The Science of Personalized Nutrition with Professor Tim Spector

Ever wondered why science seems to flip flop so hard on nutrition? 

Like, why wine is good for you one day...and not the next? Or, how health professionals can have such different views on what makes for good nutrition? Nutrition isn't one size fits all, but that's how we've been trying to study it. Until now.

I'm talking to rock star researcher Professor Tim Spector about how nutrition is influenced by the microbiome - and vice versa - and what it means for the future of truly personalized nutrition. 

Tim Spector is a Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at Kings College London and honorary consultant Physician at Guys and St Thomas’ Hospitals. He is also an expert in personalised medicine and the gut microbiome and started the famous UK Twin Registry in 1993.  He is the lead researcher behind the world’s biggest citizen science health project – the Covid Symptom study app for which he was awarded an OBE. This free tool has been used by more than 4 million people in the UK, US, and Sweden. The app identified new symptoms of the disease and risk factors as well as monitoring its progress to warn health authorities. The app is sponsored by Department of Health and Social Care the U.K. government department responsible for government policy on health and adult social care.

Through his work he has been given many awards and prizes and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and the Academy of Medical Sciences. He has published over 900 scientific papers and is ranked by Google as being in the top 100 most cited scientists in the world. He has published four popular books- including the best-selling Diet Myth and more recently, Spoon-Fed, a Sunday Times bestseller.  He writes health blogs, which have been read by more than ten million people and appears regularly in the media all around the world.

On this episode, we cover:

• How Professor Spector went from studying rheumatology to the microbiome and personalized nutrition
• How the microbiome changes in response to nutrition
• Which dietary factors cause inflammation
• How blood sugars impact feelings of hunger
• How scientific inquiry actually works and why it makes nutrition seem so confusing
• The inherent biases in nutrition science and how it impacts what we know
• Why calories don't actually count
• Can we predict our metabolic responses to the foods we eat? What the PREDICT studies tell us.
• How PREDICT lead to Zoe, a groundbreaking citizen science app that is helping us personalize our nutrition

This episode really helps give you a sneak peek into the world of nutrition science and will help quiet all of the white noise online. I would love to hear your thoughts - you can screenshot and tag us @desireenielsenrd @theallsortspod @tim.spector @zoe 

If you love it, please share it with someone you think would benefit from it!

Connect with Prof Spector

Website: www.tim-spector.co.uk

Instagram: @tim.spector @zoe

Pick up Professor Spector's Books 

Spoon-Fed (coming to US/Canada 2022)

The Diet Myth

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