Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee - #239 BITESIZE | How to Personalise Your Diet for Increased Energy and Better Health | Tim Spector

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today's Bite Size episode is brought to you by AG1, a science-driven daily health drink with over 70 essential nutrients to support your overall health. It includes vitamin C and zinc, which helps support a healthy immune system, something that is really important at this time of year. It also contains prebiotics and digestive enzymes that help support your gut health. It's really tasty and has been in my own life for over five years. Until the end of January, AG1 are giving a limited time offer. Usually they offer my listeners a one-year supply of vitamin D and K2 and five free travel packs with their first order. But until the end of January, they are doubling the five free travel packs to

Starting point is 00:00:51 10. And these packs are perfect for keeping in your backpack, office, or car. If you want to take advantage of this limited time offer, all you have to do is go to drinkag1.com forward slash live more. Welcome to Feel Better Live More Bite Size, your weekly dose of positivity and optimism to get you ready for the weekend. Today's clip is from episode 131 of the podcast with leading experts on the gut microbiome, Professor Tim Spector. In this clip, Tim explains why there's no one-size-fits-all correct way to eat and how we could all experience benefits from experimenting with what, how and when we eat. the science is now telling some of us what we already knew i think that's really powerful because i think a lot of us kind of know that oh the diet that my mate's on i kind of tried that didn't work well for me but your research i, has given that a lot of scientific validity now, which I think is very helpful for people. The big thing that suddenly hit about 10, 11 years ago was

Starting point is 00:02:11 the gut microbiome. Even in identical twins, their microbes were really different. And so suddenly I had a reason to explore that. And once I really went into the gut microbiome as this new organ that's really different, even in clones, and is shaped by our diet and our environment, suddenly that was a sort of aha moment that said, wow, if that's so important, then this is how we can really study nutrition. Everything starts to become explainable in a sort of modern era approach, as opposed to a hundred-year-old approach of calories, fats, and proteins, because it's down to the chemical levels, down to the interaction level, and you can suddenly start to measure it all. Also, that introduced this whole idea of this personalization, really coming from the uniqueness of our gut microbes.

Starting point is 00:03:06 I think there's two people on the planet that have exactly the same gut microbiome. And yet, when we compare that to our DNA, we are probably fourth cousins genetically. We share over 99% of our DNA with each other, but you and I are not going to share many of our microbes. Vast number of people do agree that eating plants is good and avoiding large amounts of regular ultra processed food is bad. And outside that, I think, you know, there is quite a lot of room for individuality and finding what works, not only in what you eat, but also how you eat. And I think that's the other thing that's been coming out of our studies is, you know, it's not just what you've got on your plate.

Starting point is 00:03:57 It's, you know, whether you break it into portions, what time of day, what you did the day before, how much sleep you got. It's incredibly complex, this whole idea. And once you throw all those balls up in the air, it's really interesting to see how the perfect way they could fall for some people and how others would do really badly through that mix if they get it wrong just because of dogma. Just because that's the way everyone does it around here that's the time everyone has their tea around here um i just want you know people to question all this stuff and start saying what works for you some people are morning people and like the dogma tells us you metabolize better

Starting point is 00:04:41 your carbohydrates in the morning you You break it down quicker. You get less of a sugar peak eating the identical food. And we compared lots of people doing this. But one in four people, it's the opposite. Wow. So some people are better off not having a large breakfast and having a lunch and a big evening meal like most people in the Mediterranean, those people will do better. So again, it's all about self-experimentation. There isn't

Starting point is 00:05:14 one size fits all. And there's many complicated bits go into food. And it's necessary to maybe deconstruct it all without losing the fun bits of eating. Because there is this huge social side that's really important. You mustn't lose sight of. I think the main thing for me is if I sort of, which what I always try and do is try and relay what you're telling me from the science and this kind of cutting edge science that you're involved with. And I'm sort of trying to relay it to what I've seen with my own patients go, well, how does that marry up with what I've seen? It really fits so beautifully that first of all, everyone's different. Secondly, it's about empowerment and responsibility in the sense that I think too many of us are relying on some external source to tell us what is the right diet for us. You know, doctor, you tell me what should I eat? And I think

Starting point is 00:06:13 we can provide guidance, but I kind of feel the only way to really own it long-term is for you to feel it and go, actually, you know what? I don't really care what anyone else is doing because when I have my breakfast at 10am and let's say I eat until I have a dinner at 7pm, actually, you know what? That seems to work for me. In some ways, it's interesting, isn't it? Nutrition always used to be taught to us by our parents or our grandparents and our local community. And as communities have become more dispersed and we've moved away from family, and of course, many of us have emigrated to different countries and set up new homes and new lives, we're now almost looking for scientists and researchers and doctors to tell us how to eat. And again, I appreciate I'm a doctor trying to encourage people to eat well.

Starting point is 00:07:03 You're a doctor, you're a researcher. But do what i mean is there something is that not in some ways part of the problem yeah we're we're it's the missing grandmother generation really you know yeah um yeah that's this cultural void particularly in the anglo-saxon world uh you know, since the Second World War, we just haven't had these experts who told us what good food was. This is good traditional food. I'll teach you how to make it for your kids. You know, this is what it looks like. Everyone knows how to make that dish, for example.

Starting point is 00:07:39 And they know what the raw ingredients are. They can, you know, chop the onions and and do it all and that is passed on and that still exists southern mediterranean has it northern europe doesn't have it but you know every single kid in in south korea knows how to make a kimchi and they eat it two or three times a day. And their grandmother has their own special recipe. And they pride themselves on knowing their national dish. In the UK, 50% of our meals are ultra processed. In the US, it's 60%.

Starting point is 00:08:15 And in countries like Portugal and Europe, it's 10%. Wow, there you go. And it's not because Portuguese are rich. For those that don't know, it's just because they don't have a culture of eating this kind of cheap ready meal, frozen foods that we've been overrun with. And it's no surprise that in Europe, you know, we are the fattest and in the world, the US are the fattest. It's a direct correlation. Yeah, I mean, you could almost, just that stat there with in Portugal, 10% of their food comes from ultra processed food, that could almost cut right through all the dietary tribal wars right there in the sense that is it carbs v fat v protein that's the issue or actually is it simply that the food that you are

Starting point is 00:09:07 eating let's make it minimally processed let's actually make it more close to its natural state you know it's hard for me to draw any other conclusion as i get in certain instances you can play around with macronutrients and get a good outcome i i get that i've done that before with patients but but by and large i'm not sure not sure if we're going down the right road there. The billion dollar food companies that have been setting the agenda about research have managed to avoid any decent studies comparing junk foods against normal foods. And they've continued to fund all this work about low calorie products, low fat products, and kept these in the guidelines without ever talking about this other sort of

Starting point is 00:09:53 element in the room. And they've had this vested interest in doing this. And that's why we're deluded into having ridiculous TV programs about calorie counting and the dangers of fats and this obsession on our labels, which most people don't understand anyway, which detract, again, from the quality. It really strikes me that what you're advocating using the very latest science is actually a back to basics approach. It's kind of saying, eat food that's been around for a long time, that's kind of natural food, that's as close to nature as possible. Play around with it, figure out which ones work best for you, other than eat more of that you know i don't mean to reduce down all the the incredible work you're doing but but actually i think that's a really empowering message i mean would you agree with that yeah with a caveat that i think i what i

Starting point is 00:10:56 believe in is diversity and range of foods yeah so one of the reasons i don't like people saying fish is a wonder food is that some people have sort of fish twice a day and means they don't get many of the other stuff because they're like the people who like carnivore diets, you know, fill their plates with meat. There's no space for anything else. Or the obsessional vegan who just has three types of kale. vegan who just has three types of kale. Anyone who tries to reduce things down to a few superfoods is denying themselves the diversity of plants that is really at the core of what I think is good advice, that we need to be having a much bigger range of foods, both for taste, bigger range of foods, both for taste, texture, the planet, but also for our gut microbes. Because to get your maximum diversity of gut microbes, which gives you the greatest health for your immune system and your brain and all the chemicals they can produce, you should be having around 30 species of plant a week. And so as long as you

Starting point is 00:12:08 stick to that, that can be back to basics, but keep it diverse. Do not get diverted down some narrow tunnel of propaganda or religious fanaticism about a particular range of foods, or this is super this or super that, or I'm only going for these B vitamins, or I'm only doing this. This reductionist nonsense is the new technology is making mockery of that. We're incredibly complicated chemical factories. Our microbes are chemical factories. You know, we've got 26, we've got 20,000 20 000 genes 26 000 different chemicals in food we we're producing you know we have thousands of species producing we'd have thousands of genes and all of these are interacting and so all our knowledge so far has been so reductionist

Starting point is 00:12:58 picking one vitamin one nutrient one of this and everyone thinks they're an expert because oh do you realize that you know how much phosphate is it it's in a carrot and you know and people often catching me out because i i've got no clue about you know because i i've got no interest in that because i i'm interested in the fact that you know a carrot has 600 different chemicals yeah and i we don't know yet. Half of it. Even probably more than half of it. We do know that if we just took one of them

Starting point is 00:13:29 and put it into a vitamin, made that in a factory in China and said, this is, you know, carrot vitamin, I could make a lot of money on it. But it wouldn't be the same as eating carrots. Yeah. I'd love you to think about some really practical tips that people can think about now at the end of our conversation they can think about applying them into their own life immediately

Starting point is 00:13:52 to start improving the way that they feel first thing is to realize that everyone's unique once you realize that um you can explain a lot of the way you interact with health and food and exercise and your environment. And you should be free to self-experiment. And I want everyone to get out there and realize the amazing amounts of good, interesting foods are out there. And it's really important that people remain fascinated about food and enjoy it because it's an incredibly powerful bonding human experience eating. So I want people to experiment. Try some new dishes you've never tried before. Try going for a week without meat.

Starting point is 00:14:40 Try doing things in a different way. The important thing to realize is that if you can start to think of everything you put into your body is important, not just for the pleasure it gives you immediately, your metabolic responses, but also you're feeding your aquarium, if you like, or your tank of gut microbes, they can produce chemicals to make you feel happy and relaxed and try and find that right balance. And it can take all of your life to find that. But if you can do it in a way that's fun and enjoyable, then that's the most important thing. Hope you enjoyed that bite-sized clip. Have a wonderful weekend, and I'll be back next week

Starting point is 00:15:26 with my long-form conversation on Wednesday, and the latest episode of Bite Science next Friday.

Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee - #239 BITESIZE | How to Personalise Your Diet for Increased Energy and Better Health | Tim Spector

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