Plant-based health professionals to join TV’s Rylan Clarke for a Friday afternoon feast
London, 11th March 2021: Rylan Clarke-Neal is back in the kitchen, hosting Ready Steady Cook this Friday afternoon, on BBC1 at 3.45pm, and will be joined by two vegan health professionals, Dr Sunni Patel MBA, clinician-scientist, and Dr Hayley Tait, a plant-based NHS GP based in Liverpool. They are also members of Plant Based Health Professionals UK.
Sunni and Hayley will each be paired with a chef, and will go head to head in the Ready Steady Cook kitchen. ‘Matchmade’ by Dr Shireen Kassam, Consultant Haematologist and Founder of Plant Based Health Professionals UK, Sunni and Hayley, who had never met beforehand, say they have become lifelong friends since recording the show – despite fighting it out in the kitchen.
This episode is a celebration of health and healthcare professionals, and the role of nutrition, and will showcase plant-based recipes, made on a limited budget in 10-20 minutes – perfect for viewers to try at home. There will be plenty of surprises in store for the contestants, with format twists that will put them under pressure. And, in true Ready Steady tradition, the show’s winner will be decided by a vote with the iconic red tomato and green pepper voting cards.
Dr Sunni Patel will use the platform to speak out about gut health, and how a plant-based diet has helped manage his symptoms of Crohn’s disease.
He says: “It was empowering to be able to talk to Rylan and the chefs, who were interested in gut health – especially as Rylan is an ambassador for Crohn’s and Colitis U.K. as his mother has Crohn’s Disease. It was also great to be able to talk about my own experience with Crohn’s, launching my own health platform Dish, Dash, Deets, and to advocate for gut health and plant-based eating as a person of colour with a chronic illness. I got to create some amazing dishes that were cheap, quick and nourishing, and which also promoted the power of food. The rest? Viewers will have to tune in to see the fun and the making of the dishes, as well as to find out who won.”
The second series of Ready Steady Cook was commissioned for BBC One by Carla-Maria Lawson, Head of BBC Daytime and Early-Peak and the Commissioning Editor for BBC Daytime is Neil McCallum.
Carla-Maria Lawson, Head of BBC Daytime and Early-Peak, adds: “The Ready Steady Cook team is back with delicious and affordable food with more thrills than frills, serving up comfort food and great company when we need it most.”
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About Plant Based Health Professionals
Plant Based Health Professionals UK was founded to promote and educate health professionals and the general public on wholefood plant based nutrition and lifestyle interventions. Through their extensive directory, they connect individuals and patients with certified and fully qualified health practitioners including doctors, dentists, dieticians, nutritionists and affiliated organisations, who provide evidence based advice and treatment.
About Dr Sunni Patel
Dr Sunni is a clinician-scientist, business director and trained fitness instructor with an MBA, and member of Plant Based Health Professionals. He also has been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and switched to a plant-based diet that is supported with medication to improve some of the symptoms associated with the disease.
Dr Sunni’s PhD studied the risk factors and biomarkers (inflammatory and otherwise) for Type II Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease which extended out to neurological diseases in his post-doctoral fellowship.
He has a special interest in plant-based nutrition and enjoys talking around the scientific evidence to support it to a wide range of audiences that would otherwise not have access to the information (BAME, younger generations and less affluent communities).
Dr Sunni is an advocate for well-being in chronic conditions, extending beyond the physical, medical and therapeutic to the mental, emotional and psychological considerations. He has launched an Instagram and website platform called dishdashdeets which focuses on the ‘art of being gut healthy’ through the creativity of plant-based dishes as well as the education, awareness and championing the issues around IBD and IBS.
About Dr Hayley Tait, MB,CHB, MRCS, MRCGP
Hayley is an NHS GP based in Liverpool, UK. Qualifying in 1995, she has worked in the NHS for 25 years and in general practice since 2005. She is a member of BSLM and recently joined the team at Plant Based Health Professionals, UK. After adopting a vegan lifestyle in 2017 sparked by watching a you-tube clip “dairy is scary”, she explored the benefits of a whole food plant based diet for health and went on to complete the certificate in Plant Based Nutrition from Winchester University in Feb 2020. In November 2019 she wrote and published a plant based cookbook: Health on the Hob, Easy Plant Based Recipes.
Media contact:
Hayley Smith, Eden Green PR
hayley@edengreenpr.com