How to eat in 2025: 7 science-backed tips | Prof. Tim Spector and Prof. Sarah Berry

27:58Yeah, I think as well, there's some really interesting new research, actually, Jonathan, that's come out about the consistency of eating. And this is fascinating. This is something quite novel. And this is really relevant to intermittent fasting. There's two different types of intermittent fasting. There's the time-restricted eating type that we're talking about, where you eat within a particular window. and then there's the intermittent fasting where you might go on a diet such as the 5-2 diet where for five days you have a really restricted calorie intake and then for two days you have an unrestricted calorie intake.

28:31What we're now starting to understand is that it's really important to be consistent in how you eat and so that's why something like time-restricted eating where you're eating consistently within a acceptable window for how you live your life is better for you than something like the other type of intermittent fasting where you're going from one extreme to the other. Our bodies are primed to be able to predict a typical pattern for you. So if, like me, I'm a snacker, I graze throughout the day, I try and have a 12-hour window because that's just what works for me, that's fine. Yet for Tim, who has a smaller eating window, longer fast period, and he doesn't tend to graze, he wouldn't respond very well to then flipping to my diet because his body isn't primed to do that.

29:18And it's similar as well to sleep, you know, so this idea of consistency in all these lifestyle habits makes sense for our bodies. And I feel like this time last year, you were describing this as very contentious and it feels as though you're sounding sort of more convinced than a year ago. And yeah, there's been more and more studies coming out this year showing that there's benefits. Even for skeptical old me, Jonathan, that I think there's enough evidence that I certainly will be looking to try and reduce my eating window to about 10 hours. Oh, that's a big thing from you, Sarah. We had a question from a listener.

29:57There was apparently an American Heart Association article which was suggesting that there were negative impacts of reducing your eating window. Do you have a view on that? That was interesting because that was actually an abstract that was presented at a conference. So this is before it's even been published as a full paper. Yeah, so most people thought that was complete rubbish. It was called observational epidemiology, which is the sort of lowest grade of evidence. And the newspapers never say, well, actually, there's 20 other studies showing the opposite. They just present that one. So I think it hasn't yet appeared in any paper, so we can judge it.

30:34But most of the epidemiologists are not worried that this is going to change this trend. So tell them not to worry. Tip number three, calorie counting is dead, but GLP-1 still requires healthy food choices. Tim. So for those people who haven't heard it before, calorie counting has been shown to be a complete waste of time and not effective for the vast majority of people who practiced it. You might be listening to this and say, I'm mad because you know people that have gone on calorie-restricted diets and lost weight. Absolutely, most people will lose weight initially when they go on a calorie-restricted diet, but the body has ways of altering not only our metabolism so we burn less energy, so we compensate.

31:24So you need to keep reducing even more of your intake to stay the same, but also it ramps up our appetite signals in the brain. so that it gets increasingly difficult to keep losing weight. And then you get to a point where your appetite is ramped up and you get hungry and hungrier. Metabolism's really low, so it's hard to burn off even the reduced calories you're having. And so virtually everybody returns to where they started or goes above it. So really this over-exaggeration of what the calorie is key and it's just all about choosing low calorie foods and you'll lose weight and keep it off.

32:06Complete nonsense. And it's changed our concept. And the thing that we hadn't focused on was the brain. We'd focused on metabolism and calories. And what's really totally changed this whole field is these new drugs, these GLP-1 agonist drugs, the azempic-type drugs, which are focused purely on receptors in the brain, the difference between hunger and your appetite level. So knowing when you're full. We call these satiety centers. And there's this tiny little bit of the brain that is very sensitive to these chemicals that are always there regulating when you feel full. Normally 20 minutes after a meal, you feel full, and people vary in this.

32:57So what these studies have shown, which have revolutionized the weight loss business, so that all these companies that were doing calorie-restricted diets and special packs, and et cetera, et cetera, have gone out of business or completely switched to just giving these drugs which are given by injection, which basically stimulate this gut hormone, which affects the brain. And that basically makes you fuller quicker. So it's changing that threshold. And tiny amounts of this drug have massive effects on your appetite. And that's why these drugs have revolutionized weight maintenance, weight control, diabetes, and all those other diseases with relatively small amounts of side effects.

33:49And nothing has ever come close to this apart from surgery called so-called bariatric surgery. And this has really changed our whole view of how important all these different things were on weight gain to focus it just on this bit about appetite, which is so crucial. And one in six Americans have now apparently tried one of these types of drugs. And we don't have data in the UK. Nobody's logging it. Very few people have got it on the NHS in the UK, but there's pretty much open access privately for it, but no one's recording it. And it's really important, I think, that people understand the mechanisms because it It tells us so much about food and normal food and how we're supposed to have mechanisms that make us, fill us up and switch off that appetite center.

34:40These drugs are doing it for us and liberating potentially millions of people from this sort of slavery to having really strong appetite hunger signals all the time that's been fueled by the food industry giving them foods that tickle their brain, tickle these appetite centers all the time, making it worse. And Tim, could you explain what's different today versus 50 years ago? The difference today is between a quarter and a third of the population in the United States and the UK are living with obesity. And these rates have basically tripled in the last few decades. and also our children are also living with obesity and we're just surrounded by this problem which is causing mental health problems cancer problems heart disease problems diabetes problems and causing many people not to be able to work so a huge financial cost we think running it you know even in just in the uk estimates are over 200 billion pounds a year you know more than the whole budget of the NHS.

35:51And that's, Jonathan, because we have not evolved to live in the food landscape that we live in. We don't walk often to work. Most people don't walk to work like we did 50, 60 years ago. And these are foods designed by brilliant chemists to have this bliss point in our brain where this exact amounts of sugar, fats, and salt to titillate our receptors in the brain to bypass these normal fullness signals, satiety signals. So in a way, this drug is counteracting that. So people who go on the drug very rapidly lose their drive for these ultra-processed foods. They don't want to snack anymore. And they are able, for the first time in their lives, to lose weight regularly.

36:42And I think there are risks of taking it. It's not without risks. but it's also a huge opportunity for many people to rethink their diets. Are you basically saying that everybody should end up taking this GLP-1 because you're talking about calorie counting is dead? No, because all the evidence suggests that if you are living with obesity, so you have a BMI of over 30 or you have at least mild diabetes, then the benefit far outweighs the risks of the drug for you and there are risks of it one in five people have nausea and vomiting one in a thousand will get pancreatitis there are some potential effects on the brain long term because you remove some of the addictive you might even change your personality slightly but you are going to double your risk of living longer.

37:41You've got to halve your risk of cancer. You're getting massive reductions in things like dementia. Inflammation is reduced. We're just discovering all these things that can benefit people who are overweight. But if you're just slightly overweight, it looks like the risks at the moment outweighing the benefits. So I don't think people should be using it recreationally or playing with it just for fun because it is a strong medication, a strong pharmaceutical. But who knows in the future as these drugs progress and get safer. And Tim, the second half of your tip you said was GLP-1 still requires healthy food choices?

38:22Absolutely. At the moment, no one's giving advice to people on these drugs about what to eat. They just said you take care of it yourself. But once you take away that amazing hunger drive, it's a huge opportunity of people to start eating better, reduce ultra-processed foods to a minimum, start having less food but healthier food so that they do get the nutrients back. And the many cases of people taking these drugs, getting nutritional deficiencies because they're just not interested in the food. They're having less of it, so therefore they're not getting the right vitamins, et cetera. So I think this is a perfect opportunity for people when, in a way, the pressure's off.

39:06is to relearn how to eat real food, have a mainly plant-based diet, switch from unhealthy processed meats onto plant-based programs, and start feeding their gut microbiome. This could help them reduce side effects. It could help them get onto lower doses and, I think, make them healthy in many other ways, particularly for their mental health. So I think there's a huge opportunity here that hasn't been grasped. And so rather than demonizing these medications, we should be pragmatic and say, well, they're here to stay. Let's try and make people taking them healthier and more better educated about what they can do themselves.

39:47Yeah, I think, Jonathan, it's important to think you can't out-inject a bad diet. And it's really important when you're reducing your food intake to make sure that the food that you're having is supplying you with adequate nutrients, adequate amounts of your multivitamins, your minerals, your fiber, for example. And I think lots of people just assume, oh, it's all about stopping eating the bad food. No, it's that window of opportunity to make sure you're eating the right food and getting enough of the right food and enough of the right nutrients. So it's a really important time actually to focus on diet, even if you are taking the GLP agonists.

40:29So if you add healthier food choices on top of these GLP-1s, you could actually have many more healthy years than the way you were talking about at the beginning, Sarah? Yeah, absolutely. So what the GLP-1 agonists will do, they'll curb your appetite, like Tim said, so you'll reduce your energy intake. you will therefore reduce your body weight but we need food and nutrients not just for energy and calories we all know we need the food and we need the nutrients all of the wonderful health benefits they give us for the polyphenols for the fiber feeding tim's lovely bugs that he hasn't jumped in to talk about yet um you know the healthy fats and healthy oils for our cardiovascular health the vitamins the multivitamins the minerals etc that are so important so it's so important that we still eat a healthy diet regardless of whether we're on a GLP agonist.

41:16And that isn't being talked about enough for people who are being put on these drugs. Wonderful. Thank you, Sarah. I think that's very clear. I'd like to move to tip four, which is mindful drinking. Sarah. So I think drinking is a fascinating area, Jonathan. And I don't think it's something we've even talked about on the Zoe podcast yet. And the reason it's fascinating is because people I don't think realize how much drinks contribute towards our calorie intake. And to be clear, we're not just talking about drinking alcohol, Sarah? Absolutely not. We're talking about being mindful of all of the drinks that we consume.

41:55In the US, drinks account for 18 % of our energy intake, 18 % of our calories. 18%, that's a lot. Coming just from drinks. And so what I think is good about that is that actually that is a really simple dietary strategy that we can modify to improve our health. At the moment, we know in the US, for example, and it's quite similar in the UK, that 54 % of our added sugar in our diet, which we know we're eating far too much of it, is coming from drinks. So if we can just change the drinks that we're having, we can significantly reduce the added sugar that we know is a real problem for us at the moment in terms of we're eating far too much of it.

42:38I feel like a lot of people were saying, well, you know, I gave up, you know, full calorie Coca-Cola like a long time ago. And now I've swapped and I go to Starbucks and I get this big coffee. So this doesn't really apply to me, does it? So it depends on the type of coffee and what else is in the coffee. So a box standard coffee would be like an Americano style coffee. So just a very simple coffee that's not got all of these extra sugars and fats and creams in it. And what the evidence again consistently shows, and again, there's more and more evidence coming out on this, is that three to four coffees a day can significantly reduce your risk of all-cause mortality.

43:18So as you like to say, death, Jonathan, average your risk of cardiovascular disease, some cancers, et cetera, by around 18 to 20%. And we see similar data for teas. It's stronger for green tea, but we see for black tea as well that there's a significant improvement in many health outcomes and also in all-cause mortality or death. And what about if I am, in fact, going to Starbucks, and I mentioned them, but it could be any coffee chain, and I'm having their standard super latte, which I notice on the thing actually has like 500 calories in it. So if I have three of those a day, do I reduce my risk of death by 18 %?

44:00So I don't think there's been any studies actually looking at that versus the standard coffee without all of the added cream, sugar, calories. But based on my years of knowledge and research in the area, I would say no. And Tim, the Zoe team has done some really exciting research about coffee. What did you find? Well, we published this amazing paper showing that you can tell if someone's a coffee drinker or not just from their gut microbes. And there's this one microbe that is so fussy, it only eats coffee and it's called laucinobacter. So you don't drink coffee, but it's waiting there in tiny amounts just for you to have that one cup of coffee, then it's going to go and explode.

44:42It's incredibly exciting. And this is the first time anyone's really linked a single microbe to a single food type. And Jonathan, this shows how the microbiome is one of the ways in which coffee and as well tea is so healthy for us because it's feeding our microbes. In the case of coffee, this particular one loves it. And it also tells us every single different food you eat is going to have an effect on each of these individual microbes. So it starts to imagine this whole world in there that is just being fueled by the diversity that you feed it. And also the idea that people still think milk is a health drink and increasingly epidemiology is showing that's not the case.

45:22And it doesn't really have those benefits that have been promoted for so long. So keep it to an absolute minimum, I think is the key. And if I swap it for oat milk, then suddenly it shouldn't, is that a health drink? All the evidence suggests that it's not a healthy swap. It may be better for the planet slightly, but in terms of sugar spikes, we've shown with our Zoe studies that oat milk will give you a sugar spike, does for me, compared to normal milk. So if you're sugar sensitive, then it's not a good swap. But Jonathan, the amount of milk that most people add to a tea or coffee that they make at home is quite small.

46:00It's not going to be a problem at all. So this is when I'm in the store. This is when you're in those coffee shops that are all singing and dancing what they add in, that it's the equivalent of eating a donut. Yeah. So there's a whole range increasingly of these fermented drinks that you can get. So people know kombucha in the US comes in alcoholic and non-alcoholic forms, hard and soft kombuchas. The soft kombucha is the ones we're really talking about here. Lots of evidence they are good for your gut microbes. Just check there isn't too much sugar in them. Water kefir is another new category called tibicos some places.

46:37They're less sour than kombucha and worth a try. The other ones is called milk kefir. And Tim, why are you saying any of these drinks are things people should be adding to their diet in 2025? Because they're alternatives to unhealthy drinks. So it's making an intelligent, mindful swap. So they're much more natural choices. And they also tend to be good for your gut microbes. There are fermented foods, and you should be trying to get at least two or three different fermented foods into your diet every day for your gut microbes. So try them. And this is one of the reasons that coffee and tea are so good for us, is because we know they contain certain chemicals called polyphenols that we know our microbes love feeding on that give us many of these benefits.

47:19so if I could summarise back I'm going to do a Jonathan here and summarise back I think what we need to be really mindful about when we're choosing our drinks is all of the hidden sugars and fats that can be in many drinks we need to be mindful of artificial sweeteners as there's more and more evidence emerging to show that actually they have a negative impact on our health probably mediated in part through the microbiome and we need to see drinks as a great opportunity to actually add benefits to our diet by drinking on either water, obviously, coffee, tea, and also some of these fermented drinks that Tim's mentioned, such as kombucha and kefir.

47:58Amazing. So Tim, tip five, eat more plants and you can still eat meat. At Zoe, we've been promoting eating more plants for your general health, and we're trying to get people to eat 30 different plants a week. And this is diverse plants. We're talking about fruits, vegetables, but remembering a plant is also a nut. It's a seed. It's an herb. It's a spice. And it's not that hard when you start thinking about it. And many people think this is a choice. I've got to give up meat if I do that. And this puts people off because meat eating has been shown in epidemiological studies, if you eat too much meat, it is associated with extra heart disease and extra cancers.

48:46If you eat processed meats, even in small amounts, it's been associated with cancers and heart disease. But if you eat small amounts of meat, there's no evidence of good quality meat that isn't highly processed. There's no evidence it's harmful. So there is perhaps a middle ground here for people. They want to be healthier in 2025. They don't want to give up meat, they can just reduce the amount they're having, which will have massive benefits for the planet and also their health because it allows them to put more plants on their plate. Because in nutrition, we often get obsessed about, is this good or is this bad?

49:22The question you should be asking is, instead of what? What else can you put on your plate? And this is, again, coming back to this mindful eating, because looking at a whole plate of food and saying, how does this balance up? If they've got a huge steak, there's no room for your plate. So I would like people to reduce the amount of meat. And we've just got a study, just come out with our colleagues in Trento on 23 ,000 people showing that dividing people into vegetarian, vegan, and omnivore states. Omnivore is people who eat meat and everything. And the differences between them are quite marked.

50:00So in general, the vegans have the healthier looking gut microbes, better ratios of good to bad microbes, but they don't have the best diversity. Actually, the ones with the most diversity are meat eaters, because if you have meat and dairy, you're getting different microbes eating those. So it's a complex picture, much more complex than we thought. But I think the lesson here is that if you can eat a small amount of meat and lots of plants, you're going to get the best possible picture in terms of not only a good diversity of microbes across the board, but you'll get a good ratio of the good guys to the bad guys.

50:46Do you know someone whose goal this year is to eat healthier in 2025? Do they want to feel better and improve their long-term health? If so, why not share this episode with them right now? Give them the most up-to-date information from two of the world's leading nutrition scientists. I'm sure they'll thank you. And Tim, for people who've never heard this idea that you should eat 30 plants a week, what's the science behind that? Why should they be doing that? The 30 plants a week concept came from research we did with the British gut combined with the American Gut Study, which was a sort of charitable research project about seven or so years ago, where we asked people how many different plants they ate every week and compared that to their gut health.

51:38And it turned out the sweet spot was around 30 plants. Now, we're still working at Zoe to try and get even better data on this. But at the moment, that seems to be the consensus from the field that this is a good target to aim for. Why do plants matter for your gut health? Plants are the main source of food for your gut microbes. And the more different sources of food there are, the more different microbes you get, the more different chemicals you produce, the healthier your gut is, your gut community is, and the rest of your body. So it gives you the best possible pharmacy in your gut that can supply the rest of your body.

52:22And plants contain the most precious of all nutrients that we think of as a nutritional scientist, fiber. And there's so many different types of fiber. When we think about fiber, we normally just think, oh, it's one nutrient. But actually, fibers are really, really diverse, and they feed lots of different microbes and they have lots of different health effects in our body. And so having that diversity of plants enables not just our microbes but all the other cells in our body that need fibre to have a diversity of different types of fibre to really thrive. So we've changed from five a day, which was the standard across the world concept that it didn't really matter what plants you had.

53:01As long as you were getting some fibre in, it could be the same fibre every day. It didn't matter. We've really switched in the last few years to this idea of diverse fibers from diverse plants is the real healthy way to go. So Tim and Sarah, that's a very powerful explanation for why we need to be eating a lot more plants and like these 30 plants. You said in this tip, however, you can still eat meat. So do I need to give up meat in order to get health or I have to eat meat? What's the situation? No, I think you have the choice now. We've seen very clearly that if you're a vegan or a vegetarian, you can have a perfectly healthy diet and it has no health consequences.

53:41But at the same time, we see that if you are someone who's really mindful about what you're eating, you can reduce your meat considerably and still be healthy and still enjoy good cuts of meat. And this could be several times a week. Having meat can still be compatible with a very healthy lifestyle and nutrition. And in a way, I still eat meat once or twice a month, and I have healthy gut microbiome, and many other people are in this situation. So the idea that we can be still omnivores, which is how a lot of people think we evolved, but just by changing the proportions we're eating, we can get the maximum health benefit from our food.

54:28But if I'm eating meat three times a day? If you're eating meat three times a day, I would say that's not good and that you're not leaving enough space on your plate for plants. So again, it's what's that meat replacing in your diet as well as are you having too much excess meat? Yeah, I think, Jonathan, there's been a real hyper focus on plant-based approaches, on cutting meat out of your diet. and I think that it's going back to a little bit of balance here that yes we need to focus on getting plenty of plants plenty of different types of plants plenty of different types of fibers therefore on our plate but actually a little bit of meat here and there is certainly not going to be bad for us putting aside animal welfare and environmental considerations and it can be actually a very healthy part of the diet but it's about balance and not having meat to excess.

55:21One thing that is really clear in relation to meat is the processed red meat undoubtedly isn't healthy for us. So by this, I mean the salamis, the hams, for example. The ready meals, the minced meats in packaged foods, all these ones which are sort of unnecessary. And once you learn how to cook the alternatives, you don't even notice you've given them up. Okay. Tip six, stop worrying about getting enough protein. Currently, there's huge marketing saying that we're deficient in protein and that we can't be healthy without extra protein snack bars, protein added to nearly all kinds of ultra-processed foods, and that we're in a protein crisis.

56:08And nothing could be further from the truth. The average American is being told they'd need, from all our scientific studies, about 50 grams a day. If they weigh about 130 pounds, it's about 60 kilos. And they're eating double that. So we're similar in the UK, eating about double the recommended levels of protein already. So it's a complete myth that there's a massive gap between supply and demand and that we need to change our diets for this. This is all driven by the big food companies, by people making money out of this, where in fact we're in a fiber deficiency where 95 % of us aren't getting enough fiber.

56:57And the average American is only eating enough fiber that we recommend for a four-year-old. And so this is this real imbalance in this advice that's totally been driven by the industry. So I think there are some caveats and people should be aware of where protein, there might be some deficiencies, but just put in that context that nine out of 10 people don't have to worry at all. The people that do have to worry are if you're sick and not eating, or there's some reason that you're not getting normal food in your diet and you're elderly or frail, then you need to focus making sure you're on protein rich foods.

57:39If you're like a semi professional bodybuilder and that's all you're doing, or professional athletes possibly, or you're someone who's perhaps a vegan and you're trying to lose weight and you're really reducing your calories. I think the key message here is protein's not our problem, fiber is our problem, and you can get all the good proteins you need from plants if you're mindful about how you're eating and you have a diversity of plants, they will give you the right balance. And so people who are, say, cutting back on their meat and want to maintain their protein really increase the amount of beans and legumes, which contain fantastic amounts of protein.

58:26And people can realize that normal food contains protein, things like pasta, whole grains, bulgur, wheat, really high protein levels in many foods. So if you're generally having plenty of food, it's really hard to avoid protein. And it's also very hard to get your protein levels really high. And I think, Jonathan, to add to that is I don't think for the majority of us, we need to ever consider having protein shakes, protein powders, protein bars. Our final tip, tip number seven, snack smarter. Oh, Jonathan, I love a snack. So I think snacking is an incredible opportunity for us to improve the helpfulness of the diet.

59:10And the reason for this is because the reality is 95 % of us snack, 25%. So that's a quarter of our energy in the UK and the US comes from snacks. But what we know is that actually a huge amount of us are having really healthy main meals, but then having very poor quality snacks and so what that means is we're almost undoing all the great stuff that we're doing with our main meals by having poor quality snacks and we've done some great research at Zoe showing that people who snack on healthy snacks so by this I mean nuts fruits vegetables whole grains that sort of stuff that's associated with really favorable health outcomes it's associated with a favorable gut microbiome composition it's associated with lower blood pressure lower cardiovascular disease risk, lower blood cholesterol, better insulin sensitivity.

1:00:03And so it's a really simple single dietary strategy to improve our health. And one of the reasons I think as well, it's really great, just like drinks, it's under our own self-control. So what we typically have for lunch or for dinner might be dictated by where we're working that day, or if you've got kids, you know, what your fuzzy kids might choose to eat for dinner. But snacks tend to be under our own control. And I've conducted a randomized control trial where I had people either eat the UK-US typical snacks or eat nuts, which I consider to be a very healthy snack. And what we found was that in as little as six weeks, there was such a big improvement in health outcomes that actually equated to a predicted 30 % reduction in cardiovascular disease.

1:00:48Wow. And so that's a real motivator just for changing your snacks. And Sarah, I feel like I was often told when I was growing up that just snacks are bad and snacking is bad. And the healthiest thing would be to eat three proper meals and nothing in between. So I think what's key here is thinking about the timing of the snacking rather than the frequency of how often you're eating. We are a nation of snackers in the UK. We're a nation of snackers in the US. on average in the UK and the US we have what we call six eating events so we have typically breakfast lunch and dinner which is three eating events and then we typically have two to three snacks a day now if you're not a snacker I wouldn't suggest you go and start snacking but if you are a snacker and that's how you like to eat our research shows that the snacking itself isn't the problem it's what you're snacking on so changing from unhealthy snacks to healthy snacks is important but also the timing of snacking is really important we see that in the uk in the us 30 of people are snacking after nine o 'clock at night and what we see is that if you're snacking late in the evening even if it is healthy snacks that is associated with unfavorable health outcomes so the key here is to switch unhealthy snacks to healthy snacks and to stop snacking earlier in the evening and the other thing jonathan that we know is that 20 of people say they snack out of boredom or habit.

1:02:17So the other thing I would say is to be a little bit mindful when you're going to have a snack. Are you actually hungry? Or are you just snacking because it's the habit of going to that cupboard because you've got a minute between your meetings, for example? So this is back once again to sort of this mindful eating, being aware about what you're eating and why, because sometimes you're just doing it. I do this. You just don't even really realize you're eating because you're just like watching TV and suddenly it's all just disappeared. Yeah. And so, you know, there's little strategies you can do.

1:02:45Don't have by your desk or, you know, in front of the TV, don't have the snacks just sitting there. Make it something that is like a conscious effort for you to go to the cupboard and actually select out that snack. And it links to what we were talking about earlier about the time windows and things. So, in a way, you've got a bit of a snack curfew that just makes you think twice about grabbing those extra cookies, yeah. So to snack smartly, I would avoid snacking after eight or nine in the evening. I would stick with your typical snacking pattern. So if you don't snack, don't start snacking. If you do snack, choose healthy snack alternatives.

1:03:23Brilliant. Well, Tim and Sarah, thank you for sharing those amazing expert tips. As if that wasn't enough brilliant, actionable advice, I think we have a bonus today for anyone who was willing to listen And through to this point, we have seven healthy foods that our listeners can add to their plates this year. I hope you've been thinking hard about this last night. Tim, can you share three foods you'll be adding to your plate this year? My three, which I think we're going to see an explosion of this year, are mushrooms, which are an incredible food and have all kinds of links with helping people fight cancer and things.

1:04:01I'm going for kimchi, which is Korean sauerkraut, which you can mix in with all your foods. It's a fantastic fermented food. And rye bread, which is probably the healthiest bread you can have and suits me and my particular blood sugar profiles. And so, Sarah, what are your three? So my first is nuts. They are a powerhouse of nutrition. They're packed full of heart-healthy oils, loads of fiber, loads of polyphenols. They keep us full for long. They reduce our risk of so many different diseases. They're a great snack. My second is extra virgin olive oil. I know this is one of Tim's favorite as well.

1:04:41It's packed full of heart-healthy oils. It's packed full of polyphenols. And there is just exploding evidence all the time about how healthy it is for us. And we are not scared of fat here at Zoe. We love adding healthy fats to our food. The third thing is a little bit of what you enjoy. And so that's up to the audience. And it's about the fact that there are so many healthy foods that can still be really, really pleasurable for us. So dark chocolate is a great example. If it's a good quality dark chocolate, it can actually be quite healthy for us and yummy. Amazing. And the seventh that I would add is Daily 30, which is Zoe's plant-based supplement.

1:05:25So I eat it every day. And my wife eats it. My mom now eats it. And in fact, the whole extended family does. And the reason why I do it is firstly, it tastes really nice that I know that I'm adding all of this additional plant diversity in my diet, which just gives me that confidence. I always have it with my breakfast. It's underway. But the other part is that I know that the two of you spent a really long time working on the science behind it and figuring out how to take all of the science from ourselves and others and wrap this up. And we've actually shown it works through a randomized clinical trial, which is really exciting.

1:06:02Tim, Sarah, thank you so much for dragging yourself out of bed this morning and sharing with us how to eat in 2025. Just going to quickly summarize what we went through. So we had seven tips. The first is reduce ultra-processed food. And if you reduced it by 50%, you can actually reduce your risk of death by over 12%, which is amazing. Give yourself an eating window. Even 12 hours could actually improve your energy, your mood, your hunger. Calorie counting is dead. So don't set off right now and say, I'm going to have this really restrictive number of calories for the rest of the month, because at the end of the month, you are going to be, as Tim described, hungry, miserable, and just starting to put all of this back on.

1:06:49Hangry. Hangry. GLP-1 still requires healthy food choices. So if that's something that you're on or that you may be going on to, like it's actually the perfect timing to make these changes in your health. And actually, they can really transform how you feel very rapidly. and also improve how many healthy years. Mindful drinking. So I was really shocked to hear that half of all the hidden added sugar in our diet is actually coming through our drinks and quite possibly hidden in the coffee that we were thinking is really good for us. On the other hand, three coffees a day could reduce your risk of death by up to 18%.

1:07:29So that's pretty amazing. Eat more plants and you can still eat meat. So 30 plants a week is the ideal target. That supports our gut microbiome. Most of us probably should be eating less meat than we are because you need to do that in order to get the benefits of all of these plants. But you don't have to give up meat if it's something that you really like. Stop worrying about getting enough protein. Amazingly, the average American is getting double the recommended level of protein. So this idea that we're all in this like massive protein shortage isn't true. It's been pushed on us by big food manufacturers to sell ultra-processed food.

1:08:06and that's the same, you know, really very similar across the rest of the world. And finally, snack smarter. And the good news, if you're a snacker like me or Sarah, you don't need to give up snacking. That's what the latest science says. It's not that snacking is necessarily unhealthy, but you need to swap the unhealthy snack for a healthier snack. But don't snack into the evening. And so the thing I'm most guilty of, which I think is going to have to be my New Year's resolution, is to try and cut down the dark chocolate at 10pm in front of the TV because none of you have ever managed to come up with a reason why that's good for me.

1:08:43Sadly, that's true. Spot on. We're working on it. What a lovely way to spend my New Year's Day with you two. Oh, well, it's a huge pleasure to spend New Year's Day with both of you as it is a huge pleasure to spend many years now working with you. And I'm incredibly excited to see where the science goes this year and what we will be sharing both on this podcast through the rest of the year. And I have no doubt that there will be, you know, this time next year, a whole bunch of new discoveries that, you know, none of us are really aware of today. Jonathan, I just realized we've been working together now at Zoe, the three of us, for seven years.

1:09:17So that is one top tip for every year we've been together. Beautiful. And you're not totally sick of me yet. I feel lucky. Go and enjoy the rest of New Year's Day. And I hope you found that useful. Thank you, Tim and Sarah. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Now, if you listen to the show regularly, you already believe that changing how you eat can transform your health, but you can only do so much with general advice from a weekly podcast. If you want to feel much better now and be on the path to live many more healthy years, you need something more. And that's why more than 100 ,000 members trust Zoe each day to help them make the smartest food choices.

1:09:55Combining our world-leading science with your Zoe test results, Zoe is your daily companion to better health for life. So how does it work? Zoe Membership starts with at-home testing to understand your unique body. Then Zoe's app is your health coach using weekly check-ins and daily guidance to help you shift your food choices to steadily improve your health. I rely on Zoe's advice every day and truly it has transformed how I feel. Will you give Zoe a try? The first step is easy. Take our free quiz to find out what Zoe Membership could do for you. Simply go to zoe.com slash podcast, where as a podcast listener, you'll get 10 % off.

1:10:35As always, I'm your host, Jonathan Wolfe. Zoe Science and Nutrition is produced by Julie Pinero, Sam Durham, and Richard Willen. The Zoe Science and Nutrition podcast is not medical advice. And if you have any medical concerns, please consult your doctor. See you next time.

1:11:02I'll leave you with one final thought. What if there was one simple habit that, when repeated, could change how you feel for the better? I'd like to tell you about something that I do daily for my own health. It's called Daily30, the gut supplement developed by our scientists here at Zoe. Daily30 is made of over 30 hand-picked plants, including seaweed, fungi, and different types of fiber. It's a source of plant protein, omega-3, and vital minerals. You simply add a scoop to any meal once a day to support your health and increase the plant diversity in your diet. And unlike synthetic supplements, Daily 30 actually tastes great.

1:11:41It's designed to be enjoyed because when a habit brings you joy, you're far more likely to stick with it. So next time you feel like your plate is missing extra plants, do yourself a favor. Try Daily 30. It's a delicious and healthy habit that you'll feel good about and one that your gut will definitely thank you for. By the way, whenever we talk about Daily 30 as a good source of fiber, we're required to say that it contains four grams of total fat per serving. Obviously, that's all amazing healthy fats from plants. So, order yours today at zoe.com slash daily30. See you next time.

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