A nutrition expert has shed his three top additions to his meal plates for 2025. Professor Tim Spector says it is important to increase the diversity of plants you eat to get the best nutritional value of your food.
And he has highlighted three foods he believes will be popular this year. He says there will be an “explosion” of the humble mushroom with the popular breakfast food soaring in popularity and emerging as a must-have health food.
Speaking on the Zoe podcast he said mushrooms are an “ incredible food and have all kinds of links with helping people fight cancer.” The expert, who says your gut microbiome is “the centre of the universe”, also added Kimchi to his list of top foods for the coming year.
He said while Indian and Chinese doctors have realised the importance of gut health for “thousands of years” we are just discovering it. Kimchi, a Korean sauerkraut, is a probiotic which improves gut health and helps the maintenance of the digestive system. According to the expert it can be mixed in with “all your foods” and is a “fantastic fermented food”.
His final choice is to add Rye bread to his weekly meals. He said it is “probably the healthiest bread you can have and suits me and my particular blood sugar profile.” It is easy to store and can be kept in a cupboard or freezer then included into your diet as a breakfast food.
Professor Sarah Berry, who joined Spector on the podcast, said her first must-have is nuts. She said: “They are a powerhouse of nutrition. They’re packed full of heart-healthy oils, loads of fibre, loads of polyphenols. They keep us full for long, they reduce our risk of so many different diseases. They’re a great snack.”
She said she also counted virgin olive oil as a key staple. She added: “I know this is one of Tim’s favourites as well. It’s packed full of heart-healthy oils. It’s packed full of polyphenols.”
Her final must-have could be a welcome treat to those wanting to make a healthy change. She added: “The third thing is a little bit of what you enjoy. And so that’s up to the audience. And it’s about the fact that there are so many healthy foods that can still be really, really pleasurable for us. So dark chocolate is a great example. If it’s a good quality dark chocolate, it can actually be quite healthy for us and yummy.”