When it comes to advice on all things gut microbiome related there’s probably no better person to ask than Professor Tim Spector MD. The 66-year-old epidemiologist has been studying the relationship between nutrition and the gut microbiome for over a decade.
His interest in the subject began when he suffered a mini stroke in his fifties, while trekking through Italy. For Tim this was a real wake-up call as his own father Walter, had died suddenly after suffering a heart attack at the same age.
This health scare inspired him to investigate ways to improve his overall health and eventually led him to research the gut microbiome and co-found Zoe, the personalised nutrition programme.
What he found was that the standard Government advice that recommends eating low-fat versions of foods and focusing solely on calories rather than the quality of foods was not creating a healthy gut microbiome.
The reason it’s so important to have a healthy gut microbiome is because it affects the body from birth and throughout your life by controlling the digestion of food, your immune system, central nervous system, heart, weight and many other aspects of health. Our gut microbiome has been proven to play a pivotal role when it comes to ageing well.
How can women over 50 improve their gut health?
I spoke to Tim recently about his new book The Food for Life Cookbook and asked what is his number one tip for improving gut health for women over 50.
“It would be to start thinking about food in a different way," explains Tim. "Abandon this concept of calories and think more about the quality of the food. That’s the most important shift people can make. “Stop looking for the low-fat, low-calorie options in the shops start thinking about good whole foods that aren’t full of UPFs and chemicals.”
For many of us this advice is far cry from the 1980s health guidance which was to drink skimmed milk, eat margarine rather than butter and opt for low-fat alternatives of foods naturally high in fat such as yogurt and cheese. Back then eating low-fat versions of foods was seen the best way to keep your heart healthy and your weight in check but Tim disagrees with this.
“These are doctored versions of foods and they’ve been tampered with,” he says. “Plus there’s no evidence that full-fat is bad for you, or any different to the low-fat versions. The low-fat substitute nearly always has chemicals added to it or processing involved to distort it from its original composition. Plus it’s often more expensive.
“Sadly Government guidelines are still behind the times and you’re allowed to label low-fat products as ‘healthy’. For example traditional vegetable oil based margarines are not good for you. Butter is better but extra virgin olive oil is the best.”
Do women over 50 need to eat more protein?
If the 1980s was all about eating low-fat then it’s certainly fair to say that the 2020s have seen an obsession with eating protein. It’s something that's being added into the most unlikely foods in the supermarket. The Western world seems obsessed with not getting enough of it in their diet. If you’re perimenopausal or menopausal your social media feeds have no doubt been bombarded with a whole host of influencers telling you that you’re rapidly losing muscle and need to consume more protein to stop your ageing muscle wasting away!
But according to Tim, this isn’t something that we should be focusing on as we’re probably already eating enough protein.
“From surveys that have been done 90% of the population are getting enough protein," he says. “The exceptions are people who are ill and not eating. If you’re doing professional sports or weightlifting and doing several hours of exercise a day you might need extra protein or if you’re over 75 and frail you might need extra protein. There’s no evidence that other groups need it unless they have abnormal diets.
“The way to combat muscle loss is to do more weight training rather than increasing artificial protein levels in your body. You can’t store excess protein in your body, it just gets converted to fat.”
Why should older women avoid refined carbs?
So what should menopausal or post-menopausal women be eating more or less of?
“Menopausal women tend to have more of a problem with carbohydrates that’s what we’ve shown with our Zoe studies," Tim reveals. “The sensitivity to carbs increases in perimenopause, so eating the same meal when you’re 40 versus when you’re 50 often means you’ll get a bigger sugar spike which causes you to get hungrier, which means you overeat, and increases inflammation, mood changes and loss of energy.
For Tim it’s all about being more mindful about what we’re eating and not about taking a concoction of supplements or vitamins or body building potions. Rather than worrying about not eating protein, we should be worrying about consuming more fibre.
“You might have got through life up until perimenopause without putting on weight and suddenly things start to change and it just means you’ve got to dial back the refined carbs and have more high fibre foods,” suggests Tim. “Eating more fibre is better way to suppress hunger, it helps your gut microbes and gut health. If you are worried about protein eat more legumes which are both high in fibre and protein.”
In fact, Tim heralds beans as one of the best foods older women could eat, saying that we should try and eat as many different varieties as possible to help create a more diverse gut microbiome.
“There’s about 20 different types of beans you can get in shops in the UK but we only eat a fraction of them,” says Tim. “They’re cheap and they give you plenty of protein and fibre.
People complain they get gassy when they eat beans, but all you need to do is gradually increase it. Don’t overdo it on day one.”
Is a vegan or vegetarian diet better for gut health?
In Tim’s new cookbook every recipe is meat-free. It was never intended to be this way, he says, but he wanted to showcase that you can make plants the centre of the meal.
“When I had my health scare in 2011 I tried to switch to being vegan and vegetarian but I found that sudden switch quite difficult because no one was telling me what to replace the meat with,” he says. “I was quite strict vegetarian for about six years and I now eat meat once or twice a month. Only small amount of high-quality meat or fish."
Tim tells me that in general as a population we eat far too much meat and what we should be aiming for is to consume at least 30 plants a week and have meat as mere side accompaniment. But can you still a healthy gut microbiome as a meat-eater?
“We’ve just done a test with our Zoe members looking at vegan, vegetarians and omnivores,” says Tim. “On average vegans are healthier than vegetarians and they are healthier than omnivores. But those at the top of the list with the best gut health can be people who eat a little bit of meat and dairy and lots of plants. It’s not black and white. One of the messages of the book is not to say give up meat but rather to reduce it.”
Can a healthy gut help lower cholesterol?
If you look up ‘how to lower cholesterol’ on the NHS website the number one advice they give to is eat less fat. Tim’s advice is to do the opposite.
“Don’t give up fat," he says. “Do the opposite to what you’ve been told. The best way to lower cholesterol is switch to diet of high-quality fats and reduce your carbohydrate intake.
“High fibre food and plants will help with this too. We know the way you break down fat is driven largely by your gut microbes. If you can encourage more of them then they’ll do the job for you.”
When it comes to high-quality fats Tim recommends nuts, extra virgin olive oil, seeds, and avocado oil. The type of fats you want to avoid are palm oil and highly refined vegetable oils which are mixture of all kinds of stuff and a long way from the actual plant and processed meats.
How can fermented foods improve gut health?
Tim is a huge advocate of fermented foods for gut health, so much so that his family often complain about the number of fermented jars and mixtures that fill up their fridge. But why should be eating them and what benefits do they?
“Fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut and kimchi are teeming with beneficial bacteria that add goodness to the existing bacteria in your gut when you eat then regularly,” says Tim. “Although their presence is fleeting, these microbes act as boosters, stimulating the production of health-promoting chemicals and aiding in metabolism.”
So, for anyone wanting to dip their toes into the world of fermented foods for the first time, where does Tim suggest they start?
"Most people will have had a plain yogurt and piece of cheese but if want to be more adventurous try shop- bought kefir,” suggest Tim. “It’s not as good as what you’d make a home but it’s a good starting point. They generally contain over three times as many microbes as yogurt. I tell people to mix kefir with normal yogurt and add in other fruits. Don’t add sugar, honey or jam try and get the sweetness from fruit.
“For kimchi or sauerkraut start by mixing a spoonful with cream cheese and spread it on toast. Slowly add it into salads or soups or stews. This will help dilute the sour taste down. Just don’t boil it, otherwise as you’ll kill it.”
The Food for Life Cookbook by Tim Spector (Jonathan Cape, £28). All photography by Issy Croker.
Claire Tapley is a digital editor for Yours.co.uk. She is a journalist with over 16 years' experience writing for women over 50. In her previous role she was deputy editor on Yours magazine for nine years, before moving over to Yours.co.uk.
She is extremely passionate about all things health related, specifically fitness and healthy eating. She has a huge amount of knowledge on all areas that interest women over 50 including health, wellbeing, finance, food, tech, beauty and fashion.