Spoon-Fed: Why almost everything we’ve been told about food is wrong

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In general, I liked it, though I would: the basic principles are "ignore fads and alarmism, don't trust marketing, don't bother with supplements or fake-healthy food, have a varied diet with a lot of plants, be moderate with the treats". Which seems sensible but it's nice to read the science is on our side.

Why do so many people still fervently believe that margarine is healthier than butter? The great beneficiary of this belief has been not consumers but the margarine industry. Spector shows with great clarity that “the greatest obstacle of all” when it comes to getting accurate information about food has been the food industry. Like the pharmaceutical industry, the vast multi-national food companies have influenced nutritionists with gifts and sponsorship. Spector reveals that industry has also funded huge amounts of nutrition research, influencing the information that we receive on everything from the safety of artificial sweeteners to the question of whether we can eat large amounts of red meat with impunity. There are many other grating examples that could have been eliminated if the manuscript had been through the hands of an experienced and science-appropriate editor. I stopped noting them down because it was annoying me so much! I also found out there is no link between dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol (who knew?); and that almost no one in the UK is protein-deficient. And on a related note: even performance athletes require only 50g more protein per day than Joe Bloggs - making most of the huge quantity of protein supplements consumed a total waste of time, money and effort. However, Spector takes this too far, inveigling us to discard calorie information entirely. I reject Spector's seeming conclusion that calorie data have zero informative content. I think his messages are right: take calorie numbers with a huge pinch of salt and do not be beholden to them because of their many limitations, focussing attentions on a good diet rather than targeting a potentially erroneous number of calories per day. But to disregard these numbers entirely is going too far, losing a potentially valuable tool (among many) in our ongoing fight to be healthy. To give just one example of a use case: you have decided to treat yourself to a burger from a fast food restaurant. I see nothing scientifically un-principled about opting for the burger with 200 fewer calories to be a little bit better to yourself.it is eloquent and engaging written, free from any specialist jargon, and divided into digestible bite-sized chapters that focus on one issue at a time, i.e. fish, meat, veganism, fads, mental health, obeisity etc. The discovery, in 2014, that the composition of the microbes in people’s guts could influence their body weight, provided Spector’s first “Aha!” moment. But the blinkers really fell off when he and his colleagues measured twins’ and non-twins’ responses to identical meals, and discovered that they could vary hugely between individuals, influenced by both the microbiome and genetics. Scientific research is just catching up on fields if the microbiome proving that everyone is unique and there is no One True Diet that works for all 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

Spoon-Fed was written before the pandemic but it covers ground that is as relevant now as ever... Spoon-Fed is a worthy successor to Spector's earlier bestselling book, The Diet Myth... 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... 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 * Guardian * Positives of tap water; Flouride is naturally occuring in tap water and has been proven to be effective in reducing tooth decay

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This is important, Spector explains, because chronic inflammation may increase the risk of various diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers. It may also steer people towards laying down more body fat, which in turn then produces more inflammation.