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Fatty Liver Expert: Your Liver Is Filling With Fat Right Now - Dr David Unwin

May 18, 2026 / 02:11:25

This episode covers metabolic health, type 2 diabetes, and dietary choices with Dr. David Unwin, a prominent UK physician. Key discussions include the impact of sugar in common foods, the importance of waist-to-height ratio, and the normalization of unhealthy body types.

Dr. Unwin emphasizes that belly fat is more concerning than fat in other areas and shares alarming statistics about type 2 diabetes, including that many individuals are unaware they have it. He discusses how lifestyle choices can significantly affect health outcomes, particularly for young people.

The conversation also touches on the misconceptions surrounding carbohydrates and sugars in everyday foods like cereals, rice, and fruits. Dr. Unwin presents a simple test using a piece of string to measure waist size relative to height, highlighting its importance in assessing metabolic health.

Dr. Unwin recounts his journey as a physician, including a pivotal moment when a patient educated him about the effects of diet on diabetes management. He advocates for a low-carb diet as an effective approach to managing blood sugar levels and improving overall health.

Listeners are encouraged to reflect on their dietary habits and consider the long-term implications of their choices. Dr. Unwin's insights aim to empower individuals to take control of their health through informed decisions.

TL;DR

Dr. David Unwin discusses metabolic health, diabetes, and the impact of diet on long-term health outcomes.

Episode

2:11:25
00:00:00
Your waist should be less than half your
00:00:03
height. So half of that string should go
00:00:05
around the fattest bit of your belly.
00:00:07
And this is a really simple test for
00:00:09
everybody at home.
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>> I mean, it's not.
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>> Yeah, you've just done it. You've
00:00:12
passed. But fat on your belly is more
00:00:14
worrying than fat on your legs or on
00:00:16
your arms. And unfortunately, we've
00:00:18
started to normalize things like the dad
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bot without realizing that isn't how
00:00:22
you're supposed to be. And maybe a third
00:00:24
of all the people in the world with type
00:00:25
2 diabetes don't even know they have it.
00:00:27
But every year that you have poorly
00:00:29
controlled type 2 diabetes, you're
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losing 100 days of life. And it's
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because people don't know the truth
00:00:35
being fooled with the packeting and
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advertising.
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>> So, let's talk about the food we have on
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this table because this is how much
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sugar I would have thought was in all of
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these things here. Cereal, a potato,
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white rice, a banana, and a chocolate
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bar.
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>> So, now I'm going to give you the
00:00:48
correct figure. The corn flakes is 1 2 3
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4 5 6 7 8. That chocolate bar is 7 and
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1/2. The banana that's six. And then the
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potato is actually
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>> Oh my gosh.
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>> And then 150 g of boiled rice is
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>> Oh, I thought rice was healthy.
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>> But each of us has a number of different
00:01:12
health futures. And what I'm interested
00:01:14
in is how do I get you to pick a
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lifestyle that will get you the future
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you want? Because my job is about
00:01:20
behavior change.
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>> The floor is yours.
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>> All right. So, off we go.
00:01:26
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Dr. David Unwin, you were named in 2018
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among the top 10 most influential
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doctors in the United Kingdom. Um,
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you've got an incredible list of
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accomplishments and you're held in the
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highest regard maybe of all the doctors
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I've ever had the chance to speak to by
00:02:36
many people that I've spoken to. We were
00:02:38
talking before we started recording
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about what's on your mind and what's
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been bothering you. And so the floor is
00:02:44
yours. What is front of mind for you,
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Dr. David?
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>> Well, front of mind for me is the the
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idea that each of us has a number of
00:02:52
different health futures. So you have so
00:02:55
in your future uh I don't know there
00:02:58
could be cancer. There could uh be
00:03:00
multiple sclerosis or there could be
00:03:02
many futures. What I'm interested in is
00:03:06
how do I get you to pick a lifestyle
00:03:09
that will get you the future you want?
00:03:12
And I think that's very difficult in the
00:03:15
world now to know what is the best
00:03:17
lifestyle because you've given so much
00:03:19
conflicting advice. And the particular
00:03:22
focus for me in terms of picking health
00:03:25
futures is around young people because
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they've got the longest time to make a
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difference.
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And it's getting harder and harder and
00:03:36
harder to make good health choices in
00:03:39
your lifestyle. It's really hard. I'd
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say it's a pandemic
00:03:44
of poor metabolic health. Yesterday in
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clinic, I saw two people under the age
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of 25 who had poorly controlled diabetes
00:03:54
and one of them was too heavy for me
00:03:56
actually to weigh. And this situation is
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completely new. So when I when I was a
00:04:03
young doctor uh and just starting off in
00:04:06
practice, that was in 1986.
00:04:09
Wow. A long time ago, just north of
00:04:12
Liverpool in the practice, I'm still
00:04:13
there now. Obesity was rare and we
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didn't have a single case of type 2
00:04:20
diabetes in anybody under 55. Not a
00:04:24
single case. It was quite unknown. And
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in fact, type 2 diabetes had a different
00:04:28
name. We've had to change the name
00:04:31
because of the epidemic. Used to be
00:04:32
called maturity onset diabetes. That
00:04:35
meant old people, right? Now we call it
00:04:38
type two diabetes because we have to
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include so many young people. It's
00:04:42
really really serious
00:04:45
because people are losing their life
00:04:48
expectancy and I'm witnessing this.
00:04:51
We're all sleepwalking into a metabolic
00:04:54
disaster and the people praying the
00:04:55
greatest price in my opinion are young
00:04:59
people and it's a scandal and I'm
00:05:02
hopping mad really. I think we've
00:05:04
started to normalize
00:05:06
the dad bod, you know, the big tummy and
00:05:09
haha without realizing that maybe that
00:05:12
isn't how you're supposed to be. So that
00:05:15
that's what's on my mind. Young people
00:05:18
and their future and they don't even
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know.
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>> You say young people there. Yeah.
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>> Because they've got the biggest
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opportunity to change the trajectory of
00:05:28
their health future.
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>> Yes.
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>> But for the audiences listening that
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might be in their 50s now. Is this
00:05:33
advice also applicable?
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>> Absolutely. So, we know from g
00:05:36
government figures, UK government
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figures
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that for every year that you have poorly
00:05:43
controlled type 2 diabetes, you're
00:05:45
losing a 100 days of life. That's about
00:05:48
a third of a year, isn't it? So,
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whatever age you are, if you uh have
00:05:54
poorly controlled diabetes, you're
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losing life expectancy. and and maybe a
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third of all the people in the world
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with type 2 diabetes don't even know
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they have it because they haven't taken
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a test so they don't know. What do you
00:06:07
think kills people with type 2 diabetes?
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>> Um is it some cardiovascular issue?
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>> Yeah, well done. Well done. you see
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you've not been to medical school that
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most doctors that's what they say
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because we know that a high blood sugar
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over time damages your arteries. So it's
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a cumulative thing over time. But what
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you may not know is that actually
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a rising cause of mortality for people
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with diabetes is cancer.
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>> Oh really?
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>> Yeah. So, eight forms of cancer
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are strongly associated uh with
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diabetes.
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>> I want to just define that term diabetes
00:06:52
because I think I went through a lot of
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my life assuming that diabetes was a
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disease that some people are born with
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and because I didn't have it, I thought
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I don't need to worry about that.
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>> That's really important. Yeah. So, first
00:07:02
of all, there's type 1 diabetes and type
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two. But before I can explain
00:07:08
about diabetes, I need to explain about
00:07:11
insulin. This is absolutely key to our
00:07:14
whole discussion.
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So, I've already said that a high blood
00:07:19
sugar damages your arteries. And in
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fact, there's work to show that a very
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high blood sugar damages the non-stick
00:07:28
lining of your arteries within six
00:07:30
hours.
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>> Oh wow.
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>> Really quick. It's called the glycoalix,
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the non-stick lining. And uh damage is
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occurring very quickly. So,
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>> I'm going to ask you a really stupid
00:07:40
question. Yeah. When you say high blood
00:07:41
sugar, I get high blood sugar when I eat
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lots of sugar.
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>> Okay. So, first of all, we're actually
00:07:47
talking about glucose.
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>> Yeah.
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>> And sugar can mean table sugar or it
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could mean many different things, but
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we're actually talking about blood
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glucose,
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>> which comes from lots of foods,
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>> which comes from many foods.
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>> Carbohydrate heavy foods.
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>> Yes. Yes, it does. It does. So, that
00:08:05
that's right. But you have the hormone
00:08:08
insulin to defend you from poor dietary
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choices. So the question is, what does
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insulin do with the sugar you just ate?
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And here's the answer. Insulin, the
00:08:20
hormone insulin produced by your
00:08:22
pancreas gland.
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It pushes the sugar and it pushes it out
00:08:29
of the bloodstream inside cells where it
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can be used for energy for you to run
00:08:34
around.
00:08:36
But what if you take in uh more
00:08:39
carbohydrate than you need to run
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around? Well, then that sugar is turned
00:08:45
to fat inside cells because it's safer
00:08:49
for you to turn that sugar into fat than
00:08:52
it is is to have it damaging your
00:08:54
arteries.
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So, I am somebody with type two
00:08:57
diabetes. So, we can talk about me. So,
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I had a really heavy biscuit habit. uh I
00:09:04
was senior partner of the practice and
00:09:06
it's stressful and I had patients used
00:09:09
to bring me biscuits all the time as a
00:09:11
gift because they you know they want the
00:09:13
doctor to be happy. So in the drawer in
00:09:15
the top of my desk was packets and
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packets of biscuits. So, I'm taking in
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more sugar and I didn't run around and
00:09:23
gradually my waist got bigger.
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And what was actually happening was as I
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took in more sugar than I needed to run
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around, my insulin was working to get
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rid of that sugar and it was giving me
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two things. One, a belly.
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>> Mhm. So my, you know, and I thought it's
00:09:45
just middle-aged spread, you know, and
00:09:48
the other was I didn't know, but my
00:09:51
liver was filling with fat and that's um
00:09:54
that is very common now. So we have
00:09:59
well it's a third of everybody in the
00:10:01
developed world has fatty liver. Now
00:10:03
here we got the wonderful props. Let's
00:10:05
talk about these. Great. So fatty liver.
00:10:09
This is the healthy liver here.
00:10:12
And you see the color. Look at this one.
00:10:16
It's yellow. It's the wrong color. And
00:10:19
it's because of fat.
00:10:21
So in that case, like has happened to me
00:10:25
over years, my liver began to fill with
00:10:30
fat
00:10:30
>> because it was essentially overworked
00:10:32
and glucose was being stored there.
00:10:34
>> Yes. So I was taking in too much
00:10:36
glucose.
00:10:38
Insulin was doing its good job of taking
00:10:41
it out of my bloodstream and forcing it
00:10:44
inside cells in my belly but
00:10:46
unfortunately in my liver.
00:10:48
>> Okay.
00:10:48
>> And so there's a progressive laying down
00:10:50
of fat in the liver. So if we look at
00:10:52
actually some proper liver. So this is
00:10:55
the put on your seat belts now because
00:10:57
this is
00:10:58
>> somebody's uh somebody's actual liver.
00:11:01
>> So then that's the normal liver. But
00:11:04
look at this. It's larger.
00:11:05
>> That's a real human liver.
00:11:06
>> Yes, these are human livers. And that's
00:11:08
as it should be. But this, look at this
00:11:10
liver. It's larger. And it's larger
00:11:13
because there's so much fat in it. Now,
00:11:15
the twist in the story is fatty liver
00:11:19
interferes with the good work of
00:11:21
insulin.
00:11:23
So, you develop a thing called insulin
00:11:25
resistance, which means your insulin is
00:11:27
no longer as powerful as it was. It's
00:11:30
beginning to become difficult for you to
00:11:32
deal with carbohydrate and sugar because
00:11:34
your insulin isn't working as well. And
00:11:37
the only way to deal with that is the
00:11:40
next twist in the story.
00:11:42
>> You have to start producing more
00:11:44
insulin.
00:11:46
>> Do you see? Because it doesn't work as
00:11:48
well.
00:11:48
>> Yeah.
00:11:49
>> So your pancreas has to crank up the
00:11:52
supply. We need more insulin. So now you
00:11:55
have two things. You have insulin
00:11:59
resistance. Your insulin isn't working
00:12:01
as well, but at the same time, you're
00:12:05
trying to produce more insulin in the
00:12:07
pancreas. This bits called the long
00:12:10
silent scream from the liver. This is
00:12:12
work by Professor Roy Taylor, a friend
00:12:14
of mine at Newcastle University, and he
00:12:17
pointed out that you you've got fatty
00:12:20
liver for about 10 years. You don't even
00:12:22
know. You wouldn't know that your
00:12:25
liver's gone fatty and yellow like that.
00:12:29
But unfortunately, this is another
00:12:31
twist. Fat is being laid down in the
00:12:33
pancreas gland, the very gland that your
00:12:36
life depends upon producing insulin. And
00:12:39
your ability to produce enough insulin
00:12:42
collapses.
00:12:43
And at that point, you can't regulate
00:12:46
blood sugar anymore. But upstream of
00:12:49
that, you have a problem. You've got
00:12:51
that. But you don't even know. You
00:12:54
You're talking about what's in my mind.
00:12:56
Why are we waiting until you actually
00:12:59
have all the problems of type 2
00:13:01
diabetes? So since 2013,
00:13:05
I've got hundreds of patients and I'm
00:13:07
monitoring the baseline and latest
00:13:10
follow-up. So what happens to them? It's
00:13:12
really important.
00:13:14
And now I have a a huge data set that I
00:13:17
can interrogate and answer questions. So
00:13:20
number one question,
00:13:23
let's think about pre-diabetes. So this
00:13:25
is in the long silent screen.
00:13:28
Well, I can tell you that the people
00:13:30
with pre-diabetes in my practice north
00:13:33
of Liverpool,
00:13:35
93% of them will get a completely normal
00:13:40
blood sugar if they go low carb. 93%
00:13:43
resolution and that will last for years
00:13:46
because I've checked. Okay, how about we
00:13:50
wait for the 10 years and Stephen until
00:13:52
Steven you've got type 2 diabetes and
00:13:55
then you go low carb at that point if I
00:13:58
can get you early I've got a 73% chance
00:14:02
of you having a normal blood sugar let's
00:14:05
wait another few years because you don't
00:14:06
want to give up bread and you don't want
00:14:08
to give up chips and pizza fair enough
00:14:10
I'll wait
00:14:12
but you know if we wait five years you
00:14:14
only stand a 50% chance so do You see it
00:14:18
goes 93 over 70%, 50%. So the chances of
00:14:23
me not needing drugs and be able to do a
00:14:26
good job for you are diminishing. So
00:14:30
really it's a stitch in time.
00:14:31
>> Mhm.
00:14:32
>> And so much of this you don't even know.
00:14:34
You don't even know it's going on.
00:14:37
>> One of the things that shocks me is um
00:14:39
is how little we know about what's in
00:14:41
our food.
00:14:42
>> Yes. You know, because I think we all
00:14:43
know that like biscuits are a food that
00:14:46
has a high glycemic index.
00:14:48
>> Well done.
00:14:48
>> Which is a term that I've learned from
00:14:50
this podcast, which means
00:14:51
>> some carbohydrates are more sugary than
00:14:53
others. And then so that's the glycemic
00:14:56
index. What that is doing is comparing
00:14:59
different carbohydrates with pure
00:15:01
glucose.
00:15:02
>> Okay?
00:15:02
>> So you see pure glucose is 100 and then
00:15:05
other sugars come further down.
00:15:09
But there is there's something better
00:15:11
than the glycemic index and that's
00:15:13
called the glycemic load. The glycemic
00:15:17
load takes portions of food and predicts
00:15:23
how will that portion of food
00:15:27
actually affect your blood sugar.
00:15:29
>> And am I right in thinking the glycemic
00:15:31
load would factor in the amount of
00:15:33
nutrients in the food that so like
00:15:35
protein, fiber?
00:15:36
>> Yeah. Because if you took watermelon
00:15:38
Yeah.
00:15:38
>> Well, it's mainly water, isn't it?
00:15:40
>> Mhm.
00:15:40
>> So, you have to factor in, you can have
00:15:43
quite a lot of watermelon
00:15:45
uh to equal a chocolate bar.
00:15:47
>> Mhm.
00:15:48
>> So, the density you're all you're
00:15:50
looking at the density of sugar in it as
00:15:52
well.
00:15:52
>> Okay.
00:15:53
>> So, that's why the glycemic load is
00:15:56
better.
00:15:56
>> Was there was there a moment in your
00:15:58
career where
00:16:00
you started to question what you had
00:16:02
been told?
00:16:03
>> Yeah. you know, so you start as a young
00:16:07
doctor. I wanted to be part of a small
00:16:10
community and stay there and make a
00:16:12
difference. And then comes the sad bit
00:16:14
really. So I for the first 25 years I
00:16:19
was trying to do what's in the
00:16:20
guidelines. I was trying to be a good
00:16:22
doctor. But what I noticed I noticed two
00:16:26
things.
00:16:28
Number one, I noticed what I've already
00:16:30
said to you that the health of the
00:16:33
population I cared for was
00:16:35
deteriorating. It wasn't getting better.
00:16:37
So, if I'm the doctor in charge of the
00:16:40
practice looking after these people and
00:16:43
health is deteriorating,
00:16:46
am I not responsible? And where's where
00:16:49
is all this difference I was hoping to
00:16:51
make? It just wasn't panning out. At the
00:16:54
same time, I'd always in my heart felt
00:16:58
that prescribing lots of drugs felt a
00:17:00
bit wrong. It felt like a mini failure
00:17:04
because how is somebody well if they're
00:17:07
taking six tablets a day?
00:17:09
>> Was there one particular patient that
00:17:11
you met?
00:17:12
>> There were two two things happened both
00:17:15
to do with very powerful women. The
00:17:18
first powerful woman was a lady I'd
00:17:20
known for over 10 years. She and her
00:17:23
husband had cared for them both. They
00:17:25
both had poorly controlled diabetes and
00:17:28
they were both very heavy at the time. I
00:17:32
could monitor how my how compliant my
00:17:37
patients were with their medication.
00:17:40
And if I'm to be truthful, in part that
00:17:42
was how I was paid. So part of my
00:17:46
payment was to do with are the patients
00:17:48
having in this case metformin the most
00:17:50
commonly used drug for type 2 diabetes.
00:17:53
>> Part of your payment?
00:17:54
>> Yeah. Yeah. How would you?
00:17:56
>> Well, because there's a you're supposed
00:17:57
to the the government approve of the
00:18:00
fact that we give drugs that are needed
00:18:03
for type 2 diabetes. So that you're
00:18:06
given a sort of quot it's it's regarded
00:18:08
as good practice that such a a certain
00:18:11
percentage of your patients will be on
00:18:13
metformin.
00:18:14
>> What?
00:18:14
>> Yeah, it's true.
00:18:16
>> So is it fair to say that you were
00:18:18
somewhat incentivized to give people
00:18:19
metformin?
00:18:20
>> Yes, that would be true. But I think we
00:18:22
should also be fair to say that the body
00:18:24
of evidence at the time would say uh
00:18:27
that it's good practice to give
00:18:29
metformin to people with type 2
00:18:31
diabetes. and
00:18:34
conversely poor practice not to use
00:18:37
metformin but we'll develop that. So the
00:18:40
the backdrop is we're we're monitoring
00:18:42
the patients who stop taking their
00:18:44
metformin because that uh is number one
00:18:48
poor practice and number two actually
00:18:49
cost me. So I wrote to the person dear
00:18:53
Mrs. So and so, I'm concerned that uh
00:18:56
you're not you don't seem to be taking
00:18:58
your metformin. Please make an
00:19:00
appointment with me at your earliest
00:19:02
convenience. Very British, very polite.
00:19:06
Anyway, nothing prepared me for what was
00:19:08
going to happen that morning. And it's
00:19:10
changed my entire life on that point. So
00:19:16
the lady, well, let's call her Mrs.
00:19:18
Jones. That wasn't her name. She marches
00:19:21
in and
00:19:23
uh she said to me, "You think you're
00:19:25
going to tell me off, don't you, Dr.
00:19:26
Enwin?" Well, I've got news for you. I'm
00:19:30
going to tell you off. I was scared.
00:19:32
Like, what's going on? She's never been
00:19:34
like this before. She was a a polite
00:19:37
person. Anyway, she went on to explain.
00:19:40
She said,
00:19:41
"When you do my blood tests, you will
00:19:44
find that my blood glucose is completely
00:19:46
normal despite not taking your
00:19:50
metformin."
00:19:52
And she said, "I'm wondering if you're
00:19:56
actually qualified as a doctor because
00:20:00
in the last 10 years, did you ever once
00:20:03
tell me that bread was sugar or
00:20:05
breakfast cereals were sugar?" I had to
00:20:08
learn online
00:20:10
uh that bread is sugar, that rice is
00:20:13
sugar, that breakfast cereals are sugar,
00:20:17
and when I cut those foods, I don't need
00:20:19
your metformin now. And she went she
00:20:22
made it worse. She said, "This is school
00:20:26
boy biology. You should have learned
00:20:28
that when you were 16."
00:20:31
I was dead scared because you know
00:20:34
complaints as a GP, it's really bad.
00:20:36
They go on for years and years. But
00:20:39
mainly I was scared because every word
00:20:41
she said was true. And one thing I had
00:20:44
learned about when you're an older
00:20:45
doctor is you've got to listen to people
00:20:47
properly. If they're complaining,
00:20:50
don't deny it. Don't defend yourself.
00:20:54
Take it. So I said, "Okay,
00:20:58
I've got I want to learn what you you
00:21:00
know, if this is true, will you meet me
00:21:02
again? Let's do the blood test." So we
00:21:04
did the blood test. It was true. It was
00:21:06
the first case of drug-free type 2
00:21:10
diabetes I had ever seen. I'd never seen
00:21:13
a single case in 25 years where people
00:21:16
came off medication.
00:21:18
I was fascinated
00:21:20
because she'd done it like a miracle.
00:21:23
But there was another detail I just
00:21:24
shared with you. She was one of 40,000
00:21:28
people online learning from each other
00:21:32
how to do it.
00:21:34
And when I looked, they were being
00:21:37
rubbished by the health care
00:21:39
professionals. So people like me were
00:21:41
telling them, "You'll die. What you're
00:21:44
doing is dangerous." And I was ashamed,
00:21:48
really ashamed,
00:21:51
and it's complete coincidence.
00:21:54
But in the same month,
00:21:57
uh, we have to introduce my wife, Jen.
00:22:00
Is there a photo? Come on, let's see
00:22:02
Jen. This is Jen.
00:22:03
>> Oh, she's probably the cleverest woman
00:22:06
in the world.
00:22:08
>> She's so clever. I love that woman. So,
00:22:10
Jen, uh, so her back, she is a, um, a
00:22:15
clinical health psychologist and she
00:22:18
specializes, she's fascinated by the
00:22:20
role of hope in disease and the
00:22:24
difference it can make. And she spent
00:22:25
her life researching the difference that
00:22:28
hope makes to clinical outcomes. So, it
00:22:31
just so happened that she was in a
00:22:33
supermarket and she saw some a
00:22:36
discounted diet book. That one. That's
00:22:39
the book.
00:22:40
>> Escape the diet trail by Dr. John Brier.
00:22:42
>> Yeah, Dr. John Briffer. What a lovely
00:22:44
guy. So, Jen bought that book just
00:22:48
around the time I'm telling her about
00:22:50
this patient. So she said, "You have to
00:22:52
read this book about the low a low
00:22:54
carbohydrate approach to um insulin
00:22:59
resistance to type 2 diabetes."
00:23:02
And in the book,
00:23:05
everything that my patient had told me
00:23:08
was there
00:23:09
and but it was done in a medical way for
00:23:13
and I understood. She said, "David, why
00:23:17
why are you sort of failing? Why don't
00:23:21
you do one thing before you retire? Why
00:23:25
can't you do a cheerful something you
00:23:27
really believe in? Why don't you have a
00:23:29
go at this low carb
00:23:31
>> yourself?
00:23:32
>> Yeah. She said, "Why don't you and me
00:23:36
go on this diet for see if some patients
00:23:39
would volunteer and do it with us?"
00:23:43
And I mentioned it to the partners
00:23:46
and they said, "No,
00:23:47
>> these are other doctors."
00:23:48
>> Yeah. So I'm senior partner.
00:23:50
>> I'm supposedly the boss. Uh but at the
00:23:54
time low carb was not respectable and
00:23:58
they didn't like it and they said we
00:24:00
don't want you to do this and partly
00:24:02
because they said well how it you know
00:24:06
is that a good use of the the resources
00:24:08
of the practice
00:24:10
because if you're doing this David maybe
00:24:12
you're not treating chest infections or
00:24:14
other things and there's pressure on the
00:24:15
health service. this felt a bit they
00:24:18
felt it was a bit self-indulgent. So go
00:24:20
back to my wife and said the partners
00:24:22
say no. And she said I I I'll tell you
00:24:25
what we're going to do. We're both going
00:24:28
to work for free and we'll do it. Why
00:24:30
don't we do this in our own time in on
00:24:34
in an evening when the p is no
00:24:37
resources.
00:24:39
So that's exactly what we did. We found
00:24:42
18 volunteers
00:24:44
who were interested amongst the patients
00:24:47
and then Jen and I. So that was 20 of
00:24:49
us. We started meeting every Monday
00:24:51
night
00:24:53
talking about low carb learning how do
00:24:56
you cook stuff? How do you do it? We did
00:24:59
it together. And one of the nurses was
00:25:02
so excited. Heather is her name. Let's
00:25:05
give her a, you know, thumbs up to
00:25:07
Heather. Heather said, "I'll work for
00:25:09
free. I'll help you. I'd love to do
00:25:12
this. I want to I want to believe in
00:25:14
what I do.
00:25:16
And then the magic begins. The results.
00:25:20
I couldn't believe it. I could not, you
00:25:22
know, I'd never seen anything like it.
00:25:24
And the first thing the first thing I
00:25:26
saw
00:25:28
was the liver function improving. You
00:25:31
see, cuz I'm doing blood tests cuz I
00:25:32
know I'm doing something weird. I'm
00:25:35
doing something that I would be
00:25:37
criticized for.
00:25:40
So if you're going to do a weird thing,
00:25:41
you need to measure stuff.
00:25:43
>> You can't, you know, these are patients,
00:25:46
so you can't just experiment and not be,
00:25:48
am I doing harm? What's happening?
00:25:51
What's happening to the cholesterol and
00:25:52
the lipid profiles? So I was monitoring
00:25:55
stuff really closely.
00:25:57
The liver function though, Stephen, I
00:26:00
got people who I thought they were
00:26:03
drinking alcohol and I thought the liver
00:26:06
problem was due to alcohol
00:26:09
and they'd had abnormal liver function
00:26:11
for 10 years and suddenly within weeks
00:26:15
the liver function was improving often
00:26:17
by a third or 50%.
00:26:20
I was so excited. Can you imagine? And
00:26:22
I'm sitting there and the laboratory
00:26:24
results are coming in and they're like,
00:26:27
"Wow." And then another and another.
00:26:33
So that was the first thing. Then the
00:26:34
weight. So we're all meeting every
00:26:36
Monday night and we got the scales and
00:26:38
everybody gets weighed every Monday
00:26:40
night and the weight started falling off
00:26:42
people. It really did. And then the all
00:26:46
sorts of other weird stuff started
00:26:48
happening. some of which I couldn't make
00:26:50
sense of for years.
00:26:53
The first one was
00:26:55
people said, "Are you hungry?" Because
00:26:57
I'm not. And they started saying things
00:26:59
like, "Do you have to eat breakfast?"
00:27:03
>> Where? And I also I wasn't hungry. I
00:27:06
wasn't hungry. They were telling me the
00:27:08
truth because I was experiencing this
00:27:10
with them.
00:27:12
Why are we not hungry?
00:27:15
That's so odd. And I was starting I not
00:27:18
bothering with breakfast. So, I didn't
00:27:20
eat it. You don't have to have it. And
00:27:22
my and my belly went away. Next thing
00:27:26
was I noticed when I stood up from my
00:27:29
desk, I felt dizzy.
00:27:33
Weird. Now, I hadn't told anybody, but I
00:27:36
had moderate high blood pressure for
00:27:39
years, but I didn't like to be a
00:27:42
patient.
00:27:43
>> So, I never went to a doctor.
00:27:45
>> I just put my head in the sand. So I had
00:27:47
high blood pressure for years. When I
00:27:49
took my blood pressure, it was low
00:27:50
normal.
00:27:52
Why? I didn't know. But on the patients
00:27:56
as well, I'm doing that as well. I'm
00:27:58
measuring all the blood pressure and
00:28:00
it's improving. So it's getting weirder
00:28:03
and weirder. Liver function improving,
00:28:06
weight going down,
00:28:09
blood pressure improving.
00:28:11
In those days we were the blood test
00:28:14
that we we did was a thing called a
00:28:16
hemoglobin A1C. The A1C in America this
00:28:21
is the average suginess of your blood
00:28:23
for the preceding 3 months. So the
00:28:26
results take a while.
00:28:27
>> Mhm. But then when the uh hemoglobin A1C
00:28:31
came in there, it was we were getting
00:28:34
really spectacular improvements in in
00:28:36
average blood sugar
00:28:39
and that's so that's kind of how it
00:28:41
began. So that's 2013. So that's 13
00:28:44
years ago and uh
00:28:48
the rest is history. But that I was
00:28:51
completely blown away and I was full of
00:28:53
curiosity about all these other things
00:28:56
and how was it? Why were these things
00:28:58
improving?
00:28:59
>> So in those 13 years, how is your
00:29:01
fitness your health changed?
00:29:03
>> My mental powers were much greater. I
00:29:06
could concentrate better. I wasn't
00:29:08
fatty. So I noticed that. The next thing
00:29:12
I noticed was
00:29:14
I needed a lot less sleep. So yeah, in
00:29:18
the beginning I used to have to have a
00:29:21
little sleep on my doctor's couch every
00:29:23
lunchtime.
00:29:25
So I was senior partner. So you press do
00:29:28
not disturb and you put the curtains
00:29:30
round and have a little nap on my own
00:29:32
couch for 20 minutes. It was the only
00:29:34
way I could get through the day. I
00:29:37
didn't need that nap anymore. I was less
00:29:39
sleepy. I needed an hour's less sleep a
00:29:42
day. I could
00:29:45
think better. I was I could cope with
00:29:48
the same problems.
00:29:50
And this is so weird
00:29:53
mentally. I was stronger. It was like
00:29:56
being a younger man.
00:29:58
Um the way
00:30:00
>> I don't know. I think you have a sense
00:30:02
of mental horsepower.
00:30:05
>> Going back to the top of this
00:30:06
conversation, you talked about how
00:30:07
everybody listening right now has a
00:30:09
variety of different health futures.
00:30:10
>> Yeah. and which which health future they
00:30:13
end up in is going to be determined by
00:30:15
the everyday decisions they make.
00:30:17
>> Yes.
00:30:17
>> So I want to really zoom in on some of
00:30:19
those everyday decisions. We talked
00:30:20
about you and your biscuits and at the
00:30:22
time you said you were you were probably
00:30:24
quite sedentary as a doctor.
00:30:25
>> Yeah.
00:30:26
>> Sitting in a chair, patients coming in.
00:30:28
>> Yeah.
00:30:28
>> You weren't doing exercise.
00:30:30
>> No. Um I didn't fundamentally believe it
00:30:34
would make that much difference.
00:30:37
>> And this is such a great point. you
00:30:39
you've a really great point. So, let's
00:30:42
think about weight loss. So, I would
00:30:44
give advice on weight loss to my
00:30:46
patients and I would say eat less and
00:30:49
move more. And I'd even sometimes say
00:30:52
that Bellson thing, you know, the no fat
00:30:54
people came out of Bellson.
00:30:56
>> I've never heard that before.
00:30:57
>> But it's a horrible thing to say to a
00:30:59
patient, isn't it?
00:30:59
>> What's Belson?
00:31:00
>> Well, that that's in World War II where
00:31:02
they all starved things. Okay. So the
00:31:05
the point is you're saying to somebody
00:31:06
with an obesity problem,
00:31:08
>> it's their fault.
00:31:09
>> Yes, you're blaming them. That's exactly
00:31:12
the point. And that's what I did. And
00:31:15
it's worse than that because
00:31:18
I give them that advice and it just
00:31:20
about never works.
00:31:22
I did a horrible thing. I used to say to
00:31:24
them, "Right,
00:31:26
so why don't you just have two
00:31:28
tablespoons of all brand a day?"
00:31:30
>> Oh, breakfast cereal.
00:31:31
>> Yeah. uh with skim milk and I would
00:31:34
advise a few multivitamins
00:31:38
and uh a couple of pints of skimmed milk
00:31:41
a day. That was my advice. And then when
00:31:45
it didn't work, who do you think I
00:31:46
blamed? Them.
00:31:47
>> Yeah. And this was all part of my
00:31:50
epiphany. I never joined the dots. That
00:31:55
the failure was not theirs. It was mine.
00:31:59
And that's horrible, isn't it? Imagine
00:32:01
25 years of I was blaming patients for
00:32:04
their failure to lose weight and it was
00:32:07
my failure
00:32:09
because I didn't give them advice that
00:32:12
worked. And if you keep giving the same
00:32:15
advice to people and it doesn't work,
00:32:17
shouldn't I have questioned?
00:32:19
But isn't that happening in society
00:32:21
overall? How are we doing? How are we
00:32:24
doing with health? How's it going? It's
00:32:27
a disaster, isn't it? So we need to do
00:32:29
something different.
00:32:31
But for me for 25 years I did not
00:32:35
believe that lifestyle was key. And now
00:32:38
I do.
00:32:39
>> And that's why I didn't I didn't
00:32:43
think that the biscuits made that much
00:32:44
difference.
00:32:46
Obviously I knew basic nutrition. So I
00:32:49
made sure there's protein and there's
00:32:50
iron and stuff. I fundamentally
00:32:55
believed that drugs is what I should be
00:32:58
using, medication, and that lifestyle
00:33:01
was a sort of add-on.
00:33:04
Isn't that terrible? I
00:33:06
>> I think this is so important because it
00:33:07
really gets to what I believe the
00:33:10
average person thinks as well.
00:33:11
>> Yeah. Yeah.
00:33:12
>> Um we were talking before we started
00:33:14
recording about some of my friends. They
00:33:16
are there. There's two friends I
00:33:17
mentioned. One of them is a very very
00:33:19
successful businessman. Um, everybody
00:33:21
knows who this person is. And they asked
00:33:24
me this weekend, "Is pizza healthy?" And
00:33:26
I just couldn't believe I It shook my
00:33:28
mind.
00:33:28
>> Gobsmacking. It was like, "Oh, what
00:33:30
pizza? What?"
00:33:31
>> Cuz they were choose trying to choose
00:33:32
between they usually have a big 12-in
00:33:34
pizza for lunch. And And he was asking
00:33:37
me, "What's healthier, Steven? Uh,
00:33:39
Nando's chicken or this 12-in pizza he
00:33:42
was going to get?" And I literally
00:33:43
looked at him like I was looking at a
00:33:44
ghost. I was like, "Are you winding me
00:33:46
up?" And he was genuinely serious. He's
00:33:49
almost 60 years old now and he doesn't
00:33:51
know if a chicken breast is healthier
00:33:54
than a 12-in pizza. And the other
00:33:57
example that I mentioned to you before
00:33:58
we started recording is a very famous
00:34:00
Premier League football superstar legend
00:34:02
who you would assume had gone through
00:34:05
those sort of 15 20 years of being an
00:34:07
academy player and then a a pro alete
00:34:09
knows what has sugar in and what
00:34:12
doesn't. and he was asking me is is a
00:34:14
big spaghetti carbonara is that healthy
00:34:16
is that a health food because he said to
00:34:17
me during his football years they were
00:34:19
told always to carb load and again this
00:34:23
it it gave me a huge amount of empathy
00:34:24
because it made me realize how even
00:34:26
though there's podcasts like this where
00:34:27
we talk so much about health and even
00:34:28
though there's the internet now the this
00:34:30
information is not getting through to
00:34:32
the average person for some reason and
00:34:33
they too I believe think exactly what
00:34:36
you just said that health is you know
00:34:38
it's this sort of accessory where my
00:34:41
fate is determined anyway. And if I do
00:34:44
this health stuff, which is a bit of an
00:34:46
inconvenience because these Percy pigs
00:34:47
taste great.
00:34:48
>> Yeah.
00:34:48
>> Um or these these these candies taste
00:34:50
great, then I might be able to look a
00:34:53
little bit better, a little bit more
00:34:54
aesthetically pleasing, but my fate is
00:34:57
determined.
00:34:58
>> The simple point, yeah, nutrition, we're
00:35:01
not teaching it. So, there's only three
00:35:02
macronutrients. There's only protein,
00:35:06
fats, and carbohydrate. And yet your
00:35:09
friends there haven't even got the three
00:35:11
macronutrients and they are successful
00:35:14
intelligent people. So somewhere we're
00:35:18
going badly wrong, aren't we?
00:35:20
>> There is another example that's really
00:35:22
front of mind to me which was, you know,
00:35:23
I'm in Dragon's Den at the moment and
00:35:25
someone came in and pitched a fruit
00:35:28
snack business and it's basically dried
00:35:31
out fruit pieces. Now I looked at the
00:35:33
back.
00:35:33
>> I'm loving this already. Yeah.
00:35:36
>> I looked at the back. Yes.
00:35:37
>> And it said in the range of 60 to 70%
00:35:41
sugar because what they've done is
00:35:43
they've taken exotic fruits like mangoes
00:35:46
>> dried them out and now you have this
00:35:48
little chip which is this just piece of
00:35:50
mango 60 70% sugar. So I'm looking at
00:35:52
the back of this thing thinking this is
00:35:54
candy.
00:35:55
>> This is basically candy.
00:35:56
>> Thank you.
00:35:57
>> But I'm looking around and every because
00:35:59
it uses the word fruit.
00:36:01
>> Yes. People have this sort of halo
00:36:03
assumption that if the word fruit is on
00:36:05
it, fruit juice fruit,
00:36:06
>> it'll sell.
00:36:07
>> Yeah. And who And also it's a sort of
00:36:09
who cares about the consequence but will
00:36:10
make a pile of money.
00:36:11
>> Yeah.
00:36:12
>> Selling dried up fruit and they miss
00:36:15
what you read on the back.
00:36:17
>> Yeah. Sugar. I was like this is
00:36:19
>> okay. How's that? You know what? If
00:36:21
somebody had type two diet what for kids
00:36:23
is we'll just give them Yeah. And I
00:36:28
you've touched on another another thing
00:36:30
about
00:36:32
what's going wrong. So when we look at
00:36:35
my practice and this epidemic and really
00:36:39
as I've said already it's not an
00:36:40
epidemic, it's a pandemic. It's
00:36:42
everywhere. I go all over the world and
00:36:45
obesity, type two diabetes,
00:36:48
uh poor metabolic health is in it's
00:36:50
everywhere. It's everywhere.
00:36:53
And I think one of the things touching
00:36:56
on what you just said is so you you wake
00:36:59
up and you have your cereals for
00:37:02
breakfast
00:37:02
>> which you've got some here
00:37:03
>> which we have some cereals there and
00:37:06
then uh you'll have why don't why don't
00:37:08
you have a big glass of fresh orange
00:37:11
juice as well. Great idea. And then uh
00:37:16
okay, that's your breakfast. But then on
00:37:18
the way in, you have a little snack, and
00:37:20
people do. They buy a bar or some crisps
00:37:24
or something like that. And then even at
00:37:26
school, they might get a muffin midm
00:37:28
morning. Fair enough. They might then
00:37:31
have an apple. At lunchtime, you're
00:37:33
going to have some sandwiches.
00:37:36
And then you've eaten your sandwich. So
00:37:38
you'll, I don't know, you might have
00:37:40
might have a cake or something or some
00:37:42
ice cream. Then you'll go home and then
00:37:44
it's time for you, you know, maybe your
00:37:46
chips or your pizza. What you've
00:37:48
actually done is have sugar with your
00:37:51
sugar with your sugar sugar all day
00:37:54
long. There's hardly any protein going
00:37:56
back then to those macro. Where was the
00:37:59
protein to grow you, you know? And that
00:38:02
that's the thing that that's changed
00:38:05
over time that we are the snacking. So,
00:38:09
I've I come across a lot of young people
00:38:13
and their mother is saying, "I can't get
00:38:15
him to eat any proper food. He just eats
00:38:17
snacks all day long and it won't I can't
00:38:21
they can't get protein in them." And
00:38:23
some of them are actually thin kids.
00:38:25
They're not all fat.
00:38:26
>> Let's talk about what you just said
00:38:27
there. And we can walk through the day
00:38:29
using
00:38:30
>> Yes.
00:38:30
>> the food we have on this table. Now, I
00:38:32
just want to caution that we do have
00:38:33
some people that are probably out
00:38:34
walking their dog listening and can't
00:38:35
see. So, we're going to have to do a bit
00:38:36
of a voice over as to what's going on.
00:38:38
But, you said wake up in the morning,
00:38:40
you have your cereal.
00:38:41
>> Yeah.
00:38:41
>> Now, cereal growing up, I thought was a
00:38:44
health food.
00:38:44
>> Me, too.
00:38:45
>> Yeah.
00:38:46
>> Me, too.
00:38:47
>> How much sugar is in the average
00:38:49
standard bowl of, let's say, frosted
00:38:50
cereal.
00:38:51
>> Well, we can do this different ways,
00:38:53
Stephen.
00:38:54
>> Mhm.
00:38:54
>> This is actually like a test for you
00:38:56
laid out here.
00:38:57
>> Oh, gosh. Is that okay?
00:38:58
>> Yeah. This is a test for you, and I'll
00:39:00
describe it. So, what you've got, you've
00:39:03
got um
00:39:05
a bowl of we'll call them they're corn
00:39:08
flakes.
00:39:09
>> Then you've got a potato, a baked
00:39:12
potato. It isn't baked yet, but you
00:39:14
could bake it if you want. You've got
00:39:17
150 grams, and this is boiled rice, so
00:39:19
it's not dry. It's boiled rice. You've
00:39:22
got a very ripe banana.
00:39:24
And at the end there, you've got a
00:39:27
delicious looking chocolate bar.
00:39:29
>> Yeah. So you've got there uh some cubes
00:39:33
of sugar and this is the test bit you
00:39:35
see
00:39:36
>> as to how I'm going to give you we'll
00:39:38
score you in the end. Okay.
00:39:39
>> So what I'd like you to do is consider
00:39:42
these relatively
00:39:44
>> and each of those cubes of sugar
00:39:46
represents a 4 g teaspoon of sugar.
00:39:49
>> Yeah. So, if you could now just go along
00:39:52
these and put beside each food what you
00:39:55
believe to be the equivalent in terms of
00:39:57
teaspoons of sugar and then I'll give
00:40:00
you a score and see how you do.
00:40:01
>> Okay?
00:40:02
>> And and those are the answers. So, I'm
00:40:03
going to turn it down so you don't
00:40:04
cheat.
00:40:05
>> Okay? So, I'm going to score them as I
00:40:08
would have thought two years ago.
00:40:10
>> Thank you.
00:40:11
>> Because because two years I've
00:40:12
interviewed a lot of experts, so I'm I'm
00:40:14
generally quite shocked by all these
00:40:15
things, but I'm going to score them as I
00:40:17
would have thought when I was 31 years
00:40:18
old 2 years ago. So, That's great.
00:40:20
>> Cereal, honestly.
00:40:22
>> Yeah.
00:40:23
>> Um I
00:40:23
>> And there's no sugar on it. It's not a
00:40:25
sugared cereal. It's just the dry
00:40:27
flakes.
00:40:28
>> I honestly didn't think there was sugar
00:40:29
in that.
00:40:30
>> Yeah.
00:40:31
>> So, if you had pushed me, I would have
00:40:35
>> We'll give it one, eh?
00:40:36
>> I'll give it one. But I didn't think
00:40:37
there was sugar in that.
00:40:38
>> One
00:40:38
>> again. A potato. I didn't think there
00:40:41
was any sugar in a potato. So, even
00:40:43
giving it one feels like I'm lying
00:40:45
because I didn't think there was sugar
00:40:46
in a potato. And I'll be honest, rice, I
00:40:48
didn't think there was any sugar in
00:40:49
rice.
00:40:50
>> Okay.
00:40:51
>> A banana,
00:40:52
>> it tastes sweet.
00:40:53
>> Yes.
00:40:53
>> So, my brain would have said one.
00:40:55
>> Yeah.
00:40:56
>> But this uh this chocolate bar that's in
00:40:58
front of me, I would have said I'm going
00:41:01
to say two.
00:41:03
>> Okay.
00:41:03
>> Two or
00:41:05
I'm going to say three,
00:41:06
>> right?
00:41:06
>> I'm going to say three. I actually think
00:41:07
it was two, but
00:41:09
>> that's how much sugar I would have
00:41:10
thought was in all of these things here.
00:41:12
Cereal, a potato, white rice, a banana,
00:41:14
and a chocolate bar.
00:41:15
>> Right. Well, to be fair, I still kind of
00:41:16
do, but I know better.
00:41:18
>> So, now I'm going to give you the
00:41:19
correct figure. Now, uh this is worked
00:41:24
out from the glycemic load that we
00:41:26
already discussed. So, I explained about
00:41:29
the glycemic load
00:41:32
>> and then so in clinical practice, I had
00:41:34
a problem and my problem was in 10
00:41:37
minutes trying to explain to you how you
00:41:40
could eat differently and why you should
00:41:42
eat differently. And so I needed a way
00:41:46
of quickly communicating with children,
00:41:49
with old people, with a teacher the
00:41:52
consequences of dietary choices.
00:41:55
>> So I came up with a new idea which was
00:41:58
why don't we represent the glycemic load
00:42:03
and instead of using
00:42:06
grams of glucose which nobody
00:42:08
understands and what's glucose anyway.
00:42:10
Instead of doing that, we redid the
00:42:13
calculations,
00:42:15
redoing it for t four gram teaspoons of
00:42:18
sugar. And that's my teaspoon of sugar
00:42:20
equivalent system. And I'm using that
00:42:23
now to give you the correct answer.
00:42:25
>> Okay.
00:42:25
>> Right. So the the cornflakes is one,
00:42:30
two,
00:42:32
four,
00:42:34
five, six, seven, and eight.
00:42:38
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
00:42:42
eight.
00:42:44
>> With no frosting.
00:42:45
>> No frosting.
00:42:47
>> No milk, nothing.
00:42:49
>> The potato, obviously, it depends on its
00:42:52
size. That's quite a big one. So, that
00:42:55
one is one, two, three, four, and
00:42:58
there's more. Five, six
00:43:04
is nine.
00:43:06
There they go. equivalent of nine sugar
00:43:08
cubes.
00:43:08
>> Is that nine?
00:43:09
>> Yeah.
00:43:10
>> Right.
00:43:14
I'm going to leave the rice till last.
00:43:17
That chocolate bar is actually You can
00:43:20
do it for me.
00:43:22
>> Is seven and a half. So you
00:43:26
>> you can give it seven. Seven.
00:43:31
Seven.
00:43:33
Now, the banana depends on the size and
00:43:36
how ripe it is. A ripe banana has more
00:43:38
sugar in as you probably know when you
00:43:40
eat it. But that, let's say that banana
00:43:43
is quite a ripe one. It looks quite
00:43:44
ripe. Let's say that's six cuz it's a
00:43:46
big banana.
00:43:47
>> Oh my gosh.
00:43:53
>> Okay, then the final one obviously is
00:43:57
going to be the killer, isn't it?
00:43:59
>> I thought rice was healthy.
00:44:02
Well, I thought it depends.
00:44:04
>> Was really healthy.
00:44:05
>> Depends. So, one, this is 150 gram of
00:44:10
boiled rice. 3 4
00:44:14
5 6
00:44:18
7
00:44:19
8 9 and
00:44:23
10. So, that's the winner. And I would
00:44:26
say that's the single fact around the
00:44:28
world. So, my my teaspoon of sugar.
00:44:31
There we are. That's one of my teaspoon
00:44:33
of sugar charts. So, what you've got
00:44:35
there is the food,
00:44:38
the glycemic index,
00:44:41
the the serving size, and then the
00:44:44
teaspoons of sugar there. So, this is
00:44:47
available. The public health
00:44:48
collaboration is a charity I helped set
00:44:50
up with Dr. Rangan Chattery 10 years
00:44:53
ago. It's our 10th anniversary tomorrow.
00:44:56
These infographics,
00:44:59
there are actually far more than this.
00:45:01
This is there's seven more. They're
00:45:03
available in 35 languages. Volunteers
00:45:06
have translated this to go all over the
00:45:08
world. It's not copyrighted. I want
00:45:11
people steal it, take it, use it. So the
00:45:15
the white rice fact
00:45:19
I would say has astonished people all
00:45:21
over the world and led to me becoming
00:45:24
far better known.
00:45:26
>> What what about orange juice? A lot of
00:45:28
um parents including my parents give me
00:45:30
gave me orange juice and I used to think
00:45:32
that orange juice was a health food. So
00:45:33
I would literally I'd go to the fridge
00:45:35
I'd get open the sunny delight or
00:45:37
whatever it was
00:45:38
>> sunny delight
00:45:38
>> and I would drink that and I'd think I'm
00:45:40
going to be strong and big and my body's
00:45:42
going to love me. Well, let's so that
00:45:45
there's a lot of sugar in orange juice.
00:45:47
There's a lot of sugar in orange juice
00:45:50
and you've taken away all the once you
00:45:53
take it from the fruit as it was meant
00:45:55
to be and you juice it, the sugar hit is
00:45:58
fast. M
00:46:00
>> so what that does is if you think if we
00:46:04
go back to insulin again
00:46:07
um so you you you drink the orange juice
00:46:11
your blood sugar goes up rapidly so your
00:46:14
body responds rapidly with insulin then
00:46:17
you what happens your blood sugar falls
00:46:20
but then you're kind of hungry again and
00:46:22
that's what happened to me with the
00:46:24
biscuits wasn't it I ate biscuits
00:46:27
my blood sugar is up. Then insulin comes
00:46:30
in heavy and slow but too much. Then I
00:46:34
thought I was having a panic attack cuz
00:46:35
I had low blood sugar. And what's the
00:46:37
answer to that? More biscuits. And round
00:46:39
you go. Round. And that's how without
00:46:42
thinking you'd start the day. Starting
00:46:45
the day with a sugary breakfast
00:46:48
without enough protein in it is driving
00:46:50
hunger. And then you wonder why you're
00:46:53
ravenously hungry at 10:00. There was a
00:46:57
few others that shocked me. One of them
00:46:58
was um I was in Peru and obviously Peru
00:47:01
is quite famous for chocolate because of
00:47:02
the cacao and all that stuff. And so we
00:47:04
went to a chocolate making class
00:47:06
>> and um he told us to make dark
00:47:08
chocolate, normal chocolate and then
00:47:10
white chocolate.
00:47:11
>> Yeah.
00:47:11
>> And when I made the white chocolate,
00:47:13
this guy got me this big glass cylinder
00:47:16
and he goes, "Here's some white sugar."
00:47:18
He goes, "Pour it in." So I, you know, I
00:47:20
get it and I pour some in and I and he
00:47:22
goes, "No, no, no, no, my friend. Pour
00:47:24
it in." Yeah.
00:47:24
>> And I pour it and pour it and pour it
00:47:27
and pour it and pour it and pour it. And
00:47:29
I'm not
00:47:31
check.
00:47:35
I feel like I poured into this huge
00:47:37
glass cylinder.
00:47:38
>> Yeah.
00:47:39
>> 80% of white sugar.
00:47:42
>> Yes.
00:47:42
>> And then
00:47:43
>> it's true.
00:47:44
>> Yeah. And then and then he said, "Put
00:47:45
some syrup in." I was What?
00:47:47
>> This is This is white sugar. It was like
00:47:48
some syrupy stuff, some oil stuff. And I
00:47:50
was like, "So, white sugar?" Um, so
00:47:52
white chocolate is like 80% white sugar.
00:47:56
>> Yeah.
00:47:57
>> I've never eaten white chocolate since
00:47:59
ever.
00:48:00
>> You That's so important. So very often
00:48:03
people think they're a choahholic.
00:48:05
>> That's really common that people say to
00:48:07
me, "I'm I'm addicted to chocolate."
00:48:10
>> If you look at if you actually look at
00:48:12
how much sugar there is in milk
00:48:13
chocolate,
00:48:15
>> uh, you know, there's many teaspoons of
00:48:17
sugar in milk chocolate.
00:48:20
If you eat 90% dark chocolate, there's
00:48:24
only about two teaspoons of sugar in a
00:48:26
bar. And what you find with the
00:48:28
choahholics is I say, "Well, if you're
00:48:31
addicted to chocolate, why don't you get
00:48:33
a bigger hit and have the dark
00:48:35
chocolate?" And they say, "Oh, I
00:48:36
couldn't eat that. It's too bitter."
00:48:38
What they're actually addicted to is the
00:48:39
sugar. what there are. So I've done a
00:48:42
there is for the the folks at home there
00:48:45
is one of these sugar infographics on
00:48:48
chocolate on that subject of chocolate
00:48:51
because I want people to understand the
00:48:54
consequences of what they do.
00:48:56
>> So just to illustrate this because I've
00:48:59
just we've just looked up the stats,
00:49:01
right?
00:49:02
>> I think this is this is this is what I
00:49:04
saw, right? I've just looked up the
00:49:05
facts to make sure I'm saying is true.
00:49:08
When I made that bar of white chocolate
00:49:10
in Peru,
00:49:11
>> yeah,
00:49:12
>> this was the total ingredients and this
00:49:14
is how much sugar I they asked me to put
00:49:16
into it.
00:49:17
>> Blind.
00:49:17
>> I've looked at it and thought, okay, so
00:49:19
white chocolate is basically like 70
00:49:22
odd% just pure white sugar and nobody
00:49:25
knows.
00:49:26
>> Yes, exactly.
00:49:26
>> Nobody knows.
00:49:27
>> Exactly.
00:49:28
>> The other one I've got to be in my
00:49:29
bonnet about is smoothies.
00:49:30
>> Yes, I want one, too.
00:49:32
>> I thought smoothies were healthy.
00:49:33
>> Yeah. No, they're the, you know, I'm on
00:49:37
X or Twitter quite a lot and that's the
00:49:38
kind of thing fills me with rage and I
00:49:41
have to take a photo with like my Look
00:49:43
at the sugar. Uh, there was Yeah, it
00:49:47
fills me with rage. I've got another
00:49:48
thing. This is fun. I've got another
00:49:50
I've got a question.
00:49:51
>> Right, Stephen?
00:49:53
Why don't we We could take all the blood
00:49:55
out of me,
00:49:56
>> right? There'd be five liters. We could
00:49:59
bleed me out right now. There would be
00:50:01
five lers of blood in me. Let's get it
00:50:04
in a bucket. All right. Five lers of
00:50:06
blood. How much sugar would be in that
00:50:11
five lers of blood?
00:50:13
>> I have no idea. I didn't.
00:50:14
>> But it's an interesting question, isn't
00:50:16
it? Because it relates to the
00:50:19
consequences of eating some of these
00:50:21
things. So, I would just like you to
00:50:24
estimate. So, if let's say my blood
00:50:26
sugar is normal.
00:50:27
>> Yeah. Um, if you have a normal blood
00:50:31
sugar, I would like you to guess how
00:50:33
much sugar is there in my entire blood
00:50:36
system.
00:50:37
>> One one cup like this.
00:50:39
>> Thank you.
00:50:41
No, the answer is this. Let me show you.
00:50:45
That is all there is.
00:50:47
>> You're joking.
00:50:48
>> I am not. And you see immediately
00:50:50
>> one sugar cube.
00:50:51
>> That's all. And I'll do it on Twitter
00:50:54
for you. X I can show you the
00:50:56
calculations.
00:50:57
So you see, if I have a banana
00:51:00
and I have diabetes, the there's too
00:51:03
much sugar for me. You see, because
00:51:05
glucose is number one vital, but number
00:51:08
two toxic if you have too much of it.
00:51:11
The level of it in my blood is
00:51:13
controlled minutely.
00:51:14
>> Wow.
00:51:15
>> It's controlled to this extent. And I
00:51:19
think that single fat, you didn't know
00:51:20
that, did you? I did not know how to.
00:51:21
>> And it it immediately shows you how it's
00:51:24
so easy to have more sugar than you
00:51:26
actually need.
00:51:27
given that
00:51:28
>> and if your insulin stops working.
00:51:30
>> So for me, I've done an awful lot of
00:51:33
this. So I monitor my blood sugar with a
00:51:35
continuous glucose monitor and I get my
00:51:39
blood sugar up on my phone so I can
00:51:41
check at any time what my blood sugar
00:51:43
is. And we'll do it in a minute and see.
00:51:46
But you see, if I if I eat a banana, it
00:51:50
doubles my blood sugar because I can't
00:51:52
regulate my blood sugar
00:51:53
>> because of the diabetes.
00:51:54
>> Yeah. So, a whole banana
00:51:57
is far too much for me and will double
00:52:01
my blood sugar because you see if I'm
00:52:03
only supposed to have this much and I
00:52:05
have that much.
00:52:06
>> Gosh. Yeah.
00:52:07
>> It's too much for me and I feel ill.
00:52:10
>> Giving, you know, I go out into the
00:52:12
world and I speak to the people that
00:52:13
listen to the show and they're like taxi
00:52:15
cab drivers. It's a lot of taxi. Do you
00:52:16
know I wonder I've got this bias towards
00:52:18
thinking everybody that listens is a
00:52:19
taxi. I've got this bias towards
00:52:21
thinking that everybody that listens is
00:52:22
a taxi cab driver because I really only
00:52:25
spend my time in the office or in a
00:52:27
taxi. So, I get lots of feedback from
00:52:29
these cab drivers and the average person
00:52:31
out there listening now,
00:52:34
>> they don't know how to check if the food
00:52:36
they are eating is good or not because
00:52:38
the labels on these foods I I've got so
00:52:40
obsessed by the marketing.
00:52:42
>> Yes. And um you know I was looking at
00:52:44
this bag of sweets the other day and it
00:52:46
said made with real fruit juice and they
00:52:49
put it front and center and I I was
00:52:52
almost tricked. So I can't imagine
00:52:54
someone who like me who doesn't spend I
00:52:56
can't imagine someone who doesn't spend
00:52:57
their time interviewing health experts
00:52:59
how easily the general public is being
00:53:01
tricked. So what is your advice in terms
00:53:03
of spotting this stuff? Like what do I
00:53:06
look at? Cuz right now I spend a lot of
00:53:07
time looking at the sugar part.
00:53:09
>> Yeah that's great. There's different
00:53:11
ways we can do this and obviously this
00:53:13
is how I spend every clinic. That's I'm
00:53:14
in clinic yesterday. This is what I'm
00:53:16
doing. I'm trying to help people
00:53:17
understand.
00:53:19
It's sometimes easier to talk about what
00:53:22
maybe what you would eat rather than
00:53:24
what you wouldn't eat. So I for somebody
00:53:28
with insulin resistance or type 2
00:53:31
diabetes, I would tend to say, well, why
00:53:33
don't you base your meal on protein? So
00:53:36
what have you got in the fridge? Could
00:53:39
it be chicken? Could it be eggs? What
00:53:41
would it be? So that's your protein.
00:53:45
Have loads of it. Then I'm thinking,
00:53:47
right, green veg.
00:53:50
Will you What green veges would you
00:53:52
tolerate? What green veg could you buy?
00:53:54
Might be frozen beans or it might be
00:53:56
salad or whatever. And then I'm saying,
00:53:59
how would you make that green veg
00:54:01
tasty?
00:54:02
>> Pour barbecue sauce on the top.
00:54:04
>> Ah, no. Full fat mayo. full fat mayo or
00:54:07
butter or olive oil or whatever. So that
00:54:11
>> I say barbecue sauce because when I
00:54:12
looked at the back of mine, I had the
00:54:14
shock horror of realizing that there's
00:54:15
>> it's a common one.
00:54:17
>> 30 sugar cubes in a bottle, a standard
00:54:20
bottle of barbecue sauce.
00:54:22
>> It's just pouring sugar on top.
00:54:23
>> It is. It is. You have to be so
00:54:25
vigilant. And I I think to do it
00:54:27
successfully,
00:54:29
I'm quite interested in the idea of
00:54:30
could you eat real food that's not in a
00:54:33
packet.
00:54:34
It's it's it's Russian roulette food out
00:54:37
of packets. And yet I understand my
00:54:40
patients north of Liverpool, you know,
00:54:43
where are they going to buy the stuff?
00:54:44
So I try and help them with
00:54:46
you could do it that way. If you're not
00:54:49
if you're going to eat stuff out of
00:54:50
packets, you have to wise up and you
00:54:53
have to look at the carbohydrate
00:54:55
content. And bear in mind, every four
00:54:58
grams
00:55:00
is broadly equivalent to sugar. So if if
00:55:03
if there's a if there's if something's
00:55:06
got 100 grams of carbs in it, I've
00:55:10
already said carbohydrate varies in how
00:55:12
sugary it is, but it gives you an idea.
00:55:15
It's very sugary. So you see the the
00:55:17
error you made with the corn flakes is
00:55:19
there's no sugar there but it's all
00:55:20
carbohydrate
00:55:22
>> and it it's a very sugary carbohydrate.
00:55:24
I think we need to just explain that for
00:55:27
people which is when I looked at those
00:55:28
corn flakes the question I asked you is
00:55:30
they're not frosted so there's no sugar
00:55:32
on them but what the body is doing is
00:55:34
it's converting the carbs into glucose
00:55:37
>> right I've got a good way so we have to
00:55:40
think of starchy carbs as actually
00:55:44
glucose molecules holding hands
00:55:47
>> okay
00:55:47
>> and then digestion comes along and
00:55:50
breaks down
00:55:52
they're they're not holding hands
00:55:54
anymore more and they become free sugar
00:55:56
again
00:55:56
>> cuz we think if it's not sweet it's not
00:55:58
glucose.
00:55:58
>> Exactly. Exactly. I don't know whether
00:56:00
when you went to school was it this
00:56:02
thing where you chewed bread for ages
00:56:04
and then you could see if it became
00:56:06
sweet or it turned into sugar. It's a
00:56:08
school boy experiment that's done a lot
00:56:11
to prove that uh the amalayise the
00:56:14
enzyme in spit uh turns starch into
00:56:18
sugar. But that's the point starch is
00:56:21
soon to be sugar. glucose holding hands.
00:56:24
Yeah. And when it holds hands, it's not
00:56:26
sweet. But then when you digest it
00:56:28
Exactly. it's no longer holding hands.
00:56:29
>> Perfect. And that was is broadly what?
00:56:32
>> And you're not alone because didn't I
00:56:34
make that error? Isn't that what the
00:56:37
lady in 2012?
00:56:39
That's what she was so furious that I
00:56:42
was making. So here here we are, senior
00:56:44
partner of a large practice
00:56:47
had forgotten
00:56:49
uh that starch was sugar. And we come
00:56:51
full circle because and so many other
00:56:54
people they they patients say to me,
00:56:58
"Dr. Roman, I know uh not to have sugary
00:57:02
things. I've given up sugar in my tea
00:57:05
and coffee and I don't understand why my
00:57:08
blood sugar is so high." People say that
00:57:11
very often. And then of course we use
00:57:12
the teaspoon of sugar equivalents or a
00:57:14
continuous glucose monitor to really
00:57:16
show them what's going on.
00:57:18
Something that a lot of people have is
00:57:20
bread.
00:57:21
>> Yes.
00:57:21
>> Um, white bread. So, I I did some
00:57:24
research and it said a single slice of
00:57:25
white bread contains about 0.5 sugar
00:57:28
cubes, but a full loaf can pack up to 12
00:57:31
cubes of sugar in it.
00:57:33
>> That's true, but it doesn't it doesn't
00:57:37
include the fact that the wheat that
00:57:40
makes the bread will turn into sugar as
00:57:42
well.
00:57:43
>> Okay. So on my teaspoon of sugar
00:57:45
equivalent,
00:57:46
even a small slice of brown bread is
00:57:50
about 3 teaspoon of sugar.
00:57:52
>> Is there a healthy bread?
00:57:55
>> That's a really great great question.
00:57:57
And of course it depends how well your
00:58:00
insulin's working. So if you're young
00:58:03
and you take a lot of exercise and your
00:58:05
insulin's really good,
00:58:08
then maybe brown bread is is okay. If
00:58:12
you're like me though with insulin
00:58:14
resistance there it would have to be low
00:58:18
carb bread. So I wouldn't normally eat
00:58:20
bread under any circumstances but I
00:58:22
might have low carb bread.
00:58:25
>> I did some research said sprouted grain
00:58:27
bread. Never heard of that before. Or
00:58:29
100% whole grain rye are the healthiest
00:58:31
options because they contain zero added
00:58:33
sugar and high fiber.
00:58:35
So,
00:58:35
>> right. I mean, what I'd say to people
00:58:40
>> again, it depends. How much exercise do
00:58:43
you take? How do you know? Have you had
00:58:45
your fasting insulin measured? Do you
00:58:47
know if you're insulin resistant or not?
00:58:50
>> Mhm.
00:58:51
>> Um,
00:58:53
if you're healthy, take lots of
00:58:54
exercise. Sounds good. Fair enough. If
00:58:56
you if you're beginning to develop a
00:58:58
tummy, well, maybe not so good. And if
00:59:01
you don't know,
00:59:03
I'm a great one for experimenting. And
00:59:06
that's where I come back again to
00:59:08
consider
00:59:10
uh buying a continuous glucose monitor.
00:59:13
The thing you wear on I've got one on me
00:59:15
now. And it tells my phone how is my
00:59:17
blood sugar. So I can experiment then. I
00:59:19
could try your bread and within an hour
00:59:21
I would know. This has had probably the
00:59:25
single biggest impact on my office. Of
00:59:27
all the products that I've tried that
00:59:29
have given me productivity gains or
00:59:31
cognitive boosts, I would say that
00:59:33
exogenous ketones are in the top three
00:59:36
most pivotal things that have given me a
00:59:39
massive productivity gain. It's some
00:59:40
Stanford graduates that have been able
00:59:41
to basically bottle up the effect you
00:59:44
get from being in a ketogenic diet in a
00:59:47
small shot that you can take that makes
00:59:50
you feel incredibly focused and gives
00:59:52
your brain an incredible source of
00:59:53
energy. And the clinical studies that
00:59:54
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00:59:56
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00:59:58
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>> Am I wise to be looking at the back of
01:01:29
packets? I look at the back of
01:01:31
everything I eat.
01:01:31
>> Yes.
01:01:32
>> Um and I'm building, I guess, a mental
01:01:33
model of the different levels of
01:01:35
carbohydrates and sugar content and
01:01:37
fiber and all these other things and
01:01:38
proteins, etc. But I always seem to zoom
01:01:40
in on the sugar,
01:01:42
>> the added sugar.
01:01:44
>> Ah, right. There is an error there.
01:01:45
>> Okay. So you that's brilliant and you
01:01:47
the fact you're interested and trying is
01:01:51
great because you'll learn so much more
01:01:53
because of course
01:01:56
the sugar is one thing but you must also
01:01:58
look at the carbohydrate
01:02:01
>> the carbohydrate content. Now um this is
01:02:04
done differently in the United States
01:02:06
from here.
01:02:09
Confusingly here we talk about
01:02:11
carbohydrate
01:02:13
separately from fiber. So that in the UK
01:02:17
when it says carbohydrate that turns
01:02:20
into sugar. In the states you've got uh
01:02:24
the carbohydrate including fiber. So it
01:02:28
makes it more complicated for you
01:02:30
because you need to know which how much
01:02:33
of that carbohydrate are you going to
01:02:34
absorb. Well, let's go back to the three
01:02:37
macronutrients. So
01:02:39
you should be interested in
01:02:42
protein. How much you want? You want you
01:02:44
want to be a musly kind of guy. So you
01:02:47
want your protein. Uh the carbohydrate.
01:02:50
Well, why do you need that? I'm
01:02:51
wondering. And then fats. Well, you
01:02:54
might need those for fats soluble
01:02:55
vitamins. So those are the uh the three
01:02:58
things so that you become more
01:03:00
sophisticated and if things have a lot
01:03:03
of preservatives, if they have an awful
01:03:05
lot of ingredients, I'm immediately
01:03:07
suspicious.
01:03:08
>> I think one of the things that people
01:03:10
that I've come to learn through
01:03:11
interviewing people like yourself is
01:03:12
that it's not just the direct
01:03:13
consequence of having a big uh glucose
01:03:16
spike or
01:03:18
you know having high blood sugar. It's
01:03:20
also the fact that when I eat things
01:03:22
like Mars bars or the white rice here, I
01:03:26
then get more hungry later.
01:03:27
>> Exactly.
01:03:27
>> Which means I eat even more sugar that
01:03:29
same day and the next day and the next
01:03:30
day.
01:03:31
>> And of course, that's what my patients
01:03:34
right back in 2013, it was the absence
01:03:37
of hunger they found fascinating. And I
01:03:39
did cuz I'd been hungry all my life
01:03:41
because all my life I'd been uh carb
01:03:45
heavy. And I didn't realize that the
01:03:47
more carbs you eat, the hungrier you
01:03:49
become. I don't know. Have you ever
01:03:51
tried fasting? I bet you have.
01:03:52
>> Oh my gosh. Yeah.
01:03:53
>> Right.
01:03:53
>> I fast most days to be honest. I haven't
01:03:55
eaten today. And what time are we? Well,
01:03:57
I don't know. Uh 1 1:00 p.m. And during
01:04:00
the Dragon's Den filming, I I don't eat
01:04:03
often until the evening. So
01:04:05
>> great. So isn't that interesting? So I
01:04:08
used to I used to have a model which was
01:04:11
um that if I didn't eat, I was hungry,
01:04:14
right?
01:04:14
>> Mhm. So if I didn't eat for even twice
01:04:18
as long, I'd be twice as hungry and it
01:04:20
would rise exponentially until I went
01:04:22
mad.
01:04:23
>> And what's surprising that you must have
01:04:25
found is as you fast, you don't become
01:04:28
more hungry, do you?
01:04:29
>> Yeah, it's crazy.
01:04:29
>> Well, isn't that interesting
01:04:31
>> that actually get the more I eat, the
01:04:33
hungrier I become.
01:04:35
>> When I'm on keto,
01:04:36
>> pardon?
01:04:36
>> When I'm on keto,
01:04:37
>> yeah,
01:04:38
>> I I can't believe I can't It's like
01:04:40
hunger just vanishes. The other thing
01:04:42
that the remarkable thing I love, what
01:04:43
are those cinnamon roll things? I love
01:04:45
those cinnamon rolls usually. I love
01:04:47
them. And when I started doing the
01:04:48
ketogenic diet, which is very, very,
01:04:50
very low carb. I remember walking up to
01:04:52
this cinnamon roll concession stand in
01:04:54
Cape Town and looking at them
01:04:56
>> and they were doing nothing to my brain.
01:04:59
There was no temptation.
01:05:01
I've had that.
01:05:02
>> It's like a superpower.
01:05:04
>> Honestly, I've had that with Christmas
01:05:06
cake.
01:05:06
>> It was my kryptonite. It was the kind of
01:05:09
thing I was sneaking down when they'd
01:05:12
all gone to bed and having more.
01:05:14
>> And then one day you can look at it and
01:05:16
it and you think it's not actually food.
01:05:19
>> Your brain that isn't food.
01:05:21
>> Yeah. Exactly.
01:05:22
>> And I'm the same with buns as well and
01:05:24
all sorts of things that a lifetime of
01:05:27
and they're no longer food and it feels
01:05:29
like a superpower because I can I'm such
01:05:31
a man. In fact, I I throw this down as a
01:05:34
challenge to men. Are you man enough
01:05:37
>> to resist? You know what? Whatever it
01:05:40
is.
01:05:41
>> Let's do a challenge. Come back in a
01:05:43
week and tell me you've not had any
01:05:44
biscuits.
01:05:46
>> It it it it works. It works.
01:05:49
>> What do you think of the ketogenic diet?
01:05:52
>> Wow. That's a Oh, that's a big question,
01:05:55
isn't it?
01:05:57
And don't you think we need to begin
01:05:59
with what you want? So, I think we need
01:06:01
to begin with your goals and hope. Why
01:06:04
would is it are you wanting to lose
01:06:08
weight? Are you wanting to sort out type
01:06:11
two do diabetes? Or I'm I mean George
01:06:14
Reed, Dr. George Reed is a close friend
01:06:17
>> and nutritional psychiatry is really
01:06:19
growing and the Ian Campbell in
01:06:21
Edinburgh University is doing some
01:06:23
amazing work with bipolar disorder and
01:06:25
other things. So why are you doing it?
01:06:29
That's so that's my first thing because
01:06:32
there's I see it as there is a spectrum
01:06:34
of carbohydrate that you're on. So I try
01:06:37
and find out where are you now and I you
01:06:40
know approximately where are you now and
01:06:42
then I'd say well could you could you
01:06:45
give up bread or reduce it and then I'd
01:06:49
say let's let's measure whatever
01:06:51
parameter we want which might be blood
01:06:53
work or weight or whatever then we say
01:06:56
how are you doing are you happy now is
01:06:58
this is it or do you want would you like
01:07:02
to go a bit lower and what I've
01:07:03
discovered with my patients over 13
01:07:06
years is they tend to go lower over time
01:07:08
because when they experiment
01:07:11
>> when they go keto, what they like is the
01:07:13
brain thing.
01:07:14
>> Oh gosh. Yeah.
01:07:15
>> And that's what I'm that's right. So I
01:07:17
would say to you now cuz I'm interested.
01:07:19
Yeah.
01:07:19
>> Why would you go keto? What are you
01:07:21
after?
01:07:22
>> Um so I'm going to put the brain thing
01:07:23
at the top of the list which is just the
01:07:25
clarity of thought. Obviously in my job
01:07:26
I have to sit here with very smart
01:07:28
people like you and I have to talk
01:07:29
sometimes for three four hours whatever
01:07:31
it might be. But also, I'm on television
01:07:33
a lot now and I'm speaking, you know,
01:07:35
cameras, nine cameras rolling BBC 1 and
01:07:38
I've got to think of something smart to
01:07:39
say to this entrepreneur sit in front of
01:07:40
me on that's pitching to me. And then
01:07:42
also I'm in meetings, you know, I'll
01:07:44
leave this conversation now and I'll go
01:07:45
straight downstairs and I'll have two
01:07:47
hours of straight meetings about very
01:07:48
very complicated things about buying
01:07:49
companies. I'll be meeting founders,
01:07:51
interviewing people. And what I've
01:07:53
noticed profoundly because so much of my
01:07:54
job centers on speaking and articulation
01:07:56
is there is this wild wild variance that
01:07:59
I hate.
01:08:01
And what I mean by that is some days I'm
01:08:03
on it
01:08:04
>> and some days I am almost embarrassed by
01:08:06
my inability to string a sentence
01:08:07
together. Today I'm I'm almost testing
01:08:09
myself now by trying to speak really
01:08:10
really fast and see if my brain's
01:08:11
connected to my mouth. That's like
01:08:12
that's actually like what I do. I try
01:08:14
and see if I if it flows out. Today I'm
01:08:16
okay.
01:08:17
>> Yeah.
01:08:17
>> Um but there are days where I'm
01:08:19
stumbling over myself
01:08:22
>> and I go what's what's causing this?
01:08:24
What's the causal factor and how do I
01:08:25
prevent this? That's one. Keto, when I'm
01:08:27
in keto, I always sound like Buster
01:08:29
Rhymes. it always just
01:08:31
>> it it's always uh it's always working.
01:08:34
>> And then I'd say the aesthetic stuff
01:08:36
because I want to look good as well,
01:08:37
especially for, you know, my fiance. So,
01:08:38
I want to be in shape. I want to be uh
01:08:40
And then I'd say the third is being
01:08:42
strong. And then the fourth is I want to
01:08:44
live long.
01:08:46
>> Exactly.
01:08:46
>> I want to have a long health span, not
01:08:48
just a long lifespan, but I want to be
01:08:50
able to do things as I age.
01:08:51
>> So, you see, you're that's exactly what
01:08:53
I began this meeting with. you've got a
01:08:57
clear idea about your preferred future.
01:09:00
>> Mhm.
01:09:00
>> And it's it's it's it's fairly specific,
01:09:02
too. And the more specific you are, the
01:09:05
more likely you are to be successful.
01:09:07
And then you're noticing. Then
01:09:08
afterwards comes the feedback.
01:09:10
>> Do you think most people even have
01:09:11
thought about this?
01:09:12
>> No.
01:09:13
>> I was just thinking about my listeners
01:09:14
and I was thinking they're listening
01:09:15
right now. I wonder if they have written
01:09:17
down their top four.
01:09:19
>> Yeah. So I do you know what I'd love to
01:09:21
do now is tell you something about my
01:09:23
wife's work because it relates to
01:09:26
changing behavior fast and that she
01:09:29
won't mind. So that we're back to Jen
01:09:31
now. We have a woman. She spent two
01:09:33
years
01:09:35
um thinking about CBT and what was what
01:09:39
this is a type of therapy and what were
01:09:41
the necessary parts of it and what was
01:09:43
junk. and she reduced CBT down to
01:09:47
something I'll teach you right now. All
01:09:49
right. So, we'll off we go. Off we go.
01:09:52
>> So, the first thing is to think about
01:09:56
your health goals. So, to think about
01:09:59
what in a year's time, if what you do is
01:10:02
great, how does that look specifically?
01:10:07
So, I'll give you an example. You might
01:10:09
think you'd like to lose weight, but
01:10:12
that isn't specific enough. I want to
01:10:14
know what difference would that make to
01:10:17
you? So, we'll do it now. So, you said
01:10:20
you wanted to be in shape.
01:10:21
>> Yeah.
01:10:22
>> What I don't know what do you mean by
01:10:23
that. Do you want to lose weight? What
01:10:25
do you tell me more?
01:10:27
Um, I want to be
01:10:30
able to
01:10:34
h
01:10:41
what I'm really I think scared of, I'm
01:10:44
going to be completely honest,
01:10:46
>> is I'm scared of
01:10:55
>> having the same health profile as my
01:10:56
dad.
01:10:57
>> Ah, right. Yes.
01:10:59
>> Because I've seen we have the same, you
01:11:01
know, we have a lot of the same genetic
01:11:03
profile.
01:11:04
>> Yes.
01:11:04
>> So, I think a lot of us look at our
01:11:07
parents and go, "Is that my future?"
01:11:10
>> Yes.
01:11:10
>> Yeah.
01:11:11
>> And to make it even more specific, I
01:11:14
remember walking down some stairs. I've
01:11:16
said this once before, but I remember
01:11:17
walking down some stairs in Bali,
01:11:20
>> long steep set of stairs down to go
01:11:22
white water rafting with my fianceé. And
01:11:25
I remember those stairs recrafting
01:11:35
because we've got to walk back up these
01:11:36
stairs.
01:11:37
>> And so my dad would have lost out on one
01:11:39
of the great joys of life, which is
01:11:40
doing enjoyable things with friends and
01:11:42
people you love because his health is
01:11:44
now in that regard is gone.
01:11:46
>> Um, so I've always thought of that. And
01:11:49
then generally like I I remember when I
01:11:50
was younger, my dad used to play like
01:11:52
football with us and and all these
01:11:54
things and he's unable to do that now.
01:11:56
Um and so I'm and because I've done this
01:12:00
podcast so many times with health
01:12:01
experts, I realized that the decisions I
01:12:04
make at 30, which is where I am now,
01:12:07
exist on this really interesting, quite
01:12:09
predictable curve of inevitable decline.
01:12:13
However, not like inevitable
01:12:20
uh loss of lifestyle. What I mean by
01:12:21
that is I just have this picture in my
01:12:23
head of all these graphs I've seen where
01:12:24
like your peak is around maybe 2030 and
01:12:27
then you're going down which we all
01:12:29
accept
01:12:30
>> but how far you go down is determined by
01:12:32
decisions you make right now.
01:12:33
>> Absolutely.
01:12:34
>> The decisions I make now will end me at
01:12:36
70 80 years old in either the inability
01:12:39
to walk or the ability to run.
01:12:43
>> Yeah.
01:12:43
>> And it's all about what I do now. is so
01:12:46
that let's just refine that. So we've
01:12:48
we've we've I've got your goal. Yeah.
01:12:51
Now
01:12:52
>> so let's let's park your goal.
01:12:55
Now the next thing we've got is in the
01:12:57
past what have you done that's worked
01:13:01
towards those goals. So you probably
01:13:02
tell me some stuff you've done that's
01:13:04
worked.
01:13:05
>> Um
01:13:08
things like going to the gym.
01:13:10
>> Yeah. Yeah. anything anything quickly
01:13:11
that you did that worked that that was
01:13:14
is is a is a first you know helped that
01:13:18
you did and you remember that worked so
01:13:19
tell me anything
01:13:20
>> so I said to myself one year that I was
01:13:21
going to go to the gym every single day
01:13:22
terrible idea because I got 5 months in
01:13:24
and then I missed a day then it was over
01:13:26
I said to myself another year I think
01:13:27
this was 2017 that I'm going to get a
01:13:29
six-pack for summer terrible idea
01:13:32
because when summer came or I got the
01:13:33
six pack
01:13:34
>> my question was what did work in the
01:13:36
past not what didn't work so what has
01:13:38
worked for you in the past
01:13:39
>> so those two incidents um helped me
01:13:41
change my idea and the idea that I came
01:13:44
up with was I set not a achievable thing
01:13:47
as a goal but consistency is the goal
01:13:50
>> and consistency became for the last four
01:13:53
years this idea that the goal my fitness
01:13:55
goal is consistency means that every day
01:13:57
I wake up I get a shot at it and if I
01:13:59
up today then I've got another shot
01:14:01
tomorrow
01:14:01
>> right leave it there that's good so we
01:14:03
we did the goal and then we did the next
01:14:06
thing what what I just the next thing is
01:14:08
is resources is
01:14:10
>> Mhm.
01:14:10
>> So it's it's what do you bring to the
01:14:13
consultation that you've done in the
01:14:15
past? Intelligence, resources, friends
01:14:18
that will help.
01:14:20
>> Yeah.
01:14:20
>> You come already with expertise in
01:14:23
yourself. So it's not I'm not the expert
01:14:25
to tell you what to do. You've already
01:14:27
got some stuff. Yeah.
01:14:28
>> Then we go to the next thing. So if we
01:14:30
had your goal at the beginning which was
01:14:33
the fitness and the so and so today what
01:14:38
might be a small step towards your goal
01:14:41
a realistic small step towards the goals
01:14:44
we've already established.
01:14:50
>> So I can think of two good
01:14:52
>> one of them is uh creating a social pact
01:14:55
which again was one of the things that
01:14:57
helped. So we made a WhatsApp group.
01:14:58
This is quite funny. We made a WhatsApp
01:15:00
group. We put 10 friends in it and we
01:15:02
made a simple rule. Whoever's the least
01:15:03
consistent every month is evicted and we
01:15:05
invite a new friend in.
01:15:06
>> Wow.
01:15:07
>> We've done that for four years. I've not
01:15:08
been evicted in four years, which means
01:15:10
that I'm doing enough. I'm consistent
01:15:12
enough over those four years
01:15:13
>> to not be evicted. Every day when we
01:15:15
work out, it puts our workouts into the
01:15:17
group chat
01:15:18
>> and um every every week and every month
01:15:21
um there's a winner and there's this
01:15:23
league table
01:15:24
>> and you get these little emoji medals
01:15:26
and there's actually I won one year so
01:15:27
I've got this physical massive gold belt
01:15:29
on my bookshelf at home. It says fitness
01:15:31
blockchain world champion.
01:15:32
>> Brilliant.
01:15:32
>> So I've done that for four years. Um so
01:15:34
a social pack really helped me the the
01:15:36
sort of accountability to others. Yeah.
01:15:38
>> And the other the other honestly was
01:15:43
just
01:15:45
as I said a second ago when I set the
01:15:47
the goal of going to the gym every
01:15:49
single day, I set myself up for failure.
01:15:51
Now I set myself the goal of
01:15:53
consistency, which means that I can do
01:15:55
have bad days where I do 20 minutes or
01:15:57
15 minutes. Yesterday cuz I was finished
01:15:59
Dragon's Den late, drove down to London,
01:16:00
got home at 1:00 a.m. I did 18 minutes.
01:16:04
>> Yeah. and reducing the size of success
01:16:07
really helped me to
01:16:10
keep my feeling of momentum.
01:16:12
>> Brilliant. We're nearly at the end of
01:16:13
your degree in psychology. Okay.
01:16:15
>> And I'm going to pull it together.
01:16:17
>> The final thing is
01:16:20
um when things if you what would you
01:16:23
notice
01:16:25
for you when things are going well? What
01:16:27
would you notice?
01:16:30
>> So you've done some of these things.
01:16:32
What is it you actually notice
01:16:34
>> as in the benefit to me?
01:16:36
>> Yeah. What what do you notice? So if you
01:16:38
do if tomorrow is a really good day,
01:16:41
what might you notice at the end of it?
01:16:42
Cuz you've much experience in this now.
01:16:44
What would you notice?
01:16:46
>> I mean the first thing that comes to
01:16:47
mind is just how I feel.
01:16:49
>> Yes.
01:16:49
>> I just feel
01:16:51
>> Do you mean emotionally or
01:16:52
energetically? Great.
01:16:53
>> All of it. Emotionally I feel good about
01:16:55
myself.
01:16:55
>> Yeah.
01:16:56
>> Um energetically I feel more energetic.
01:16:59
Um, and there is this um
01:17:03
there is this element of identity in
01:17:05
there where I have an opinion of myself
01:17:08
and who I think I am and I think I'm a
01:17:09
healthy person and I think I'm someone
01:17:11
that's in control.
01:17:12
>> And when I'm when I'm not going when I'm
01:17:14
not performing the consistent behaviors
01:17:16
that I want to I think I start to
01:17:19
question that identity in a way that's
01:17:20
that causes a lot of discomfort and say,
01:17:22
"Well, you're not in control of your own
01:17:23
life." Like, how that's that's crazy.
01:17:24
>> So, I think it it links into
01:17:26
self-esteem. Yeah,
01:17:27
>> it really. So, what we've just did, we
01:17:29
had the goals G.
01:17:32
>> Yeah.
01:17:32
>> Then we had your resources R.
01:17:36
>> Yeah.
01:17:36
>> Then we had increments. What things had
01:17:39
you done? Little things on the way. And
01:17:42
then finally, I invited you to notice
01:17:44
and reflect. And that spells grin. And
01:17:47
that's Jen's published grin model. I
01:17:49
just did it for you right there. And I
01:17:51
could do it faster than that. I do it in
01:17:54
nearly every surgery I do because what
01:17:56
I'm trying to do is find out about you.
01:17:58
>> Mhm.
01:17:59
>> And you didn't find out much about me in
01:18:01
that process, did you?
01:18:02
>> No.
01:18:03
>> But I found out a lot of really useful
01:18:05
stuff to you and it's motivational. And
01:18:07
much better to do that than me tell you
01:18:09
what to do. And I'm not a talking
01:18:12
leaflet, but motivation, this is what
01:18:15
Jen has taught me, is key in everything
01:18:17
we do. And the grin model isn't bad.
01:18:22
clever woman.
01:18:22
>> So what do we do with the grin model?
01:18:24
And so this is really helping me figure
01:18:26
out how to change my behavior. Like how
01:18:29
how does one apply it or are you saying
01:18:31
that everyone listening now should
01:18:32
should answer those four questions
01:18:34
themselves? I do because otherwise it's
01:18:37
possible to spend a lot of time blaming
01:18:40
yourself,
01:18:41
>> you know, and particularly around if
01:18:43
we're discussing weight problems and so
01:18:44
on, you can spend a lot of time saying
01:18:48
I'm to blame or I wish or I shouldn't
01:18:52
have that. You know, after Christmas,
01:18:55
everybody feels like this. But what is
01:18:58
much better rather than focusing
01:19:01
you're wasting energy if you start
01:19:03
thinking about guilt and negative stuff
01:19:06
and what Jen's trying to do is getting
01:19:09
you to engage
01:19:11
by in in thinking about a better future.
01:19:15
And what the whole of that five minutes
01:19:16
was engaging you in in
01:19:21
first of all the goal of a better
01:19:23
future, then some resources towards your
01:19:27
better future, then the first steps
01:19:29
towards the better future, and then
01:19:31
noticing what's good.
01:19:33
>> Mhm.
01:19:34
>> Because I think in medicine, what we've
01:19:36
done, how do you get a doctor's
01:19:38
attention? You get a doctor's attention
01:19:40
by saying, "Oh, it's so bad. It's so so
01:19:44
bad. My pain is so so bad. And I
01:19:48
realized I had trained my patients to
01:19:52
think that moaning was how you know they
01:19:55
got my attention. And if you do that,
01:19:57
the result is a very miserable 2-hour
01:20:00
surgery.
01:20:02
But if you can talk, even people having
01:20:04
a a terrible time have got hope if you
01:20:07
can find it. They have goals if you can
01:20:10
discuss them. And you could have
01:20:12
somebody with a drug addiction or what
01:20:14
you know I see people dying people all
01:20:16
sort every clinic I'm seeing sad stuff
01:20:20
but if you can also investigate
01:20:24
hopes and good stuff as a doctor I'm so
01:20:28
much more energetic so much more hopeful
01:20:30
I'm having a great time and I wasn't
01:20:33
when I was 55 and that's the process
01:20:36
>> I bet there's so many people listening
01:20:37
now that maybe they you know because
01:20:39
they listen to this show and they've got
01:20:40
the sort of basics. They go, "You know
01:20:42
what? I understand this stuff and I'm
01:20:44
making good progress, but I live with or
01:20:46
love someone."
01:20:47
>> Yes.
01:20:48
>> Who I I'm I'm scared they're going down
01:20:51
a slippery slope and I don't know what
01:20:53
to do. Do I intervene? Do I hide their
01:20:55
sweets? Do I blame? What do I do?
01:20:57
>> That's so hard, isn't it? That's so
01:20:59
hard. I think you can.
01:21:02
>> Weren't you in that position to some
01:21:04
degree?
01:21:05
>> Yes. Uh yeah. So, uh, my first wife had
01:21:10
a very severe addiction problem. So, I
01:21:12
lived with that for 12 years and she's
01:21:14
unfortunately died now. Um, so I lived
01:21:18
with very, very serious addiction for 12
01:21:22
years. And what you're doing then is
01:21:24
you're living with uncertainty.
01:21:27
Serious uncertainty.
01:21:29
Uh, you never you cannot say what you'll
01:21:31
come home to. You have no idea. No idea.
01:21:35
It brings chaos into your life. It's
01:21:37
very very hard.
01:21:39
>> Addiction.
01:21:40
>> Yes.
01:21:41
>> Are you able to say what kind of addict?
01:21:42
Was it a food addiction or a drug
01:21:44
addiction or
01:21:44
>> It was a It would nearly everybody
01:21:47
concerned has died now. So I don't know
01:21:50
whether I can say or not, but it was
01:21:51
very serious multiple addictions. I will
01:21:54
say that. And she had she died some
01:21:56
years ago.
01:21:58
And it doesn't it it it actually wasn't
01:22:01
food addiction. Mhm. But it brings I
01:22:05
have so much sympathy with dealing how
01:22:09
how hard it is to deal with uncertainty
01:22:11
and not be able to you love somebody and
01:22:13
you can't do anything. It's very hard.
01:22:16
There are things you can do. I think
01:22:20
um if you can engage people in in that
01:22:24
talking about goals that can help.
01:22:28
Uh what we will do now is we'll change
01:22:31
that conversation to to the current Mrs.
01:22:34
Unwin, which is what we laughingly say.
01:22:36
This is Jen. So we we've been together
01:22:39
for 30 years now.
01:22:41
And Jen's story is that she actually is
01:22:44
an ultrarocessed food addict genuinely.
01:22:48
And what that means is I didn't un
01:22:51
neither of us understood what that was.
01:22:54
Even though she's a consultant
01:22:55
psychologist, she didn't realize that
01:22:58
she was an ultrarocessed food addict.
01:23:01
What she saw it as was a weight problem.
01:23:05
And all her life she's she's been
01:23:09
boomerang dieting. So she'd be a big
01:23:11
woman and then a little woman and a big
01:23:13
woman. And I used to watch it all.
01:23:15
What's going on? And then she would
01:23:18
there'd be tray bakes like she's trying
01:23:20
to lose weight and making tray bakes
01:23:23
saying it's for the children and then
01:23:24
scoffing the lot herself.
01:23:27
So then I'd because I loved her and I
01:23:31
think blo we try and solve problems
01:23:33
don't we?
01:23:34
>> We're like caveman you wanted to rescue
01:23:36
her. So, I'm I'm either throwing the
01:23:39
food away
01:23:41
or I'm tackling her and then she we're
01:23:44
having such arguments cuz she's
01:23:46
defensive and cross.
01:23:48
I I couldn't understand with an
01:23:50
intelligent woman what's going on. But
01:23:53
then uh this is only a few years ago.
01:23:55
She understood for the first time this
01:23:58
is addiction. When you have intelligent
01:24:02
people,
01:24:03
highly, highly intelligent people doing
01:24:06
stuff that harms their health
01:24:08
repeatedly,
01:24:10
is this not like cigarettes? Is it not
01:24:14
like alcohol? That is ultrarocessed food
01:24:18
addiction. And there's a patient I'd
01:24:20
like to tell you about that is explains
01:24:23
it even more clearly. And this patient
01:24:25
has consented for me to tell you because
01:24:27
he wants to help the world.
01:24:30
So, this is a guy who's a very
01:24:32
successful guy. He runs um he's a
01:24:34
wealthy person with a successful
01:24:35
business. He's not stupid.
01:24:38
He has type 2 diabetes. He's 55. He has
01:24:41
type 2 diabetes. He's very much
01:24:43
overweight.
01:24:45
Unfortunately, he needs really serious
01:24:48
surgery because both his knees have been
01:24:51
so destroyed by his weight that he can
01:24:54
hardly walk because he's in real agony.
01:24:57
But his type 2 diabetes is so bad, his
01:25:02
blood sugar control is so bad, the
01:25:03
anesthesis won't touch him. So he's
01:25:06
trapped, he can't get the OP because his
01:25:09
blood sugar is high. He can't run his
01:25:12
business easily because he can't hardly
01:25:14
walk. So obviously what we do is we say
01:25:18
you need to go low carb.
01:25:21
And it works for a bit and he loses some
01:25:24
weight, but then he gains the weight
01:25:25
again. And this goes on for four years
01:25:28
while I see him so regularly every
01:25:31
month. What's going on? What's going on?
01:25:33
Oh, excuses. The grandchildren.
01:25:36
Um, I've got a holiday, Christmas, it
01:25:38
goes on. Anyway, then his wife came to
01:25:40
see me and she said, "Dr. I need to
01:25:42
level with you. You need to understand
01:25:44
what's going on. I find that my husband
01:25:46
is getting up at 4 in the morning and
01:25:48
eating bread out of the fridge.
01:25:52
So what I do now, what I started doing
01:25:56
was at the end of every day, I put all
01:25:59
the bread in the bin if it hasn't been
01:26:01
eaten that day. But then I discovered my
01:26:03
husband was going in the bin to eat the
01:26:05
bread.
01:26:07
Then what she does, she's a a a very
01:26:09
formidable woman. She started putting
01:26:12
detergent, liquid detergent on any bread
01:26:14
that goes in the bin. But he still eats
01:26:17
it. He's getting up at 4 in the morning,
01:26:20
rumaging through the bin to eat the
01:26:22
bread with the detergent on. So then she
01:26:25
tries something else and she says, "This
01:26:27
is the only thing that will stop my
01:26:29
husband from eating bread if it's there.
01:26:31
I spray bleach on the bread and leave
01:26:34
the can of bleach by the bin so he knows
01:26:37
don't even look."
01:26:39
Okay. What I've described to you is
01:26:43
addiction. This is an intelligent
01:26:45
person. and imagine his self-esteem, how
01:26:49
it was to live like that, concealing
01:26:51
what he was doing
01:26:53
and not telling his doctor cuz I'm
01:26:55
trying so hard for him for years and
01:26:58
he's so sweet to me now and he often
01:27:01
shakes my hand and gives me a hug. He
01:27:03
said, "You tried. You really tried."
01:27:05
Anyway, my stories have a happy ending
01:27:08
always. What I did for him in the end,
01:27:11
he needed everything. So, low carb. Then
01:27:14
I got him using a continuous glucose
01:27:17
monitor.
01:27:17
>> Mhm.
01:27:18
>> So that he would get feedback
01:27:19
immediately and see that spike and also
01:27:22
I could see the spikes as well cuz he
01:27:24
had to come and show me his tracings.
01:27:27
>> And on top of that, I did something
01:27:30
unusual. I gave him a low dose of the
01:27:33
new GLP-1 drugs,
01:27:36
>> one of those. Yeah. Um and the three
01:27:39
together
01:27:42
he managed to not he couldn't moderate
01:27:45
but he could abstain and then he could
01:27:47
do it. The ampic helped reduce the noise
01:27:52
the cravings in his head. The feedback
01:27:55
from the CGM helped him know how he was
01:27:58
doing and the support he got from me and
01:28:01
the low carb pulled together and all
01:28:04
three and he's had his operation now.
01:28:06
And so it's a happy story, but he's got
01:28:09
maintenance all his life. He's going to
01:28:11
have to sort that out. Um, and it's a
01:28:14
wonderful example because I think we
01:28:17
trivialize this. We call it carb creep
01:28:20
like it doesn't matter. But there are
01:28:22
many people listening to us right now
01:28:25
and they know they know they're addicted
01:28:28
to various foods. They know because when
01:28:30
you ask them, they often burst into
01:28:32
tears. Often I somebody will say I've
01:28:34
never told anybody in my entire life
01:28:37
about and bread is a common one and if
01:28:40
you're not addicted to bread you can't
01:28:42
imagine it but if you are addicted to
01:28:44
bread they say this sounds so stupid I'm
01:28:47
so embarrassed to tell you I can't
01:28:49
control how I eat bread
01:28:51
>> and so it's not great for your
01:28:54
self-esteem is it
01:28:56
>> but people might be addicted to many
01:28:57
things and uh my wife's published many
01:29:00
papers on this and written a book and
01:29:02
this that and the other. Um and she
01:29:05
would say about 14% of the population
01:29:09
has some aspects of ultrarocessed food
01:29:12
addiction.
01:29:13
Um and
01:29:16
it kind of explained so much why are
01:29:19
intelligent people eating foods they
01:29:22
know do them harm. I've got another
01:29:25
example. One of my patients with type 2
01:29:28
diabetes, we got drug-free remission.
01:29:31
Hooray. I've done that now 157 times.
01:29:35
So, every one of them I'm cheering when
01:29:37
it happens. So, this guy, we did it.
01:29:39
Drug-free remission.
01:29:42
Then he vanished for a while and um
01:29:46
came back with two dead toes and he had
01:29:50
to have them amputated. Now,
01:29:51
>> dead toes.
01:29:52
>> Yeah. They started rotting because
01:29:55
diabetes takes the blood supply
01:29:58
particularly from your toes. So we had
01:30:00
to have surgery to have part of his foot
01:30:02
removed.
01:30:04
And so you call it carb creep and he
01:30:06
ended up with half his foot taken off.
01:30:09
That's not carb creep. Something far
01:30:11
more sinister.
01:30:13
But I never give up. And fortunately the
01:30:15
wounds took a long time to heal because
01:30:17
he was sugary. So we do it all over
01:30:19
again. I got him back into remission
01:30:23
because this time he and his wife are
01:30:24
really determined. But it's a struggle
01:30:27
and he needs help and support to achieve
01:30:32
that. He's not a foolish man. He's an
01:30:34
intelligent man and yet various foods
01:30:38
called to him. Eat me, eat me. And it's
01:30:41
very difficult for him to not. And that
01:30:45
I mean that's a very extreme example but
01:30:48
many people with overweight and some who
01:30:52
are not overweight are struggling
01:30:55
with very very significant carb cravings
01:30:58
and they really really uh struggle to
01:31:02
control them. There should be a button
01:31:04
just down below here and if it says
01:31:06
subscribed you're already subscribed. If
01:31:08
it says subscriber that means you're not
01:31:10
yet. And if you're not subscribed,
01:31:12
please could you do us a favor and hit
01:31:13
that button? It helps the show more than
01:31:14
you know. And according to the
01:31:16
algorithm, you're someone that watches
01:31:17
our show, but you haven't yet hit that
01:31:19
button. Thank you so much.
01:31:21
>> For those people, and I assume there's a
01:31:22
lot of people, and actually some people
01:31:24
have seasons where they're in control,
01:31:26
they're out of control, they're in
01:31:27
control. You know, I've been there.
01:31:30
>> Um, what is step one today?
01:31:34
>> So, they're listening to you, they go,
01:31:35
"Fucking, I don't want to lose my toes
01:31:36
and all of these problems." What is step
01:31:38
one now?
01:31:40
>> Now, are we talking about for somebody
01:31:42
with type 2 diabetes or somebody who
01:31:44
can't control what they're eating?
01:31:45
>> Someone that can't control what they're
01:31:47
eating.
01:31:47
>> Great. Right. So, step one, we just did
01:31:51
it. I think step one is acknowledging
01:31:55
that is your problem. Because if you
01:31:58
don't, if you're not honest about your
01:31:59
problem, how are you ever going to sort
01:32:01
it out?
01:32:02
>> Honesty.
01:32:02
>> So, the first thing is honesty. And
01:32:05
that's very hard for people. All of us
01:32:08
have made excuses. You know, me and my
01:32:10
biscuits. I believed that the it was
01:32:13
easier for me to think that that was
01:32:15
stress and a reasonable reaction to the
01:32:18
stress of running a practice than it was
01:32:20
to say I've got a you know biscuits for
01:32:23
me it took me a year to give them up. A
01:32:26
year.
01:32:27
How pathetic is that? I was so driven it
01:32:30
took me a whole year.
01:32:31
>> How did you give them up? Um, I did it
01:32:33
by weaning myself off a bit like
01:32:35
methadone. So, I went from um I like
01:32:39
chocolate ginger biscuits and then I
01:32:41
went to digestive plane and then I went
01:32:43
to oat biscuits and then eventually I
01:32:47
went to almonds.
01:32:48
>> Why didn't you just do it all at once?
01:32:49
>> I should have done. And uh Jen Jen's a
01:32:52
great believer in cold turkey. Like what
01:32:54
is the thing? Stop it. I wasn't man
01:32:57
enough for that and it took me a whole
01:32:59
year. So the first the first thing is be
01:33:02
honest truth. Be honest with yourself.
01:33:05
Even if you can't tell other people, be
01:33:08
honest with yourself.
01:33:11
Is there an addictive potential there?
01:33:13
Could that be? Does that fit? Number
01:33:16
two,
01:33:18
specifically which foods is your
01:33:20
problem? And be honest.
01:33:24
Um because if you if you're not honest
01:33:26
then you number three is have a plan for
01:33:31
abstinence.
01:33:32
>> Mhm. Because if you if if there is an if
01:33:35
you have got an addictive potential
01:33:38
um
01:33:40
it won't be one biscuit and we all who
01:33:43
you know how many of us have said I'm
01:33:46
going to give up ice cream or biscuits
01:33:49
or pizza or whatever it is
01:33:51
>> and then you have a day and
01:33:52
>> you did or you have a drink or whatever
01:33:54
you think tomorrow
01:33:55
>> work stresses you out.
01:33:56
>> Yeah. Tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow. So
01:33:59
it's very important to be specific about
01:34:02
the foods and then to have a plan
01:34:06
for how you are going to do it. And
01:34:09
another thing is sometimes
01:34:11
it's helpful you know the people around
01:34:13
you that love you.
01:34:14
>> Mhm.
01:34:16
>> Maybe share with them
01:34:18
that it's it's that it's important and
01:34:22
that I need I might need some help.
01:34:24
Please be tolerant with me like
01:34:26
cigarettes. Please be tolerant if I'm
01:34:28
short-tempered. I'm going to try and do
01:34:30
this thing because it's important.
01:34:33
The difficulty, it depends whether the
01:34:35
person that loves you can be gentle or
01:34:38
if they're heavy-handed. If you confess
01:34:40
this and then they police you,
01:34:42
>> judgmental.
01:34:43
>> Yeah. It doesn't help.
01:34:44
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
01:34:45
>> What you're asking for is gentle support
01:34:49
and tolerance.
01:34:50
>> I can think of a time over my life where
01:34:52
I was with somebody Yeah.
01:34:53
>> and I was they were so into their
01:34:55
health. Yeah,
01:34:57
>> that it made me start to hide when I was
01:34:59
eating bad. I would
01:35:00
>> exactly thank you for that. That's
01:35:02
that's what happens. And you see that
01:35:05
people become
01:35:07
deceitful.
01:35:08
>> So the if you police somebody you love,
01:35:11
the result is deceit.
01:35:12
>> I was hiding the rappers of the things I
01:35:14
was eating.
01:35:14
>> Jen did that with me. She would uh she
01:35:18
she knew that I was monitoring. So she
01:35:21
starts hiding the rappers or then I'd
01:35:23
find them in the car
01:35:24
>> and and but then we have a situation
01:35:26
that we can no longer talk about it
01:35:28
because
01:35:29
>> so that if if somebody if you're forcing
01:35:32
somebody to become deceitful, you have
01:35:34
to back off a little bit.
01:35:36
>> Yeah.
01:35:36
>> Because that deceit
01:35:38
then affects self-esteem and that can
01:35:41
make them worse. And you didn't want to
01:35:43
make them worse
01:35:43
>> and then they're lonely because they
01:35:44
they can't share the bad days.
01:35:46
>> Yeah. It it's really good. I wonder
01:35:48
please could we show Jen's book at this
01:35:50
point?
01:35:50
>> Of course.
01:35:51
>> So, can I just explain the book? So,
01:35:54
this this is Jen's book. And the most
01:35:58
important thing is Jen doesn't make a
01:36:01
penny out of this book. So, it's fork in
01:36:03
the road with the idea that in your
01:36:05
journey, which one are you going to
01:36:07
pick?
01:36:08
>> Do you see?
01:36:09
>> So, it's fork in the road. She doesn't
01:36:12
make any money from this. Every penny
01:36:14
goes to a charity that she's set up
01:36:16
helping people with food addiction. It's
01:36:19
available on Amazon and self-published
01:36:22
on Amazon.
01:36:22
>> How How much does this book cost? It's
01:36:24
not a lot, is it?
01:36:26
>> It's about £15. Oh, no, it's less. I
01:36:28
think it might be 10 10 quid.
01:36:32
>> Okay, I'll tell you what I'll do.
01:36:33
>> Yeah,
01:36:34
>> I'll buy a,000 of them.
01:36:35
>> Fabulous.
01:36:36
>> And I'll put a link below in the comment
01:36:38
section. And so I all you've got to do
01:36:41
is if you've really enjoyed this
01:36:43
conversation and you'd like to get Jen's
01:36:46
book um
01:36:49
>> fork in the road.
01:36:50
>> A fork in the road. Maybe we can even
01:36:51
get some of them signed. Not all of them
01:36:53
cuz that hand get a couple of them.
01:36:55
>> Oh, that is brilliant.
01:36:57
>> Click below and um we'll send a thousand
01:36:59
of them out. And that's just a thank you
01:37:00
from from me to both you and Jen, but
01:37:03
also to the community who tune in for
01:37:04
these conversations. And it's so great
01:37:06
that people can get such simple
01:37:08
information that's so accessible and so
01:37:10
um rigorous in its scientific
01:37:11
credentials
01:37:13
um in a way like this that they can that
01:37:15
could change some people's lives.
01:37:16
>> Great.
01:37:17
>> Isn't that a wonderful thing? You know
01:37:19
that a simple book like this which isn't
01:37:21
long either. It's only
01:37:23
>> not a big read
01:37:25
>> could change some people's lives. That's
01:37:26
such a wonderful thing.
01:37:29
>> Steve, what you doing? Uh, just making
01:37:31
myself a delicious coffee
01:37:33
>> from the freezer.
01:37:35
>> From the freezer. Have you not heard
01:37:36
about Comtier?
01:37:36
>> No.
01:37:37
>> Oh my gosh. This is going to change your
01:37:39
life. I invested in this company called
01:37:41
Cometier last year and they're now one
01:37:43
of the sponsors of this podcast because
01:37:44
they've taken a pretty revolutionary
01:37:46
approach to making coffee. Every coffee
01:37:48
is precision brewed at 10 times the
01:37:51
strength and then they flash freeze it
01:37:54
with liquid nitrogen to lock in the
01:37:56
flavor and freshness. And then it's
01:37:58
delivered to you on dry ice in these
01:38:00
recyclable aluminum capsules, still
01:38:03
frozen, like a little ice cube. All you
01:38:05
have to do is pop the capsule out, add
01:38:09
some hot water, and then you stir it and
01:38:13
you are good to go. You can also make
01:38:15
delicious iced coffee drinks as well.
01:38:17
Just pour it in,
01:38:20
stir it up. And for anyone that hasn't
01:38:23
tried it, you can get $30 off your first
01:38:26
order of Cometier coffee if you go to
01:38:28
cometier.com/stephven.
01:38:32
I've done almost 700 interviews with
01:38:34
some of the most interesting people in
01:38:35
the world. And one of the things you
01:38:36
learn which is unexpected is that
01:38:38
vulnerability is the doorway to
01:38:41
connection. And after sitting here for 2
01:38:42
three hours with a guest, I feel a deep
01:38:45
sense of connection to them. And as they
01:38:47
leave, what I get them to do is to write
01:38:49
a question in the diary of a CEO. We've
01:38:53
taken all of the questions from the
01:38:54
diary of a CEO. We have put the question
01:38:58
here on this card with the name of the
01:39:00
person that wrote it. So you can sit at
01:39:02
home as I do with my fiance and my
01:39:04
colleagues at work and other people in
01:39:05
my life. Whenever we get a minute, we
01:39:07
play the diio conversation cards and it
01:39:10
is incredible what happens. These are
01:39:13
great if you're in a romantic
01:39:14
relationship and you want to connect
01:39:16
your partner more. These are also great
01:39:17
if you're in a team and you want to bond
01:39:19
your team together. And I have to say
01:39:20
they're also great for families that
01:39:22
want to learn more about each other and
01:39:24
that need a good excuse to spend some
01:39:26
time in a digital world in the analog
01:39:28
environment connecting human to human.
01:39:31
It is remarkable what the right question
01:39:33
at the right time can do. Go to the
01:39:36
diary.com
01:39:37
and you can get these conversation cards
01:39:39
right now.
01:39:42
You said something earlier on about the
01:39:43
link between
01:39:45
sort of your dietary choices and cancer.
01:39:47
I've actually got a friend of mine who
01:39:49
used to work for me who is going through
01:39:51
a cancer process at the moment. She's
01:39:53
very very young. She's actually younger
01:39:54
than I am. Wow.
01:39:55
>> And she was diagnosed with breast
01:39:57
cancer. She's a really good friend of
01:39:58
mine. Um and she was my actually my
01:40:00
manager for a couple of years. She's
01:40:01
called Katie.
01:40:02
>> She's very public about this. So she's
01:40:04
posting her journey online so I can I
01:40:06
can say her name. and um I've been
01:40:08
following her and she's she's you know
01:40:10
she's removing a lot of the the foods
01:40:12
we've talked about today from her diet.
01:40:14
So she's very front of mind for me at
01:40:15
the moment and I was looking at some of
01:40:17
the stats around the link between our
01:40:19
dietary choices and cancer outcomes and
01:40:20
I'm going to read them now. My team
01:40:22
might cut some of them out but I think
01:40:23
they're worth hearing because hearing
01:40:25
them I think is quite um enlightening. A
01:40:29
massive French study found that drinking
01:40:31
just 100 mil of sugary drinks per day,
01:40:34
which could be, you know, a third of a
01:40:35
can of soda is associated with a almost
01:40:39
20% increased risk of overall cancer.
01:40:43
Women who consume two or more dietary
01:40:45
drinks daily have over double the risk
01:40:47
of early onset calorical cancer compared
01:40:51
to those who drink less than one a week.
01:40:54
High consumption of sugary sweetened
01:40:55
beverages is linked to a 78% higher risk
01:40:59
of estrogen dependent endometrial cancer
01:41:02
in women. Drinking 20 ounces of sugar of
01:41:06
sugary soda daily is linked to
01:41:08
shortening your telomeres which are the
01:41:10
protective caps on your DNA equating to
01:41:12
4.6 Six years of extra biological aging
01:41:15
which is a major risk facilimia.
01:41:23
>> Chronic hyperinsulinemia.
01:41:26
Can I so that is when I'm saying when
01:41:28
the insulin levels are high which I
01:41:30
explained at the beginning
01:41:31
>> which can inhibit aptosis the natural
01:41:35
process where damaged or cancerous cells
01:41:37
self-destruct.
01:41:38
>> Wow.
01:41:39
>> Two more. Fructose is processed in the
01:41:42
liver and converted into lipids which
01:41:43
are fats which is what we were talking
01:41:45
about earlier which recent studies show
01:41:47
certain tumors directly consumed to
01:41:50
build their cell membranes. And lastly,
01:41:53
diets high in added sugars chronically
01:41:55
elevate C reactive proteins called CRPS,
01:41:59
an inflammation marker that is heavily
01:42:00
correlated with tumor progression and
01:42:03
metastasis.
01:42:04
>> Yeah.
01:42:06
So what I'd like to this is that is so
01:42:09
interesting and it brings to mind a
01:42:11
really important point.
01:42:14
We talk so much around the world about
01:42:17
treating cancer,
01:42:19
but what about prevention? Because for
01:42:22
your friend, that's a life sentence and
01:42:26
she's living with uncertainty and fear.
01:42:28
And when I tell patients they have
01:42:31
cancer, you know, you feel it right here
01:42:34
because you just took away so much.
01:42:37
And it's interesting. Do we try hard
01:42:40
enough? If we know that, are we trying
01:42:43
hard enough to prevent cancer? Because
01:42:45
that's what we should be doing because
01:42:48
we know a lot that I think after
01:42:51
smoking,
01:42:53
>> diet is the next commonest cause of
01:42:55
cancer.
01:42:57
And you know how serious does it have to
01:43:00
get when when you you just gave all
01:43:03
those references then and uh I know that
01:43:08
uh junk food is linked to all cause
01:43:10
mortality. It's linked to so many
01:43:13
things. Uh what what are we prepared to
01:43:16
sacrifice for enjoying you know treats
01:43:19
and snacks? It's kind of when you look
01:43:21
at it like that it's really bonkers.
01:43:24
Really bonkers. This sounds a bit crazy,
01:43:26
but sometimes I imagine receiving the
01:43:28
diagnosis.
01:43:29
>> Yeah.
01:43:29
>> And I do a bit of I guess they might
01:43:31
call it a premortem. Um a premortm, not
01:43:34
a postmortem, where I imagine on that
01:43:36
day the decisions I wish I would have
01:43:38
made. And I'm not saying all cancer is
01:43:41
linked to what we eat because that's not
01:43:43
the case. But I'm I'm imagining like the
01:43:45
worst diagnosis I could ever be given
01:43:47
and the doctor telling me that my
01:43:49
lifestyle choices contributed to that
01:43:50
over the last 5, 10, 15 years. And in
01:43:53
that moment, is there any sugary drink
01:43:57
that is worth it?
01:43:59
>> There's just no You would just wish with
01:44:01
every bone in your body where you come
01:44:03
home and tell your fiance, your partner,
01:44:05
your kids
01:44:05
>> that you've got this horrific diagnosis,
01:44:07
you would just wish
01:44:08
>> that you had made a different decision.
01:44:11
>> I also think that's a very good strategy
01:44:14
for dealing with problems.
01:44:16
>> You know, your life must be so
01:44:17
complicated. I can't begin to imagine
01:44:20
how many problems you're solving and the
01:44:22
complications and the people you deal
01:44:23
with. And yet all of them are as nothing
01:44:27
against a cancer diagnosis, aren't they?
01:44:29
So that you would look at the problems
01:44:31
you have right now and you'd laugh.
01:44:34
Yesterday I was worried about the
01:44:36
traffic or whatever and I think it's a
01:44:40
leveler. Mortality is a leveler. All my
01:44:44
life I've been obsessed with death and
01:44:46
it worries me. I can't sort out in my
01:44:49
head what does death mean or you know it
01:44:53
really scared me when I was a child the
01:44:55
idea of death but what it's given me is
01:44:58
a drive to not waste time and and to
01:45:02
think about what's the best use of today
01:45:06
and and you seem to have that kind of
01:45:07
energy as well. The interesting thing
01:45:10
about this idea of wasting time as well
01:45:12
is through everything you've talked
01:45:13
about today, we we can both waste less
01:45:16
time but also have more time. And when I
01:45:18
learned about the difference between
01:45:20
like lifespan and health span, that also
01:45:22
added to this equation. You know, people
01:45:24
still live to 80 years old, but
01:45:26
>> they're only healthy for like 30, 40
01:45:27
years.
01:45:28
>> And that's a very the idea of health
01:45:33
span is very important because we know
01:45:35
in the UK it's going down.
01:45:37
>> Oh, is it?
01:45:37
>> Yes.
01:45:38
Um uh it's it they're looking at that
01:45:41
now. Lifespan is hanging out there as
01:45:44
sort of stuttering along, but health
01:45:47
span is going down in the UK and it's
01:45:49
worth thinking why that is.
01:45:52
>> Well, I would hazard a guess it's uh
01:45:54
relates to all the things you've talked
01:45:55
about today.
01:45:56
>> I think it may do.
01:45:57
>> In England, you're totally right. It
01:45:59
says in England, the situation is
01:46:00
particularly alarming. Health span is
01:46:03
actively declining even as overall
01:46:05
lifespan slowly creeps up. Recent 2024
01:46:10
to 2026 data from the Office of National
01:46:12
Statistics, the ONS and the Health
01:46:13
Foundation paints a stark picture of the
01:46:15
UK's widening sick years gap. Over the
01:46:18
last decade, healthy life expectancy in
01:46:20
the UK has fallen by roughly 2 years. As
01:46:22
of the latest data, men in the UK can
01:46:24
expect to spend about 60 years in good
01:46:27
health and women about 60 years of good
01:46:29
health as well because overall life
01:46:31
expectancy in England is rising.
01:46:34
Um people are now spending roughly up to
01:46:37
23 years at the end of their lives with
01:46:40
poor health and in sickness. This means
01:46:42
the average person spends nearly a
01:46:44
quarter of their life managing chronic
01:46:46
illness and or disability.
01:46:49
>> And that's exactly the point, isn't it?
01:46:51
That's exactly the point
01:46:54
and it relates to another thing I'd like
01:46:56
to tell you about as well. This is um
01:47:00
government figures. Every taxpayer in
01:47:03
England pays an extra £7,000 tax per
01:47:07
year for the consequences of
01:47:09
ultrarocessed food.
01:47:12
>> Everybody's paying tax, extra tax,
01:47:15
£7,000 a year. And this is because it's
01:47:19
not just the cost of the drugs.
01:47:22
The bigger co bigger cost is this is the
01:47:24
people not paying tax themselves and not
01:47:27
able to work because they're ill. And
01:47:30
that is that's twothirds of the cost is
01:47:32
the lack of revenue because so much of
01:47:35
our population isn't well enough to work
01:47:37
and that's very and a lot of it's young
01:47:38
people too. It's very serious.
01:47:40
>> I know I think about 30 40% of our
01:47:42
listeners are in the United States. So
01:47:43
I've got some bad news for everybody in
01:47:45
the United States as well. The US how is
01:47:46
it there?
01:47:47
>> The US currently holds a rather grim
01:47:49
record. It has the largest health span
01:47:52
to lifespan gap on Earth. Despite the
01:47:56
United States having lower overall life
01:47:58
expectancy than almost all of its peer
01:48:00
nations and premature death rate that is
01:48:03
nearly twice the average of comparable
01:48:05
countries, its health span stats sit as
01:48:08
the worst in the world. So if you're in
01:48:10
the United States, as things stand, you
01:48:12
will be sicker for longer um or have
01:48:14
less We're trying to keep catch up
01:48:16
though, aren't we?
01:48:18
>> We're doing, you know, we're doing our
01:48:19
best.
01:48:19
>> We're doing our best, you know. We're
01:48:21
doing our best to catch up. Um,
01:48:23
>> I have this piece of string here.
01:48:25
>> Yes.
01:48:25
>> Which is, I guess, a mechanism you use
01:48:27
to figure out if people's
01:48:30
>> waste and I guess fat levels are too
01:48:32
high on the on the belly.
01:48:33
>> I think it's bigger than that. So, I'm
01:48:36
interested in lowcost ways for people to
01:48:39
find out well, how are you how are you
01:48:41
doing? How are you doing? And so one
01:48:44
recognized way looking at metabolic
01:48:46
health is your waist should be less than
01:48:50
half your height. So if we have a piece
01:48:52
of string, which we have there, I
01:48:54
believe you're 6'1.
01:48:55
>> Yes.
01:48:56
>> And you've you've marked halfway. So
01:48:58
half of that string
01:49:00
should go around the fattest bit of your
01:49:03
belly.
01:49:03
>> People come up to me all the time, you
01:49:04
know, and they go, "Oh my god, you're so
01:49:05
much taller than I thought."
01:49:06
>> Because they've only ever seen me sat
01:49:08
down. My entire career is people
01:49:09
watching.
01:49:10
>> That's right. Cut it in half and then
01:49:12
let's see.
01:49:13
>> Will it go around your belly? Yes or no?
01:49:15
>> Okay. So, I've cut the the string in
01:49:16
half.
01:49:16
>> Yes.
01:49:17
>> Which part of my belly? Cuz
01:49:18
>> the fattest part.
01:49:19
>> The fattest part. Okay.
01:49:20
>> Yeah. So, be honest about the fat part.
01:49:22
>> Okay.
01:49:23
>> Can I look?
01:49:24
>> Yeah.
01:49:25
>> You did it. Yeah.
01:49:26
>> Is that squeezing in?
01:49:27
>> It's not. No, I'm not.
01:49:28
>> Are you sque Are you cheating? Let me
01:49:30
see.
01:49:33
>> I mean, it's it's not it's Yeah, you've
01:49:37
just done it. You've passed. Thank you.
01:49:40
It's so interesting. So funny
01:49:42
>> but that is a very interesting thing for
01:49:45
you.
01:49:46
>> And as I say, insulin resistance tends
01:49:48
to put weight on your belly,
01:49:51
>> but you may have a very muscular
01:49:52
abdomen. Let's pretend it's that, you
01:49:54
know, but you're just about there.
01:49:55
You're just about there. But it's a
01:49:57
really simple test for everybody at
01:49:59
home. Piece of string, as long as you
01:50:02
are tall, cut it in half. Will it or
01:50:04
will it not go around your middle?
01:50:05
>> Okay. So, everybody at home, go buy some
01:50:06
string. Yeah, it's I mean there's lots
01:50:09
of other things you can do but that
01:50:11
that's as a simple way because your
01:50:14
weight alone as I said it's where the
01:50:17
fat is distributed it it's fat on your
01:50:20
belly is more worrying than fat on your
01:50:22
legs or on your arms really. So,
01:50:25
>> so one of the things people always ask
01:50:26
me about is supplementation. Um,
01:50:29
>> supplements, good, bad, indifferent.
01:50:30
What's your what's your point of view?
01:50:33
>> Right. So, my point of view is if you
01:50:35
can,
01:50:38
my my gut reaction is to try and use
01:50:41
diet
01:50:43
to give you what you need if you can.
01:50:45
>> Which diet? a lower a real food lowish
01:50:50
carbohydrate diet is my preferred thing
01:50:53
with plenty of protein in there and
01:50:56
healthy fats.
01:50:59
I'm very interested in farming and
01:51:01
regenerative agriculture and all that
01:51:03
kind of thing. And what I know is that
01:51:07
the nutrient profile of crops grown
01:51:09
today is not nearly as good as it was
01:51:12
100 years ago. So, we have some problems
01:51:15
and it it's to do with the soil. If you
01:51:18
keep just adding nitrogen and harvesting
01:51:20
crops, those crops do not contain as
01:51:23
much zinc or magnesium particularly.
01:51:27
And so,
01:51:29
the tragedy is that although my aim
01:51:31
would be to have you healthy with a real
01:51:33
food diet, there are some things you
01:51:36
cannot get in the diet now that your
01:51:38
grandparents could. And one of them is
01:51:40
magnesium.
01:51:41
It's very very difficult to get enough
01:51:46
magnesium
01:51:48
in your diet without supplementation.
01:51:51
And as you get older, you absorb the
01:51:53
magnesium
01:51:55
less and less. Also, a lot of medication
01:51:57
interferes with magnesium absorption,
01:52:00
particularly drugs for um acidity. So,
01:52:04
magnesium supplementation for most
01:52:07
people.
01:52:07
>> Okay. In myself, it was magic at getting
01:52:10
rid of muscle cramps. I sleep a lot
01:52:14
better.
01:52:17
I think we also need to talk about
01:52:18
magnesium. Which magnesium? Because it
01:52:20
varies a hell of a lot. And uh this
01:52:23
bit's embarrassing. Depends on your
01:52:26
bowels.
01:52:27
>> Okay.
01:52:27
>> Right. Have you got fast or slow bowels?
01:52:29
You don't need to tell tell me. If if
01:52:33
you if you tend to be a bit constipated,
01:52:35
magnesium citrate is very good. It
01:52:39
helps. It's more laxative
01:52:42
and it you're you absorb some of it.
01:52:45
Anyway, if your bowels are not a problem
01:52:49
and particularly if you're wanting
01:52:50
better sleep or mood, magnesium
01:52:54
glycinate or thriionate is actually
01:52:56
crosses the bloodb brain barrier but
01:52:59
won't help with constipation. So that's
01:53:01
a very quick thing on magnesium.
01:53:04
Have you have we got time for me to tell
01:53:06
you about the first cow I ever bought?
01:53:09
>> Go ahead.
01:53:09
>> And it's relevant to magnesium.
01:53:11
>> Go ahead.
01:53:12
>> Right. So my wife and I, my wife Jen, we
01:53:16
have this idea that if you love
01:53:19
somebody,
01:53:20
then gifts are you trying to think what
01:53:24
would that person like? Don't buy
01:53:26
somebody a present you would like.
01:53:28
>> Yeah. And it was Jen trying to get me to
01:53:30
grow up.
01:53:30
>> Yeah.
01:53:31
>> Right.
01:53:33
And this is how she did it.
01:53:36
So she said to me one day, "Right, get a
01:53:39
coat and a pair of Wellingtons. I'm
01:53:41
going to take you out." And she drove me
01:53:44
into Lancaster and there was a field of
01:53:47
cows. And she said, "I have bought you
01:53:49
any one of those cows." Because I'd
01:53:51
always wanted a cow. And we had a field.
01:53:55
and she'd how what a woman is this. She
01:53:59
knew I wanted she went to the farmer in
01:54:01
advance and prepaid for any cow and said
01:54:04
this field I've I I bought a cow. You
01:54:07
just pick which one you like and he'll
01:54:09
transport it home. How does this relate
01:54:11
to magnesium? You're wondering. Well, it
01:54:14
does because the farmer said you can
01:54:17
have whichever cow you like, but I've
01:54:19
lost 15 cows uh to a thing called the
01:54:22
staggers this year. And you cannot have
01:54:24
the cow unless you promise me you'll buy
01:54:27
magnesium supplements because the grass
01:54:30
is now so short of magnesium that uh
01:54:34
cows die fitting if you don't give them
01:54:37
a magnesium supplementation. But it's
01:54:40
better than that. At the same time, I
01:54:43
had a patient that I couldn't work out
01:54:45
why he was fitting. I was really fond of
01:54:48
this guy and I kept being called out and
01:54:50
admitting him to intensive care. fitting
01:54:53
and we couldn't work out. It wasn't a
01:54:55
brain tumor. Why was he fitting? And I
01:54:58
expect you've joined the dots. It was
01:54:59
magnesium deficiency because of
01:55:01
medication he was on.
01:55:03
>> And that's the first time I ever
01:55:05
seriously thought about magnesium. It's
01:55:07
a most interesting subject, very
01:55:10
important. And the modern diet is most
01:55:13
people are magnesium deficient. And a
01:55:16
problem is you can't measure it. So your
01:55:19
blood magnesium, the serum magnesium,
01:55:23
um doesn't reflect what's going on
01:55:25
because magnesium is mainly inside your
01:55:28
cells. So in the you have to get the
01:55:32
intracellular magnesium level. But do
01:55:34
you know what? It's just easier to try a
01:55:36
magnesium supplement and see how you
01:55:38
feel. So do you take magnesium?
01:55:40
>> I do because the guests, the experts on
01:55:42
my podcast have told me that magnesium
01:55:43
is one of my five. For me, I've said to
01:55:46
myself, I'll take five supplements a
01:55:47
day. Um,
01:55:48
>> five.
01:55:49
>> Yeah, I'll take five. So, vitamin D
01:55:51
because I'm inside all the time.
01:55:52
>> Vitamin D. So, yes, definitely.
01:55:55
>> And I'm black, so that you know,
01:55:57
>> well, that combined, but everybody and
01:56:00
particularly in the most people just
01:56:02
don't get enough sunshine. It'd be
01:56:04
better if you could do it with sun. But
01:56:06
yeah, vitamin D is very, very important.
01:56:08
>> I take magnesium.
01:56:09
>> Yeah,
01:56:10
>> because people like you've told me how
01:56:11
important it is.
01:56:12
>> Which magnesium do you take?
01:56:13
>> That's a great question. I think it's
01:56:14
citrate. Citrate, right? But I actually
01:56:16
think it varies depending on what my
01:56:18
team get me.
01:56:18
>> Yes. Yeah.
01:56:19
>> Um but that's good to know because I'll
01:56:21
think about my bowels. I take creatine.
01:56:24
>> Yeah.
01:56:24
>> Um there's this fiber supplement that I
01:56:27
take because I did a couple of blood
01:56:30
tests and um they said that fiber would
01:56:32
help this particular fiber supplement
01:56:34
would help reduce my LDL.
01:56:35
>> Yeah.
01:56:36
>> Cholesterol.
01:56:37
>> Yeah.
01:56:38
>> And
01:56:40
multivitamin
01:56:42
>> to cover everything.
01:56:42
>> To cover everything. That's probably I
01:56:44
mean that sounds okay really. Yeah. I
01:56:48
mean one of the worries that or one of
01:56:50
the clinical things I find is honestly
01:56:52
if you ask people how many supplements
01:56:54
they're taking there's a carrier bag
01:56:56
comes in and there's a blue one and a
01:56:57
yellow one and it is possible to overs
01:57:00
supplement quite easily
01:57:03
>> particularly maybe vitamin D. You can
01:57:05
know various uh vitamins. You handed
01:57:07
this as well. Oh that's vitamin D. Fine
01:57:10
fine.
01:57:11
So, I think that that's I would agree
01:57:13
with you. Basically,
01:57:15
>> mine's mine's also going um off my blood
01:57:18
test results. So, I've done two blood
01:57:19
test results. Actually, I've done two
01:57:20
blood test results in the last month.
01:57:23
>> One with Function Health, who are a
01:57:24
partner of ours, a sponsor of ours, and
01:57:26
another one with um with Nico Health,
01:57:30
which is actually a company that I've
01:57:31
just invested a couple of million quid
01:57:33
into, which is this health testing
01:57:35
company. Have you heard about Nico
01:57:37
Health?
01:57:38
>> Nico Health. You walk in, $299,
01:57:40
whatever. You lay down, you get all of
01:57:43
your your sort of blood test done. You
01:57:44
get all of these incredible tests done
01:57:46
on your body. Um, they show like how,
01:57:48
you know, how how good your circulation
01:57:50
is from your like neck to your toes. You
01:57:53
stand in front of this scanner. It takes
01:57:54
like 2,000 3,000 photos of your body,
01:57:57
tracks all of your moles, tracks your
01:57:58
heartbeat, does all of these incredible
01:57:59
things. And then instead of waiting two
01:58:02
weeks for the results, you walk into a
01:58:04
room and your entire body is on this
01:58:06
screen.
01:58:07
>> Yes. and you can look at, you know, all
01:58:08
these different parts of your body. They
01:58:10
do the blood tests at the very start and
01:58:12
then literally like it felt like 20
01:58:14
minutes later, I'm in a room. I've got
01:58:16
my blood test results back. I can see my
01:58:18
entire body. They're going through my
01:58:20
LDL, my this, my that, the other.
01:58:22
They're showing my heartbeat. They're
01:58:23
showing every single mole on my body.
01:58:25
And it cost £299. And you get the
01:58:27
results then. And I my alternative, and
01:58:30
this is me really plugging, the
01:58:31
alternative that I used to do every year
01:58:33
was this. Honestly, I'll be honest. It
01:58:35
was this £7,000 health screening where
01:58:38
I'd take it would take me six, seven
01:58:41
hours and I'd get the results back in 2
01:58:43
weeks. So, what Nico have tried to do,
01:58:44
it's actually a company started by the
01:58:46
founder of Spotify, Daniel. And yes, I
01:58:50
did my blood test the other day and both
01:58:51
my function health test and my my Nikico
01:58:54
health test said the same thing. And
01:58:56
then I took those results and I I
01:58:57
processed them using some AI tools and
01:58:59
said like, what am I deficient in? And
01:59:00
one of the things I was deficient in was
01:59:01
omega-3. That was the other one. uh
01:59:04
>> omega-3, vitamin D. I had high LDL
01:59:08
>> and so they said this fiber thing would
01:59:10
be really good for you.
01:59:11
>> And yeah, those were the main things.
01:59:14
Otherwise, I was great. But yeah, high
01:59:16
LDL.
01:59:16
>> I think one of just that makes me think
01:59:19
of something when you're screening. I
01:59:21
think the important point is that you
01:59:23
don't just scare people
01:59:25
>> that it has to be linked to what can you
01:59:27
do about it. So I've had a lot of
01:59:29
experience
01:59:30
>> of scared patients. Mhm.
01:59:32
>> So GPS, we we're we worry about
01:59:34
screening because what happens is people
01:59:37
do that and then people get scared and
01:59:40
use up loads of appointments in the
01:59:42
health service trying to sort out. So
01:59:44
what what's good is if you do screening
01:59:47
that relates to actionable points and
01:59:50
then you help the people understand what
01:59:52
they can do.
01:59:53
>> Yeah.
01:59:53
>> And avoid leaving them as just worried.
01:59:56
>> Exactly. Because that is for you,
01:59:59
>> you know, if if I can I might be able to
02:00:01
tell you accurately you're going to die
02:00:02
aged whatever of whatever, but if you
02:00:04
can't do anything about it, you don't
02:00:06
want to know.
02:00:06
>> Yeah.
02:00:07
>> What you do want to know is what can I
02:00:09
>> what can I take action on? What can I
02:00:11
you know, it's about optimizing, isn't
02:00:13
it? The things that I hate about the
02:00:15
health checking process before Nico was
02:00:16
like I hated how expensive it was and
02:00:18
that's quite it's quite a privileged
02:00:19
thing to be able to get health a full
02:00:21
body health scan especially like so but
02:00:23
now you can do it for $2.99 but then it
02:00:24
was I walked into a room straight away
02:00:26
with a doctor
02:00:27
>> and the doctor sat me down
02:00:29
>> beautiful screen of my body and was like
02:00:31
do this this this is fine this is fine
02:00:33
and she was so nice about it but yeah I
02:00:36
say that cuz I'm so passionate about it
02:00:37
cuz I realize there's a certain
02:00:38
privilege that people that are able to
02:00:40
access private healthcare have that I
02:00:42
think is really really unfair.
02:00:44
>> Well, obviously I
02:00:46
>> I think that's unfair because I only
02:00:48
work in the health service.
02:00:49
>> Yeah.
02:00:50
>> The state self. I don't do anything
02:00:52
other. I won't take private patients or
02:00:55
because
02:00:57
>> I think it it would be wrong.
02:01:00
>> And because don't you think health
02:01:02
inequality is getting really bad?
02:01:04
>> Yes, exactly.
02:01:05
>> Really really bad.
02:01:06
>> And it kind of troubles me. And also if
02:01:09
you you start in the UK and you go
02:01:12
northwards, it just gets worse and worse
02:01:14
and and the states is the same where
02:01:16
it's not like the same nation.
02:01:18
>> Oh my gosh, it's you go to California,
02:01:20
there's one kind of a thing and then you
02:01:21
go elsewhere and it's not the same.
02:01:24
>> But hopefully this is changing. Um this
02:01:26
is I I I
02:01:28
>> Well, I think social media helps because
02:01:31
it doesn't cost much, does it, to go on
02:01:33
social media and find out things.
02:01:35
>> Exactly. and people like you who have um
02:01:39
increasing increasingly loud voice
02:01:40
across lots of podcasts and who are
02:01:42
reaching millions and millions and
02:01:43
millions and millions and millions of
02:01:44
people um and teaching them.
02:01:47
>> What's difficult though is not to become
02:01:49
confused,
02:01:51
you know, because you have the
02:01:52
newspapers saying eggs are good, eggs
02:01:54
are bad,
02:01:56
and then you have this expert who's
02:01:57
saying this and another expert saying
02:01:59
the other. I think what I've tried to do
02:02:03
is base what I say on real world data
02:02:07
and that's different. So I'm I'm very
02:02:11
careful to take baseline data from my
02:02:14
patients and then update it all the
02:02:17
time. So what I'm the publications I've
02:02:19
done are based
02:02:21
on the real world the health service in
02:02:24
the north of the UK. I can't cherrypick
02:02:27
my patients. I'm allocated my patients
02:02:30
by the state. So I I can't just pick
02:02:33
wealthy people or people that will live
02:02:35
longer. I'm allocated people and that's
02:02:38
that. So
02:02:41
part of what I do is proof of concept
02:02:44
because if you can achieve this in the
02:02:46
north of England near Liverpool and if
02:02:49
other people can replicate it in
02:02:51
Australia, New Zealand, North America,
02:02:54
maybe it's true
02:02:56
perhaps.
02:02:57
>> Dr. David Unwin, we have a closing
02:03:01
tradition on this podcast where the last
02:03:02
guest leaves a question for the next,
02:03:03
not knowing who they're leaving it for.
02:03:04
And the question left for you,
02:03:05
>> yeah,
02:03:06
>> is I'm sure the guests will figure out
02:03:08
who left this one. Um, if humanity
02:03:10
organized to make contact with a more
02:03:12
intelligent species,
02:03:14
>> yes.
02:03:14
>> Who should represent humanity and why?
02:03:19
>> Funny. God, that's a brilliant question.
02:03:21
Who should
02:03:28
The first person, this is a person I'm
02:03:31
going to nominate.
02:03:33
What about David Atenburgh? you know,
02:03:35
he's 100 years old and he spent so long
02:03:40
um thinking about the planet and
02:03:42
wouldn't he be a wonderful ambassador
02:03:44
and because I am passionate about
02:03:47
biodiversity, I'm passionate about
02:03:51
sustainable
02:03:53
agriculture and sustainable food. I pick
02:03:56
David Atenburgh.
02:03:57
>> I think that's a wonderful choice.
02:03:59
>> I think the aliens would really like
02:04:00
him.
02:04:00
>> They would. They would. That's my
02:04:03
answer.
02:04:05
Thank you so much for what you do. Um,
02:04:07
you're really remarkable in a way that's
02:04:09
quite rare. And listen, I would know
02:04:10
because I
02:04:10
>> Give me feedback. I love feedback.
02:04:12
>> No, you really are remarkable. You're
02:04:13
really remarkable in a way that's very
02:04:15
rare. And I don't say this to all of my
02:04:17
guests, but you are for for a variety of
02:04:19
reasons. Okay, I'm going to give you all
02:04:20
of the feedback.
02:04:21
>> Thank you.
02:04:22
>> The first the first the most notable is
02:04:23
you're a very kind human and the way
02:04:26
that you speak is very nice to listen
02:04:28
to. Again, rare. The other thing that I
02:04:31
noticed is you're very very very natural
02:04:33
and good at telling stories. And listen,
02:04:36
why does this matter? Because the human
02:04:37
brain, from what I've discovered from
02:04:39
doing this podcast, is really orientated
02:04:41
towards stories. Now, you could sit here
02:04:43
and say banana bad or you could say
02:04:45
magnesium good, but I'll never forget
02:04:47
the cow story.
02:04:48
>> Yeah.
02:04:49
>> You know, I'll never forget the cow
02:04:50
story. I could have I could have
02:04:51
forgotten that magnesium good, magnesium
02:04:53
bad, but the way that you tell these
02:04:54
stories is so captivating that it
02:04:57
enables me to learn in a way that is
02:04:59
engaging and that is rare, very very
02:05:01
rare. And the other is just um your your
02:05:04
depth of experience, your humility, your
02:05:06
willingness to admit when you were
02:05:07
wrong, which means that I trust you so
02:05:09
much with what you're telling me because
02:05:10
you're you're saying, "Listen, I'm I'm
02:05:11
an imperfect human, too. I've made
02:05:13
mistakes both in myself, with my
02:05:15
patients, and this is what I've learned
02:05:17
from it." And um the other thing is just
02:05:19
your ability to simplify. It's
02:05:21
remarkable. Listen, I sit here all day
02:05:22
with super geniuses from this university
02:05:24
and Harvard and Stanford and whatever
02:05:26
else and I'm struggling to understand
02:05:28
what the hell they're talking about
02:05:29
because they don't take a second to
02:05:30
build the bridge between the science and
02:05:34
the average person and you do that so
02:05:36
naturally. So I I have no I have no
02:05:38
surprise
02:05:38
>> coming from you that means a great deal.
02:05:40
No, it really does. Thank you. It's just
02:05:43
what 40 years in general practice does
02:05:45
to you. Because if you wish to be
02:05:46
effective and if you notice as in the
02:05:49
grin model,
02:05:51
>> I'm I'm watching your face.
02:05:53
>> I'm watching an audience
02:05:56
>> and I'm reading how I'm doing or you're
02:05:58
getting bored or I need to move on or
02:06:00
whatever. And that's what I do with
02:06:01
patients. I watch very carefully.
02:06:04
>> But coming from you because you really
02:06:06
do know because you've had all sorts. So
02:06:08
that means such a lot.
02:06:09
>> It's a really rare skill. actually
02:06:11
because it's so rare, I would just
02:06:12
implore you to do more. And I know
02:06:15
you're already doing so much, but it's
02:06:17
like it's so rare that you can have such
02:06:20
a massive impact.
02:06:21
>> Yeah.
02:06:22
>> You know, so I really I really wish
02:06:23
>> But we need to talk about how the how we
02:06:26
so I'm trying to get bigger on Twitter,
02:06:28
so this will help me um immensely.
02:06:32
>> Um
02:06:33
>> well, how can the audience help how can
02:06:34
the audience help you with your mission?
02:06:38
Well, lowcarbgp on Twitter. Please
02:06:41
follow me on X, lowarb GP. Yeah.
02:06:45
>> The other thing that would help very
02:06:46
much is to support the British charity
02:06:49
that I set up, the public health
02:06:51
collaboration. Um, it's our 10y year
02:06:54
anniversary. We set up, these were
02:06:56
clinicians who got together, 16
02:06:59
clinicians said, "How we doing rubbish?
02:07:02
Can we do better? Can we give clearer
02:07:04
public health advice?" So, it's called
02:07:06
the public health collaboration. So,
02:07:08
please, please support our charity. Go
02:07:12
online, find out about it. Come to our
02:07:14
conferences. I'd also say notice
02:07:19
each of us is on a journey. Be clear
02:07:24
about your goals.
02:07:26
Notice what works for you because that's
02:07:28
what you're doing.
02:07:30
>> And each of us see yourself as an
02:07:32
experiment. Don't be frightened of
02:07:34
experimenting. But if you're going to
02:07:36
experiment, notice, measure something,
02:07:40
measure something, and then you'll see
02:07:42
how you're doing. Um, and I I one thing
02:07:46
I think that gives me hope is continuous
02:07:48
glucose monitors because
02:07:51
you're getting, you know,
02:07:52
individualizing right there. How is my
02:07:55
blood sugar? I can check mine in a
02:07:57
minute and see how I'm doing. I think
02:07:59
continuous glucose monitors
02:08:01
>> which by the way are only 20 $30 on on
02:08:05
Amazon or
02:08:06
>> Yeah. I I would think you know what if
02:08:09
you loved your dad or you had somebody
02:08:11
and it's Christmas and you could buy a
02:08:13
useless
02:08:15
ornament or something and they don't
02:08:16
need it anyway. But would they be
02:08:19
interested to find out about their blood
02:08:21
sugar?
02:08:22
>> Yeah. You could maybe consider, you'd
02:08:24
ask them first, but if they've if
02:08:26
they've got a mobile phone, they could
02:08:29
try a continuous glucose monitor and
02:08:31
find out. Have you Have you tried one?
02:08:33
>> I have. I have.
02:08:34
>> And what did you learn?
02:08:35
>> I mean, so much.
02:08:37
>> Ah, well, did you learn? I learned that
02:08:39
all these things I thought were were had
02:08:41
no sugar in them have loads of sugar in
02:08:42
them.
02:08:42
>> Exactly.
02:08:42
>> I had no idea about ketchup. I thought
02:08:44
it was
02:08:45
>> And the point is once you've seen it on
02:08:47
your phone,
02:08:48
>> you can't then see it.
02:08:49
>> No. And I see them as the the cavalry
02:08:53
coming over the hill because we can't be
02:08:57
fooled much longer. Do more. I'm just
02:09:00
going to look at see what my blood sugar
02:09:01
is right now.
02:09:02
>> So, can I just show you?
02:09:04
>> Oh, wow.
02:09:04
>> So, what that is, that's somebody with
02:09:06
type 2 diabetes. But look, my blood
02:09:09
sugar is absolutely level.
02:09:12
>> Wow.
02:09:12
>> And that's good. uh because
02:09:17
you want it. But look how how level it
02:09:19
is. And that is because I don't eat
02:09:21
stuff that puts up my blood sugar. If I
02:09:23
was to have some of those, you'd get a
02:09:25
um you get a spike. But that's feedback.
02:09:28
Also means if I get very stressed, it
02:09:31
puts up my blood sugar. Really? And
02:09:32
you've been so kind. I haven't been
02:09:34
stressed.
02:09:35
>> Great. Thank God for that.
02:09:36
>> So other podcasters
02:09:38
>> are not as gentle and kind as you and I
02:09:40
get a horrible spike. So, I was going to
02:09:42
open. Here's some feedback for you,
02:09:44
Stephen. So, you and I have been
02:09:47
together for a few hours, and my blood
02:09:49
sugar I felt safe. So, you've done your
02:09:52
job, too. And there's some feedback for
02:09:54
you. No spiking.
02:09:56
>> I'll tell you a final story. A final
02:09:59
story.
02:10:01
>> Um, so type 2 diabetes is is brand new
02:10:05
as a problem for pediatricians.
02:10:07
>> What is a pediatrician? So a
02:10:09
pediatrician is a doctor who specializes
02:10:11
in the diseases of children, people
02:10:14
under 16 years old. And the the the
02:10:18
international problem is that children
02:10:20
everywhere are now suffering from type 2
02:10:23
diabetes.
02:10:25
Okay. But the pediatricians have had no
02:10:30
training because it's a new disease.
02:10:33
So um a large group of pediatricians
02:10:37
sent for me and said please do a keynote
02:10:41
and teach us what to do because they
02:10:44
although they're specialists they
02:10:45
haven't experience in type 2 diabetes.
02:10:48
This is a new disease of children
02:10:51
what we're doing what we're doing. Leave
02:10:55
it at that. We didn't show the fuagra
02:10:58
but
02:10:59
I'll eat some of that later.
02:11:02
>> Dr. David Unwin, thank you. We're done.
02:11:05
>> Fabulous. I enjoyed that.
02:11:07
>> YouTube have this new crazy algorithm
02:11:09
where they know exactly what video you
02:11:11
would like to watch next based on AI and
02:11:13
all of your viewing behavior. And the
02:11:15
algorithm says that this video is the
02:11:18
perfect video for you. It's different
02:11:20
for everybody looking right now. Check
02:11:22
this video out and I bet you you might
02:11:23
love

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 60
    Most shocking
  • 60
    Best concept / idea

Episode Highlights

  • The Truth About Diabetes
    Many people with type 2 diabetes are unaware they have it, risking their health.
    “A third of all the people in the world with type 2 diabetes don’t even know they have it.”
    @ 06m 00s
    May 18, 2026
  • The Miracle of Drug-Free Diabetes
    A patient achieved drug-free type 2 diabetes, a first in 25 years of practice.
    “I was fascinated because she’d done it like a miracle.”
    @ 21m 28s
    May 18, 2026
  • A Shift in Perspective
    The speaker reflects on their past failures in patient care and the importance of lifestyle changes.
    “I was blaming patients for their failure to lose weight and it was my failure.”
    @ 32m 07s
    May 18, 2026
  • The Sugar in Everyday Foods
    Exploring surprising sugar content in common foods like cereal, potatoes, and rice.
    “I didn’t think there was sugar in a potato.”
    @ 40m 41s
    May 18, 2026
  • The Truth About White Chocolate
    A shocking revelation about the sugar content in white chocolate.
    “I’ve never eaten white chocolate since ever.”
    @ 47m 59s
    May 18, 2026
  • Keto Clarity
    Keto provides clarity of thought and helps with articulation during long meetings.
    “When I'm on keto, I always sound like Buster Rhymes.”
    @ 01h 08m 27s
    May 18, 2026
  • The Power of Consistency
    Setting consistency as a goal has transformed my fitness journey.
    “Consistency became my fitness goal, meaning every day I wake up, I get a shot at it.”
    @ 01h 13m 50s
    May 18, 2026
  • Addiction and Self-Esteem
    Discussing the struggles of addiction and its impact on self-esteem.
    “"It’s very hard to deal with uncertainty and not be able to do anything."”
    @ 01h 22m 13s
    May 18, 2026
  • Jen's Book on Food Addiction
    Jen's book aims to help those struggling with food addiction and all proceeds go to charity.
    “"Every penny goes to a charity that she’s set up helping people with food addiction."”
    @ 01h 36m 16s
    May 18, 2026
  • Diet and Cancer Prevention
    Discussing the link between dietary choices and cancer prevention highlights the importance of healthy eating. "What about prevention?"
    “What about prevention?”
    @ 01h 42m 22s
    May 18, 2026
  • Nico Health: A Revolutionary Health Testing Company
    Nico Health offers comprehensive health tests with quick results, revolutionizing health screenings.
    “You walk in, $299, you lay down, you get all of your blood test done.”
    @ 01h 57m 40s
    May 18, 2026
  • The Power of Storytelling in Health
    The ability to tell captivating stories enhances understanding and engagement in health discussions.
    “The way that you tell these stories is so captivating that it enables me to learn.”
    @ 02h 04m 57s
    May 18, 2026

Episode Quotes

  • We’re all sleepwalking into a metabolic disaster.
    Fatty Liver Expert: Your Liver Is Filling With Fat Right Now - Dr David Unwin
  • I fundamentally believed that drugs is what I should be using.
    Fatty Liver Expert: Your Liver Is Filling With Fat Right Now - Dr David Unwin
  • It’s controlled to this extent.
    Fatty Liver Expert: Your Liver Is Filling With Fat Right Now - Dr David Unwin
  • "Well, you're not in control of your own life.".
    Fatty Liver Expert: Your Liver Is Filling With Fat Right Now - Dr David Unwin
  • Vulnerability is the doorway to connection.
    Fatty Liver Expert: Your Liver Is Filling With Fat Right Now - Dr David Unwin
  • I think that’s unfair because I only work in the health service.
    Fatty Liver Expert: Your Liver Is Filling With Fat Right Now - Dr David Unwin

Key Moments

  • Starting the Low Carb Journey24:42
  • Sugar Surprises40:41
  • Motivation Matters1:18:15
  • Jen's Journey1:22:44
  • Honesty First1:31:51
  • Support System1:34:24
  • Dietary Choices and Cancer1:39:47
  • Type 2 Diabetes in Children2:10:20

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

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