Hi, Thanks for reading my first post. Here is my story:

I'm a 53 year old guy who has always had a little tummy but never took it seriously. I weighed 160 last year but my weight in my twenties was about 130. After about a year of low carbing and intermittent fasting I weigh about 143. I feel better physically. For example my allergies are gone! I've had terrible hay fever for years and took anti histamines almost every day. I haven't taken an antihistamine all spring.

I'm back in school studying exercise health science at UMass Boston. I work in a nursing home as a physical therapist assistant. About half the patients in the nursing home have diabetes along with many other problems.

Realizing that there is something seriously wrong with our diet has been a personal journey as well as a professional journey. A few months back I got in some hot water at work because I was advising patients what to eat. I started getting into a habit of telling patients not to eat the donuts and sugary drinks that they were eating on a regular basis. One patient complained. My diet advice upset her and she told the higher ups. Being a physical therapist - it is "beyond my scope of practice" to advice people that sugar is bad for them.

I'm thinking of starting a personal training business to help people loose weight, get out of diabetes and help spread the word on what is wrong with our diet.

Here is what I read that influenced my thinking:

Michael Pollan "in Defense of Food" has a critique of the attempts at low fat everything. His views are different from what I think now but he was a big influence.

Dr. Fung, Dr, Michael Mosely, Suggest intermittent fasting.

Nina Teicholz - The Big Fat Surprise...

I also watch the Diet doctor web site.

It upsets me when I see studies that seem to show that high saturated fat diets cause heart issues. I read one recently and noticed that the staff were employees of Unilever. There really needs to be research that is unbiased. "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes takes apart many of the studies that are now part of the low fat dogma.

Well that's it for now. I'll post again soon.

Thanks!!
Geoff

Welcome Geoff,

What a great story and good for you going back to school at 53 for a re-focus of your career. One idea if you also want to provide nutrition advice without a Nutrition Therapist program is to get a certification now offered in the LC/Paleo world.
Example... Mark Sisson trained Primal Health Coach: http://www.primalhealthcoach.com/find-a-coach/
Many are personal trainers who also teach a Primal Eating Plan to their clients.
Hope to see you all around the forum. btw, the Dr. Fung thread is under the diabetes sub-forum http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=472377
All the best,

Hey Janet, for the 40 times I've seen you reference the dr.fung thread, when does it become a good idea to have a forum for it ?

/just wondering.

This forum does not support extended fasting, so we discuss the IF protocols like 16:8 on the diabetes forum.

Just heard from the last question on the new Fasting Talk podcast that a nutritional therapist program does support a Keto diet and IF, haven't look into the details of how many courses/money involved with the NTP certification...but mentioned it takes nine months.
https://www.nutritionaltherapy.com

Welcome, you'll find like minded people here.

"...Being a physical therapist - it is "beyond my scope of practice" to advice people that sugar is bad for them."

Well, unfortunately it probably is out of scope and probably for good reason. On the other hand, sounds like you are finding a way to help others thru a different channel.

Have fun here!

Thanks for the feedback. I'll check out that thread. Thanks!