Plant Proof - Plant Based Nutrition & Inspirational Stories

In Episode #123, I sat back down with Dr Alan Desmond to continue our conversation on all things gut health! Alan shared his path to gastroenterology and what his role as a gastroenterologist entails, as well as the common types of gut health problems he sees in his work and why he recommends a whole-food, plant-based diet to his patients.   You’ll also hear some learnings from COVID-19, a recap of some of the important things we need to know about our microbiome, and what foods we should be eating more and less of. We discussed the happiness effect – how food can affect our mood – and how meat affects inflammation in the gut. There’s much more in this episode, including how to manage inflammatory bowel disease and the relationship between gluten and a healthy gut, so I recommend giving it a listen if you want to find out more about good gut health. For more insights and reflections, visit The Proof website for the full show notes.    Enjoy, friends.   Simon Want to support the show?  The best way to suppor

In Episode #122, I sat down with Dr Gemma Newman to chat about her new book, The Plant Power Doctor, and the benefits of a plant-based approach. We covered Gemma’s understanding of nutrition as a young doctor, the advantages of a plant-based approach, and what Gemma sees in her medical clinic.   We also talked about nature versus nurture, plant-based versus vegan, antioxidants, food and hormones (including thyroid health and polycystic ovary syndrome), the role of dietary fats and hormones, organic versus conventional produce, and what Gemma eats in a day. For more insights and reflections, visit The Proof website for the full show notes.    Enjoy, friends.   Simon Want to support the show?  The best way to support the show is to use the products and services offered by our sponsors. To check them out, and enjoy great savings, visit theproof.com/friends. You can also show your support by leaving a review on the Apple Podcast app and/or sharing your favourite episodes with your friends and family. Simon Hil

In Episode #121, I sat down with Drew Harrisberg (again) to talk about my new book, The Proof is in the Plants, and why it’s important for us to consider how our lifestyle is serving us.   We discussed the inspiration for writing The Proof is in the Plants, the various parts of the book, and who it’s written for. We also go into exercise versus nutrition, body weight and disease risk, using the word ‘diet’, orthorexia (an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating), pain versus pleasure as a motivator for sustained behaviour change, and much more. For more insights and reflections, visit The Proof website for the full show notes.   Enjoy, friends.   Simon Want to support the show?  The best way to support the show is to use the products and services offered by our sponsors. To check them out, and enjoy great savings, visit theproof.com/friends. You can also show your support by leaving a review on the Apple Podcast app and/or sharing your favourite episodes with your friends and family. Simon Hill, Msc, Bsc (

In Episode #120, I sat down with Dr Hannah Ritchie, geoscientist and senior researcher at Our World in Data, to dive deeper into our food system and the changes we need to make in the coming decades to meet climate goals.   In our conversation, Hannah shared her journey into the world of geoscience and environmental research. She explained why it’s important to zoom out and look at data over a long period of time and why it’s important to consider agriculture when thinking about planetary health. Listen to find out about the major drivers of deforestation and how plant-based foods compare to animal-based foods when it comes to planetary health. For more insights and reflections, visit The Proof website for the full show notes.    Enjoy, friends.   Simon Want to support the show?  The best way to support the show is to use the products and services offered by our sponsors. To check them out, and enjoy great savings, visit theproof.com/friends. You can also show your support by leaving a review on the Apple

In Episode #119, I sat down with Dr Jonathan Foley, one of the world’s most highly regarded climate and environmental scientists. Jonathan has published over 130 peer reviewed papers in the field of sustainability in highly prestigious journals such as Science and Nature. He is also an author, a highly sought-after guest speaker, and the executive director at Project Drawdown, a not-for-profit organisation widely considered to be the world’s leading resource for information on climate solutions. However, as brilliant as his resume is, his communication is arguably what makes his work so incredibly powerful.   Listen to hear Dr Foley and I talk about individual versus government action, looking at climate change as a game of chess, the changes we can make as individuals, and much, much more. If you want to learn real facts about climate change and the available solutions from someone who both values and contributes to science, then I strongly recommend you make time to listen to this episode. For more insight

In Episode #118, I sat down with James Stanton-Cooke, or Jimmy Halfcut as he goes by, to talk about the current climate conversation here in Australia and what his organisation, HalfCut, are doing to help mitigate climate change and protect our future.   We covered the Big Scrub rewilding project, the PSS (push-ups, sit-ups, squats) challenge, what divesting means and why it’s important, investing with companies doing good (e.g., Enova Energy and Bank of Australia), protecting the Daintree Rainforest (including updates on the success so far and HalfCut’s goals looking forward), and much more. For more insights and reflections, visit The Proof website for the full show notes.    Enjoy, friends.   Simon Want to support the show?  The best way to support the show is to use the products and services offered by our sponsors. To check them out, and enjoy great savings, visit theproof.com/friends. You can also show your support by leaving a review on the Apple Podcast app and/or sharing your favourite episodes wit

In Episode #117, I sat down with Drs Dean and Ayesha Sherzai, leading neurologists who specialise in cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s. Recently, Dean and Ayesha performed a thorough review of the literature to find out how important omega-3s are for brain function and whether or not we should be taking them. They ended up splitting this review into two parts: one covering pregnancy, infancy, childhood, and adolescence and the other covering adulthood.   In this episode, we break down their findings with the goal of helping you understand what omega-3s are, where we get them from and whether we should consider supplementation. It was a pleasure to have them back on the show. I love everything that they are about and I’m sure you’re going to find this a very informative episode. To hear more from Drs Dean and Ayesha Sherzai, check out episodes #65, #78, #97, #126, #188, and #226. For more insights and reflections, visit The Proof website for the full show notes.    Enjoy, friends.   Simon Want to support

In Episode #116, I sat down with environmental researcher Nicholas Carter to talk more about grass-fed beef and planetary health. We started by discussing the results from a new, peer-reviewed study of White Oaks Pasture – a farm that for years has claimed their beef is carbon negative – before covering the importance of rewilding for cooling our planet. Find out how changing the foods we eat can help free up land to be rewilded and protect existing forests. We also talked about the UK’s ‘Regenuary’ movement and much more.   For more from Nicholas Carter, see Episodes #104, #111, #136, #175, and #230. For more insights and reflections, visit The Proof website for the full show notes.   Enjoy, friends.   Simon Want to support the show?  The best way to support the show is to use the products and services offered by our sponsors. To check them out, and enjoy great savings, visit theproof.com/friends. You can also show your support by leaving a review on the Apple Podcast app and/or sharing your favourite epis

In Episode #115, I sat down again with Thomas King, the founder and CEO of Food Frontier, a not-for-profit organisation that is helping build the future of protein in Australia. We discussed the findings from a new report by Food Frontier on the healthfulness of plant-based meats, and we also talked about cellular agriculture and how it works. Listen to find out why the growth of cellular agriculture is important, what problems it solves, and how the industry has changed in the past few years. For more insights and reflections, visit The Proof website for the full show notes.    Enjoy, friends.   Simon Want to support the show?  The best way to support the show is to use the products and services offered by our sponsors. To check them out, and enjoy great savings, visit theproof.com/friends. You can also show your support by leaving a review on the Apple Podcast app and/or sharing your favourite episodes with your friends and family. Simon Hill, Msc, Bsc (Hons)  Creator of theproof.com and host of The Proo

In Episode #114, I sat down with Emily Manoogian, PhD, from the Panda Lab at Salk Institute for Biological Studies, to learn about how we can improve our health by nurturing our circadian rhythms. Emily and her team are considered world leaders in the field of science known as ‘chronobiology’, and they have published several studies (with more currently underway) investigating how the timing of our meals affects our health.   As well as circadian rhythms and circadian disruption, we also discussed time-restricted feeding (TRF), the difference between TRF and fasting, and what Emily’s research has identified about TRF so far. There’s plenty of practical information and recommendations in this fascinating episode.   (As I note at the beginning of this episode, although TRF is not an extreme protocol, if you suffer from an eating disorder and find the subject of meal timing to be in any way triggering, then this may not be the best episode for you. And that is totally fine! Simply pick the show back up in the ne

In Episode #113, I sat down with Dr Matthew Nagra to talk about how he uses evidence-based nutrition science to help his patients upgrade their health. If you are looking for an episode that consolidates several topics previously raised on the show, along with findings from new research, then I think you will really enjoy this episode.   We talked about the latest EPIC-Oxford study on bone health, the health advantages of people who adopt plant-predominant or exclusive diets, naturopathy as a form of health care, and important nutrients and supplements for people reducing their consumption of animal-based foods. Dr Nagra shared how he helps his patients make sustainable changes, his answers to the common questions he gets from patients (including questions about protein, soy, lectins, and cooking oils), and his personal food philosophy.   For more from Matthew Nagra, see Episodes #133, #197, #198, and the special debate episode. For more insights and reflections, visit The Proof website for the full show not

In Episode #112, I sat down with Harvard-educated psychologist and bestselling author Melanie Joy to discuss how we form our beliefs about food and how people on plant-based diets can have healthier, more productive conversations with meat eaters. This is an episode that I believe will be highly enlightening regardless of which diet you follow.   In this episode, Melanie shared her personal journey to studying psychology at Harvard and writing her award-winning book Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism. We discussed the carnism ideology, carnistic defence systems, and why our food choices matter. Listen to hear some fascinating insights into effective advocacy for a plant-based lifestyle and better communication with people holding a different opinion to you. While my episodes usually focus on the science of nutrition, I found this exchange fascinating, and I believe that it provides so much insight into communication in general, whether or not it’s related to food choices. F

In Episode #111, I sat down with environmental researcher Nicholas Carter to discuss the claims made in the Kiss the Ground documentary that was released on Netflix a few weeks ago. Together we talked about the solutions put forward by the documentary and what a shift to holistic grazing would mean for diets globally. We also discussed the evidence-based way for individuals to lower their food-based environmental footprint. For more insights and reflections, visit The Proof website for the full show notes. For more from Nicholas Carter, see Episodes #104, #116, #136, #175, and #230. Enjoy, friends.   Simon Want to support the show?  The best way to support the show is to use the products and services offered by our sponsors. To check them out, and enjoy great savings, visit theproof.com/friends. You can also show your support by leaving a review on the Apple Podcast app and/or sharing your favourite episodes with your friends and family. Simon Hill, Msc, Bsc (Hons)  Creator of theproof.com and host of Th

In Episode #110, I sat down with Drew Harrisberg to talk about my book The Proof is in the Plants and how we should be using science to make public health recommendations. We also answered a bunch of questions sent in from the community.   Listen to hear about the evidence hierarchy in nutrition science and why fibre recommendations may in fact be lower than optimal. We also discussed the carnivore diet and secondary bile salts, omega-3s and the evidence surrounding protection against heart disease, supplementing with B12 and vitamin D, getting enough calcium in your diet, beneficial food groups for brain performance and protection against cognitive decline, and much more.    Enjoy, friends.   Simon Want to support the show?  The best way to support the show is to use the products and services offered by our sponsors. To check them out, and enjoy great savings, visit theproof.com/friends. You can also show your support by leaving a review on the Apple Podcast app and/or sharing your favourite episodes with y

In Episode #109, I sat down with Bruce Friedrich, lawyer and co-founder of the Good Food Institute, to talk about two solutions to current problems with our food system: plant-based meat and cultivated or ‘cell-based’ meat.   Bruce and I discussed what exactly is wrong with the current food system and how it affects human health, planetary health, and animal welfare (including specifics on climate change, COVID-19, antibiotic resistance, production inefficiencies, and food security). We then talked about plant-based and cultivated meats, particularly bio-mimicking meat made using cells collected via biopsy. Bruce shared his knowledge on where these industries are currently, the projections for the future, the barriers to entry, when we can expect to see cell-based meat on the shelf, and how these types of products are likely to be perceived by customers.   (I apologise in advance for the slightly tinny audio from Bruce’s end in this episode – the recording software is a bit hit and miss compared to when you a

In Episode #108, I sat down with Dr David Katz, MD, who in my opinion is one of the clearest voices in an area of science littered with confusion, hidden agendas, and biases. This is a great episode that reinforces many of the key principles that I have been sharing with you via social media and on this show for the past two years. It also emphasises the three pillars that I base my personal food decisions on: human health, planetary health, and animal welfare.   In this episode, we talked about why an infectious disease pandemic may help us to take chronic disease more seriously, what the number one risk factor for chronic disease in developed countries is, and why debating the little stuff is keeping us from making an impact on the big stuff. We also discussed the characteristics of an optimal diet and whether there is one ‘single best diet’ that we should all be following. And David’s shares his thoughts on whether we should eat fish and whether adding animal products to an optimally planned vegan diet wou

In Episode #107, I sat down with Doug Evans, author of The Sprout Book, to talk about the magical process of sprouting seeds and why we should all strive to include sprouts in our diet. Doug shares why he changed his own personal diet some twenty years ago and what the nutritional benefits of sprouts are. Listen to find out what sprouting is and how to do it, including the costs involved, the equipment needed, the right seeds to use, and more. For more insights and reflections, visit The Proof website for the full show notes.   Enjoy, friends.   Simon Want to support the show?  The best way to support the show is to use the products and services offered by our sponsors. To check them out, and enjoy great savings, visit theproof.com/friends. You can also show your support by leaving a review on the Apple Podcast app and/or sharing your favourite episodes with your friends and family. Simon Hill, Msc, Bsc (Hons)  Creator of theproof.com and host of The Proof with Simon Hill  Author of The Proof is in the Pla

In Episode #106, I sat down with Dr Valter Longo, PhD, to talk about eating to beat disease, manage your body weight, and live a long, healthy life.   Specifically, we covered Roy Walford’s ‘Biosphere 2’ research; calorie restriction versus fasting; fasting and biomarkers of cancer, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular disease; findings from clinical trials on the ‘fasting-mimicking’ diet; and eating for longevity. We also discussed what we can learn from centenarians and how animal protein compares with plant protein.   For more insights and reflections, visit The Proof website for the full show notes.   Enjoy, friends.   Simon Want to support the show?  The best way to support the show is to use the products and services offered by our sponsors. To check them out, and enjoy great savings, visit theproof.com/friends. You can also show your support by leaving a review on the Apple Podcast app and/or sharing your favourite episodes with your friends and family. Simon Hill, Msc, Bsc (Hons)  Creator of thepr

In Episode #105, I sat down with Ryland Engelhart and Finian Makepeace from Kiss the Ground to continue the theme of how our food system and food choices are affecting the health of our planet.   In this episode, we covered regenerative agriculture and how it differs from sustainable, organic, and biodynamic farming practices, as well as the problem with industrial agriculture. We also discussed tilling, cover crops, carbon sequestration, and holistic grazing, including White Oak Pastures (for a more detailed dive into the science on this, see episodes #104 and #111 with environmental researcher Nicholas Carter). Listen to find out why it’s so crucial we change the way we farm. For more insights and reflections, visit The Proof website for the full show notes.   Enjoy, friends.   Simon Want to support the show?  The best way to support the show is to use the products and services offered by our sponsors. To check them out, and enjoy great savings, visit theproof.com/friends. You can also show your support b

In Episode #104, I sat down with environmental researcher Nicholas Carter to chat about how our current food system is affecting the environment. We discussed the changes needed to meet climate goals and create a system that results in better food security, less water pollution, less land use, less freshwater use, and greater production efficiency.   We covered some big questions in this episode, including what climate change is, what the implications of a warming planet are, and whether climate change is more than an energy issue. We also discussed greenhouse gases and their connection to human activity and agriculture, before going on to talk about the environmental impact of animal- versus plant-based foods as well as food transportation. Nicholas also shares some top tips that we can implement individually to lower our environmental footprint. There’s so much more in this episode, making it one of my favourite episodes yet. For more insights and reflections, visit The Proof website for the full show note