THE QUESTION OF causality has always intrigued me.
I like to understand the mechanism of disease, the question of “why.” Obesity is no different. “Why do people get fat?” I wondered.
This question is absolutely critical because without understanding how people get fat I could not understand how to effectively treat the disease.
I had never really considered this important question, and it turns out that virtually nobody else had either.
We all thought we already knew the answer.
Too many calories cause obesity.
If that were true, then reducing calories should cause weight loss.
Except it doesn’t.
The failure rate of caloric reduction diets was astronomically high.
My search for the true underlying cause led ultimately to my recognition that a hormonal imbalance, predominantly of insulin, is the key to obesity.
I detail this process in my first book, The Obesity Code.
But this answer only led me to another paradox.
If too much insulin was causing obesity, then why would I, as a physician, prescribe insulin to overweight type 2 diabetics?
It would only make things worse.
Insulin was the problem, not the answer.
Interestingly, my patients already knew. “Doc,” they would say, “you’ve always told me to lose weight but now you give me insulin, which has made me put on 50 pounds.
How is that good?” The answer was that it was not good; it was absurd.
My next question, then, was “Why does type 2 diabetes develop?” Again, always start with “why?” Everybody agreed that elevated insulin resistance caused the high blood glucose that was the hallmark of type 2 diabetes.
But what caused the elevated insulin resistance?
This was the true question that I desperately needed to answer.
The key insight came from understanding obesity.
Too much insulin causes obesity, so it is logical that too much insulin could also cause
insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
That obesity and type 2 diabetes were manifestations of the same disease, and simply flip sides to the same coin, explained perfectly how these two diseases were so closely related.
Albert Einstein once said, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” If the problem was too much insulin, then the answer was simplicity itself.
Lower insulin.
But how?
No drugs at the time effectively did that.
The solution was to go back to the basics.
As a dietary disease, it required a dietary solution, not a pharmaceutical one.
Since refined carbohydrates stimulate insulin the most and dietary fat the least, the obvious solution was to eat a low- carbohydrate, high-fat diet.
INTENSIVE DIETARY MANAGEMENT: SPREAD THE WORD
IN 2011, I established the Intensive Dietary Management program in Scarborough, Ontario, along with Megan Ramos, a medical researcher long interested in this exact problem.
Together, we counseled patients, many with type 2 diabetes, on how to follow a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet.
I believed and hoped they would improve their health.
The results were a disaster.
Nobody lost weight.
Nobody got better.
A review of my patients’ diet diaries revealed they were eating lots of bread, noodles, and rice.
They had misunderstood these foods as being part of a low-carbohydrate diet.
Having followed a low-fat diet for most of their lives, this new regimen was entirely foreign to them, and they didn’t know what to eat.
I needed to find a simpler solution.
One day, a friend told me about her “cleanses,” and immediately I rolled my eyes.
Like most people, my gut reaction was that fasting would never work.
But what, really, was wrong with fasting?
I was intrigued enough to start investigating the medical literature, most of which was decades old.
The more I understood the physiology, the more I realized there was simply no reason that fasting couldn’t be used successfully as a therapeutic intervention.
After all, it was the oldest and perhaps the simplest solution.
I started to guide patients through diet and fasting regimes.
This time, the results were completely different.
Some of the success stories were almost unbelievable.
Patients who had been taking high doses of insulin for decades would eliminate all
their medications in a matter of weeks.
My patients lost significant weight and kept it off.
Interestingly, many patients reported that it was much, much easier to follow the program than they had anticipated.
They expected their hunger would grow unimaginably intense, but the opposite was true.
As they continued fasting, their hungers and cravings often dissipated like a morning fog.
Some thought their stomach had shrunk.
They expected fasting would leave them weak and unable to concentrate, but the opposite was true.
Women who had barely had enough energy to walk in the door would come running in.
Their husbands said they couldn’t keep up with them any longer.
As the pieces came together, I began lecturing to both patients and physicians around Toronto.
I posted my six-part lecture “The Aetiology of Obesity” series on YouTube1 and started my blog, “Intensive Dietary Management”2 to share my findings with the general public.
One night, I gave a lecture to a group of specialist physicians about obesity.
After the first hour-long lecture, they were so interested in the new paradigms that I gave a second lecture.
One of those physicians later contacted Rob Sanders of Greystone Books, who asked me to write a book about obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Rob has been hugely supportive from the beginning, for which I am very grateful.
There was too much material for a single book.
To properly address the misconceptions of obesity and type 2 diabetes and lay the foundation for treatment, the book would have been 800 pages, intimidating just to look at.
The natural solution was to divide this material into two books.
The Obesity Code, published in 2016, set the stage for the deeper understanding of type 2 diabetes in this book.
Together, they enable readers to naturally reverse obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Every single day, I see patients whose type 2 diabetes is reversing, patients who are losing weight and getting healthier.
This is the reason I became a doctor!
I want to help people regain their health, and I want to give people hope that they can indeed defeat obesity and type 2 diabetes, completely naturally.
That’s perfect, because patients also do not want to be sick or take medications.
It’s a win-win situation.
HOPE FOR THE FUTURE
TYPE 2 DIABETES is currently the leading cause of blindness, kidney failure,
amputations, heart attacks, strokes, and cancer. But it doesn’t have to be our future. The pages of The Obesity Code and The Diabetes Code contain the knowledge to reverse type 2 diabetes. This is not the end, but only the beginning. A new hope arises. A new dawn breaks.
APPENDIX: TWO SAMPLE WEEK-LONG MEAL PLANS
EACH OF THESE meal plans, designed by my colleague Megan Ramos at Intensive Dietary Management (www.IDMprogram.com), consists of three 30- to 36-hour fasts done on three alternate days of the week.
During the fasting period, you do not take any meals.
You can consume fasting fluids such as water, green tea, herbal tea, and coffee during this time.
In Sample 1, if you begin your 36-hour fast after dinner (7:30 p.m.) on Sunday night, you would not eat again until breakfast on Tuesday morning (7:30 a.m.).
In other words, you will not consume breakfast, lunch, dinner, or any snacks during your fasting days.
On non-fasting days, you can eat meals and snacks as usual.
In Sample 2, if you begin your 30-hour fast after lunch (12:30 p.m.) on Sunday, you would not eat again until dinner (6:30 p.m.) on Monday night.
Again, you will not consume any food during your fasting period but you are encouraged to stay hydrated by drinking plenty of fasting fluids.
This schedule incorporates slightly shorter fasting periods, with the advantage of eating at least one meal per day.
If you are taking medications that must be taken with food, this schedule may be useful.
The following meal plans provide two sample schedules for a 30- to 36-hour fasting regimen complemented by a low-carbohydrate, healthy- fat diet.
Remember to consult with your doctor before you begin this or any new regimen.
Sparkling or still water, green teas, or herbal teas are excellent drinks to accompany these meals.
SAMPLE 1: MEAL PLAN FOR A 36-HOUR FASTING PERIOD
MEAL Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
Breakfast Mini FAST Western FAST Bacon, FAST Coconut Bacon- Omelet Scram- Flour Wrapped with bled Pancakes Egg Sausage Eggs, and with Frittatas Avocado Whipped Cream and Berries
Lunch Arugula FAST Chicken FAST Chicken- FAST Pear and and Drumsticks Stuffed Aru-gula Prosciutto Wrapped Bell Salad Salad in Bacon Peppers with Pine with Slices Nuts of Celery and Carrots
Dinner Almond FAST Beef Stir FAST BBQ FAST Pulled Flour and Fry Shrimp Pork Pork Skewers Sliders Rind, on Breaded Almond Chicken Flour Tenders Buns
SAMPLE 2: MEAL PLAN FOR A 30-HOUR FASTING PERIOD
MEAL Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Breakfast Scrambled FAST Hard- FAST Mushroom FAST Eggs, Boiled Omelet Smoked Eggs, Salmon, Cauliflower and Hash Avocado Browns, and Asparagus
Lunch Lemon FAST Chicken FAST Steak FAST
Butter and “Breaded” Fajitas Pepper in Pork Chicken Rinds with Wings, Green Celery, Beans and Carrots
Dinner FAST Grilled FAST Zucchini FAST Ginger Salmon Pasta in Chicken with Avocado Lettuce Garden Pesto with Cups Salad Stir-fried with Vegetables Baby Bok Choy