The Kitchen Prescription: THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER: 101 delicious everyday recipes to revolutionise your gut health

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The study, says van Tulleken, highlights the role of acrylamide, a molecule produced by deep frying, which is linked to brain inflammation. “But acrylamide is just one of the ways our modern diet makes us feel sad,” he explains. “The emulsifiers affect our microbiome in ways that make our guts leak and change the release of molecules from our friendly bugs that affect our brains.” We’ve embraced the SAD diet in the UK faster than anywhere else in Europe, with the exception of Malta (an island with which the UK has long had a close alliance). I’m not a vegetarian,” she says. “I eat a small amount of meat, but the majority of food I eat is fruit and veg, nuts and seeds, legumes and pulses and spices, all from scratch. The more we can do that, and the less we have sweet, sugary beverages and ultra-processed foods, the better it is for our long-term health.”

The Kitchen Prescription: THE SUNDAY TIMES - Hachette The Kitchen Prescription: THE SUNDAY TIMES - Hachette

They’re also cheap and convenient. “Refined wheat, sugar and vegetable oil are the cheapest foods,” says Dimbleby. “A lot of these foods are things mixed in different configurations with a little bit of flavour added.”While she thinks it would be misleading to say she never eats a red velvet cake or a burger and chips, they would only ever be an occasional treat. Not the everyday foods they’ve become for so many.

Trust blog - Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

As an NHS gastroenterologist, Dr Saliha Mahmood-Ahmed has spent her career working against the standard American diet and trying to educate patients about how to eat healthily. While change is possible, it’s also important not to blame people if they struggle to break free of their dependency on SAD foods, both from an economic and mental-health perspective. First off, it stands as just a darn good cookbook, with a Middle East flavor profile. That alone is enough. There are many fabulous recipes here. These foods have led to the disease of civilisation we see today: heart disease, strokes, high blood pressure, obesity, cholesterol problems and, it’s thought, certain cancers.

Sign up for our newsletter to receive the latest Yellow Kite Books news, author exclusives, offers and competition details But, compiling my shopping list, there were quite a few ingredients that aren’t available via my usual online shop. Where I live, there is no Waitrose and no speciality Asian shops. So I’m going to have to improvise. What started in the 1950s with the allure of the American fridge, the drive-thru and the baked Alaska, now threatens to destroy the fabric of our society.