For years Dr Alan Desmond has been telling people, ‘We can transform our health and revolutionise our quality of life by simply eating more plants.’ It was only while working on the frontline of the pandemic that he found the time, while isolating from his family to pen the book that would make him a best selling author and allow him to completely articulate his plant based design for changing our lives.   As rates of chronic disease continue to rise, ‘What should we eat?’ has become one of the most important questions of the 21st century. Dr Alan Desmond has made it his business to cut through the diet confusion to explain how we can all unlock the power of a healthy gut and optimise our overall well-being by simply putting more plants on our plate. Here for the first time on Irishman Abroad, Jarlath gets the chance to quiz the good doctor on whether all the hype around chomping more veg is really true. Having picked up the book Jarlath has taken the dive into Alan’s 80 completely plant-based recipes and the essential step-by-step guide to discovering the true power of a plant-based diet for himself. Like almost everyone he still has reservations but in this fun and wide ranging chat, Dr Alan explains it all including the data for runners and athletes. The impact of meat production on the environment and future pandemics. There’s even more over on Patreon.   By day Dr Alan Desmond treats patients with a broad range of recent-onset and long-standing problems affecting their stomach and bowel. He has particular expertise in the assessment and treatment of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease), heartburn, reflux oesophagitis, Barrett’s oesophagus and patients with irritable bowel syndrome and other functional disorders of the gastro-intestinal tract.   Alan graduated from the School of Medicine of University College Cork in Ireland in 2001. He went on to complete his specialist training in Ireland and at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.  He relocated to Devon in June of 2012. He regularly speaks at conferences and events across the globe.   To hear every episode in full and to gain access to the entire back-catalogue of over 600 Irishman Abroad episodes that are not available on iTunes for just the price of a pint every month visit www.patreon.com/irishmanabroad Supplementary research provided by John Meagher. Our charity partner is jigsawonline.ie. In these tricky times, Jigsaw provides a range of resources, advice and care for your people to help them strengthen their mental health and the skills needed to navigate life. Please visit their website and consider making a donation. For updates on future episodes and live shows follow @jarlath on Twitter, visit www.jigser.com or email the show directly on [email protected]. Disclaimer: All materials contained within this podcast are copyright protected. Third party reuse and/or quotation in whole or in part is prohibited unless direct credit and/or hyperlink to the Irishman Abroad podcast is clearly and accurately provided.