Innovation and application in nutrition and lifestyle medicine: From books to bedside

Hala El-Shafie is a bariatric surgery and eating disorders dietitian with over 15 year’s clinical experience in both the NHS and private sector, completing her clinical training at University College Hospital London.

Hala’s clinical practice has centered around the psychology of eating, supporting people to heal their relationship with food whilst supporting them to overcome the challenges associated with negative body image, weight stigma and disordered eating. Hala has a unique understanding of the emotional and psychological issues often associated with food, dealing with both ends of the clinical spectrum from bariatric surgery to Anorexia Nervosa, creating a unique holistic client-centered approach to her clinical practice.

Hala’s take on food and nutrition is both edgy and refreshing and has seen her launch lifestyle website Nutrition Rocks, which aims to offer people easy and practical advice on living a healthier lifestyle, whilst providing accurate tips on nutrition and wellbeing. On Instagram @nutrition_rocks showcases recipes and evidence-based advice, encouraging people to eat better for health whilst encouraging people to heal their relationship and emotional attachment to food.

Hala has featured extensively on TV and presented the Channel 4 series, How to Lose Weight Well. The third series (5 episodes), had its first TX in January 2018.  She was also part of BBC1’s flagship show – Eat Well for Less? Hala also presented the previous series of Sugar Free Farm on ITV1.

Hala is also in high demand both as a health writer and consultant, She has written regular nutrition columns for an international medical journal and is regularly asked to contribute to some of the UK’s leading lifestyle publications including Grazia, Red, YOU Magazine, The Times and The Daily Mail. 

Hala is a member of the British Dietetic Association.

Dr Rupy Aujla, MBBS, BSc, MRCGP, is an NHS GP working in Emergency Medicine, completing a masters in Nutritional Medicine and a fellow on the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme.

He is the founder of ‘The Doctor’s Kitchen’, which strives to inspire and educate everybody about the beauty of food and the medicinal effects of eating well. Creating healthy and delicious recipes using carefully selected ingredients, he explains the clinical research behind them and shares it across his media platforms (Instagram, Podcast, website, YouTube, Facebook).  

Dr Rupy is a Sunday Times bestselling author, with three cookbooks published by HarperCollins; The Doctor’s Kitchen, Eat to Beat Illness and the latest, Doctor's Kitchen 3-2-1, released in December 2020. Dr Rupy often appears on TV shows such as This Morning, Saturday Kitchen and Steph's Packed Lunch and has been commissioned to work on two series for the BBC - both featured on BBC Food and BBC iPlayer - Cooking in The Doctor's Kitchen and Thrifty Cooking in The Doctor's Kitchen. In addition, he is an accomplished TEDx speaker - you can view Dr Aujla's talk here.

He is also the founding director of Culinary Medicine, a non-profit organisation that aims to teach doctors and medical students the foundations of nutrition, as well as teaching them how to cook. 

Kimberley Wilson is a Chartered Psychologist and visiting lecturer working in private practice in central London. She is a Governor of the Tavistock & Portman NHS Mental Health Trust and the former Chair of the British Psychological Society's Training Committee in Counselling Psychology. She formerly led the therapy service at HMP & YOI Holloway, at the time, Europe’s largest women’s prison.

Kimberley believes the way we think about mental health, as separate from physical health, is flawed. Her philosophy of 'Whole Body Mental Health' is a comprehensive approach to mental health care; integrating evidence-based nutrition and lifestyle factors with psychological therapy.

A former finalist on the Great British Bake Off with a degree in nutrition, Kimberley's work looks at the role food and lifestyle play in our mental health, including disordered eating, the gut-brain axis and our emotional relationship with food.

Kimberley is a regular contributor to Lorraine on ITV and her first book, How to Build a Healthy Brain was published in March 2020 by Yellow Kite.

Dr Arti Maini is Coaching Lead for the Medical Education Innovation and Research Centre (MEdIC) and Deputy Director for Undergraduate Primary Care Education within Imperial's School of Public Health. She works as a GP and educator in London and holds a masters in medical education and degrees in medicine and clinical neuroscience.

Arti is an experienced, accredited coach, coach trainer and supervisor with diplomas in Coaching Supervision and in Executive Coaching and Leadership Mentoring. She is also a Master Practitioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). She regularly incorporates coaching approaches into her own clinical practice and is co-author of the highly acclaimed book Coaching for Health-Why it works and how to do it.

Arti’s education and research interests include coaching for health, education, wellbeing and leadership, person-centred care and capacity building. She leads training courses and workshops for students and healthcare professionals on health coaching skills and has recently launched a globally-accessible online course on Health Coaching Conversations through the Coursera platform as well as an online EdX course on Coaching for Learner-Centred Conversations.

In 2020 she developed and launched health coaching training for all incoming medical students at Imperial College London. Arti was awarded the Imperial President’s Medal in 2019 for outstanding contribution to teaching, for her work in leading the development of a coaching culture at Imperial College