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!)
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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]