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My doctor is concerned about my mental state due to me starting LCHF

ziggy_w said:
Hi @charlie000,

So sorry to hear about the problems getting your doctor on board.

Mine wasn't really supportive, but didn't try to stop me either -- so your situation is a lot more difficult.

Have you considered sharing with him the trial results of Virta Health, who use a low-carb higher-fat diet for diabetics?

Here is a link if you are interested: https://blog.virtahealth.com/one-year-clinical-trial-outcomes-type-2-diabetes/

There is also a list of low-carb research on the Virta site. Here's a link for this: https://blog.virtahealth.com/low-carb-research-comprehensive-list/

Let us know what you decide and how the conversation with your doctor goes. Keeping my fingers crossed.
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I am going to do more research in to this lifestyle, before I convince others.
 
When I talk about fats, I talk about balancing fats, so that I don't lose weight, and that's exactly what I do.

As someone I respect once said, "consume carbs to satisfy your meter. Consume fats to satisfy the bathroom scales." Seems to make sense to me.
 
britishpub said:
I think it's always better.

I eat a Low Carb diet. I have never understood why the High Fat is ever mentioned let alone emphasised.

People will rarely find a reason to disagree with Low Carb, by adding the HF bit you are just asking for trouble.

IMHO if we honestly want to encourage more people to follow this lifestyle, referring to it as Low Carb rather than anything else is the best way to get people to listen.
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I agree and have been looking for a 'name' for my diet, I tried 'low carb, moderate protein and appropriate fat diet' on for size and didn't think it helped. My very low calorie diet I did when diagnosed I called my 'Pollyanna diet' after the eponymous child in the saccharine sweet American novel as I used her technique of simply looking on the bright side and remaining resolutely positive whatever happened. It evolved into the 'Pollyanna and John McEnroe' diet after a while as I occasionally needed a voice in my head saying ' i cannot believe it! I cannot believe you would eat that!'.
All suggestions gratefully recieved.
 
charlie000 said:
Thanks for all your responses. I am reading through them. After A Fib, I was very worried, my doctor thinks i'm 'mad' to go on a high fat diet. I will respond to each response shortly, reading through them now.
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Can I just ask what you mean by High Fat?

Because the High Fat bit just means, as a proportion of food intake, more comes from fats and fewer from carbs than previously. I have not added lots of fats to replace my carbs. I have simply switched to full fat milk, nothing 'lower fat', especially in the cheese, dairy etc range. The fats I eat are butter, lard, goose fat and olive oil. No low fat spreads.

So, although my diet is now higher fat than before, its not a case of me piling on fats to my food.

Your doctor may think that high fat means eating lots and lots of it, and may need clarification on this point.
 
Muddikins said:
I agree and have been looking for a 'name' for my diet, I tried 'low carb, moderate protein and appropriate fat diet' on for size and didn't think it helped. My very low calorie diet I did when diagnosed I called my 'Pollyanna diet' after the eponymous child in the saccharine sweet American novel as I used her technique of simply looking on the bright side and remaining resolutely positive whatever happened. It evolved into the 'Pollyanna and John McEnroe' diet after a while as I occasionally needed a voice in my head saying ' i cannot believe it! I cannot believe you would eat that!'.
All suggestions gratefully recieved.
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I just say Low Carb and leave it at that.
 
DCUKMod said:
@charlie000 - I would urge you not to lie to your Doctor. It does nothing to help anyone.

For all we know a fib you tell now could influence diagnostic decisions further down the line, and furthermore, if you do carry on as you intend, but say you'll use the EatWell Guide and do well on it, then you reinforce to your GP that the Eat Well Guide works well.

In your shoes, I would ask my GP for a raft of benchmarking blood tests - blood glucose, lipids, kidney health and so on, and a period of x months within which for you to work on lifestyle changes, with a repeat of the bllods at the end of that period.

If at that time, your medical and diagnostic markers have degraded, then that's a conversation to be had, but if they improve, he is unlikely to want to deflect you at that time. At that point, he is more likely to increase the "trial period" to measure again.

At the end of the day, if I expect my medical team to be truthful and candid with me, I must be the same with them. That feels to me to be an adult way to go about things.

Good luck with it, whatever you decide upon.

(If you are looking for comparisons of low fat v higher fat diets, there are some excellent, free to access, resources here: https://phcuk.org/t2d/ )
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You're right, I shouldn't lie to my doctor. I will do that. I'm going to go and see him Monday for blood tests, and then take it from there.
 
My doctor was amazed and told me to carry on with the LCHF diet as it had lowered my numbers from 105 to 59 in 11 weeks. My nurse loved it she was very encouraging she asked about the food i ate and she asked about the high fat and that it was like a miracle that it reduced weight sugar and now cholesterol .

I think it will catch on slowly and if results are seen then how can they say it doesn't work .
 
charlie000 said:
You're right, I shouldn't lie to my doctor. I will do that. I'm going to go and see him Monday for blood tests, and then take it from there.
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Charlie, it may differ for you, having had the aFib, but most folks find when they go back to their Doc, having been reducing their carbs, and assuming their numbers have come down a bit, that they're simply told to keep doing what they're doing, as it's working.

To be honest, as someone else said, it's the fat part that concerns them, not so much the reducing carbs.

Good luck with your appointment. Let us know how it goes?
 
Charis1213 said:
My doctor was amazed and told me to carry on with the LCHF diet as it had lowered my numbers from 105 to 59 in 11 weeks. My nurse loved it she was very encouraging she asked about the food i ate and she asked about the high fat and that it was like a miracle that it reduced weight sugar and now cholesterol .

I think it will catch on slowly and if results are seen then how can they say it doesn't work .
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Can you please share your diet
 
Resurgam said:
Tell the dr that you want to have a diet which is going to lower your Hba1c and will be following the guidelines carefully so that by the next test your numbers will be lower.
He will need to know that when lowering the calories from carbs they have to be replaced with something else - what does he suggest, ask, and then you go mm mm - right - got that mmm.
Just because you aren't going to take his advice doesn't mean that you shouldn't sound interested in what he's got to say.
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I will tell him. He was concerned about the fat I will be eating.
 
Debandez said:
Show dr this. Just 1 page of success stories from this forum. 1000s more doing it with lchf. I have a fabulous booklet full of success stories I pulled together for an event in Birmingham last September if dr interested :-)
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I would be very grateful if you can share this with me. How do I send you my email address?
 
Try telling your GP
  • You are going to advoid suger and all food with added suger
  • You are going to stop eating takeaways
  • You are going to stop eating readymeals due to the suger and trains fats they contain
  • You will be eating
    • Lots of eggs
    • Lots of green veg
    • Lots of salads
    • Meat that looks like meat
    • Fish thst looks like fish
  • You will use a little olive oil for cooking and salad dressings.
You are going to tell your GP 100% truth, and nothing but the truth.

PS, there is no need to add fat on LCHF unless you have a low BMI, however don't advoid fish/meat that has natural fat.
 
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I pulled no punches and told my doctor and DN straight out “nutritional ketosis” and let the results speak for themselves. I was fairly forthright and I suspect they both knew better than to bother questioning it. Actually if anything there was a vibe of silent approval anyway. As though they endorsed my approach but weren’t able to say so.

In my view we’re not going to turn the ship around if we let doctors think that the outdated advice actually works.
 
ringi said:
  • You are going to advoid suger and all food with added suger
  • You are going to stop eating takeaways
  • You are going to stop eating readymeals due to the suger and trains fats they contain
  • You will be eating
    • Lots of eggs
    • Lots of green veg
    • Lots of salads
    • Meat that looks like meat
    • Fish thst looks like fish
  • You will use a little olive oil for cooking and salad dressings.
You are going to tell your GP 100% truth, and nothing but the truth.

PS, there is no need to add fat on LCHF unless you have a low BMI, however don't advoid fish/meat that has natural fat.
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Is that a directive, a suggestion or something else Ringi?
 
Jim Lahey said:
I pulled no punches and told my doctor and DN straight out “nutritional ketosis” and let the results speak for themselves. I was fairly forthright and I suspect they both knew better than to bother questioning it. Actually if anything there was a vibe of silent approval anyway. As though they endorsed my approach but weren’t able to say so.

In my view we’re not going to turn the ship around if we let doctors think that the outdated advice actually works.
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I wouldn’t argue with you Jim. :D

Just jestin.
 
charlie000 said:
Sorry I am new here and can’t figure out how?
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Click the little envelope symbol top right of the screen, then click ‘Send a new Private message’. Populate the boxes, then click send. Hope that helps.
 
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