Shireen Kassam (left) is a Consultant Haematologist and Lifestyle Medicine Physician and founder of Plant-Based Health Professionals UK. @plantbasedhpuk
Laura Freeman (right) is a dual licensed GP, Lifestyle Medicine Physician and Medical Director of Plant-Based Health Onlin
DOI: Dr Kassam and Dr Freeman are both co-founders of Plant Based Health Online.
It may seem an unlikely pairing for a new project – a Consultant Haematologist and a General Practitioner. Yet Laura and I have come via different paths to the same point in our careers where we want to offer patients a different approach to healthcare. For Laura, it started with her own diagnosis of thyroid cancer 5 years ago and the knowledge that she carried a gene that put her at higher risk of other cancers. This led her to investigate the impact of her own lifestyle choices on future risk of chronic illness. For me, it was when I decided to adopt a fully plant-based diet in 2013 that I began to investigate the impact of diet choice on the risk of chronic illness.
Our personal research into these areas led to a level of amazement and wonder at the power of diet and lifestyle for the prevention and even management of chronic illness. To learn that 80% of common chronic illnesses could be eliminated in Western societies by adopting healthy lifestyle habits was astounding to us. With this new knowledge Laura started using the power of lifestyle interventions in her own clinical practice, which at the time was as a family doctor in Canada. The results she saw in her patients were astonishing. For me, I was becoming increasingly frustrated at the level of chronic illness, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, in the patients I was treating for lymphoma. I had limited resources by which to address these issues that would ultimately impact their cancer outcomes. Both Laura and I went on to sit the lifestyle medicine diploma from the international board of lifestyle medicine in 2019 and it was around this time our paths crossed.
I was becoming increasingly frustrated at the level of chronic illness, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Laura returned from Canada to Scotland in 2019 and despite qualifying in the UK as a GP and also being licensed in Canada, was unable to easily return onto the UK GP register. This provided her with the impetus to set up her own private lifestyle medicine clinic and start to work with her community to improve their health through a lifestyle first approach. She was the first doctor in the UK to start up regular Walk with a Doc events and to implement the CHIP lifestyle intervention in a community setting. Then the pandemic struck, lockdown was implemented, and these activities had to be put on hold.
The pandemic had highlighted how underlying chronic illnesses were making the UK public vulnerable.
This is where our shared journey begins. We had both been searching for a way to bring lifestyle medicine to a wider audience. The pandemic had highlighted how underlying chronic illnesses were making the UK public vulnerable to the worst effects of COVID-19. Lockdown demonstrated that virtual consultations with healthcare providers had a number of benefits for the provider and the patient. Lifestyle medicine lends itself perfectly to the virtual setting given that its application is in the chronic rather than acute setting. From this the concept of Plant Based Health Online was born. We wanted to bring together a multi-disciplinary team of healthcare providers to deliver a lifestyle medicine service to everyone that needed it.
There were many hurdles to overcome before getting to the point of launch. We were lucky enough to secure donor funding in for this project in June 2020 as our vision was to be a community interest company that puts profits back into improving the health of families and communities. The main task was to get approval from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as we felt this was essential for adding credibility to the service we are now providing. It provides patients and their NHS healthcare providers with the reassurance that we are providing safe and effective care. This was by no means an easy task and we opted to engage the services of a consultant to guide us through the process, a decision we never regretted. Most of you reading this article will know what this process entails and the policies and procedures that need to be in place prior to the CQC interview process. It is not something we want to repeat in a hurry but suffice to say the hard work was worth it in the end as we gained approval in mid-December. We are pleased to say we are the first online multi-disciplinary lifestyle medicine service with CQC approval.
Whilst working on the CQC approval processes we were getting together our core team which now consists of three GPs (including Laura), a dietitian, a nutritionist and a health coach. They have all been through an onboarding and induction process as with any healthcare provider. We have a GDPR compliant virtual consultation platform called Heydoc, which is also linked to an online pharmacy and laboratory such that the GPs in the practice can offer these services as required. We plan to hold clinical meetings and case discussion as our workload increases so that we can learn from each other’s expertise and experience.
A plant-predominant diet is optimal for human health and is associated with the lowest risk of chronic disease.
Why are we called Plant Based Health Online? Because we wanted to be upfront with patients about our dietary approach. The weight of evidence confirms that a plant-predominant diet is optimal for human health and is associated with the lowest risk of chronic disease. This is the approach has been adopted by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, which sets international recommendations in this growing field of lifestyle medicine. In practice this means obtaining 85-90% of calories from whole plant foods; fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds. If patients want to be fully plant-based, we will help them achieve this in a healthy way. Not only is this approach healthy for humans but it is now essential for planetary health as we highlighted in our previous article. Without a healthy planet there are no health people and therefore our fate is intertwined with the current climate and ecological crises.
Our fate is intertwined with the current climate and ecological crises.
We opened our virtual doors on January 26th, seven months after first coming up with the idea. We have had a number of inquiries and bookings from just the types of people we were expecting. Those with recently diagnosed illnesses such as heart disease, hypertension, cancer and type 2 diabetes who are seeking a more holistic approach to managing their health. We hope in time that by demonstrating the impact and efficacy of our service that the NHS will be willing to commission this for all patients who are motivated to make lifestyle changes to improve both their physical and mental health. Interestingly we have had a significant number of inquiries from doctors and allied health professionals who want to join our team.
We know that although healthy habits require commitment, evidence-based lifestyle medicine works very well in the real world – for those young or old, healthy or chronically ill. We also know that it offers a refreshing shift in practice for doctors and allied healthcare professionals alike. So, as we move forward in 2021, we are eager to both showcase the success of our patients and highlight the power of optimal nutrition and sustainable healthcare.
Featured photo by Drahomir Posteby-Mach on Unsplash
What a great initiative. Let’s hope the NHS sees the value of lifestyle medicine and makes this service accessible to all.
Very very interesting article and makes me very happy to hear about the development of this aspect of medical help, which is so important in our life.
This is such a timely and important message! Amazing idea and concept which needs to be shared to all.
This is a game changing health service and one which provides evidence-based diet and lifestyle advice to enable patients to regain control of their health and to feel empowered to continue. There has never been more of a need for lifestyle medicine than the current climate.
Great initiative!
It is time for the general public to be educated in evidence based lifestyle medicine. GPs are best placed to spread the message to their patients. I believe this is already happening!
A much needed service, good for human health and planetary health! Lifestyle medicine has much to contribute to improving quality of life for everyone! All GPs should become involved in promoting and practicing Lifestyle medicine and all schools should teach the subject. Thank you for a great article!
What an excellent initiative! Advocating lifestyle medicine is not only important but also very much needed right now. I hope it becomes mainstream. Thank you!
How wonderful! This is such an essential service that we need now more than ever. Shocking that 80% of common chronic illnesses could be eliminated by adopting healthy lifestyle habits. I hope the NHS realises how important this is and helps make it accessible to everyone. Good luck!
An important initiative in an accessible virtual format – very compelling.
This is so encouraging. May it go from strength to strength.
Wonderful initiative. We need more of these programs available to the community.
What an amazing and trailblazing service to provide true benefit in addressing the root causes of our current epidemic of chronic disease and help people to lead healthy and vital lives. Wishing this amazing team great success.
This is such an amazing initiative! This needs to be heard by everybody. Thank you BJGP and PBHO for putting this out there!
This is a radical enterprise which arrives at a crucial time for both personal and environmental health. It should be fully endorsed. Wishing you every success in all your endeavours.
Thank you for taking the plunge and bringing this incredible service to life. I love how you link human health with the health of the environment, this aspect is so often missing in healthcare debates. Plant-based health is the future.
A valuable service that is currently missing from our reactive healthcare system. Thank you for starting this initiative and using an approach that can tackle the root cause of many chronic diseases that stem from poor quality diet and lifestyle habits. This will no doubt help many, many patients regain their health and transform lives.
This is a much needed initiative! Finding true evidence based health care in a world of sick care. So many people are going to be able to make real long term lifestyle and positive health changes with the help of this wonderful offering. Congratulations! Thank you for all you are doing.
What an exciting time for you both professionally, and for the medical profession as a whole. Best of luck, and as a psychiatrist I would be fascinated to understand more re best ways to support behaviour change for your patients
Such a great resource and initiative. I’ve seen first hand how switching to a plant based diet has been beneficial to myself (and the world!) and I’m excited to add in the other aspects of lifestyle medicine to my life. Will be following this with interest!
A new and obviously successful approach to prophylaxis and treatment of chronic lifestyle illness. Hope this is universally adopted. I shall look forward to seeing its progress.
With healthcare at breaking point, there has never been a more pressing need for an overhaul of how chronic illnesses are both managed and prevented. You’re doing a wonderful job in arming medical professionals and patients with a different approach entirely, backed by compelling evidence. I wish you every success.
What a trailblazing and important project! Great to read about all the progress you’ve already made – thanks to your hard work and expertise. Well done and I hope the NHS gets on board with this soon…
Such important work. I love the holistic approach backed by evidence and science !! The best of both worlds. Amazing endeavour and I will be following along the journey !
Your passion and commitment to helping your patients be better is nothing short of inspiring. I love the EBM approach as much as the compassion and ingenuity in your venture.
I look forward to see all that you two will achieve!
Great initiative. I hope to see this exciting endeavour go from strength to strength and ultimately be taken onboard by the NHS
There is a vital need for this amazing facility for both personal health and that of the planet. Your dedication to drive this forward is inspirational. I am sure this project will achieve the success it clearly deserves.
Finally an accessible, professional and CQC registered platform to heal people and planet. Going to the root cause of poor outcomes for patients with Covid too.
Lisa B A great initiative. I wonder if this is a service that could be made accessible to all via the NHS.
At last a real step forward to finding solutions for chronic illness caused by diet and lifestyle.
Wishing much success to all involved in this.
This is an exciting offer – for individuals and the planet. I look forward to learning more.
Lifestyle medicine must be the medicine of the future. More and more evidence is seen everyday for the benefits of a plant based diet, for prevention and treatment of a wide array of conditions that cause so much suffering and cost so much to society. Which conditions? The ones we see in the clinic every day! Hypertension, diabetes, ischaemic heart disease, autoimmune disease including inflammatory bowel disease, skin conditions, early stages of cognitive impairment, chronic kidney disease and so many more. A plant based diet is promoted by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, the body which is responsible for the Lifestyle Medicine curriculum and the internal examination for certification. While not all patients may be ready to adopt beneficial lifestyle changes, it is our responsibility as physicians to become knowledgable enough to offer the choice, and even to lead the way by our own personal health choices.
Oh! This would be amazing! This way of life should be incorporated in the mainstream. Thank you for your efforts in making this happen.
An amazing initiative and so needed today… hopefully this will become mainstream soon
Great CQC approved initiative!
As an NHS GP practicing Lifestyle Medicine, I hope to see more GPs and AHPs incorporate this in the daily practice and this is the way forward to help our patients and to have a healthy planet!
An excellent initiative ! Congratulations on seeing your hard work come to fruition. If only all patients has access to comprehensive supported lifestyle intervention programmes such as this; I could twiddle my thumbs 80% of the day ! 😉
What an inspiration! I truly believe this will become mainstream medicine and we will one day look back at our reactive approach to I’ll health. Huge kudos to you both for progressing this movement.
Ill health
Ros H reading of this health facility in GB is wonderful news. I have been changing my diet from 2018 after being told I’m now type 2 Diebetic . Over the time I’ve changed and evolved and so incredibly happy as I am no longer any where near that level of blood sugar which happened in around 6 months, but needed a further 12 months for the meds would confirm it. Over time I’ve completely altered my eating habits and now I’m around 98% vegan. The last 2% I know at some point I’ll give it up, but I feel no guilt over it and when I do, I’ll change. My husband who is the chef in our home is also now a vegetarian and very happy about it too.
A look back at 2021 for Plant-Based Health Professionals UKThis iconic picture by Jo-Anne McArthur, winner of the COP26 photography competition, is a fitting backdrop for highlighting the work we do at PBHP UK. Without considering the health of the planet and other animals there are no healthy people.PLANT BASED HEALTH ONLINE (PBHO): The year kicked off with the launch of one our biggest projected to date. Plant Based Health Online is the UK’s first CQC-registered, online, plant-based lifestyle medicine service. Co-founded by myself (shireen Kassam) and Dr Laura Freeman, the mission of this new community interest company is to bring the power of healthy lifestyle habits into mainstream healthcare. Our core values include a lifestyle first approach, working together and compassionate care. We combine the power of allopathic medicine with evidence-based lifestyle medicine to support patients and clients to achieve their best health whilst minimising pharmaceutical interventions. You can read more about our story here.It has been a tough first year as sustaining a new business is challenging. But, we have learnt lots and worked with some wonderful people and organisations along the way. We have been fortunate to receive funding from the Chartwell Cancer Trust to run programmes for people recovering from cancer, we have teamed up with The Vegan Kind to launch their TVK health section and Dr Laura Freeman has made presentations about the work of PBHO at the VegMed conference in Feb 2021 and the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine conference in Sept 2021.Most importantly, we have supported our patients to adopt a plant-based diet along with other healthy habits to improve their physical and mental wellbeing, reduce their need for prescribed medications and in some cases, reverse their chronic conditions.Here is some of the feedback we have received
We look forward to building on our first year, seeing more patients, working together with like-minded organisations and slowly changing the focus of healthcare from a reactive to a preventative approach.PBHP UK MEMBERSHIP: Membership started in Janaury 2019. The main purpose is to grow a network of like-minded individuals who can together make a valuable contribution to education and advocacy on plant-based nutrition in the UK and beyond. Our membership is open to everyone, not just health professionals, because we recognise that everyone has an important role in the plant-based health movement. The membership fees help to run the organisation with all of the income going back into our educational activities and a significant proportion for running members events.Our membership numbers have grown year on year and this our third year we have reached nearly 1000 members. We now have members globally who we support with provision of educational resources, providing talks at events and of course PBHP UK benefits greatly from the broad expertise of each and every member. Our members have contributed to writing articles, developing factsheets and have participated in talks and panel discussions in VegFest events throughout the year.We held out first members Annual General Meeting on August 11th and more than 50 attended. It was wonderful to connect with our members, albeit virtually. We brought attendees up to date with our current programme and plans for the coming year. We also had some very useful and engaging discussions about future projects. We look forward to connecting more with our members in 2022.We are exceedingly grateful and indebted to the wonderful support and expertise our members bring. Without their support our work would not be possible and certainly would not be so rewarding.MEMBERS SOCIALS AND JOURNAL CLUBS: The growth in membership has allowed us to deliver a number of member events run by our members, including cooking socials, fitness classes, and a specific event for students. We have also had a number of journal club meetings to discuss interesting and relevant papers. We will continue with these popular events in 2022, with our first being an acupucture and acupressure class in January.DEVELOPING A DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION FRAMEWORK: At PBHP UK we are committed to developing a diverse, equitable and inclusive organisation for our team and members. We have therefore being working with Encompass, who support organisations to embrace principles of racial equity with the ultimate goal that the vegan and plant-based movement is truly inclusive of all people, including from the global majority who are all too often marginalised.The first step has been to develop a DEI vision statement. We would love your feedback as we continue to work on translating this vision to all the work we do.IN THE MEDIA: We have now been working for over a year with Eden Green PR to broaden our reach and elevate our message in both print and broadcast media. Rohini Bajekal, our communications lead, heads up our media work and regularly supports members to get involved. All our media work can be found here.Some of our highligths include:This is how to transition easily to a plant-based diet — The IndependentExperts from PBHP regularly answer listener questions — Simply Vegan PodcastVegan Doctors Launch UK’s First-Ever Online Plant-Based Healthcare Service — Plant Based NewsTwo-thirds of British men say they would rather die 10 years early than give up meat — MirrorHow to support a child who wants to go vegan — The IndependentPUBLICATIONS IN MEDICAL JOURNALS: We have had a number of publications in medical journals and magazine. Some of our highlights are summarised in my previous article. My particular favourites are an interview by the European Heart Journal on the importance of healthy nutrition for the South Asian population, our articles in the British Journal of General Practice on how to help patients to transition to a plant-based diet and why a plant-based food system is essential for addressing a number of global crises, our case report on the inspiring story of Kate Dunbar, our patient advocate, who healed her psoriatic arthritis and a systematic review with our student member Priya Patel on the need for more structured, objective and consistent nutrition education in medical school curricula.FACTSHEETS: Leila Dehghan, Kate Dunbar and a number of our members have produced some excellent new factsheets including, bloating, coronary heart disease, vitamin D, high cholesterol, bone health factsheet for professionals, bone health for patients, Alzheimer’s disease, prehabilitation, weight management, soya allergy, constipation, PCOS, stroke, weight gain, sports nutrition. These are extensively used by healthcare professionals in their clinical practice and can all be downloaded for free here.NEW KIDS AREA: The most frequent questions we receive are related to raising plant-based children. This is not surprising given the regular scaremongering in the media about potential harms. That’s why we have developed a new page dedicated to this topic and included information on plant-based milks, supplements, probiotics plus factsheets and fun activities for kids. We are super grateful for the expertise of all who have been involved including Leila Dehghan, Miriam Martinez-Biarge, Kate Dunbar and Rohini Bajekal. We are also proud to features two excellent books by our members, Feeding Your Vegan Child by Sandra Hood RD and The Adventures of Chef Amino and Granny Vegano by Hayley Tait.BOOKS FROM OUR TEAM AND MEMBERS: We now have a wide range of excellent books written by our team and members. I highly recommend each and every one of them. You can find them all here on our website. There are also more exciting publications due out in 2022!21-DAY PLANT-BASED HEALTH CHALLENGE AND ONLINE SUPPORT: Since the launch of the PBHP UK plant-based challenge in October 2020 we have had almost 2500 sign ups and some incredible testimonials. This is all down to the hard work of our education lead Leila Dehghan. This free resource delivers 21 daily emails with information on plant-based diets, menu suggestions, videos on common nutrition questions and a free recipe book. The recipes are truly international covering all common traditional cuisines. We are exceedingly grateful to all our collaborators including Tomi Makanjuola, Rohini Bajekal, Jay Cox, Kate Dunbar and Nikas Kitchen. With further funding from Vegfund Leila is now able to offer fortnightly live Q&A sessions for participants via Zoom. So please share this resource widely with friends, family and colleagues.The challenge has also been used as part of our documentary by film maker Jay Cox. Our member Kiran Meka, supported by Leila Dehghan, recruited residents from his home town of Bracknell to sign up and record their experience of trying a plant-based diet and even made the local paper. Kiran himself has a remarkable and inspiring story of healing that has recently been shared in the media. A great advocate for his community. We can’t wait to see the results of the challenge.WEBINAR PROGRAMME: This project aims to provide regular live CPD accredited webinars on plant-based nutrition and lifestyle medicine in clinical practice for health professionals and students, as well as interested members of the general public. It has served to bring together a community of global plant-based health professionals and reach health professionals who may not be plant-based yet but are interested in incorporating lifestyle and nutrition interventions in their clinical practice. We had a total of 8500 live participants across 30+ webinars in a one-year period from May 2020 to May 2021. We aim to reach at least 10,000 health professionals in 2021/2022 who are looking to deepen their knowledge of plant-based diets in clinical practice with an emphasis on NHS GPs. In general, we have 200–500 live participants for each webinar with an international audience of predominantly health professionals. Recordings are for our members only.British Society of Lifestyle Medicine (BSLM) offers 1 CPD Credit per webinar and American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) offers 1 CME Credit per webinar towards the 5 Year Lifestyle Medicine Maintenance of Certification scheme. Other groups that list our webinars include Veganfitness.com, Nutritank and the Vegan Society.Topics covered this year included plant-based diets for treating Type 2 diabetes, athletes, optimising metabolism, older adults, skin health, autoimmune diseases, in pregnancy, gut health, lifestyle medicine, climate crisis, for prevention of chronic diseases in South Asians, for children, bone health, Vitamin D and cancer.Here is some of the feedback we have received
WINCHESTER UNIVERSITY PLANT-BASED NUTRITION COURSE: This course has really been a team effort and continues to go from strength to strength. It is now in it’s third year and has had over 500 participants from around the world. It remains the only University-based plant-based nutrition course in the UK and is CPD accredited by the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine and the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. Co-facilitated by Leila Dehghan and myself, it is a self-paced 8-week course, which provides a thorough science-based grounding in the subject. We have also launched bi-annual study day updates for past participants to keep up with the ever growing body of evidence on the science and practice of plant-based nutrition.Here is just one of the incredible testimonianls we have received in the last year
You can book your place for 2022 here.WEEKLY UPDATES AND ARTICLES: I continue to provide a weekly round up of the plant-based nutrition news, which I started in Sept 2019. The aim is to keep you updated on the scientific literature so you don’t have to search through the journals yourself. This is first shared on medium.com and social media on a Sunday, and then shortly after added to the website here.We have also added a number of useful articles to the website including the health benefits of nuts and seeds by Natalie Peckett, our medical student member, updates articles on soya by Dr Nitu Bajekal, prostate cancer, bone health and stroke and a short review on the health benefits of a plant-based diet by Biology graduate and member Isabelle Sadler.SUPPORTING VEGFEST UK: Leila Dehghan has organised and hosted a number of health talks and panel discussions for the online VegFest, Plant Powered Expo and Global Vegfest events. All these events highlight the expertise of PBHP UK members and provide credible education for the public. All of the recordings of these talks and panel discussion can be found on the Vegfest YouTube channel.COOKING FOR THE CLIMATE: Dr Hayley Tait, GP, author and chef has joined the PBHP UK team and has launched a new program, ‘Cooking for the Climate’, which aims to bridge the gap between the plant-based and planetary health movements. In the UK, planetary health education is beginning to be incorporated into medical and healthcare education courses. However, the impact of diet choice on planetary health is often overlooked.This stand-alone course can be incorporated into existing healthcare courses to educate and support health students and professionals to understand the impact of the food system on planetary health, to learn the necessary skills and knowledge to adopt a healthy plant-based diet and to discuss how to support their patients and clients to do the same. So far, we are delivering the course at Exeter and Southampton medical schools with further Universities looking to come on board in 2022.Hayley, in collaboration with one of her patients, has also launched Vinny’s Kitchen in Liverpool, which PBHP UK is proud to support. The name Vinny comes for a patient and friend of Hayley’s who cooked with her at Scouse Kitchen, a homeless outreach providing hot food, clothing and support until the COVID lockdown in March 2020. Sadly, Vinny did not survive a COVID infection and hence the Community Plant Based Cook school has been named in dedication.The kitchen is a space for individuals and families to learn how to cook simple plant-based recipes from scratch using familiar and unfamiliar ingredients to create taste sensations. As well as teaching culinary skills, Hayley will be discussing the human and planetary health benefits of a whole food plant-based diet and giving tips on climate smart choices. All the food that is made is delivered to the local homeless community.PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATIONS: We continue to support organisations that align with our mission.This includes supporting them to produce evidence-based information on healthy plant-based diets. We have also developed partnership and sponsorship guidelines to ensure we maintain the integrity of our organisation.Organisations that we have developed good working relationships and affiliations with include ProVeg, the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) and Doctors for Nutrition. Rohini Bajekal, our communications lead, continues to support Animal Rebellion’s school meals programme and has written a letter with ProVeg to the European Commission to stop the EU promotion of meat and dairy. We also regularly attend and participate in the All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) food and health group.This year we have also extended our affiliation to include organisations that are advocating for climate health, including the Planetary Health Alliance and the UK Alliance on Climate Change.We are also proud to be affiliated with organisations and projects that are run by some of our incredibly talented and knowledgable members including Henry and Henry, Vegan Inclusive Education, TeachStrong and Afternoon Tea with Docs, just to mention a fewCAMPAIGNS: We are proud to have supported some excellent campaigns this year. These include Scrap Factory Farming by Humane Being who have launched the Worlds first legal challenge with a hearing date set for January 2022. Regardless of the outcomes, this HUGE undertaking will go down in history as one of the more ambitious challenges to the animal agriculture industry.We have also supported the World Plant Milk Day campaign with an open letter to the UK government to provide plant milks to children as an alternative to cow’s milk, the Plant Based Treaty that has gained remarkable traction, the Food and Diversity project by Leila Dehghan, promoting and highlighting plant-based athletes and health professionals from the global majority. I was able to promote the International No Meat May Campaign at King’s College Hospital, with at least 60 staff signing up and trying a plant-based diet. We even made the local paper!INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES, EVENTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS: Our team and members are proud to have been invited to speak at a number of national and international conferences. These include VegFest Morocco, Istanbul Vegfest, Singapore Vegan Festival, Vegan First India event, the Animal Politics party annual conference, the International Conference on Nutrition in Medicine, the International Plant-Based Nutrition Healthcare Conference, the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine Conference, Ismaili Healthcare Professionals Conference, the Romanian Lifestyle Medicine Conference and the Pakistan Lifestyle Medicine Society conference.Rohini Bajekal and Marta Lewandowska had poster presentations on case studies from our members on the benefits of a whole food plant-based diet for type 2 diabetes and multiple sclerosis at the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine Conference. Dr Laura Freeman and Dr Shireen Kassam led a panel discussion on ‘Supporting patients to remove red meat from the diet’ at the Planetary Health Alliance annual conference.A massive congratulations to our ambassador Kate Strong who is now holder of three Guinness World Records for cycling the furthest on a static bike over 1, 12 and 24 hours. A phenomenal achievement and of course all on a plant-based diet. Our film maker Jay Cox captured the event and has won an award for best short film. We look forward to sharing the film with you in 2022.A FEATURE WEEK ON CHEF AJ’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL: The PBHP UK and PBHO teams were delighted to showcase our work on Chef AJ live. From December 27th we have a daily interview with our amazing team members. Please do tune in to learn more about our work and the motivation that drives us.WHAT’S IN STORE FOR 2022. We are set for another productive year of education and advocacy, building upon all the projects we have initiated in 2020/2021. One major contribution will be the completion of a textbook called ‘Plant-Based Nutrition in Clinical Practice’. This really has been a team effort with each chapter authored by our members and affiliates. Our aim is for this textbook to be embraced into healthcare courses in the UK and beyond.We will be joining PCRM in January 2022 as part of their One Healthy World campaign. Leila Dehghan, in collaboration with Veganfitness.com, is launching an online course on sports nutrition. We have an incredible line up for our webinar programme and we will continue to update our collection of factsheets and webinars.A MASSIVE THANK YOU TO ALL OUR SUPPORTERS: We work with some wonderful people, without whom our work would not be possible. Thank you to PBHP UK member Roger Phillips for editing all our webinars free of charge. Carmen, Carol and Rob from Mad Ideas who run our website. Eden Green PR who amplify our message. Keith Lesser of Lesser and Co chartered accountants. Jane Land and Matthew Glover who support our projects. VegFund, Karuna foundation and ProVeg for their grants. We look forward to working with you all in 2022. Back To Articles