• The silent pandemic: how animal farming fuels antibiotic resistance, with Cóilín Nunan
    Jul 9 2025

    In episode 14 of this season we are joined by Cóilín Nunan, to discuss the growing global threat of antibiotic resistance and how the overuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture is contributing to this silent pandemic.


    Cóilín is the Policy and Science Manager of the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics, an alliance of seventy-one member organisations campaigning against the overuse of antibiotics in animal farming.


    Cóilín breaks down how antibiotics are used not only to treat infections but also prevent disease in crowded, unsanitary conditions. This results in a breeding ground for drug-resistant bacteria that can affect both animals and humans.


    This discussion highlights why we view the shift to plant-based diets as one of the key ways to drive down this overuse, and protect antibiotics for when we actually need them within healthcare.


    Please share this episode widely to help raise awareness and be part of the change towards a better future for all.


    To find out more about the alliance's work and to get involved: https://www.saveourantibiotics.org/







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    56 mins
  • Bean meaning to tell you...
    Jul 2 2025

    If you've heard that you'll get doughy trying to build muscle on beans, or indeed anything else that's made you doubt pulses even for a second, then this nugget's for you. Daisy and Clare discuss the nutrition of a range of legumes, as well as health benefits and environmental impacts, and how best to cook and eat them.

    Didinger, C.; Thompson, H.J. Defining Nutritional andFunctional Niches of Legumes: A Call for Clarity to Distinguish a Future Role for Pulses in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Nutrients 2021, 13,1100. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13041100

    Mullins AP, Arjmandi BH. Health Benefits of Plant-BasedNutrition: Focus on Beans in Cardiometabolic Diseases. Nutrients. 2021 Feb5;13(2):519. doi: 10.3390/nu13020519. PMID: 33562498; PMCID: PMC7915747.

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    16 mins
  • Meat the truth: time to diversify our protein sources, with Rebecca Tobi and Dr Shireen Kassam
    Jun 25 2025

    In episode 13 of this season we are joined by the Food Foundation's Rebecca Tobi, and Plant-Based Health Professionals UK's founder, Dr Shireen Kassam to discuss the latest Food Foundation report 'Meat Facts'.


    Rebecca is a Registered Nutritionist (RNutr), has a masters in Nutrition for Global Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and is the Food Foundation's Senior Business and Investor Engagement manager.


    Rebecca's in-depth knowledge of the report, combined with Shireen's expertise on the health implications of eating red, processed, and other meats, ensure this is a really rich discussion.


    The UK may continue to ignore the health warnings that are associated with meat consumption but hopefully anyone who is listening to this episode will take action to curb their own consumption for individual and planetary health.



    Find the full report here: https://foodfoundation.org.uk/publication/meat-facts



    The latest UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey:


    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-diet-and-nutrition-survey-2019-to-2023/national-diet-and-nutrition-survey-2019-to-2023-report



    The excellent Food Foundation Podcast, Pod Bites:


    https://foodfoundation.org.uk/podcasts



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    58 mins
  • Keep it plant-based: Middle Eastern cuisine
    Jun 18 2025

    For this week's nugget we are joined by NHS dietitian Didem Varol, who guides us through the delights and challenges of opting for plant-based food when eating out in Turkey, or when re-creating Middle Eastern flavours at home.


    Follow Didem on Instagram @plantgevity or find her at www.plantgevity.com

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    18 mins
  • Plant-powered progress: transforming food systems for a cooler planet, with Professor Paul Behrens
    Jun 11 2025

    This week we are delighted to welcome Professor Paul Behrens to the Nutshell.


    Paul is a British Academy Global Professor based at the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford where his research focuses on the impacts of food system transformations.



    His research and writing on food and energy systems, land use and climate change has appeared in scientific journals and media outlets and he is the editor and author of the textbook ‘Food and Sustainability’.



    As an academic with a background in Physics, Professor Behrens is an environmental expert, and he combines this expertise with a communication style that is accessible to all in his book ‘The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: Futures from the Frontiers of Climate Science’ which we discuss in this episode.



    To buy the book:


    https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/PaulBehrens


    To connect:


    https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-behrens-6b586427/?originalSubdomain=uk



    Links to further information discussed in this episode:



    https://eatforum.org/eat-lancet-commission/the-planetary-health-diet-and-you/



    https://en.fvm.dk/Media/638484294982868221/Danish-Action-Plan-for-Plant-based-Foods.pdf



    https://www.carbonbrief.org/cropped/



    https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/author/zacharyboren/



    https://www.ft.com/susannah-savage



    https://www.theguardian.com/profile/arthurneslen



    https://www.food.systems/



    https://foodfoundation.org.uk/publication/meat-facts



    https://foodfoundation.org.uk/sites/default/files/2025-05/TFF_Meat%20Facts.pdf



    https://foodfoundation.org.uk/initiatives/broken-plate



    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2514664525000104




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    59 mins
  • Getting lifestyle medicine into the NHS, with Dr Camille Hirons
    Jun 4 2025

    This week's 'nugget' episode showcases the work of Dr Camille Hirons, a GP with special interest in lifestyle medicine and reducing health inequalities.

    Esselstyn CB Jr, Ellis SG, Medendorp SV, Crowe TD. A strategy to arrest and reverse coronary artery disease: a 5-year longitudinal study of a single physician's practice. J Fam Pract. 1995 Dec;41(6):560-8. PMID: 7500065.Buettner D, Skemp S. Blue Zones: Lessons From the World's Longest Lived. Am J Lifestyle Med. 2016 Jul 7;10(5):318-321. doi: 10.1177/1559827616637066. PMID: 30202288; PMCID: PMC6125071.The Core 20 NHS work on health inequalities:

    https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/equality/equality-hub/national-healthcare-inequalities-improvement-programme/core20plus5/

    Connect with Dr Cami:

    https://www.lifestylemedicineaccelerator.co.uk/

    On Instagram: the_lifestyle_med_gp

    Get qualified:

    https://plantbasedhealthprofessionals.com/iblm/iblm-certification

    And to get tickets for the upcoming Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine in person and online conferences:

    https://nlmc.org.uk/

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    21 mins
  • Wholefood wisdom: power-full without Ozempic, with Dr Neal Barnard
    May 28 2025

    This week we are pleased to be welcoming Dr Neal Barnard, M.D. to the Nutshell.


    Dr Barnard has an incredible plant-based health CV including founding the Barnard Medical Center in Washington DC, which aims to make nutrition part of routine medical care, as well as working as adjunct Professor of Medicine at George Washington University.


    He is however perhaps most well known for his role as Founder and President of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine ( PCRM) - an organisation advocating for preventative medicine, good nutrition and higher ethical standards in research.


    He himself has led research studies focusing on the role of diet in problems such as diabetes, weight management, and chronic pain and as a result has produced a number of fantastic studies, and books, and we had the opportunity to talk with him about his latest book 'The Power Foods Diet'.



    Link to find out more about PCRM:


    https://www.pcrm.org/



    To buy Dr Barnard's latest book:


    https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-power-foods-diet-the-breakthrough-plan-that-traps-tames-and-burns-calories-for-easy-and-permanent-weight-loss-md-barnard-neal-d/7616351?ean=9781538764954



    Don't forget to get your tickets to this year's Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine Conference in London, by following this link:


    https://nlmc.org.uk/



    And if you enjoy this episode please don't forget to share, rate and review!




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    51 mins
  • Pass the salt
    May 21 2025

    Sea salt, iodised salt, Himalayan salt, and lo-salt: what should we be using? Well less of all of them it seems, but why exactly, and how can we do that? Daisy and Clare talk it through, whilst leaving room for a touch of the plant-based eater's favourite - kala namak.

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    9 mins