The best diet for health – part 1
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 the page in the final lesson of this section.
In Part 1 of this video series, Shireen walks through the following:
- The current state of our health in Australia and New Zealand;
- Diseases and conditions that are preventable by diet and lifestyle change;
- The food system and inter-connected crises;
- The Lifestyle medicine solution; and
- Considerations for a healthy diet.
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.
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.
All references are available in a single PDF, which can be downloaded from the ‘References and further resources’ lesson.
1. Department of Health and Aged Care. Chronic conditions in Australia 2020. Available from: https://www.health.gov.au/health-topics/chronic-conditions/chronic-conditions-in-australia
2. Ministry of Health. Annual Data Explorer 2019/20: New Zealand Health Survey; 2020. Available from: https://www.health.govt.nz/publication/annual-update-key-results-2019-20-new-zealand-health-survey
3. Stanley J, Semper K, Millar E, Sarfati D. Epidemiology of multimorbidity in New Zealand: a cross-sectional study using national-level hospital and pharmaceutical data. BMJ open. 2018;8(5):e021689.
4. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Deaths in Australia [Internet]. Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2022 [cited 2022 Oct. 17]. Available from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/life-expectancy-death/deaths-in-australia
5. Afshin A, Sur PJ, Fay KA, Cornaby L, Ferrara G, Salama JS, et al. Health effects of dietary risks in 195 countries, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. The Lancet. 2019;393(10184):1958-72.
6. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Nutrition across the life stages. Canberra: AIHW; 2018.
7. Fangupo LJ, Haszard JJ, Taylor BJ, Gray AR, Lawrence JA, Taylor RW. Ultra-processed food intake and associations with demographic factors in young New Zealand children. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2021;121(2):305-13.
8. O’Hearn M, Liu J, Cudhea F, Micha R, Mozaffarian D. Coronavirus disease 2019 hospitalizations attributable to cardiometabolic conditions in the United States: A Comparative Risk Assessment Analysis. J Am Heart Assoc. 2021;10(5):e019259.
9. Bodai BI, Nakata TE, Wong WT, Clark DR, Lawenda S, Tsou C, et al. Lifestyle medicine: a brief review of its dramatic impact on health and survival. Perm J. 2018;22:17-025.