Debut author's recipe book sells in record numbers

A woman from London who suffers from a rare disorder that causes heart palpitations, digestion problems and chronic pain says she managed to control her symptoms by radically altering her diet - and has overtaken the likes of Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson in the process.

Ella Woodward was diagnosed with Postural Tachycardia Syndrome in 2011. She said it had a devastating effect on her life - "I literally couldn't walk down the street, I slept for 16 hours a day, had never ending heart palpitations, was in chronic pain, had unbearable stomach issues, constant headaches and the list goes on.

"It was anything but fun. I tried healing through conventional medicine for about six months but it had little effect on my symptoms and I was still bed-ridden 95 per cent of the time."

So she decided to look for another solution and ended up rethinking her diet. Overnight, she switched to eating whole-foods and plant based meals, giving up all meat, dairy, sugar and gluten in the process.

She's now launched a recipe book, which has become the fastest-selling debut cookbook since records began, shifting 75,000 copies in four months.

She's also been blogging about her experiences and on average receives more than 5m hits a month.

She said: "I'm not a trained chef by any means - everything is self-taught and the result of lots of failed experiments! I also totally understand how daunting the idea of changing your diet so radically is, but it's single-handedly the best thing I have ever done."