One afternoon in the park with her grandchildren prompted Becky Tucker to make a dramatic change to her life.
At 48, she watched as the four children ran and played, but found herself too exhausted to join them. Looking back, she describes the moment as a much-needed wake-up call.
The risk management consultant from Dorset, England, was experiencing fatigue, anxiety, mood swings and hot flushes as she entered perimenopause.
She had also endured severe, debilitating migraines for around a week every month for most of her adult life, with the attacks linked to her menstrual cycle.
Becky had struggled with her weight throughout her life. Weighing more than 168 lbs and with a BMI of 29—close to the obese range—she had spent the previous 25 years trying one weight-loss plan after another.
Although the diets initially worked, the weight returned whenever she went back to her usual choices of chocolate bars and what she describes as “beige stodge.”
It is a familiar midlife pattern: the pounds gradually build until losing them can seem almost impossible.
Three years later, however, Becky’s transformation is striking. Around 56 lbs lighter and full of energy, she says she feels like a completely different woman—and photographs show just how much she has changed.
Becky Tucker lost four stone after following the ZOE diet. The risk management consultant from Dorset, England, had previously experienced fatigue, anxiety, mood swings and hot flushes
Weighing more than 168 lbs and with a BMI of 29—close to the obese range—Becky had spent the previous 25 years trying different weight-loss plans.
Earlier diets produced results at first, but the weight returned when she resumed her usual routine of chocolate bars and “beige stodge.”
Her figure has slimmed by more than four dress sizes, from a size 12 to a 4 or 6. The migraines that had plagued her for much of her life have disappeared, along with the menopause symptoms that once limited her.
Most importantly, she can now run around the park with her grandchildren instead of remaining on the sidelines.
What makes the change especially remarkable is that Becky says she achieved it—almost apologetically—“without really trying.”
There was no restrictive regime, calorie counting or constant hunger. Instead, she reshaped her eating habits with help from ZOE, the gut health science company co-founded by Professor Tim Spector, whose work explores the relationship between diet, gut health, overall wellbeing and, increasingly, mood.
Professor Spector, an honorary consulting physician and epidemiology expert at King’s College London, has found that straightforward changes to food choices may bring wide-ranging benefits. These include losing weight without going hungry, improving mood, increasing energy and potentially helping protect the brain from the effects of ageing.
Now, in an exclusive six-week newsletter series launching on Monday, October 26, Our News Outlet readers can learn how to apply his research in everyday life. The program promises the possibility of feeling happier and healthier within days, while potentially losing up to 14 lbs before the holidays.
Drawing on Professor Spector’s research at ZOE and featuring recipes from his new cookbook, Good Mood Food, the series will offer step-by-step guidance on an approach designed to support not only weight loss but also how you feel from day to day.
It will explain which surprisingly simple foods can nourish the trillions of bacteria in the gut, why those microbes may influence mood and brain health, and how to support them through diet.
Readers will also learn what to add to their shopping carts, what to leave on store shelves and how to create meals that are both satisfying and full of flavor.
There will be exclusive recipes, from hearty breakfasts and satisfying dinners to indulgent desserts, along with expert advice on eating to support your mood and thinking as you get older.
Half-way through, Professor Spector will make a live appearance on dailymail.com to answer readers’ questions and talk about his cookbook.
And with the holidays fast approaching, he’ll reveal how to enjoy your favorite festive foods without undoing all your hard work – and, crucially, how to make these changes stick for life.
Indeed, research by Professor Spector’s gut health company ZOE found that 35 per cent of around 5,000 participants lost at least five percent of their body weight in just three months.
Their approach to diet has become a global phenomenon, refined through years of research involving hundreds of thousands of people.
Although more personalized recommendations are available to ZOE subscribers, anyone can follow the basic principles, for free.
Becky overhauled her diet with the help of nutrition science company ZOE, co-founded by Professor Tim Spector, the scientist at the forefront of discoveries in diet and gut health
These include eating 30 different plants a week, by making simple tweaks such as sprinkling seeds, nuts or fresh herbs over a salad or soup, or adding chopped fruit or greens to a plate.
Professor Spector encourages dieters to swap meat, particularly processed meat such as sausages, bacon and salami, for plant-based proteins including beans, lentils and chickpeas, and to aim for at least 30g of fiber a day.
However, chicken, lean meat and especially oily fish can still be enjoyed as part of his approach.
Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) – industrially-produced foods lacking in nutrients and containing cosmetic additives designed to make food irresistible to eat – are discouraged.
Instead, meals should be based on whole foods, with a rainbow of different-colored plants to maximize nutrients.
‘Studies have found that people who eat healthy diets, full of fruit, vegetables and whole grains, significantly improve their mood,’ Professor Spector says.
‘On the other hand, people who eat the most UPFs such as crisps, biscuits, sausages, sugary soft drinks, chicken nuggets and sugary cereal, have the biggest risk of mental health problems and dementia.
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‘When people have moderate depression, giving them a gut-friendly diet can improve or reverse symptoms in a significant proportion of them.’
Despite this, processed foods such as baked beans, Weetabix and high-fiber or seeded bread are on the menu.
Fermented foods, including natural yogurt, sourdough bread, kefir, sauerkraut, kombucha and kimchi, also have a role to play, as do dark chocolate and peanut butter. Most of these feature in the cookbook.
‘It’s not about restriction or cutting out all processed foods,’ he explains, ‘it’s about cutting back on the worst unhealthy ultra-processed foods and replacing them with real whole plants.’
Eating more whole foods increases fiber intake – only five percent of American adults get the recommended 30g a day, which can help protect against bowel cancer, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
All ZOE studies to date have shown improvements in mood and energy within the first two weeks in the majority of people.
High-fiber foods also make you feel fuller for longer and can stimulate the release of GLP-1, the appetite-regulating hormone mimicked by weight-loss drugs.
Becky, now 52, is proof of how powerful these changes can be – with benefits she never expected.
From eating less than 10g of fiber a day, she now regularly reaches 60g-75g. She even competes with – and often beats – Professor Spector to see how many different plants she can fit into her diet, notching up more than 75 most weeks.
As she says: ‘This hasn’t just changed what I eat, it has changed how I live. I’m not just lighter physically, it’s mentally that a weight has come off too.
‘The transformation really has been quite extraordinary, which anyone who knows me will say. And while I don’t want to be one of those people who is evangelical about their diet, I will be!’
Becky had struggled with her weight since giving birth to her first child at 17. She would regularly go on Weight Watchers, lose around 14 lbs, then regain it through binge eating. As she got older, that regain became double what she lost.
But despite her weight struggles, it was a desire to improve her long-term health that brought her to ZOE in 2023.
Her monthly migraines were ‘horrendous,’ and although she had started HRT it had not fully resolved her hot flushes, anxiety, poor sleep and mood swings.
She says: ‘I was approaching 50 at the time, and I was thinking, “What is going to serve me well for the future?” I was also finding I wasn’t participating in my grandchildren’s lives in a way that was fully immersive.
‘We would go to the park and I had such little energy I would just sit on the bench and watch them.’
She started the ZOE program in April 2023, gradually introducing more vegetables to her meals and sprinkling nuts and seeds over dishes. Crisps and milk chocolate were swapped for raspberries, nuts or very dark chocolate.
Professor Spector’s approach to diet has become a global phenomenon, refined through years of research involving hundreds of thousands of people who signed up to studies via the ZOE app
She experimented with vegetables she’d never tried, such as eggplant, bok choy and sweet potatoes, and mixed mashed butter beans into her mashed potato before eventually phasing out the potato.
She also made sure her plates were colorful, adding salad leaves and purple and red vegetables rich in polyphenols, antioxidants which can protect cells from damage.
Becky still doesn’t eat breakfast, but a typical lunch now involves roasted vegetables, houmous, salad and nuts.
A similar recipe is found in the cookbook called the Roasted Red Pepper and Lentil Salad.
Dinners include lentils, chickpeas or beans with vegetables and salad, or one of Professor Spector’s recipes. Her favorites are eggplant parmigiana – similar to the Stuffed Aubergine Traybake found in the cookbook – and his high-protein, high-fiber cookies. A dollop of kimchi accompanies most meals.
‘Within a month the migraines had gone,’ Becky says.
‘I put it down to a happy coincidence, but they’ve never come back. Within three months I felt more energized and less anxious, and the remaining menopause symptoms had gone.
‘And I noticed that my weight was dropping off. It just happened naturally – and it was the icing on the cake.
‘I’m running around the park with my grandchildren now, and we recently went to Disneyland Paris together, which was incredible.
‘It was easy – I kept up with them, I had fun, and I wasn’t having to think about my energy levels. I can’t describe how good it feels.’
Becky has had no problem sticking to her new regime and has kept the weight off.
‘What’s been most powerful is that these changes feel sustainable,’ she says. ‘This isn’t a short-term fix, it’s a completely different way of understanding how food supports my body.
‘I feel more in control of my health and better equipped to manage this stage of life. I can’t imagine ever stopping.’
Please note: All recipes use UK measurements, so American readers may wish to use an online converter.
Good Mood Food by Tim Spector (Vintage £30) is out October 22. To preorder a copy for £27 (offer valid to 31/10/26; UK P&P free on orders over £25) click here or call 020 3176 2937
