My mother’s vegetarian diet contributed to her early death. We should all learn from it
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NHS cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra: my mother’s diet was full of ultra-processed foods and was ultimately to the detriment of her health.
Two weeks ago, my father and I made a trip to Rishikesh in northern India to scatter my mother’s ashes in the River Ganges at an idyllic location at the foothills of the Himalayas. This was in keeping with her wishes as a devout Hindu that her spirit be released at a place she loved and previously visited on pilgrimage. Our family lost a greatly cherished mother and wife who went before her time, at only 68 years old.
I believe that what was finally written on her death certificate – severe sepsis and discitis with concomitant myocardial infarction (heart attack) – was entirely avoidable.
For most of her adult life, my mum was vegetarian and significantly overweight. Growing up, I witnessed her regular consumption of starchy carbohydrates and ultra-processed snack foods of biscuits, crisps and chocolate. Our kitchen was flooded with these produc...
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