Dr Rupy Aujla - The Doctor’s Kitchen

This is my unbiased, current and evidence-based medical opinion on healthy eating. Today’s ‘wellness’ industry can lack scientific credibility and has occasionally spread misinformation that is harmful to your health. The overwhelming, conflicting messages can be difficult to navigate, especially to those who are just starting out. It’s time we moved away from cherry-picking strands of evidence to support faddy diets and finally provide everyone with the wealth of knowledge available. Using science and my clinical perspective as guiding principles, this book gives you the delicious recipes and life tools that you need to feel fantastic and stay well.

You don’t need to know the fancy chemistry, the correct proportions of ‘macros’ or how to use calorie counters and scales. The majority of us just need to stick to sound diet and lifestyle principles (that I’ll introduce you to in this book), and our health will flourish.

Expect to feel happier with your weight, calmer in your mind and, overall, more content knowing that the changes you make are sustainable for life. The ability to reverse disease, improve mental health and feel fantastic has never tasted so good.

My story

Food and medicine go hand in hand and sometimes changing our diet can be the best intervention.

At the age of 12, I witnessed my mother take control of her medical condition that had baffled multiple physicians. She used to suffer random anaphylaxis attacks; the worst form of allergy where your airway can close and your blood pressure drops. The attacks are life threatening and require treatment with an adrenaline shot. After undergoing a barrage of medical tests to find a cause, none was found. As a last resort, her doctors recommended lifelong allergy medications, which unfortunately have a range of side effects. These included crushing fatigue and intolerable nausea but, worst of all, they didn’t completely eradicate the attacks. The daily unease of potentially having an episode was incredibly stressful for her.

Not content with being reliant on drugs that weren’t completely working, she decided to make radical changes to her daily life. Her Indian upbringing had instilled in her the value of food. As a trained lawyer, she used her research skills and analytical approach to examine the scientific literature and create a plan of action. I watched her completely overhaul her diet and lifestyle, while simultaneously running her businesses, our household and raising two demanding children. Her daily ‘prescription’ included a wholefoods diet packed with vegetables, good sleep patterns, exercise and meditation. She became more confident, stronger and gradually came off all medications with the support of her doctors. Thankfully, she has never needed to use an adrenaline shot again. This was my earliest introduction to the power of ‘food as medicine’.

My mother’s experience drove me to want to be a doctor. I worked hard to earn myself a place at Imperial College London. I started medical school with the understanding and strong belief that food could be as powerful as pharmaceuticals. However, despite being intrigued by ‘alternative therapies’ at a young age, I wanted to immerse myself in conventional medical training. The body has always fascinated me. Learning the anatomy, biochemistry and foundations of how we function was an incredible experience, but noticeably lacking from the curricula was an emphasis on nutrition. What we put into our bodies on a daily basis is just as important as medication, but I wasn’t taught to appreciate the power of lifestyle and food. Only when I became ill myself would I remember what inspired me to become a doctor in the first place.

After medical school, I experienced two gruelling years as a junior doctor in central London hospitals. The stress and responsibility on a newly trained medic is unfathomable. Within two weeks of qualifying, I found myself wandering the corridors of a hospital alone, at night, armed with nothing but a stethoscope and two bleeps, providing the sole junior cover for medical wards. No amount of book smart prepares you for hospital life.

I began to realise how self-sacrificing healthcare workers are for the service. We eat poorly, work awkward hours and the stress is intense. Our environment often dictates what we can eat, and in the interest of convenience, the choice is often a poor one. It’s no wonder that on average our lives are shorter, we’re more likely to suffer mental-health issues and obesity is greater among us than the general population. We are certainly not pillars of good health to look up to!

I remember vividly, in the last few hours of my weekend shift (after working for 12 consecutive days), I noticed I was having palpitations. I asked my registrar to check my pulse and within the hour I was admitted to the acute medical unit. They found I was in fast atrial fibrillation (AF), a condition where your heart beats irregularly, inefficiently and, in my case, very fast. Up to 200 beats per minute. Luckily, I didn’t require emergency treatment (a cardioversion, where an electronic shock is used to revert the heart rhythm back to a normal one), but this episode of atrial fibrillation was to be the first of many over the next two years.

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 went on to suffer AF episodes weekly throughout my junior doctor training. I would often have to take medication to revert my heart rhythm, which had some unpleasant side effects. Despite these episodes I continued to work – nothing was going to stand in the way of me being a doctor. My condition was rare in someone 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.