How much have you told YOUR doctor about your LC WOE?
 

"I think it is fair to say that only a very few "low-carb" doctors are out there who are bucking the medical establishment's mantra of "eat a heart-healthy low-fat diet and avoid red meat" (which pretty much translates of saying "eat a heavily grain-based, high-carb diet."

Thus, most of us following a low-carb WOE are doing so in spite of medical advice to the contrary from our own doctors.

So, I thought it might be interesting to conduct a poll asking just how honest are you REALLY with your doctor about how you eat? I'm especially interested in hearing from those whose doctors are NOT LC-friendly.

Do you just smile and nod politely when your doctor trots out the standard dietary advice, knowing that you're going to ignore it anyway? Or, have you told your doctor EXACTLY what you do and do not eat? If so, how did your doctor react?

Or, do you fall somewhere in between the two extremes? Maybe you admit to following a low-carb WOE but don't tell your doctor just how few carbs that means to you? Or you say you eat plenty of "healthy fats" but leave it up to him to interpret what you mean by healthy fats - and if he wants to think that means olive oil and other unsaturated vegetable oils instead of butter and bacon drippings, that's okay with you? Or, you never admit to just how much fat and red meat you include in your diet?

I'll start by admitting I'm in the somewhere in between category. By not discussing the details of my now 3 year-old WOE, I avoid lectures about how I need to cut down on saturated fat and red meat and instead get to hear "You're doing GREAT! You're one of my healthiest patients so keep doing what you're doing and I'll see you again a year from now."

What is your story?

Now that I am normal weight, doctors never ask what I eat, which is good because my no-grains, no-legumes, no-dairy protein, 75% fat diet would horrify them.

I tell him I cut out sugar and I leave it at that.

I've informed my doctors openly and honestly - they doesn't seem to bother them as the results speak for themselves. However my markers are all pretty normal now, if something was out of wack we'd probably have a discussion and perhaps differing opinions on how to maybe resolve the issue if it was resolvable via diet. I'm open to listen to professional advice, advice you get here (mostly anecdotes, allegories and first personal biased reporting)and my own experience to this point I'd mix all three ingredients and see what I came up with.

I believe all three of these sources of information have their merits and demerits.

Good luck at your next doctor appointment!

I'm hoping that by the time I go back to see her in March, I'll have lost enough weight that we'll have that conversation. :) In the past, I have mentioned low carb, but I haven't backed it up with any great weight loss since I began seeing her in 2015.

I tell my doctor that I eat a low carb paleo diet. All she seems to care about is if my weight meets the official criteria for "normal". She's never really remarked one way or the other about what I eat. I've told her that I believe my diet to be as healthy as it can possibly be and she hasn't argued with me. Mostly she just leaves me alone to do my own thing. She did give me a prescription for some antibiotic ointment which cleared up a stubborn cuticle infection that I couldn't cure with over the counter or "natural" treatments. I certainly don't believe she is useless and I would go to her for acute problems but as for nutrition, I can't think of a situation where I would solicit her advice. She has even stopped pressing me to get my cholesterol checked. I tell her I won't take a statin so what's the point. She's not arrogant and she let's me do my own thing without protest. Nothing to complain about here.

I've been completely open with my GP, and he has supported me without really understanding what it takes to achieve the results and level of my current health. When I tell him that I'm very low carb, moderate protein, and high fat, I'm not sure he really understands how that combination and ratio of macros has contributed to my health improvements. Despite all that, he's supportive due to my NMR Lipid Panel results, my decreased weight (he is focused on BMI), and my lack of medications. We'll see what he says when he learns the new lower "healthy" BP recommendations, which he surely will. My approach is to be completely open, if I can't and I get resistance in pursuing a healthy lifestyle, I will find another doctor.

My doc knows I eat LCHF, even if he's perhaps not 100% sure what that means. He can't argue with the results though; he was a bit nervous about my cholesterol in 2016 but had the practical sense to not do anything about it since he could see I was losing so much weight at the time.

Last time I saw him (a month ago) he was curious enough to ask me for information about it. I recommended The Art & Science of Low Carbohydrate Living for his own reading and What The Fat (a NZ-based LCHF book) for his other patients.

Wow, this question came at the perfect time for me. Altho I have seen my GP when I was at goal weight, never have we discussed LCHF, I know absolutely nothing about my #'s because i would only hear from her if there was a problem, so I guess everything is OK. I actually wondered whether I needed to tell her anything at all. I plan when I have my "once every 5 year check up" in a couple of weeks is to not say anything unless she asks. Then if any of the test come back not normal, I'll worry about it then. Have a positive day, ttyl

My GP is a naturopath, so she's a bit unconventional to start with. She said she was very happy for me, and asked how I did it. I explained, and she said, "Ah, intuitive eating," and I agreed. (I don't eat until I'm hungry, eat to satiety, eat what I'm hungry for, eat the best quality foods I can find, and don't use food to deal with non-food problems.)

Most importantly, to me, she understands that this is the way I eat now, and the way I need to eat, and that it's an ever-evolving and refining voyage of discovery, and is happy to partner with me in this.

I am astonished by the `advice' that includes the caveat that it isn't realistic to think that we will eat like this "forever", that sooner or later we have to go back to `eating normally'. Yeah? Who could make me?

We had a long-time poster here who once wrote that before he went back to existing the way he had before he lost the weight he would end his life with his own hand. Anybody who doesn't understand the perspective that would make someone say this doesn't even have a voice in the discussion. Most people won't and can't get this, and that's okay. But if you choose to speak with authority on this topic, better be able to support your words.

My doctor seems OK with it - she doesn't ask questions. I do talk more about it with the diabetes NP. I've kept a food/blood glucose diary for years now, and hand it over to her at appointments. She's only expressed two concerns: that I was eating more protein than she thought was healthy & I wasn't exercising enough. So I did some more reading about protein, double-checking what Dr. B wrote about that, and asked about it at Reversing Diabetes. Turned out she was right. I now eat less protein & more greens.

And - except for these past 2 weeks with my knee problem - I'm getting more exercise. That really brought down my bg. Now it's back up to OK but not great. So need to start doing other exercises that won't damage my knee.

Interesting discussion. I will be seeing a new PCP in January (after my last one moved away 6 years ago!). I don't know anything about her views on nutrition, so I will play it by ear. DH sees her, and likes her, but doesn't fuss about his weight (though he ought to), and hasn't told me if she has said anything about it. My general health is reasonably good, thus the lack of needing a doctor for so long, but, at 66, I feel I should be on a PCP's list.

Doctors don't get a thorough education in nutrition in school. I got more with an animal science degree than the pre-med students. Sadly. My vets bow to me regarding nutrition and feeding my livestock.

With my doctors I have given up. In the past I tried to educate them but they have deaf ears. Their lack of support has at times derailed my LC WOE I no longer explain or try to educate. I let the blood numbers speak for themselves. ANd don't let them derail me any more.

I'm planning to change docs in the near future. Will see if docs from a teaching hospital have an updated education. Not holding my breathe. lol Got a letter from Dana Farber about my blood work a couple years ago--- The intro paragraphs had me upset and worried that my numbers were bad. THen saw the numbers.....hum, looked good to me, but had to put out the atkins book to verify, great numbers!!! I didnt go back. ( previous visit to another danafaber facility had doc telling me to eat bananas instead of a risky potassium pill ( I take for muscle cramps).... the banana has MORE than the 99 mg pill. AND Lite salt has WAAAAAAY more.......

Doc are only good for fixing the extreme issues.

my cardiologist fully supports it and is a low carber herself. my transplant doctor just kind of gives a semi-nervous smile and lets it go at that. my glucose levels are generally good even with 5mg prednisone per day.
gw

My physician was the one who talked me into trying low-carb.