Spoon-Fed by Tim Spector review: time to bin food myths and sit down with a steak

By Tim Spector’s own admission, almost every opinion about eating healthily that he held a decade ago has turned out to be a dud. In this myth busting polemic the epidemiologist and science writer takes aim at almost two dozen of the “most dangerous and deep rooted” fallacies about food and drink — virtually all of which he used to adhere to.

Fish is always a better option and should be eaten at least once a week? Not so fast. The scientific evidence for the claims is flimsy and, anyway, intensive aquafarming is destroying the oceans. Bacon is always a carcinogenic killer? Hold fire. Most of the studies suggest otherwise and cutting out red meat altogether “can put you at risk of nutritional deficiencies.” And so it goes on.

The alleged benefits of hydration are a con invented by the bottled water industry; eating unpasteurised cheese is incredibly unlikely to cause any problems during pregnancy. Locally produced food is not always better for the planet, and cutting salt out of your diet is more likely to do harm than good. Supplements are a waste of money. Hoorah — even drinking a glass of wine a night gets the all clear. It is not going to kill you. It is heady and sometimes liberating stuff running to 23 chapters of finely argued scepticism.

That is not to say Spector — an admirably trim 62 year old — is an “anything goes” kind of guy. Far from it. The overall thesis of Spoon-Fed is that it is fine to eat most food types in moderation, and not stress about it. But we should certainly consume more plants — and less meat and fish — and vary our diet more. He is a particular proponent of taking care of our gut, where trillions of friendly microbes can be helped by regular intake of fermented foods such as yoghurt.

Spector believes it is the “industrialisation” of food — the mass consumption of heavily processed snacks and meals — that is behind that particular curse of the modern age, widespread obesity and all the health problems that come with it, particularly diabetes. He would far rather you sat down with a juicy steak from a good farmers’ market than anything that comes in a packet from a factory.

I could not argue with Spector’s science — he is after all a professor at King’s College and a consultant at St Thomas’ and Guy’s — but my issue with Spoon-Fed was that it often reads too much like a middle class manifesto. He quotes a Russian paediatrician who snorts at the notion that women should cut down on cured meats during pregnancy: “You think they have the luxury to pick and choose what they eat.” The same argument could be applied to much of the UK. What works — and is affordable — for Clapham and Cambridge cannot necessarily be applied to Barnsley and Blackpool, where the problems caused by poor diet are far more acute.

Nevertheless there is much to savour in Spector’s breezy demolition of the claims of both the greedy food corporations and the joyless “food police.” By any measure eating good food is one of the two or three greatest pleasures of life. If Spector is right — subject to a list of basic guidelines he lays out at the end of the book — you should never feel guilty doing it.

Spoon-Fed by Tim Spector (Jonathan Cape, £10.49), buy it here.