In a Nutshell: The Plant-Based Health Professionals UK Podcast

This week we are delighted to welcome Professor Paul Behrens to the Nutshell. Paul is a British Academy Global Professor based at the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford where his research focuses on the impacts of food system transformations.  His research and writing on food and energy systems, land use and climate change has appeared in scientific journals and media outlets and he...

This week's 'nugget' episode showcases the work of Dr Camille Hirons, a GP with special interest in lifestyle medicine and reducing health inequalities. Esselstyn CB Jr, Ellis SG, Medendorp SV, Crowe TD. A strategy to arrest and reverse coronary artery disease: a 5-year longitudinal study of a single physician's practice. J Fam Pract. 1995 Dec;41(6):560-8. PMID: 7500065.Buettner D,...

This week we are pleased to be welcoming Dr Neal Barnard, M.D. to the Nutshell. Dr Barnard has an incredible plant-based health CV including founding the Barnard Medical Center in Washington DC, which aims to make nutrition part of routine medical care, as well as working as adjunct Professor of Medicine at George Washington University. He is however perhaps most well known for his role as Founder...

Sea salt, iodised salt, Himalayan salt, and lo-salt: what should we be using? Well less of all of them it seems, but why exactly, and how can we do that? Daisy and Clare talk it through, whilst leaving room for a touch of the plant-based eater's favourite - kala namak.

This week, in episode 10, we are talking about chronic kidney disease and diet, and so are excited to be joined by Angeline Taylor, a registered dietitian of over 15 years who has worked within the kidney specialty for most of those years.  Angeline is extremely passionate and committed to supporting those with kidney conditions to live a healthy lifestyle.  She holds the positions of Renal Dietit...

Nuts are full of fibre, unsaturated fats, vitamins, and polyphenols. So this week's nugget will get you up to speed on why you should be including them in your diet, whilst reassuring they are not 'a second on the lips, a lifetime on the hips'.

In line with the recent World Day for Laboratory Animals on 24th April, we spoke with Savita Nutan, founder of Medicine Without Cruelty. In this episode Savita highlights the suffering of laboratory animals, how unreliable animal experiments are, and how poorly they translate to human health outcomes.  As such Savita is committed to ending animal testing in science, medicine and dentistry. Her org...

Celebrating with chocolate can continue. Just make sure it's the dark variety (for maximum flavanoids), you're mindful of portion control, and that it's fairly traded. https://foodispower.org/chocolate-list/ Katz DL, Doughty K, Ali A. Cocoa and chocolate in human health and disease. Antioxid Redox Signal. 2011 Nov 15;15(10):2779-811. doi: 10.1089/ars.2010.3697. Epub 2011 Jun 13. PMID:...

This week we welcome nutritionist and founding member of Greencuisine Trust, Daphne Lambert, to the Nutshell. Daphne has cooked, studied, taught and written about food all her adult life. She has run a nutritional consultancy practice for over 25 years working with schools, colleges and organisations looking at ways to nourish well being. Through inspiring projects, courses and events, Greencuisin...

In this week's nugget: Is supplementing with B12 unnatural? Is there a role for fortification? And how would I even know if I was deficient in B12? Our advice would always be to keep calm, and take the supplement....

April is bowel cancer awareness month. With this in mind we talk to Dr Alan Desmond, consultant gastroenterologist, about how to reduce our risk of developing bowel cancer, one of the commonest cancers in the Western world, and how diet and lifestyle can improve prognosis for people already living with this condition. Alan is a practising clinician, author of 'The Plant-Based Diet Revolution', a w...

Let's crush this myth once and for all that red meat is the go-to if your iron levels are low. You asked us for some straight-forward guidance on ensuring diets are iron replete, so we thought it was time to record an iron nugget, or should we say 'ingot'....

In episode 6 we welcome back Dr Alan Desmond, Consultant Gastroenterologist, to discuss the surprisingly common bowel condition, diverticular disease. Alan is a practising clinician, author of 'The Plant-Based Diet Revolution', a well known speaker and now a successful podcaster with his new podcast - ‘Eat This with Dr Alan Desmond’, as well as being an Ambassador for Plant-Based Health Profession...

In this bonus episode, we talk to the directors Dan Richardson and Giles Alderson about the story of their joint film, Food for Thought. We wanted to think about what a film like this could do to motivate people to follow a healthy, plant-based diet. To watch the film: https://foodforthoughtdoc.com/

This week we welcome Michael Metoudi, RD, M.Sc, a registered dietitian working within both research and clinical practice. Michael talks about his research on the knowledge and views held by registered dietitians in England and Northern Ireland on plant-based diets. Michael holds a master in Molecular Medicine and has previously worked in clinical trials for immunotherapy-related cancer treatments...

It's over to Plant-Based Health Professionals researcher Isabelle Sadler for this week's nugget. PBHP UK have published groundbreaking research examining NHS hospital menus which shows that despite national recommendations to shift towards more sustainable, plant-forward diets, UK hospitals are showing limited progress in offering environmentally-friendly meal options. The reference:How Sustainabl...

Ahead of Rare Disease Day on the 28th February, we speak with nutritionist, author and lifestyle medicine professional Rohini Bajekal about a rarer form of diabetes, MODY, or maturity onset diabetes of the young. Rohini shared the challenges she had to overcome to finally reach her diagnosis of this rare genetic condition. To connect with Rohini: www.rohinibajekal.com https://www.instagram.com/roh...

Are you literally sick of bringing home the bacon? Good news is plant-based diets are not only healthier, but they can also be cheaper. In this week's nugget Daisy and Clare discuss ideas to save money on your food bill. And if money worries are keeping you up at night, you can find a full explanation of cognitive shuffling and more in Jane Thurnell- Reed's book: Health & Wellbeing on...

This week we had the pleasuring of speaking with the fabulous skin specialist, Star Khechara. With a 20 year career spanning skincare formulation and nutrition – author of The Holistic Beauty Book, original founder of Formula Botanica, creator of The Facelift Diet® and leader of Skin Nutrition Institute – Star has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to skin health. We cover why skin is so importan...

This week's nugget reacts to the latest efforts by the dairy industry to make cow's milk more 'sustainable'. We'll be talking about Bovaer which is a compound added to feed to reduce the amount of methane produced by cows. You can listen to more on dairy with our brilliant guests if you check out 'Strength to go dairy-free: milk choices, with Rosie Martin RD' and 'H...

Dr Ajaz is a Specialist Hepatologist and a Lifestyle Medicine Physician, and her work intersects clinical medicine and research within the Institute of Liver Studies at King’s College Hospital. She is also an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at the School of Immunology and Microbial Sciences. She established the LIVFIT group, the UK’s first patient support group for metabolic dysfunction- associa...

What if there aren't enough bees in the right place at the right time for my almond monoculture? And am I okay to have a bit of local honey without causing the collapse of an ecosystem? This nugget unpacks the things you might need to think about in answering these questions.

This week we were lucky enough to speak with internationally acclaimed dietician and plant-based pioneer, Brenda Davis, R.D. Brenda has a truly impressive career that spans the decades, and has involved consulting, research, teaching, and writing. She is a sought after speaker at international conferences and has co-authored thirteen nutrition books. We squeezed in as many questions as we could ab...

It's the end of Season 3 and this week's nugget is all about why healthy carbohydrates (the mainstay of wholefood plant-based diets) are no bad thing when it comes to diabetes. We think many health professionals still need to hear that trying to focus solely on protein, to the exclusion of all the wonderful things in carbohydrate rich foods such as fruits, beans, and seeds, is hard work, seemingly...

This week we speak with The Alcohol Free Warrior - Neil Rutherford. Neil is a member of the Plant-Based Health Professionals UK and shares with us how he came to quit alcohol for good and discovered the benefits of plant based eating along the way. He has now qualified as an alcohol free performance coach from the Andy Ramage Training Academy with a diploma in coaching and positive psychology and...