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ZOE Science & Nutrition

ZOE Science & Nutrition

By: ZOE
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 The world’s top scientists explain the latest health, nutrition, and gut health research and translate it into practical advice to improve your health & weight. Join ZOE Science & Nutrition, on a journey of scientific discovery. Hosted by Jonathan Wolf.Copyright 2024 ZOE Hygiene & Healthy Living Science
Episodes
  • The first 1000 days: The 5 ways early nutrition determines your future risk of obesity and heart disease | Prof Lucilla Poston & Dr Federica Amati

    The first 1000 days: The 5 ways early nutrition determines your future risk of obesity and heart disease | Prof Lucilla Poston & Dr Federica Amati
    Mar 26 2026
    The blueprint for your life starts much earlier than you realise - long before you took your first breath, before your heart beat its first beat, before your mum and dad even met. This is the story of the first 1,000 days of life. From conception to age 2, a window so powerful that scientists now believe it influences our future risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and even how our immune system reacts to the world. In this episode, the world’s leading expert on how childhood nutrition and metabolism shape our long-term health, Professor Lucilla Poston, explains how early nutrition may influence appetite, metabolism, and future disease risk. Lucilla and ZOE’s Head Nutritionist, Dr Federica Amati, break down what science says about pregnancy, early feeding and the food children eat, and questions how lifelong health is shaped before a child even chooses their first meal. Lucilla offers practical guidance on what matters most and explains key nutrients to consider. They discuss why regular movement may help support healthy blood sugar levels. They also explain what a balanced diet can look like for parents and young children, why babies should try a wide range of whole foods, and why many packaged baby foods may contain far more sugar than parents expect. What small choices can you make today to help shape a healthier future for you, your children, and your children’s children? 🌱 Try our science-backed and tasty wholefood supplement Daily 30 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. Timecodes 00:00 Intro 03:47 Why the first 1,000 days can shape your entire life 08:12 What happens in the womb doesn’t stay in the womb 11:16 The tiny window where everything can go wrong 13:35 Why obesity in pregnancy is now a silent epidemic 15:17 Can a father’s health affect a baby before it even exists? 17:50 The missing nutrient most women don’t realise they need 20:35 The simplest way to improve your chances of conceiving 22:31 Should pregnant women worry about getting it wrong? 24:25 The biggest lies about pregnancy you’ve probably heard 26:47 Why pregnancy nutrition isn’t about being perfect 28:13 Why some children are at higher risk before they’re born 30:05 Can a mother’s diet rewire a baby’s brain for life? 31:47 The hormone that could make you crave junk food forever 35:11 When a normal pregnancy change becomes dangerous 39:04 Why pregnancy diabetes doesn’t end after birth 40:07 The one habit that lowers blood sugar during pregnancy 42:11 What pregnant women should actually be eating 45:37 The truth about ‘6 eggs a day’ and other diet myths 47:11 Why breast milk is more powerful than we ever realised 50:14 What babies should eat (and what to avoid) 52:13 The truth about baby food pouches parents aren’t told 55:20 The shocking reality of childhood obesity today 60:19 Is it too late to undo what happened before birth? 📚Books by our ZOE Scientists The Food For Life Cookbook Every Body Should Know This 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 Hormone Harmony Guide: Tuning Your Body’s Internal Orchestra Eating for Better Brain Health: Your brain-gut blueprint 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 Paternal body mass index and offspring obesity, Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism (2023) Lifestyle intervention in obese pregnancy, Nature (2022) Exercise during pregnancy, BMJ (2026) The long-term impact of obesity in pregnancy on offspring hypothalamic feeding pathways, Royal Society Open Science (2025) Have feedback or a topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know here. Episode transcripts are available here.
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    1 hr and 2 mins
  • Most replayed moment: Reduce anxiety by improving your gut health | Uma Naidoo

    Most replayed moment: Reduce anxiety by improving your gut health | Uma Naidoo
    Mar 24 2026
    Today we’re looking at a novel way to improve our mental health. If I’ve learnt anything from hosting this podcast, it’s just how interconnected all the systems in our body are. Nothing works in isolation, which means we often have to step back and look at the bigger picture if we want to improve a particular aspect of our health. With this in mind, let’s shift our focus on mental health. Can we approach it from a different angle? Harvard nutritional psychiatrist Dr. Uma Naidoo is here to explain the science behind the gut-brain axis, and how you can help one to help the other. 🌱 Try our new plant based wholefood supplement - Daily30+ *Naturally high in copper which contributes to normal energy yielding metabolism and the normal function of the immune system 📚Books by our ZOE Scientists The Food For Life Cookbook Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector Ferment by Prof. Tim Spector Free resources from ZOE 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 hereListen to the full episode here
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    13 mins
  • How to feed the 50 gut bacteria that shrink body fat, calm inflammation and cut cholesterol | Prof Nicola Segata & Prof Sarah Berry

    How to feed the 50 gut bacteria that shrink body fat, calm inflammation and cut cholesterol | Prof Nicola Segata & Prof Sarah Berry
    Mar 19 2026
    Is gut health just about taking a probiotic? Or could the bacteria in your gut be shaping your body fat, inflammation and cholesterol? In this episode, Professor Nicola Segata, a pioneer of new gut technology, and ZOE’s Chief Scientist Professor Sarah Berry, explain a major breakthrough in gut science. After analysing more than 34,000 microbiomes, the team identified 50 gut bacteria strongly linked to better health. Even more striking, many of them were previously unknown to science. Nicola explains how his team ranked hundreds of gut bacteria to define the “top 50” linked to better health, and explore how these bacteria group into patterns connected to inflammation, blood sugar, heart health and body fat. We uncover how you can improve your overall health in weeks by optimising your microbiome, ask whether probiotics do what we think they do, and examine why plant diversity may matter more than any single supplement. This episode also reveals what happened when these findings were tested in trials, and why the results surprised even the scientists. Are you feeding the right gut bacteria? And, if not, what will happen to your health if you start today? 🌱 Try our science-backed and tasty wholefood supplement Daily 30+ 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. Timecodes 00:00 Intro 03:00 The biggest microbiome breakthrough in a decade 08:20 The problem with most gut research 10:25 Scientists identified the top 50 gut bacteria 11:05 The first real way to measure gut health 13:45 The “dark matter” scientists found in our guts 15:50 Why bad gut bacteria love sugar 16:30 The red meat chemical your microbes can create 18:30 The microbiome score out of 1,000 21:10 Why your microbiome is easier to change than your body 23:15 Old microbiome tests can reveal new discoveries 25:30 The 4 microbiome clusters linked to health 26:40 The gut clusters linked to inflammation, cholesterol and body fat 28:05 Why one “good bug” isn’t enough 31:25 Can diet really change your microbiome in weeks? 32:25 What happened when people changed their diet 35:10 The gold-standard trials behind this research 36:10 Why you can’t just take good bacteria in a pill 40:35 Probiotics vs prebiotics: the surprising result 41:50 The 30-plant result that shocked scientists 44:05 Why modern diets may starve our microbiome 46:10 You can pick up gut microbes from other people 47:45 Why one fibre supplement won’t fix your gut 50:35 The menopause example that shows gut bugs matter 54:30 What happens to your microbiome after antibiotics 58:35 The simple resistant starch gut health hack 📚Books by our ZOE Scientists The Food For Life Cookbook Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector Ferment by Prof. Tim Spector Free resources from ZOE 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 Huge microbiome breakthrough from ZOE, thanks to community science Does ZOE work? The evidence Introducing gut bug clusters Sending babies to nursery completely reshapes their microbiomes, Nature (2026) The foods you must avoid to live longer | Dan Buettner Have feedback or a topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know here. Episode transcripts are available here.
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    1 hr and 3 mins
All stars
Most relevant
really good insight into menopause .Found it really useful. Definitely need a name change to women's hormone disfunction.

fab insight

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Information given in an easy to understand way. Great advice for food hacks to manage blood glucose.

Informative podcast Zoe Nutrition

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Once again, it is like Jonathan is reading my mind and asking all the questions I have! (except for the one on tomatoes...). Thank you for explaining the science and debunking the latest myth, which although one can see it's just aimed at selling a miracle cure in the form of one supplement, it's good to have the tiny doubts it raises squashed.

Great episode!

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I've listened to this several times because I've found it so interesting. I was totally ignorant of this subject before hearing this podcast, and I'm not able to get the CGM test done, but the advice given is something anyone can take up, whether or not they know their blood glucose level. Thank you for this, and all the Zoe free podcasts.

Very helpful

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Just listened to the programme about vitamins, and was amazed that the fact that BAME people deaths from covid were over represented and a link was made to lack of vitamin D. The advice given about vitamin D was clearly targeted at white people/those living in sunny climates. Those of us with melanin living in UK don't absorb enough vitamin D from sunshine. And if also a vegan then surely supplements should be taken? Also, there is an issue with absorption of vitamin D supplements. Even though I take supplements, my levels are still low. Why no research into why people of colour seem to not absorb vitamin D as a supplement?

Good information, annoying posh voices!

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