Dr Robert Cywes

[MrsA2]

https://www.rlmedicine.com/93

Just listened to this podcast twice! So much good stuff about low carb, emotional eating, food addiction etc.

Well worth a listen
"Every snack is an emotional event "

 

[AloeSvea]

I didn't listen to the podcast, but I read the summary- notes. Very interesting! I am always interested to see how bariatric surgeons work, how they think through this issue. In Aotearoa/New Zealand there is also a low-carb advocate bariatric surgeon who has been a TV Doc-star with basically his own show - 'The Big Ward'. Dr Gabor, from memory. A very similar dude. I don't know how they reconcile these two things in their medical world view. Especially if they start proposing surgery to young people, as Dr Gabor does.

Also, Because I am really interested in word and phrase choice, I get annoyed with the phrase 'food addiction' - as make no mistake - all mammals are addicted to food! We can't live without it. How strange to make it sound like folks (like me and many many many many others) who came to associate eating with emotional comfort are addicts. Now - sugar! And wheat - I agree there. But not with food generally. I know I am being picky about phrase/word choice, but I think it is very important.

I don't buy it that every snack is an emotional event. I like the ritual of afternoon tea, and I know I am not alone in this (I take it - a big deal from my European forebears, especially the English ones?). But 'emotional'? Hmmmm.

Anyway, thanks for the link @MrsA2 - I will certainly give it a closer look by listening to the podcast. Hope you don't mind my immediate response to the text...

 

[MrsA2]

Also, Because I am really interested in word and phrase choice, I get annoyed with the phrase 'food addiction' - as make no mistake - all mammals are addicted to food! We can't live without it. How strange to make it sound like folks (like me and many many many many others) who came to associate eating with emotional comfort are addicts. Now - sugar! And wheat - I agree there. But not with food generally. I know I am being picky about phrase/word choice, but I think it is very important.

You are absolutely right!
It was my lazy late night posting that paraphrased.
He refers to sugar addiction and carb addiction. He's correct, I'm not!

 

[MrsA2]

I don't buy it that every snack is an emotional event. I like the ritual of afternoon tea, and I know I am not alone in this (I take it - a big deal from my European forebears, especially the English ones?). But 'emotional'? Hmmmm.

Do listen to it.
Snacks aren't needed for nutrition and fuel (well they shouldn't be if diet is right) so that leaves us eating them when tired/bored/grumpy etc, or as in your case, for social and mental well being
All do with and driven by emotions rather than a physical need for nutrition and fuel

Just a pithy one line aide memoire to prompt me to think when heading for eating between meals

 

[AloeSvea]

Righto - I read the transcript (needed a night sleep, then I went beyond the summary into the real thing). (Isn't it wonderful that most podcasts provide transcripts these days? Wo ho!)

First of all I listened to the first minute of the podcast to get a feel for these folks - I'm pleased that I did - as who can resist a lovely Aussie woman saying, "Good morning, gorgeous ones!"?! Not me.

And again @MrsA2 - I do thank you for sharing this, as I'm super interested in diabetes and food education, and this is what these three are engaging in here, and you too in sharing, and it's all good.

Right off, I have to say, I too have experienced how meaningful it is to see my own self as sugar-addicted, and to recognise emotional drivers. And this is at the core of the info in this interview. During my first year post diagnosis I found another lovely Aussie woman, Sarah Wilson in the recipe section of a bookstore, 'I quit sugar' and 'I quit sugar for life', and I thank her from the bottom of my heart, for her 'paleo inside out bread' loaf that I was able to share with my then young adult daughter. I think it was Wilson that introduced me to stevia also, and oh boy am I grateful that herb in my sugar/sweet-addicted life. (I have since then lost my daughter at my table to Australia itself, but there is rarely a Kiwi parent that that is not true for! And before the pandemic that wasn't such a big deal in terms of getting into planes and visiting... anyhow, I digress....)

OK. What I would have liked to hear in the interview, which I take great pains to say myself when I venture into the world of diabetes education from a low-carb point of view, is that addiction is part of being human. Wanting succour and comfort and getting it wherever we can, which is most often unfortunately in addictive substances, is as part of our species as our opposable thumbs. Once you do that - that simple acknowledgement, out the window goes a certain sanctimonious attittude. And I am afraid - Dr Cywes is like many ex-addicts giving advice on kicking the habit - he just can't help himself. Especially when he is the ultimate receiver of reward for the carb-addiction chain - a bariatric surgeon. I am afraid if I was in that recording space I would have ended up wanting to slap all three of them! And absolutely, especially - Dr Cywes. (And, not uncoincidentally I would be the 'like a meth addict' type two diabetic.)

I do remember a stepfather telling me back in the 70s that there was nothing as annoying as an ex smoker educating smokers. Being around smokers. etc etc. He had admirably given up smoking three packs a day, but he avoided ex smokers for the sanctimony.

But maybe he's not that bad? I do remember in that first year post diagnosis coming across a health commentator that called eating carrots engaging in a sugar gateway drug. Hmmm. Dr Cywes talked about blueberries. For me it isn't blueberries or carrots (heaven help us!),but licorice allsorts, and I agree - if you treat desire for sugar as an addiction it absolulely does put it into perspective. (I have no probs telling loved ones in my life not to have things like that in front of me, as it is just too cruel...) (Eight years on, I can watch folks eating licroice allsorts in front of me, but I do take the open packet left out in the living room to them, and ask them to, you know, put it somewhere where I can't see it or access it.)

 

[LaoDan]

I think Dr Cywes has some good stuff, but if he said anything bad about licorice, he’s totally wrong!

 

[MrsA2]

I think Dr Cywes has some good stuff, but if he said anything bad about licorice, he’s totally wrong!

It is a good podcast. Covers lots of stuff. The 2 Australian female doctors who produce it have a lot of common sense and a realistic approach.
It's much easier to listen to than some of the American ones, and I found this one thought proving, and motivating, all in 58 minutes!