Low carb and doctors
 

I'm sure a lot of people here have had this experience, but I thought it interesting.

I have been going with my wife to see here doctor for years, so he knows me. Last visit, he asked me how I lost so much weight. When I told him eating low carb, be seemed genuinely worried. He told me there are plenty of videos online about the danger of low carb and advised me to look into those.

The following week, I was at my dermatologist for a biopsy. I asked about some itching I was having, and mentioned I had been eating low carb and wondered if keto rash was a real thing or an internet myth. She went right past my question and started lecturing me on the dangers of low carb.

Shortly after that, I saw my primary doctor. She had recently discontinued my blood pressure medicine, advised me I was no longer pre-diabetic, told me to keep doing what I was doing and called me her A+ patient.

It amazes me that in spite of the evidence, even if anecdotal, there is so much resistance to low carb from doctors.

I've experienced similar reactions from some doctors. I believe it goes back to associating Atkins with low carb (rightly so) and the beliefs by many, especially in the early days when saturated fat was still demonized, that Atkins was a death sentence. Old perceptions are hard to break.

I have a family member who needs double knee replacement and pain in her achilles tendon. At ~5'2, she's well over 300 pounds. Several months ago, when she asked about my weight loss, I told her about low carb and she told me there was no way she could do it. A couple of weeks ago, she was practically in tears talking to me about her situation. Although it's not my nature to give out unsolicited advice, I strongly suspect she's about to ask us for some money (once again) to subsidize her upcoming period of disability and so (rightly or wrongly), I felt entitled to voice my opinion. I told her sugar is a cause of inflammation and that she should cut it out and then cut back on bread and see if she doesn't experience reduced pain. The first thing she did was ask me about fruit. I told her berries were ok, but that she needed to forget about sugary fruit like bananas. She said, "well, I'll ask my doctor about it." I knew that meant she didn't want to do it and had no intention of doing it, as we both knew that her doc would tell her to go low fat, high carb.

My docs are pro lowcarb . My husband had a very over weight friend who died of a heart attack at 43 after being told my his doctor two years prior to get off low carb before it killed him. Well he got off and he did die but he was on the standard American low fat diet at the time

OMG I've lost over 40 pounds and normalized my blood sugar - maybe I better call 911! :lol:

DCC, the funny thing is that the docs probably would have been 100% supportive if you used different words to describe it. Rob is right - use the "A" word and you're a ticking heart attack time bomb. If you say "I cut out the junk food and processed food I was eating, and now pretty much just eat plain meats and veggies," you get a round of applause.

When I first went low-carb (Atkins) more than a decade ago, my provider was amazed by how quickly my LDL and triglycerides dropped and my HDL improved. He asked me which statin I was on. When I told him I wasn't on any medication he told me to just keep doing what I was doing. I never used the words "Low carb" but told him I was eating lots of vegetables, poultry, fish, lean meats and healthy oils. Got the stamp of approval. Too many physicians don't really understand low carb. They think we sit around all day pigging out on bacon cheeseburgers and sausages without the buns.

Fatty meats and low carb veggies did get me most of where I wanted to go. The rest involved changes to the diet a doctor would probably find even more horrific, more butter, more heavy cream. But I eat my veggies, dagnabbit. :lol:

I tend to be moderate in my consumption of animal fats. I do eat whole eggs, full fat cheese and sour cream, oily fish and other seafood, and occasionally use 80/20 ground beef. My other beef and pork cuts tend to be relatively lean (I like tenderloin). I use quite a bit of boneless/skinless poultry (breasts and thighs) and I like game meat or grass fed bison. I use very little butter or heavy cream.

I get most of my added fats from nut oils (walnut and almond), avocados and avocado oil, coconut oil, olive and toasted sesame oil (the last one mostly in Asian stir fries).

I tried higher fat (more animal fat) but it causes unpleasant GI symptoms. I know some people do very well on high animal fat diets, but this seems to be the best combination for me.

I've had better experiences, luckily. Most of my doctors, when I say I'm eating lower carb (I don't say "I mostly eat extremely low carbs and fast a LOT") just nod and tell me that's a good thing to do. So you could say I'm sort of soft selling it, perhaps because I don't need some judgement. I don't know.

This year when I really began to fast in earnest my wife started to get nervous. She thought of trying to talk me into signing up for some program Jason Fung has for remote patients but then found a primary care doctor in our area who makes LCHF and intermittent fasting a cornerstone of his practice. I agreed to switch. Now I get nothing but support from my doc. They are out there!

My wife had her gallbladder removed years ago and ever since her body treats food differently. High fat foods tend to cause her ... ahem ... bathroom issues. She's been doing Weight Watchers instead but basically avoiding carbs except fruit. So a sort of hybrid weight watchers / low(ish) carb thing. Paleo like I guess but with emphasis on leaner meats. Works well for her. There are many ways to skin the cat.

Mystery question of the day: how did a statement about how many ways there are to "skin the cat" become one that you can say in any public setting, no matter how formal, and nobody thinks you're a weirdo? Hmmmm?

:confused: :confused: :confused:

RIGHT????

Funny....because all my Dr cares about is that I quit smoking.

I was 5'2 and 172 lbs....and my DR never mentioned losing weight.

When I lot 45 lbs and got my readings all within "normal" range...she NEVER asked how I lost the weight. Apparently she does not seem to care.

Only appears to care that I quit smoking. Apparently being obese and how that affects our health is of no concern to her.

Let us ignore that she could benefit from losing a few pounds.

Is smoking worse or equivalent evil maybe?