Latest news with #TimSpector
Irish Examiner
a day ago
- Health
- Irish Examiner
Mounjaro, three months on: ‘I have been sticking a tiny needle in my stomach'
Three little words — effortless weight loss — seem to really trigger people, eliciting all kinds of opinions, reactions, and judgements. What, no suffering? Fat people have traditionally been viewed as weak, so suffering towards thinness is character building. Bypassing that suffering is, therefore, cheating. We have long associated fatness with words like greed and laziness, so that sweating and starving provides a redemptive arc — hence the popularity of watching fat people attending boot camps. And yet here we are, ushering in a new era of effortless weight loss. Weight loss without hunger — something geneticist Tim Spector terms 'the holy grail'. What's not to like? Every Friday for the past three months, I have been sticking a tiny needle into my stomach — so tiny, I can't even feel it. A new tiny needle each time, which I attach to a pen pre-filled with four weekly 2.5mg doses of tirzepatide, aka Mounjaro, which I keep in the fridge. Every month, my supplier mails me a new pen, and I send them payment. It's astonishingly straightforward. I first tried Mounjaro last summer for a month but it made me nauseous so I stopped. Three months ago, I decided to give it another go, having read up on how to better manage side effects by eating little and often. It worked. Since then, I have been losing weight easily, non-dramatically — I am 1.62m and started at 78kg, which translates to a BMI of 29.7. (A BMI of 25-plus is overweight, a BMI of 30-plus is obese, and a BMI of 40-plus is morbidly obese). Three months later, I am currently 70kg, with a BMI of 26.7. My appetite has been reset, while my pleasure in food has remained unaltered. Less is more. Suzanne Harrington: "I have been losing weight easily, non-dramatically — I am 1.62m and started at 78kg, which translates to a BMI of 29.7. (A BMI of 25-plus is overweight, a BMI of 30-plus is obese, and a BMI of 40-plus is morbidly obese). Three months later, I am currently 70kg, with a BMI of 26.7. My appetite has been reset, while my pleasure in food has remained unaltered. Less is more." Pic: Andrew Dunsmore Tirzepatide contain two hormones, GLP-1 and GIP, which are naturally produced in the gut; their function is to tell the brain when the stomach is full. The drug acts as a booster dose to these naturally occurring hormones — so instead of eating a whole pizza, you might eat one or two slices of pizza and then stop because you feel naturally full. The pizza is still delicious. It has the same effect as bariatric surgery — you enjoy your food the same as you ever did in terms of taste and appetite but you feel full after far smaller amounts. The difference between bariatric surgery and Mounjaro is simple — no scalpel required. The drug, manufactured by Eli Lilly, became available in Ireland in February on private prescription. It's not cheap but what you spend on your monthly dose you save on food bills. Prescribers suggest a month on 2.5mg, before increasing the dose to 5mg, then 10mg. This gradual increase is to prevent side effects like nausea, allowing the body to acclimatise. Three months later, I am still using the lowest dose, because it's proving effective, with no side effects. It varies from person to person. A friend recently increased to the higher dose of 10mg after her weight loss began to plateau on a lower dose; another friend has just increased to 5mg after six months on the 2.5mg dose. All three of us have different body types, different heights, and different BMIs — morbidly obese, obese, and overweight — but have all experienced effortless weight loss. Yet those three little words continue to bother people. The media dubbed Mounjaro the 'King Kong' of weight-loss drugs, implying some kind of feral peril — why? Then there was scaremongering around 'Ozempic face' (formerly lesser known as 'bariatric face'), which is when a reduction in facial fat can leave your face looking a bit, well, haggard. As though it were solely about looks, rather than health. Carel Le Roux, professor of metabolic medicine at UCD, explains what Mounjaro is and what it isn't. 'This is a hormonal treatment for obesity,' he says. 'It is a disease-modifying drug, not a cure for obesity or an appetite suppressant. It's not a weight-loss drug but a health-gain drug. We know the side effects are 20% less heart attacks, 25% less renal failure, and 80-90% less diabetes. 'Patients post-bariatric surgery, or who are using tirzepatide, report how they do not feel hungry, how they think about food less often, and eat smaller portions, while retaining palatability. They reach a new balance point.' Nor, he adds, should we scaremonger about how Mounjaro and related drugs will trigger anorexia: 'These drugs are not going to induce eating disorders. It just means that people using them eat less.' As a PhD student, Prof Le Roux was part of the team which first infused the hormone into the human body 25 years ago. He adds: 'We then studied the effects of bariatric surgery and found that these same hormones were elevated in patients post surgery — they were three to four times higher in the body post operatively. Which means we have over 50 years' experience of these [elevated] hormones in the body.' (Bariatric surgery, specifically the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, has been around since the 1960s and has been the gold standard for treatment of obesity — until now. These hormone-mimicking drugs are also widely used to treat type 2 diabetes). Suzanne Harrington: "Every Friday for the past three months, I have been sticking a tiny needle into my stomach — so tiny, I can't even feel it. A new tiny needle each time, which I attach to a pen pre-filled with four weekly 2.5mg doses of tirzepatide, aka Mounjaro, which I keep in the fridge." Pic: Andrew Dunsmore SIDE-EFFECTS? So apart from the positive effects of improved health, what about side effects? Is Mounjaro dangerous? Does it, for instance, increase your chances of thyroid cancer? 'You will not develop thyroid cancer on this drug unless you're a mouse,' says Prof Le Roux. 'Or if you lose weight too quickly, you can develop gall stones — this happens to about three people in a hundred.' The most common side effect of Mounjaro, however, is common or garden nausea. 'Nobody should ever vomit or have nausea while using this medication,' he says. 'This was happening initially but now we are far more conservative with dose escalation — we do not want people to suffer side effects, as this will stop them using the medication. You go slowly, so that you are on a maximum tolerable dose rather than a maximum dose.' The irony of treating a man-made problem — obesity — with a man-made solution — obesity drugs — is glaring. Almost as glaring as the correlation between widespread obesity and the mass consumption of ultra-processed foods. First, we had fat Americans; now it's all of us. But until the food-industrial complex has been compelled to consign ultra-processed foods (UPFs) to the dustbin forever, until we all have equal access to fresh affordable wholefoods, and until we are all taught from primary school onwards how to cook from scratch, obesity will remain a man-made problem, and weight-loss drugs our man-made solution. Not that UPFs are always involved — I eat plant-based, don't drink, exercise regularly, and am still overweight. I first came across the new weight-loss drugs in more detail when I interviewed author Johann Hari about his book Magic Pill. Before that, I'd vaguely heard of Ozempic as something people in Hollywood were using to get even thinner. In his book, Hari recounts his own experiences of using Ozempic; how after his initial dose, he'd gone to his usual cafe for his usual breakfast and felt full after a few mouthfuls; how this feeling had continued, resulting in him experiencing effortless weight loss. I knew how this felt, having had gastric sleeve surgery in 2019. I'd been fat since my first pregnancy in 2000, when I gained an impressive 30kg — and had been trying to lose it ever since. The gastric sleeve was the most successful intervention — I dropped from 92kg to 72kg. But, six years later, my weight was slowly increasing again. I wasn't fat-fat — I'd regained around 8kg, which my bariatric surgeon in Estonia said was normal, and not to worry, but I was concerned about future-proofing my hips and knees and overall health. Suzanne Harrington: "The irony of treating a man-made problem — obesity — with a man-made solution — obesity drugs — is glaring. Almost as glaring as the correlation between widespread obesity and the mass consumption of ultra-processed foods. First, we had fat Americans; now it's all of us." Pic: Andrew Dunsmore INTERNALISED FATTISM Also, after going to the trouble and expense of bariatric surgery, I was done with being fat. I was not going there again. And, yes, that is 100% my own internalised fattism — as a 50-something woman raised by a generation of fatphobics, the societal messaging growing up was that being fat and female was the worst possible combination. Boys don't make passes at girls with fat asses. Imagine your kids hearing that now, even jokily. The highest compliment, genuine and well-meaning, was always 'have you lost weight?' This is not to blame previous generations, socialised to value female worth based wholly on appearance, which was calculated by prettiness and thinness. The democratising influence of the internet on how we view bodies — how one size does not fit all — was still some way off. There was no Lizzo back then, just cottage cheese diets and the male gaze. It was hard not to absorb this messaging. It's not always just a female thing either — a 57-year-old male friend, reared in a loving but fatphobic household, developed bulimia in his early teens that lasted into his 30s. An 86-year-old friend still weighs herself every day, having taken up smoking during menopause in an attempt at weight management. How awful, I think. Then I remember that I stick a needle in my stomach every Friday so that I don't get fat again. Does the availability of Mounjaro — and its effortless weight-loss stablemates — negate all the progress made by the body positive movement? Will fat acceptance cease to be? The aforementioned Lizzo has recently lost a significant amount of weight, as has Adele. Should fat public figures remain fat to make other fat people feel better? Or is that the same as pressuring people to be thin but in reverse? Why should anyone owe anyone else fatness or thinness? Lizzo doesn't talk about body positivity — she talks about body neutrality; your body being nobody else's business. Mounjaro, Wegovy, and Ozempic offer a way out of obesity that, until now, has only been available via bariatric surgery, something many people could not access. This is an opportunity for metabolic reset; whether you use it intermittently, or longer term, it's a win-win. Whether your reasons stem from health concerns or societal conditioning — or a complicated mix of both — that's your decision, it's about your levels of comfort within the body you inhabit. For people living with obesity, it's a godsend. Or, as Prof Le Roux puts it: 'We need to treat the disease of obesity the same as we treat asthma or high blood pressure or any other medical condition.' Suzanne Harrington: "This is an opportunity for metabolic reset; whether you use it intermittently, or longer term, it's a win-win. Whether your reasons stem from health concerns or societal conditioning — or a complicated mix of both — that's your decision, it's about your levels of comfort within the body you inhabit." Pic: Andrew Dunsmore HOW IT WORKS Both semaglutide (Ozempic) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro) mimic a hormone produced in the body called GLP-1, released in the gut whenever we eat. This hormone signals the brain to reduce appetite while setting off increased insulin production. Mounjaor also mimics a second hormone, GIP (glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide). This is why tirzepatide is linked to greater weight loss. One study using data from two clinical trials of people with type 2 diabetes over 68 weeks, found tirzepatide resulted in a weight loss of 17.8% compared with 12.4% relative to placebo for semaglutide.
Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mirror
Simple food change 'lowers blood pressure' in just 2 hours
Sometimes called the 'silent killer' hypertension can lead to serious health issues if left untreated but a study found a food can help quickly A study has revealed that a simple dietary switch could be the answer for those battling with high blood pressure. Sometimes called the 'silent killer', hypertension can lead to serious health issues if left untreated. High blood pressure, or hypertension, can stealthily wreak havoc on the body, leading to catastrophic health issues such as heart disease, strokes, kidney damage, and even impaired vision. Without noticeable symptoms, many people remain unaware of the condition until it manifests in severe health complications. Tim Spector, the brains behind the Zoe app and a professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London, suggests that we can all benefit from upping our intake of potassium, which aids in expelling salt from our system, and boosting our fibre consumption. "Eating 5g more fibre a day can reduce blood pressure by twice as much as reducing salt," he advises. While it's widely acknowledged that salt exacerbates high blood pressure, recent findings have also highlighted the power of beans, particularly darker varieties like red kidney and black beans, in preserving vascular health. Researchers at the University of Manitoba in Canada found that consuming red kidney beans resulted in lower blood pressure within two hours, in contrast to eating rice. Dark-coloured beans, like red kidney and black beans, pack a punch for blood pressure health, with dieticians noting their significant benefit on blood vessels, reports Surrey Live. Dietician Dr Linia Patel endorsed convenient canned beans too, saying: "Canned versions of beans provide the same benefits as dried, and you save on overnight soaking."
Telegraph
14-06-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
The quick breakfast foods to avoid – and seven healthier alternatives
Cake for breakfast anyone? While we may feel guilty about a mid-afternoon treat, we have no qualms about grabbing a Starbucks blueberry muffin first thing in the morning – yet it contains just as much sugar. I often find myself wondering whatever happened to the healthy British breakfast, and how it all went so wrong. Fewer than half (49 per cent) of us eat breakfast seven days a week, according to a YouGov survey, with 13 per cent skipping it every day. Of those who need morning sustenance, by far the most popular option is cereal. The booming UK breakfast cereals market is currently worth £2.7 billion and rising. But what we're spooning in with one eye on the clock is, 'mainly toasted starch, whose nutritional value is only minimally better than cardboard,' says Prof Tim Spector, an epidemiologist, gut health expert and co-founder of nutrition company Zoe. It's sweet, too: although sugar-reduction goals of 20 per cent were set out by Public Health England back in 2017, these targets have not been met and some cereal and yogurt products still pack in the equivalent of up to four teaspoons of sugar per suggested serving. Yet sugar is not the only baddie lurking in our breakfast bowls. Coco Pops, one of the UK's favourite cereals, may have halved its sugar content, but it still contains '20 per cent more salt per gram than a typical microwave lasagne', reports Dr Chris van Tulleken, the author of Ultra-Processed People and an expert in ultra-processed food (UPF). 'This incredible saltiness is true of most breakfast cereals – it helps to make them taste amazing,' he adds. If we're not downing a quick bowlful of cereal, we might grab a cereal bar or breakfast biscuit on the run. While manufacturers flag up seemingly healthy ingredients, such as oats, honey and fruit – and virtuous-sounding terms like plant-based and gluten-free abound – these products are still highly processed. Prof Spector points out that manufacturers 'use combinations of sugar, corn syrup, gelatine, starch, oil and artificial 'berry' flavours and dyes to create their own mock fruit-flavoured product'. You might be better grabbing a couple of digestives. Meanwhile, the UK branded coffee-shop market is now valued at £6.1 billion. Many of us wouldn't dream of nipping out for a McDonald's at lunch, yet we think nothing of grabbing a Costa All Day Breakfast Wrap (604kcal with a mighty 33g fat, of which 9.7g are saturates). So what should we opt for instead? Here are seven breakfast swaps to make for a healthier start to your day. By Silvana Franco 1. If your fix is high-sugar cereal …
Daily Mail
08-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Zoe guru Prof Tim Spector reveals the healthiest supermarket loaves - eating the right one could ward off colon cancer
Nutrition guru Professor Tim Spector has revealed the type of bread he eats every day for optimum health. Many of us will be guilty of grabbing a meal deal for lunch, but according to Prof Spector these meals are the worse invention ever in the name of convenience. Regularly eating ultraprocessed food including white, packaged bread from the supermarket has recently been linked to increased risks of colon cancer, with new studies suggesting diets high in these foods could raise the risk of dying from the disease by more than a third. But, according to Prof Spector, if you choose the right loaves, the pantry staple can be great for your gut health. Writing in the Telegraph, Prof Spector advised looking out for loaves that are high in fibre, boast short ingredient lists, are free from additives and low in sugar. He said: 'The top-selling breads all tend to have a nice healthy label promoting vitamins or fibre, some seeds scattered on top and they tend to look brown. 'But you're never going to be able to tell from the appearance or the front of the packet if you're buying healthy bread. 'Instead you need to look at the ingredients list on the back of the label. There, you're looking for a high percentage of fibre in your bread (ideally over 6-10 per cent) and as little sugar as possible.' Prof Spector added that loaves made with rye or spelt flour and wholegrains like ats are best. He also suggested avoiding products with lengthy ingredient lists, especially those that contain additives like emulsifiers and palm oils. According to the Zoe guru, added vitamins are another red flag, which often point to refined flours that may have been dyed to make the loaf appear better for you. Currently there are no regulations stopping companies from slapping 'wholegrain' or 'freshly baked' labels on their loaves, even if dyes have been added to the product, he explained. 'If it's baked on the premises, supermarkets don't have to share the ingredients in it,' he added. 'This category includes breads that have been made in a factory, kept frozen for up to two years in warehouses and then thawed out and baked in-store. 'They're full of sugar, packed with artificial ingredients and won't fill you up. 'Even sourdough is sadly often added as a "fake" ingredient to sell the product', he added. 'I know this is a really difficult food for people to work their way around and I don't think people should stop eating bread, but if you're just a bit fussier about the bread you eat, you can actually improve your health a lot.' Prof Spector said that he mostly eats sourdough rye bread that he makes himself, with wholemeal flour, rye flour, malted flakes, water, salt, a sourdough starter and some mixed nuts and seeds. 'It's free from from additives and preservatives, full of high quality grains, is high in fibre and fills you up—meaning you eat much less of it than you would a shop-bought equivalent,' the co-founder of Zoe added. When he doesn't have time to make his own bread, the health enthusiast opts for either Gail's rye and barley sourdough, or a pre-packaged long life German rye bread. He said: 'Whilst these don't look very appetising, they are nutritious and do the job until I can next make my own. 'I certainly wouldn't now buy the heavily processed supermarket bread that I used to, like white or even wholemeal sliced.' This comes as young diagnoses of bowel cancer, also known as colon cancer, are on the rise, having shot up by an alarming 80 per cent across the globe in the last 30 years. Scientists have suggested a host of factors are likely behind the phenomenon—from increased pollution to rising obesity and even invisible particles of plastic in drinking water. Now, experts believe eating a diet high in processed foods and refined carbohydrates—like packaged supermarket bread—could be an overlooked cause. It's because these types of foods are known to be low in fibre, the undigestable part of plant-based foods that has been proven to lower cancer risk. Other research suggests eating more fibre might help flush out cancer-causing 'forever chemicals'. Also known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), these toxic chemicals don't naturally break down in the environment. Instead, they leech from plastic containers and nonstick cookware into food and build up in vital organs, increasing the risk of organ failure, infertility and bowel cancer. The researchers, from Boston, believe fibre helps filter out excess bile from the digestive tract, which PFAS latches on to to get absorbed by the bloodstream. While mountains of research has demonstrated the deadly effects of forever chemicals on the body, the new study is one of the first to offer a scientifically proven way to get rid of the toxins, which were thought to live in the body forever. However, Dr Catherine Elliott, Cancer Research UK's director of research, told MailOnline: 'We need more high-quality research like this to help us uncover more about how our diet influences cancer outcomes. 'When it comes to food and cancer risk, our overall diet is far more important than any single food or ingredient. 'A healthy, balanced diet includes eating lots of fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, and healthy sources of protein like beans and chicken. 'Cutting down on processed and red meats, and foods high in fat, sugar and salt also helps.' Colon cancer, long considered a disease of old age, is increasingly striking people in their 20s, 30s and 40s in a phenomenon that has baffled doctors around the world. Over the last 30 years, young diagnoses of the disease have shot up by 80 per cent across the globe. Around 32,000 cases of colon cancer are diagnosed every year in the UK and 142,000 in the US.
Daily Mirror
07-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mirror
Nutritionist Tim Spector issues message to everyone eats snacks
Zoe's Tim Spector and Dr Sarah Berry said that timing is everything Bolstering your health could be as simple as ditching those late-night bites, according to nutrition expert, Tim Spector. Chatting with fellow expert Dr Sarah Berry on the Better Brain podcast, the duo highlighted the critical role that meal timing plays in our well-being, particularly warning against the detrimental habit of late-night snacking – a no-go for weight loss efforts and metabolic health. As an authority in nutrition and one of the most cited scientists worldwide, Tim Spector has an impressive Instagram following of over 702K and has delved into the science of dietary timing during his conversation with Dr Berry. They explored the adverse effects of eating post 9pm, cautioning how it can wreak havoc on cholesterol levels and overall metabolic health. Dr Berry revealed: "If you are eating later, typically after about eight or nine o'clock at night, you tend to wake up the next day more hungry, which is really counter-intuitive. And it's associated with poorer metabolic health, so higher cholesterol, higher waist circumference, and poorer insulin." The renowned Mr Spector was clear when he chimed in, reinforcing the harm caused by nocturnal nibbling: "Late night snacking is the worst thing you can do in terms of timing." The way our bodies process food changes with our circadian rhythm, which is a 24-hour cycle that regulates biological processes such as sleep, temperature and hormonal activity, reports the Daily Record. And timing is everything when it comes to digestion and metabolism. Our insulin sensitivity takes a dive and digestive processes slow to a crawl as the evening unfolds, meaning our bodies meet a greater challenge in breaking down nosh and keeping tabs on blood glucose and fat come nightfall. Dr Berry has highlighted the potential pitfalls of late-night snacking, warning that munching after 9pm could throw off our body's natural rhythm, potentially leading to poor metabolic health, increased cholesterol levels, and an expanding waistline. Intermittent fasting is a popular method for those looking to manage their eating schedule to boost metabolic health and shed some pounds. The diet, which gained traction thanks to the late Dr Michael Mosley, involves consuming food within a specific timeframe each day and fasting for the remainder. Some adherents restrict their eating to an eight-hour window, such as from 11am to 7pm, allowing for meals like breakfast, lunch, and dinner within this period. Yet, there are those who push the boundaries of intermittent fasting, limiting their intake to just six hours a day – a practice that neither Spector nor Berry would advocate. Berry said: "You don't need to go to these like, crazy regimes. You see people doing these regimes where they're eating within six hours. That might work for some people, but I want to go out in the evening." He pointed out that such restrictive diets can take a toll on our social lives, particularly when dining plans fall outside the designated 'eating window'. The scientist added: "You never have a social life, you can never have a meal with friends and family." Spector chimed in, suggesting that these extreme forms of intermittent fasting may not be maintainable in the long run. He emphasised: "There's the ultimate scientific time [of when you choose to eat], but what's really important is the time you can sustain this." It's essential we pay attention to our eating schedules and avoid post-9pm snacks, but the key is finding a routine that fits with your way of life, social commitments and circadian rhythm.
