What role does diet and nutrition play in our mental and brain health? Can we prevent mental disorders by changing our diets? Can diet treat depression? What should we eat? What should we feed our families?

These are the types of questions that will be addressed at the opening of the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research (ISNPR) conference.

Come along and hear from Professor Felice Jacka, President of the ISNPR, Director of the Food & Mood Centre in Australia, and author of ‘Brain Changer’, Kimberley Wilson, chartered psychologist, food enthusiast, finalist on the Great British Bake Off, and author of How to Build Healthy Brain (to be published March 2020), and Dr Rupy Aujla, founder and author of ‘The Doctor’s Kitchen’ and ‘Eat to Beat Illness’ and 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.

The panel discussion will be led by Dr Michael Mosley, science presenter, journalist and author of the international bestselling books The Clever Guts Diet, The Fast Diet, Fast Exercise and The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet

Professor Felice Jacka is founder and president of the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research (ISNPR) and immediate past president of the Australian Alliance for the Prevention of Mental Disorders (APMD). She is also Director of the new Food & Mood Centre at Deakin University in Australia. Professor Jacka has pioneered and led a highly innovative program of research that examines how individuals’ diets interact with the risk for mental health problems.

Her current work focuses closely on the links between diet, gut health and mental and brain health. This research is being carried out with the ultimate goal of developing new, evidence-based prevention and treatment strategies for mental disorders. She has recently published a book for the general public called ‘Brain Changer’ through Pan Macmillan Press and Yellow Kite in the UK and EU. Her children’s book – There’s a Zoo in my Poo – will be published in 2020.

Ms Kimberley Wilson is a nutrition-trained Chartered Psychologist. Her clinical work looks at the role nutrition and lifestyle play in mental health, including disordered eating, functional disorders of the gut-brain axis and emotional relationships with food. Her private clinic, Monumental Health, integrates psychological therapy with evidence-based nutrition and lifestyle advice.

Her first book, How to Build a Healthy Brain, is a manual for mental health promotion and prevention, designed to give readers the knowledge and practical tools needed to protect their long-term brain and mental health.

Dr Rupy Aujla, MBBS,BSc, MRCGP,  is an NHS GP working in Emergency Medicine and completing a masters in Nutritional Medicine. 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.  He creates healthy and delicious recipes using carefully selected ingredients, explaining the clinical research behind them and sharing across his media platforms (Instagram, Podcast, website, YouTube, Facebook).  He is a Sunday Times bestselling author, with two cookbooks published by Harper Collins – “The Doctor’s Kitchen” and “Eat to Beat Illness” and often appears on BBC and ITV.

In addition, he is the founding director of Culinary Medicine, a non-profit organisation which aims to teach doctors and medical students the foundations of nutrition, as well as teaching them how to cook.  In his role as clinical adviser to the Royal College of GP’s and more recently being accepted as a fellow on the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme, Dr Rupy has big aspirations to bring this concept to the profession globally.