Our everyday food choices affect not only our gut health but also our brain health. But how exactly does this work? Nutritionist and clinical neuroscientist, Miguel Mateas explains it all, including the role of pre and probiotics. We discuss how long-term stress affects the gut and how eating a colourful diverse diet is so important for our overall health. Miguel believes that diversity is important, not only with what we put into our mouths, but in all aspects of our lives – from our thoughts to our experiences. He talks about the amazing benefits of olive oil and how to choose the best quality. Miguel is witty and jolly as ever – I really enjoyed this conversation and hope you do too!

Our everyday food choices affect not only our gut health but also our brain health. But how exactly does this work? Nutritionist and clinical neuroscientist, Miguel Mateas explains it all, including the role of pre and probiotics. We discuss how long-term stress affects the gut and how eating a colourful diverse diet is so important for our overall health. Miguel believes that diversity is important, not only with what we put into our mouths, but in all aspects of our lives – from our thoughts to our experiences. He talks about the amazing benefits of olive oil and how to choose the best quality. Miguel is witty and jolly as ever – I really enjoyed this conversation and hope you do too!

Episode Highlights:

• Hear about the different uses of olive oil from Miguel’s home country Spain
• What do we now know about olive oil and its place in our diet today?
• What is Miguel’s current area of research?
• Hear about Miguel’s work with The London Agri Food Innovation Clinic
• Miguel and Rangan talk about microbiome diversity and the role of probiotics.
• What are the links between the gut and the brain?
• How does Miguel describe Free-Radicals and how these can affect the brain?
• Hear how Miguel describes leaky-gut as a consequence of chronic stress.
• What constitutes a Mediterranean diet and how can this vary?
• How can pre-biotics help our microbiome?
• Hear Miguel & Rangan talk about eating the rainbow and the importance of diversity.
• Dr Chatterjee’s rainbow chart
• What social factors can have an effect on our gut health?
• Hear how personalisation is key to improved health.
• The British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine (BANT)
• What are Miguel’s 4 top tips?

Further reading:

• Miguel’s paper: Harnessing the power of microbiome assessment tools as part of neuro-protective nutrition and lifestyle medicine interventions
• Miguel’s paper: Could food act as personalized medicine for chronic disease?
• Miguel’s paper: Role of fatty acids and micronutrients in healthy ageing: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials set in the context of European dietary surveys of older adults
• The Nutrition Evidence database has some great plain English summaries for non-scientists to make sense of science.
• The British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine (BANT) is a professional body for Registered Nutrition Practitioners.
• Stress and gut health: Bifidobacterium longum 1714 as a translational psychobiotic: modulation of stress, electrophysiology and neurocognition in healthy volunteers