Dr Ally Jaffee: Patients get healthier if doctors know about nutrition

When was the last time you went to your doctor with a chronic health problem, such as high blood pressure, depression or weight gain? And what was the outcome?

Alongside your prescription to tackle the most severe complications of the condition, were you give any dietary advice to help ease your symptoms? What about any positive lifestyle changes that may put you back in control of your physical and mental health?

All too often a visit to the GP ends in packets of pills and little else, depriving millions of patients of the proactive nutrition and health-living advice that could transform how they feel with very little cost, time and effort.

Even if you haven’t experienced this yourself, Dr Ally Jaffee, an NHS Junior Doctor, explains to Unfiltered that many GPs lack a deep understanding of how dietary and lifestyle changes can be potent first-line interventions for those under their care.

Instead, the default approach involves prescribing drugs, a trend driven by both insufficient nutritional and lifestyle education, knowledge and confidence, Big Pharma lobbying, and – an often overlooked factor – a patient population that would prefer quick fixes through pills than undertaking a proactive lifestyle approach to their health and wellbeing.

For Dr Jaffee, this lack of training around health-helping dietary and lifestyle interventions during medical school was so much of a shock that she decided to do something about it.

So she co-founded Nutritank, a pioneering nutritional education platform on a mission to revolution medical training and the healthcare system by giving doctors the information – and confidence – they need to start providing patients with additional wellbeing solutions that drugs alone.

The goal? A future where doctors are empowered to offer a spectrum of treatment options that allow patients to make informed, proactive and balanced health choices, not just for the benefit of their physical health, but their mental health too.

Mixed messages

Dr Jaffee reveals her mission has received a mixed reception from her peers and senior doctors, highlighting both support and resistance for the need to shake-up medical training at its core, making nutrition and lifestyle medicine as integral as pharmacology.

But she is sticking to her guns, believe that the profound impact of a balanced diet and regular exercise on patient health could significantly shift patentee outcomes and reduce reliance on long-term drug therapies, promoting a more holistic approach to healthcare.

We also delved into the current climate within the NHS with Dr Jaffee painting a vivid picture of life as a junior doctor working on the frontlines of the British healthcare system that critics claim is creaking under the weight of soaring waiting lists and slashed budgets. She also reveals the reality of Junior Doctors’ ongoing struggle for better pay and working conditions against the constant backdrop of accusations of greed, selfishness and dereliction of duty from some senior doctors and most of the mainstream media.