What to eat for your health - according to science

From fads to fallacies, misconceptions have permeated diet narratives for decades. So, we dig in and demystify to forge a personalized path toward sustainable well-being.

In today’s episode, Jonathan is joined by Prof. Christopher Gardner and podcast regular Dr. Sarah Berry. Christopher is a professor of medicine at Stanford University and the director of nutrition studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center. Sarah is an associate professor in nutrition at King’s College London and chief scientist at ZOE.

If you want to uncover the right foods for your body, head to zoe.com/podcast, and get 10% off your personalized nutrition program.

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Timecodes:

00:00 Intro

01:00 Quick fire questions

02:30 Why do people go on diets?

05:07 Is it too late to change your diet?

06:28 How to adopt a better diet lifestyle in the long term

11:06 What are the worst diets for our health?

16:47 Why is there such a big gap between the scientific evidence and what we see on the shelves?

19:49 What should we do to improve our diet?

25:40 Do whole foods make us feel more full?

31:14 What does plant based mean and how does it tie in with the mediterranean diet?

32:14 Why is fiber so good for us?

35:50 Is it healthy to have fat in your diet?

37:03 Are reduced fat foods in supermarkets as good as they claim to be?

39:33 Low carb vs low fat study

45:07 What dietry revalations can we expect to see this year?

52:15 Summary

57:39 Goodbyes/Outro

Mentioned in today’s episode: 

• Life expectancy can increase by up to 10 years following sustained shifts towards healthier diets in the United Kingdom in Nature 
• Popular dietary patterns: Alignment with American Heart Association 2021 dietary guidance: A scientific statement from the American Heart Association in AHA Journals
• Cardiometabolic effects of omnivorous vs vegan diets in identical twins: A randomized clinical trial in JAMA Network 
• Ultra-processed diets cause excess calorie intake and weight gain: An inpatient randomized controlled trial of ad libitum food intake in Cell Metabolism
• Effect of low-fat vs low-carbohydrate diet on 12-Month weight loss in overweight adults and the association with genotype pattern or insulin secretion: The DIETFITS randomized clinical trial in JAMA Network

Is there a nutrition topic you’d like us to explore? Email us at [email protected], and we’ll do our best to cover it. 

Episode transcripts are available here.