I am a big fan of Zoe Science and Nutrition and the Zoe podcast, so in January bought Food for Life: Your Guide to the New Science of Eating Well by Tim Spector, one of Zoe’s co-founders.

The book starts out by explaining the importance of the gut microbiome to health and wellbeing (see also my blog on Gut by Guilia Enders) and goes on to explain why ultra-processed food is bad for us, the power of plants and why they are so healthy, what storing, processing and cooking does to food and how we can choose better foods that support our gut health.

The main part of the book is then a chapter-by-chapter exploration of different food groups, from plants, to cheese, to meat, fish, rice, pasta, bread and so on. In each of these chapters there are tips on how to choose well for your gut and your health and what to avoid and why. The book also makes the case for eating as many different plants a week as possible to enhance gut health, and it is comforting to realise that this includes herbs and spices, so it’s easy if you are cooking from scratch at home to get up to a high number fairly quickly and to avoid ultra-processed food bought out and about at the same time.

Handy food tables at the back tell you the protein, fat and sugar content of different foods and also help differentiate between whole foods, processed foods and ultra-processed ones and there are some surprises there too, like strawberry fromage frais being ultra-processed.

This was a great read and helped kick-start a return to home cooking for me, along with a focus on reducing sugar and ultra-processed food, and I’d really recommend it for anyone looking for practical tips on how to help their gut help them to be healthy.