Summary

This podcast is GOOD FOR YOU! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise…

In this mind-blowing episode we have an exclusive interview with the world-famous Professor Tim Spector, expert in the human microbiome – that population of friendly microbes that lives inside all of us and which acts almost like an extra organ, boosting our immune system, fighting disease and even influencing our mental health.

According to Spector, these microbes are so numerous and influential that we’re all effectively, ‘half human, half bug.’

Spector has studied how what we eat and drink influences our gut microbiome and thus our health – and the good news is that red wine drunk daily in moderation can definitely boost our microbiome in beneficial ways. Hallelujah!

So, it’s a case of: Eat, Drink Red and Be Merry. But not too merry. 

This is an episode not to miss! Other questions we explore include:

  • Why red wine is better for our health than white wine or other forms of booze
  • How much is too much when it comes to wine and health
  • Why we may need to re-think the concept of ‘hazy’ wine or decanting (to take wine off the sediment) given it’s thought that even dead yeast cells can be good for us 
  • How fermentation is key to health benefits because it increases the complexity of polyphenols 
  • Why wine could be the source of the ultimate health drink
  • Why drinking as many different red grape varieties as possible is a good idea because each will nourish different microbes, and diversity is key for health
  • Why we need to take official government health advice (and those peddling supplements) with a pinch of salt
  • How people playing around with precision fermentation, microbes and other modern techniques will revolutionise wine and beer in the next few years

Along the way we talk natural wine, polyphenols, wild ferments, sweet spots, long lunches, hangovers and Big Ben. Enjoy!

Starring

  • Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology, King’s College London, expert in personalised medicine and the gut microbiome, and author of five books
  • Susie & Peter

Wines

Here are the wines we taste and recommend in this episode (benefitting our microbiome while doing so…) Click on the wine name either for the main stockist or the Wine Searcher link to find where you can buy this wine globally:

Links

Launch podcast on your device

Press

After we broadcast this episode, it was picked up in the national press including The Daily Mail, The Times, The Mirror, The Daily Telegraph, and The Daily Star.

And this is also the order in which the cuttings below run.

Get in Touch

We’d love to hear from you!

You can send us an email or, better still, leave us a voice message via the magic of Speakpipe: