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Why Has Medicine Been So Slow To See The Benefits of Fasting?

Hi Everyone,

I’ve just released the latest ep of my podcast What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You: Why Has Medicine Been So Slow To See the Benefits of Fasting? which I thought might be of interest to the group

The podcast is newly available on Apple Podcasts (for a new pod it always takes several weeks to be listed by Apple) and is also on Spotify and other platforms.

Dr Jason Fung, kidney specialist and one of the world’s leading pioneers in intermittent fasting and low carb diets, reveals why modern medicine has been so slow to explore the benefits of fasting and discusses its benefits not just for type II diabetes, but for a range of other metabolic and neurological conditions.

For decades, patients with type II diabetes were told to eat a high carbohydrate diet, despite the fact that their problem was that their carbohydrate levels were already out of control.

A major study published back in 2008 in the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the world’s most prestigious medical journals, had actually shown that intensive best practice management of type II diabetes actually increased the death rate from the disease.

But despite this, treatment remained largely unchanged. Yet emerging data now suggests that the majority of type II diabetes patients can not only reverse their disease with diet, they can also prevent it developing and so stop many of the life-changing side effects of the disease, so why did it take so long for medicine to discover this?

And here is a bit about me: my name is Liz Tucker and I am an award winning medical journalist, and former BBC producer and director. I have made films for many of the world’s leading broadcasters which have been shown in over 100 countries.

You can find out more about me and the podcast at What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You, reading my Substack newsletter at liztucker.substack.com and follow me on Twitter @lizctucker

So hope you find the pod interesting, would love to hear your thoughts!

Many thanks

Liz

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Answer

I’ve done OMAD for 4 years. Started at age 58 in 2018. After my yearly checkup / blood test Dr wanted me on statins. All the criteria on my blood chemistry was low normal to bad, including LDL. He wanted me on statins and to lose weight. I told him to give me a year. He wasn’t happy with that answer.

I had never even heard of IF, but had done Atkins and do-it-yourself low carb with some success years earlier. So started eating low carb. IF was in the news. And I started it. I won’t go into all the details, but I wound up losing 50lbs with OMAD in 6 months. From morbid obesity (BMI 35) to sightly overweight (26 BMI). Eating OMAD gave me a lot of energy and I became a regular exerciser. Lots of walking, strength training, and I started C25K after hitting goal. (But the most amazing thing is I’ve easily maintained and love living and eating this way even 3.5 years after hitting goal.)

2019 I had my next physical. Dr couldn’t believe it. He said “nobody does that”. He was literally floored. Desite bring busy he interviewed me for 15 minutes while his nurse took notes. Had barely heard of IF much less OMAD. He said he’d share with his patients. (Few months later that nurse thanked me profusely. She had been pudgy but lost her weight using my method). When Dr got my blood work they called me. Everything was hugely improved. No statins required.

I feel like my Dr is a good one. I just don’t think medicine treats weight gain / obesity as a health issue until it becomes a treatable disease. They aren’t trained. I think medicine has handed anything related to weight gain and food mostly to the food industry. They influence, approve, and fund most all diet studies - including those on IF. Many of which are designed to show equivalency with non-fasting diets. The food industry has handsomely rewarded the medical community with contributions. It’s rather sickening. Nothing could be more disastrous to the food industry than a population at normal weight that want to eat healthy, natural food! They hate Fung, one of few that rocks the boat!

I have read the book “Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us” by Michael Moss. Found it a very interesting view into how they operate.

Hoping you are successful in your research!!

Answer

I used to work for doctors. Most of them know nothing about anything that isn’t “give them a pill and if that doesn’t work, let them die.” They shoot for 10 minute visits and repeat visits and are so much into the back pockets of Big Pharma, they just don’t care about actually making you well anymore. They treat symptoms, not disease. I’m lucky to have found an OD, not MD, who actually treats the whole body. Most people think doctors are Gods and will just do whatever they say. It’s pathetic.

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