2024 Healthcare, Consumer & Wellness Magazine

16 Healthcare, Consumer &Wellness • 17 Foodas medicine In conversation with Dr Rupy Aujla, a practising British NHS doctor and leading advocate of integrating nutrition into healthcare to reduce the world’s growing chronic disease burden. We’re not taught how to approach patients who’re obese or have type 2 diabetes. And that’s a big problem since the chronic diseases we’re faced with these days are the consequences of slow inflammation, not infections and communicable diseases. The Westernized diet, which triggers them, is also progressively getting farmed out to developing nations. As they grow, their populations aspire to convenience foods too. We need a different approach. Do you see any evidence of this taking shape? Yes, America arguably originated the Westernized diet, but it’s at the forefront of the food as medicine movement, and a hub for start-ups in this area. Culinary medicine is now taught in about 40% of US medical schools. It’s a phenomenal and very recent change. Medically tailored meals are also becoming very popular and funded by health insurance. We’ve not really thought enough about how diet can accelerate healing both pre- and post-op. This sector has huge growth It seems shocking that doctors aren’t trained in nutrition. It’s an astonishing fact, which many people can’t get their head around. Yet research shows that generally doctors only receive an average five hours of nutritional training during their medical degree. And that’s largely impractical nutrition. It’s historically been viewed as something left to dieticians. potential, especially in relation to the mechanisms of delivering food as nature intended it. Think automated kitchens with robots preparing food from scratch, using the most appropriate oils and fresh ingredients. It’s a trend to watch out for. Is there an East/West divide in understanding the links between nutrition and health? Ayurvedic medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine are still seen as a bit fringe in certain parts of the conventional medical community. But we can learn a lot from their holistic approach to health – looking after what we eat, howwe move our bodies, how we sleep and what our mindset is. I think the food as medicine movement will have an easier ride in Asian countries. For example, a good friend of mine recently visited a hospital in Singapore, which grows its own food on the roof, then serves it to patients. I think it’s a wonderful concept and hope it gets widely exported. Just how big an issue is the prevalence of ultra-processed food? It unfortunately, still accounts for about three-quarters of what supermarkets stock according to various stats. And just because a product is billed as plant-based doesn’t mean it’s healthy either. Checking labels is important. Should governments domore to promote better food industry labeling? I’m less bullish that governments will make a meaningful impact since they often kick the can down the road. Better consumer education is more important, so we intuitively understand what’s good for us. One of the biggest trends in the healthcare sector is food as medicine. And for Dr Rupy Aujla, the link between the two became extremely personal 15 years ago when he was diagnosed with the heart condition, atrial fibrillation (AF). After his cardiologist recommended an ablation (a procedure to treat irregular heart rhythms), his mother urged him to consider food and lifestyle changes instead. Heeding her advice, initially just to appease her, turned out to be a wake-up call for a doctor who had not received any nutritional education as part of his medical training. To his amazement, the AF disappeared without the need for surgical intervention. It prompted him to set up a non-profit organisation, Culinary Medicine UK, to promote positive change. Here, he talks to Citi about why we need to approach healthcare differently and of the burgeoning start-up scene helping to drive it. QR scanning apps can be very helpful in providing ingredient lists and making food choice comparisons. As consumers, we can direct what’s in shops and supermarkets by choosing where and on what we spend our money. What impact has Covid had on this? I think it’s been an inflection point. The stress heaped on the medical profession prompted plenty of conversations about the need for self-care. And one corollary is having more of those conversations with our patients too. If there’s one thing we’ve gained since the pandemic, it’s a realization that we really need to think about the foundations of good health, as well as treatments to address symptoms of poor health. So, you’re optimistic about the future then? Yes. We can all make dietary changes, which are easy to achieve and not at all costly, such as eating more plants and cutting out ultra-processed foods. These days, there isn’t a single medical Culinary medicine is now taught in about 40% of US medical schools. It’s a phenomenal and very recent change” area where I don’t consider nutrition in unison with appropriate drugs and procedures. Food as medicine was initially viewed as cute and fringe. But I think we’re coming round to the idea that this forgotten part of our medical toolbox can be utilized to treat the different types of diseases we’re seeing now compared to recent decades. It’s going to become mainstream. At Citi, we provide real-time, on-demand, end-to-end solutions that support our clients’ financial health and business growth across the Healthcare, Consumer & Wellness sector. click here to watch