Ruth is a GP in North Devon in the southwest of England. Three years ago she came across Dr David Unwin who was using lower carbohydrate diets to achieve outstanding outcomes in his patients with Type 2 Diabetes. So having tried unsuccessfully over many years to help her patients using the mainstream approach, Ruth and her team decided to offer the lower carb approach instead. Since then, they have been seeing some remarkable outcomes with many patients putting their Type 2 Diabetes into remission, losing excess weight, coming off many of their medications and benefiting from a host of additional benefits, including resolution of sleep apnoea and IBS.  

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought into focus the alarmingly high prevalence of poor metabolic health. The tragic collision of these 2 pandemics motivated Ruth to spread the word to other health professionals that metabolic health can improve significantly within weeks, and that this may help to improve an individual's outcome from Covid-19.  

To reach out to health professionals across the UK and beyond, Ruth has been delivering a series of free, unsponsored educational webinars, with her co-host, Midlands-based practice nurse Gayle Gerry.  Ruth and Gayle have welcomed a terrific selection of speakers from a range of medical specialities who feel similarly passionate about sharing this good practice with other health professionals. Hopefully, as the community of low carb practitioners continues to grow, this will lead to many more patients being offered this highly effective approach and becoming empowered to regain control of their metabolic health. 

Dr Ruth Tapsell acknowledges that her medical school education did not cover nutrition or sleep. Even with Diabetes and Endocrinology training, it didn’t make sense that her patients were eating carbohydrate-laden food and covering it with insulin. She thought that if eating a certain way causes diabetes then by changing the way we eat it, it might be possible to reverse Type 2 Diabetes or prevent it. She didn’t discover using therapeutic carbohydrate restriction as a way to manage type 2 diabetes until three years ago.  It was her husband, also a GP, who came across an article from Dr David Unwin in a medical magazine.  They have started using this approach in their general practice.  Dr Ruth now runs local groups for patients and webinars for health care professionals to get the word out and educate others on the use of low carb / real food way to manage their health and wellbeing. Dr Ruth featured in an article in the Daily Mail highlighting the work she is doing in helping her patients halt and reverse Type 2 Diabetes.

She talks about her general practice in being a low prescribing practice and the challenges of getting others within the NHS to get on board with these life changing practices. One of Dr Ruth’s dreams is that Hartland in Devon becomes a Blue Zone, where everyone lives to 120.

We talk about raising teenagers and how difficult it is in school with the food on offer and with their peers.

If you are looking for the show notes on Apple Podcast please click through to the episode web page as they are not showing on Apple at the moment.

1. If you are on any medication, speak to your doctor before starting on low carb or keto
2. Do it gently, cut out processed food - especially seed oils and sugar
3. Be kind to yourself and keep an open mind 

The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet: Lose weight fast and reprogramme your body:

Lose weight and reprogramme your body - Dr Michael Mosley

https://amzn.to/3iDN2pU

Daily Mail article

 Ali is co-founder and CEO at Resilient Nutrition is a former soldier, active endurance athlete, and coach, and is fascinated by resilience and what enables some people to achieve what they previously thought impossible. After spending 15 years working in the data, insights and technology space at Accenture, he combined his passion for human performance with his technology experience to found Optimal Human Performance, a company that works with scientists and coaches to help individuals and teams test the limits of their abilities, often in extreme environments. It was this experience and getting to work with his co-founder, Dr Greg Potter, that lead to the creation of Resilient Nutrition. 

Greg Potter leads the development of Resilient Nutrition products. He has a PhD in nutrition, circadian rhythms, sleep, and metabolism, and an MSc and a BSc in sports science. He is a health and performance consultant and is a regular keynote speaker at international health summits. Highlights of Greg’s career include working with US Naval Special Warfare, coaching a sprinter to four gold medals at the European Championships, being the sleep expert on a Channel 4 documentary, and having his research featured in dozens of international news outlets, including the BBC, Reuters, TIME, and The Washington Post.

Ali is particularly fond of punishing exercise, the jungle, bagpipes, and biltong. 

Greg is particularly fond of early starts, volcanoes, diving, and fish pie.

Ali has always been interested in endurance sports and how to fuel for endurance events. He knows it is not just the food but also a psychological element that enables him to keep going.

Greg, whilst not low carb or keto, focuses on nutrition, exercise and sleep and appreciates that all aspects of lifestyle influence how we feel and how we function.

Together they created a product to help two rowers cross the Atlantic in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge that was nutritious, energy-dense, easy to digest foods that will be stable without a fridge for several weeks at a time. This led to them co-founding Resilient Nutrition, whose products are not only for athletes for those who are wanting to make intelligent choices in optimising their health and performance.

We discuss the nuance of carbohydrate loading for different activities. Greg also talks in-depth about exercise, nutrition, sleep and how to improve your sleep.

1. Be thoughtful about what you eat
2. Remember what you eat affects how you feel and perform
3. Think about the relationship between what you eat and how you sleep

1. Humans have existed for the majority of time on this planet as pre-industrial people so we need to mimic that lifestyle by being outdoors
2. Take care to reduce the effects of chronic low-grade stress
3. Give back when you can 

https://resilientnutrition.com/pages/principles/

The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance - Dr Jeff S Volek and Dr Stephen D Phinney

https://amzn.to/3oggmF4

Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman

https://amzn.to/3kU8BUe

https://www.jetlagrooster.com

 In this episode, we open the questions to members of our Facebook group and we talk around various topics including how do you know you are in ketosis, how do you test for ketosis, what is the problem with seed oils.

We also turn the tables and ask the members who was their “One” and ask for their three top tips.

Sheila's Top Tips

1. Prioritise yourself
2. Eat nutritious food
3. When eating out, check the menu online 

Allison's Top Tips

1. Check the ingredient lists
2. Don’t be embarrassed about changing orders at a restaurant
3. Don’t stress 

Nicola's Top Tips

1. Learn to read nutrition labels
2. Don’t care about what other people think
3. Keep learning about low carb keto 

How to calculate basal metabolic rate 

For Men - BMR = {10 X Weight[KGS]} PLUS {6.25 X Height [cms]} MINUS {5 x Age [years]} PLUS 5

For Women - {10 X Weight[KGS]} PLUS {6.25 X Height [cms]} MINUS {5 x Age [years]} MINUS 161

or

https://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html

Keto Mojo 

https://bit.ly/31fUNeN

Stop Counting Calories & Start Losing Weight - Dr Zoë Harcombe

https://amzn.to/3njVEUd

The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet: Lose weight fast and reprogramme your body:

Lose weight and reprogramme your body - Dr. Michael Mosley

https://amzn.to/3iDN2pU

The Primal Blueprint - Mark Sisson

https://amzn.to/3jU4Iw3

To see other Fabulously Keto episodes mentioned go to

https://fabulouslyketo.com/podcast/

“Sheila asked: How do you know if you’re in ketosis?  When starting out with low carb keto, there are a number of ways to get started.  The easiest way to get started is to reduce your carbohydrate intake. You may well notice other changes such as mental clarity, increased energy and reduced pain.  You can monitor your ketone levels by using a breath analyser, urinalysis sticks or blood meter. ”

“Allison asked: How often would you test your blood ketones? There is no strict requirement to monitor your ketone levels.  You can of course do so with a meter.”

“Nicola asked: What is the problem with seed oils? A great episode (#29) to listen to is Graham Philips who explained what are the major effects of consuming seed oils.  Industrial seed oils are problematic as they are”

 Hanna Boëthius has lived with Type 1 Diabetes as her constant companion for 36 years, and it was as if her whole life fell into place when she started eating real food in 2011. Since her wake up call, she has gained much of her health back, thanks to simply eating the right nutrients for her body.

Hanna is a patient leader, international speaker, MSc Diabetes student and action taker, who loves patient topics that are off of the beaten track. She’s passionate to find motivational and inspiring ways to bring about a change in health care. Through her own company, Hanna Diabetes Expert, she’s inspired thousands of people with diabetes to live a healthier life by sharing her own story and experiences, as well as the puzzle pieces she’s helped others to find.. She has a profound understanding of how things like nutrition and lifestyle choices can balance diabetes management.

She is also the founder of the very first interactive, 100% real food event, called The Low Carb Universe. It’s Europe’s healthiest event!

Having been a Type 1 Diabetic since she was 2 years old, Hanna felt like she wouldn’t live to see her 30th birthday. Once she found that eating real food helped her manage her diabetes she improved her health, gained more energy and now feels she has a full life. She helps other Type 1 Diabetics regain their health and feel better.

1. There is always something you can do to improve your health
2. Many ways to tweak your health journey
3. Find a community that supports you with a similar view of life

University of Leicester 

https://le.ac.uk/courses/diabetes-msc-dl/2021 

“Type One Diabetes and going into teenage years, that was a completely different beast.”

“My teacher says to me, ‘You know Hanna, you don't even make this stuff. You can't make insulin because you're Type One diabetic. So if I were you, I'd really think twice about what I put in my mouth.’ And that was really my a-ha moment.”

“I never really reached any sort of standards that I was supposed to. And I you know, sort of in terms of goals and blood sugar levels and stuff like that”

“I was 28 years old and I wasn't sure I would see my 30th birthday. My body is so tired.“

“I already felt more dead than alive. I didn't have the energy to do anything. I didn't want to do all the normal things that you're supposed to enjoy in your late 20s”

“I saw it straight away with my blood sugar, I said, ‘Oh, my God, it's actually working’ it is actually getting better.”

“Then I sort of got into the mindset of, oh, but how low can I go.”

 Netta Gorman is the person behind Life After Sugar... because real life carries on even when you're sugar free. Netta has been living happily free from sugar, flour and sweeteners since July 2015 (6 years now!). She spent most of her thirties and early forties struggling with chronic constipation and digestion issues but she never thought that her love for chocolate and desserts had anything to do with it. Doctors kept telling her to eat more fibre, but this was making things worse, not better. 

In July 2015, she got to a breaking point where her pain and suffering was so bad that she decided to do something she'd never tried before: cut out sugar, flour and sweeteners for a temporary period of just 2 weeks. And to her complete amazement, she felt so much better that she just carried on and never looked back! 

One thing that still amazes her is that her tastes changed, and now she doesn't even *like* sweet tastes any more (whereas before, she was the world's #1 sweet tooth). And most of all, the one word that sums up her life after sugar is "freedom" - freedom from cravings, from energy crashes, from that love-hate relationship with sugar, from all the health issues she had. And this is why she decided to help other people to get to this place of freedom and peace with food and with themselves, with the Life After Sugar Program.

Netta Gorman wasn’t overweight. She considered herself slim even if she did have a muffin top and was carrying a few extra pounds but she suffered with depression and terrible chronic constipation. She didn’t want to believe that sugar was the culprit and didn’t want to give up sugar until her pain got so bad. Her two week trial made such a huge difference that she just kept going. Netta has incorporated fermented foods into her everyday life which helps with her gut issues.

1. Go with me and see how wonderful life is after sugar
2. Be aware that your tastes can change
3. Give it a try and don’t wait until Monday

Villi Yoghurt Starter Culture

Mesophillic Starter Culture

“She [nutritional therapist] suggested to me to see whether my digestive issues were due to what I was eating, so just for a period of two weeks to cut out sugar, grains, and sweetness, and even berries.”

“The way that I was dealing with my issues, or my pain, or my anxiety, whatever was to eat chocolate. I wasn't going to cut out the only thing that made me feel better. So I resisted that for the longest time.”

“I went to the supermarket and just sort of wandered around aimlessly, picking things up on the shelves and putting them back again. Because I was looking at the ingredients, and they all had some form of sugar or flour.”

“I finally cottoned on to the fact that real food or whole food doesn't have added sugars or grains, then I sort of had this epiphany in the grocery store. Oh, well, I'll just have fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, seafood, you know, and nuts. And I'll be fine with that.“

“I don’t identify myself with how I eat.”

 Christine is the creator and owner of BlackPeopleKeto. The brand and platform created to transform dishes with an African and Caribbean influence into delicious nutritious keto dishes, alongside fitness advice and inspiration with the aims of aiding the weight loss journey of many. 

By day she works as a manager in the asset management industry and is also the co-chair of the Socio-economic Mobility (SEM) Committee at her firm. Responsible for raising awareness of SEM issues; whilst inspiring and encouraging applicants from less affluent backgrounds to enter careers in the industry.

She's an author and has recently published her first cookbook based on the keto diet via her platform BlackPeopleKeto.

Finally, she would describe herself as a “lover of learning and teaching”, a comedian and a keto expert!

In this episode we talk to Christine from Black People Keto. Christine was fed up with the cycle of gaining and losing weight as her old ways of losing weight weren’t working for her. Having tried keto twice before, Christine knew that it worked but it wasn’t sustainable for her because the foods she was eating didn’t fit into her African-Carribean culture.  She then set about to keto’fy Afro-Carribean foods as she knew it would mean greater success, sustainability and stop the gain-loss cycle. 

Black People Cookbook Volume 1

https://blackpeopleketo.com/products/the-cookbook-vol-1-2

1. Be Consistent
2. Don’t set an end date
3. When you start - take out all the food that is not keto friendly and display it so you can see how much bad food is in your cupboards.

Low Carb Food Co

https://bit.ly/2PwoncF

“I started because I lost my sense of taste, I started eating lots and lots of different food, I'm trying to figure out, what can I eat, what can I eat.”

“I'm from that generation that whenever you eat, you finish your plate.”

“So it got to the point, once I realised just how much weight I've gained, I could no longer actually lose that weight, the usual way that I would lose weight. I would usually lose weight from exercise.”

“But my thing about this time around was that I always had enough of being in that cycle of gaining-losing-gaining-losing. I wanted this to be the permanent time, where it's gone forever. It's not coming back.“

“I thought to myself, okay, let me just do keto, because I've done it before, but let me try and make it in a way that I can keep it consistent and keep it forever ultimately.”

“I started looking at different keto pages and the keto diet, and I couldn't necessarily find one that fits into the diet that I'm used to.”

“

 Dan Greef is an entrepreneur and owner of Deliciously Guilt Free. He is also an award winning podcaster with his show UK Low Carb which won an award in the podcasting for business awards in 2020. He has been named a top 10 foodpreneur by Yahoo Finance for Deliciously Guilt Free. And is passionate about having food which is totally keto, healthy and full of nutrition. Dan is husband to his wife Basma, who is his business partner and he has two children who are five and two years old.

In this episode we talk to Dan Greef, owner of Deliciously Guilt Free and podcast host of UK Low Carb. Dan has a keen interest in politics and evolutionary history.  In a wide ranging discussion, we talk about how the low carb movement needs to be a grassroots movement to effect change, the evolutionary history of food production and how many of our modern day diseases can be attributed to our modern food production and systems.

Deliciously Guilt Free Food

UK Low Carb podcast 

1. Eat real food
2. Don’t fear salt
3. Sleep is the best free medicine that nature can provide

TEDEx - Sarah Hallberg 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da1vvigy5tQ

Grain Brain - Dr David Perlmutter

https://amzn.to/39MTasr

Wheat Belly - William Davis MD

https://amzn.to/3lhJgWm

Food junkies: Recovery from Food Addiction - Vera Tarman

https://amzn.to/2UYmxjL

Quote - Confucius

“We have two lives and the second begins when we realise we only have one”

“I think I've just had a lightbulb moment of understanding myself and realising that I was always blaming myself. You know, individual responsibility is very important. However, if the rules are set up against you, you don't have a chance to succeed. Then what chance do you have? I realised very quickly that I was following the rulebook which works against my body.”

“I remember clearly sitting on the sofa at home, watching the Sarah Hallberg video and it just was like, Whoa, paradigm shift.”

“You are somebody who is living with your body. And you have to find out how you work. And I think that's been a real discovery for me.”

“I thought okay, what's the harm in one meal because I want to eat something. So I had that meal.  That was in October and by Christmas, I was still eating carbs. What's happened here?“

“So I've had a few resets over time.”

“I think identifying what is your trigger, or what trips you up is really important. None of us got the final answer. It's only what's right for us and how we work. Gettin

 Liz was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes 4 years ago, and although she had been overweight her whole life, she felt she was eating healthily,  in line with national guidelines.  Plenty of fruit and vegetables, wholegrains, low fat or fat free yogurts and margarines etc.  Her GP prescribed medication for her diabetes, but she had read that it was possible to put Type 2 diabetes in remission without medication, and after a little bit of research, she decided to follow Michael Mosely's 8 week Blood Sugar Diet.  Within three months she had put her diabetes in remission, and lost three stone (42 lbs or nearly 20 kg)! 

She subsequently joined the Public Health Collaboration, a National Charity dedicated to informing and implementing healthy decisions for better public health, and two years ago started to run low carb courses for several local GP surgeries.  She has maintained her own remission from Type 2 diabetes AND the weight loss for almost four years by following a low carb lifestyle, and continues to  help others do the same. 

Liz LePla was prediabetic and decided to follow the NHS and diabetes guidelines. She ended up with Type 2 Diabetes, despite following the advice. She was in her 60s when she was diagnosed. She put her diabetes in remission, lost 4 stone in weight and has managed to keep it off.

As well as running her own business she is also an ambassador for the PHC UK (Public Health Collaboration) Charity. She now works with local GP surgeries in helping others put their Type 2 Diabetes into remission. Hear some of the challenges she has had with GP surgeries and some of her huge successes.

This is a long episode but we hope you enjoy listening to Liz.

1. Cut out sugary starchy carbs
2. Exercise
3. Everything you change is a positive

BBC Documentary - Trust Me I’m a Doctor

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04j9gny

The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet: Lose weight fast and reprogramme your body: Lose weight and reprogramme your body - Dr. Michael Mosley

https://amzn.to/3iDN2pU

PHC UK (Public Health Collaboration) - charity 

https://phcuk.org

The Big Fat Surprise - Nina Teicholz

https://amzn.to/3k9t4Ts

Diet Doctor

https://dietdoctor.com 

The Magic Pill 

“My GP gave me this information. I saw her and she said, ‘You know, you can do quite a bit with diet’. But I said, ‘I think I am eating healthfully?”

“But I could immediately see that this made sense, if your problem is that you've got too much glucose, if you stop putting the glucose in, you're not gonna have such a problem.”

“When I first heard that 800 calories a day for eight weeks, Gawd, I'm going to be ab

 Doug Reynolds is the Founder and CEO of LowCarbUSA® and President of the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners.  

LowCarbUSA provides a platform for internationally renowned scientists and medical practitioners to present the ever-increasing body of evidence on the benefits of reducing carbohydrates in the diet and adding in healthy fats. It has now evolved into one of the primary resources for the low carb community.  This includes a huge library of educational videos, a growing database of practitioners and dietitians and sports trainers who are open to the carb restriction conversation as well as a searchable database for papers and articles covering the research into the evidence supporting this lifestyle.  

The SMHP is a non-profit for practitioners focused on metabolic health and they have a panel of advisors to oversee the creation and maintenance of a set of 'Clinical Guidelines for Therapeutic Carbohydrate Restriction' which was first published in May, 2019.  The SMHP also defines numerous pathways for accreditation and the forums encourage open discussion which helps to establish Standard of Care around carbohydrate restriction.

Doug Reynolds is the Founder and CEO of LowCarbUSA® and President of the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners.  He was an endurance athlete and used to carb load for his races following the advice of Prof Tim Noakes and the standard advice. He was running 50 miles / 80Km a week and his weight was still increasing, then he found out about ketosis. Not only did the ketogenic diet transform his weight and health it also transformed the trajectory of his work. 

1. Don’t be afraid to try it.
2. Community - find your tribe.
3. Don’t ever let peer pressure talk you out of it.

Lore of Running - Tim Noakes MD

https://amzn.to/3BtjDYm

“I used to feel like I was exquisitely fit.”

“...that was Tim Noakes fault.  As you know, Tim talked about how important carbohydrates were and this whole concept of carb loading before the race.”

“I was literally poisoning myself with excessive carbohydrates.”

“I remember we moved to a new place and I looked in the mirror and I thought ‘this mirror is bent because I don't look like that’. You know, I was in denial, I literally couldn't believe that I had actually started to fill out and become like a barrel almost.“

“I still remember the very first meal I ever cooked a couple of ribeye steaks. I went outside and cooked it on the fire and came back in and not only was there all this fat among the meat, which was absolutely unknown for me, but all this fat sloshing around on the bottom of the plate.  I started giggling and was like ‘am I going to seriously eat this thing?”

 Martina Slajerova is a health and food blogger, mobile app creator and bestselling author of ten cookbooks. She holds a degree in economics and worked in auditing but has always been passionate about nutrition, exercise and photography. 

In 2011 Martina was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s, an autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid. She had no energy and  found it more and more difficult to maintain a healthy weight. She decided to quit sugar, grains, and processed foods, and started following a whole foods–based ketogenic approach to food to manage her autoimmune condition. She has now been following a low-carb diet for over a decade.

Keto Diet Blog: https://ketodietapp.com/Blog 

Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ketodiet/id575004207

Google: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ketodietapp.ketodiet.full

1. Electrolytes
2. Don’t be afraid to use salt
3. Fit food into your way of eating and keep it simple

Escape The Diet Trap - Dr John Briffa

https://amzn.to/3fjnqgu

Gary Taubes

“You know, you just have to exercise more and eat less, and everything will sort itself out.  Well, that didn’t really happen.”

“So it was the perfect combination of skills for us.”

“So we started with the app, then we went to create the blog where I started sharing recipes and my experience with low carb eating.”

“I increased my carbs a little bit again to about 30 grammes of net, which is where I am now. And that's the sweet spot for me. It definitely doesn't work the same for everyone. Some people do really, really well on a very low carb diet. Some people need to add a few more carbs just to feel good. “

“Plateau tips: 1) liquid calories 2) too much snacking 3) alcohol 4) stress, sleep”

“You have to find your own way. You have to customise your own diet.”

“Definitely don't think that what someone does for keto is the only way. You have to find your own way that works for you, in the long term.”