Shireen Amirali Kassam (born 1975) is a British

haematologist Hematology ( spelled haematology in British English) is the branch of medicine concerned with the study of the cause, prognosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases related to blood. It involves treating diseases that affect the production ...

lifestyle medicine Lifestyle medicine (LM) is a branch of medicine focused on preventive healthcare and self-care dealing with prevention, research, education, and treatment of disorders caused by lifestyle factors and preventable causes of death such as nutrit ...

physician and promoter of whole food plant-based nutrition. She is the founder of Plant-Based Health Professionals UK.

Biography

Kassam qualified as a doctor in 2000. She obtained a PhD at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

in 2011 on the role of

selenium Selenium is a chemical element; it has symbol (chemistry), symbol Se and atomic number 34. It has various physical appearances, including a brick-red powder, a vitreous black solid, and a grey metallic-looking form. It seldom occurs in this elem ...

in sensitizing cancer cells to chemotherapy. She became a member of the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians of London, commonly referred to simply as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of ph ...

in 2003 and a fellow of the

Royal College of Pathologists The Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) is a professional membership organisation. Its main function is the overseeing of postgraduate training, and its Fellowship Examination (FRCPath) is recognised as the standard assessment of fitness to p ...

in 2008. Kassam is a Consultant Haematologist and Honorary Senior Lecturer at

King's College Hospital King's College Hospital is a major teaching hospital and major trauma centre in Denmark Hill, Camberwell in the London Borough of Lambeth, referred to locally and by staff simply as "King's" or abbreviated internally to "KCH". It is managed by ...

. She is a visiting professor at

University of Winchester The University of Winchester is a public research university based in the city of Winchester, Hampshire, England. The university has origins tracing back to 1840 as a teacher training college, but was established in 2005. Winchester University ...

where she developed the UK's first university course on plant-based nutrition. She is a certified lifestyle medicine physician. Kassam founded Plant-Based Health Professionals UK in 2018, a non-profit organization that provides education on whole food plant-based nutrition for prevention and management of chronic disease. Kassam is on the Research Advisory Committee of the

Vegan Society Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a ve ...

. She has co-authored ''Eating Plant-Based'' and the textbook ''Plant-Based Nutrition in Clinical Practice'', published by Hammersmith Books in 2022. She is a council member of True Health Initiative. In 2022, Kassam argued that the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

would save billions if more people embraced a plant-based diet. She has written for ''

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...

'' and ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

''.

Personal life

Kassam has followed a whole food plant-based diet since 2013. She was a speaker at VegfestUK 2022.

Selected publications

*''Eating Plant-Based: Scientific Answers to Your Nutrition Questions'' (with Zahra Kassam, 2022) *''Plant-Based Nutrition in Clinical Practice'' (with Zahra Kassam and Lisa Simon, 2022)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kassam, Shireen 1975 births 21st-century British medical doctors 21st-century British non-fiction writers Academics of the University of Winchester Alumni of the University of London British health and wellness writers British haematologists British veganism activists Living people Members of the Royal College of Physicians Plant-based diet advocates The Independent people