ZOE Science & Nutrition

Supermarket shelves are full of foods promising to be healthy: high-protein, low-fat, gluten-free, sugar-free. How do you know what's true?

Today, Professors Tim Spector and Sarah Berry, world-leading experts in nutrition and diet, share the six rules they use for their own weekly grocery shopping. They cover which food labels are worth trusting and which are just marketing scams, how to make snacking a part of a healthy diet, and why your daily staples, like bread, matter more than the occasional treat.

By the end of this episode, you'll know exactly what to reach for on your next shop, and what to leave on the shelf.

How many "healthy" scams are sitting in your basket?

🌱 Try our science-backed and tasty wholefood supplement Daily30

🌿Let your gut microbes snack on the ZOE Gut Health Bar

Build healthy habits. Download the ZOE app today and start your trial for just £2.30 for your first week. 👉 Join ZOE

Follow ZOE on Instagram.

Timecodes

00:00 Intro

03:20 Why supermarkets stock 30,000 products (and why that's bad for you)

08:10 Is low-fat food actually healthy? A nutrition scientist explains

11:39 Why 'sugar-free' labels should make you suspicious

14:48 Why this professor avoids gluten-free food (unless you need it)

16:40 The protein label that tricks 70% of shoppers into buying junk food

19:27 How a cheap dairy waste product got rebranded as a health food

21:59 How many ingredients are really in a bag of Pringles?

24:37 The 30-second trick to spot ultra-processed food at the shop

27:33 How to tell a healthy granola from a fake one

29:24 Is cheese actually bad for your heart? Doctors got this wrong

33:37 The snack swap that cut heart disease risk by 30% in a real study

38:36 The 6 everyday foods that matter most for your long-term health

41:08 The simple fiber-to-carb ratio for picking a healthy bread

43:43 The 'unhealthy' breakfast a nutrition scientist admits to craving

46:47 Switching to whole grain could lower your risk of dying early

49:42 The label trick that makes fake kefir look healthy

50:07 What to check on a kombucha label before you buy it

52:51 Why 30 plants a week beats the old '5 a day' rule

53:42 The 'diversity jar' hack for hitting 30 plants a week fast

55:45 The pantry staple that quietly boosts your plant count

57:10 The most underrated vegetable for lowering blood pressure

59:56 The 6 rules two nutrition scientists use to shop for food

📚Books by our ZOE Scientists

The Food For Life Cookbook

Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati

The Appetite Reset by Dr Federica Amati

Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector

Ferment by Prof. Tim Spector

Good Mood Food (preorder) by Prof. Tim Spector

Free resources from ZOE

The Smart Snacking Guide: How to feed your gut, fuel your day, and snack without guilt

The Hormone Harmony Guide: Tuning Your Body’s Internal Orchestra

Eating for Better Brain Health: Your brain-gut blueprint

How to eat in 2026 - Discover ZOE’s 8 nutrition principles for long-term health

Live Healthier: Top 10 Tips From ZOE Science & Nutrition

Gut Guide - For a Healthier Microbiome in Weeks

Better Breakfast Guide

Mentioned in today's episode

The effect of snacking on nuts on heart health, The American journal of clinical nutrition (2020)

Low fat diets for long-term weight loss, The Lancet (2015)

Wholegrain consumption and all cause mortality, BMJ (2016)

ZOE Snacking Study

Episode transcripts are available here.

From smartwatches to fitness trackers, more of us than ever are monitoring our health in real time. With just a glance at our wrist, we can check our step count, sleep quality, heart rate and, more recently, something called HRV.

But what do these numbers actually mean? And more importantly, how can we use them to improve our lives?

I’m joined by Dr Malcolm Finlay to break down the data behind the devices. He explains how to turn confusing metrics into meaningful action. helping you adjust your training, manage stress, and make smarter decisions for your health.

🌱 Try our science-backed and tasty wholefood supplement Daily30

🌿Let your gut microbes snack on the ZOE Gut Health Bar

Get our brand-new app and Gut Health Test designed by world-leading gut health and nutrition scientists to build healthy eating habits 👉 Join ZOE

Follow ZOE on Instagram.

📚Books by our ZOE Scientists

The Food For Life Cookbook

Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati

The Appetite Reset by Dr Federica Amati

Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector

Ferment by Prof. Tim Spector

Good Mood Food (preorder) by Prof. Tim Spector

Free resources from ZOE

The Smart Snacking Guide: How to feed your gut, fuel your day, and snack without guilt

The Hormone Harmony Guide: Tuning Your Body’s Internal Orchestra  

Eating for Better Brain Health: Your brain-gut blueprint

How to eat in 2026 - Discover ZOE’s 8 nutrition principles for long-term health

Live Healthier: Top 10 Tips From ZOE Science & Nutrition

Gut Guide - For a Healthier Microbiome in Weeks 

Better Breakfast Guide

Have feedback or a topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know here.

Episode transcripts are available here.

Picture the sound of a bone snapping - the kind of sound that makes you wince - and ask yourself how often you’ve thought about your bone health.

Most of us only think about bone density when something breaks. Until then, your bones stay almost invisible, carrying you through every day.

In today’s episode, Professor Elaine Dennison, a world-leading expert in bone health, explains why that needs to change, why stronger bones are key to living more healthy years, and why declining bone health isn’t inevitable. Elaine explains why it’s not just about avoiding broken bones, but about learning to understand one of the most important living tissues in your body.

By the end of the episode, you’ll know exactly how to protect your bones so they can look after you now and for many years to come.

Could your bones be the missing anti-aging link you’ve been missing?

🌱 Try our science-backed and tasty wholefood supplement Daily30

🌿Let your gut microbes snack on the ZOE Gut Health Bar

Build healthy habits. Download the ZOE app today and start your trial for just £2.30 for your first week. 👉 Join ZOE

Follow ZOE on Instagram.

Timecodes

00:00 Intro

03:05 Are your bones dead tissue? The truth about bone biology

08:08 Peak bone mass: the age your bones stop getting stronger

11:06 What is osteoporosis? The condition you won't feel coming

14:01 Spinal fractures and death risk: what the research shows

15:53 What does osteoporosis do to your bones? The honeycomb explanation

17:46 Fragility fractures: why older adults break bones from a simple fall

20:02 Bone marrow function: what your bones do for your immune system

22:48 The gut-bone axis: how gut health affects bone health

27:01 Does stress affect bone health? The cortisol connection

29:45 Is alcohol good or bad for bone health? The surprising answer

30:16 Does extra weight protect your bones? What the science says

32:13 GLP-1 drugs and bone health: the risk no one's talking about

33:21 Muscle loss and bone density: why they're linked

35:37 DEXA scan: the only way to know your bone density

39:06 Osteoporosis medication: how doctors treat bone loss

40:51 Best exercise for bone density: why walking isn't enough

42:54 How much calcium do you need a day for strong bones?

44:04 Vitamin D and bone health: why you need it to absorb calcium

45:41 Why vitamin D deficiency is common in sunny Australia

47:22 Does HRT protect your bones? The benefits and risks explained

48:31 Do weighted vests improve bone density? What the evidence shows

49:44 How to improve bone health: the first steps to take

📚Books by our ZOE Scientists

The Food For Life Cookbook

Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati

The Appetite Reset by Dr Federica Amati

Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector

Ferment by Prof. Tim Spector

Good Mood Food (preorder) by Prof. Tim Spector

Free resources from ZOE

The Smart Snacking Guide: How to feed your gut, fuel your day, and snack without guilt

The Hormone Harmony Guide: Tuning Your Body’s Internal Orchestra

Eating for Better Brain Health: Your brain-gut blueprint

How to eat in 2026 - Discover ZOE’s 8 nutrition principles for long-term health

Live Healthier: Top 10 Tips From ZOE Science & Nutrition

Gut Guide - For a Healthier Microbiome in Weeks

Better Breakfast Guide

Mentioned in today's episode

The effect of Daily30 on Gut Health, Energy Levels, and Hunger in Healthy Adults, Cambridge University Press (2026)

Mortality Rate in Patients with Vertebral Compression Fractures, Geriatric orthopaedic surgery & rehabilitation (2023)

The Influence of the Mediterranean Diet on Bone Health, Nutrients (2023)

Have feedback or a topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know here.

Episode transcripts are available here.

We’ve all heard the saying: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And while it may sound like a cliché, there’s some truth to it. Because for many of us, breakfast is the one meal we keep the same - day after day, morning after morning. 

This consistency means our breakfast choices have a powerful influence on our long-term health.

So, today I’m joined by Tim Spector and behaviour expert Professor Ben Gardner to share practical ways to break out of unhealthy routines and build a breakfast habit that will support you every single morning.

🌱 Try our science-backed and tasty wholefood supplement Daily30

🌿Let your gut microbes snack on the ZOE Gut Health Bar

Get our brand-new app and Gut Health Test designed by world-leading gut health and nutrition scientists to build healthy eating habits 👉 Join ZOE

Follow ZOE on Instagram.

📚Books by our ZOE Scientists

The Food For Life Cookbook

Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati

The Appetite Reset by Dr Federica Amati

Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector

Ferment by Prof. Tim Spector

Good Mood Food (preorder) by Prof. Tim Spector

Free resources from ZOE

The Smart Snacking Guide: How to feed your gut, fuel your day, and snack without guilt

The Hormone Harmony Guide: Tuning Your Body’s Internal Orchestra  

Eating for Better Brain Health: Your brain-gut blueprint

How to eat in 2026 - Discover ZOE’s 8 nutrition principles for long-term health

Live Healthier: Top 10 Tips From ZOE Science & Nutrition

Gut Guide - For a Healthier Microbiome in Weeks 

Better Breakfast Guide

Have feedback or a topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know here.

Episode transcripts are available here.

Are some of your "healthy" foods actually high-risk ultra-processed foods?

For decades, nutrition advice seemed relatively straightforward. Eat less sugar. Less salt. Less saturated fat. Then it all fell apart.

In today’s episode, we examine the research that has forced us to rethink what makes food harmful in the first place. Two of the world’s leading nutrition scientists, Professor Tim Spector and Professor Sarah Berry, tell their own story of why they’ve changed their minds about it.

We explore why sugar, salt and fat aren’t the whole story, explain why ultra-processed foods are making us sick, and share groundbreaking insight that only a small portion of them are really harmful.

By the end of the episode, you’ll know what to watch out for and what to worry less about when you’re food shopping.

Next time you reach for a "healthy" yogurt or a quick pasta sauce, would you still choose it if you knew exactly how it was made?

🌱 Try our science-backed and tasty wholefood supplement Daily30

🌿Let your gut microbes snack on the ZOE Gut Health Bar

Build healthy habits. Download the ZOE app today and start your trial for just £2.30 for your first week. 👉 Join ZOE

Follow ZOE on Instagram.

Timecodes

00:00 Intro

02:24 The biggest myth about spotting ultra-processed food

07:52 How much of your diet is actually ultra-processed

12:09 Why people ate 500 more calories on ultra-processed food

13:47 The study that changed how scientists see ultra-processed food

17:52 The hidden artificial sweeteners nobody noticed they were eating

20:29 What sweeteners did to mice in this gut bacteria experiment

23:57 What emulsifiers might be doing to your gut lining

28:27 Why food additive combinations are impossible to track

31:30 Can food texture alone change how much you eat?

33:08 Two ultra-processed diets, 369 calories apart

37:10 How the tobacco industry invented food's "bliss point"

39:33 Why hyperpalatable food makes you eat the whole bag

42:17 Does skipping cakes and soda avoid ultra-processed food?

46:38 The "ultra-processed" foods that are actually protective

48:32 How ZOE built its own ultra-processed food risk score

51:01 Why 72 calories a minute is one sign of a risky food

53:48 The 25% of ultra-processed food causing most of the harm

56:11 The one-question test for spotting ultra-processed food

59:32 ZOE says 25% of food is high risk, not NOVA's 60%

01:01:54 Why some "healthy" yogurts are full of hidden sweeteners

01:03:16 Why children's food is designed to make kids overeat

01:05:41 Two pestos, one full of hidden sweeteners

01:10:20 Ultra-processed food uses the same trick as cigarettes

01:11:41 Why you shouldn't fear all processed food

📚Books by our ZOE Scientists

The Food For Life Cookbook

Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati

The Appetite Reset by Dr Federica Amati

Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector

Ferment by Prof. Tim Spector

Good Mood Food (preorder) by Prof. Tim Spector

Free resources from ZOE

The Smart Snacking Guide: How to feed your gut, fuel your day, and snack without guilt

The Hormone Harmony Guide: Tuning Your Body’s Internal Orchestra

Eating for Better Brain Health: Your brain-gut blueprint

How to eat in 2026 - Discover ZOE’s 8 nutrition principles for long-term health

Live Healthier: Top 10 Tips From ZOE Science & Nutrition

Gut Guide - For a Healthier Microbiome in Weeks

Better Breakfast Guide

Mentioned in today's episode

Ultra-Processed Diets Cause Excess Calorie Intake and Weight Gain, Cell (2019)

Personalized microbiome-driven effects of sweeteners, Cell (2022)

Food Emulsifiers and Metabolic Syndrome: The Role of the Gut Microbiota, Foods (2022)

NutriNet-Santé Study

Eating rate has sustained effects on energy intake from ultraprocessed diets, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2026)

The role of hyper-palatable foods in energy intake, Eating Behaviours (2025)

ZOE’s PREDICT studies: What we’ve learned

Episode transcripts are available here.