Instant Genius - How making the right dietary choices can help to keep us healthy in every stage of our lives
Episode Date: May 2, 2024From the time that we are first developing in the womb right through until we are in our old age, the food we eat has a huge impact on our health and wellbeing. But exactly what should we be feeding ...our infants, how do the dietary choices we make as adolescents affect us later in life and how can we approach nutrition as we age to make sure we stay healthy for as long as possible? In this episode I speak to Dr Federica Amati, a medical scientist and head nutritionist at the ZOE project. We talk about the latest thinking on nutritional science she outlines in her book Every Body Should Know This: The Science of Eating for a Lifetime of Health. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Hello and welcome to Instant Genius, a bite-sized masterclass in podcast form.
Each week you'll hear wheel-leading experts and scientists talking about the most fascinating
ideas in science and technology today.
I'm Jason Goodyear, commissioning editor, the BBC Science Focus.
From the time that we are first developing in the womb, right through until we're in our old
age, the food we eat has a huge impact on our health and well-being.
But exactly what should we be feeding our infants?
How do the dietary choices we make as adolescents affect us later in life?
And how can we approach nutrition as we age to make sure we stay healthy for as long as possible?
In this episode, I speak to Dr Federica Ramati, a medical scientist and head nutritionist at the Zoe Project.
We talk about the latest thinking on nutritional science she outlined in her latest book.
Everybody should know this, the science of eating for a lifetime of health.
So could you just introduce us a little bit to our listeners, you know, what's your
background and what do you do? Yes, of course. So I am a medical scientist. I have a PhD in
clinical medicine research. I have a master's in public health. So I worked for many years in public
health at Imperial College, London. And I also have a master's in nutrition. So I've chosen
nutrition as the tool to deliver hopefully very effective public health interventions and
help people to improve their health through food because I found that to be the most compelling
and powerful tool that we have to hand to make daily changes for our overall health. And I also
write books. I'm very keen on science communications. So I'm head nutritionist, Zoe, and head up all the
science communications for them as well. Great. So that brings us neatly onto the topic of today's
conversation then. Your book, Everybody Should Know This, the Science of Eating for a Lifetime of Health.
At the start of the book, you mentioned a pretty shocking statistic that one in five deaths globally
could be prevented with improved diets.
So how have we reached this point?
That sounds terrible.
It's actually, it depends on what number you look at.
That's globally.
Here in the UK, we think that actually 80% of premature deaths and disability
could be prevented, so it's even bigger.
How have we got here?
Well, I think when you look at the past 50 to 100 years,
humanity has changed a lot.
The way we live has really transformed.
And one of the things that has transformed the most is how we eat, what food we have access to, and how we live our lives.
So this, you know, quite overused term of diet and lifestyle, diet and lifestyle, is very true in the sense that our diets and lifestyle have changed in a huge way in a very short period of time compared to sort of previous generations.
And our food environment now, especially in the UK, but also the US and European countries,
and other countries globally are catching up,
is shaping up to support industry
and support unhealthier eating behaviours.
So I think partly it's lifestyle, as I said,
so we move less.
A lot of our work is online,
a lot of our work is remote for many of us,
and those of us who have to work in sort of physical jobs,
often have shift work involved,
which we know is detrimental to our health.
But also our food environment is really not,
supporting us to maintain our health in the best possible way. And that's something that's becoming
more and more obvious. And there's more and more science to support that. So this is processed foods
and convenience foods. Yeah, I think there's a good opportunity here to distinguish between
ultra-processed and processed foods. So processed foods are actually really quite helpful. They mean that
we can tin beans and eat them for many months, keep them in the cupboard. Lots of processed foods are
incredibly healthy, majority I would say, and they help us to access healthy foods even when we
don't have access to fresh produce. So again, frozen vegetables, frozen berries, tinned beans,
and dried legumes, they're all processed. Ultra-process foods, on the other hand, don't seem to
really have any benefit outside of parental nutrition. So where we need specially formulated
nutrient mixes for people who can't eat food sort of normally,
So who need parental, nutritional, who need additional nutritional support in really specialist
healthcare settings, right?
In those settings, ultra-processed foods can be absolutely life-saving.
But outside of that, they have flooded our market and they don't often, the vast majority of
them, there's always the sort of 5% exclusion, including baked beans, which people love to
pick up on, that are quite nutritious, that's sort of 5%.
But the vast majority of them are nutrient poor, energy dense, hyper palatable, so super easy to eat, and don't contribute to our health.
So the emerging evidence continues to show that increased ultra-processed food consumption is linked to worse health outcomes across the board.
Metabolic, mental health, all sorts of outcomes.
So, you know, I think we're at that tipping point now where we realize that this huge group of foods that are everywhere,
are actually making us sicker.
Yeah, so in the book, you break it down into sort of different life stages.
So I thought it would be a good idea to have a look through these
and investigate each one in turn.
So first is a period that you call the first 1,000 days.
So that's a new term to me.
So what exactly does that mean?
Yeah, thank you so much for asking.
So I teach nutrition to medical students at Imperial College.
And in academia, talking about life course nutrition is quite normal.
but when you step outside of academia, it's new terminology.
The first thousand days is a very well-used term in research,
and it refers to the time period between birth and second birthday,
which is roughly 1,000 days.
And in that time period, there's a critical window of development.
And arguably, actually, three months preconception is also really important
because that's the time it takes for an egg and sperm to mature.
So this time period is where our entire bodies are formed in the womb, for example, so all of our tissues, all of our organs, the majority of cell divisions that go to make adults happen in this time period.
And what we eat directly influences the foundations of our future health.
So how we then navigate life later throughout our life course.
A lot of that work is the foundations are laid in the first 1,000 days.
And I'm so glad to hear that you haven't heard about it
because it just goes to show you that it's a narrative
that hasn't quite made it through to public health awareness
and it's such an important and critical time point
that we should really be supporting families and young children
to make sure they have access to the best possible nutrition
for this time frame during pregnancy
and then the first few years of life
where, you know, when you think about it, it makes sense, right?
all of your organs are created in the wing.
So it makes sense that what materials are available for that building right to happen
will impact the overall structure.
So the first thousand days I'm very passionate about,
you've read the book, you've seen how much I got about it.
And I think it's important for everybody.
It's not important just for people who are currently pregnant
or who perhaps have young families or thinking about it.
It's important so that we can also understand our own health
and our own physiology from our history.
and to support others around us that might go on to have children
or perhaps children in our lives that we love.
So it's this really initial time point.
It's where I wanted to start the story to paint the picture
of just how important those foundations are.
But then as you progress through the book,
you see that there are other opportunities, other time windows,
where we can still have a really big impact on overall health,
well-being and reducing risk of disease.
later in life. So a phrase you often hear when it comes to infant nutrition is breast is best. So
referring to raising babies on breast milk. So how true is that? It's true, right? So I think it's
polarising, but when we take the statement by itself, so when we say breast is best, we're not
demonising formula. We're just saying that breast milk is the best option. And evolutionarily,
that makes sense and biologically it's true. So breast milk where available is the best option
for babies to grow and to thrive and to have excellent initial immunological development, for example.
Now that does not mean that formula doesn't have a place, of course, in raising our children.
It is life-saving for many. For many families, it's the only option, actually. And it has been formulated
to make sure that children can grow and thrive with very carefully formulated.
amounts of carbohydrates, fats and proteins, added vitamins and minerals. So formula milk is
really tightly regulated. They don't differ much between brands and that formulation is precisely
calculated to support the growth of infants, right? However, breast milk is still the best option
for human babies and whether that's exclusively breastfed as the kind of gold standard
to partly breastfed as much as possible.
So even if it's just a couple of weeks at the beginning,
it always has a beneficial impact.
And I say that as a mother who has two children,
and with my first daughter, I had to combi feed.
So I had to formula feed her for my own health.
So it was no way trying to shame parents into thinking
that it's the only option, but it is the best option for health.
So how about moving on to solid foods then?
What are your top tips there?
So my top tips for moving on to solid foods is to really expose your children to as many whole foods as possible.
So they can familiarize themselves with tastes, but also colors, textures, shapes.
I think nowadays many parents are quite scared of feeding their children, they're not sure where to start.
And starting with vegetables and fruits, whole grains, and very nutrient dense foods like eggs, is a really good place.
Now, allergens are also a concern.
So there's lots of really good guidance around how to introduce allergens and at what age.
And if you have an at-risk family where perhaps there's allergies already present, there's
some really good guidelines on how to introduce allergens in a safe way.
Eating allergens throughout pregnancy and throughout breastfeeding if you breastfeed also
helps to reduce the risk of allergies.
So when your baby is ready to start exploring food, sitting them with you at the table,
letting them smush their fingers through your food, trying a bit of your strong.
scrambled air, grabbing a bit of avocado.
Texture, you know, initially it's all about making sure the foods can be squished between
your fingertips, reduces at any risk of choking, and letting babies have their own pace
at how they try things.
Don't fear exposing children to whole foods.
Unfortunately, this is sometimes unpopular, but do let them play with food.
It's a really important part of learning what food is.
And then lastly, children learn what food is safe by observing what we eat.
So in a home context and a family context,
the more you can expose children to like family meal settings or group meal settings,
the more they will learn from adults and from their peers or siblings,
what's safe, what's good to try and what's not good to try.
And again, going back to ultra-process foods,
the UK has the highest amount of calories from ultra-process foods in infants in Europe.
So try to stay clear of the
sort of melty biscuit, veggie straw.
There's lots of products that have come out for children and babies in mind,
for weaning, which they don't have the same benefits as introducing children to whole foods.
So if you're looking for a convenient snack, a banana is always going to be your friend.
And if you're looking to introduce children to a variety of different foods,
just try to remember to stay away from the pre-packaged ultra-processed foods
as much as possible and as much as available to you.
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So let's fast forward a little bit now then to another big period in life, puberty.
Yes.
So I find this is really interesting because obviously there's lots of different things going on in our bodies.
But also it's a time when we're perhaps starting to make our own choices.
about how we live our lives. So what factors can diet play here? Adolescence, I think, is such an
underserved period of life. We often, just adolescents are just a bit of a nuisance. And actually,
it's such a critical point. As you said, adolescents and, you know, people at that age start
finding themselves and their identities and making their own choices. At the same time,
there's often huge pressure on them academically to perform for exams. And there's also peer pressure
which starts playing a real role.
We can see that in the UK there's a big mental health crisis for this age group.
So how can food help with that?
Well, it's not the only thing we need to think about, of course.
It's complex, but food can really help to support with the physiological changes
and the brain changes that happen at this age.
There's a lot of actual brain structure change that happens
and supporting young people at this age with nutritious foods
and actually trying to minimize the risk of exposures to things like alcohol and smoking and vaping,
which is typically the age group that start to try these things.
The combination of those two can really help to support with good mental health,
and it can also help to support with the physiological changes, hormonal changes in young women.
Periods obviously lead to a loss of iron and other minerals,
so supporting young females through that change and letting them know that food can really help them
with their energy, with supporting their health as these things happen.
There's lots of moving parts.
Actually, food is really critical just to offer a nice stable foundation because everything
is changing.
So whilst we have peer pressure, social media, exam, stress, all these things happening,
underpinning it all with good nutrition can really help with immune system, mental health,
brain function and cognitive capacity.
And then feeling good about themselves and their bodies as they change as well is really
important. So often when I speak to teenagers, one of the things that resonates with them most
is that if they can look after their nutrition, they're also less likely to suffer with
things like acne and skin disturbances and things that really affect their self-esteem.
You mentioned iron there. Are there any other specific nutrients that we should be making
so we're consuming at this point in our lives? Yeah. So I like to think about foods instead
of nutrients because we don't really eat nutrients, we eat foods. But you're right, iron is a standout.
So iron-rich foods include things like prawns and salmon, eggs, red meat, dark poultry,
but also legumes, beans, lentils and green leafy vegetables.
Now, those foods also deliver on lots of different vitamins and phytonutrients,
so nutrients from plants, which can be really helpful.
Another stand-out ingredient, if you will, is omega-3 fatty acids.
So whenever we talk about brain health and brain structure
and maintaining good cognitive function, omega-3 fatty acids,
acid found in fatty fish are really helpful. So again, we go back to salmon. There's also some
seaweed that offers some omega-3 fatty acids for those who are vegan. So teenagers who are
exploring vegan or vegetarian diets, it's important to support them with appropriate supplementation
as well, specifically when we're talking about mental health and brain health, vitamin B-12
and omega-3. So how much of an effect do the dietary habits that we establish at this age
have on our later dietary habits, you know, do they stick with us?
Yeah, it's a really good question. So there's really good evidence to show that dietary habits formed in childhood, so early childhoods. So exposure's to bitter foods in the first few years makes you much more likely to actually choose bitter foods later in life. And bitter foods include things like broccoli, cauliflower, kale, things that we know are really good for us. Now, in adolescence, habit formation is really important. So in adolescence, when we're looking at the bigger picture of physical activity and lifestyle, as well as, you know,
nutrition, that's where the seed is planted.
So adolescents who sort of build a really good relationship
with keeping physically active and with not smoking
and not drinking excess amounts of alcohol
are much more likely to continue that into later life.
And in terms of nutrition, this is the age where
helping adolescents understand how to cook for themselves,
make meals that they choose,
that they find delicious and actually are nutritious,
is so helpful for them.
them when they eventually leave home.
A lot of young people leave home now and not knowing how to cook.
And that's actually a really big problem because when you go out into the world and you
don't know how to cook, what do you turn to?
You turn to things that are either adding hot water, microwavable, you know, invariably
pretty much ultra-processed foods.
So actually spending a bit of time in adolescence, just setting the foundations for like,
this is how you make your favorite meal.
So when you leave, you know how to do it.
It's so important.
And nurturing that love of cooking.
as much as possible, not everyone loves cooking, right?
For example, I'm a 20-minute meal person.
If you tell me that it's going to take me an hour and a half to make a meal, I'm out.
So not everyone loves cooking for a long time.
But just putting the foundations there really helps young people go into early adulthood,
well-armed with the lifestyle habits and dietary habits that can really support them into later life.
So let's jump forward again now then.
So I guess maybe, I don't know if this is true,
but I was going to say the longest period of our lives, I guess, is adults.
So I think this is a period at some point where some of us can let things go a bit.
You know, maybe we're busier than we used to be.
We're probably not got as much time to take care of ourselves.
Maybe we've settled down with a partner and we're perhaps not quite as concerned about our
appearance as we used to be.
So what sort of general key factors should we be looking out for here?
You're completely right.
Adulthood is quite long, isn't it?
Adulhood is quite long and it's full of responsibilities that we didn't imagine.
But there's quite a lot of variability in that adulthood.
So early adulthood, metabolic flexibility is high.
So we are able to get a little sleep and then eat sort of, you know, pizza and then still somehow be quite okay and relatively get on with it.
As we go into our 30s and 40s, that metabolic flexibility starts to weigh, and especially if we've kind of burnt the candle both ends quite a lot.
And we start to feel that physically.
Now, in women, there are hormonal changes that happen from sort of typically 40 onwards,
but for some it's from 30.
So, you know, premature menopause or early menopause is more common than people think.
And these hormonal changes really impact our metabolic response to food,
and it impacts our physiology, mental health and mood.
So actually, you're right, we also have increased responsibility.
Many of us focus quite heavily on our careers in this timeframe.
Some of us may also have children or choose to have families.
And it becomes a time where time is the currency that we start running out of.
Like there aren't enough hours in a day.
And so one of the things I talk about in the book is actually looking at our days as a 24-hour chunk
and making sure that we dedicate some time, say start with an hour,
to building meals that will nourish us and eating them preferably with somebody.
It doesn't matter who that is.
So that somebody could also be you with a book.
But avoid being on the phone or scrolling through Instagram or watching television.
So that one hour per day, when you consider that it could reduce your risk of many chronic diseases that we want to avoid by as much as 80%, right?
It's a worthy investment.
So you may have seen the before.
I also talk about the investment we make with food in our nutrition is one of the only guaranteed returns of investments we have.
we will certainly feel the benefit today and also in the long term.
So in adulthood, it's about embracing that change, first of all.
So many of the people I work with one-on-one clinically will tell me that I used to eat the same
thing and I trained the same way and I have the same job, but my body is responding differently.
And they often beat themselves up about that change.
When actually the fact that we're changing is because we're here and we're evolving into new people.
We're in a state of flux all the time.
we're not stagnant beings.
And I think when we embrace that
and we realize that we're supposed to change
because we are aging, we are changing,
we're evolving,
then we can be a bit kinder to ourselves
and actually instead of resisting the change
and beating ourselves up for not being the same size
as we were when we were 22
or why can't I run for as long
or why can't I eat whatever I want
and not put on any weight, all these things
or why do I feel tired all the time?
Well, it's because our bodies have changed
and our physiological needs have changed,
so we should embrace that
and actually learn to support ourselves
to thrive at any age
instead of trying to restrict
and beat ourselves up to go back to what we were.
So, you know, you may have got this from me in the book,
but for me, ageing is a privilege.
Not everybody gets to do it.
I lost my father young,
and it's not a given that we'll be here
into our ages and 90s.
So embracing the evolution of how we change physiologically
and then having the knowledge
to support those changes through food and nourishing ourselves is probably the sort of single
biggest step we can take in adulthood to really, really champion ourselves and actually embrace
that change and support ourselves in a good way. And, you know, as you read in the book,
also we want to avoid being one of those people who does die prematurely in later adulthood.
So when we start thinking about sort of 60s, mid-life plus, so 55 to 65, we don't want to
become one of those people. And some of us, of course, will. But if we can reduce the risk of
dying prematurely, then that is the investment we're making in adulthood. And my argument is that,
of course, as competing interests, I have the same thing. I have young family and I have a career
that I absolutely love and that I'm building. But we have to try to prioritize the time spent on
ourselves for our future health and for how we feel today, because we'll feel better today,
as a non-negotiable.
So, you know, doctor's orders.
Make sure that you have at least sort of one meal a day
that you've made with ingredients that you know, nourish your body,
and preferably enjoy them.
With yourself and a book, with your loved ones, with your colleagues,
find what suits you and what works for you,
but make that investment of time because it'll be worth it.
So we mentioned there the sort of time-poor environment that we live in.
I think a trap some people will fall into is
they'll think, well, I can have instant noodles and then I'll just take some supplements and that'll be fine. It's the same as eating whole foods. So what are they getting wrong there?
It's such a funny food culture. It's like this is quite a unique thing to the UK and the US. When you look at other countries, it's not as much of a option. You wouldn't even consider it an option. So, you know, multivitamin supplements and artificial supplements have a role to play for some people. So the classic example,
is taking folic acid, preparing for pregnancy and through pregnancy is known to be beneficial
to reduce the risk of spinibifida. It does not replace food. So take that same example.
In pregnancy, you take that supplement for that specific reduction in risk, but dietary pattern
of the pregnant mother has a much more powerful effect on the likelihood of conception, the success
of the pregnancy and outcomes for the baby. So supplementation is there and in some cases it's
necessary and helpful, but you can't out-supplement a poor diet. And in no world is replacing
meals with ready-made anything, to be honest, whether it's a pot noodle or an expensive meal
replacement powder, it will never compare to the beneficial effects of having whole foods.
Our body, we've evolved to eat whole foods, to smell them, chew them. In fact, even just the
process of chewing them and breaking them down through our digestive tract changes how we absorb
nutrients compared to drinking a nutritious drink, for example, right? So our bodies have evolved to
absorb different nutrients at different points in the gut, there's different enzymes and different
parts from different organs, and then our colon, our large intestine, has this population of
trillions of microbes that have evolved alongside us. We have such a long large intestine. We
of such a long colon as a species because we've co-evolved with our gut microbiome for it to break
fibre down from our diet and to make chemicals for us. It makes hormones, vitamins, short chain fatty
acids. It makes hundreds of chemicals for us to support our health. And when we take that away,
so when we drink a powdered meal, for example, there's no need to break those nutrients down.
They just get absorbed straight into the liver.
And there's no food matrix,
there's no complexity to the structure of the food
that reaches our colon where our gut microbes can do their thing, right?
So convenience has trumped quality.
And I'm not sure when that happens, exactly,
but as a time poor society,
when you look at the data of how much time we spend online,
how much time we spend on social media,
how many of us are watching hours of Netflix,
it's more that there's a competition for our time.
and therefore we become even more time poor
with the spare time that we technically have.
So that's why for me it's reprioritisation.
So listen, in some cases I'm fully aware
there are people holding down three jobs
and have caring responsibilities as well.
So this is not taking away from those individuals.
It's more, for the majority of us, it's a reprioritization.
And then for those who need more support
and making healthier food choices
and actually being able to access those,
that's where we need real political will to change up real environment.
So if you are somebody who does have three jobs and caring opportunities
and literally does not have a sperm minute in your day,
at least when you go to your local supermarket or your local off licence,
there should be a minimum amount of food available to you
that is minimally processed and nourishing for you to access.
And same in workplaces and hospitals and schools, right?
So if we start to make it super easy to access healthy food,
then this time poverty issue also will reduce.
Because actually, at the moment, in some cases,
you have to travel quite far to even get to a shop that will sell you fresh produce.
So the system needs to change.
And then for those of us who have the privilege of flexibility in our day,
our priorities need to change.
So let's move forwards a little more in time.
then. You touched on this earlier, and in the book, it's something that you call the Twilight Zone.
So what do you mean by that and what are the kind of risk factors that we should be aware of?
Yeah, call the Twilight Zone. Some people call it Sniper Alley, which is quite a scary.
Snifers Alley, yeah, I've heard that.
Yeah, so it's this period in life where we start seeing an optic in death rate.
So when you look at population data for the first sort of 55 years, 60 years of life, there is quite a steady line.
And then suddenly there's an uptake after the age of 60.
And I call it the Twilight Zone because usually the deaths that happen in that time frame can be quite sudden.
So heart attacks are leading cause and then quite aggressive cancers.
So the issue with that age group is that often is the result of decades, a couple of decades
of not looking after yourself.
So going back to this adulthood when we're time for, stress, stress is a huge factor, right?
We're stressed, we're time poor, we're not eating well, we're not moving enough,
but we think we're going to be okay because just 15 years ago we were 20, so it's cool.
So it's like that sort of mindset of just keep going, keep going.
You know, I think a lot of us also grew up with this notion that we'll rest when we're old,
you know, we'll just work really hard now and then when we retire, we can rest. And actually,
Twilight Zone is saying you might not get to retirement if you don't look after yourself because
there is this uptick and this is when the many years of not looking after yourself add up.
So when we think about this return of investment model where we're either putting a little
bit aside to help us save for the future or if we keep taking out from this bank account,
this health account, should we say, then by the
the time, the twilight zone, that time period is when you're quite likely to feel the consequences.
And tragically, as I said earlier, that's when my father passed. And it was a result of his
lifestyle from his 40s, sort of 40 to 60. He was under a lot of stress and didn't look after
himself. And sadly, he passed away from colorectal cancer, colon cancer. And it's when you
start to see these deaths from a sudden heart attack or from cancer. And we want to, you know,
adults, I think many of us start becoming aware of.
this, especially in high-pressure jobs and stressful lives, you can start to see the risk,
you know, slightly elevated blood pressure, slightly elevated cholesterol levels, weight gain around
our midriff, we're associated with visceral fat deposit, all these things are red flags
from our body, used to say, we need to change something here because we're heading towards
damaging our health and possibly premature death. So we've discussed an awful lot there. So kind of,
Other than buying your book, which I would recommend, by the way,
what sort of summary advice would you give to somebody who's listening?
Well, I think my advice is to reclaim the power of food as a real tool to improve our health.
So whether this just this conversation sparked someone's interest in just finding out more, actually,
what does a healthy dietary pattern look like?
What foods could I be eating more of?
or maybe you just haven't even thought about food
as something that's that important for health.
Maybe you're somebody who's really engaged in a really strict fitness regime,
but you haven't thought so much about food
or someone who just hasn't been part of their thought process.
I think my main message is that food really is, in my view,
and I think the data does back me on this,
food is the most powerful tool we have
to help improve our health
and to prevent disease.
So embracing that power and realizing that it's a tool we have in our hands, right?
So our dietary choice, what we choose to eat and how we choose to vote for people who care about food, right?
All these things, we have the power to change our food environment.
We have the power to change the food environment we create in our own homes and the food that we choose to eat every day.
And it's not about perfection, but it is about sort of having that moment of actually I can do this and I can really help.
help to support my health and my happiness throughout my life.
And I really want to encourage people to embrace the change
that we all go through in life and realize that aging is a privilege.
And if we can support our physiology, our bodies,
as they change as we age, we'll have a much better relationship
with our body and with our, we'll enjoy life more, right?
So if I know that I'm never going to be wearing my jeans
from when I was 18 because I have two children,
I'm a 37-year-old woman, then I will give those to charity and stop beating myself up
about those genes.
So just really be kind of 12 selves, embrace the power of food, and become more curious
about what happens throughout the life course.
How do we change?
What does it mean?
I think that education pace I'm really passionate about, and I really hope people become
curious and want to find out more.
Thank you for listening to this episode of Instant Genius, brought to you.
you from the team behind BBC Science Focus. That was Dr Federica and Matty. To discover more about
the topics we've just discussed, check out her latest book. Everybody should know this,
The Science of Eating for a Lifetime of Health. If you liked what you just heard, please
consider subscribing to Instant Genius on your preferred podcast platform. The current issue of BBC
Science Focus magazine is out now. Pick up a copy wherever you buy your favourite magazines,
or download a copy on your app store of choice. You can,
Also find us online at sciencefocus.com.
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