Cardiologist and cohort of RFK Jr. warns Americans to avoid foods with 5 or more ingredients. Here’s why
Controversial British cardiologist Dr. Aseem Malhotra, an ardent supporter of Donald Trump’s health-secretary pick Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who was invited to advise Trump on health issues this past fall, says he’s devised a surefire diet that will reverse diabetes and lower blood pressure in days: Start counting the ingredients in everything you eat.
“If an item comes out of a packet and it contains five or more ingredients then it is not allowed,” Malhotra told the Daily Mail. “There is nothing natural or healthy about items like that.”
Foods with more than five ingredients would presumably be those that are processed or ultra-processed, which have been linked to cancer, heart disease, inflammation, cognitive decline, and diabetes.
Malhotra, who has a London-based cardiology practice, is the author of A Statin-Free Life, which was based on claims called “misleading and wrong” by the British Heart Foundation, and The Pioppi Diet, which was named one of the top 5 worst diets by the British Dietetic Association.
Part of what he now officially calls the Metabolic Reset diet—not to be confused with a low-carb diet of the same name popularized by NFL Steve Weatherford in 2018— the rule is not meant to be followed forever. But when Malhotra’s patients have stuck to it for 28 days, the doctor claims, they have reversed their prediabetes and lowered their blood pressure.
Other elements of the diet, developed alongside London nutritionist Kim Pearson and launching to the public in February after a pilot program, include a focus on plant-based foods, healthy fats, and a lack of complex carbohydrates like bread and pasta. It’s based largely on the Mediterranean diet and is aimed at “sugar addicts, like I used to be, who need to snap out of their addiction to junk food and reset their metabolic health,” Malhotra told the Mail.
Pearson, in an Instagram post about the diet, claims that those who have tried it so far have experienced benefits from weight loss and lowered blood pressure to disappearance of pain and remission of type 2 diabetes.
Metabolic health refers to the health of your metabolism—how your body works to convert food and drink into energy that keeps you functioning, sustaining basics like breathing, blood circulations, cell growth, balancing hormone levels.
During the pandemic, in 2021, Malhotra published The 21-Day Immunity Plan, claiming that there was a way to improve your immune system and metabolism within 21 days, thereby protecting yourself from COVID. He then called for a “pause and reappraisal” of the mRNA vaccines, after initially supporting them, due to what he said, in a Journal of Insulin Resistance article, was a concern about the shot’s effect on cardiovascular safety.
A review in the journal Science Feedback noted that his claim about the vaccine "is based on anecdotal evidence and low-quality studies—some of them disputed—that are insufficient to support his claim," further adding that Malhotra cherry-picked which studies to cite while he "didn’t acknowledge the wider body of evidence showing that the vaccines are safe and effective."
Regarding his latest diet, he told the Mail, “I know this stuff works. I've been doing it for years and recommending it to my own patients too.”
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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
