The Proof Podcast is a space for science-based conversation. Together with his guests, Simon Hill, a qualified physiotherapist and nutritionist, explores the health and longevity benefits that come with mastering physical exercise, nutrition, mindfulness, recovery, sleep, and alignment. Facts, nuanc
This is Christopher Gardner's eighth appearance on the show. Christopher is a nutrition scientist at Stanford, director of the Stanford Nutrition Studies Research Group, and the author of a new book, Food Sense: What to Eat and Why. He has run more than 20 human diet trials over three decades. Instead of relitigating the diet wars, we spend this conversation on the machinery underneath them: the trade-off between rigour and real life, why the definitive trial people keep waiting for will never be run, and what a null result is actually worth. I also put a few recent studies to him that cut…
A few weeks ago I published my own heart scans, and one number travelled further than the rest: a 48% drop in plaque over 16 and a half months. The question underneath that video was the obvious one. How? This episode is the answer, and it is also the part I could easily have left out. Three companies analysed the same two scans. HeartFlow found a 48% reduction, Cleerly found a 20% increase, and QAngio found essentially no change at all. Same heart, same images, and a sixfold spread in the absolute amount of plaque they measured. I walk through my full protocol, explain which analysis I…
Howard Luks is an orthopaedic surgeon with almost 30 years of experience, and a good deal of his week is spent telling people they do not need an operation. We work through the joints that bring most people into a clinic, knees, shoulders, Achilles tendons and ankles, and separate what a scan is actually telling you from what it is being used to justify. Almost everyone over 40 has something on an MRI that will be described as a tear. Very few of those people need surgery, and plenty have no pain at all. Howard's case, drawn from three decades in clinic and the sham-surgery and…
This is part two of my conversation with Dr Federica Amati, Head Nutritionist at ZOE and author of the Sunday Times bestseller Every Body Should Know This. In part one we covered preconception, fertility, and pregnancy nutrition. Here we follow the first 1,000 days through to the end: birth, breastfeeding, weaning, and the environmental exposures behind all of it. Much of this territory has become a source of guilt rather than clarity. Federica's framing is the one I keep returning to: this window is critical, but it is not fragile. Biology adapts, most of what shapes these years is…
Around 30% of the world's population has too much fat in their liver, and almost none of them know it. Liver disease stays silent until it is very advanced, which is exactly why so many people are found too late. In this episode I sit down with Prof Aleksander Krag, professor and department chair of gastroenterology and hepatology at Odense University Hospital and former Secretary General of the European Association for the Study of the Liver, to separate the frightening headline number from the thing that actually determines risk. It is not the fat. It is the scarring, and there is a simple…
Almost all of us have atherosclerosis, and almost none of us are told so, because "normal" cholesterol is a population average rather than a physiological target. Dr Thomas Dayspring and Dr Dan Soffer, both Masters of the National Lipid Association, join me for a conversation devoted entirely to primary prevention. They do not agree on everything, and that is the point. Tom argues ApoB is the cause of atherosclerosis. Dan calls it the necessary substrate. Between them you get an unusually honest look at how two experienced clinicians weigh evidence, uncertainty, and their own bias when…
Everyone wants to talk about longevity. Almost no one wants to talk about gerontology, the field that has been studying how to age well for a century. Dr Deborah Kado, Stanford professor of medicine and geriatrician, joins me to bridge that gap. From bone health and balance to deprescribing, gut microbiome research, and the surprising power of your attitude towards ageing, this is a masterclass in what actually matters for a long, well-lived life. What We Cover: Why "longevity science" is largely gerontology rebranded A positive attitude towards ageing and its link to lower dementia risk…
Professor Roy Taylor returns, three years after his first appearance, with the five-year DiRECT trial results and a clear-eyed assessment of where diet-driven type 2 diabetes remission stands in the GLP-1 era. The evidence is now solid: type 2 diabetes is, for many, a reversible condition of excess fat in the liver and pancreas. But keeping it in remission demands keeping the weight off, and the new generation of weight loss drugs comes with marketing claims that Roy says have no evidence behind them. What We Cover: The Twin Cycle Hypothesis and personal fat threshold Five-year DiRECT data:…
Can you meaningfully improve type 2 diabetes without losing weight? Dr Nicola Guess, registered dietitian and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, says the evidence is clear: a higher-protein, lower-carbohydrate diet can lower post-meal glucose by more than medication, no weight loss required. We also tackle the noisier end of the blood sugar conversation: glucose spikes, fruit fear, insulin-first theories of obesity, and the panic about GLP-1s and muscle loss. What We Cover: Why glucose only causes direct harm at diabetic levels How protein wakes up "sleepy" beta cells What…
About one in seven couples are unable to conceive after a year of trying, and roughly half of those cases involve a male contribution. Yet in a quarter to a third of them, the man is never properly evaluated. In this episode I sit down with Dr Michael Eisenberg, a urologist, Director of Male Reproductive Health at Stanford University and Chief Medical Advisor of SwimClub, and Dr Natalie Crawford, a reproductive endocrinologist and co-founder of Fora Fertility in Austin, Texas. This is the comprehensive male fertility resource I went looking for and couldn't find, and I have a personal stake…
Dr Terry Simpson is back, and we go deep on the science of protecting your heart and brain for the long run. He is a surgeon and one of the clearest voices online for separating solid evidence from confident hype, and in this conversation we tackle everything from new cholesterol-lowering drugs to gene editing, cognitive ageing, and the lean mass hyperresponder debate. Along the way we get a few things off our chests about the misinformation that spreads faster than the careful answer ever can. What We Cover Why healthy ageing brains owe more to lifestyle than to genetics How PCSK9…
Metabolic dysfunction rarely announces itself. We tend to think of metabolic health as a line you cross the day you are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, but the decay usually begins years earlier, at the level of the cell. In this masterclass I bring together Dr Iñigo San Millán, Dr Alan Flanagan, Dr Kevin Hall, Dr Robert Eckel, Professor Roy Taylor, and Dr Christos Mantzoros to explain what metabolic flexibility is, why your mitochondria sit at the centre of it, and what you can actually do about it. What We Cover Why lactate is a fuel and a signal, not a waste product, and our best…
GLP-1 medications are transforming obesity treatment, but they're only one piece of the puzzle. In this masterclass, I bring together insights from Dr Terry Simpson, Dr Federica Amati, Dr Mauricio Gonzalez, Dr Christos Mantzoros, and Dr Stephan Guyenet to explain how these medications work, why "food noise" matters, and what it really takes to improve long-term metabolic health. What We Cover How GLP-1 medications regulate appetite and food noise Why obesity is more complex than willpower Semaglutide vs tirzepatide and newer medications Nutrition and resistance training while taking GLP-1s…
We tend to treat pregnancy as the starting line for a child's health. In this episode, Dr Federica Amati, Head Nutritionist at ZOE, makes the evidence-based case that the window opens earlier, in the months before conception, and that it shapes fertility and lifelong health in ways most of us were never told. What I valued most is her balance. The science is striking, but she frames it as information to act on rather than a reason for guilt, and she is honest about how much sits with environment and policy rather than individual choice. What we cover: Why the first 1,000 days may be the…
In late 2024 a CT scan revealed a small amount of soft plaque in my arteries. Sixteen months later I scanned again, and my plaque volume had dropped by around forty percent. In this episode I ask the cardiologist behind the technology whether a result like that can really be trusted. Dr Campbell Rogers is an interventional cardiologist, a former Harvard faculty member who ran the cath lab at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and now Chief Medical Officer at Heartflow. What we cover: The difference between a calcium score, a CT coronary angiogram, and AI plaque analysis Why a calcium score of…
Can a supplement actually reverse the plaque in your arteries, or only slow it down? It is the question I am asked most, and after a 2024 scan revealed early plaque in my own left anterior descending artery, it became a personal one too. This is part two of my three-part series on reversing atherosclerosis. In this solo episode I work through eight of the most popular supplements and rank them by the strength of the human evidence, not the strength of the marketing. What we cover: Why pure EPA has by far the strongest evidence for regressing plaque, and what EVAPORATE, CHERRY, JELIS, and…
For decades we have treated the number on the scale as the goal of metabolic health. Dr Mauricio Gonzalez, a triple board-certified physician and endocrinology fellow practising in New York, makes the case that we have been measuring the wrong thing. In this conversation we explore why liver fat, not body weight, is becoming the real target, what the latest weight-loss medications can and cannot do, and how to cut through the hype and dogma that surround this field. What we cover: Why isolated blood tests and blood pressure readings tell you very little The myth that GLP-1 medications are…
In this episode, exercise physiologist Dr Margie Davenport walks me through what the evidence actually shows about exercise during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Margie chaired the 2019 Canadian Guideline for Physical Activity throughout Pregnancy, the 2025 Canadian postpartum guideline, and the upcoming International Olympic Committee consensus statement on athletes through pregnancy and postpartum. We cover where the 140 bpm rule came from, the scale of the benefits at the population level, what direct fetal monitoring during HIIT and heavy lifting really shows, the new postpartum…
GLP-1 medications are now part of the mainstream conversation, but the biology of appetite and satiety, the system these drugs operate within, gets far less attention than the drugs themselves. In this episode, I sit down with Dr Federica Amati, Head Nutritionist at ZOE and author of the new book The Appetite Reset, to explore what's actually happening in the gut and brain when appetite signals do their job, and what that means for everyone, on or off medication. Federica brings a rare combination of pharmacology, clinical nutrition, and public health expertise to a subject that rarely…
In this episode, I sit down with bariatric surgeon and science communicator Dr Terry Simpson for a wide-ranging conversation about health misinformation, GLP-1 medications, statins, ApoB, the Mediterranean diet, and the loud contrarians who dominate social media. Terry has familial hypercholesterolemia, a family history of premature cardiovascular disease, and lost 50 pounds on tirzepatide, all of which give him unusual personal stakes in these debates. What we cover: How to think about uncertainty in science, and Terry's heuristic for spotting misinformation The Gila monster origin story of…
In this episode, I’m joined by Sarah Ann Macklin to explore the hidden psychological costs of modern wellness culture and why pursuing health can sometimes leave us feeling more anxious, overwhelmed, and disconnected. Sarah shares insights from her new book, Healthy Shouldn’t Be This Hard, as we unpack self-compassion, perfectionism, body image, mindset, and the pressure to constantly optimise every aspect of our lives. What We Cover Why wellness culture can become emotionally exhausting The difference between self-esteem and self-compassion How mindset shapes long-term health behaviours The…
Six years on from our first conversation, global meat consumption is at a record high, and the harms of industrial animal agriculture have only deepened. Bruce Friedrich, founder of the Good Food Institute, is back on the podcast to argue that the answer is not asking people to eat less, but rebuilding meat itself from the ground up. Bruce is the author of the new book Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity's Favorite Food and Our Future, and one of the most thoughtful voices working on alternative proteins anywhere in the world. What we cover: Why public health…
Cardiovascular disease is the world's leading killer, and yet the prevention conversation has become noisier and more confused than ever. In this Masterclass I bring together the evidence-first material I think is most useful for understanding cholesterol, blood pressure, and long-term heart health. You will hear from Dr Walter Willett at Harvard, cardiology dietitian Michelle Routhenstein, and nephrologist Dr Raymond Townsend, alongside my own deep dives on plaque regression, the Portfolio Diet, and six landmark trials. What we cover: Legumes as the most underrated longevity food The…
The peptide and GLP-1 conversation has reached a fever pitch. Growth-hormone-releasing peptides are being marketed as longevity tools, GLP-1s are being treated as a default rather than a last resort, and a wellness aesthetic of higher IGF-1, more muscle, and less fat is being sold as the route to a longer life. In this episode, I sit down with Dr Valter Longo, Professor of Gerontology at USC and Director of the USC Longevity Institute, to look at what the data actually says. Valter developed the Fasting-Mimicking Diet, has led foundational work on the growth hormone, IGF-1, insulin, and TOR…
Plant-based nutrition has rarely been more contested. Seed oils are vilified, butter is celebrated, protein is treated as a pure quantity question, and nutrition epidemiology is routinely dismissed by people who have never read one of its papers. In this episode, I sit down with Dr Andrea Glenn, an Assistant Professor at NYU and Visiting Scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, to look at what the strongest evidence actually shows. We cover the recent plant-versus-animal protein data from the Nurses' Health Studies and Health Professionals Follow-up Study, the Portfolio…
Ultra-processed foods are now the central nutrition conversation of the decade, but the gap between the marketing and the evidence has never been wider. In this episode, I sit down with registered nutritionist and Sunday Times bestselling author Rhiannon Lambert to bring some practical clarity to what the science actually says. We get into how the NOVA system can be too blunt to be useful, why calorie counts on packets are often 30 to 40 per cent inaccurate, what the most recent UPF and cancer data actually shows, and how to spot the difference between sensible fortification and the…
Peptides are being marketed as solutions for everything from injury recovery to longevity, but what does the science actually say? In this episode, Dr Leigh Baxt joins me to break down what peptides are, how drug development really works, and why so many of the claims circulating online are running far ahead of the evidence. We explore the difference between approved peptide medicines and unregulated products sold online, why anecdotes are not enough, and what people should understand before putting these compounds into their bodies. What We Cover What peptides are and why they are not new…
In this episode, I’m joined by Dr Belinda Beck to challenge long-held beliefs about osteoporosis and bone health. We break down what actually works, what doesn’t, and why many people are being given outdated advice. We explore the science of bone adaptation, the importance of heavy resistance training, and how to think about prevention and treatment across the lifespan. What We Cover Why walking is not enough for bone health How heavy lifting changes bone strength What DEXA scans can and cannot tell you The impact of menopause on bone loss Exercise vs medication for osteoporosis Common myths…
In this episode, I return to a conversation I promised to continue - sitting back down with Prof Tim Spector, MD, to explore everything that has changed in microbiome science since Episode 224. Tim and the ZOE team have now published a landmark Nature paper with 34,000 microbiome samples, run a clinical trial comparing personalized nutrition against government guidelines, and Tim has published a book on fermentation science. We cover why most probiotics are scientifically obsolete, a practical ranked guide to fermented foods, the TMAO pathway linking gut bacteria to cardiovascular risk, and…
In this episode, I’m joined by Dr Kevin Hall from the NIH to unpack the science behind ultra-processed foods, energy balance, and the new U.S. Dietary Guidelines. We explore what controlled feeding studies reveal about why people tend to eat more calories on ultra-processed diets, and whether it’s the foods themselves or the broader environment driving these effects. What We Cover Key takeaways from the new U.S. Dietary Guidelines What ultra-processed foods actually mean in research vs policy Why people eat more calories without noticing The role of energy density and hyper-palatable foods…
About The Proof with Simon Hill
The Proof Podcast is a space for science-based conversation. Together with his guests, Simon Hill, a qualified physiotherapist and nutritionist, explores the health and longevity benefits that come with mastering physical exercise, nutrition, mindfulness, recovery, sleep, and alignment. Facts, nuanc
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