My patients were so slim I didn’t even recognise them!

Food and medicine are the great passions of my life. Both my parents were doctors and my mother, a superb cook and renowned child psychiatrist, taught me the joys of experimenting with food and flavours.

She was also a believer in the impact of good food on mental health.

I followed in my parents’ footsteps, training at the Royal Free Hospital in London. There I met my husband, Michael Mosley, who has surprised me by becoming a television presenter, health guru and the 5:2 diet’s creator!

In Saturday’s Weekend magazine, Michael outlined the principles of his New 5:2 programme and the Fast 800. We also shared delicious lowcalorie recipes from the new Fast 800 Recipe Book I’ve written with food expert Justine Pattison.

We’re following it up this week with more advice and mouthwatering recipes in the daily Mail every day.

STUNNING RESULTS

IF MIcHaeL’S career path surprised me, what amazes me now, is how little we learned at medical school and in my subsequent GP training, about the impact of diet on health.

We knew of the importance of ‘lifestyle advice’ but mostly did what we were trained to do — prescribe medication, and in increasing quantities. When I qualified, in the 1980s, the standard advice was that a low-fat diet was the way to lose weight.

The fact that this encouraged patients to eat more carbs, often in the form of sweet, starchy, highly-processed foods, didn’t seem to matter. after all, everyone ‘knew’ the only real way to get fat was by eating fat.

We now know that advice was wrong.

eating a low-fat diet can mean you miss out on healthy natural fats, which not only make food taste better and keep you feeling full for longer, but also provides nutrients and vitamins. I was skinny when young so was lucky enough never to have to diet — in fact I kept eating full- fat cheese in the hope it might give me some curves.

However, we didn’t have puddings at home usually so I’ve never had a sweet tooth.

There were also no snacks between meals. Looking back, I realise I was lucky to inherit healthy eating habits from my parents.

When Michael found he had type 2 diabetes it was a wake-up call. I was astonished as he didn’t look overweight.

But I just accepted the established medical view that this was a lifelong condition to manage, not cure. I supported his quest to improve his condition with diet but was stunned by the results.

after he reversed his diabetes by losing a lot of weight fast on the 5:2 diet, we both became obsessed with studying the

impact of food on health. As a keen cook, I was interested in finding new ways to enjoy the ingredients that we were discovering were so good for us.

Recent research has led to major developments in our understanding of the best ways to achieve weight loss, improve or reverse type 2 diabetes and reduce the risk of chronic conditions such as heart disease, strokes, dementia and cancer.

And it points to many answers lying within our own kitchens.

For me, as a GP, this has been an incredibly exciting time, sharing science-backed diet and lifestyle advice with patients who are motivated because they can see the difference it makes.

I’ve had patients coming up to me in the waiting room who’ve been following our diets saying, ‘Hello Dr Bailey. You don’t recognise me do you?’ They had lost so much weight that I initially didn’t.

It’s so rewarding to hear about patients changing lifelong eating habits to turn their health around. Unexpected benefits appear as they shed their weight, too. Some start running — and even enjoy it! Blood pressure drops and eczema improves, as does arthritis.

Our new Fast 800 Recipe Book is designed to help you put Michael’s pioneering diets into practice at home.

It’s been a joy to work with Justine Pattison on assembling this inspiring collection of recipes. You’ll find dishes for all occasions, plus treats and shakes and soups for when you’re on the move.

GOOD FOR YOUR GUT

THe recipes are also tailored to support your microbiome — the community of trillions of microbes living in your gut that produce crucial substances that have a beneficial impact on your digestion and mood, and can help reduce cellular inflammation and the risk of cancer.

In particular, look out for recipes containing lentils, chickpeas, onions, oats, chicory, leeks and even seaweed — as all have been shown to have a powerful positive effect on gut health.

For your 800-calorie fast days, there are numerous calorie-counted meals for you to choose from, as well as tips for adapting them for non-fast days.

Many patients tell me they love the flexibility of the Fast 800, with its mix of more manageable fasting days and lowishcarb Mediterranean-style food. They say it is the first diet they have been able to stick to and they are genuinely surprised they no longer feel hungry all the time.