RYE AND MIGHTY

TV doctor Rupy Aujla explains how making simple swaps in your weekly supermarket shop could help boost your health in 2026.

- By CAMILLA FOSTER

JANUARY often feels like a clean slate, inspiring many of us to set big ambitious resolutions to transform our diets and fitness routines.

However, Dr Rupy Aujla thinks that amid all the ‘New year, new me’ madness, we often overlook the small, everyday changes that could actually have the greatest impact on our health.

“If you make a dramatic change, the likelihood is you're not going to stick with it,” says the founder of The Doctor's Kitchen, who regularly shares his food expertise on various programmes such as This Morning. “Every January, a lot of people make these big goals and it’s great to have goals, but you don’t start at the peak, you have to work your way up to that.

“If you start doing everything on January 1, which is what most people do, you won't be able to maintain that energy and that motivation for change throughout the entire year.”

Instead, Rupy, who also hosts The Doctor's Kitchen Podcast, suggests that setting smaller, more sustainable resolutions is more likely to lead to positive change.

“There's a good book by BJ Fogg called Tiny Habits, which is steeped in behavioural psychology and recommends starting with really small simple habits,” say the medic.

This advice can be translated into every area of life, but Rupy highlights that it’s particularly effective when it comes to improving our diet.

“Changing something that's generally in your supermarket shop every single week is a good place to start,” advises Rupy, who champions the idea that food is medicine.

This year he is supporting organic food brand Biona’s Rye January challenge which suggests that changing the contents of your bread bin could be a great way to help kickstart some healthy eating habits.