The most delicious and effective way ever to reverse DIABETES
An NHS doctor whose anti-diabetes diet is sweeping Britain. A top chef who lost three stone using the same methods. Together they’ve devised . . .
hERE’S a figure that will shock you: approximately every three minutes, someone in the UK is diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Meanwhile, more people than ever are undergoing amputations because of diabetes complications — that’s quite apart from the added risk of heart disease, blindness, colorectal or breast cancer, stroke and premature death.
Then there’s the estimated 7 million people in the UK who have ‘pre-diabetes’ — an underdiagnosed condition that makes them up to 15 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes.
Like GPs across the country, I’ve witnessed this epidemic in my own Southport practice with alarm. Just after I joined the surgery in 1986, there were only 57 patients with type 2 diabetes — and none was under the age of 50.
Thirty years on and we’ve gone from 57 patients with type 2 to 470. Twenty-one of them are aged under 50 (with an average body weight of 17 ½ st) — and the youngest is 24.
And at the root of it all lies obesity. We have eaten our way into this epidemic. But I believe we can eat our way out of it. I know this because many patients in my practice have done just that. For them, the secret was going low-carb.
By switching to this approach, 40 per cent of my patients actually reversed their type 2 diabetes so they no longer need medication — their blood pressure, cholesterol and liver function have also improved.
Thanks to this work, in 2016 I was named NHS Innovator of the Year and my approach is now being taught to GPs across the country through the Royal College of General Practitioners — I even met the Health Secretary Matt Hancock to discuss low carb for type 2 diabetes.
While this is not a weight-loss plan as such, it’s a lifestyle change, nearly all my patients on a low-carb diet have lost weight — on average around 1½ st (9kg) over 20 months — and have kept it off.
Now, I’m sharing my approach with you, too — and it could transform life.
If you’re someone who’s been diagnosed with type 2, or have been warned you’re on the cusp, and you want to try this approach, starting today in the Mail’s Weekend magazine, we’ll show you delicious low-carb breakfasts, lunches and dinners.
Today, I’ll also share the seven key principles that form the basis of the diet.
ALL next week, in exclusive pullouts in the Mail, you’ll be given the easy and delicious recipes that can help to reverse diabetes — from low- carb pasta dishes to tempting occasion cakes.
I’ve teamed up with top chef Giancarlo Caldesi and his wife Katie, a food writer, to show how you, too, can transform your health with low- carb recipes for the wonderful food we all love.
One of the joys of going low carb — apart from enjoying better health — is that fats from natural sources are an essential part of the diet. This means olive oil, avocado, cream, full-fat Greek yoghurt and butter (even goose or duck fat) can be part of the menu.
Together, these six free pullouts form a potentially life-changing plan for taking control of your health.
In my first 25 years as a GP, I had never seen diabetes go into remission. But I am delighted to say that it’s something I see most weeks now in my clinical practice — hundreds of my patients have now gone low carb and, not only are they healthier, but we’re prescribing fewer diabetes drugs than other practices in our area, saving the NHS around £40,000 per year.
Chef Giancarlo’s personal type 2 diabetes story is particularly inspiring. Over the years, his love of good food left him not just overweight, but with arthritis, blurred
vision and blackouts. Eventually, he was diagnosed with type 2.
Despite following advice from an NHS dietitian to eat smaller portions and cut back on sugar, he got heavier, peaking at 17½ st (he’s 5ft 9in). And then his feet started to become numb — a sign of nerve damage that could lead to amputation.
That’s when he and Katie came across low carb. And they haven’t looked back — Giancarlo has lost 3st, feels healthier and his diabetes is in full remission.
Katie — who didn’t have type 2 but went low-carb anyway — has dropped two dress sizes (down to a 12) and says she has more energy, with no more afternoon slumps.
And they’ve done it by eating the delicious recipes — devised by Katie and Giancarlo themselves — that are featured in the Mail today and next week.
So what is it about carbs that’s a problem? Essentially, people who develop type 2 have a problem with sugar, or glucose. Our bodies respond to a sugary meal by producing the hormone insulin, which pushes the extra sugar into muscle cells for energy. Excess sugar is also pushed into belly fat and the liver. This results in weight gain and the insulin the body produces being less effective.
As a result, sugar builds up in the blood, resulting in higher than normal levels circulating in the blood, which, over time, damages small blood vessels in vital organs.
The combination (problems with sugar metabolism and obesity) is what often causes type 2 diabetes.
From this, it would seem obvious to cut sugar out of the diet. Yet lots of people don’t realise sugar is disguised in many foods, such as those with a lot of naturally occurring sugar — i.e. fruit juice, raisins and honey — and in starchy carbohydrates including bread, rice and potato.
Often, I come across patients who are mystified by their diabetes, saying that they have already cut out sugar, so how come they still have diabetes?
Most people only think of the obvious sources, such as sweetened drinks or chocolate, missing the important fact that starchy carbohydrates are broken down by digestion into surprising amounts of glucose. For example, a 30g slice of wholemeal bread affects blood sugar to the same extent as three teaspoons of sugar.
Of course, it has other benefits, such as B vitamins and fibre — but, if you have type 2, the sugar effect is very important. This explains why the latest NICE guidelines for type 2 diabetes state that you should eat foods high in fibre and low GI (glycaemic index) — nearly all breads and cereals have a high GI compared with green veg, most nuts and eggs.
Personally, I would advise the first step is to remove table sugar from your diet as much as possible.
This may not always be enough, though. Many people with type 2 also find it helps to ‘turn the white part of your meal green’. So, instead of rice, pour your curry over a selection of green veg.
In many cases, these simple first steps can create a huge difference — not just in type 2 diabetes, but also blood pressure and mood — and can mean patients no longer need lifelong drugs for type 2 (obviously, it’s very important to check with your doctor if you’re already on diabetes medication before cutting carbs). THIS is why I don’t accept that the epidemic of type 2 diabetes is inevitable or hopeless. But I didn’t always think like this: in fact, for the first 25 years, I didn’t think there was much that could be done about this depressing trend. It seemed largely to be a matter of adding in more drugs or increasing dosages. Then, one day, about seven years ago, everything changed when I met a patient who’d lost so much weight I didn’t recognise her — and blood tests showed she’d reversed her type 2 diabetes. And this was despite her coming off her diabetes medication! I was fascinated, having not seen a single case of remission in my medical career. How had she achieved this? She told me she was one of 40,000 members of a low-carb forum on the website diabetes. co.uk. Thus began my journey of discovery. In January 2013, my wife, Dr Jen Unwin, an NHS psychologist, and I started a low-carb group in my GP practice, and, with our practice nurse, Heather, we trialled a low-carb diet. Along with 18 volunteer patients, we met weekly and learned about lowcarbing together. I started by encouraging patients they could make real health improvements — if they were prepared to seriously reduce glucose from their diets. Many of them were particularly interested in avoiding lifelong medication for diabetes. As well as losing an average 1½ st over 20 months, they have seen improvements in their type 2 diabetes. The majority also had better blood pressure control and lower cholesterol. My wife Jen and I also benefitted from going low carb — as well as losing my middle-aged spread, I
have a lot more energy and now require 90 minutes less sleep a night. and my previously high blood pressure is a thing of the past.
Jen is now also slimmer and has overcome her addiction to carbs that resulted in her being overweight since the age of 16 (i’ll explain more about carb addiction in the series next week).
since 2013, we have rolled out this approach to 257 patients, with similar results. However, it would not be fair to say this is all my idea: the low-carb diet has a global following, and not just among those with diabetes.
and, of course, it’s important to point out that no single diet will suit all and there are other ways to tackle type 2 diabetes — for instance, the 800-calories-a-day approach, developed by the brilliant Professor Roy taylor at newcastle University, and types of gastric surgery used to help those who are morbidly obese have both produced good results. and, for the sake of balance, i should point out that there are experts who worry about low-carb diets in the long-term (though, over the six years, so far i haven’t come across significant problems).
an austrian consultant, specialist Dr Wolfgang Lutz, was on the diet for 40 years, until his death at the age of 96, and he used the approach to help his patients for decades.
For some people, low carb can end up meaning higher in fat. and, in the early days of low-carbing, i worried about the effects on cholesterol and cardiovascular risk.
but, on measuring it in my patients, i was surprised to find the average cholesterol actually came down.
this, together with the improved blood pressure and weight loss my patients experienced, could, in fact, suggest
improved heart health. the saturated fat debate remains contentious, however a very recent major review (involving eight studies and 1,600 participants) concluded: ‘Large randomised controlled trials of at least six months duration with carbohydrate restriction appear superior in improving lipid markers
[ cholesterol and other blood fats] when compared with low-fat diets.’
When it comes to type 2 diabetes, there are other factors — such as stress and lack of exercise — that play a role. But I believe the most important cause is diet.
I see this as a message of hope, because we all have some control over our dietary choices — and I believe that a low-carb approach presents many of us with a great opportunity to turn back the clock on obesity and diabetes.
And in this series — today and all next week — we’ll show you exactly how to do it.