This week marks the release of a new documentary deemed to be “the last word in the fight against dietary misinformation”. The Big Fat Fix is the brainchild of Donal O’Neill and Dr Aseem Malhotra, one of the UK’s most out-spoken cardiologists on dietary and lifestyle interventions and prevention for heart disease.

The documentary has been completely crowd-funded to remove any commercial influences and to cut through the epidemic of academic misinformation on nutrition. The film sees Dr Malhotra traveling to Southern Italy to explore the many benefits of a high fat, low carb, Mediterranean-style diet, it offers the rationale for eating more fat, but cutting carbs and sugar, teaches how to exercise smarter and listen to your body without the need for costly gym memberships and equipment, whilst emphasising the importance of adequate, rest, relaxation and mindfulness. It’s lifestyle medicine at its best, delivered in a simple, practical and easily digestible format.

The film brings together a raft of leading global experts including Prof Robert Lustig MD, Prof David Haslam and Prof Tim Noakes who are all 'walking the talk' and reaping the multitude of health benefits as result. This is definitely not a case of “do as I say, but not as I do”! On the contrary, “follow me, do as I do”, and feel your quality of life increase dramatically. It’s self-help, but in a supportive community of experts who all know what it was like to make the transition, but who will never turn back because life is so much better when you engage in lifestyle medicine.

Malhotra’s passion is sparked by the fact that the UK National Health Service is spending £20 million per year on lifestyle-mediated diseases. This figure is set to double in the next 20 years and is completely unsustainable, let alone unnecessary. Taking just one example – type 2 diabetes, a disease of carbohydrate intolerance, that can be reversed in many cases or at least so improved that medications can be cut by half, yet even basic diet and lifestyle guidelines are missing from mainstream guidelines. In the film Dr Malhotra states that, “movement, stress reduction and stopping smoking is more powerful than any drug”. He’s also gone on record saying that adopting the Mediterranean diet after a heart attack is more powerful than any drug – and a whole lot more pleasurable! If all GPs in the UK were to use lifestyle medicine the current estimation is a saving of £423 million per year on just diabetes alone…

Surely that’s enough to drop the fear of fat, download a copy and give it a go ‘The Big Fat Fix’ way?

Download the film and share it through your networks. The information in it is literally life-changing and well worth the meagre $4.99 to rent for 72 hours, or $19.99 to purchase.

Print out a copy of ANH-Intl’s Food4Health plate and stick it on your fridge as a daily reminder of what your ‘day’s plate’ should look like.

Additional interviews:

BBC radio interview with co-producer Donal O’Neill

https://soundcloud.com/louiseoneill/the-big-fat-fix-bbc-radio

Sky News interview with Dr Aseem Malhotra