The Doctor’s Kitchen. Dr Rupy Aujla

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СКАЧАТЬ of my age, so I was a very unusual case. I underwent multiple investigations to find a cause; stress tests, ECGs, cardiac MRIs, bloods, electrophysiology testing, echocardiograms, none of which revealed a reason for it. According to my doctors I was otherwise in ‘great health’.

      After discussing my case with some respected cardiologists, I was offered a choice of lifelong medication or a relatively new intervention called an ablation, a procedure where an area near the heart is ‘burnt’ using an accurate fine laser. It carries some serious potential complications including stroke, perforation to the heart and death. Despite the seriousness of the condition, I could control the episodes with high-dose drugs while I decided whether to opt for the ablation. With the blessing of my cardiologists, I followed in the footsteps of my mother and self-experimented with some alternatives while I weighed up the option of having a procedure.

      For the next year I focused on my lifestyle and replaced elements in my diet, all while juggling the hectic job of being a junior doctor. I read everything I could on associations between diet and my condition, and entered a new world of wellness. Out went cereals and toast for breakfast, in came dark green leafy vegetables with miso, nuts and seeds. Gone were the soggy sandwiches at lunch: I never left for work without my Tupperware brimming with cruciferous vegetables cooked in delicious spices and tasty fats. I began to realise the impact of stress on my heart, so I started meditating. I appreciated the importance of sleep, so I made sure (when I wasn’t on night shifts!) I was tucked up on time. More importantly, I never sacrificed my enjoyment for life. I wasn’t to be owned or dictated to by a condition. I wanted to take control of it … if I could.

       My AF episodes reduced from one or two a week to zero.

      On discussing my experiences with cardiologists, general physicians and lifestyle medicine practitioners it was hard to retrospectively pinpoint exactly what had happened to make the AF episodes stop. My increased vegetable intake likely replaced electrolytes and vitamins in my cells that were lacking. Eating cruciferous vegetables on a daily basis flooded my body with plant chemicals that we now understand have profound effects on DNA. I continued to drink alcohol on occasion, but I removed sugary drinks completely. My added dietary fibre is likely to have improved the functioning of my gut bacteria, which can lower inflammation via a variety of chemical pathways. I potentially attenuated the stress in my life triggered by poor sleep and a demanding job by increasing essential fatty acids in my food and practising mindfulness.

      Rather than focusing on ridding myself of a condition, I had concentrated my efforts on providing my body with the best environment I could. I worked at being well in mind and body as much as possible. The complex interplay of food on our physiology, our DNA and even the microbes residing in our gut is a universe of science in itself. Without delving further into the analysis, what my experience reaffirmed for me was the immense power of lifestyle and the incredible ability of the body to ‘self heal’ if given the correct nutrition.

      My family’s story, my personal story and those of the thousands of patients across the world who have managed to reverse and prevent disease using lifestyle medicine is my motivation for writing this book. This is my opportunity to share the information I’ve gleaned on my journey so far, and the journey I am still on.

      Medical experience

      My GP training was brilliant. I was experienced in multiple medical specialities, equipped to diagnose and skilled at providing emotional support. However, I was horribly inept at addressing the root cause of the biggest problems facing primary care across the globe: lifestyle-related illness, including diabetes, obesity and heart disease.

      Beyond the ineffective recommendations of a low-fat, low-calorie diet we propose for weight loss and cholesterol control, there are no tailored diets for conditions. From my personal experience, I knew there was much more to food than just a collection of macronutrients and the simplistic view that we eat for energy purposes. I was ill equipped to give advice because nutrition training at medical school was lacklustre. So, to help myself and my patients, I decided to do the research.

      I scoured journals, watched presentations, attended international nutrition conferences and began to unravel a magnitude of clinical evidence highlighting the impact of food on disease. I read thousands of papers, studies, editorials and books dedicated to nutritional medicine, and was shocked that medical schools cover this entire body of evidence in just a few uninspiring lectures.

      I began to start my consultations by enquiring what patients would eat on a daily basis: how do you start your day? What time do you eat at night? Do you snack incessantly after meals? My clinics were more engaging and my patients loved the emphasis on nutrition. Convincing them that the key to longevity and good health was accessible using delicious recipes that I would tailor to their lifestyle, was motivational. I was able to inspire people to take control of their conditions through food in a way I hadn’t done before with just medications. I began to focus on promoting wellness habits, rather than just diagnosing disease.

      My diabetic patients would improve their blood-sugar control, arthritic patients would lose weight and become more active and even those who had no significant change in their body composition felt better in themselves. Realising that I could combine my passion for recipe creating and flavour with a career dedicated to healing people was a revelation for me.

      But, I couldn’t keep writing recipes for every patient in my consulting room. I was seeing over 40 patients a day, plus home visits, plus paperwork and prescriptions. It was just not sustainable. And that’s when the idea of ‘The Doctor’s Kitchen’ was born: a multi-platform resource inspiring patients to appreciate the beauty of food and the medicinal effects of eating well. A YouTube channel, Instagram account and blog where I could confidently direct patients to gain evidence-based information, lend my perspective on healthy eating and teach them how to cook their way to health.

      An accumulation of poor dietary and lifestyle choices often leads patients to the emergency room and it’s partly my experience in A&E that’s brought me on this journey. It’s often a surprise to patients when their emergency doctor starts enquiring about their dietary habits, but acute care and chronic disease are related in many ways. Sometimes it’s a culmination of factors that results in tragedies like a heart attack, stroke or even a nasty skin infection that’s linked to poor diabetes control. Separating diet and lifestyle from acute medicine blinds us to the solution for our overburdened healthcare systems. I truly believe the answer lies in the quality of our community care where food plays a pivotal role. Practising good nutrition and lifestyle medicine means we can pre-empt disease rather than react to it in the emergency department.

      Plates over pills

      I want to make this clear so there is no doubt on this statement: food is medicine. It’s not my opinion, I’m not saying it because it’s fashionable and trendy, it’s quite frankly a fact.

      We have a library of studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of nutritional interventions on lifestyle diseases that are society’s biggest killers. My job is to give you a flavour of the science and encourage you to value the importance of mealtimes. We need to understand that what we put into our bodies dictates how they function and deal with illness.

      When I refer to food as ‘medicine’ I’m not talking about simply using ‘natural medications’ or food supplements instead of pharmaceuticals. I don’t advocate swapping your cholesterol-lowering СКАЧАТЬ