The best diet for health – part 4

Watch this series of four video lessons and read through the downloadable article on ‘How to help patients transition to a healthy, sustainable plant-based diet’ in the ‘downloads and additional information’ lesson. After finishing this video series, answer the discussion task by navigating to the Comments section located at the bottom of this lesson and replying to our discussion task comment. We ask you to choose one study that Dr Kassam presents and comment on the study and the key findings.

In Part 4 of this video series, Shireen walks through the following:

  • The bigger picture / environmental connection;
  • The Planetary Health Plate;
  • Implementation with patients;
  • Tips on making healthy changes; and
  • Community resources.

Note: this is an overview of the evidence for your benefit. You don’t need to know this level of depth on every aspect of diet to be an effective medical nutrition prescriber.

About your presenter

Dr Shireen Kassam is a Consultant Haematologist and Honorary Senior Lecturer at King’s College Hospital, London with a specialist interest in the treatment of lymphoma. She is also a Visiting-Professor at University of Winchester, Hampshire, where she has developed and facilitates the UK’s first University-based course on plant-based nutrition. In 2023 she launched a course on lifestyle medicine for cancer.

Shireen is passionate about promoting plant-based nutrition for the prevention and reversal of chronic disease and for maintaining optimal health after treatment for cancer. In 2019 she became certified as a Lifestyle Medicine Physician and is also a CHIP facilitator.

Shireen founded Plant-Based Health Professionals UK in 2018, a non-profit, membership organisation whose mission is to provide evidence-based education on whole food plant-based nutrition.

Shireen qualified as a doctor in 2000. During her training, she completed a PhD, which investigated the role of selenium in sensitising cancer cells to chemotherapy. Shireen has published a number of peer-reviewed papers in the fields of lymphoma and nutrition. Her first book, Eating Plant-Based, Scientific Answers to Your Nutrition Questions, co-authored with her sister Zahra, was published in January 2022. She has also co-edited the textbook Plant-Based Nutrition in Clinical Practice, published in September 2022.

Find Plant-Based Health Professionals UK on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

References

All references are available in a single PDF, which can be downloaded from the ‘References and further resources’ lesson.

1. Ceballos G, Ehrlich PR, Raven PH. Vertebrates on the brink as indicators of biological annihilation and the sixth mass extinction. PNAS. 2020;117(24):13596-602.

2. Salas RN, Maibach E, Pencheon D, Watts N, Frumkin H. A pathway to net zero emissions for healthcare. BMJ. 2020;371:m3785.

3. Goulding T, Lindberg R, Russell CG. The affordability of a healthy and sustainable diet: an Australian case study. Nutr J. 2020;19(1):109.

4. Drew J, Cleghorn C, Macmillan A, Mizdrak A. healthy and climate-friendly eating patterns in the New Zealand context. Environ Health Perspect 2020;128(1):017007.

5. Kassam S, Dehghan L, Freeman L. How to help patients transition to a healthy and sustainable plant-based diet. Br J Gen Pract. 2021;71(704):127.

6. Frates EP, Bonnet J. Collaboration and negotiation: the key to therapeutic lifestyle change. Am J Lifestyle Med. 2016;10(5):302-12.