Great interview Simon. Tim Spector has been brilliant with communication throughout the Covid pandemic and his work with Zoe and the gut microbiome is very interesting. Thank you once again for asking excellent questions and sharing the best available science with the public 👍
Simon, you're doing a great job selecting your guests. Thanks for this information from today's guest. Very helpful and enlightening. One day the doctors and others involved our health will actually wake up to the real role of food and nutrition in our health and well being.
Amazing video!🔥🔥🔥 tons of knowledge dropped! Thankyou🔥🙏✌
Good 94
Your interview with Dr. Tim Spector raised this Q?. From time to time humans take antibiotics to kill infections such as pnuemonia. At the same time it is reputed these antibiotics also kill bacteria in the micro biome. Is this true? Ancillary to this: where in the digestive tract are antibiotics absorbed ?
Great video, as always, Simon! My question on this one is related to his critics to the dietary guidelines. I've missed specificity when criticizing them. I mean that because when you make a claim that all the guides nutrition on a population level, for such different populations (developed countries, emerging countries, poorer nations, etc.) suck hard, you need to be more specific. That has a potential too big for a shit in the fan in order to just make "claims that are very 'clickable' but not well explained". I'd sure love to hear your take on this and other key points on the video! I know some topics you deepen with Drew later but it would be nice if you could summarize your opinion after each guest. What has confirmed your view? What changed your view? What intrigued you? The guests are all great but your take on their point is very valuable to us!
@@TheProofWithSimonHill definitely agree with you on this! I mean, we might be very excited about new microbiome findings, but I think maybe he went overboard when said that guidelines are terrible while population eat very poorly. Glad to know you had this one in your radar! Thanks for the attention here and the awesome work!
I do agree that the guidelines are misleading. People reading them don't realize just how fiber deficient they generally are. My parents eat/ate according to the guidelines, yet one is dead (colon cancer) and the other has been on heart medication for decades.
My take on personalised nutrition is that it ignores much of the flexibility of the microbiome.
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My slightly facetious take. When blood lipid monitors become prevalent, people will then be scared to eat fatty foods as well as carbohydrates. This should be a positive for many people, simply by reducing calories in the diet. :-)
Unfortunately, since “personalised nutrition” isn’t really possible yet, at the moment it seems more like an extra excuse to dismiss the current generalised health/nutrition advice and guidelines.
@@TheProofWithSimonHill true, although since it will take a long time until it will available for the masses, saying that the current recommendations are junk (pretty much) is a little problematic. Also, if I’m not mistaken, he didn’t seem to consider LDL-C a good predictor of health outcomes. Is there a reason for example that the lipid monitoring that he suggested would be triglycerides and not LDL? Is it for example more practical as a test? Thanks! Love the podcast.
I just read the book and it contains a lot of useful tidbits. However, I have family history of heart disease, independent of weight and even blood pressure. From that perspective this book is rather unhelpful. My hypothesis is that we're not good at regulating cholesterol metabolism, and absorb it easily. Consuming it through eggs just doesn't make sense. Focussing on a high fiber diet does. Spector just blatantly throws that reasoning into the dustbin. What I do get from this book is a view into the complexities of trying to help whole populations to a better diet. That's clearly a minefield. For the details, personalised nutrition does make sense. In general, I guess I agree that a whole food, mostly plant based diet should be the starting point for everyone. Personally I landed on a fully plant based diet. If only for the clarity of the position. No wondering how many eggs a week is safe. I just don't eat them. One choice less to make. Helps me focus on enjoying the various ways to make beans tasty. 😊
So our gut micros are saying eat many foods we have never been able to do in the history of our species? Really?
@@TheProofWithSimonHill what how many vegetables were there that you could eat during ice ages in the wild? How many of all those different foods can you get without refrigeration from other countries in the middle of winter?
@@Damudean in the 70s there was info that said you should only eat the stuff that grew near you i.e Apples vs Oranges in Canada. Recently food from a 100km radius is popular. So no bananas for me😊
@@TheProofWithSimonHill but we didn’t just survive we thrived, we keep Ed getting big, stronger and and brains kept growing. What happened to our brains once we started eating wheats?
@@Damudean maybe we thrived in terms of short term athleticism and resiliency but not in terms of health span, living healthily to an old age like 100. An example I can think of is a pet. My sisters pet rabbit is 10 and still looks very young. He gets fruit treats that a rabbit would not get in the wild. In the wild rabbits are more active eat a more natural diet yet if they do survive all the predators they still die of old age by 6 years old.
@@Damudean the Last Glacial Maximum peaked around 20,000 y.a. average global temps were 10 degrees F (6 C) colder than now. Canada & Northern Europe covered with ice. plenty of plants and animals in other regions. Pleistocene diets were all seasonal and ecosystem-based.