Spoon-Fed
Why almost everything we’ve been told about food is wrong
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Spoon-Fed
Narrated by:
Leighton Pugh
Buy Now for £12.99
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Narrated by:
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Leighton Pugh
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By:
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Tim Spector
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
We are all bombarded with advice about what we should and shouldn’t eat, and new scientific discoveries are announced every day. Yet the more we are told about nutrition, the less we seem to understand.
Through his pioneering scientific research, Tim Spector has been shocked to discover how little good evidence there is for many of our most deep-rooted ideas about food. In a series of short, myth-busting chapters, Spoon-Fed reveals why almost everything we’ve been told about food is wrong. Spector explores the scandalous lack of good science behind many medical and government food recommendations, and how the food industry holds sway over these policies and our choices.
Spoon-Fed is a groundbreaking book that forces us to question every diet plan, official recommendation, miracle cure or food label we encounter, and encourages us to rethink our whole relationship with food.
Diet may be the most important medicine we all possess. We urgently need to learn how best to use it, not just for our health as individuals but for the future of the planet.
©Tim Spector 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020
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Critic reviews
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)
Will actually help you decide what to add to your next grocery shop... This is one of the clearest and most accessible short nutrition books I have read: refreshingly open-minded, deeply informative and free of faddish diet rules. (Bee Wilson)
Dispelling decades of misinformation...Spoon-Fed is a fascinating read. (Tony Turnbull)
A remarkable book... It's a smoothie-dropping read. (Michael Odell)
Spoon-Fed is the gastro-science literature flavour of the month. (Niall Toner)
There is much to savour in Spector's breezy demolition of the claims of both the greedy food corporations and the joyless "food police". (Jonathan Prynn)
Sacred cows fall thick and fast in this slim but densely packed volume... A clarion call for change... This book should be available on prescription. (Felicity Cloake)
A hugely enjoyable and critical look at common food myths... A worthy successor to his previous best seller, The Diet Myth. (Michael Mosley)
The bestselling author of The Diet Myth, Tim Spector has built a reputation as a culinary demystifier. In his latest, Spoon-Fed...he dishes up a...correction to the nonsense routinely peddled by self-appointed diet gurus. (Rachel Farrow)
Likely the most important book you'll read to date
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Eye opening review of nutritional myth
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Very informative
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Very, very, informative
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- For a start, “calorie content is a useless way to determine food quality. Almost all junk food relies on sugar, salt and cheap fats, with added chemicals and complex processing to make it tastier and last longer. To distract us from these ingredients food companies market their products as ‘low calorie’. A standard portion of nuts provides 147 calories and plenty of fat, whereas a chocolate KitKat contains 106 calories, but the lower calories clearly doesn’t make the KitKat a healthier choice. It’s highly processed with none of the normal structure of the original products, laden with refined fat, sugar and very little fibre, whereas the nuts are still in their original form, and contains beneficial polyunsaturated fats, an impressive amount of fibre, as well as some plant-based protein. Nuts will also contain fat that is not absorbed and nourish our gut microbes with polyphenols as well as providing micronutrients such as vitamin E and magnesium.” Just because a kitkat chocolate bar contains less calories than a handful of walnuts, walnuts are still way better than the chocolate processed bar. .
- Spoonfed contains a lot of the evidence that we have assumed and often is incorrect around food and how it is of benefit to us and the food myths that have grown-up around us. An example is it's really important to have breakfast in the morning et cetera. As already stated, 10 major food companies control 80% of the information that is presented to people in thinking that this is the best way to eat - but should we be having a breakfast cereal that might be fortified with vitamins but also high levels of sugar. We also need to be aware that people will respond differently to different foods so there is no one perfect diet for every body but food companies find it very easy to promote such a message. So cereals for breakfast which, often according to the packet, seem to be low in fats and high in nutrients when many of them are nothing more than glorified sugar candy that is actually not very healthy for children and adults.
- One of the big aspects of understanding how the body works and how we eat and drink is looking at how artificial sweeteners in drinks - which may only contain zero calories have substances which can mimic in the brain into thinking they are 500 times more sweeter than sugar, but the brain records to these drinks that could be running havoc with our microbiome and seeking increased levels of sweetness - which is different in everyone of us. Artificial sweeteners can really impact and increase the blood pressure in our body. We are much better off drinking water and getting our pallet used to drinking that then we are drinking drinks that have been sweetened with either sweeteners or sugar. If I taste a drink with sugar, I just want to wretch, so it can be done.
- The food industry discovered that food could be preserved by using increased amounts of sugar, salt and fat and reducing all the good stuff in food yet label things as healthy food drink like Ribena which contains 10% sugar and the equivalent of 11 Oreo biscuits of fat and half the recommended intake of sugar for a child in one single drink, yet they claim it contains real fruit so people are misled into believing this is something that is healthy or good for the child when it's not.
- It's important to note that there are processed foods which are good for you including tinned fruit, milk, cheese but it's mainly the ultra-processed foods that are not good for you. Tinned fruit has lots of benefits. Although there will be some reduction in the level of vitamin C through the heating process of tin fruit, there are many other advantages that are known to be beneficial
- Salt is discussed. As I listened to the chapter about salt, especially as someone who loves packets of salted plain crisps. We have been using salt for millennia and it really enhances the taste of food as any chef will tell you, but it also has essential benefits in regards to wellbeing and the function of the body. One of the most remarkable things is that a reduction in salt levels in supporting blood pressure for example is nothing compared to the benefits of actually having medication for this. And in fact some studies show that there are lots of benefits around salt, for example in people who have diabetes and have low insulin levels. Very interesting stuff. Salt is where we get the word ‘salary’ from when people were paid with salt. However, also by eating low salt substitutes you are increasing and adding a whole range of far more harmful chemicals to your body then you would be by just eating salt alone. And many of the arguments around low-salt or replacement foods are often cited in research that have been supported by food lobbyists who would rather you didn’t know that. What a surprise!
- The book also explores things like exercise which has loads of benefits in regards to reducing insulin and reducing depression but the one thing it probably doesn't do is have any effect on weight loss. Many people who have exercised hard but then go and have a brownie biscuit will wipe out and have lost all the benefits from the high level of exercise one might have done. The book also looks at the link between the range of medicines people take for anxiety and depression when perhaps if people ate a better diet and eating a wider range of more healthy based foods can dramatically change how you feel and reduce a range of mental health problems.
- Advice on allergies and how there's a growing boom in people becoming quite obsessed with finding things that they might be allergic to. It is important to note that some people really are allergic to things such as gluten such as those with coeliac disease but this number is quite small. However if you believe that something might make you unwell then it probably will make you unwell as we can think ourselves to become unwell if we believe something that will make and cause harm. Thinking something might make us bad (similar to the placebo) really can be more of the problem rather than the actual food itself. It is important to note that allergies and intolerances are on the rise. Allergies are usually quite quick to notice which intolerance of a food product might be delayed in its response by 48 hours which means it can be difficult to truly evaluate and assess.
- It is extremely rare to die from an anaphylactic reaction and in the UK each year there are about 10 people, you are far more likely to die from asthma which kills over 1000 people every year. However this concern around food allergies has led many restaurants to ask people to eat somewhere else if they have an allergy and there is an ever growing anxiety around people feeling they are intolerant or allergic to different food types. Many allergy specialists are reluctant to say how much overdiagnosing is going on. The author wrote a paper about how much it would be highly unlikely that opening a packet of peanuts on a plane would then cause dust particles in the air but the evidence shows that this is highly unlikely and yet when the author wrote this paper he received a barrage of complaints from parents. This means it can be a difficult to have a rational discussion or present evidence regarding allergies.
- Obsessions with hygiene and limited diet may actually be fueling greater difficulties in our children's development because they're lack of diversity means that their microbiome will be less effective. Problems with the microbiome in the gut appear to lead to a wide range of health problems later on in life. It is important to note that some people who have coeliac disease are intolerant to gluten but this is less than 1% of the population. The only way to assess whether you are gluten intolerant is by having a proper medical diagnosis, you won’t find this information from some quack on the High Street.
- It’s really interesting to note that there are massive psychological factors that can influence how we feel around certain types of food and how they make us feel. This is most clearly evident in the placebo effect. This has a massive implication on how we feel about certain foods and how they might actually make us feel. If we believe that certain food might make us unwell, then it just might. If we think something is good for us, it might also have the same effect. If you omit foods that contain gluten from your diet, you will be missing out on many essential vitamins, minerals and other health properties contained within food. Actually missing out on these might be more harmful than omitting foods that contain gluten.
- People who might have mental health problems such as depression and anxiety has been shown in a range of evidence based research that a healthier diet including grains, salads and less processed food can have just as much of a benefit in treating and alleviate some of these difficulties when offered in a high nutritional diet as opposed to talking therapies and medication. The impact on the Microbiome seems to have a great influence in reducing anxiety depression and anxiety and are worth considering in regards to treatment with
- There is interesting research both in conditions like dementia and Alzheimer's as well as autism that it would appear that the Microbiome in our gut has been significantly altered and many children with autism are often eating beige carbohydrate diet that just include things like chicken nuggets, pizza, crisps, and milk and these children and adults with these conditions can be improved through studies suggest faecal transport where poo is given from a healthy donor into someone with a significant mental health problem that can alter the Microbiome and in turn reduce the mental health conditions and obesity.
- Many parents who are on a junk food diet predominantly can produce children who might have autism and other significant difficulties in social interaction learning and communication. Most mental health conditions that feature schizophrenia will occur before 14 so it would appear that there is a great level of benefit in having a healthier diet as opposed to junk related food.
- Tap water is also explored and is just as beneficial, if not more so, than the ever-growing and increasing number of people who take mineral water from a bottle. It really isn't any benefit and it's useful that there is chloride and chlorine which is quickly dispersed in water that has benefits in regards to reducing tooth decay in children, which is an ever increasing problem. What we need to really consider with regards to bottled water, which is really promoted by brands making lots of money, is the environmental cost. We know that only one in five plastic bottles is recycled and the waste product is huge. We know that tap water has the same health benefits, if not more so, and the mineral water at one of the reasons that people say that they like bottled water is that it taste better but in random controlled studies where people were offered water they were not able to say which one with mineral water and which one tap water. In many chess tap water scored higher than in very expensive bottles of plastic bottles of mineral water. So when you next buy bottled water, note that there is little difference in tastes or health benefits when compared to water, but a nightmare to recycle and the environmental costs are significant. We really need to just accept drinking tap water rather than expensive environmentally unsafe plastic bottled water. Note: about 8 million tons of plastic is tossed into our oceans each year - most from Asia.
- There is a chapter on the benefits of alcohol. Large amounts of alcohol is responsible for many deaths and there is evidence to show that it is more harmful than marijuana, cocaine and even heroin. However, in moderation with one or two glasses with possibly a day off not having any more alcohol has been shown to have a benefit on Microbiome as well as reducing heart disease as opposed to people who are completely teetotal. Follow-up studies in twins have also shown a similar benefit so drinking some alcohol in both men and women can have some benefits. I’ll drink to that.
- Glyphosate is the world's most common herbicide pesticide that is used in managing crops and is used widely, but it also has possible health concerns that mean that it might be carcinogenic and it might be harmful for our health. Just because we are using more and more pesticides does not mean to say they are safe for many people. And in fact this contamination can be found in many people's body, including in blood and urine samples. The chapter on how we are spraying the planet is almost a horror tale.
- It's important to note that often doctors know little about the benefits of certain types of diet when they could be offering drugs or other similar treatment for things like diabetes. Just by changing your diet can dramatically reverse conditions like diabetes type two and a lot of research is out there that shows the benefits of some diets being much better as a treatment than many medicines with less side effects and even better outcomes. However, often doctors do not go down this route because they either do not know this or they would rather do a quick simple fix of trialling a person on medicines which will not cure your diabetes. It's worth considering changing your diet and looking into the evidence to change this. Trials have shown that in overweight people with type two diabetes that by going on an 800 cal a day diet can dramatically reduce their diabetes in 90% of patients.
- Doctors are often reluctant to discuss things like a patient being overweight even though this can cause a myriad of health problems. 70% of patients are under the care of their GP due to lifestyle style choices rather than a specific illness that can't be helped or prevented. Many doctors know more about scurvy than nutritional management even though they may never see a case of scurvy in their entire career. We need to change the advice and how we are training GPs to understand the benefits of nutrition and a much better healthier diet with more plants and less meat and less highly, processed food.
- Over half of all heart attacks and cancer and other diseases are caused by poor diet alone. However it's also worth noting that we have been sending out the educational message of improving diet for the past 30 years and still there has been no change in obesity rates or diet related illnesses. It's worth considering how many of the food lobbying groups that have a vested interest in maintaining the types of food such as processed meals that are not a benefit to society and people as a whole, do not want healthy eating regimes that will eat into their profits.
- Much of the evidence that is presented around health benefits of certain foods such as having cereal for breakfast is often promoted by food lobbying interest companies with a vested interest in what they're trying to promote, it's a bit like cigarette companies telling us all the benefits about cigarettes. No wonder we are in a saturated market full of misinformation, and we really need to think about evidence that has been presented in magazine articles or click bait journalism about the new latest diet. Much of it is misinformation and untrue. And much of this information regarding food is not only bad and detrimental for our health, it's also often bad and detrimental to the environment and the planet we live on. And when a politician, journalist or food lobbying group proclaim that the government is creating a nanny state and taking away the freedom of people to make choices, try to work out who is funding their particular message which is often one to promote poor food poor diet at the expense of mass profit and doesn't really give a toss about your health or the planet. Do have oats for breakfast, they seem to be really good for you.
- Finally, we don't go to the dentist and see a man with yellow teeth and poor dental hygiene and yet, enter most hospitals you visit, you will see vending machines full of sugary drinks and chocolate bars. So we need to apply the same rigorous concerns to the health professionals and get them to change their behaviour instead of being hypocritical to what's going on. I see sugary vending machines selling top fizzy drinks all over NHS hospitals and I work in them. We need to change this.
- I’ll finish this review with some lines from Camilla Cavendish in the FT on junk food which blew my mind: “I was saved by my high metabolism, and by interviewing scientists who convinced me that fat and sugar light up our brains in the same way as nicotine. One researcher swore he could never look at cheesecake again, after having fed it to rats in a lab. So irresistible was the dopamine hit that the rats ended up diving right into the cheesecake to gorge themselves. Eventually some preferred to starve rather than eat anything else, an effect he compared to heroin. You can argue that we are not lab rats: we are not force-fed and we can read articles about the importance of “five a day”. But po-faced leaflets can’t compete with the marketing geniuses who have managed to convince us that ultra-processed stuff of virtually no nutritional value is actually food. And who have persuaded hard-pressed families to spend money on it.”
Great book at food and food myths
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