Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
LOW-CARB MEALS FOR A LONGER LIFE
He's the GP who's transfaming NHS diabetes care, now Dr David Unwin has teamed up with chefs Giancarlo and Katie Oddest again to create these super-healthy recipes especially for the Mail
Achance encounter with a patient seven years ago first aler ted Dr David Unwi n to the health revolution that’s now transforming the lives of millions of people all over the world.
To his astonishment, Dr Unwin learned his patient – a woman aged 55 – had not only lost three stone but also come off her prescribed medication and reversed her type 2 diabetes by following a low- carbohydrate diet. The diagnosis was duly confirmed by blood tests.
‘In my 26 years as a GP I had never before seen type 2 diabetes reversed, enabling a patient to become medication-free,’ explains Dr Unwin, who works for the NHS.
He was so inspired by the discovery that he went on to become a pioneer for low- carb eating to tackle type 2 diabetes, a serious condition that makes it difficult for the body to process sugar, which can trigger devastating compl ications including nerve damage, strokes and blindness.
‘ Most people know that eating suga ry foods such as cakes, b i s cu i t s a nd sweets is bad for your blood sugar levels, but the role played by starchy carbohydrates – which are actually made up of a sugar, glucose – is often totally overlooked,’ says Dr Unwin.
Around 3.4 million Britons have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and a further million are estimated to be undiagnosed, according to the charity Diabetes UK.
And on top of this, the charity estimates a further 12.3 million of us are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes – largely due to our expanding waistlines.
The remarkable success of a low- carb diet in tackling diabetes was revealed by the Daily Mail earlier this year, prompting a massive response from readers who got in touch to say how ou r s e r ies had helped them take control of thei r own health.
‘My patients unanimously tell me they’d rather tackle their type 2 diabetes with lifestyle changes than resign themselves to a life on medication,’ is how Dr Unwin puts it.
Amazingly, low- carb diets date back more than 200 years, and for the first half of the 20th century they were the first line of treatment for patients with type 2 diabetes, with studies published testifying to its effectiveness.
However, low- carb eating was discarded in favour of prescription medications with the advent of modern diabetes drugs in the 1950s. But in the last decade, increasing dissatisfact ion with the results of medicating for life has led patients and a few doctors worldwide to search for other solutions.
Indeed, a Google search for the words ‘lowcarb diet’ now produces 199 million results – evidence of how many people are searching for ways to help their own health and wellbeing without medication.
‘Reversing type 2 diabetes by following a low-carb diet is a “grass roots” revolution,’ says Dr Unwin. ‘It is spreading via social and news media, and in many cases doctors are learning about it from their patients – as I did, originally.’
In a brand new series starting today in Weekend and continuing all next week in the Daily Mail, we will be looking at more ways that low- carb eating can help you beat type 2 diabetes and other conditions – and to inspire you we are sharing an exclusive collection of mouthwatering recipes, created especially for Daily Mail readers by low-carb chef and food writer Katie Caldesi.
Inspired by their patient’s success, Dr Unwin and his wife Jen, a consultant clinical health psychologist, decided to set up a lowcarb group for diabetic patients at their practice in Southport, Merseyside, in 2013. Par ticipants were asked to cut out potatoes, pasta and bread and focus on eating protein, vegetables and goodquality fats instead. The results were remarkable; in a recent study, led by Dr Unwin, patients lost an average of 9kg (20lb) each in two years on the low- carb diet, while 40 per cent put their type 2 diabetes into remission so they no longer needed medication.
Dr Unwin’s practice recently celebrated its 66th patient to achieve drug-free remission of type 2 diabetes – and now saves around £50,000 each year on diabetes medication compared with the average for similar surgeries in their area.
Moreover, the health benefits of a low- carb diet are firmly backed by the latest scientific research. Earlier this year, a two-year clinical trial by the US firm Virta Health involving 262 participants compared patients on a low- carb regimen, limited initially to 30g of carbohydrates a day, with those following standard care and dietary advice from their doctors. The researchers found 53 per cent of low- carb patients had reversed their type 2 diabetes, meaning that their blood sugar readings had returned to a normal range. These patients had either come off medication altogether or else substantially reduced their doses. The average patient lost 11.9kg (26lb).
By contrast, the group receiving standard type 2 diabetes care and diet advice did not report diabetes reversal or improvement. In fact, very few had lost weight or experienced other health improvements – and some needed more diabetes medication after two years.
Key to the success of low- carb eating is understanding exactly how much sugar is in the foods you eat. ‘I often come across patients who are mystified by their diabetes, who’ve already cut
sugar out and yet
‘It really is unbelievable what patients can achieve’ DR DAVID UNWIN
still struggle to control their blood sugar levels,’ says Dr Unwin.
The culprit? Hidden sugars in starchy carbohydrates such as cereals, brown bread, rice, some root vegetables such as potatoes, and tropical fruits. These foods break down when digested by the body to produce surprisingly high levels of sugar in your bloodstream. A baked potato, for instance, when digested, can have the same effect on your blood sugar levels as nine teaspoons of table sugar. For someone with type 2 diabetes, high blood sugar levels can, over time if uncontrolled, cause damage to the circulation and vital organs.
To make matters easier for his patients, Dr Unwin created a series of sugar charts – recently endorsed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence ( NICE) – to show the effect different foods have on your blood sugar levels, calculated in terms of teaspoons of table sugar.
Among the st r iking results revealed by the charts – exclusively reproduced here and next week in the Daily Mail for the first time – is that a small bowl of rice can increase your blood sugar levels by the same extent as ten teaspoons of sugar. Three slices of brown toast
have the equivalent
effect on blood sugar levels as nine teaspoons of sugar.
‘Many of my patients initially really struggle to imagine a life without bread and potatoes, but are motivated to try new things to improve their health,’ says Dr Unwin.
Searching for ways to make lowcarb eating more enjoyable for his patients led him to team up with top Italian chef Giancarlo Caldesi, whose remarkable personal battle with diabetes was featured in Weekend magazine earlier this year. Giancarlo lost more than three stone and reversed his own severe type 2 diabetes – with dramatic effects on his health and happiness.
When Giancarlo was diagnosed with diabetes, aged 59, in 2011, he weighed more than 16 stone at 5ft
9in tall after a lifetime of eating pasta, cakes and drinking sugary cappuccinos. His vision was blurry, he was permanently exhausted and he couldn’t even tie his shoelaces or kick a football for his young sons due to loss of sensation in his feet caused by nerve damage due to diabetes.
Within 16 months of switching to a low- carb diet, supervised by his wife Katie, who devised delicious dishes so he didn’t feel he was missing out, the weight was dropping off. Giancarlo’s mind felt clear for the first time in years – and his blood glucose levels were also reducing to below the threshold for type 2.
Today his vision is also significantly improved and his peripheral neuropathy – the damage to the nerve endings due to diabetes that caused the numbness in his feet – has improved by 95 per cent.
‘I feel the healthiest and happiest I have for decades – it’s not an exaggeration to say I’ve got a whole new life,’ says Giancarlo, now aged 67.
The Caldesis and Dr Unwin set to work to produce an easy-to-follow low- carb diet plan that could fit into anyone’s life.
The principles are simple: cut out sugar and substantially reduce starchy carbs and replace them with non-starchy vegetables, protein from non-processed meat, fish, eggs and cheese, some lower-sugar fruits such as apples and berries and good-quality fats found in fullfat dairy, nuts and olive oil.
The result was the bestselling Diabetes WeightLoss Cookbook based on Katie Caldesi’s delicious low- carb recipes and serialised earlier this year in Weekend and the Daily Mail.
Instead of promising quick-fix weight loss, the low-carb approach offers you a flexible, practical way to improve your health with no need for calorie- counting or portion control. The secret to its success is that it avoids the spikes and high levels of blood sugar that cont r ibute to weight gain and type 2 diabetes. So while this is not a weight loss plan as such, as your blood sugar levels begin to regulate, weight will naturally drop off.
The delicious lowcarb recipes here have
been created by Katie for you to enjoy as the weather turns colder and the evenings get darker. ‘As autumn sets in, we look forward to eat i ng our favourite comfort foods, yet many of these are laden with carbohydrates,’ says Katie. ‘The good news is t he re a re so many d i she s you can prepare that are comforting, warming and totally nutritious and won’t cause your blood sugar levels to spike.
‘ There’s no need to skip our delicious traditional British puddings either – we have adapted recipes for crumbles and other desserts that are so mouthwatering you would never know they were low in sugar.’
Initially there was great resistance from the medical establishment to low- carb but this year A Consensus Report by the American Diabetes Association concluded: ‘Reducing overall carbohydrate intake for individuals with diabetes has demonstrated the most evidence for improving glycemia’.
‘As a GP it is so rewarding to see people taking charge of their own health and happiness in this way,’ says Dr Unwin.
‘Every week I see patients who are not just slimmer and healthier but who have also come alive. I have an 80-year-old patient who’s the lightest he’s ever been as an adult after switching to low- carb eating. He’s now off medication and has even joined a gym. It’s unbelievable what patients can achieve if we just give them a chance.’
* Always consult your GP before starting a new diet plan, particularly if you are taking prescribed medication.
‘I’m feeling healthier than I have for decades’ GIANCARLO CALDESI