Gholam-Ali Beski

After qualifying as a doctor, my grandfather, Gholam-Ali Beski, set up a hospital, a school with a boarding house—providing free education to gifted children—and later a hospice. Throughout these endeavours he was supported by his wife, Shafigeh—an equally astute, hardworking woman and midwife—who would help run the hospital while taking care of their four children.

Before “wellness” was even a concept, Dr Beski recognised through curing his own medical problems that food can be both a medicine and a poison. He became initially vegetarian, then vegan, and then an advocate for a raw plant based diet. He recognised the carcinogens in meat, the toxins from animal …