Food for Life: The New Science of Eating Well, by the #1 bestselling author of SPOON-FED

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In Food for Life Tim Spector draws on over a decade of cutting-edge scientific research, along with his own personal insights, to deliver a new and comprehensive guide to what we should all know about food today. I just read Chris Van Tulleken's book on UPF and he mentioned Tim's book here a few times so I thought I would give it a go. Practical tips: Each chapter concludes with bullet-pointed tips, offering concise and practical advice for readers. These tips make it easier to apply the knowledge gained from the book to everyday life.

Other findings seem counterintuitive, but are often deliciously reassuring. Two cups of Americano coffee provide more fibre than a banana. You can reheat rice; unopened mussels won’t kill you; and eating meat doesn’t give you cancer (though “replacing 30% of traditional burger meat with mushrooms or fungi would be the equivalent of taking 2m cars off the road”). Some sources of nutrition are more beneficial together, like corn with beans, or “a glass of red wine daily with friends”. Replacing sugar, salt, fat and gluten with weird and untested chemicals is usually pointless and probably dangerous, and the 1980s advice to change butter and cream for margarines and vegetable oils was “one of the biggest health scandals ever”. The big environmental impact is that we would replace the vast animal facilities of pigs and cattle with huge complexes of industrial bioreactors with wind turbines and solar panels. On a plus side we can manipulate the stem-cell meat to be healthier, by adding polyunsaturated fatty acids such as omega-3, for example, altering the culture medium to replicate the effects of grass, or lowering the fat content." Food is our greatest ally for good health, but the question of what to eat in the age of ultra-processed food has never seemed so complicated. Bestselling author and scientist Tim Spector offers clear answers in this definitive, easy-to-follow guide to the new science of eating well. There are a couple of things I really like. At the end of the food chapters there are TLDR bullet points with some key takeaways on managing your intake of all the food groups. I also liked the debunking of many of the tabloid stories about superfoods and all the things that supposedly cause cancer (what Ben Goldacre used to refer to as the Daily Mail's "Oncological Ontology Project"). This isn’t by any means a book on dietary regimes, but it provides the latest evidence from respected academics on all areas of food that enable the reader to make informed choices.Tim Spector has pioneered a new approach to nutrition, encouraging us to forget misleading calorie counts and nutritional breakdowns. In Food for Life he draws on over a decade of cutting-edge scientific research, along with his own personal insights, to deliver a new and comprehensive approach to what we should all know about food today. With a publication record of over 600 research articles in esteemed journals like Science and Nature, he is at the forefront of global genetic consortia and leads research on epigenetics. As an author and media presenter, Spector actively shares his expertise with both scientific and public communities. Food for Life" had me rethinking some of my ideas on food and should form a valuable basis for making food choices. Part one of the book focuses on our gut, the microbiome, and our attitudes to food. The second part looks at various foods, including meat, seafood, fruits, vegetables, fungi and mushrooms, nuts and seeds, and more, outlining what we know about their benefits or not. The book presents scientific information in a clear and understandable manner, and the writing style is easy to follow.

From the bestselling author of Spoon-Fed and The Diet Myth, a comprehensive guide to the new science of nutrition, drawing on Tim Spector's cutting-edge research. Combining cutting-edge research with a personal insights, and taking a wide angle lens on everything from environmental impact and food fraud to allergies and deceptive labelling, Spector takes a deep dive into each food type. Food for Life also includes easy-to-implement action points and useful tables as practical tools in our everyday food decisions, presented in a novel and comprehensive format. Ultimately, this book encourages us to fall in love again with food and celebrate its many wondrous properties, which science is still only just beginning to understand.

Drawing on cutting-edge research and personal insights, Professor Tim Spector offers clear answers in this definitive, easy-to-follow guide to the new science of eating well. A] weighty and detailed guide to modern living... [Spector] explains how to boost your microbiome and tailor your diet. Sunday Times, *Books of the Year*