The Doctor's Kitchen Podcast

Karen O’Donoghue is a champion for not only better bread, but also better food quality, choices and better growing methods.

We originally recorded this session in the studio as a recipe to be cut down and edited for YouTube. But when I watched it back I thought that this could easily be a podcast episode. The way Karen breaks down in simple terms the benefits of processes like soaking to maximise the accessibility of nutrients in the flour, is perfect for a long form listen. 

You can watch the full episode on YouTube if you’re interested in how this recipe turned out, but I think you’ll be able to imagine just how good it looked, smelt and tasted from our descriptions alone.

Karen and her company, Happy Tummy Co inform people about the need to spend more on health by spending more on better quality food, invest in the soil and re-engage with the food supply. You can check out Karen’s bread, recipes and idyllic bakery in Ireland at www.thehappytummyco.com PLUS, we cook up a bunch of different bread recipes on our YouTube channel, just search ‘Karen’ on The Doctor’s Kitchen to find the videos.

I recently had the pleasure of hosting a panel of experts at London’s Fortnum and Mason's Food & Drink Studio at their Piccadilly store to discuss the wonderful world of mushrooms with Tim Spector, Tom Baxter and Ester Gaya.

We discussed a range of topics including, what nootropic effects we know about with specific mushrooms and what research underpins this understanding. The use of psychedelic mushrooms and their potential uses in mental health and trauma. As well as how culinary mushrooms can enhance our health.

Tom Baxter, founder of The Bristol Fungarium, producing the UK's first organic certified medicinal mushrooms.

Tim Spector is a Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London, director of the Twins UK study and one of the world’s leading researchers, trained in rheumatology and epidemiology.

Ester Gaya, Senior Research Leader in Comparative Fungal Biology at Kew Gardens, who have a strong track record in fungal diversity research and are home to the largest fungarium in the world, holding over 1.25 million fungal specimens.

Increasing fruit and vegetable consumption sounds so trivial, but I honestly believe that concerted efforts to increase this key measure of our diet quality would culminate in success. And by success I mean successfully improving people's health, but also increasing the wealth of our communities and alleviating our nation's food supply insecurity.

To explore this concept further with me is Jonathan Pauling, CEO of Alexandra Rose, one of my favourite charities and one that Doctor’s Kitchen supports.

10 years ago Jonathan helped develop its new mission - to improve access to healthy and affordable food for all. They built the ‘Rose Vouchers’ for Fruit & Veg Project to pioneer the use of financial incentives to help families on low incomes avoid food insecurity, nutrition insecurity and food related ill-health. From small pilots in London supporting 45 families, this work has now spread around the UK supporting 3,500 families every week.

The scheme works by giving families literal cash in the form of rose vouchers that can be used at local food markets in exchange for fresh produce. It’s increased fruit and vegetable consumption by a staggering amount as we’ll get into during the podcast, and I was genuinely shocked at some of the impressive numbers that Jonathan shared with me.

Today we explore the economic and health incentives for why this scheme should be adopted across every local authority and NHS commissioners to not only help the millions of people living in financial hardship in the UK, but also to alleviate the burden on our health system.

This episode of the podcast is a fun one with myself, Mrs Doctor’s Kitchen (Rochelle) and Dr Anita Mitra where we explain a bit of Rochelle’s journey through pregnancy.

We discuss what she’s been eating, how I’ve been thinking about nutrition for her and what questions I’ve been dealing with over the preceding months to do with lifestyle, ingredients to support fetal development and prevent nausea.

Dr Anita Mitra is an NHS doctor based in London working in Obstetrics & Gynaecology, with experience in both clinical medicine and research. She’s worked in a research lab on the anticancer mechanisms of various phytonutrients and she has recently completed her PhD on the vaginal microbiome in cervical precancer.

On today's episode of the Doctor’s Kitchen I sit down with Sakina Okoko, science writer and researcher at Doctor’s Kitchen, to discuss the most impactful tips from recent pods: Brain fog, gut health, alcohol, spices to beat colds and more.

We have so many fascinating conversations with experts in their fields who not only expand our understanding of specific topics but also inspire us to change or add certain habits even in the office.

But with so much content that we’re putting out, there’s not always enough time in the day to listen to every single discussion. So we’ve pulled together our favourite insights from our recent episodes over the last quarter. Everything you need to know in one place!

If you want to dive into the full pod episodes, check them out here: