Articles

A Look Back at 2020 for Plant-based Health Professionals UKIt’s been a difficult year for us all. At PBHP UK we have had to adapt our working accordingly. Despite this we have had an exciting and productive year. These are the highlights. PLANT POWERED EXPO — FEBRUARY...

Processed plant-based meat alternatives: making an informed choice By Lisa Simon, Registered DietitianPhoto source https://www.flickr.com/photos/copa41/1312623057There has been a lot of talk lately over whether we should be eating plant-based meat alternatives due to...

Vegan diet and bone fractures A study published in a peer-reviewed medical journal in November 2020 reported an increased risk of bone fractures in those consuming a vegan diet. For obvious reasons caused waves in the media and vegan community this week. The paper...

Is dairy necessary for good health?The scientific answer to this common nutrition question is simply no. Even the mainstream medical community is communicating this fact in top medical journals. The predominate reason we continue to believe dairy is necessary is the...

Fish and omega-3 fatty acids; the bottom lineThe role of fish in the diet continues to be a topic of scientific study and debate. So, do humans need to eat fish for health? Do I need to eat fish to be healthy? A 100% plant-based or vegan diet is one of the healthiest...

Are vegan diets deficient in choline? In the Summer of 2019, a rather controversial opinion piece about the lower choline content of plant-based diets was published in the journal BMJ Nutrition, Prevention and Health. The article suggested that there is a looming...

Oil or no oil; a viewpointThe whole food plant-based (WFPB) diet community are divided on the topic of added oils in the diet. Just to be clear, we are talking about extracted plant oils and not healthy fats found in whole plant foods. What should also be remembered...

Does diet impact the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma?Authors: Marta Lewandowska, Dagfinn Aune, Doug Bristor, Shireen Kassam. Published in www.ijdrp.org VOL. 1, NO. 1. 2019 Introduction Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is the eleventh commonest cancer globally and the sixth and...

Plant-based diets: the optimal choice for planetary healthThe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns us about the dire consequences of the projected global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, which could happen in less than 12 years time....

Plant-based diets for the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetesType 2 diabetes, which accounts for around 90% of cases of diabetes, is now at epidemic proportions. According to Diabetes UK, 1 in 15 people in the UK have diabetes, and this number has more than...

Plant-based diets for prevention and treatment ischaemic heart diseaseIn the UK ischaemic heart disease remains the most common cause of death and cardiovascular diseases in general are the second most common cause of premature death (after cancer). Worldwide, heart...

How do plant-based diets prevent cardiovascular diseaseThere are several ways in which plant-based diets modify the risk of cardiovascular disease and its main risk factors. At the core of cardiovascular disease is the development of atherosclerosis — the build up of...

Paleo and low-carb diets: what the science saysThere are a number of popular diet plans which promise a variety of health benefits. These include ‘low-carb’, ‘keto’ and ‘Paleo’ and are diets which all limit the consumption of carbohydrates to various degrees,...

Preventing and surviving breast cancerBreast cancer is now the commonest cancer in the UK and the most common cancer in women globally. 1in 7 women in the UK will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. Breast cancer is more common in high income countries, in part...

Is Hector Bellerin’s vegan diet to be blamed for his slow injury recovery? (A response article To James McNicholas’ "Is Hector Bellerin helped or hindered by his veganism?”) (Image may be subject to copyright) The problem with poor journalism is that it does not exist...

COVID-19: Maintaining a healthy immune system through diet and lifestyle, plus video - Pandemics: history and preventionWe are facing an unprecedented health crisis with COVID-19 now classified as a pandemic. I am unable to offer any guarantees and don’t mean to...

Plant-based diets and risk of strokeThere are two types of stroke; haemorrhagic and ischaemic. The vast majority are ischaemic and share the same risk factors as ischaemic heart disease. Stroke represents a huge burden of disease globally. The Global Burden of...

Plant-based diets for maintaining a healthy weightOverweight and obesity are at epidemic proportions and a major factor in the rise of non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease and...

Diet and prostate cancerThe prostate is a walnut-sized gland that sits behind the bladder and in front of the rectum and secretes fluid into semen. Prostate cancer (PC) is the most most common cancer in men in the UK. There are different stages of PC, all arising from...

How does diet and lifestyle drive chronic disease?Most chronic diseases share similar pathogenic mechanisms, even though the manifestations of these diseases may differ. The key driver is low grade chronic inflammation. Inflammation is the body’s response to any sort...

Five surprising benefits of a plant-based dietMany of the important benefits of a plant-based diet – particularly for climate health and animals – are well known. Yet despite the science being very clear, there remains confusion about the impact on human health. We...

The top 10 studies of 2019 supporting plant-based nutrition for health1. The Eat-Lancet Commission on food, planet, health. The year started with the publication of the most up to date analysis of what constitutes a healthy diet. Conducted by the Eat-Lancet...

A look back at 2019 for Plant-based health professionals UKThis is our second full year as a non-profit, volunteer-run organisation, having been founded in October 2017. You can read about our first year here. 2019 has been busy and rewarding and we hope you will join...

Why are nutrition and lifestyle so important?There is a global epidemic of chronic disease termed non-communicable diseases (NCDs). According to the World Health Organisation, 71% of all deaths globally each year (41 million people) are caused by NCDs. Four conditions...

Bacon on hospitals’ menu — an oxymoron of our health system?Would hospital patients be better off if they could bring their own meals from home? Data obtained via a Freedom of Information Request revealed earlier this year that 113 NHS hospitals serve...

Plant-based diet indexMuch of what we know about diet, nutrition and health comes from prospective cohort studies, which follow large groups of people, usually healthy at baseline, for a number of years and analyse associations between dietary intake and health...

Are Dairy-Free Diets A Risk To Bone Health?I applaud the Duchess of Cornwall for highlighting the issue of osteoporosis, which can be a debilitating condition. However, to cite dairy-free diets as harmful to bone health is just ignorant and not based on scientific...

A look back at 2018 for plant-based health professionals UKPlant-based health professionals UK (PBHP UK) was conceived in October 2017 at London Vegfest in a chance meeting between myself (Shireen Kassam) and Tom Hubbard, a GP based in Ireland. We realised we had a...

The PURE study and dairy consumptionDAIRY INTAKE AND CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE: Recent headlines suggest that the more dairy products you consume, the lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. So, have dairy products really been exonerated? Do we now ignore the...

​Cancer; ignoring nutrition at our perilIn the UK, cancer is now the commonest cause of death, the top cause of avoidable death and accounts for 42% of cases of premature death. These statistics are in the face of an ever-increasing number of treatments. So where have...

Healthy diet following cancer treatmentI am very grateful for the opportunity to write an article on a subject that is extremely close to my heart. I hope I will be able to convince you that a healthful life is a choice open to all of us if only we allow ourselves the...

Response to ‘meat is crucial to balanced diet, Michael Gove tells farmers’, Fri 27th April 2018I write on behalf of a growing number of health professionals in the UK who advocate a predominantly plant-based diet for optimal health. We are disappointed to read the...

The PURE study; low fat diets increase risk of deathThis was the nutrition news in August 2017. More evidence of the mainstream media trying to confuse the public and reinforce the nations poor food choices. The public love to read stories that support their bad...