martin prince

On Monday the 5th of November, I travelled to King's College in London to interview my first interviewee Professor Martin Prince. It started off in the worst possible way, as stupidly I went to the wrong campus and underestimated how big London actually is. I managed to get to the right area but then was met with more chaos as I couldn’t find the correct building, and in the end, had to be assisted by another lecturer. It was embarrassing, to say the least, but it did ease my nerves as Professor Prince and I had a chuckle about it later. Prior to the interview, I had in my mind prepared and formed a purpose for Professor Prince in my documentary. As a Professor of Epidemiological Psychiatry who has researched the correlation of nutrition within dementia, I thought he would answer my question ‘Can nutrition delay the onset of dementia, or even cure it?’.

 

Professor Martin and I previously discussed my lack of knowledge on anything nutrition based before the interview, so I gave him a disclaimer for any question I asked that may have sounded oblivious. The interview went swimmingly, I was able to record him both visually and get audio, as well as take photos of him for my Instagram. Professor Prince discusses his work outside of teaching with me and the correlation between nutrition and dementia. The interview allowed me to gain insight into how our bodies work as I think there has been a huge increase in interest for body awareness between the ages of 19 – early 30s. As a nation we have become very body conscious, we crave that curvy look but are we focusing on the wrong things by focusing on the exterior as opposed to our health interiorly? Apparently, the answer is yes, according to Professor Prince, the biggest problem with nutrition within dementia is the lack of hydration as well as, the social construct of it.

 

The history of dinner times has always been a social thing, where families and friends join in union to enjoy a meal but also just be as one. Unfortunately, for a lot of the elderly in general they're lacking the feeling of togetherness at dinner time, which is resulting in anxiety at just the thought. Channel 4 returned with the series 2 of ‘Old peoples home for 4 years olds’ 3 months ago, and this was a recurring theme throughout the documentary. A lot of the elderly confessed to sometimes forgetting to eat due to not being reminded but also not wanting to be alone. They found that when the elderly ate with the young 4 years old there was no hiding the results that it improved their health tremendously.

 

As my first interview for the project, I think it went well, and I think it has paved the structure of future interviews. It also was extremely insightful to learn about the nutritional value for more vulnerable people such as the elderly and people living with dementia. As it might sound very obvious but you’d be surprised how much of the clear apparent elements are missed.