00:00Looking after your gut health is one of the most important things you can do for your
00:04overall health. By the time you've finished this video, you'll know exactly what to do.
00:12Research shows that if you do these five things, you could improve your immune health,
00:18your digestion, reduce problems of excessive appetite, increase your energy levels,
00:24and even possibly live longer. Hi, I'm Professor Tim Spector. I'm a professor of genetic epidemiology
00:32and a co-founder of Zoe. My number one tip for improving gut health is eat more plants.
00:42It's about diversity of plants. It's that full range because each plant is full of different
00:48chemicals that are nutritious for our gut microbes. And remember that gut microbes like you and I
00:55have their favorite foods. So some microbes might like a purple carrot rather than an orange one.
01:02So give them a treat. And the more you do that, the more different microbes you have that will be
01:08then acting in their pharmacy role, pumping out all these vitamins and chemicals that help our health.
01:15This diversity is really important based on a study we did with the American Gut Project and the British
01:21Gut Project that I was leading that found that the sweet spot for optimum gut health was around 30
01:29plants a week. You might be saying 30 plants, that's far too many. I can't cope with that. Well,
01:35you've got to remember what a plant is. It's not just a vegetable. It's nuts, it's seeds, it's herbs,
01:42and it's spices. So my first tip is to add more herbs and spices to your cooking. And actually a herb and
01:50a spice has the highest level of defense chemicals in it, which gives it those aromas. It gives it that
01:57incredible taste. And so you don't need very much of it to have a really big effect on your gut microbes.
02:04If you want to get as many of the different ones as you can into your cooking, try combining those herbs
02:12for example selections of Mediterranean herbs where you've got four or five of them in the same jar.
02:17That works very well. You can also get other ones where you've got the spices. So spice mixes are
02:23very common. Again, getting four or five. There are studies and there was one recently in Singapore
02:30gave volunteers a single serving of spice mix and within two weeks they'd improve their gut microbes.
02:37So I think as long as you're generous with it, it should be having a good effect on your gut.
02:44So as well as buying mixed herbs and spices, you can also buy mixed grains and nuts. So that gives you
02:51four or five plants straight away. When you get your nuts, don't just go for one nut, go for four or five of them.
02:57They're all really tasty. And remember each one is helping your gut microbes who might be a bit fussy.
03:04I want to show you what I do as my go-to hack is to make my own diversity jar. So I don't have to
03:12worry about it every morning. And I'm just going to fill it up with a variety of nuts and seeds.
03:19So there we've got it, my gut health cocktail. And it's so gratifying to know that of the 30 plants
03:26a week, I've already got about a dozen of them ticked off, but I just simply have to add to my morning
03:32yogurt. For gut health, I always choose this over this. And I'm going to tell you why. Well, it's all about
03:42eating the rainbow because these plants get their colour and sometimes their bitter taste
03:49from defence chemicals called polyphenols. It turns out that the same polyphenols that help the plants
03:56also help us because they're like rocket fuel for our gut microbes. So it's really important to recognise
04:03which plants have the highest polyphenols so you can choose them ahead of those, the ones that don't.
04:09So it's super important to learn how do we get more of these polyphenols into our diets. And I'm
04:14going to show you how. Always pick brighter coloured plants over the others. So for example, if you happen
04:21to come across some of these purple carrots, these will have nine or 10 times more polyphenols than the
04:28standard one. My other tip is to go for these green vegetables like kale are a fantastic way to get your
04:36polyphenols. They're often slightly bitter and that's a really good sign as well as dark coloured.
04:41Remember, each of these colours is going to give you a different chemical, a different pigment. And so
04:48if you want to feed your microbes different things, that's why this rainbow concept is so important.
04:55And of course, we all love chocolate. If it's over 70%, it's going to be packed with polyphenols
05:02that are really good for you, as well as having your extra virgin olive oil. And of course, the last of
05:08that trio that I can't go without is my daily polyphenol dose, which is my cup of coffee. Cheers.
05:16I can nearly guarantee there's one key nutrient for gut health that you're lacking. Over 90% of us
05:24are not getting nearly enough fibre in our diet to optimise our gut health. This all came home to me
05:33a few years ago when I visited the Hadza tribe in Tanzania. They're hunter-gatherers who still have the same
05:42lifestyle as we did 30,000 years ago. And it turns out that this tribe have twice as many microbial
05:51species, which means twice as good gut health as we do. They get less Western diseases, virtually no cancers
05:59or heart disease. Now, the simplest way to up your fibre content starts with whole grains. And whatever
06:07they are, it's always better to pick the whole grain darker version of it, like whole grain pasta,
06:14for example, which has twice as much fibre. Next, beans are absolutely packed with fibre as well as
06:21other nutrients. And I like to get a mix of them. You can get cans that have mixed beans in them that
06:26give you even more variety of fibres. And I like to add those to my pasta sauce, if I'm having pasta with
06:34it or even instead of the pasta, to make a really nutritious, high fibre meal. Then you might want
06:40to swap out your normal crisps for popcorn. Three grams of fibre in a portion of popcorn. Your frozen
06:49peas. These guys have four or five grams per portion, which is amazing. And of course, back to your good old
06:57raspberries and other berries, which have one of the highest fibre contents around. And they're so easy to add to
07:03all kinds of meals. And finally, let's not forget about the skin of plants, because that's where a lot of
07:10the fibre is hidden. And in potatoes, if you peel them, you lose over half of the fibre. So I was trying
07:16to keep the skin on. And there are some fruits as well, like these kiwis. So now I eat my kiwis with the skins on.
07:23Mmm. Do you like your food dead or alive? I prefer mine alive. And by that, I don't mean running around,
07:34but they're full of live microbes in certain foods, certain fermented foods that end up being really
07:42good for our gut health. And there are all kinds of ways to get your ferments. The one most people know
07:49about is good old yoghurt. Yoghurt is basically just any milk, cows or sheep or goats, and you add
07:59some microbes to it and they grow and they love living there. And you get two or three different
08:05species in there. What most people don't know is that kefir, which is increasing in popularity,
08:11is like a super yoghurt. So rather than just two or three microbes, there are often 10 to 20 different
08:19types of microbes in a kefir. That can be used in addition to yoghurt, because it's slightly more
08:26sour. So I tend to mix them up myself. I like the taste of both. And so they're really good. And you
08:31can add these two sauces, add it to salad dressings, for example, as easy ways. Kombucha is another one
08:39that's fermented tea. Make sure it hasn't got too much sugar in it. But this stuff, fabulous to just
08:44drink on its own. And then of course, you've got sauerkraut and kimchi, which are basically cabbage
08:51based, one with chilies and other spices and others just with some herbs. They're both delicious on their
08:57own, whether it's on top of an avocado or it's on a sandwich. I tend to find all kinds of fascinating
09:04ways to get my ferments in. So that way I can get several portions of fermented foods into my daily
09:12pattern of eating. And studies have clearly shown that this improves your immune health and you'll
09:19improve your gut health. There's one major food that we eat in the UK more than anyone else in Europe
09:25and nearly anyone else in the world that is slowly killing our gut microbes. It's ultra processed food.
09:33Ultra processed food makes up nearly 60 percent of our diet in the UK. We know particularly from our own
09:44Zoe snack survey we did, that 75 percent of the snacks we eat, which is a considerable amount of our
09:52our daily calories, are ultra processed. That means they're really harming our gut health every time we eat them,
09:58even if they've got some health halos saying they're high in protein or high in this or that.
10:04They're not good for us. So I want to suggest a few swaps in our snack habits that can make a dramatic
10:11change to you and your gut health. Always nice to have olives around because they're a fantastic high
10:18polyphenol snack. Popcorn is a really good swap for some of those really synthetic savoury snacks that we
10:26were tempted to buy. You've got peanut butter, nuts and seeds. Just a handful of nuts can reduce your
10:34risk of death by about 14 percent if you have that every day. So these are incredibly healthy and
10:40eating the rainbow again with snacks that you can dip into something like hummus. So easy to have as
10:45well as a handful of berries if you fancy something a bit sweeter. So there are many ways to make the
10:52transition from an unhealthy snacking habit to a healthy snacking habit and in doing so really
10:57improving the health of your gut and its microbes. Thanks for joining me on this gut journey. I hope
11:04you enjoyed it. Do leave us any comments. We'd love to know how you got on and if you want to learn more
11:10to go to the next level do check out our videos. So it's goodbye from me and it's goodbye from my gut microbes.
11:22Bye.
