Prof Tim Spector

speaker

2,014 appearances 16 recordings 2 series first heard Apr 2026 last heard 5d ago

Prof Tim Spector’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 16 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 4.

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ZOE Science & Nutrition · Most replayed moment: What The Science Says About Supplements | Prof Tim Spector & Prof Sarah Berry · 23 Jun 2026 podcast

This was a vitamin deficiency that now really no longer exists.

It generally happened during industrialization, and the UK was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution.

And people rapidly moved from the countryside, where they didn't really have these deficiencies, to big cities.

And the food supply had to be reorganized.

And people ended up just, for example, eating bread or just porridge, didn't get any fresh fruits, vegetables, any variety.

And so as soon as you lose that variety, you go onto these staples, you do risk having some of these vitamin deficiencies.

So that was the cause of this.

And this actually, you see in times of war and displacement of people, that's when you get these vitamin deficiencies in things like thiamine deficiency, vitamin D, vitamin C. All these occur in major catastrophes.

So that's why nutrition was actually set up as a science, really because of the two world wars, dealing with nutritional deficiencies at a population level.

So that's why we've been obsessed with this idea that supplements are replacing these nutrients that for these geopolitical reasons have been a problem.

And

this legacy has carried on into the modern day.

And we've still got this mindset that we're living in this post-war environment, which no longer is applicable for the vast majority of people.

Calcium is another great example.

For the last 30 years, we've been told that we're all lacking calcium, and that's why we're getting brittle bones and fractures are going up.

And it was never actually true, and our body is brilliant at keeping our calcium levels exactly right.

And when they've done studies finally showing that when you give people calcium supplements as opposed to in food, you don't get any benefit on the bones because it doesn't get into them as it does when you're normally eating food.

And it can build up to dangerous levels and increase your risk of heart disease.

Again, we've been misled from this old idea that vitamins and minerals were deficient in everybody.

Even if you're not deficient, having extra is going to give you benefits, as Sarah's saying.

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