Plant-based Health Professionals
OUR MISSION
We advance health through whole food plant-based nutrition and lifestyle medicine, empowering healthcare professionals and communities to prevent, manage and treat chronic disease alongside promoting planetary health.
As I'm fond of saying in my outreach spiel, when Lewis Hamilton went vegan, he put his dog, Roscoe, on a plant-based diet - and cured him of arthritis! [Which is exactly what happened to me when I gave up all animal products.] Roscoe is now a healthy, 11yr-old bulldog - which is a bit of a rarity!
But anecdotal evidence is meaningless - what's needed is science backed evidence.
"From my published research in 2022, dogs fed a plant-based diet could live up to 18 months longer than those fed a meat-based diet."
"Evidence based published papers supporting dogs going plant-based."
And my good friend, Dr Arielle Griffiths, who is a plant-based vet, provides it:
Not just dogs - cats also benefit from plant-based nutrition
There are many recommendations on Dr Griffith's Facebook page:
July 2025
Once again I'm delivering 31 chocolate cakes throughout July - this time to 31 departments of Musgrove Park Hospital- my local hospital. I'm doing this to fundraise for Viva! again, and to help with my training for my next ultra. I chose the hospital because of my huge respect for the NHS and its workers.
The ingredients once again are being sponsored by Lesser Litter - soo the cakes, as well as being vegan, will be organic!
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| Depending how thick it turns out, it may take longer than an hour in your fridge to firm up. |
Ingredients:
200g good dark chocolate - 70% or more, and;
300g ripe bananas
Method:
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water (don't let the bowl come in contact with the hot water
Break up the bananas, and add to the melted chocolate, then blitz with a stick blender.
Once blended, pour into a flat dish, lined with parchment, and place in the fridge for an hour or so.
And that's it! It solidifies to a sort of fudge-like mousse, which you can chop into pieces you can offer around.
I’ve found it best to divide it into bite-size pieces and freeze.
Couple of variations - but really you can play around with this recipe!
I'm a great fan of chilli chocolate, so I added a pinch of cayenne pepper to my last batch.
My granddaughter likes to pour the mix over a loaf of raspberries
April 2025 One more milestone reached, today - I've now completed 800,000 press ups - in just under seven and a half years! Just 200,000 to go - and I've two and a half years in which to get them. Averaging about 8-9000 a month at the moment, so I'll get there a bit early, I fancy. |
When I'm out training for my next ultra, or just getting the miles in - and I'm doing about 40-50k a week ATM - I often strike up a conversation with people I meet.
This morning, 13th February 2024, returning home after a 10k walk, I met Garrett (sp?) and his lovely family. He asked initially about how much weight I carried in my backpack - about 3kg it was today. I told him I aimed to carry as much weight around as I would carry on one of my ultras. From there we went on to my health since going vegan - and from there into the whole speil. He wasn't able to take a copy of my leaflet, so I told him to search for 'No bread is an island'. I hope he sees this!
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| If you're going to make a cake - may as well make a big one! |
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| That's Melissa's hand applying the chocolate icing |
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| The doubled up recipe actually made 2 dozen of these. Thought at first we hadn't put enough batter in each one |
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| But when they came out of their cases and were iced - the size was just right! OK, the icing's not very neat - but that didn't affect the taste one iota! |
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| The cake was too thick so I knew it would split. But using the hints I picked up from Eric Lanlard last weekend (cut off the first 2 cm from the edge you're starting to roll from and place it on the edge if the cake and roll up around it) and those I received from Jemma the chef at Longrun (trim the side of the cake - this is where it gets crisp and prevents even rolling), we managed it. |
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| Next time I'll divide the batter between two Swiss roll tins - and then it won't split! To keep it vegan it was spread with jam. I need a vegan filling for next time. |
Hi! If you've happened on my blog as a result of meeting me walking around Taunton, welcome. As I probably said, I'm passionate about early education, wanting every child to meet their full potential.
If you find any merit in what you read, well, I'm currently fundraising for Viva!, the leadingUK animal rights charity. If you wish to donate, you'll find my fundraiser here. Thanks.
Sir Kenneth Robinson was, IMO, one of the greatest educators the country has ever produced - His TED talk is the most viewed of all time. Well worth watching!
In the year 2000, at the age of 63, I completed a degree in Education and Training at Plymouth University, gaining a 2:1 - which contrasts with my first brush with education, which resulted in 2 'O' levels!
My name’s Paul, I’ll be 87 in September, I don’t take any medications, and I’m living my best life. I’m also the happiest I’ve ever been.
But it wasn’t always like this. I didn’t have a great start in life - I wet the bed until I was 11, I was dyslexic (although I didn’t realise this until my late 50s) I was expelled from school - because of the dyslexia - and I was sexually abused through my teens .
I was always socially awkward, found it difficult to make friends, and had very few girlfriends.
Quick bit of history - I was called up to do National Service at 18, I signed on for 4 years to get an overseas posting to HK. I then emigrated to Australia, came back to the UK, joined the CS and took early retirement in 1993, when I was 55.
All through that time there was something I didn’t know about myself. I used to wonder what it was that people knew about me - straight away - that I didn’t know about myself.
However, in retirement, I wanted to teach my hobby of breadmaking - so I did a stage one C&G course that took about 10 weeks. Enjoyed it so much that a group of us went on to do St. 2. Then we were invited to join the CertEd at SCAT. When I finished that, my tutor said I may as well go on and do a degree! 3 years later I got a 2:1 in Ed and Trng - to go with the 2 GCSE’s I left school with.
Doing the research for the degree, I discovered that dyslexia was linked to the autonomic system, which also controls the bladder. I’ve talked to many SN teachers, and they all agree that their pupils need to go to the toilet more often. Another effect of dyslexia can be the inability to make small talk, which is a measure of how comfortable you are around people. So suddenly I had an answer - and now everything fell into place, everything was explained, and for the first time in my life, I felt comfortable in my own skin.
My life changed again in the early 2000s, when I gave up meat to avoid mad cow disease (BSE). I started looking into the dairy industry - and the egg industry. And what I saw horrified me! The cruelty, and how we treat animals that are in our care, I found appalling! So I went vegan. Took me two years for all the blinkers to come off.
And you know what? My arthritis just disappeared, and I became pain free.
I’d tried to run in my 40s, but gave up after 6 weeks, my knees were too painful. But when I went vegan, my osteoarthritis, which was most evident in my fingers which were becoming twisted and gnarled - and very painful - cleared up and I became pain free. Which was a real bonus, since I went vegan for the animals.
But I never thought about trying to run again, until, chasing round the dining room table, after my 6yr-old grandson, I found my knees didn’t hurt. And when lockdown came, 4 years ago, wanting to come out of it with a new skill, I began running. I laid out a 20 yard track in my back garden and started running round it. 3 months later, I felt strong enough to challenge myself to do 10k a day, over 10 days. In the event, instead of getting more tired as the week went on, I became stronger and finished up doing 110k - raising over £4000 for a local animal sanctuary. Then I discovered ultra marathons, and I haven’t looked back.
My biggest achievement has been the 106k round the isle of wight over two days last April. But I’ll never forget my very first ultra - SWC2C - when I was climbing Dunkery Beacon, the highest point in Somerset. My over-riding memory of that day was the weather - it was appalling. It was the height of summer, but there was a freak weather event and the temperature dropped dramatically. The rain was torrential, the wind was whipping across, and there were thunderstorms around. Conditions were brutal - and I heard later that several people had gone down with hyperthermia. Whilst climbing that muddy, stony trail, attempting vainly to control my poncho, I remember saying to my companion, “ You know what, mate? There’s nowhere else I’d rather be!” All my senses were on full alert - I felt so alive! And from that moment, I was hooked!
One of the people who inspires me is a guy called David Goggins, supposed to be the fittest man alive.
He has several mantras, which keep me going, when things are tough:
'Be uncomfortable'; and more - 'Become comfortable with being uncomfortable'; 'Nothing happens in your comfort zone'; 'We can all do more than we think we can - much more'.
'When you think you’re done, you’ve nothing left - you’ve only used up 40% of your resources!'
And I’ve one of my own - You’re never too old to have adventures!
When I’m out there on the trail, I’m doing it for the animals. And no matter how hard it might be for me, animals have it far worse. So I just get on with it.
I’m always striving to be the best version of me that I can be.
Just this month I’ve challenged myself to visit 31 care homes with 31 choc cakes in 31 days as a fundraiser for Viva!, which is the charity I support. There’s a Viva! Hamper for the donor with the closest guess. And I’m getting so much joy out of presenting these cakes to the homes! I’m not paying for the ingredients, those are sponsored by Taunton’s Zero Waste shop, Lesser Litter.
And a lesson which has been learned again - in spades - is something we’ve all been told since we were kids - ‘It’s better to give than to receive!’ And as long as what you’re giving is yourself, that’s so true.
Everyone needs a purpose in life - something that drives them, and gives them some satisfaction. With me it’s working on behalf of the animals - that drives me, every single day!
My name’s Paul, I’ll be 87 in September, I don’t take any medications, and I’m living my best life. I’m also the happiest I’ve ever been!
[Note: I took along some chocolate cake to share (my ingredients this time!) - find the recipe here.]
