Aseem Malhotra

Aseem Malhotra is a controversial British cardiologist, health campaigner, author, and, contrary to public health consensus, an anti-mRNA vaccine activist.

He contends that people should reduce sugar in their diet, adopt a low-carb and high-fat diet, and reduce their use of prescription drugs.

Malhotra was born in New Delhi in India in October 1977.

He was the younger son of two doctors: Kailash Chand and Anisha Malhotra.

The family moved to Britain in 1978 when his father had a clinical attachment at Alder Hey Hospital and was studying for a Diploma in Tropical Medicine at Liverpool University.

Both parents became General Practitioners in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester.

In 1988 Malhotra's brother Amit, who was two years older than Malhotra and had been born with Down's syndrome, died of heart failure aged thirteen.

This inspired Malhotra with the ambition to become a cardiologist.

Malhotra was educated at Manchester Grammar School.

Malhotra's father went on to become the first Asian to be elected as honorary vice-president and deputy chair of the council of the British Medical Association and received an O.B.E for long-standing service to the NHS.

Malhotra's mother's religious faith was important to her and Malhotra observed that she fasted weekly by only consuming one meal on a fast day.

He was quoted later as claiming his mother's vegetarian diet contributed to her 'premature and painful death' and said he hoped "we can learn that much of these ills are preventable."

Malhotra studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and graduated in 2001.

He spent his foundation years as a doctor in Scotland, at Wishaw General Hospital then at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and finally at Liberton Hospital which specialises in care of the elderly.

He completed his post-graduate medical diploma during two years working at the Manchester Royal Infirmary.

He held specialist registrar positions at St James's University Hospital in Leeds and Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

Malhotra has held cardiology posts with the UK National Health Service as a cardiology specialist registrar at Harefield Hospital, at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead and as an Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at Frimley Park Hospital.

He is a former Consultant Clinical Associate to the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and is a visiting professor at Bahiana School of Medicine and Public Health, Salvador, Brazil.

In 2013 he was recognized in the inaugural list of the top 50 BME Pioneers in the NHS Health Service Journal, for his research on sugar rich diets and obesity and cardio-vascular disease and for his public health campaigns, including profit-making of big corporations at the expense of public health, unhealthy hospital meals and sale of junk food in hospitals The judges commented that "Yes. He challenges people".

At the end of 2013, Malhotra won the accolade of being named a "Food Hero" for the Children's Food Campaign for his campaigning against junk food being marketed to children and sugar filled vending machines in hospitals.

He was the first science director of Action on Sugar in 2014, was listed as one of The Sunday Times 500 most influential people in 2016, and was twice recognized as one of the top fifty black and minority ethnic community member pioneers in the UK's National Health Service by the Health Service Journal.

Malhotra is co-author of a book called The Pioppi Diet.

His views on diet and health have been criticized by the British Heart Foundation as "misleading and wrong", and his public questioning of the need ever to use statins has been condemned as a danger to public health.

In 2014 he was recognized for a second year running in the Health Services Journal top 50 BME Pioneers: described by the judges as "An upcoming star", the entry recognized that he had ignited a debate about over-investigation, over-diagnosis and overmedication and brought media attention to the BMJ's "Too much medicine" campaign.

When Action on Sugar was founded in 2014, he was its first Science Director.

Later in that year, his campaigning on sugar led to his being featured in the Evening Standard as being one of ten of London's brightest stars working in science and technology.

In 2015 he was appointed as a trustee of the King's Fund and was reappointed for a further three years in 2018.

In addition to his work as a cardiologist, he has been described as a "highly regarded public health campaigner" and an anti-obesity expert who is "passionate about tackling the companies and policies responsible for creating ... an obesogenic environment".

Malhotra explains that his professional work has motivated his public health campaigning:" ..having seen the unspeakable suffering caused by diet-related diseases, I would much rather these patients did not develop them in the first place."

His "Pioppi diet" was named by the British Dietetic Association as one of the "top 5 worst celeb diets to avoid in 2018".

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Malhotra published a book called The 21-Day Immunity Plan, which claimed, without the backing of evidence from medical research, that following the diet can quickly help people reduce their risk from the virus.

Despite initially campaigning for the COVID vaccine, he later campaigned against the use of COVID mRNA vaccines contrary to the available evidence.

In 2018 the Guardian's health correspondent, Sarah Boseley, labelled Malhotra as a "dissident scientist", "statin critic" and "cholesterol sceptic".

In 2021, Malhotra was appointed chair of the scientific advisory committee of the small UK charity The Public Health Collaboration.

On 20 Feb 2023, the Public Health Collaboration announced that Malhotra was no longer part of the organisation.

In January 2023, a group of doctors, including some General Practitioners, called on the General Medical Council to investigate Aseem Malhotra’s fitness to practice due to what they claim is his ‘high-profile promotion of misinformation about Covid-19 mRNA vaccines’.

On 2 June 2023, the doctors took the first formal step in legal proceedings against the GMC by sending them the formal pre-action protocol letter.

This stated 'we are bringing this legal action because we believe that the GMC, as the official regulator of doctors’ professional standards, has a duty to act in this case.' On 15 February 2024 the GMC stated that it had identified an error in its decision making.

On 4 August 2023 Malhotra announced he had been appointed Co-Chair of the London division of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO).

Later the same day the announcement was removed from BAPIO's website.