[4] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Malhotra published a book called The 21-Day Immunity Plan,[10] which claimed, without the backing of evidence from medical research, that following the diet can quickly help people reduce their risk from the virus.

[15] 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.

[6] 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.

[37] Malhotra argues that it is unrealistic to expect individuals to avoid cheap, unhealthy, heavily marketed foods and that changes to regulation are needed.

[4][8] The book recommends the daily consumption of two to four table spoons of extra-virgin olive oil, a small handful of tree nuts, five to seven portions of fibrous vegetables and low sugar fruits and oily fish at least three times a week.

It advises people to avoid all added sugars, fruit juice, honey, and syrups, refined carbohydrates, anything flour based (including all bread, pastries, cakes, biscuits, muesli bars, packaged noodles, pasta, couscous and rice and seed oils).

[42] The Pioppi diet book has endorsements from then Member of Parliament (MP) Andy Burnham and Dame Sue Bailey, Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.

[42] Keith Vaz, who was the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on diabetes, promoted it to fellow MPs[47] and then MP and Labour Deputy Leader, Tom Watson.

[53][54][55][56][57][58][59] Current guidelines for doctors from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease include giving advice on lifestyle changes before prescribing statins.

[61] The Director of the Centre for Guidelines at NICE, stated that the use of statins in people with established heart disease was not controversial and was but based on robust evidence.

[62] Malhotra however, believes that a saturated fat in larger quantities is key to a healthy diet: he is known to put a tablespoon of butter and coconut oil into his coffee.

[64] In 2017 Malhotra wrote an opinion piece for the British Journal of Sports Medicine which made the claim that saturated fat did "not clog the arteries" and that heart disease can be cured with a daily walk and "eating real food".

[9][65][66] Prof Louis Levy, the head of nutrition science at Public Health England says "There is good evidence that a high intake of saturated fat increases your risk of heart disease".

[9] Malhotra denounces what he calls the government's "obsession" with levels of total cholesterol, which, he says, has led to the overmedication of millions of people with statins, and has diverted attention from the "more egregious" risk factor of atherogenic dyslipidaemia.

[9] Collins has been quoted as saying that scare stories about statins could be as dangerous to public health as Andrew Wakefield's bogus claims about vaccination and autism.

[9] With Robert H. Lustig and Maryanne Demasi, Malhotra authored a 2017 article in The Pharmaceutical Journal which disputes the Lipid hypothesis, the link between blood cholesterol levels and occurrence of heart disease.

[72] In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and before there were any approved vaccines for COVID-19, Malhotra published a book[10] claiming that following his dietary advice could grant "metabolic optimization" which would, in 21 days, decrease the risk of viral infection.

[14] In November 2021, Malhotra appeared on GB News to discuss an abstract for an academic poster published by Steven Gundry and which the American Heart Association had warned may contain "potential errors".

The Editor of The Lancet, Richard Horton, reported on a presentation by Malhotra 7 November 2022 at a public meeting organised by the Association of Naturopathic Practitioners at Friends House, London.

Make the call for access to raw data an issue of trust and transparency.After the meeting descended into chaos, Horton observed that 'this descent into unreason is what happens when you inflame public anxieties.

[75] On 13 January 2023, during a BBC interview on the prescription of statins, Malhotra made unprompted claims about excess cardiac deaths and COVID vaccines.

[77] In an interview with Neil Oliver, Malhotra claims that a "pathological corporate type power mindset [...] probably led to the assassination [...] of the likes of JFK and then his brother Robert Kennedy Junior who realised what was going on and wanted to stop it.

"[78] In addition to his work as a cardiologist, Malhotra has been described as a "highly regarded public health campaigner" and an anti-obesity expert[1] who is "passionate about tackling the companies and policies responsible for creating ... an obesogenic environment".

[40] He 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.