Dr Rupy: This is a special bonus episode of the Doctor's Kitchen podcast where I'm going to be taking some of your most commonly asked nutrition and lifestyle medicine questions, answering them whilst I cook up a delicious meal. And this podcast is brought to you in partnership with Sainsbury's. Yes, I'm super proud to be working with Sainsbury's who are helping you cook up something magic this autumn. I'll be cooking up a delicious roasted vegetable, freekeh and feta salad with yoghurt and mint dressing, a recipe that you can find on their website, whilst answering your questions. Sainsbury's are on a mission to empower the nation to live well for less, a campaign I'm certainly behind. And they're trying to make autumn this year the most adventurous yet in British kitchens. They provide midweek recipe inspiration on their website for those who are stuck in a rut and craving a taste of something new. So, cook up some magic this autumn with Sainsbury's and let's go and do a whip round the ingredients before I start answering your questions. Okay, so let's do a whip round the ingredients. We have some courgettes, just two courgettes, I've cleaned everything prior to cooking just to save time. Uh, some butternut squash, but you can also use any sort of squash, particularly right now during autumn. Two red onions, some herbs, we've got mint, dill, parsley, you don't need to use all of them but they honestly, the combination of those flavours is wonderful. Got some pre-cooked grains that you can buy in stores. Uh, you've got mixed grains as well, there's loads of different varieties of that. Lemon, uh, some feta cheese and then the spices, harissa, some ground cinnamon, some rapeseed oil, uh, salt, pepper and I'm also going to be using a yoghurt, um, so I'm using garlic, uh, to create that yoghurt dressing, which is absolutely delicious. And um, yeah, it's going to be a good one. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see everything here, so no worries. But um, first things first, I'm going to chop up the the roasting vegetables, so the courgette and the butternut squash and the red onions, pop them into a tray and I'm preheating my oven while I'm doing that as well. It's those little hacks of the process of how you cook food which makes it just so much simpler when it comes to uh cooking at home as well. And that actually is related to the first question I've got here. How do you find the energy to work full time and still cook healthy, delicious food? So, common question I get. Um, I'm not Superman. Um, I'm very honest about this. I work two to three days a week, so I'm not full time in the NHS, but I still work in the NHS and I largely do A&E, um, which is, I mean, most people know what A&E is, or ER if you're listening in the States. Um, and you know, I've developed a number of different hacks, um, for cooking, generally. So one thing is I always have uh pre-prepared foods in my store cupboard. So this uh pre-cooked freekeh, which is a type of grain, is a perfect example of things I always have on hand to cook quick, easy, delicious meals. So, you know, whether it's pre-cooked uh lentils as well, uh canned chickpeas, um, a whole bunch of of other sort of time-saving whole grains and whole legumes, um, that you know, otherwise you'd have to cook them for, what, if we're talking about grains and we're talking about 45 minutes or we're talking about legumes, we're talking literally overnight, um, because you have to soak them as well. So, I I think, you know, having those in your store cupboards and they're not particularly expensive, like these grains for example, I think cost a quid from Sainsbury's. So, you know, it's it's having those sorts of uh ingredients in your kitchen at all times to make sure that you're always on hand. And so, you know, sometimes I'll come back from work, really late, I've missed out on dinner. The easiest thing for me and and a lot of my colleagues, uh, quite frankly, to do is to get a takeaway, right? So go to whatever takeaway um online or on your way home sort of exists for you in your local area. Whereas I know I've got a few recipes that I've mastered that I can literally make in 10 minutes using some of the convenience items. A good example is a pea pasta. So I'll boil the pasta, I'll have some frozen peas, I'll have a passata or a similar sort of like um uh Italian flavoured sauce uh and just mix it up into a pan. And that way I've got whole vegetables, whole grains and I'm still hitting my dietary goals. The other obvious issue is um the energy and the time that it takes to, you know, motivate yourself to actually do that in the first place. And that is something that needs to be cultivated. I certainly didn't start when I was um ill when I got into healthy eating myself. You know, I didn't start off being 100% motivated all the time. You know, I was working as a junior doctor, um night shifts, uh had no idea about like what I was meant to be eating, let alone, you know, the hacks and the things that I know now to to make healthy eating easier. But certainly, I've developed a skill and and I would say to anyone listening to this is start off by mastering one meal you can do, whether it's a a delicious healthy pasta or it's a a whole grain um salad like I'm making right now. Um that there are so many different recipes that you could use, but it's got to be a recipe that you genuinely enjoy making and you genuinely enjoy um uh eating as well, uh because otherwise, you know, there's no point. So mastering a few recipes, I think is is a is a good tactic to make sure that you always keep to your health goals. And um identifying where the pain points are for you. So the pain points for me uh were convenience foods, uh motivation when I was working late shifts, but also snacking. So if anyone's worked in the NHS or even any office environment or wherever you work, there's always snacks lying about, whether it's Haribo or whether it's chocolates or whether it's, you know, any anything like biscuits and that kind of stuff. And I still struggle with the temptation to to eat that when I'm working um late on shifts or on wards or whatever. So, you know, that for me, I I tackled that by always making sure I had on hand snacks that I know were um uh were aligned with my health goals. So, you know, I'm a savoury type of snacker, so I always have um almonds that are seasoned and flavoured, um or even chilli nuts or, you know, those kind of kinds of things that have got good quality healthy fats, um and uh are absolutely delicious and they're satiating as well. I'm just going to quickly go back to the recipe. So I'm cutting the uh courgettes into two centimetre rough chunks. I've halved it and then just uh done two centimetre chunks thereafter. Uh with the butternut squash, I'm going to do similar sized chunks, but I'm going to make them cubes. Um I'm also going to be keeping the skins on. Now, the reason why, if you're an avid listener, uh that I keep the skins on is because the skins are the uh concentrated sources of phytonutrients. So the plants create these chemicals called phyto uh phytonutrients or phytochemicals. Um and the reason why the plants uh create those is as a defense mechanism. If you remember from a podcast I did right at the start, I think it was number one or two, um eating colourfully, the the reason why plants create these pigments that give the the taste, the colour, the smell, the aroma, um is to defend themselves uh from insects and from any sort of um predators, I guess, for want of a better word. Um and those are actually noxious and and toxic in in high high doses, but in the doses in which we consume, they actually confer benefits to the human host. They elicit what what's called a hormetic response where it's it's almost like a mild bit of inflammation that creates um uh small inflammation in your body and your response to that is anti-inflammatory. So it's the analogy I like to use is like um uh when you go to exercise, you go to the gym and you get a pump on or you go running or you know, lift some weights or whatever. And what that does is it creates shearing forces on your muscles and and on your and on your body. So actually that that is an inflammation producing activity. But it's your response to those uh those um impacts on your muscles and and the inflammation that actually overall is beneficial and actually leads to more resilience. So it's it's kind of hard to get your head round uh initially, but once you understand the the process of um plant hormesis, it's why we we should be consuming these sorts of chemicals. It's the same way that turmeric works, the same way that resveratrol that you find in um grapes and peanuts and and red wine works. Um it's a fascinating concept and uh yeah, one that I think more people should be aware of. Okay, so I'm just going to season uh our veggies here. And I'm going to be using um just some uh plain salt pepper and some rapeseed oil. Now, I'm always asked, and this is actually another question, uh so I'm going to I'm going to kill two birds with one stone here. Let me just pull up the question. Uh, what is the most healthy oil to use at different temperatures? Now, this is a common question. There is a lot of information on the internet about never using this sort of oil, only use this sort of oil. This is going to cause cancer, this is going to be carcinogenic at high temperatures, etc, etc. So, as a general rule of thumb, I use extra virgin olive oil for pretty much everything. Um and that includes dressings and it includes um cooking as well. But the the point is you want to be cooking at low temperatures. The general the smoking point of um of olive oil in particular, as we're talking about olive oil, is um uh 180, around 180 degrees centigrade. So unless you're really frying at high temperatures or you know, you're cooking a steak or you're deep frying, you're not going to be hitting those temperatures. And I always, if you notice in my recipes, I always state uh low to medium heat whenever you're sautéing, whenever you're cooking garlic or whatever. And even the oven at the moment is on at 180 degrees centigrade fan assisted. So we're not taking it to a super high temperature. Um, there are a number of different oils out there and they all have very similar smoking points. The smoking point is the point at which your oil starts to degrade and it starts to uh become rancid and and inflammatory in its impacts uh on on the body. So that the smoking points are really hit unless you're you're deep frying. When you're deep frying, you want to be using more stable oils, but at the end of the day, when you're deep frying, you're destroying a lot of the nutrition in the product itself, whether that be meat or vegetables or whatever. So you've got to allow yourself some enjoyment and and just take the hit as, okay, well, I'm having a deep fried food, it's not going to be particularly healthy for me, but I'm going to enjoy it and I'm not going to try and eat deep fried food on a daily basis, right? I mean, I still enjoy uh a mixture, a number of different um types of foods uh that are deep fried, but I don't just I don't have that on a weekly basis. I probably have it once a month or so. So that that those are my thoughts on oils in general, but if I'm going to choose an oil, it would be extra virgin olive oil. I'm using um a mellow uh rapeseed oil from the UK. It's cold pressed. Um you can find it in Sainsbury's. Um and I like this because it's a neutral oil and I want the harissa spices that I've just put in the in the roasted veg mix here and the uh the cinnamon to really sing through the dish rather than it being overpowered with the beautiful scent of extra virgin olive oil, but I you know, for this one, I want the spices to come through. Let me just pop this in the oven. On the subject of, oh so the the vegetables are going to go in for about 20 minutes and then we're going to turn them in about 20 minutes as well. That's that's the majority of this recipe. I I love this recipe. It's it's no fuss. It's something I could definitely do at the end of a shift because it's just chopping up a few veggies and then popping it in the oven, which is exactly the way I like to cook. And it's whole grain, it's colourful, we've got three portions of vegetables, um loads of spices, uh loads of herbs which are fantastic for heart health. And um on the subject of heart health, so yes, extra virgin olive oils, quality fats, largely plants, lots of fibre. These are things that I've spoken about in my book, The Eat to Beat Illness, um as well as all the stuff actually that I put out there and there's a few podcasts um in the catalogue that we've done where we've discussed heart health in general. So if you're interested in specifics as to why that might be the case, why we need to dampen down inflammation, why inflammation is so important, there's a whole bunch of podcasts on those subjects. Um, okay, so the next question is, um my thoughts on adaptogenics. Now, this is a really interesting topic and if you don't know, adaptogenics, uh and nootropics are um plant compounds that are isolated from a number of different uh sources, whether it be um mushrooms, uh whether it be from roots like ashwagandha, uh curcumin is thought to have nootropic effects. It's where you um essentially uh are having some performance related benefits, whether it be clarity, whether it be energy, um caffeine, I guess you could uh class as as a a performance enhancer. Um there's certainly lots of evidence about the utility of caffeine pre-exercise and um and how that's demonstrated to have uh improvements in lifting capability and endurance, etc. Uh, so what are my thoughts on nootropics? I think uh in the spectrum of lifestyle interventions that can lead to benefits to your health, I I believe um supplements are really the the tip of the iceberg. So they're really the cherry on top, uh rather than something that you should base your entire lifestyle around or the thought process of, okay, well if I have this nootropic, whether it be, you know, some sort of brain enhancing compound, um ginkgo, biloba, um or ashwagandha like I said, uh or the different types of mushrooms of which uh cordyceps, lion's mane, um a whole bunch of others uh exist. Um it's really about getting the basics right. And honestly, if you get the basics right, that that pertains to probably 80 to 90% of your brain or performance enhancing benefits, whether that be from a uh a heart health point of view or a dementia preventative point of view, that there are a number of different benefits of of lifestyle. And I think that's where I want people to concentrate on, rather than thinking they can supplement their way out of uh an issue or supplement their way into performance. Um sleep, uh obviously a colourful, nutrient dense diet that's high in fibre, um uh and uh exercise are the clear winners when it comes to the uh brain performance effects and the impact on energy levels and and fatigue, which is something that I see as a general practitioner and in A&E very, very commonly and something that I'm asked about a lot. So, my thoughts on adaptogenics is that a lot of them are unproven by the current standard of um clinical evidence and nutritional medicine evidence that we would want before recommending it. However, anecdotally, I've had lots of people suggest to me that the uh mushroom abstract uh um extract that they're taking or the ashwagandha has been fantastic from an anxiety point of view, uh an energy point of view. Um I I I reserve judgment for those and I'm very open-minded. I've actually personally experimented with taking ashwagandha for 30 days. Um perhaps it's because I don't uh regard myself as having low mood or uh anxiety, uh but I didn't have an effect, but that's just an anecdote, so we can't really tell too much from that. Um but I wouldn't discount them just yet. Uh the ones that stand out to me are curcumin, uh as as a an example of something that may have some benefits. And um if you listen back to a conversation I had with Professor David Sinclair of Harvard Medical School, um he's a big proponent of resveratrol and some other uh molecules that have um longevity enhancing benefits in his opinion. Uh it's kind of a controversial area. A lot of people disagree with that. Um but uh I think um that there there may be some benefits. So, you know, if you did want to uh first get the foundation right and then uh experiment with adding a supplement to your regime, as long as you've discussed it with a medical practitioner and you don't have any uh medications that it could interact with, um then it it could be worth uh experimenting with and seeing if that works for you. Um but but as of as of now, I personally don't use um adaptogenics myself, but it is something that we should discuss on the podcast. Um someone who I would suggest, someone whose book I would suggest reading would be uh Dr. Danny Gordon's. She's an integrative doctor, a medical doctor, psychiatrist, and she has done um some sorry, not psychiatrist, family medicine doctor. She's done an incredible book called The CBD Bible. We've done a podcast on CBD and um the book actually dives into a bit about nootropics as well because of her extensive experience with plant medicine. So I would I would certainly, if you're interested in that subject matter, certainly have a read of that. And I'll probably have to get her back on the podcast to discuss this topic because I'm asked about it a lot, a lot, a lot. Uh okay, let me go back to the recipe real quick. So, I've got um some uh probiotic yoghurt that I got from Sainsbury's. Uh I'm just going to use 100 grams of this. I'm going to grate uh just a single clove of garlic into the bowl here. And it's that single clove of garlic that honestly gives so much flavour, a little bit of uh heat from the um uh from the the garlic itself. And uh we just every step of the way, we are adding uh micronutrients, nutrient density, flavour, um phytonutrients. We're also going to squeeze a whole lemon into this and just let it sit there. Um and I'm going to chop a little bit of the uh mint in there as well. So we've got a mint yoghurt dressing, simple as you like. I do like to add a little bit of uh olive oil or um in this case rapeseed oil to the to the dressing as well, just to just give it a little bit of um uh fat and some voluptuousness, but you don't have to do that. All right, let's go to the next question. We have so many questions. I'm sorry I won't be able to get through all of them, but um I do enjoy getting the questions because it kind of directs where I should be um focusing the information on the podcast as well. So if you if you enjoy this, please do give us a five star review and uh uh comment and and I'll do some more. How do you advise patients struggling to find the time to cook healthy? I think we we've discussed that. I I think mastering one meal at a time, making sure that you have store cupboard essentials, of which they're on my website, the doctorskitchen.com, there's an essential store cupboard list that I always have in my kitchen. I think it's helped loads of other people. But uh the the question also asks about um parents and giving their kids unhealthy snacks for school because it's quite convenient. I reason with this a lot and actually, not to embarrass my my parents and my mom, but you know, when I was a kid, uh we used to have all those like lunchables and dairy, I mean it's probably like 25 odd years ago now. But you know, we'd have like dairy, lunchables and and all this kind of things. like delicious. I mean it's part of my childhood upbringing was having, you know, those uh um popsicles and and whatever you call them. Um, you know, it's it's just something that we we we grew up with and and as kids, you know, we really enjoyed. But now we know about um processing and the impact of uh sugars and and all that kind of stuff. Um it's advisable to sort of limit the uh the amount of processed food, not completely, but certainly limit it. We don't have to be radical about these things. Uh and focus on more healthier snacks, right? So, I would say um the things that I found with parents in particular are just trying to a, get the kids involved in the snacks themselves. So, you know, making roasted almonds with delicious spice combinations if you have the time to do that on the weekends. So, they're more in tune and more involved in that process and they're more likely to request it as well. The other thing is like getting uh plain yoghurts or plant-based yoghurts, um and flavouring those yourself. Again, you could use like a little bit of blackberry uh blackcurrant jam or you know, a bit of honey or whatever and you can experiment with your kids. It doesn't take more than half an hour at a time and that way they've got that connection with the food as well. One of the things that I think um I always sort of come back to with uh how I got interested in in healthy eating in the first place is because uh my mom was so connected to the food and encouraged us to to come into the kitchen and to um experiment, to taste and you know, we we'd cook from loads of different cuisines all the time. So I think that at an early age, at a foundational age is very, very important. Um and uh I think that could put a lot of uh children in good stead going forward as well. Uh because at the moment, we're really at the mercy of um uh the junk food industry and I think we need to sort of re- readdress the balance when it comes to um you know, what what we show our kids, what we teach our kids as well. I'm just going to season this um uh yoghurt whilst I'm making it and then I'm going to add, I've already grated in the garlic. It's beautiful fresh seasonal produce is looking amazingly colourful on my uh on my board here. A top tip when um uh when juicing uh limes or lemons is to just roll it out on the board uh in in your palm just to allow those juices to come out. Um and that way you get a really juicy squeeze of lemon that's going to taste absolutely amazing in this dressing. Okay. Uh okay, so this um this is from Puja. Uh how can adults with very tight finances, especially time constrained, still eat healthy? And I think, you know, this is um really something that I discuss with patients on an individual basis, right? So, one of the things and again, it comes back down to like my my own family's experience with this is uh it's it's very um achievable to feed a family of four on a tight, tight budget. Um my my my parents always tell me the stories of of how they would make lentils, rice, um they would make their own sort of flatbreads, uh rottis and chapattis that we call it in in Indian terms. Um they would get the fresh uh seasonal um fruit and veg um as like an add-on to that. But that the base of their diet was super vegetarian and super cheap. Um you could get like uh huge um bucket of lentils that are incredible for health. I mean, a lot of people think of like just fruits and veggies as as having the phytonutrients, but lentils, peas, chickpeas, legumes, these all contain phytonutrients in themselves, whether it be the saponins, the tannins, the anti they're largely known as anti-nutrients, but it's a bit of a a misnomer and a poor name because um they're actually fantastic for health and again, it it comes down to that hormetic effect uh with regards to, you know, um the impact on on the body and stuff that we don't need to go back into. But, you know, this is I think an educational piece that a lot of charities are doing really well. So, I I currently support uh UK Harvest, um in the UK, uh there's Made in Hackney, which is based in East London, where they teach the local population how to use fresh uh seasonal ingredients. I've done a whole bunch of workshops where uh I I teach people how to uh feed a family of four for less than a fiver with leftovers. There there are lots of different hacks and I think showing people what you can even cook from a food bank is something we do in culinary medicine, um can be really eye-opening. The challenge is as a general practitioner and someone who, you know, is time constrained as a medical practitioner, how do you get those messages across? And you know, it can't be left to the device of the dietitians because there's only 5,000 odd dietitians in the UK and it's very hard to uh refer to them and the referral wait times are huge as well. So, this really has to come from like a societal level and a cultural level to really appreciate um how achievable it is to eat healthy on a budget. And it's one of the reasons why I'm doing this collaboration with Sainsbury's because they want to teach people how, yes, it is achievable to eat well, eat uh deliciously on a budget as well. And and you know, these midweek meals and the one that I'm making right now is is very cheap. Um so and and it's absolutely delicious and it hits all the uh the ticks all the boxes when it comes to healthy eating. Um tastes and taste profile and uh the motivation to cook, I think are the biggest barriers and that's why, you know, 3-2-1 meals, like I say, three portions of veg, two servings, double it if you want four, and uh only using one pan. Uh the one pan meal methodology that I use a lot in Doctor's Kitchen recipes is is, you know, the way forward and I think uh when people are taught that, that they can do recipes in less than 10 minutes, it's um it's really a game game changer. Okay, I'm going to rattle through some more of these questions because I realize I do what I usually do and I just talk too much. Uh is raw cabbage better than cooked cabbage? In short, uh no. So, raw cabbage it will benefit from having um no denaturing of the vitamin C and other uh heat sensitive micronutrients. Um however, when you lightly steam uh cabbage, um you actually increase the bioavailability of some of the phytonutrients that you find in them, like sulforaphane and indole-3-carbinol and all these incredible properties of brassica vegetables of which cabbage is one, um that can confer benefits to the human uh host. Sorry to talk about it in biological speak. But um overcooking your cabbage where you're stewing it for long periods of time, doesn't completely get rid of all the nutrient value, but it makes it a little bit less so than you'd want it to. In short, if you're overcooking your cabbage, you're still going to benefit from having some of the fibre, but certainly not from the vitamin C or the heat sensitive micronutrients. You're going to be cooking out a lot of the um the nutrients and going to be leached away. However, having cabbage in your diet is better than not having any cabbage in your diet, right? So, you know, if your cabbage calls for it to be cooked for a long period of time in a stew, I wouldn't hazard against not having it like that. And if you if that means that you can enjoy your cabbage, then do it that way. I personally don't enjoy it like that because it releases way too much sulphur and it is a bit stinky. So, although saying that, one of my favourite dishes is saag, which is an Indian dish where you basically stew down the greens for a long period of time. It tastes absolutely amazing actually, but I think it's because we we we pile loads of spices into it and it's amazing. So, yeah. Okay, next question. Uh, Dr. Ajay, thoughts on meal replacement drinks like Huel, the health benefits as a convenient solution. It's a really interesting question, something I'm getting asked about quite a bit, um whether the benefits of having a meal replacement drink like that are um outweigh uh the potential negatives of not eating or choosing a different snack. So, how do I answer this? From an engineering point of view, I can understand why a drink has been created which has replacements of nutrients that the body needs according to recommended daily allowances, whether that be uh minerals, potassium, zinc, etc. Um or vitamins, uh vitamin A, vitamin D. I'm a firm believer that you can't just rely on a multivitamin or a vitamin-like uh supplement or drink to improve health outcomes across the board. And I think it's quite naive to suggest that food is just a collection of those uh micronutrients and uh that we can replace food with a drink um that contains those ingredients that are commonly found in vegetables and and and and the other foods that we consume in a whole form. However, do I think uh meal replacement drinks, um of which there are many other brands, uh have a place in society? Probably, if I'm being honest, probably. I personally don't recommend them and I don't consume them. Uh because I'd rather wait for a proper meal. But, you know, in times of crisis, uh I I think this could be actually used as something as long as it pertains to the standards set out by the WHO. Um where people are undergoing famine and this is actually quite transportable and easy to consume. Uh in terms of, you know, how busy our lifestyles are, I can actually see why this may have some value. For example, I recently have been going to the North of England because I'm involved in a TV production, uh a show, and that's like five hours of travelling in the day. Now, if I didn't have the convenience of being able to get to the train station, find a healthy option, uh and I'd be uncomfortable and hungry and, you know, whatever on the train, then maybe having that as an option to keep me satiated in the process of me, you know, waiting to eat a proper meal with the full spectrum of different types of fibres, different types of nutrients and the flavour, obviously, we don't want to forget that, um of food, then maybe I would consider using something like that. In the same way, I use a homemade protein uh shake, um uh home with bananas and nut butter and hemp seeds. Um but it is a very processed uh food, um and you you can't it is very naive to think that you can mimic food on the basis of the nutrients that it contains that we're currently aware of because there are literally, like I always bang on about, thousands of different chemicals that we find in food that we a, haven't even studied and b, are not on the recommended uh allowances that in my opinion they should be, uh because I think it's that special those special attributes of whole food that give a lot of uh value. Um so that that's my my answer on that. I'm just going to check on the vegetables because I think it's been about 20 minutes. So, uh let's pull those out, give them a little bit of a shake around and I'm going to get on with the uh freekeh. A bit of a shake around. These smell absolutely incredible. You've got the harissa, the cinnamon is coming round. Um it it looks absolutely amazing. Autumnal fresh vegetables. You can get these from Sainsbury's, skin on for the phytonutrient value. You want to no waste as well. Um and so easy to do. I'm just going to add a tiny sprinkling of salt on the top that just allows it to crystallize a little bit more, just make the veggies a tiny bit more crispy. Um you don't have to put too much salt on. And uh a little bit of the black pepper and back into the oven. All right. 20 minutes and that's all it's going to take. All right, next question. Let's go. I'm enjoying this. Um, why this is hilarious. We've got two questions. One is why are your legs so skinny? I don't know. I I I really try. I I I lift weights. I do loads of squats. It's mostly what I do. Um but then the next question is, uh how often do you exercise and what kind of training do you do? Um this is uh a really uh personal question in terms of, you know, whether what I'm going to say is appropriate for you. So, in general, I mix it up. So I don't do just HIIT, I don't do just strength, I don't do just Pilates or yoga or mobility or flow. I do a combination of those things and I'm super intuitive. If you've been watching my Instagram stories, um I've been doing a bit of a health kick. And I do my exercise in the morning always because I find that if I exercise in the evening, it impacts my sleep. But also, I like to get it out of the way in the morning. And the rest of the day, I try and keep active. So I think that's the main thing. So when it comes to exercise, I don't see exercise as a binary thing that you just do once a day or or a couple of times a week. It's something that you try and constantly weave into your daily living. So I get up every single hour always to walk around. I generally use a standing desk. It doesn't have to be one of the expensive ones. I've got like a little um uh laptop support thing that I just put on my normal desk and I can stand on it. And uh I I try and take regular walks outside where possible, especially trying to get some uh sunlight into my eyes as well. The kind of training I do depends on the quality of sleep I've had. So if I'm really well rested, I'm going to hit it hard with HIIT training and running. HIIT training being high intensity interval training where you go proper hard for a minute and then you give yourself a short break. So you keep yourself in what is called that red zone or the anaerobic zone where your muscles are not really given a chance to recover. And it's that stress that causes that resilience in the long run and it really does improve cardio respiratory fitness for a much lower um uh time uh insult. So I, you know, I can do HIIT training for 10 minutes uh versus jogging for 10 minutes and my HIIT training will have better cardio respiratory uh impacts than the jogging. That isn't to say that you don't jog, it's just they're just very different. Now, on the subject of jogging, I will try and do a run once or twice a week as well. The reason why I do that is because a, I super enjoy it and b, there is something about endurance training where you uh run or row or cycle for a prolonged period of time at a level that is quite uh moderate compared to your high intensity interval training, that confers benefits to heart health, brain health, even mental health as well. Um there are a number of different studies on this and I think if you're interested in the impact of exercise on mental health in particular, I've done a fascinating episode with Dr. uh Brendan Stubbs, who is an incredible guy who's um uh one of the physiotherapists at the Maudsley um center, which is a a center of excellence for mental health. He's written a a literal textbook on the subject of exercise and mental health as well as it pertains to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and yes, depression and uh anxiety states as well. So, do listen to that episode if you're interested in exercise and mood. Uh the other type of training I do is uh mobility and um Pilates and and yoga. Those are very important core training exercises that I think are uh ever more important uh as we find ourselves sitting down more often. Uh and I do strength training because we know that that has lots of benefits to the bone, uh to again core as well. Um and there may be some longevity benefits with better uh muscle mass and uh prevention against uh a condition that is particularly rife amongst the older uh age community, which are um uh which is something called sarcopenia, um which is where you basically get muscle wasting and an increasing uh distribution of fat in the limbs as well, which is associated with higher rates of inflammation and um uh bone fracture and and yeah, yeah, so definitely to prevent uh against those, I I do a mixture of training. So, yeah, again, that's a long answer for a simple question. Sorry. Um what do I think uh the best strategy is to improve healthy eating within my family? Again, something I've spoken about already, but I would say getting everyone involved, choosing recipes to master, finding common ground on ingredients that everyone likes. One of the commonest things that I find is um which is uh a bit of an obstacle for people when it comes to uh healthy eating in general is that, you know, moms or dads have to cook for so many different tastes. Now, if you can find some common ground across all the different tastes, then that would be amazing. So if you all like tomatoes, you all like spaghetti, you all like peas, you know, peas is a bit of a on the fence one for a lot of people. But um if you can find those common grounds and creating a recipe using all those different ingredients that everyone can enjoy, that would be great. That means that you've got at least one meal where everyone can really enjoy and get involved with as well. So that that's one of my strategies and then, you know, being a lot more experimental too. I think that those are those are brilliant. Uh let's go along. Am I doing a podcast about ADHD? Yes, I am. Watch this space. We're going to be doing a whole podcast on eating for ADHD, uh autism with a registered dietitian and someone who's done a lot of research in mental health disorders and the microbiota uh among a whole bunch of other things, particularly with omega-3, which is very um important. Something I do supplement with is omega-3 long chain, so EPA and DHA. And we talk about the different doses uh doses of those as well, which is needs to be quite high around a gram. Um so it's usually double the dose of what you can find in most stores. Um but also the quality of omega-3 needs to be quite uh good as well. So there are certification standards that you can find online with all these different um manufacturers and producers. Um and I would highly recommend everyone do those as well. Okay, I'm just going to stop real quick uh as I go through the herbs. Now, if you're uh an avid watcher or listener or you've got any of the recipe books, you will notice how often I flavour food with delicious herbs and spices. And the reason why is because those spices are concentrated sources of micronutrients and phytonutrients and they also offer so much more flavour to food. So it makes healthy eating with vegetables that can otherwise be considered to be quite bland, much, much more enjoyable. So, I've just ripping up some mint, uh I've got some dill, some parsley. Um you could really use whatever uh herbs you you can get your hands on uh here. So, the mint I'm going to put through the yoghurt. I forgot to do that earlier because I was yapping away. And um the dill and the parsley uh is going to go into the freekeh and the roasted veggies. Um but you know, if you had tarragon, if you had thyme, you had even something like basil, basil would definitely work with this um with the spices and harissa. And also, you know, if you didn't have harissa, sorry, I should have said this at the start, you could use cumin, you could use um uh a number of different sort of Middle Eastern style um herbs uh as well. Even dukkah would work really, really well. Okay, so the mint goes in there. Let's have a look at some other questions to end up with. All right, um how many fruit and vegetables do you aim for a day? This is a really interesting question and something that I'm going to be talking a lot more about in my new book 3-2-1 that's coming out in January. Um I I I aim for three portions of fruit, vegetables, nuts or seeds at every meal time. Now, I know that sounds wholly unachievable for a lot of people, especially if you're not used to eating that many fruits and veggies. But um there's a number of reasons why. A, I obviously love fruit and vegetables and you know, someone who's had a heart condition, I'm I'm very interested in healthy eating and I try and maintain a um uh a way of eating that I can achieve but also keeps me in good stead. And B, um there's some research that came out of uh Imperial College and the researchers suggested that uh the optimal amount of fruit and vegetables to consume would be around 10 a day. Now, um that's looking at associations, uh a number of different huge analyses of uh papers, uh ones that we call systemic uh systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Um and there's a clear association between higher fruit and vegetable consumption and lower rates of uh all cause mortality, whether it be um uh heart disease, uh or cancer or um inflammatory bowel disease, etc. And across the board, you see this with mental health disorders, type two diabetes, complications if you do have a condition, uh autoimmune conditions, kidney disease. Like this is why I bang on about fruit and vegetables as a pragmatic solution, um uh or pragmatic preventative measure, I should say, to uh what we are facing in the industrialized world as uh as a complete epidemic. So, um for me, my whole strategy uh when it comes to trying to coax people toward a healthier way of living is to get people putting as many different colourful plants into their diet as possible. I also include nuts and seeds in this and pulses because we used to have this, you know, fear of fats in general, whereas actually now we know that the quality of fats that we consume in their whole form, largely unsaturated from a quality that is least refined as possible, i.e. those fats haven't been denatured by high cooking temperatures, um etc, etc. and largely from plant sources as well, can be very beneficial. And also things like uh hazelnuts or hemp seeds, they're very high in protein, very high in uh vitamins like vitamin E, zinc, uh magnesium, and these are things that are clearly lacking in people's diets if you look at the the population studies. So, my strategy for 3-2-1 is three portions of veg, uh three portions of veg, nuts, seeds, fruit, uh per person, two portions in every recipe as a minimum, and only using one pan. Stews, casseroles, curries, tray bakes, these can be delicious and they can be achievable and they're enjoyable to cook, they're easy and streamlined recipes. This is the whole thing that I I'm, you know, I'm I'm really focused on going forward. Um so, yeah, so I think uh you know, when it comes to overall an overall strategy for healthy eating, that's what I would uh definitely advise. Okay, I'm going to uh I'm going to have to uh tie up the recipe now. I'm going to take out the uh ingredients from the oven. Okay, I'm not joking. These vegetables look absolutely incredible. The harissa has given that beautiful spice, the cinnamon, I can smell the sweetness. We're going to dump this into a uh large bowl. We're going to scatter some of these incredible fresh herbs. I'm going to throw in the uh freekeh into the bowl, but a top tip is to um actually throw the freekeh into the roasting dish that you've just roasted the veggies in, um so it can coat in some of those delicious oils that have got the harissa and the cinnamon in. So you're getting maximum amount of flavour out of that pan. A little bit more lemon on top. We have this beautiful yoghurt and mint dressing. I'm going to finish it off with some aged feta, which um you know, if you're plant-based, you don't need to eat this, but uh aged cheese in particular is uh got some benefits to the gut microbiota. Um we know that they um thrive on uh a few of the different species and it is a probiotic as well. So it's introducing some of those novel um microorganisms into your uh ecosystem that can have some benefits to your health as well. There's a whole um uh podcast I did with a uh gut researcher, a colleague of mine, Dr. Rossi, uh where we discussed the impact of uh aged cheeses and probiotic foods as well like sauerkraut and kimchi. So, definitely have a listen to that one. And that is it. That is the recipe that I've made during the Q&A with you guys uh on the Doctor's Kitchen podcast. Um I really hope you enjoyed that. As you can tell, it's super easy. Thank you so much for joining me on this special bonus episode sponsored by Sainsbury's, answering your nutrition questions whilst I cooked this delicious roasted veg, freekeh and feta salad with yoghurt and mint dressing. Make sure you do check out the rest of the recipes that you can find on the Sainsbury's website and on the podcast page. Do sign up to the newsletter. We give free weekly recipes plus lots of tips and hacks on how to help you lead the healthiest, happiest lifestyle. If you enjoyed this podcast, do send it to your friends and family and I will see you here in the next couple of days.
