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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*
No fads, no nonsense, just practical, science-based advice on how to eat well. Daily Mail, *Books of the Year* However, his aim in this book is not to give advice. Our gut microbiomes are so different that, in human studies, there is an “eight- to tenfold variation in individual insulin, blood sugar and blood fat responses to the same meals”, and so every person’s ideal diet is different, and should be based on sensible choices from a position of knowledge. 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. Food for Life is a feast of that knowledge. It contains so much information that it’s impossible to process by reading it from start to finish, but bullet-pointed tips at the end of each chapter and an appendix of food tables make it a valuable reference book to keep on a kitchen shelf. Find out how food choices influence your health, wellbeing, and the environment in 'Food for Life'.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. 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. Easy to navigate: The book’s structure and organization make it user-friendly. Readers can easily navigate through different chapters and sections, finding the information they need without having to read the entire book from start to finish. He constantly mentions many people get different results and will occasionally give averaged results as well as his own. But the issue I have is some people might treat this as gospel (its in a book and if it works for him it must work for me!). Most people reading this book would not be able to access this kind of personalised data and some of these results suggest certain foods (whole, unprocessed, fresh- like certain fruits or vegetables) should be avoided or at least reduced to occasional treats. I just cannot get enthusiastic about that. If you love bananas, eat the damn banana! It is a better choice than many you could be making like donuts, chips or chocolate. Likewise his attitude toward the use of pesticides in farming. Ok, I agree pesticides are not ideal however "Organic" does not equal no pesticides - it just means certain pesticides are not used. And again, eating non-organic fresh veg that you can afford is better than stressing yourself trying to afford smaller amounts of organic veg and filling up with processed foods. If you can afford it, great! Go for your life, but there is already so much stress and guilt around food (especially for women) why add more?
Food has shaped the way we have evolved over the last million years. When we started to cook our food, our digestive tracts slowly became shorter as a result of the more easily absorbed cooked foods. Our brains became larger thanks to this increased nutrient intake, with a major part dedicated to our senses, in particular those neuronal areas related to food." Tim Spector actually references Matthew Walker and his book. They’re apparently good friends and that’s hardly surprising given that their approach to their respective specialist fields is the same. Food For Life might be even more important than Why We Sleep. Fundamentally the latter tells us all what we really knew anyway; that we should all be sleeping more. But Food For Life sets out to fundamentally alter how we think about food, and it absolutely does that. Even half way through I was changing what I was buying and eating day to day in really significant ways. Investigating everything from environmental impact and food fraud to allergies, ultra-processed food and deceptive labelling, Spector also shows us the many wondrous and surprising properties of everyday foods, which scientists are only just beginning to understand.
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The book presents scientific information in a clear and understandable manner, and the writing style is easy to follow. A brilliant deep-dive into how food affects our wellbeing – and more importantly, what we can do about it. Enlightening and empowering Liz Earle
Both books are by their nature very comprehensive. Both seek out to discuss all types of food, though approaching them from different angles, Saladino with a view to our environment, and Spector with a view to health. Understandably there are quite a few areas of overlap.Spector is a medic turned professor of epidemiology, though his writing is always clear and hits that balance between not over-complicating the science, nor using language aimed at beginners.
No fads, no nonsense, just practical, science-based advice on how to eat well’ Daily Mail, Books of the Year 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"). 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. The book’s main argument is that to find the best way of eating we need to ignore much of what we are told. Spector’s myths include the idea that fish is always a healthy option and the dogma that “sugar-free foods and drinks are a safe way to lose weight”. Spoon-Fed is a worthy successor to Spector’s earlier bestselling book, The Diet Myth, which focused on the powerful role that the microbes in our guts play in determining our health. This new book is broader, but he manages to distil a huge amount of research into a clear and practical summary that leaves you with knowledge that will actually help you decide what to add to your next grocery shop. He convincingly argues that coffee and salt are healthier for most people than general opinion decrees, while vitamin pills and the vast majority of commercial yoghurts are less so. He is in favour of vegetables – as diverse a range of them as possible – but does not rate vegan sausage rolls as any healthier than the meat equivalent. The greatest obstacle when it comes to getting accurate information about food has been the food industry
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. Tim Spector has been exploding the myths around food and heal for years... Here he continues the demolition job in a rigorously academic book that welcomes the layperson with open arms. The Times, *Books of the Year* 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. Spector writes as a food lover... Every person's ideal diet is different, and should be based on sensible choices from a position of knowledge. Food for Life is a feast of that knowledge... A valuable reference book to keep on a kitchen shelf. Guardian
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