To think there's a growing amount of people who think food can fix everything?

I've been a great proponent of eating healthily since my teen years ((I'm 70 now) but despite eating well I still went on to develop autoimmune disease and other food intolerances. My family is long-lived and there is an autoimmune streak running through it so I feel I was unable to prevent that happening (and not even sure what would have prevented it) and that's a big disappointment. There are so many additives now in foods, soils may be depleted of nutrients, added pesticides, you name it. Our bodies are robust but not invulnerable. All I can do now is try to be as healthy as possible but some of it is out of our control.

I think healthy eating is important and I am appalled by the amount of crap some people eat. However, while having a good diet might make you healthier, it's not a guarantee of a long and/or healthy life. It just lessens your chances of getting certain conditions which might limit your life.

I agree.

Zoe is a business and although I think the advice is good, I don't agree with the commercialisation of the science.

However, the work of scientists including TS is happening worldwide. There is very serious science going on about the gut microbiome and even how cancer drugs can work more effectively when the microbiome is healthy (this has been shown in scientific trials internationally.)

What the public are getting through Zoe is the tip of the iceberg, dumbed down to a public level, because the science is extremely specialised.

If 40% of chronic illness is lifestyle related (mainly food, drink and lack of exercise) the more that can be done to prevent that, the better.

But no government is willing to really tackle the food companies who promote unhealthy choices.

If you've not tasted it how do you know it's horrible?
Like to come for lunch?

The point was you said eating healthily was expensive. It doesn't have to be.

If you don't want to make soup, crack on with Heinz. Your choice.

I think there’s some confusion here between things that work at the individual level and at the population level. Of course for an individual there are so many factors at play that changing your diet may make no measurable difference to life expectancy or healthspan as genes and luck play a very large part- we all know people who’ve lived healthily and been unlucky to die young, or who’ve lived unhealthily and died at 100.

But at the population level, if large numbers of people change their diet then certainly life expectancy and healthspan can increase on average. It’s like any positive intervention- eg increasing breastfeeding rates doesn’t guarantee that every BF baby will thrive but increases good outcomes across the population.

That said, my experience is that healthy living inc diet and exercise simply makes me feel better, and when I slob about eating rubbish I feel worse. That in itself is a reason to do it, even if it doesn’t affect my likely life expectancy- but I suppose nobody needs a podcast to tell them that. Inevitably podcasts like Zoe are preaching to the choir, and the reasons that a lot of people don’t live healthily are not going to be fixed by a podcast.

That’s not the only issue. I hate it when people throw out platitudes about their dirt cheap essence of life meals and actually, all I think is I am not spending all that time and effort making something that sounds so horrible. Now I know you think it’s the most delicious thing to ever exist, but I know I’d hate it.

however I’m happy with a tin of Heinz lentil soup, happy having read the ingredients list, it’s very cheap and takes a minute or two to heat up.

that doesn’t mean I am without knowledge or motivation, it means you want to make your soup and I don’t. There is nothing intrinsically valuable about you making your lentil soup. It’s just a preference.

I do enjoy dark chocolate 70-85% but savour a square two and apparently it’s good for us! I like Zoe as they do update their advice if the find something new . For example they had thought sauerkraut in jars that had been pasteurised was not good but now have found that although not as good as fresh , the dead microbes do prime the immune system . They’re not afraid to say they were wrong. I listen to scientists and doctors with studies to back them up not self proclaimed nutritionists .

Thanks. I said there are extreme example but also that you can do some yourself. To be fair, Cavolo nero is cheaper than meat. We try to eat legumes (beans (not baked beans so much), lentils, peanuts) once to twice a week, fish once a week and more times a week for adults. I have finally found fish kids (5 and 7) like (they used to like fish until all the kids at nursery kept saying fish is stinky at which point they turned their noses). They will wolf down calamari and one will eat smoked salmon and prawns by the bucket but expanding their fish diet has been slow. I used to not like cake and sweets but after giving birth to my daughter I started liking chocolate (be gone Ritter dark chocolate!) and a bit of cake (not much). I must confess in the last 7 years, I have been careless and my weight has increased from 47kg to 56kg (am super short so that is a lot. Will be trying better. I like oats or oat bran in the morning, nuts throughout the day and dont mind nuts. As I said in my post Spector has done a lot of good promoting fibre and gut health. But one has to pick and choose what they can do from the podcasts - as I said in the first post

I get my kefir in Lidl. No fancy foods required. As much goodness in a savoy cabbage as a cavalo nero. Eat lots of veg and fruit, frozen is fine and plenty of fibre. Add your protein- move towards beans and legumes and some meat/ fish . Move more and keep your muscles strong. It’s pretty simple really. I count myself as lucky as I love healthy foods and am not tempted by cake and sweets etc.

So many good posts on this thread! It’s so refreshing to see.

The truth is that food and diet claims are modern quackery. In social terms, as a pp said, attitudes to food are a new form of Puritanism: too often it’s cast as a moral issue.

Eat sensibly, have a varied diet. Drink moderately. Don’t smoke. There’s basically nothing else you can do.

The bowel is not the seat of all disease. Food is not medicine. There is no such thing as ‘unhealthy’ food.

Genes are by far the biggest determinant of life span and health.

I thought that the Zoe program data were weakened by the fact that they are heavily skewed towards wealthy western populations?

I eat as well as I can and encourage family to do the same. But I am more of a believer in exercise as a promoter of healthy longevity, having witnessed a future without muscle in the form of my parents’ decline.

I think people WANT to think that people who get these have done something “wrong” and therefore, they will be fine.

I think that’s a big part of it.

I haven't heard anyone suggest "decades" and it's not so much that food can fix things, as the wrong food causes so many health issues.

YANBU food is not a “cure” although eating more healthily is obviously better for you. But there is still so much superstition and fear relating to fatal conditions such as cancer and dementia ( in the last century, things like TB also). I think people WANT to think that people who get these have done something “wrong” and therefore, they will be fine.

Your post is full of negativity. Or you're being sarcastic.

No it isn’t, it’s realistic.

Yesterday I made a huge vat of soup ( 3 litres) with 3 carrots, an onion, red lentils and some grated ginger.

That sounds depressing!

Hear hear

I work in healthcare with a strong emphasis on lifestyle and I agree OP. A healthy lifestyle is always a good thing but luck and genes play a huge part in someone's health. I definitely see better recovery rates in people that have invested in their health though.
I'm not a fan of ZOE - its previous business model was preying on people's ignorance about blood glucose levels and made an extortionate amount of money doing so, therefore I don't trust them as a company.

You don't need to buy the Zoe products. Your post is full of negativity. Or you're being sarcastic.

You can eat healthily very cheaply using beans, pulses, veg etc.

Yesterday I made a huge vat of soup ( 3 litres) with 3 carrots, an onion, red lentils and some grated ginger.
Used one lot and froze the rest.

It's not money, it's knowledge and being motivated that is the issue.

This is true. But its also dangerous to peddle that with healthy food all will be well. UK life expectancy is 83 years for women and 79 for men. So Spector giving us 10 more year means women die at 93 and men at 89. We need to have all the other pieces of the puzzle in place to support that. What is more interesting is that UK's healthy life expectancy is much lower, 62 for both women and men. So this is what needs to change and again it will take more than food (including social networks and support). Another discussion that things like Zoe podcasts dismiss is how costly the healthy foods to get you that extra 10 years are for most family (my kids love fennel and cavolo nero. Fennel is £5 a bulb at the local sains. And that not even organic! CN is also expensive but at least we can afford that regularly). To an extremish example and Zoe specifically, the gut health bundle would cost an individual about £33 a month when you subscribe i.e. 133 down from 180 (Excluding other things we "need" like kefir, good quality dark chocolate, etc). So a family of 4 need to add £132 to their monthly bill (but don't despair. That's 4 fancy measuring spoons with it!). To be fair you can make it yourself probably for cheaper.
And then there is the fact that good food is generally home made, knowledgeably made food. Unless you can afford a personal chef or something, this burden will largely fall on the already exhausted, burnt out women of his majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Thanks Sir Humphrey Appleby!). Increasingly, at least in our area, I see adverts of professionals seeking a second part time "job" to patch up finances so who has the time or energy to buy and make fresh foods and sprinkle seeds and berries on it, then exercise, meditate, drink 17 cups of green tea or whatever latest herbal tea from the amazon? Apologies @Ghostspritz am putting so many posts into one not just replying to you.
@StructuredChaos take the wisdom and leave the additives. I do think there are great things that people like Spector have done, like increasing awareness of gut health and the importance of fibre. But as it typical in our world there is a part that has been kidnapped by the capitalist monster and starts peddling fluff. Do what you can!

Well, for a couple of months I was eating lots of fruit and also double dosing a vitamin and yes I did feel really good. Strong and healthy, more solid or something

Health starts in the gut. I doubt it'll add decades to your life, but your gut plays the most important part in determining how healthy you are, both mentally and physically. Immune cells reside in the gut lining, and serotonin is produced in the gut.

They do often seem to!

I don't know about Mr. Attenborough, but any of the centenarians and beyond that I've read about cite enjoying a tipple or two a day. So alcohol as a preservative FTW!

I thought there were centenarians with bad habits?

He's 100 this year and I think it's a bit unfair to question his dedication and work ethic. He's written and narrated around 100 documentaries in that time and written many books. He's obviously kept his mind very busy.