As a junior doctor, I did not feel in need of any more mental stimulation, and lack of activity was not my problem either (I was a keen runner back then), but it did occur to me that maybe my diet might be a bit of a blind spot. In my six years of study at medical school, I recalled not one single lecture on nutrition, and what I knew about this subject would have fitted comfortably on the back of a postage stamp.
Later that evening while out shopping, I found myself drawn to a carousel of books I had spied from outside a health food store. I bought a book on nutrition and read it over the next couple of days. Getting through the book quite quickly was a breeze because what I was reading appeared to make perfect sense to me. I became convinced that although I had previously thought my diet to be perfectly sound, conventional nutritional ‘wisdom’ had led me off in the wrong direction. I resolved to make some immediate changes to my diet.
And I was very glad I did, because the impact this had on me was profound. My sense of wellbeing improved quickly and steadily to the extent that, within two weeks, I felt I had more energy than ever before in my adult life. However, the benefits did not end there, because just a few days into adopting my new diet, the itchy, red rash under my arms and on my torso that had plagued me on and off for many years disappeared (never to return).
Another happy side effect of my new diet was that the additional weight I’d acquired through six years’ worth of a pretty rubbish diet (I was a typical student, and no stranger to fast food like KFC, kebabs and Kronenbourg 1664 in those days) was shed in about six weeks. This happened, by the way, without hunger or deprivation, nor any increase in my activity levels. If you’re wondering what sort of dietary changes could possibly have led to this transformation in my energy, wellbeing and weight, all is revealed in Chapter 1.
So changed was I by all this that I ended up leaving the traditional career path I was on to devote myself to helping people take their health into their own hands using natural self-applied means. In the beginning, I was principally interested in dietary approaches, but quickly my interest expanded into other areas too, including sleep, activity, light exposure and psychology. I witnessed countless individuals liberate themselves from long-term health issues such as fatigue, anxiety and depression, weight issues, joint and muscle pain, skin conditions, digestive discomfort and headaches – and all without recourse to medication or conventional means.
But I discovered something else too: when individuals took approaches that addressed the underlying nature of their health issues (rather than merely treat their symptoms), not only would these issues often resolve, but they would usually experience benefits in terms of their energy, general wellbeing and mental functioning too. Many would report that they felt more mentally and physically alive than they had in years (just as I had).
I began to wonder if there existed people who, although not sick enough to be called truly sick, were not well enough to be called truly well either. Might many people be wandering around in a sub-par state as a result of lifestyle factors that could be simply rectified?
My curiosity was satisfied when, in 1996, I was asked to facilitate on a wellness programme for a global professional services firm. The delegates were senior members of the organization, almost all of whom suffered from the sorts of wellbeing and performance issues that I now realize are endemic in the corporate arena. Some simple, sustainable changes in areas such as diet, activity, psychology and sleep reaped significant dividends for them in terms of enhanced vitality and performance. The results from the early programmes were so good that the initiative was rolled out nationally and, subsequently, internationally. The programme became part of the culture of the organization and continues to run to this day.
Since the mid-1990s, I’ve been privileged to work with many different organizations in the UK and abroad. While there are certainly things that set businesses apart from each other, I have found the issues that this book addresses are common the world over and in all settings in which I have worked.
Uncommon Knowledge
If you read this book from cover to cover you will find in it many examples of information and advice that run counter to conventional opinion. You’ll discover, for instance, evidence that challenges the ideas that starchy carbohydrates are ideal for ensuring sustained energy, that saturated fat causes heart disease, that sunlight causes melanoma, that controlling cholesterol levels is inherently important, and that the key to losing weight is simply to ‘eat less and exercise more’.
While some of the concepts presented here may come as a surprise or even a shock, I will present the evidence that supports them (the numbers in the text refer to specific scientific studies that are listed at the back of the book). If it’s any consolation, every myth I explode in this book I previously believed myself. Only by taking nothing at face value (however seemingly credible the source) and going back to published research have I discovered that much of what is described as conventional ‘wisdom’ is anything but.
But, how could it be that we have managed to have been so misled about health – something that affects not just our lives, but our livelihoods? How do things so often get stated as fact, even though the facts don’t stack up at all?
A Great Day at the Office is not political or a polemic, but I do think it is worth bearing in mind that health information and advice can be influenced by economic and commercial concerns. Quite simply, there is often money to be made in misinformation (be it deliberate or unwitting). A classic example of this includes low-fat and cholesterol-reducing foods, for which there is not a scrap of evidence that they benefit health (see Chapter 1).
The commercial aspects of health advice can, unfortunately, have another unwanted side effect: they can keep useful and important information from our attention. Just as some erroneous ideas become popularized because there’s money in them, some highly valuable ideas and strategies may not get the attention they deserve because there isn’t.
For example, you’ll see that sunlight exposure, overall, is linked with significant health benefits and relative protection from many conditions including heart disease and several different forms of cancer. However, these facts are often drowned out by relentless stories about the supposed hazards of sunlight with regard to skin cancer. At the risk of sounding unduly cynical, could the explanation for this disparity be due, at least in part, to the fact that while sunlight is free, considerable commercial potential exists in sunlight protection (particularly sunscreens)? In Chapter 5, you can find evidence that suggests this is exactly how it is.
Other aspects of health that have limited potential for commercial exploitation and are therefore perhaps similarly neglected include certain breathing techniques, the impact of music on our mental state and performance, walking as an activity, and many of the tips that will help you get sound, restorative sleep. In fact, the great majority of the strategies contained in this book can be yours for little or no cost, but they have tremendous power to transform your health and efficiency.
Make It Easy on Yourself
For some of us, the idea of lifestyle adjustment and ‘being healthy’ conjures up images of restricted eating and exhausting and unsustainable exercise regimes. Relax: the recommendations in this book are not of that nature at all. For example, you will discover approaches that will enable you to be functionally fit and strong with relatively little effort and minimal time investment. You’ll also see how hunger actually jeopardizes weight loss, and also makes practically every aspect of life harder to boot.
Not only are the methods here generally easy and sustainable, many are downright enjoyable. You will see how some activities that you may have hitherto regarded as the height of indulgence and perhaps laziness,