‘They’re not calling me a nutter anymore. It’s quite refreshing’: Gut-health guru Tim Spector on collecting cheese and his Consuming Passions

If you have gut problems and/or middle-class parents over the age of 50 living in one of the home counties, chances are you have heard of Tim Spector. I have both and, as such, am a bit of a superfan. The British doctor and Professor of Epidemiology at King’s College London was awarded an OBE for his scientific contributions during coronavirus. In the past, his arguments against low-fat and fad diets may have fallen on deaf ears, but now his advicating for high-fibre, plant-heavy diets which limit ultra-processed foods is gaining a top of attention.

The bestselling author and co-founder of the gut-health company Zoe has written a new book, Good Mood Food. It comprises all Tim has learned about achieving a better mood, more energy and long-term brain health through eating. He has written this alongside Dr Federica Amati and Kathryn Bruton, who compiled the recipes which are focused on being both easy to make and delicious to eat.

Did he learn anything new about gut health and our relationship with food in the writing process? ‘Yes, a lot of it was new. That’s why I like writing books, because I discover lots of new things and am perpetually curious,’ Tim says. ‘I discovered a lot about the brain. I knew there was a gut-brain connection before, but I didn’t quite realise how much the gut controls the brain rather than the other way round.’

The book, Tim says, is an important introduction into how crucial our food is for our brains. ‘I realised that our brains are not separate from the rest of our body… I want everybody to try changing their diet through whatever way, whether it's following five of the recipes [in Good Mood Food], whether it's signing up for the Zoe app for two weeks, whether it's buying some prebiotics…’

Tim has been researching gut health for a long time, yet it is only now that his findings are hitting home and even becoming ‘trendy’. Kefir, kimchi and kombucha have been popping up in supermarkets all over the country. ‘I think people are now realising that with fermented foods, for example, they are no longer just seen as quackery or marketing. Five years ago we weren’t really talking about ultra-processed foods as being particularly bad, and now we are, so I think there's definitely a big movement.’ Although he adds, somewhat bitterly: ‘It’s not coming from the government or the NHS, that’s for sure… but they're not calling me a nutter anymore. It’s quite refreshing’.

For Tim, real change is ‘not about a six-week diet, it’s about fundamentally altering the way you see food and how you want to live the rest of your life’. This is something he has done himself. When he first met his wife Veronique Bataille, who is French-Belgian, the pair ‘ended up fully eating her kind of food’.

‘I wasn’t a particularly healthy eater at the time, anyway. She was doing most of the cooking, and she’s a very good cook, but it was rather rich — butter and butter and cream.’ These days you’re more likely to find Tim chowing down on some Mediterranean Baked Eggs (Good Mood Food, page 72) or a Mackerel and Grapefruit Caesar Salad (page 110).

He has had a huge impact on how we eat today and has shaped the mainstream narrative about health foods perhaps more than any other scientist in recent history. During my research of Tim, however, I found that some were less easy to win over to his way of life than others. When speaking to The Times earlier this year, he confessed that his wife ‘doesn’t go along with my whims and thinks my research plans are crazy,’ adding, ‘when I’m away she eats steak and chips’. It’s as they say: you really can’t win them all.

Your aesthetic hero

I am a great admirer of Michael Palin. I’ve met him a couple of times and he’s a lovely guy. Fame hasn’t got to him, he has lived in the same house for 50 years. He is always creating new careers, staying curious and still working, and he looks really fit too!

A book you’ve found inspiring

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, because it’s about changing countries and places and cultures, moving between them, and that sort of suited my mood — I’ve lived in other countries, so I found that very interesting. And you know, that’s what I like doing. I spend time in Belgium, France, Australia, Spain. I love moving around.

A possession you would never sell

I would never sell my bicycle, I am very attached to it. It cheers me up and clears my mind.

Your favourite painting

I do like Seurat, especially Bathers at Asnières. I love looking at that one, especially when it's on such a large scale.

The last thing of note that you bought for yourself

I don’t buy much for myself apart from food, actually. I am always buying myself cheese. I’ve got two cheese shops near me. I am very lucky with where I live in North London. Going there and tasting a few and getting a cheese I haven’t had before is always one of my great pleasures.

An exhibition that has really impressed you

One of the lasting ones was by Gunter von Hagens, who was a German vivisectionist, who has just died. It was in Shoreditch somewhere and seeing those mummified bodies and where he had dissected out everything and taken away the fat, leaving just the muscle and the nerves… it was weirdly macabre but also incredibly beautiful.

The music that you work to

I often work to music, not all the time. When I do, it’s got to be familiar music, which is generally chill stuff from the 70s and 80s.

The last podcast you listened to

It would have been the Zoe podcast, slightly biased on that one, but I do catch up on the other guests. I also quite like The Rest is History — that’s always good fun.

Who would play you in a film of your life

Theo James from The Gentlemen. Make him a bit greyer at the temples.

What you’d take with you to a desert island

When I did Desert Island Discs I did actually say a fermenting kit. I’ll probably stick with that one. It’s that or a golf club, but I think the fermenting kit would be more useful.

What gets you up the morning

Looking forward to the day, because my days are pretty varied and I am infinitely curious. I have such a weird combination of doing science, TV, writing books and interacting with my colleagues at the university and at Zoe that I often don’t know what I am doing until I look in my diary, and it’s usually fun.

The items you collect

I would say cheeses, but I eat them all. I used to collect Napoleonic soldiers when I was younger, but now it is mostly interesting ferments. People send them to me.

A hotel you could go back and back to

They’re so many. I travel a lot. I went to the Six Senses Uluwatu in Bali. That was pretty special.

The most memorable meal you’ve ever eaten

A meal with my wife at Le Pont de la Tour restaurant next to Tower Bridge in London. We were celebrating my getting a job at St Thomas’s Hospital as a consultant. It's a really fancy French restaurant and we ate outside on the terrace, overlooking the Thames. It was sunny and, for me, it was the ultimate dream to get that job. I remember thinking: ‘You can relax now.’ Little did I know that I would change careers five times after that.

The best present you’ve ever received

My wife got me a voucher for skydiving. It was scary. Fun to do, but I’m not sure I’d do it again.

‘Good Mood Food’ by Tim Spector with Dr Federica Amati and recipes by Kathryn Bruton is out today, in all good bookshops.