Name: Kate Campbell's review of Spoon-Fed by Tim Spector
Item: Spoon-Fed
Rating: 3
Author: Kate Campbell

Tim Spector

*THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER* The groundbreaking new book from Tim Spector, bestselling author of The Diet Myth and creator of the COVID Symptom Study app. 'Illuminating and so incredibly timely.' Yotam Ottolenghi We are all bombarded with advice about what we should and shouldn't eat, and new scientific discoveries are announced every day. Yet the more we are told about nutrition, the less we seem to understand. Through his pioneering scientific research, Tim Spector has been shocked to discover how little good evidence there is for many of our most deep-rooted ideas about food. In a series of short, myth-busting chapters, Spoon-Fed reveals why almost everything we've been told about food is wrong. Spector explores the scandalous lack of good science behind many medical and government food recommendations, and how the food industry holds sway over these policies and our choices. Spoon-Fed is a groundbreaking book that forces us to question every diet plan, official recommendation, miracle cure or food label we encounter, and encourages us to rethink our whole relationship with food. Diet may be the most important medicine we all possess. We urgently need to learn how best to use it, not just for our health as individuals but for the future of the planet. '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 'This book should be available on prescription.' Felicity Cloake, Literary Review

Why almost everything we’ve been told about food is wrong

Spoon-Fed

Kate Campbell

In the course of research, Tim Spector has been shocked to discover how little scientific evidence there is for many of our most deep-rooted ideas about food. Is salt really bad for you? Is fish good for you? What about coffee, red meat, or saturated fats? Can pregnant women rely on their doctor's advice about what to eat? Does gluten-free food carry any health benefits at all? Do doctors know anything about nutrition? In twenty short, myth-busting chapters, Tim Spector reveals why almost everything we've been told about food is wrong. He reveals the scandalous lack of good scientific evidence for many medical and government food recommendations, and how the food industry holds sway over these policies. These are urgent issues that matter not just for our health as individuals but for the future of the planet. Spoon-Fed forces us to question every diet plan, government recommendation, miracle cure or food label we encounter, and encourages us to rethink our whole relationship with food.

Why Almost Everything We've Been Told about Food Is Wrong

Laura Mitchell Hutchinson

This book gave me a serious case of 'stop the planet, I want to hop off'. Everything is ruined. By marketing, chemicals, plastic, globalisation, profits, selfishness and mostly: GREED.

I was HORRIFIED to learn how many people in developed countries refuse to drink perfectly fine tap water and instead go through multiple plastic bottles per day (I'm looking at you, USA). Also mortified to realise that so many of the 'food facts' I believed growing up are in fact twisted truths from studies entirely funded by major food companies with an agenda, like dairy, cereal or soft drink companies.

Info learned = 5 stars. Content delivery = 3 stars, it was like wading through a textbook with a lot of explanations of studies and results, took me a long time to read. I've settled on 4 stars.

I'm aiming to read 21 different genres in 2021. This one ticks the boxes: #nutrition #health #nonfiction

PS. If anyone is reading this and still sipping from plastic water bottles, please read this: 'People, mainly women, are prepared to pay more for it [bottled water] as they think it is safer, tastes better and is more nutritious. In 2016, water passed an amazing milestone with more bottled water sold than Pepsis, Cokes, Sprites and all other fizzy drinks combined. Should we be celebrating this healthy switch away from sugar or is this a marketing scandal with environmental repercussions? . . . Nonetheless, for most people, the chances of getting ill from tap water in developing countries is much less than your changes of dying from a lightning strike or a shark bite. . . . It still makes sense to do so in some African and Asian countries where water quality isn't as good, but ironically the countries that buy the most bottled water have some of the safest, most tested and controlled tap waters on the planet. . . . Fluoride has been proven to be effective in reducing tooth decay, and water fluoridation schemes have operated in many countries for over seventy years. . . . A quarter of UK five-year-olds had tooth decay in 2016–17 and rates continue to rise because of sugar, so it's a no-brainer that governments should be encouraging children and adults alike to drink more fluoridated tap water as it's a safe, easy and effective public health measure and antidote to sugary drinks. . . . Producing bottled water uses 2,000 times more energy than the equivalent volume of tap water. Worse still, it takes around 4 litres of water to purify a single litre of water and over 10 litres to make the plastic to carry it. Add to that the thousands of miles that the bottled water travels to get to cities like London or New York, where the demand is high. . . . The world produces nearly 20,000 bottles per second and they are piling up everywhere. . . . Switching to glass bottles would be an obvious solution as glass is easy to recycle, doesn't contaminate the water with chemicals and doesn't enter our food chain. But it is slightly more expensive, which is probably why the multinationals that increasingly control our water supply (Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle and Danone) seem reluctant to switch back to glass. If bottled water is bad for the environment and isn't healthier than tap water, does it at least taste better? Probably not . . . Blind tastings have even shown that tap water scores higher than most mineral waters. . . . Switching to bottled water confers no health benefits; there are far more chemicals and potentially harmful substances in the plastic packaging of bottled water.' – Tim Spector, Spoon-Fed

Kate Campbell &
Spoon-Fed by Tim Spector

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Kate Campbell &Spoon-Fed by Tim Spector

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Kate Campbell &
Spoon-Fed by Tim Spector