Presenters

Lucy Jones

In addition to her role as expert dietitian for The Food Hospital, Lucy works in a variety of industries, including the NHS and private practice. She is also a lecturer, author and works in the media. As a senior specialist registered dietitian, Lucy sees a range of patients, both individually and in groups, offering expert advice and support for a variety of concerns.

After graduating in Human Nutrition and Dietetics with 1st class honours, and the Food, Nutrition and Dietetics prize, from London Metropolitan University, Lucy worked as a dietitian in a variety of London teaching hospitals, including Chelsea and Westminster, and Homerton. This gave her a solid knowledge base for a range of specialties. She is fully registered with the Health & Care Professions Council and is a spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association (BDA). In this capacity, she regularly appears on television, radio and in the written press regarding nutrition stories. She has an active role within the BDA, previously chairing their London branch.

Following a string of research publications, she is now completing a Masters degree in clinical research at the University of Manchester.

A mum of one, Lucy really believes in the power of food and nutrition for health, and is thrilled that The Food Hospital is returning: “Very few of us are aware of the extent to which our diet impacts our health, both positively and negatively. The Food Hospital is playing a vital role in illustrating this and this year brings exciting experiments to test out long argued theories and assumptions!”

For a private consultation: lucy.jones@london.com

Dr. Pixie McKenna

Pixie graduated from University College Cork Medical School in 1995. Following a year of medical and surgical internship in Ireland, she joined the Cambridge Vocational Training Scheme in general practice. This involved three years of hospital training at Addenbrooke’s Hospital Cambridge in medicine, surgery, general practice, care of the elderly, gynaecology, rheumatology, rehabilitation medicine and paediatrics. In 1999, she obtained her certificate in general practice training and membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners. Over the last 13 years she has worked both in the NHS and the private sector in Ireland and the UK. Pixie currently runs a clinic on London’s Baker Street.

Her media career began in 2006 when she was asked to be the onscreen doctor in BBC Three’s ‘Freaky Eaters’ series, which ran for three seasons. She is probably best known for her role in Channel 4’s primetime, BAFTA-winning medical series ‘Embarrassing Bodies’, now in its sixth series. When not filming, Pixie spends her time writing her columns for the Irish Mail, and Mizz, Zest and Best magazines. She also hosts the weekly ‘Air your Ailments’ slot on Ireland’s Today FM.

When she’s not busy with her clinical commitments and media work, Pixie can be found strolling, punting or cycling around her UK base in Cambridge, or sailing around the west coast of Cork. Although having given birth to her first child earlier this year, she describes herself as having more “nappy time” than leisure time. Pixie comes from a family background of medicine, being the third generation of doctors in her family, but only the first female medic! Having studied speech and drama from the age of five, she is an accomplished speaker on a variety of medical topics, with sexual health, dermatology, women’s health and health promotion being her specific interests.

Pixie released her first book, Handbag Doctor, through Kyle Cathie books in 2010.

Dr. Giovanni Miletto

Dr Giovanni Miletto (Gio) was born in London and graduated from Charing Cross and Westminster (Imperial College) Medical School. He worked in NHS hospitals for six years, mainly around London, before settling in general practice through the Oxford Deanery training scheme. He is also a graduate of the Canadian Medical Board.

Along with the breadth of experience gained in hospital and general practice, Gio has a diploma in travel medicine, and has worked as a Medical Director of a large travel company in North America. Bored late one evening while on-call, he wrote up some features for the Evening Standard and was surprised to find they got published. That led to some work for Sky TV and BBC radio.

On his involvement with The Food Hospital, Gio said: “It’s true that ‘nutrition’ can include fad diets and suspect claims, but there is a place for a reasonable basis to understanding how food affects our health and I’m a bit of a convert to this! People are now consumers of health care and have more say about what treatments they take. So the more informed people are, the better for them, but getting good information isn’t always easy, so hopefully we can help make sense of what’s out there”.

Follow @GioMiletto

Mr Shaw Somers

Shaw has been an NHS consultant surgeon since 1996. Before this, he was a senior lecturer and honorary consultant at St James’ University Hospital in Leeds and Associate Professor at The Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong.

Shaw specialises in upper gastrointestinal surgery, including bariatric (weight loss) surgery, and has extensive experience of complex upper gut surgery. He is a senior clinician in the regional upper gastrointestinal cancer service in Hampshire, and is a leading keyhole surgery specialist.

Since 1998, he has provided an NHS obesity service in Portsmouth and Chichester. In early 2012, Shaw opened the UK’s first dedicated bariatric centre, The Sudbury Clinic in London; a centre specifically designed to treat bariatric patients with care and compassion. Shaw also practices at a number of centres across London and the South of England.

He now has experience of over 5,000 keyhole abdominal operations, including over 1,600 gastric bypasses, 800 gastric bands, and 300 complex or revision procedures. His results are exemplary, despite operating on patients of extreme size (429 kg and BMI 141) and with associated comorbidities. Shaw is an advanced trainer in upper gastrointestinal surgery and a council member of the British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society. He has a strong academic pedigree, with over 30 peer-reviewed publications.

In addition to all this, Shaw Somers is Discovery Home & Health’s ‘Fat Doctor’, currently in its fourth series. Shaw lives near Winchester with his wife, two sons and assorted farm animals.

For a private consultation: Streamline Surgical