The bestselling author of The Diet Myth, Tim Spector has built a reputation as a culinary demystifier. Spector is probably best known for his work on the ZOE Covid symptom study, which has seen millions of users logging their daily symptoms via an app to help gain a better understanding of how Sars-CoV-2 spreads, and the nature of the illness it causes.

to 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. Something important that he fails to discuss is that for a subsection of eaters, calories on a menu are actually a source of panic rather than of security. He only eats meat about once a month, while concerns about sustainability means he only has fish occasionally, at restaurants: “I wouldn’t say I suddenly had the answer when I discovered the microbiome, but I’ve slowly been changing the habits I had when I was a smug doctor thinking that I knew everything.Once people start seeing that there is this link between the food we eat, our microbes and our immune systems, I think that changes the way we think about food. the uniqueness of individuals (one size [recommendation] does NOT fit all), and the recent increased understanding of the role their own unique microbiome plays. As a reading experience, though, I'd recommend Michael Pollan (especially The Omnivore's Dilemma) and also How to Live, by Robert Thomas.

The author raises this company at the beginning of the book but doesn't, curiously enough, flag it as a clear conflict of interest. Not sure who wouldn't find at least something here interesting - we all eat, most like a coffee or a glass of something, and climate change is coming for all of us.

Environmental concerns seem mostly an afterthought, although he does have a couple of good passages on overfishing. In 12 digestible chapters, Dr Tim Spector addresses where the myths originated, which studies it was based on (surprise, mostly small scale, observational or animal studies) and what updated food science and studies say now.

Your best bet is to judge a food on the quality and variety of ingredients rather than calorie count or grams of fat from the label. And, unusually, the author pays continuous attention to the effects of being cash and time poor on diets, and puts the blame firmly on food companies and inadequate governance rather than the individual. As well as a desire to nurture his “inner garden”, his dietary choices are motivated by the insights he’s gained from monitoring his personal responses to different foods. One of the myths he identifies is the idea – which until very recently was medical dogma – that saturated fat is a major cause of heart disease. Hence, dietary advice based on what is best for the average individual is of only limited value for any of us (which however begs the question of why it is worth bothering with the scientific literature, which inevitably reaches conclusions about average individuals!

However, he himself utilises exceptionally small studies to make his own points, borrowing from the arsenal of the food industry he criticises so much, and goes on to make extremely strong statements that are not backed up by evidence he has just described. 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. This is clearly spurious: pregnant women may well want to eliminate their likelihood of ingesting listeria by cutting out cheese but are unlikely to be able to cease driving their cars entirely.