How many people can be said to have influenced the lives of so many as Michael Mosley?

Earlier this month, the TV doctor went missing while out on a walk in high temperatures on the Greek island of Symi, his body found a few days later.

It was a sad, tragic end to a remarkable life.

Mosley was one of those gifted individuals with the ability to communicate ideas in an accessible, practical way. His field was health and diet in particular. Just over a decade ago, Mosley presented an episode of BBC TV’s Horizon programme, East, Fast and Live Longer. The programme explored the work of neuroscientists like Mark Mattson, who had been studying the effects of intermittent fasting.

The result was the 5:2 diet, which advocated eating what you wanted for five days a week, combined with two low-calorie days to lose weight.

Mosley was someone who discovered the effects for himself. Through intermittent fasting, he lost weight and was able to reverse his type 2 diabetes in the process.

Mosley then published a diet book, The Fast Diet, an international bestseller that helped to popularise the process.

This book was then followed up with a number of further influential publications: the Fast 800 plan offered up a diet plan of eating 800 calories a day for a set number of weeks to bring weight down, then switching to a Mediterranean diet and two 800 calorie days to maintain it.

There have been a lot of diet books published over the years: the problem with most of them is that once you’ve stopped the dieting, you immediately put the weight back on. Mosley’s set up, however, both works and offers a long term way to eat.

From personal experience, I have followed the 800 calories diet and lost weight as a result.

Mosley’s work is all the more important given our increasing problems with obesity.

The UK has one of the worst rates in Europe, with 25.9 per cent of the adult population obese and a further 37.9 per cent overweight. Government attempts to tackle this have been risible.

Labour aim to tackle childhood obesity through banning junkfood ads and high-caffeine energy drinks for children, but their plans for adult obesity are less clear.

Some people see Wegovy weight loss injections as a way forwards, though these come with side-effects.

As well as his gift for accessibility and communication, Mosley also had a thirst for new ideas. His Just One Thing series on Radio 4 explored different ways to improve health is small, practical ways, everything from skipping to napping, turmeric to walking backwards.

If you’ve never heard, have a listen: they might be the most beneficial fifteen minutes of your week.