Heart disease, dementia and cancer risk can be cut by one diet says NHS doctor

Just one diet has been shown to cut the risk of everything from heart disease to cancer, an NHS doctor said.

Dr Rupy Aujla, a practicing GP in London, stressed poor diets are responsible for “a huge number of deaths” and massive pressure on the NHS. He recommended the Mediterranean style diet as the sole way to significantly cut the risk heart disease, dementia and cancer.

The Mediterranean style diet typically consists of “plenty of nuts and fish, plenty of good quality fats like extra version olive oil, mostly plants with judicious amounts of meat and plenty of diversity of all those different vegetables that we have at our disposal,” the medic said on his podcast A Piece of Cake.

This week, he spoke to Masterchef presenter Gregg Wallace on the programme and the pair discussed how food can be used to boost your mental and physical health. They talked about how food can help prevent the threat of dementia, of which the UK is experiencing “a silent epidemic,” Dr Aujla described.

He said: “There was a study published in the journal Neurology, another top-tier journal that showed that adherence to a Mediterranean style diet was associated with a lower risk of cognitive decline. A lot of people may not realise this, but dementia is the number one killer in the UK. It’s a silent epidemic. I don’t think many people are realising of just how massive an issue this is, and it can be in part related to diet crying out loud.

“Cancer, which is an umbrella term for a number of different cancers, many of which have different causes for the but in general, as part of a World Cancer Research fund study, 30 to 40% of cancers can be prevented by adopting a healthy lifestyle.

“There was a massive trial done 20 years ago. Now it’s called the pre Med. A lot of people might have heard of it, and that showed that a Mediterranean style diet can reduce the risk of cardiovascular events by 30%.”

Some 20% of the NHS’ budget – around £20 billion per annum – is spent on tackling obesity, both directly and indirectly, Wales Online reports. Dr Aujla added: “Poor diet is responsible for a huge number of deaths, a huge amount of ill health that we see within the NHS. For example, it costs about 20% of the NHS budget, which is the equivalent of about £20 billion per annum with obesity, which is the main thing people think about with nutrition.

“Vague symptoms like brain fog, pain, fatigue. A lot of people might be nodding their head as I’m saying these symptoms, because they’ve become so normal for a lot of people and it can have its roots in inflammation. And a lot of what we eat, unfortunately, stokes the fire for that inflammatory burden.”