A sell-out success for first event of 2025!

It was such a pleasure to welcome an audience of over 800 to the Forum to hear Professor Tim Spector speak about his extensive research and findings into how what we eat affects our health.

Tim was joined on stage by TV and radio presenter Gaby Roslin, a healthy gut advocate, who had come armed with questions that many of us wanted to ask ourselves. The event was sponsored by BIRD, the Bath Institute of Rheumatic Diseases, and many of its patients and staff were in the audience to hear first-hand.

Professor Spector is a trained medical doctor and he recalled his many visits to the Royal Mineral Hospital in Bath (known affectionately as the Min) in his role as consultant rheumatologist. He then went on to research the health of twins and how much nurture and nature affected their health. And this in turn led to the movement he is spearheading in the UK for taking diet more seriously as a means to active, healthy lives.

“I studied genes and obesity for about ten years and concluded that you can’t change your parents, but you can change your diet. In other countries, including the Netherlands, France, Germany and the States promoting a gut healthy diet is widespread. But in this country it is not being taught in medical school and the move is being driven by the public,” he said.

Here are some of Professor Spector’s top tips:

Try to eat around 30 different plants each week. This includes vegetable and fruit, seeds, nuts, pulses, herbs and spices and coffee and dark chocolate.

Try to include three to five fermented items in your daily diet. This includes natural yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut, miso and sourdough bread (although not all bought sourdough contains probiotics)

Eat more legumes, beans and pulses. If they give you gas, then eat them in sparing amounts as your body gets used to them.

Give your gut a rest, time for the microbes in your gut to do their job, like a factory supporting the body. This is best done by not snacking and giving your body ten to 12 hours without food, preferably through the night as you sleep.

It’s never too late to start! Adopting a plant-rich diet and plenty of gut-friendly food will give you more energy and help your hunger cravings, whatever your age.

Gaby talked to Tim about his best-selling cookbook The Food for Life Cookbook, which has 100 easy to follow recipes for eating well.

We are grateful to Bath Institute for Rheumatic Diseases for supporting this event. BIRD is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2025. It funds rheumatology research, develops early career researchers and engages patients with all the latest developments surrounding their condition. Scientific discoveries surrounding the microbiome have relevance for inflammatory and autoimmune conditions, including most rheumatic conditions.

The evening was introduced by Joe Haddow, BBC radio producer, the man behind the long-running BBC Radio 2 Book Club and guest curator at Bath Literature Festival 2025. He gave us a teaser of events coming up, including The Good, the Bad and the Rugby, writer Ben Okri, the Rev Richard Coles, Susie Dent and Bath based thriller writer Claire Douglas.