When my wife was on her first rounds of chemo, operations, radio therapy and follow-up chemo, I made a concerted effort to cut alcohol. This meant I also dropped all evening snacking, as the two tended to go together, I regarded myself as being 'on-call', for all-night trips to hospitals. I dropped my weight from 15.5 stones to 11 over a period of months. Recently, I have been less controlled. Some severe family upsets, my wife having further cancer treatment for a different cancer. Frustrating reductions in personal mobility, plus increased pain and depression, have weakened my resolve to avoid alcohol and snacks. So, I have put back almost two stones over the past year, much of that in the past month. Our vegan daughter, who does not have my delight in vegetables and fruit, could not believe the way that my wife and I eat fruit, as a part of most meals. Our wide acceptance of many vegetables shocked her. My intolerances clashed head on with many of her food choices. I react badly to garlic, onions can be a bit hit or miss, and I must avoid spices. I prefer not eating, to being in pain. Gluten causes me no issues at all, you may pass me a nice sticky fluffy bun whenever you like. Breakfast is oats, oat bran and wheat bran, with raisins, plus fruit, with about half a pint of water, and a couple of pints of tea. I prefer to taste the things I eat, not hide their taste, with indigestible flavourings. My bottom line, is that it is less to do with anything else, but far more to do with the level of stress and depression that drives one to make choices over the amount consumed.

My testimonial- I am a middle aged woman, normal weight and I think, on the whole, I eat considerably better than the usual American diet. Over a year ago I added kimchi to my daily diet with very nice results. A few months later I added steel cut oats with walnuts, flax and fruit and it was like magic! My belly felt better than it had in ages and I just had an overall better feeling in my body. It was like I found the perfect food for my microbiome that I had been cultivating with the kimchi. The change was so pronounced I can't attribute it to anything else. Since then I have added a sprinkling of other fermented foods (I could do better), paid more attention to my fiber intake (generally beans and whole grains) and and eat 30 different plants each week (turns out it's quite easy). It's great!

Really appreciated a 'whole' conversation about this topic. Great to see your personalities instead of just raw data. Good to spend more time making lovely nutritious food as well as spending time listening. Fab guys, thank you 🥰

Intermittent fasting works for me. I've been eating in this way constantly for around 18 months and i have no intention of changing. Basically I don't eat until midday and I stop eating by 8pm. I also eat a balanced diet with plenty of vegetables and little processed foods. People need to stop thinking about a "diet" as a short term fix but as a sustainable way to improve our health in the long term. In other words something they will always do, rather than something to be stopped and started to lose weight in a panic.

When will the zoe personalised nutrition come to the UK?

Really enjoyed this.Great information from such personable characters.Would love a cook book or even just a few recipes from Christopher and Jonathan - maybe a collaboritive effort could fund two vegetarian restaurants -one on each side of the pond!

@Zoe. Very informative and encouraging. One issue with changing one's diet to more plant based and whole grain unprocessed foods its the high cost often associated with them and the preparation time. What do you say to someone with low income and a family to feed? No mention of the excess calories and harmful effects of alcohol in the diet. Red wine is often touted as being beneficial due to the polyphenols but actually there are better ways to get those than from wine.

Nice to see the experts getting excited about this topic. it is fascinating. next, I'd love to hear someone talk about garlic for an hour! :)

Hungry and bad habits always win. If you stop eating carbs and sugar, you will feel less hungry. I have been eating one meal a day since 01/01/2021. One year later, the result is amazing. I have lost 50lbs and feel great.

I’ve heard Dr Michael Mosley & others say very recently that in terms of insulin resistance & putting T2 diabetes into remission (I’m not diabetic) the best way to lose weight is rapidly. It’s all very confusing. I lost about 8lbs (before Christmas, haven’t braved the scales again yet!) by more or less cutting out biscuits & breakfast cereals & reducing bread, rice etc which I’ve found easier than expected. Trying hard to avoid added sugar but it’s everywhere!

I found the information and insights here fascinating. I am learning so much about what I eat and how introducing some changes can make a huge difference to my health and wellbeing. I joined the Zoe symptom study app to report my health daily to play a very small part in data collection . I have felt privileged to be invited to listen to so many experts in their fields and I have learned so much about myself. Thank you

24:58 “personal satiety” - New Scientist (week of 6 January 2022) has an article about the psychology of satiety. Appearance, presentation, flavour etc influence satiety; boring, bland low-cal meals led to poor satiety.

Really informative and interesting, the composition of one’s microbiome is crucial not just to weight loss or control but to good health overall in so many areas of the body. Can’t wait for Zoe to be available in the UK, I’m a retired medical microbiologist, shame really because if I was still working I’d be studying my own gut flora right now!

I know from personal experience if I eat low fat oatmeal for breakfast I'll be starving by 1030. If I don't eat breakfast, I'll be fine (and not hungry) until lunch. I've had dieticians look me in the eye and tell me I'm lying.

I wonder why the health authorities and the government fail to stress the importance of a healthy diet and lifestyle as factors that can significantly improve your health and resistance to becoming seriously ill from covid? Everyone can see the effect of huge rates of obesity and pre-diabetes in the death numbers for the US, but all we hear about is boosters, or masking and social distancing. Never a word about diet, and the dangers of processed foods. It's also odd that Tim doesn't put more emphasis on it, since he is one of the pioneers of research into the importance of the gut microbiome, and he managed to turn his own health around a few years back.

Learning so much from Zoe. Just hoping the biome test becomes available in the uk very soon!

The basic problem facing our junk-food society is about having (or in some cases making) the time to organise, prepare, cook & eat as well as Professor Christopher. Busy male & (increasingly!) female lives spent away from home isn't conjucive with such self-nurturing for the vast majority of humanity. Zoe needs to challenge this state of affairs in all its admirable work.

Very interesting. Pity Jonathan Wolf kept on interrupting Christopher, repeating what he just said, but in a less clear manner.

Sooooo interesting. Thanks! 3 questions: 1. If I follow the ideas above, does this give me a degree of protection against the deleterious affects of processed food? 2. Wholegrain bread: from a UK perspective, are we saying that it's not much better than white afterall? Is there a healthy bread? Eg sourdough? Granary? Spelt? Rye? 3. Alcohol: how does this fit into the picture?

I enjoyed listening to Christopher’s journey to get to where he is!! So sincere and I even laughed by the way garlic is a superb antibiotic !

I've lost 5 stone or 32.5Kg (and maintaining the loss) via #Fasting 20/4 Monday to Friday and having the Weekends off (feasting), most weight was lost before I changed to a healthier diet. #Fasting is now my way of life. Once you get used to it, it is really easy.

Really loved the conversation BUT WHEN will it be available in our area? (Gloucestershire, UK) So many people here are longing to join! Hope it will be soon. Thank you, despite the frustration of not being able to join the study yet!

I always enjoy hearing an open discussion from the middle of the two extremes. I have been eating low-carb and intermittent fasting for 2 years and 7 months and have had the most personal success of all of my adult-life regarding maintaining a healthy weight.

Can't wait for this to start in the UK!!

Looking forward to learning more about microbiome & health as more studies become available.

Found this fascinating... lots I already knew but very interesting to hear about fermented foods and microbiom

Brilliant! Thank you both so much.

Great Presentation. Thanks. I continue to watch each Zoe Podcast several times. This reinforces and reminds me to build better eating habits. Thanks again to the entire Zoe Podcast Team for all the innovative, actionable presentations. This podcast easily brings most of the current science together in an action plan. If someone asks, this podcast gives me several ways to help them improve their diet. The more I help others, the better I adhere to my diet plan. Aloha, Dave

Thanks. I did enjoy your talk but there are a lot of things I can't quite swallow (sorry for pun). I'm disappointed that all bread is being maligned now as highly processed, just because it is ground up grains. I think that makes no sense. Wholemeal flour has a lot more minerals and fibre than refined white flour, whether ground up or whole. I love to make my own wholemeal, fermented sourdough loaves with added seeds. I add kefir and my own sourdough starter to the mix and leave the dough overnight to ferment. That should also mean Vitamin K2 from the ferment stays in the bread, even though it is cooked, as vitamin K2 is stable under heat. Whole grains of wheat are also highly processed by being cooked until they are soft and jelly-like and all the proteins are denatured. I don't say they are bad for us and neither do you. What do we do with coffee if not grind it up very finely? Does that make it bad for us? They say dark chocolate has health benefits...Dr Li does anyway. What do we do to make chocolate?...grind the cacao beans up very finely. So chocolate and cocoa drinks must be highly processed too. Is the turmeric you put on your food ground up? I assume so. What about the cumin and other spice powders...all ground up usually, but apparently encouraged. How about cheese...a completely processed milk food from start to finish with loads of salt added on the way...but you say it's fine. I like it too, in moderation. Actually I put potassium chloride in my homemade cheese, which seems to work just as well and avoids sodium and also add milk kefir to add to the fermentation. Kimchi and sauerkraut etc?...lots more salt added, otherwise it goes bad but OK in moderation. Raw food devotees would no doubt think that all cooked food has been highly processed, especially scrambled eggs and cheese in a pan. The teeth were designed to chew and grind things up so it's not an unnatural way of preparing food to eat before it can be swallowed. Do you sometimes mash up the food or use a food processor to make an avocado (guacamole) or chick pea dip (hummus)? I certainly do. I would say that counts as processing just like grinding up grain. When you talk about wheat berries or fruit berries, or whole food like nuts or beans, you may eat them whole in an effort to present them whole to your gut, but I'll bet you don't swallow them whole, like dogs might do. You chew them up and mash them up in your mouth first to start processing the food, just as if you had mashed them up before eating. Even if you swallowed them whole like a medicine tablet or vitamin pill, the stomach would immediately start digesting the food with acids and enzymes. More digestion in the small intestine so that by that point your berries will just be a swill of mushed up food. By the time it gets to the large intestine, where lots of bacteria are waiting for a meal, it will be highly processed and have no resemblance at all to the whole food you ate. So the human digestive tract is one of the most efficient processors of all.

Thank you, enjoyed this very much

Really enjoyed listening to you both, and ties in with Tim's book The Diet Myth about the effects of microbiomes. I read recently an article about the Pandas change in microbiome during the bamboo sprouting season, where by just eating bamboo they put on a lot of fat, they think because of this change. Makes me conclude our microbiomes do have influence on our weight.

This was really so useful, thank you. I have been struggling a bit since being diagnosed as coeliac - I was doing quite well at keeping my Type 2 diabetes under control but the gluten free flours and breads create a real spike in my blood sugar readings. I also learned that I can't tolerate the avenin in oats. I will certainly be adding more fermented foods and nuts. But I would appreciate any suggestions for whole grains I can try now I've lost wheat, oats, barley and rye and spelt.

How can one get rid of processed foods that might be in the body? Really enjoying listening! Great fun too! Fabulous that you kept going and have made such a successful career!

There are different diets for different people, some people get very ill eating even tiny amounts of gluten. I cannot have wheat,(gluten), milk(Lactose) caffeine, broccoli or kale or other brassicas. I can only handle certain nuts like hazel nuts but I get on fine with peanuts (which are not nuts). I was always I’ll with various ailments wrecking my life up til the age of 61 until I got one test result and advice from practitioners to go on an exclusion diet adding just one food at a time. If you want to know the likely candidates here in the UK the ingredients marked in BOLD are the ones to exclude completely. I am still working on my diet to make sure I get alternative nutrients in my food.

What a long-winded way to become a Professor!

PLEASE make Zoe available in the UK!

Thanks so much for this. As I'm in the UK I can't do the whole Zoe thing but this was really helpful in what to ADD to our diet instead of what to take out. Intact grains, beans, nuts and fruit, here we come!

Clear and interesting but raises lots of questions 1) no mention that I recall of eat local... we are following much of the advice but to get avocados and blueberries and some nuts means buying from far countries. Always liked nuts and nut butters (raw where poss) but now eat loads. 2) idea that keep whole.. whether fruit or grain or veg.. yet soup mentioned. Not sure implications of pureeing veg 3) potatoes not mentioned but I believe release sugars quickly so if we do have them what way is best to make sugar release as slow as possible. Nutrition and diet are complex subjects and I look forward to learning a lot more about what suits me when I take part in Zoe. 4) In all the writings I see there is a lot about weight loss but not about how desired weight is maintained (in my case a greater weight than my current one). Does the body find a new equilibrium? Hope you will forgive so many questions and be able to answer them

Life is too short to spend an hour watching something that could probably be conveyed into 20 minutes.

Thank you for this very important information

People live in families. And it is very hard to change your diet significantly from all those around you. That is why portion control is so much easier to understand and sustain than changing your diet. I eat most things that my family and friends are eating but I stop when I reach 75 percent full. The stomach shrinks in a few days, and you no longer need the larger portions. You naturally eat ‘better’ because you are no longer eating to get full. And since you are eating less, you naturally slow down your eating and chew more.

Really interesting and useful information! Prof Christopher Gardner is so refreshing with a terrific passion. Loved it and taken away some really useful insights which I’ll incorporate into my diet. Thank you so much and to Jonathan.

Fascinating, so interesting and helpful

Zoe Test is taking forever to come out in the UK. Question a lot of gut specialists say all gluten and dairy is bad. But I cured my Gastritis with goat kefir . And what about whole grains like barley And real rye sourdough bread some say that’s good for the gut . It’s all so confusing.

Thank you very much - v interesting and it just makes sense. I cannot tolerate fermented foods and so I wondered whether supplementary probiotics are considered just as good? I’ve watched Prof. Spector talk about his research on beneficial bacteria for health and weight (e.g akkermancia) and I cannot find supplements that contain these kinds of bacteria…

I didn't pick up the reason some people put weight on during DIET FIT. I'd be glad to know. Very interesting that you've found evidence of fermented foods genuinely influencing the microbiome. I eat 'em but I was a bit sceptical that the bacteria could survive the HCl in the stomach.

Thank you

Wonderful. Thank you

18:43 "Why calories don't count" explains why calories DO count. Very funny. Too bad it gives many people the wrong idea.

Excellent!

Humans evolved to survive winter in many parts of the world. Elsewhere it's the dry season. Very limited variety, no fresh vegetables or fruit, going hungry. How does this fit with your advice?

Great talk and reminds me of what makes sense!!!

No pain no gain!

That was so interesting...can't wait for Zoe to come to the UK!!

I'm eating porridge every day and eating rye bread (I have a bread-maker). I love cereal and bread and these are healthier options, so I should be able to sustain it.

I’m currently on a Low FODMAP diet and I’m really missing beans and lentils. When I re-introduce foods back into my diet, these will be the first group I try. 🤞🏻 Can we have a cookbook Chris? 😘

I like this, I would like to send in some notes based on our mix Mediterranean diet. Wild food, free range eggs, organic local small holding grown food. It sounds brilliant.

I like the idea of improving gut biome by increasing the amount and variety of fermented foods as suggested, I wonder how well the bacteria in the fermented foods survive the gastric process though.

Couple of questions. Did your studies where some people lost and others gained weight on (ostensibly) the same study also record their blood type? I recall reading a book many years ago where they posited that A blood group tend to be more prevalent in hunter-gatherer (so would do better on, say, paleo and your cheesy egg breakfast) and O group in farming cultures (so do better on your oatmeal breakfast). Also did you ever study what role micronutrients such as chromium (which is used in the pancreas to help regulate insulin production, hence even out blood sugar) and selenium (which is low in European wheat, but higher in American wheat, and helps the thyroid to regulate the metabolism)? Would this also be linked to the microbiome as the bacteria may help the gut to absorb these nutrients better? Personally, I've managed to maintain, but not consistently lose weight, over the last 5 years, generally losing it over the course of summer and putting it back on over the winter months.

Excellent Podcast

I am concerned about the level of salt in fermented foods kimchi and sauerkraut. I have high blood pressure. Also olives, pickles

Very interesting - thank you. Can recommend Tim Spector’s two books for those who want more detail and back ground (The Diet Myth and Spoon Fed).

Thank u

Super interesting. Thanks.

You are what you eat!

Great information, well presented. Many thanks. A couple of Qs; does blending whole veg or whole fruits, into drinks ( eg kefir based shakes), affect their nutritional/health benefits? Does blending hemp oil affect its health benefits eg Omega profile? Thnx

Need ZOE in UK ASAP This video too rambling for me. Good article in UK Guardian today (Jan 9) naming James Lee and Carola Vinuesa from Crick Institute linking diet and autoimmune disease adding to a wealth of published data demonstrating the diet/biome/disease linkages.

So basically, Zoe promotes a vegetarian diet as opposed to having animal protein. I signed up for your program and was quite surprised that my results correlated with the Blood Type Diet. I am curious; is Zoe promoting plant based?

Zoé os fab although I wish one could also participate from other continents such as mine as I live in the north of Peru

I found the discussion about the DIETFITS study a bit misleading. The study STARTED with the discussion and training regarding the specified diet, but ENDED at nearly the same diet for both cohorts. Because of this, it is not surprising that the "average" dieter on each diet achieved about the same result. This was more a confirmation of entropy and human behavior rather than diet content. The mentioned variability of the DIETFITS study was indeed the highlight of the study, which I am sad to say has not really been advertised nor followed up on (until perhaps now.) The first study showed that genetics seemed to not be the cause of any differences, so now we move to the microbiome. To me, the range of responses to each diet is more likely due to pure adherence first and foremost, which a voluntary, self reported diet intake study will not really address. Some people do achieve great results on low carb/keto and others do great on low fat / Vegan, so one would expected them to continue to follow their assigned diet. I hope this next study continues to push the science along, however, I predict that the microbiome will also not prove to be the causative variable.

Vast majority of Diets are designed with the express intention of failing otherwise no repeat business add to that no two bodies react the same.One size doesn't fit all.

Why do Americans think it’s important to give you their full cv and biography?? It’s really not interesting, and makes you wonder why the person speaking feels the need to tell you ‘who I am’. The first 6 minutes can easily be missed….without missing anything of interest.

I am not convinced that eating natural fats makes people fat. It appears to me people think body fat comes from eating fat by word association. If I am wrong I would be genuinely pleased to know about the trials proving fat makes people fat.

Great discussion guys 👍

OK great but what do you do it you already follow a diet with good carbs, fats, fibre, fermented foods but still want to lose a few pounds after Christmas?

If 60+ % of an adult male body is water, why would anyone throw shade at someone who lost “water weight?” Wouldn’t it go without saying that the bulk of all weight loss will be water?

So your blend fruits or process items and it's not good, what about soup that is pureed vegetables...... Good or bad?

Where is this available as a podcast? It's not available on my podcast software.

Brilliant, I am off to make some kimchee and buy loads of nuts!

Is this available on Apple podcasts?

If I count my calories, I gain weight if I eat more than about 1250 calories. All those food experts talk about 2000 calories. I know lots of women who gain if they eat 2000 or 1500 calories. If I eat to satiety I eat less than 1000 calories if I eat low carb And If I eat more I get cravings after a few days. It is very complicated. I don't want to eat to little and I don't want cravings.

I understand what is being said about nutrition BUT we are missing our PRIMARY INFLUENCE on our HEALTH and that is OUR BREATHING. How do we become more healthy with our breathing... “Normalisation of breathing immediately triggers a healing process…” Dr Buteyko’s Discovery, Volume 1 Chapter 17: The First Handbook. If we normalise our breathing in the direction of reduction by means of doing LESS Breath Increasing Factors and doing MORE Breath Reducing factors Externally and Internally this will increase oxygenation of our Brain, organs and cells due to the BOHR EFFECT (The Bohr effect is a phenomenon first described in 1904 by the Danish physiologist Christian Bohr. Hemoglobin's oxygen binding affinity is inversely related both to acidity and to the concentration of carbon dioxide. Wikipedia)

LOVE beans and lentils but they don't love ME!! Terrible bloating and painful flatulence! any remedy???

I've been logging on the Covid app, how do I get involved in the diet app?

Keto FTW!

lost me at 5 seconds. We are all sustaining diets that are killing us. Don't be so trite. and i gave up carbs "temporarily" two years ago. I would not have tried it, if I had to commit to the rest of my life. It was temporary, and I realised that indeed, I good sustain it.

I'm afraid this was not the most useful video. I spent an hour listening to it and I don't believe any clear points or ideas were communicated. Will calorie deficit lead to weight loss? Kinda, probably, but the Chris's study shows calorie restriction did not matter... Nuts are calorie rich, should we eat them anyway? Not sure, but Chris sprinkles them on top of a soup... What the takeaway?

Nutrition science dosen't indicate you are a nutritional scientist.

Ha ha ha It would be oatmeal for me

Very amusing Too lengthy, too woolly Not specific enough Need to cut to the essentials and provide a written guide My summary understanding Stop having sugary foods and highly processed foods. Ensure enough fibre. Eat fermented foods: sauerkraut, fermented yogurts My stable weight has been 74 to 75 Kg for many years A few years ago I did the 5:2 diet as a test and my weight went down from 75Kg to 73Kg in 3 weeks. I stopped the diet and my weight stabilised at 74 to 75Kg I’m now 77Kg having put on 3Kg over Xmas & New Year and started the 5:2 diet this week.. I don’t get hungry but do enjoy beer, red wine, dark chocolate HELP and ducks flame wars

Sadly, not much to like here for me. The American diets he is talking about are a real turn off for me in lots of ways, far too many ingredients. I have a diet of bread, cheese, meat, potaoes and beer. All simple low processed whole foods.

Might sound too simplistic...but make sure you exercise daily,and go aerobic for 30 minutes.Dont be a couch potato!!!

You much intros! Lost interest already!

Ha ha

I've just unearthed some fantastic data for ZOE to assimilate and analyse. Number of adverse events after receiving no covid vaccines - zero.

A lesson in how to over complicate a simple subject….