#31 Root to Stem with Alex Laird
The Doctor's Kitchen Podcast
Dr Rupy Aujla
4.7 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 16 September 2019
⏱️ 79 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today I’m speaking with medical herbalist and author of “Root to Stem” Alex Laird. She runs one of the few NHS medical herbalism clinics at Whipps Cross hospital in London alongside a consultant dermatologist and has over 20 years of experience.
Trained in biomedicine and plant pharmacology, Alex is also a visiting lecturer, has published numerous research papers, and is the co-founder of the charity Living Medicine.
Alex is a firm believer in using food and foraged plants to help support wellbeing.
We’re going to be cooking a recipe from the book Root to Stem and I’m fascinated by her role as a medical herbalist in the NHS.
Some of the areas that Alex and I spoke about:
- Try growing some greenery on your windowsill & growing plants at home
- Kitchen herbs like Basil, Coriander, Parsley are a fantastic source of nutrition
- Try out a local foraging class in your area
- (it's very important that you go foraging with an expert as there are a lot of items which are inedible and may cause harm if consumed without experience advice)
- Seasonal eating* - which is really easy to do by following which fruits and vegetables are in season and readily available at your local supermarkets
- Including a variety of foods in your diet is key - and probably one of the most important concepts to include in the foods that you eat
- Try walking meetings and eating al fresco where possible
You’ll find the recipe video that I cooked with Alex and our super interesting conversation - on my youtube channel go check it out!
And you can find all of this information and more at www.thedoctorskitchen.com
'Root to Stem' is a seasonal and holistic approach to health that puts plants, herbs and nature at the heart of how we live and eat.
It is a new kind of guide that links individual health to our communities and the planet's health to sustain us all.’
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today's podcast is sponsored by Zoe and I'm pretty convinced that anyone listening to this |
| 0:04.7 | podcast right now has an invested interest in health. Maybe you've tried the recipes, |
| 0:09.6 | taken advice from guests, all like me you see food as medicine. But to any of you ever feel like |
| 0:15.4 | you're doing all the right stuff to live a healthy lifestyle but you still feel fatigued in the |
| 0:20.8 | afternoons. It could be because the advice that we give to most people simply isn't enough for |
| 0:27.1 | your unique body. And I'm a believer that personalized nutrition could be beneficial if you |
| 0:32.8 | find yourself in this pattern. And Zoe's groundbreaking science does what generic advice can't do. |
| 0:38.8 | They look at your blood fat and blood sugar control and your gut microbiome to help you understand |
| 0:44.5 | how different foods affect your body so you can feel your best. Nailing your own nutrition can |
| 0:49.9 | have huge benefits on long-term health as well as relieving more immediate problems like fatigue. |
| 0:55.2 | So magnesium supplements for example can help one person sleep better but they might have |
| 0:59.5 | little effect on someone else. And as Professor Tim said in our conversation personalized nutrition |
| 1:05.3 | takes away that trial and error and that very long process of trying to figure out what's going on |
| 1:10.4 | inside your body on your own. Zoe has been genuinely life-changing for its members who've |
| 1:16.4 | reported feeling less tired after lunch and that the energy levels are far more consistent. |
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| 1:27.2 | temperate 10% discount that's kitchen, 10 all one word for a 10% discount and I can't wait for you to |
| 1:32.8 | try it. Today's episode is sponsored by JD Williams, the one-stop online store for fashion and |
| 1:38.7 | homeware. Getting older is in many ways a blessing. My society might like to portray getting |
| 1:44.0 | older as the autumn of life. I've actually found it to be highly gratifying and we've actually |
| 1:48.5 | discussed the many benefits of age and the misconceptions of aging with neuroscientists, |
| 1:54.9 | cognitive psychologists on the podcast where we talked about how happiness can actually |
... |
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