David Unwin MD

Dr. David Unwin (left) releasing an owl with Nigel Fowler

David Unwin MD is a GP in Britain who had the more "usual" gloom and doom view of diabetes until he attempted to access the official diabetes charity site and accidentally reached diabetes.co.uk instead. This site, with over 100,000 members, opened his eyes to the benefit of eating a low carb high fat diet. (Of course, we're talking about healthy fats).

He said, "One of the most popular topics was the low carb high fat diet. I was very impressed and moved by the stories of patients who had benefited and with the quality of the discussion. Some of the people posting were really well-informed."1

He, of course, had been taught in his medical training that the best diet for Type 2 Diabetes was one based on carbohydrates. This insight gained through the discussions on diabetes.co.uk completely changed how he worked with his diabetic patients. Before this, he would simply warn his patients that if they didn't control their blood sugar with diet, they'd have to go on drugs, and since he didn't consider weight loss to be in his field, for that he'd send them to a dietitian.

Note that this is the opposite of functional medicine, as practised by doctors such as Dr. Mark Hyman. Weight loss for Dr. Unwin didn't seem to have anything to do with diabetes, as far as he was concerned.

But since then, not only has he worked with his patients differently, he's run a small pilot study with nineteen Type 2 diabetic patients who were following the low carb high fat diet and has focused on how the diet could help them reach their goals. He has found that people are more motivated to stay with the diet when they're working toward a goal compared to "Here's your list, follow it."

Even though Dr. Unwin is not diabetic, he has decided to join his diabetic patients in the low carb high fat diet and has been eating this way for over two years. He attends regular sessions with his dieting patients where they share their successes, swap tips and discussion topics such as "It's Christmas! What can we do to avoid the high carbs and sugars and having a weight gain disaster?"

What a great doctor!

1Dr. David Unwin, HealthInsightUK,, http://healthinsightuk.org/2014/11/13/high-fat-low-carb-diet-for-diabetes-a-gps-tale/, Accessed Feb. 17, 2016


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