Rich Roll: the real reason you can’t stick to a diet

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Midlife is often seen as a point of no return for health, but it could be the ideal moment to make radical change. And there's no better place to kickstart this than inside your gut. New research suggests your gut microbiome holds the key to aging well, protecting you from chronic disease, and even reversing some of the damage from years of poor diet and stress.

Few people understand this better than Rich Roll, who went from an overweight, junk-food-addicted workaholic to one of the world’s fittest men - all after the age of 40. Now a plant-fueled ultramarathoner and bestselling author, Rich shares the wake-up call that forced him to transform his life.

He’s joined by Professor Tim Spector, one of the world’s top 100 most cited scientists and professor of epidemiology at King’s College London, who explains why gut health becomes even more important as we age and how small changes to diet, movement, and daily habits can have an outsized impact later in life.

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Timecodes
00:00 A life-changing health transformation
00:38 Overweight, exhausted, and stuck at 40
01:16 How ultra-processed food harms your body
03:18 The biggest myth about changing your health
05:10 From addiction to peak performance
08:40 What happens to the body on a fast food diet
10:26 Unexpected benefits of a plant-based diet
15:30 How gut microbes control more than you think
21:19 Gut health, mood, and mental clarity—what’s the link?
25:00 Does exercise improve your gut microbiome?
27:55 How movement increases your healthspan
30:12 Do elite athletes have better gut health?
32:45 Fueling extreme endurance without meat
36:00 Tim’s #1 food for gut health
39:05 How to make small changes that actually stick
41:30 Why motivation is overrated—just start
45:00 The mindset shift that makes exercise easier
48:20 It’s never too late to take control of your health

📚Books by our ZOE Scientists
The Food For Life Cookbook | https://amzn.to/4amfIMX
Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati | https://amzn.to/4blJsLg
Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector | https://amzn.to/4amZinu

Free resources from ZOE:
Live Healthier: Top 10 Tips From ZOE Science & Nutrition | https://zoe.com/freeguide
Gut Guide - For a Healthier Microbiome in Weeks | https://zoe.com/gutguide

Mentioned in today's episode
The anti-inflammatory effect of bacterial short chain fatty acids is partially mediated by endocannabinoids, 2021, published in Gut Microbes https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles...

Signatures of early frailty in the gut microbiota, 2016, published in Genome Medicine https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles...

Elevated Inflammatory Status and Increased Risk of Chronic Disease in Chronological Aging: Inflamm-aging or Inflamm-inactivity?, 2019, published in Aging and Disease https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles...

Heterochronic faecal transplantation boosts gut germinal centres in aged mice, 2019, published in Nature Communications https://www.nature.com/articles/s4146...

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Episode transcripts are available here: https://zoe.com/learn/category/podcasts