Wine and Your Microbiome - with Dr Tim Spector

Wine Blast with Susie and Peter

This podcast is GOOD FOR YOU! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise...
In this mind-blowing episode we have an exclusive interview with the world-famous Professor Tim Spector, expert in the human microbiome - this population of friendly microbes that lives inside all of us and which acts almost like an extra organ, boosting our immune system, fighting disease and even influencing our mental health.
According to Spector, these microbes are so numerous and influential that we're all effectively, 'half human, half bug.'
Spector has studied how what we eat and drink influences our gut microbiome and thus our health - and the good news is that red wine drunk daily in moderation can definitely boost our microbiome in beneficial ways. Hallelujah!
So, it's a case of: Eat, Drink Red and Be Merry. But not too merry...
This is an episode not to miss! Other questions we explore include:

• Why red wine is better for our health than white wine or other forms of booze
• How much is too much when it comes to wine and health
• Why we may need to re-think the concept of 'hazy' wine or decanting (to take wine off the sediment) given it's thought that even dead yeast cells can be good for us
• How fermentation is key to health benefits because it increases the complexity of polyphenols
• Why wine could be the source of the ultimate health drink
• Why drinking as many different red grape varieties as possible is a good idea because each will nourish different microbes, and diversity is key for health
• Why we need to take official government health advice (and those peddling supplements) with a pinch of salt
• How people playing around with precision fermentation, microbes and other modern techniques will revolutionise wine and beer in the next few years

Along the way we talk natural wine, polyphenols, wild ferments, sweet spots, long lunches, hangovers and Big Ben. As ever, we find time to enjoy and recommend a few bottles of wine (and benefit our microbiome while doing so). In this episode we have:

• Clos Basté Madiran 2019, France
• Château Montus Madiran 2016, France
• Plaimont L'Empreinte de Saint Mont rouge 2018, France
• Catena High Mountain Vines Malbec 2017, Argentina

All details from this episode (including links we mentioned) are on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S4 E13: Wine and Your Microbiome - A Recipe for Health?
We'd love to hear from your views on this or any other wine issues - do send us a voice message via Speakpipe or you can get in touch via our website.
Thanks for tuning in. Here's to the joy of wine - cheers to you!

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1. Wine and Your Microbiome - with Dr Tim Spector (00:00:00)

2. Welcome! (00:00:06)

3. Why Peter's excited about this episode (00:00:20)

4. Why did we want to do this episode in the first place? (00:01:46)

5. On Tim Spector (00:02:13)

6. Tim Spector interview preface (00:04:55)

7. What is the microbiome? (00:05:36)

8. How does the microbiome affect our health? (00:06:41)

9. How does what we eat and drink affect our microbiome? (00:08:44)

10. We're all fifth cousins... (00:11:13)

11. How does wine affect our microbiome? (00:13:47)

12. Booze is bad...red wine is good (00:14:35)

13. Dose response effect (00:15:57)

14. The importance of fermentation (00:16:32)

15. Do we know which polyphenols are best? (00:19:06)

16. [Ad] Tiny Bar Chats (00:19:06)

17. (Cont.) The importance of fermentation (00:19:26)

18. Is natural wine better for you? (00:25:14)

19. The importance of yeasts or sediment (00:26:27)

20. What to do if you're a white wine lover?! (00:29:15)

21. MID-WAY RECAP (00:33:07)

22. Tasting wines to recommend (00:33:21)

23. So much health advice is contradictory - what's the truth? (00:38:34)

24. Getting the dose right (00:42:10)

25. The exciting wine science of the future (00:43:35)

26. What's Tim's advice for wine lovers? (00:46:29)

27. Brief summary (00:48:41)

28. Outro (00:49:00)