Page 14 - Healthy food

Kitchen medicine cabinet

‘I WAS ONLY ABLE
TO HELP A FIFTH
OF MY PATIENTS’

We meet the DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE, GP
medics who are and presenter of BBC1’s Doctor in
prescribing a the House, believes that diet, along
dose of good with rest, sleep and movement, is
the pathway to good health. His new
nutrition for
THE patients alongside book, The 4 Pillar
Plan: How to Relax,
their medication
Eat, Move, Sleep
REAL FOOD Your Way to
a Longer, Healthier
Life (Penguin Life,
£16.99), is out now.
DOCTORS I realised that I was probably helping
A FEW YEARS INTO MY JOB AS A GP,

only around one-fifth of the patients
walking through my door. I could
ITH PRESCRIPTION PILLS for conditions such as certainly give a drug to suppress their
high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes considered symptoms, but I was failing to get to the
the norm, a growing number of young medics are actual root cause of their problems.
embracing the idea that the secret of good health may also lie ‘I’m not anti pills, I just think that
in the kitchen. While they don’t claim to have the nutritional doctors are overusing them. I believe
knowledge of a dietitian, these health professionals believe in a multi-pronged approach to health
that nutrition and medicine should go hand in hand. – I call it progressive medicine. By taking
This move can be seen as a backlash against poly pharmacy this view I prescribe medications that
– the prescription of multiple daily pills for chronic ailments. merely address symptoms far less
When the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence frequently than I used to.
(NICE) set new criteria in 2014 for the prescription of statins Today, rather than prescribe a
(daily pills taken to lower raised LDL – bad cholesterol – levels) mood-altering drug for depression,
some GPs rebelled as this meant that 11.8 million I’m more likely to recommend a diet
more adults would technically be put on ^ GPs need far high in healthy fats, some meditation
medication – 37% of those aged 30 to 80. more education on and increased physical activity. In
A 2017 Cambridge University study showed prescribing small lifestyle adjustments
that half of all over-65s are now taking at least five prescribing diet and that promote rest and relaxation,
drugs a day, with some people on as many as 23. lifestyle changes encourage better sleep and get people
In fact, the number of patients on medication has _ moving, I have managed to reverse
risen from 12% to 49% in the past 20 years. Many of the health type 2 diabetes, eliminate irritable
issues we’re medicated for, such as high blood pressure, type bowel syndrome, lower blood pressure,
2 diabetes and raised cholesterol, may be diet-related or have reduce menopausal symptoms without
links to obesity, and yet many patients receive little, or no, the use of hormones, conquer insomnia,
information from their doctors about foods and portion sizes. help people lose weight, get rid of
severe migraines and even reverse
Time to educate the doctors? autoimmune conditions – all without the
HFG nutrition editor Amanda Ursell explains that, although use of any medication.
NHS dietitians are on hand to help, few are based in GP There’s so much confusion about
practices, and it can take time to be referred. ‘Doctors only healthy eating – the polarisation of the
receive a few hours of nutrition training,’ says Amanda. ‘Indeed, fats v carbs debate is a case in point.
many wouldn’t have time to talk through diet plans with their I’m not necessarily convinced that it is
patients anyway. There’s clearly a need for patients to have carbohydrates that are causing the
access to more diet expertise. You can’t simply tell a person to problem – more the quality of the carbs
lose weight and give them no information about how to do it.’ (carrots and sweet potatoes are ‘good’

14 HEALTHY FOOD GUIDE FEBRUARY 2018