Michael Mosley Quotes

“If you were born by a Caesarean (C-Section) things would have been very different. The first bacteria you would have encountered are those hanging around the operating theatre, those on the skin of people that held you and anything else that you inhaled or swallowed in the first few hours of life.

Poo samples taken from babies who were delivered by Caesarean section show that they have a very different gut bacterial population from those who were born virginally. Does this matter? Yes very much so. Thanks to a study done by researchers from the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health, we know that babies who are born by Caesarean section are far more likely to become obese children and overweight adults.”

“A pound of fat contains more energy than a pound of dynamite.”

“But surely, I hear you say, that’s crash dieting and crash dieting always fails? You end up putting back on all the weight you lost, and more. Well, no. Like anything, it depends on how it is done. Done badly, a very low-calorie diet will cause misery. Done properly, rapid weight loss is an extremely effective way to shed fat, combat blood sugar problems, reverse type 2 diabetes, perhaps even cure it.”

“Professor Taylor’s research suggests that it is the buildup of fat inside the liver and pancreas that causes all the trouble. These two organs are responsible for controlling our insulin and blood sugar levels. As they get clogged up with fat they stop communicating with each other. Eventually your body stops producing insulin and you become a type 2 diabetic.”

“What is a 'Mediterranean diet'? The Mediterranean diet has become incredibly popular since studies showed it can significantly cut your risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and possibly Alzheimer’s. It is not a diet that most people associate with the Med. There is no pizza or pasta. Instead, it is a diet that emphasises the importance of eating fruit, vegetables, oily fish, nuts and olive oil. Yoghurt and cheese are warmly embraced. As is a glass of red wine at the end of the day (though this is optional).

There are carbs in this diet, but the sort that your body takes longer to break down and absorb. That means legumes (beans, pulses, lentils), not pasta, rice or potatoes. I think it is a fantastically healthy and tasty way to eat. It takes many of the best features of a low-carb diet and makes them more palatable.”

“Nuts, seeds, dark chocolate, red wine, olive oil and vegetables like leeks, garlic and onions are packed with the chemicals that microbes love. We should also be eating more fermented foods like live yoghurt, kimchi, sauerkraut and kefir.”

“People who have at least one alcoholic drink a week have a more diverse microbiome than those who don’t drink at all.”

“Seventy-five per cent of the world’s food comes from just twelve plants and five animal species.”

“The more different types of plants you eat, the more diverse your microbiome.”

“As two leading weight loss experts, Dr Corby Martin and Professor Kishore Gadde from Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, put it: The myth that rapid weight loss is associated with rapid weight gain is no more true than Aesop’s fables.”

“Dr Lustig blames the modern diet, rich in sugar and refined carbs, for pumping up our insulin levels, a claim supported by many other leading obesity experts, including Dr David Ludwig, a paediatrician from Harvard Medical School, and Dr Mark Friedman, head of the Nutrition Science Initiative in San Diego.”

“Whatever diet you decide to follow, it is vital that you are getting enough daily protein (at least 50-60g a day), otherwise you will lose muscle. You also need to be sure you are getting enough of all the other essential nutrients – you should avoid going on one of those crazy cabbage soup or green juice diets, for example.”

“As long as we have plenty of food, our bodies are mainly interested in growing, having sex, and reproducing. So what happens if you decide to fast? Well, the body’s initial reaction is one of shock. Signals go to the brain reminding you that you are hungry, urging you to go out and find something to eat. But you resist. The body now decides that the reason you are not eating as much and as frequently as you usually do must be because you are now in a famine situation.

In the past this would have been quite normal. In a famine situation, there is no point in expending energy on growth or sex. Instead, the wisest thing the body can do is to spend its precious store of energy on repair, trying to keep you in reasonable shape until the good times return once more.”

“Male or female, your waist should be less than half your height.”

“Nature has no long-term plans for us; she does not invest in our old age. Once we’ve reproduced, we become disposable.”

“Neck size is an accurate predictor of whether or not you will snore.”

“Research has found that modern humans tend to mistake a whole range of emotions for hunger. We eat when we’re bored, when we’re thirsty, when we’re around food (when aren’t we?), when we’re with company, or simply when the clock happens to tell us it’s time for food. Most of us eat, too, just because it feels good. This is known as hedonic hunger.”

“The reality of your life always comes out in pathology.”

“There is no reason to be alarmed by benign, occasional, short-term hunger. Given base-level good health, you will not perish. You won’t collapse in a heap and need to be rescued by the cat. Your body is designed to go without food for longish periods, even if it has lost the skill through years of grazing, picking, and snacking.”

“Who would have imagined that eating a baked potato would have as big an impact on your blood glucose as eating a tablespoon of sugar?”

“Will I go into starvation mode? The short answer is an emphatic 'no'. This is one of the great dieting myths — the fear that if you cut your calories for even a day, then your metabolic rate will slow right down as your body tries to conserve its fat stores. This starvation mode myth seems to be based on the Minnesota starvation experiment, a study carried out during World War II. In this experiment, young volunteers lived on extremely low calorie diets for up to six months.”

“You’ll arrive at a place where you say no to the cheesecake because you don’t want it, not because you are denying yourself a treat.”