He has willingly swallowed a live tapeworm, voluntarily got bitten by a leech and even tried to infest himself with lice. He keeps experimenting with his body, rendering himself to be the most popular guinea pig on television for advanced medical research. He is Michael Mosley, TV presenter and award-winning medical journalist who is also the face of Sony BBC Earth’s popular show Trust Me, I’m a Doctor.
Recently in Mumbai to celebrate the first anniversary of Sony BBC Earth, Mosley caught up with t2 over phone and shared his passion for busting myths about food, health and fitness. Excerpts...
It is so good to see celebrities like Benedict Cumberbatch and Beyonce following your advice and gladly, it has worked for them. The 5:2 diet has proven to be very beneficial with amazing results. It is initially a difficult process to abide by, but if followed religiously, it does wonders to your body. What I’d recommend is that you have a slightly earlier supper on the evening before, and then a slightly later breakfast on the fasting day. That way, you’ll be fasting for 13 hours or more overnight.
Doctor, TV presenter, diet expert, published author… what made you make all this happen?
It’s probably my first long-length science documentary Ulcer Wars that made me realise that I was right when I had decided to enter the world of television.
It was a BBC Horizon documentary and was about this Australian doctor who believed that stomach ulcers are not caused by stress as all other doctors believed but by a previously unknown bacterium called Helicobacter pylori. He deliberately infected himself with it and then took some antibiotics to cure himself of the ulcer. When I made a film about him, I thought this was a fantastic character. Here is a disease, which other doctors say you cannot cure. The drug companies make this drug called Zantac for which you have to spend three to four hundred dollars a year, and if you stop taking it you might have to have your stomach removed. And here’s a guy who said actually no, I can cure you in a week. So when I made the film, lots and lots of people wrote me letters or sent me faxes... this was in 1995, long before the days of emails. In fact, BBC had to employ an extra person just to answer these letters! I got probably about 10,000 letters and faxes. People wanted to know how they could cure themselves of stomach ulcers. And a few years after that, Barry Marshal, an Australian scientist, won the Nobel prize for medicine for his work, and in his acceptance speech he mentioned my film having been important in making other doctors realise that he was right. So I felt that by doing that one film, I had made more difference than if I had stayed on in medicine for the rest of my life.
Weren’t you born in Calcutta?
Yes, I was born in Calcutta 61 years ago. My father worked for HSBC here for six years. My older brother was also born in Calcutta. Then we went to the Philippines when I was two. So unfortunately, I cannot remember much about this place but I have seen some beautiful photographs. And it looked great. In some ways it’s coming home this time, back to India.
You are known for experimenting with a lot of weird stuff. You have even swallowed a live tapeworm!
That was for a programme called Infested, which would be on BBC Earth soon. There I went exploring parasites. I am very interested in the impact parasites have on us, whether we know it or not. I am very interested in the creatures that live inside us, such as the gut bacteria. I wanted to see what would happen if I introduced a big tapeworm inside me. That’s the craziest thing I believe I did to myself. I also swallowed a pill camera to see what’s happening inside my guts. And it is surprisingly interesting. It is like being boldly doing what nobody has done before. I want to look at the pill camera as a space capsule going off to discover inner space.
Don’t you feel scared of putting yourself at risk and experimenting with your body?
But in the end, when you see the incredible response of the viewers, it is all worth it! When I started doing the 5:2 diet, I didn’t know what would happen, I didn’t know if it would be helpful or not. From the television point of view, that’s what makes it more interesting to watch. It’s a bit like a drama or watching a cricket match. You don’t know how it would turn out. I think that makes it more suspenseful. So we call it infotainment in the sense that it is a combination of information and also healthy entertainment. I must say, it does involve a lot of risk.
You have made the 5:2 diet and intermittent fasting famous. What’s the idea behind it?
Six years ago I discovered that I was a Type II diabetic. My doctor wanted me to start on medication. But I wanted to find a way of curing myself without medicine. So I started talking to people around the world and I came across an American doctor who told me about intermittent fasting. I decided to make a film on myself as the subject. In many ways, this was like Ulcer Wars. Here was a condition, Type II diabetes, that most doctors think is incurable and here were these other doctors saying that it is possible to reverse it, to improve your health and you can do it with something called intermittent fasting, which I had never heard about.
At its simplest form, the idea is that you cut your calories two to three days a week. And you cut them down to about a quarter of the normal level. When you do that you are giving your body a bit of rest, so that it is able to do essential repairs. There are different forms of intermittent fasting. The one I made famous was the 5:2 diet, where you cut down on the calories just two days a week. There’s also something called ADF or alternate day fasting as well as what is known as 16:8 where you eat within an eight-hour window so that you have 16 hours a day when you have no food going in your mouth. That gives your body time for repairs.
How is intermittent fasting different from other forms of dieting and what are its benefits?
Broadly speaking, in intermittent fasting, instead of restricting your diet all the time, you just do it a couple of days a week. And that seems to give you many of the same benefits that other forms of dieting give. Plus, there are benefits for the brain, for the immune system and things like that. It’s become very fashionable in places like the Silicon Valley... a lot of people have taken it up in California because they seem to be obsessed with their brains. There’s a lot of evidence about the benefits of intermittent fasting when it comes to brain health.
Is it ok for anybody to go for this fasting? What about people with special medical issues like gastric ulcer or high blood pressure?
You need to be over the age of 16 to try intermittent fasting. It’s not suitable for pregnant women or women who are breastfeeding. It is beneficial for people who are overweight. If you are currently taking medication you should talk to your doctor before starting because it will bring your blood pressure and blood sugar levels down. It is very important that you talk to your doctor about it. If they are sceptical, show them a copy of my book. I have a website called thefastdiet.co.uk. All of the things I do are based on science and the same is true of the television series Trust Me, I’m a Doctor.
Intermittent fasting often involves skipping breakfast. And we have been always told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. What do you say?
Skipping breakfast can help you reduce weight as long as you don’t have a snack in the morning or have a big and heavy lunch to replace it. It all depends on how you respond to it. Some people feel very hungry in the morning and they struggle to skip breakfast.
How much is too much when it comes to food?
It is advisable to consume 1,200 calories a day. If you consume anything over and above that, it is in excess and can easily be avoided. But I believe it depends more on what you eat than how much you eat. Eating right is essential as it helps in determining the nutritional value.
POINTS TO PONDER
Sugar is bad
Sugar adds on to the fat around vital organs such as liver, stomach and respiratory tissues. A lot of food items we eat have high sugar intake such as fruit juices, sweets, candies and beverages. These lead to increase in sugar levels in our body amounting to risk of heart disease. However, sugar is an addiction so what we can do is replace it with products such as coconut sugar, brown sugar, jaggery and honey.
Gut health and fermented food
There are a variety of fermented foods that contain a lot of ‘good’ bacteria, which, if they can survive the journey to our gut, can be beneficial for our health. There’s still a lot of research that needs to be done into the world of our gut bacteria, but so far studies suggest that for general good gut health, a range of bacteria is best. So it would seem that traditionally made fermented foods — whether they be home-made versions or commercial varieties that are unpasteurised — are a good way to achieve this. Just as home-made versions can contain greater numbers and varieties of beneficial bacteria, they can also contain harmful bacteria, particularly if they are not produced or stored correctly. So if you do want to make your own fermented food, you should follow a recipe, use the correct equipment and store your food at the correct temperature.
Is walking the best exercise?
There is no definitive validation to this. An average human body needs 150 minutes of exercise per week for optimal health benefits, which can be achieved through various techniques. Having said that, a brisk walk is exceptionally good for us, not only for improving our cardiovascular systems but reducing risk of some cancers, improving mental health and slowing down some of the ageing process.
Sibendu Das