Dit boek is een tegengif tegen de sprookjes over voeding die we ingelepeld hebben gekregen en waardoor we alsmaar ongezonder en ongeruster zijn geworden. Het gaat over een andere manier van denken over voeding en dieet, en laat zien dat iedereen een individu is, in plaats van de ‘gemiddelde’ persoon voor wie de richtlijnen bedoeld zijn. One of the world’s leading scientists of food and nutrition reveals why so much of the current advice about food and nutrition is dangerously inaccurate, misleading and often downright wrong. But the greatest hope for better diets, he suggests, is in education – something not covered by the government’s new policy paper. “We need to be teaching our children about real and fake foods with the same zeal that we teach them how to walk, read and write.” If Spector is right, then knowing how to recognise real nourishing food when you see it is a far more useful life skill than mindlessly counting calories. Spector concludes with a galvanising call for governments around the world to think differently about food, to ditch the pointless calorie counting on menus in favour of policies that could actually make it easier for people to eat a healthy diet. The unanswered question is whether any UK government will ever be brave enough to enact the radical food policies that are needed, rather than simply slapping a calorie label on a menu and leaving consumers to their fate. Even calorie counts, which I believed to be the most basic and indisputable of food-related facts, are shown to be hardly more than estimates, as well as largely irrelevant when it comes to their effects on individual consumers. Not only is it hard to carry out long-term nutritional studies on human subjects with any degree of accuracy, but our responses are so different that Spector is able to call the ‘assumption we are all identical machines’ the ‘most prevalent and dangerous myth about food’. This is, however, where Spector is able to offer a glimmer of hope for the future, in the form of a project he’s working on with a commercial nutrition company to develop personalised products for the consumer market. Although I appreciate and share his excitement, by the fourth or fifth mention it does begin to feel like little more than a plug. The other minor quibble I have with this otherwise impressively digestible book is the unquestioning use of terms like ‘artisan’ and ‘quality’ to mean healthy. Spector understands the importance of making good food options more attractive and accessible to those with limited resources, yet sentences like ‘I think heavy and binge drinking should be targeted, not those relaxing over a leisurely meal with a fine glass of wine’ risk coming across as both blinkered and entitled.

I especially appreciated how Tim Spector criticises the food industry's sinister tactics in marketing certain foods as healthy that are actually full of sugar and additives. Of course, it's ultimately up to the individual to manage their food choices, but there are so many underhand tactics that big food companies use to confuse the general public and it's nice to see someone calling out their bullshit.Fish oil; Results from a 2018 US review of 10 large high-quality studies found there was no effect whatsoever of fish oil supplements on risk of heart disease or stroke, and they should not be recommended. A UK review of 112,000 people in 9 trials showed taking long-chain omega-3 (fish oil, EPA or DHA) supplements does not benefit heart health or reduce risk of stroke or death from any cause However, his aim in this book is not to give advice. Our gut microbiomes are so different that, in human studies, there is an “eight- to tenfold variation in individual insulin, blood sugar and blood fat responses to the same meals”, and so every person’s ideal diet is different, and should be based on sensible choices from a position of knowledge. Scientific research is just catching up on fields if the microbiome proving that everyone is unique and there is no One True Diet that works for all

A diverse Mediterranean-style diet with a range of fermented foods to keep your microbes happy is looking like the best present you can offer your brain Our bodies can’t deal with a large dumping of a chemical supplement in our intestines in the way they can process and absorb them from natural foods Stravovanie berie ako dôležitú súčasť našich životov a tak, ako je každý z nás iný výzorom a povahou, na každého platí v stravovaní čosi iné.Regular bursts of activity raising our heart rate reduces heart disease, high blood pressure and levels of blood fat You can get enough vitamin D from 15 mins of sunlight exposure, or by eating a fillet of oily fish such as salmon, or a handful of vitamin D-rich mushrooms It's this sort of evangelical approach that detracts from any clear science-based message that Spector is trying to convey. It feels like he has selectively used research data to support his views, which is a criticism he levels at the food industry. For any reader with a degree of scientific literacy, this will come as a disappointment. A professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, Spector has spent much of his career researching how our life choices and events fuse with our genes. In 1993, he founded the UK Twins Registry at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, one of the richest collections of data about identical and non-identical twins in the world.

I think heavy and binge drinking should be targeted, not those relaxing over a leisurely meal with a fine glass of wine Spector, a professor of genetics at King’s College London and author of The Diet Myth, says: “I have been astonished to discover how much of what we are told about food is at best misleading and at worst, downright wrong and dangerous to our health.” This is important, Spector explains, because chronic inflammation may increase the risk of various diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers. It may also steer people towards laying down more body fat, which in turn then produces more inflammation.I was HORRIFIED to learn how many people in developed countries refuse to drink perfectly fine tap water and instead go through multiple plastic bottles per day (I'm looking at you, USA). Also mortified to realise that so many of the 'food facts' I believed growing up are in fact twisted truths from studies entirely funded by major food companies with an agenda, like dairy, cereal or soft drink companies. Spector describes the changes he’s made to his diet as “an evolving process”. He only eats meat about once a month, while concerns about sustainability means he only has fish occasionally, at restaurants: “I wouldn’t say I suddenly had the answer when I discovered the microbiome, but I’ve slowly been changing the habits I had when I was a smug doctor thinking that I knew everything.”As well as a desire to nurture his “inner garden”, his dietary choices are motivated by the insights he’s gained from monitoring his personal responses to different foods. This is why he eschews large amounts of pasta, rice and potatoes – not because they are inherently unhealthy, but because using a continuous glucose monitor has revealed that they produce worryingly high spikes in his blood sugar levels. Instead, the book suffered from covering a huge range of topics not very well, dipping into just enough science to lose your concentration, but not enough to properly explain things - before coming to a hastily drawn conclusion in each chapter where the author finally makes up his mind what he was trying to say all along. Gratingly, 'the food industry' is constantly referred to in the plural, as are countless individual companies - and just in general, the writing style does not flow. The groundbreaking new book from Tim Spector, bestselling author of The Diet Myth and creator of the COVID Symptom Study app.

The nutrition revolution is well underway and Tim Spector is one of the visionaries leading the way. His writing is illuminating and so incredibly timely. Yotam Ottolenghi the uniqueness of individuals (one size [recommendation] does NOT fit all), and the recent increased understanding of the role their own unique microbiome plays.This book gave me a serious case of 'stop the planet, I want to hop off'. Everything is ruined. By marketing, chemicals, plastic, globalisation, profits, selfishness and mostly: GREED. The book describes our physiological relationship with food to dispel many prevalent myths and pseudo-science surrounding faddish diets. Tim explains that due to the way we change our attitudes to food over the last few decades, we are no longer exposed to the very microbes that are an essential part of our physiology. Food is our greatest ally for good health, but the question of what to eat has never seemed so complicated. In his new book, Tim Spector creates a unique, thorough, evidence-based guide to the real science of eating. Moving away from misleading notions of calories or nutritional breakdowns, Food for Life empowers us to make our own food choices based on a deeper understanding of the true benefits and harms that come from our daily transactions with the foods around us. A range of observational studies has consistently shown that a good diet, one high in plants and seeds and variety, is linked to reduced levels of depression.