Welcome to 🧠 Second Brain!
I didn’t come into nutrition the way most people expect.
I was a chef first. Five years cooking professionally, which gave me a front row seat to how people actually eat, what they enjoy, and what gets in the way.
Then I got the science bug.
Retrained as a dietitian, and then a PhD in nutrition and the gut microbiome soon followed, and I’m still at it. Right now our research team at King’s College London is running the EAT-FIBRE study.
I know what it's like to tie yourself in knots over food. The mental load of it, the backlash. It's exhausting, and completely counterproductive.
Which is probably why I’m suspicious of any approach to nutrition that feels like punishment.
Why Second Brain?
It’s a nod to how brilliantly multi-faceted your gut really is - so much more than a digestive factory. How it reaches beyond digestion, influencing all areas of your body including your (first) brain.
Because that’s what health really is, not just warding off disease later in life, it’s how you feel right in the here and now too.
Eating well should give you back time and energy twofold. Helping you physically feel your very best. And mentally too, by being simple and clear enough that it doesn’t eat into your headspace.
Because so much of what gets airtime in nutrition (the supplements, the protocols, the latest fix) is small, weak evidence, not worth your time or money.
I want to help you focus on the levers that actually move the needle, and let go of the rest. So you can get on with the things that give you purpose and joy.
What you’ll find in Second Brain
Every Wednesday I translate the latest nutrition and gut health science into something you can actually use.
A mix of practical how-tos, myth-busting when nutrition headlines get noisy, and the occasional new study explained in plain English.
Just useful, honest information from someone who has actually read the research.
The gut microbiome shows up a lot, as that was the topic of my PhD, and an on-going focus of my academic research. But also because the research keeps pointing back to it as a new piece of the puzzle, in the bigger picture of our whole-body health.
The Second Brain Vault
Paid subscribers get access to the Second Brain Vault - 25+ PDF guides, cheatsheets and trackers covering fibre, gut health and brain nutrition. Practical enough to print out and stick on your fridge. Plus the full archive going back to the beginning, and audio walkthroughs of every newsletter coming soon.
About me
I’m Emily. Registered dietitian and scientist at King’s College London, TEDx and international keynote speaker, Daily Mail columnist, and author of Genius Gut and Fibre Power. Also a former chef (on superyachts no less), a fantasy fiction reader, and owned by a dog called Mavis.
Find me on Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Chat soon,
Emily xx
