ZOE Science & Nutrition

What really helps you live a long, healthy life? Can healthy ageing be as simple as a few everyday habits?

In this episode, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, world-leading oncologist, bioethicist and World Health Organization adviser, shares six rules from his book Eat Your Ice Cream that may help lower your risk of dementia, heart disease, cancer and early death.

Ezekiel explores the science of healthy ageing, longevity and disease prevention, and explains why many wellness trends distract us from what matters most.

By the end of the episode, you’ll have six practical habits that have the biggest impact on living well for longer. From building stronger relationships and staying mentally active to improving your diet, exercise and sleep, Ezekiel offers a simple framework designed to support health over decades, not weeks.

If you want to live a longer, healthier life, are you focusing on the habits that matter most?

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🌿Let your gut microbes snack on the ZOE Gut Health Bar

Build healthy habits. Download the ZOE app today and start your trial for just £2.30 for your first week. 👉 Join ZOE

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Timecodes

00:00 Why more exercise may not help you live longer03:49 The book that made a leading doctor furious08:11 Why wellness culture thrives when life feels out of control10:52 What the wellness industry gets wrong about longevity13:05 Are peptides and supplements dangerous?16:28 How much alcohol is safe to drink?18:52 How ultra-processed food affects your brain and body23:49 Is vaping safer than smoking?25:35 Which vitamins and supplements are actually worth taking?28:09 Rule one: The risks that are never worth taking30:12 Is climbing Everest more dangerous than you think?31:27 The number one rule for a longer, healthier life33:35 How loneliness increases your risk of early death35:51 What loneliness does to your immune system and heart37:03 How many close friends do you need for better health?39:20 Is working from home harming your mental health?40:08 How to rebuild your social life when you feel isolated40:52 Four vaccines linked to a lower risk of dementia44:21 Is retirement bad for your brain?45:32 Four simple food rules for better gut health47:56 The three types of exercise you need as you age50:17 How many hours of sleep do you really need?52:24 Is sleep less important than social connection?54:02 Why sleeping pills may not improve your sleep56:13 The one habit that combines all six longevity rules

📚Books by our ZOE Scientists

The Food For Life Cookbook

Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati

The Appetite Reset 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 Smart Snacking Guide: How to feed your gut, fuel your day, and snack without guilt

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

Eat Your Ice Cream: Six Simple Rules for a Long and Healthy Life by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel

Multivitamins and cognitive health, Annals of Medicine and Surgery (2026)

The (un-)Social Brain, Physiological Research (2025)

Association between social activity frequency and overall survival, BMJ (2023)

The Health and Retirement Study

Harvard Study of Adult Development

Mistakenly seeking solitude, Journal of Experimental Psychology (2014)

Home alone: Remote work, isolation, and mental health, Science (2026)

Have feedback or a topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know here.

Episode transcripts are available here.

Today, we’re talking about Omega-3.

Omega-3 fats have been celebrated, scrutinised, and debated for decades. While some research points to remarkable heart health benefits, other studies suggest they can actually raise the risk of cardiovascular disease.

So where does the science stand today? Should we supplement, rely on food, or rethink our approach to omega-3 completely?

Dr. Bill Harris and Professor Sarah Berry join me to cut through the confusion, explain omega-3’s role in the body, and share an evidence based approach to this fascinating fatty acid.

🌱 Try our science-backed and tasty wholefood supplement Daily30

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.

📚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

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

Have feedback or a topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know here.

Episode transcripts are available here.

We all want to eat healthier. The Paleo diet promises exactly that: eat like our ancestors, avoid modern foods, and improve your health. But does it really support your gut, heart and long-term health, or is the story more complicated?

In this episode, Dr James Cole, a world-leading expert on prehistoric diets, joins Dr Federica Amati to explore what Paleo gets right and why some of the claims may be dangerously wrong.

James explains what ancient evidence tells us about human diets, why the modern-day Paleo diet may go too far in its restrictions, and what that might mean for your heart disease risk and gut health.

By the end of the episode, you’ll have ideas on what principles to keep from the Paleo diet, and what rules to avoid.

Could trying to eat as our ancestors did force you to cut foods your body actually needs? Before you give up grains, beans or dairy, it may be worth asking what ancient humans really ate.

🌱 Try our science-backed and tasty wholefood supplement Daily30

🌿Let your gut microbes snack on the ZOE Gut Health Bar

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

04:39 What does Paleolithic actually mean?

09:14 How scientists know what ancient humans ate

10:01 What ancient teeth reveal about diet

11:25 Why there was no single Paleo diet

13:16 The myth that ancient humans just ate meat

15:38 Why humans evolved to eat many foods

17:14 Why the human gut got smaller

22:13 How fire changed the human diet

24:02 Were ancient humans cooking plants?

25:51 What modern eating has lost

27:45 Did Paleolithic humans practise cannibalism?

30:37 Should we copy everything our ancestors ate?

32:56 What is the modern Paleo diet?

34:32 What the Paleo diet gets right

37:00 Did our ancestors eat meat every day?

38:18 Why Paleo cuts grains, dairy and beans

39:30 Are lectins in beans really dangerous?

41:27 Why modern Paleo may be based on shaky science

42:20 Is the Paleo diet healthy long term?

44:45 What a healthier Paleo diet would look like

46:17 The processed meat and cancer risk trap

48:37 Is grass-fed beef really better?

50:10 Should you fast like your ancestors?

52:10 How to cut ultra-processed foods without Paleo

56:20 What to eat instead of strict Paleo

📚Books by our ZOE Scientists

The Food For Life Cookbook

Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati

The Appetite Reset 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 Smart Snacking Guide: How to feed your gut, fuel your day, and snack without guilt

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

The Paleolithic diet and chronic disease risk, Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition (2026)

Long-term Paleolithic diet is associated with increased serum TMAO concentrations, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Evidence for mitigation of dental caries by Neanderthals, PLOS One (2026)

Evidence for the diets of Neanderthals and early modern humans, PNAS (2009)

Long-term effects of a Palaeolithic-type diet, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2014)

The Big IF Study: What did we find?

The Expensive-Tissue Hypothesis, International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2018)

Have feedback or a topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know here.

Episode transcripts are available here.

Today we’re talking about breast cancer.

Here at ZOE, we know that health is deeply personal - and breast cancer risk is no different. Your likelihood of developing breast cancer is shaped by factors such as genetics, body composition, and lifestyle. 

Understanding your individual risk is crucial because it helps determine when and how you should be screened - and in some cases, it could save your life.

Today, I’m joined by Dr. Thais Aliabadi to explain why breast cancer screening shouldn’t follow a one-size-fits-all approach, and how her own experience with cancer has influenced the way she thinks about prevention.

🌱 Try our science-backed and tasty wholefood supplement Daily30

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.

📚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

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

Have feedback or a topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know here.

Episode transcripts are available here.

Can food improve brain health, memory and mood? 

In this episode, Prof Felice Jacka and Prof Tim Spector explore how diet, the gut microbiome and fermented foods may affect your mood, brain function and dementia risk. Drawing on clinical trials and research involving more than 10 million people, they explain why what you eat could have a much bigger impact on your brain than most people realise, and what the latest science suggests you can do about it.

Felice, who helped create the field of nutritional psychiatry, explains how food influences the brain through the gut microbiome and inflammation. She and Tim explore why some foods change brain function, which support brain health, what the evidence says about ultra-processed foods, and why diet is becoming an increasingly important part of research on brain and mental health.

Learn which foods to eat more often, which foods to reduce, and simple, affordable ways to build meals that support your gut, mood and long-term brain health. From whole grains and legumes to fermented foods and everyday supermarket and grocery store choices, by the end of the episode, you’ll have realistic advice that’s easy to put into practice today.

If the food you eat today helps shape your brain tomorrow, what small change could make the biggest difference over the next year?

🌱 Try our science-backed and tasty wholefood supplement Daily30

🌿Let your gut microbes snack on the ZOE Gut Health Bar

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

03:10 Why beans may boost mood more than cake

07:35 Can diet reduce your risk of depression?

10:10 Can changing your diet put depression into remission?

12:45 How does the gut microbiome affect the brain?

16:04 Can gut microbes transfer depression symptoms?

17:55 What gut bacteria are missing in mental illness?

20:16 Is food the most powerful tool for brain health?

22:11 The yogurt study that surprised neuroscientists

25:35 Can fermented foods help grow the hippocampus?

28:18 Why fermented foods may improve mood and energy

30:16 The gut-brain connection explained simply

31:13 How diet during pregnancy affects brain development

37:52 Are depression, anxiety and dementia connected?

39:27 What are ultra-processed foods really doing to your brain?

39:55 The major study linking ultra-processed foods to disease

42:31 Are some ultra-processed foods healthier than others?

43:44 Real food vs meal replacements: what happens to your microbiome?

48:29 The ingredient Felice Jacka tries to avoid

50:16 Do supplements improve brain health?

52:23 The best foods for brain health and mental health

53:37 How to eat for brain health on a budget

55:40 The simplest brain health advice you’ll hear today

58:40 The complete brain health and gut health checklist

📚Books by our ZOE Scientists

The Food For Life Cookbook

Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati

The Appetite Reset 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 Smart Snacking Guide: How to feed your gut, fuel your day, and snack without guilt

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

The 'SMILES' trial, BMC Medicine (2017)

Mood Disorders: The Gut Bacteriome and Beyond, Biological Psychiatry (2024)

ZOE study: Fermented food improves mood, energy, and hunger

Effects of a probiotic fermented dairy product on the brain, Gut microbiota (2025)

Associations between diet quality and depressed mood in adolescents, ANZJP (2010)

Ultra-processed food exposure and adverse health outcomes, BMJ (2024)

Global Burden of Disease, The Lancet (2026)

Folic acid, ageing, depression, and dementia, BMJ (2002)

Transplantation of gut microbiota derived from patients with schizophrenia induces schizophrenia-like behaviors, Nature (2024)

Have feedback or a topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know here.

Episode transcripts are available here.