Dr Michael Mosley invites you to EAT (Well), SLEEP (Better), LIVE (Longer!)

SussexWorld

Dr Michael Mosley tours for the first time ever with his wife, Dr Clare Bailey, more than 30 years a GP, with the brand-new stage show EAT (Well), SLEEP (Better), LIVE (Longer!)

Transcript

00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers. Huge privilege

00:06 this morning, huge pleasure to speak to Michael Mosley, Dr Michael Mosley, who is touring

00:11 the country with his wife, the GP, Dr Clare Bailey, on a tour called Eat Well, Sleep Better,

00:17 Live Longer. No one's going to argue with that, are they? What a fantastic title. It's

00:21 going to be the most inviting title. But the point is, there's something that all of us

00:25 can do.

00:27 Absolutely. And that's what we're going to go into on the tour. I'm going to be using

00:32 clips from programmes I've made and programmes which are coming up. And I'm also going to

00:37 be talking about some of the things which I cover in my popular podcast series called

00:42 Just One Thing. And I think the reason it is so fantastically popular is because the

00:48 title is enticing, isn't it? It suggests just one thing.

00:53 Yes.

00:54 Absolutely.

00:55 But generally, are we a bit rubbish at looking after ourselves, do you think?

00:59 Yes, I do think we are. And that's partly because we are capable of high levels of self

01:05 deception. I've just made a series for Channel 4 called Secrets of a Supermarket Shop. And

01:12 in this, I basically interview people, and they tell me how healthy their shop is. And

01:18 then I ambush them in the supermarket and see what they're actually buying. And there's

01:22 often a very large discrepancy. And so I don't think people are consciously lying. I think

01:27 they just forget about all the treats and bad things. And the same thing is true when

01:31 it comes to excise. People tend to exaggerate how much they move.

01:37 So when people do fail to look after themselves, it's not necessarily ignorance, is it? Is

01:43 it the question more of laziness, do you think, perhaps?

01:46 I think it's more the fact that we tend to fall back into bad old habits. And to be fair,

01:54 you know, we're fighting against our sort of evolutionary past, because we evolved at

02:00 a time when there was very little around in the way of salt, fat and sugar. So when we're

02:05 faced with it, you know, we gorge because our bodies are crying, give me more of that

02:09 stuff. And similarly, although our ancestors would have been much more active, there is

02:16 also a need to conserve energy if you're living, you know, in the Stone Age, and those pizza

02:21 isn't widely available. And so there isn't for a lot of people, there isn't a strong

02:26 drive to exercise. Some people have it, I believe you have it. Whereas I know that when

02:32 I go for run, and no point do I enjoy it. I do I do it because I know it's good for

02:37 me. But I don't actually get much pleasure out of it. And I suspect that's true for a

02:41 lot of people. Oh,

02:42 we have to recognise our weaknesses and then find ways to overcome.

02:46 And you say weaknesses, you're very clear about temptation that you've got to avoid

02:51 the temptation, you've removed the temptation, in fact.

02:54 Absolutely. I think the best way to, you know, live a healthy life is to ensure that it's

03:01 easier to be good than to be bad. So for example, I can't have any sugary junk food in the house

03:08 because otherwise I will eat it. My wife, Claire, who is something of a greyhound, she

03:14 can never seem to put on weight. She just likes eating healthy food. And in the tour,

03:19 she's going to be doing lots of cooking demos because she is one of the UK's top cooks,

03:25 as well as being a GP. Now, she actually likes savoury, healthy food and is brilliant at

03:30 kind of converting unhealthy foods into healthy versions. Whereas I, you know, if you put

03:35 the stuff in front of me, I will eat it. And if I know it's in the house, I will sniff

03:38 it out. So it's 11 o'clock at night, you know, I'm wandering around the house looking for

03:42 the bars of chocolate Claire may have hidden somewhere. So I know that's my...

03:46 You don't have that self-control.

03:48 I have very little self-control. And once I start, I don't stop. So I've got a bag, Chris,

03:52 I eat the whole lot, even if it's a big party bag, a bar of chocolate, I eat the whole lot.

03:56 You know, I say to myself, I'm just going to eat a small square. The one thing I'd say

04:00 is if it's really dark, then it's quite bitter. And I probably can stick to eating a single

04:05 square of dark chocolate.

04:06 Is this kind of reassuring that you have that weakness too, you know?

04:09 Oh, 100%. I suspect huge numbers of us do. And that's kind of why I like doing these

04:16 tours. And that's because I get an opportunity to meet people, to chat to people, to share

04:20 experiences and answer questions.

04:21 And it's handing over simple knowledge, simple things that can change lives, isn't it?

04:26 Absolutely. I'm all about simplicity, because if it's complicated, you're going to find

04:31 it difficult to follow and you're not going to do it. So it's all about incorporating

04:34 small simple habits into your life. And when it comes to weight loss, my rules are fairly

04:41 simple. And again, you know, I came up with a 5-2 diet. It doesn't get much simpler than

04:45 that. You cut your calories two days a week. So it is obviously more complicated in the

04:50 sense that you need to know about what sort of foods you can eat. And we created a website

04:56 called thefast800.com where you can find out more about it. But in essence, there is a

05:01 wonderful simplicity to it. And I suspect that's why people kind of got into intermittent

05:05 fasting, into 5-2 diet and stuff like that.

05:08 Goodness. So given that people do have this tendency to self-deception, is it easy to

05:13 get people to change their ways, do you think?

05:16 I don't think it's easy, but I think you can offer people choices and information and then

05:21 they can try it out. Because I'm a great one for offering flexibility and choices and saying,

05:26 why not give this a go? Give this a go for a week, 10 days, two weeks, three weeks, whatever,

05:30 and see how you go. If it really doesn't suit you, that's absolutely fine. There's other

05:35 things you can do, but you have to choose. Another thing I say, you know, to a lot of

05:41 people is when it comes to things like weight loss, there's no point telling somebody else

05:46 they need to lose weight. That will just offend them. And it's extremely unlikely to make

05:50 a difference. They have to want to do it. And ideally, they have to want to do it for

05:55 the best of health reasons. I don't think I want to look good on the beach in July is

06:00 a powerful enough motivator to make you change your ways. I mean, the reason I, you know,

06:06 embraced all the things I'm doing now, frankly, because I discovered I had type two diabetes

06:11 10 years ago, I lost 10 kilos and got rid of the diabetes, my blood pressure came down,

06:18 blood sugars came down, everything got better. Otherwise, I would be on medication, I would

06:23 be significantly overweight, and I would be a lot less healthy than I am now. So I saw

06:30 what happened to my dad, who developed diabetes around the same age I did in his mid 50s.

06:36 And unfortunately, you know, he continued on his ways and died age of 74 of complications.

06:42 So I can kind of see what happens if you don't address problems early. And that means identifying

06:49 them finding out what's going wrong, deciding what you want to do, and then doing it.

06:53 Fantastic. Well, it sounds a wonderful to eat well, sleep better, live longer, plenty

06:58 of very low calorie food for thought there, I'm sure. And you'll be playing Eastbourne

07:02 with your wife.

07:03 Absolutely. On the 15th of Feb.

07:05 Really lovely to speak to you. Thank you so much for your time.

07:08 Thanks a lot. Try it.

07:09 Bye bye.

07:09 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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