LowCarbUSA Podcast

We caught up with Prof. Tim Noakes again recently and after asking him to describe briefly again how he got started with LCHF and a little about his successful defence against the malicious charges brought against him by the HPSCA, the conversation turned to the subject of Poly Unsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFAs).  I had recently heard a fascinating talk at the the Low Carb Denver conference by Dr. Chris Knobbe about PUFAs.  He presented a compelling case that PUFAs were at the root of all metabolic disease.  While I agree that they definitely seem to have a profound effect on our metabolic health, I do not agree that it is all about PUFAs and that carbohydrates do not have an influence at all. So I put this question to Prof. and a very interesting discussion ensued.

It's always such a pleasure and an enlightening experience to spend time in conversation with Prof. Noakes and we look forward with great anticipation to his presentation at our upcoming LowCarbUSA^® - San Diego 2020 event at the end of August which is now going to be totally virtual.

We sat down to talk to Janae Cywes, wife of Dr, Robert Cywes, about her pregnancy and the fact that she has been, and plans to remain, on a strict ketogenic diet throughout.  In fact Janae and Rob are basically carnivore now.  They had been trying for the longest time to get pregnant and then about a year and a half ago they went carnivore and, out the blue she suddenly fell pregnant, totally unexpectedly.

She says that for a short while in the early stages of the pregnancy, even the sight of red meat turned her stomach but she was still able to eat poultry and pork and fish so she ate a lot of that and did and the odd salad.  She mentioned that they plan to raise a keto baby as well and our conversation went on to talk a lot about ADHD, Autism and Keto for Kids which is the title of a interview I did with her husband Dr. Cywes, which is on our YouTube channel as well.  We discussed what our childhoods were like, what emotional management strategies our parents equipped us with and how we felt it affected who we are today.

We plan to revisit with Janae after the baby is born to hear how raising it as a keto baby is going.

Nadia Pateguana is a Naturopathic Doctor focusing on PCOS at 'The Fasting Method' with Jason Fung and Megan Ramos.  She has an amazing story of how she came to the realisation that diet and lifestyle could, and should, be the answer to PCOS and other metabolic conditions.  Some of her more profound statements were: "Women with PCOS are not infertile, they are anovulatory, i.e. they are not ovulating.  You can address this with drugs but if you don't address the underlying Insulin Resistance then they are at risk for all these other pregnancy complications like preeclamsia, eclamsia, pregnancy related hypertension, gestational diabetes, miscarriages, and more.  And then the babies are susceptible much higher risk of neonatal morbidity and mortality." 

You can reach Nadia through the TheFastingMethod.com website and her book, 'The PCOS Plan' can be found on Kindle and Audible.

After being vegetarian for over eight years, Dr. Tony Hampton started doing some research and started to see more and more data showing that the Low Carb diet had better outcomes for diabetes, obesity and many other chronic diseases than the diet he had been following.  He says he learned more on YouTube than he did during his medical training.  He started trying it out himself and one of the first things he noticed was a distinct improvement in his mental clarity.

What is nice about his message is that it is not just about the nutrition but all the other lifestyle factors like sleep and stress and relationship issues, that contribute greatly to overall health.  What is exciting for me is that he is the first person of colour that I have come across in this space who passionate about getting this message out to his community.  I see great things in our future as we collaborate to reach other communities who we have not currently been able to reach.

I love his quote that he tries to tell everyone who will listen that there is an opportunity to heal, and it doesn't come from medicine, it comes from nutrition and lifestyle.  Check out his book, 'Fix Your Diet, Fix Your Diabetes: Your Dietary Solution to Reversing Diabetes'.  You can also reach him here.

Eric Reynolds was a cop with the Boynton Beach Police Department near West Palm and he got shot in the foot by an armed bank robber they were chasing and he ended up killing the suspect in the process.  The whole incident left him in a pretty bad way and he started to display many signs of PTSD.  He discovered the keto diet and, not only did his health improve drastically and all the excess weight melt away, but he found peace and tranquillity begin to return to his life and his symptoms of PTSD start to fade.

He has since retired from the force and now is committed to helping other police officers to get their health back and to help them to deal with similar problems to his.  He has established an organisation called Keto-Five-0 and you can find the group on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ketofiveo/ and you can reach him via email at: ketofiveo@gmail.com

Here, also, is the dash cam video of his chase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vRpbnq1DKQ

Dr Kristin Baier is a family medicine physician who recently became board certified in obesity medicine as well.  Back about ten years ago she was diagnosed with Lupus and was experiencing all the usual symptoms.  She started focusing on a nutritional solution since she did not want to remain on medications and steroids for the rest of her life.  The first book she read suggested going vegan to solve auto immune problems and she decided to give it a try.  Needless to say, after five years her symptoms had not improved and she picked up more issues along the way, including anxiety, depression, an iron deficiency and a B12 deficiency.

At that point she heard of Robb Wolf and ended up transitioning to the Paleo diet which helped a lot.  Her symptoms of depression and anxiety etc. all improved but she still felt things could be better and she noticed her migraines seemed to be occurring more frequently.  Finally she came across the ketogenic diet and after adopting a strict version of it (less than 20g of carbs per day) her migraines ceased and all her autoimmune issues disappeared.

Now she is offering this nutritional intervention to her patients and is in the process of moving to San Diego to start a new direct primary care practice with Dr. Brian Lenzkes.  The website is still under construction but people can go to lowcarbmdsandiego.com and submit a patient application.  There will also be a way on the site shortly to schedule an online consultation.  Kristin can be found at: @doctoringketo  on Instagram and Twitter.

When Adrianna Stephenson's son was just nineteen months old he was diagnosed with a golf ball-sized brain tumour in and around the hypothalamus. He immediately underwent a subtotal resection but about 3 months post-op the tumour had grown back to almost it's original size already. Adrianna and her husband, as well as the surgeon, did not want him to undergo another operation and so chemo was their only course of action. At the age of two, he started on a trio of chemotherapy drugs for what was scheduled to be an eighteen month protocol. Doing a bunch of research, Adrianna learned about the possible benefits of a ketogenic diet in conjunction with the chemo. About 3 and a half months into the treatment she started him on a very strict ketogenic diet and the next MRI showed that the tumour had shrunk by 30%. and about 10 months after starting on the diet we was declared NED (No Evidence of Disease). He is now five years old and remains NED.

Adrianna is now committed to paying it forward and works tirelessly with the Max Love Foundation and in other ways to teach parents how to do this with their children. I found it particularly interesting to hear how she teaches parents to get their kids to do this and I fully agree with her idea that all kids should be eating this way to prevent them from getting sick in the first place.

Dr. Richard Margolis is psychiatrist who, together with his nurse wife, Lisa, have embraced the ketogenic lifestyle with great success.  We spoke to them about how and why they got started and they really wanted to talk about the power of doing it together and how it's so much easier to be successful if couple support each other.

That was a great talk but the conversation eventually migrated to the situation where one partner did not have the other's support and was even being sabotaged by that partner in their efforts to get healthy.  I think the real take-away gem from this was Richard's thoughts on that form a psychiatrist's point of view.

Dr. Lewis Cantley has made significant advances in cancer research stemming from his discovery of the signalling pathway phosphoinositide 3-kinase (Pi3K) in 1984.  It is an enzyme that mediates pretty much everything that insulin does, in the liver, in the fat cells, and it mediates the lowering of serum glucose levels because it drives glucose into the muscle, AND into tumours. Since tumours thrive on glucose, they thought to develop a Pi3 Kinase inhibitor in order to try to treat tumours but the inhibitor resulted in startling rises in blood glucose levels. 

In order to manage this they tried using many different drugs, including the use of Metformin with very limited success. Most people had to drop out of the treatments as their glucose levels rose dangerously high. Also, for those who could stay on the treatment only got, on average a life extension of just short of one year.

His team then tried advocating a very strict ketogenic diet for a small control group and had great success for those who did stay in the diet (which was most of them).  Together with the results they have on combining the ketogenic diet with a Pi3K inhibitor in rat models which, in his words, produced miraculous results they now have formal human clinical trials underway which I am confident will produce miraculous results as well.

Dr Paul Mason presents a detailed explanation of how poor metabolic health is the major contributing factor with complications and fatalities as a result of Coronavirus.  He goes on to show how, just by changing their diet and cutting carbs and increasing saturated fat could start reducing the risks for those people almost immediately. 

Dr. Mason is a Sports and Exercise Medicine Physician who also holds degrees in Physiotherapy and Occupational Health. He is a believer of the scientific process and is happy to challenge medical orthodoxy when it conflicts with the available evidence. He holds views on many topics including saturated fat and cholesterol, dietary fibre and sun exposure which contrast with those of conventional medical wisdom.

He has also authored a chapter on nutrition in an internationally recognised Sports Medicine Textbook (Clinical Sports Medicine, 5th edition, volume 2) and is involved in curriculum development and teaching within the Australasian College of Sports and Exercise Medicine. He regularly lectures on nutrition and health both nationally and internationally.

In his clinic, Dr Mason takes a holistic approach in managing complex medical conditions in patients ranging from the general public to Olympians. He was worked with several elite sporting teams previously and is currently a Doctor to the Australian Olympic rowing team.

LowCarbUSA® has partnered with Restore Health to provide a certified coaching program to support people adopting the Low Carb (or Ketogenic) Lifestyle.   The program is brilliantly sequenced and rolled out in a manner that enables the client to make these behavioural changes in a methodical and sustainable fashion and you get paired with a real, live health coach and use Smart devices to make tracking a total breeze.

Another unique feature of this program is that the exercise component incorporates Dr. Ben Bocchicchio's SMaRT™ exercise philosophy  which advocates a 15 minute workout only twice a week for maximum muscle mass and strength benefits.  Not only that but it activates the same metabolic pathways that the ketogenic diet does and so forms the perfect adjunct to the diet.

No one believes that a 15 minute workout twice a week can do anything useful yet people are seeing visible results in as little as 4 or 5 workouts.  It's quite astounding.  You can learn more about it here.

Captain Brian Gaudette was born to be a soldier.  He joined the army at 18 and served initially as an infantryman and later trained for and became an Apache Pilot.  However he started putting on a lot of weight and developing spatial disorientation in the cockpit.  The doctors couldn't tell him what was wrong with him and immediately grounded him.  After many months of desperate searching he finally discovered on his own that he had Hashimoto's Disease and he had also read that people were reversing it with whole food, low carbohydrate diets.

He finally conceded to try it and was astounded to find that within about 6 weeks he lost 30 lbs, got his brain back and was able to be reinstated as a pilot.  His problem was how to be able to sustain this way of eating when deployed.  He solved the problem by making soups from organic produce and grass fed beef and canning them in his garage.  Then he sent cases of these soups ahead and ate them exclusively while overseas.  As a result he became known as Captain Soup.

His story was highlighted in the epic, recently released, documentary called Fat Fiction which you can find on Amazon.  This is the link  for the US but if you are elsewhere in the world, just search for 'Fat Fiction'  on Amazon.

Brian is still flying Apaches but he now also has a business called Captain Soup where me makes and ships cases of frozen soup all around the US.  Make sure you check it out.

Jayne Bullen is the leader of The Noakes Foundation and works closely with Prof Noakes and a team of visionary scientists in Cape Town, addressing the escalating obesity and diabetes crisis in South Africa and the world through research and community education interventions.  She talks here about how she found the Low Carb Lifestyle to solve her own metabolic issues and then walked away from her corporate job to join the Noakes Foundation and help them to find ways to fund their research and help train practitioners at the same time.

You can learn more about The Noakes Foundation at: https://thenoakesfoundation.org/
You can learn more about The Nutrition Network at: https://courses.nutrition-network.org/courses/?affcode=173323_7bl_2brm

The movie "Fat Fiction" was supposed to be coming out in a number of Movie Houses around the world but due to the COVID-19 crisis, the producers have opted for a number of online premiers instead. I discuss when and how this will work with producer Jennifer Isenhart.

If you are up to a small donation for one of the Foundations mentioned:

https://thenoakesfoundation.org/donate
https://www.nutritioncoalition.us/donate
Ketogenic Foundation is very new and doesn't have a a donate page yet.  We will provide a link as soon as they do.

Fat Fiction US West Coast Premiere - April 2, 2020
Fat Fiction US East Coast Premiere - April 4, 2020
Fat Fiction Australian East Coast Premiere - April 3, 2020
Fat Fiction UK Premiere - April 9, 2020
Fat Fiction Australian West Coast Premiere - April 10, 2020
Fat Fiction South African Premiere - April 11, 2020

It's here at last!!  'Fat Fiction' premiers in Los Angeles on March 13 and after that it will show in numerous theatres around the world.  How do you get to see it??  Go to the 'Fat Fiction' movie page on  FanForce (https://fan-force.com/films/fat-fiction/) Don't see a screening in your town or city??  Register to host a viewing in your area.  It's so easy!!  Select the movie house you want to have it in and choose a date and time and they do the rest. 

Once it is approved you get a bunch of promotional materials to help you sell the minimum threshold of seats for it to go ahead. As you get to the end of the registration process, we highly encourage you to select one of the three foundations to benefit from a portion of the box office takings.

1. The Noakes Foundation - Founded by the iconic Prof. Tim Noakes to raise money to spread the low carb lifestyle to poorer communities and fund research.
2. Ketogenic Foundation - Created by Keto- Mojo founders Dorian Greenow and Gemma Kochis to fund research into the Ketogenic Diet.
3. The Nutrition Coalition - An advocacy group established by Nina Teicholz to campaign for the USDA dietary guidelines to be based on rigorous science.

Dr Jodi Nishida is a Pharm D, based in Honolulu, Hawaii.  She has a great personal keto story and has gone on to establish a sustainable keto lifestyle practice in partnership with a physician which is proving to be extremely successful.  What's incredible is that Blue Shield Blue Cross is watching how they are doing very closely to see how they can help all their employer groups get healthier and save themselves a ton of money.  This initiative is also creating jobs for pharmacists outside of the pharmacy environment.

Part of the Blue Shield Blue Cross mandate is that she ensures this is sustainable so she takes a day out each week to go out into the community and what she is achieving is amazing.  She has been contracted by 7-Eleven Hawaii to vet all the keto products in a new keto section they are planning in all their stores.  This is incredibly exciting for it's potential to expand world wide when she makes a success of it.

Some ways to get in touch with Jodi and some helpful sites below:

Website: 
Nutrition Network: 

Instagram:  @theketoprescription.com
Facebook;  Jodi Nishida

Rarely will you come across a kinder and more empathetic physician. Dr. Hassina Kajee was running a High Care Emergency Unit in Cape Town, South Africa. After seeing so many people die she started looking at the stats and worked out that most deaths were from chronic diseases. So she opened a Low Carb Clinic and saw results really quickly and decided this is what she wanted to do. "This is Actually Real Medicine", she says.

She reached out to Professor Noakes to ask what the Noakes Foundation was doing to take this to the poorer communities and at the same time started talking with Noakes Foundation General Manager. Jayne Bullen and local actress Euodia Samson.  Through the discussions among the three of them, the Eat Better South Africa program was born.  They have run a number of interventional programs in the rural communities now with great success.  Hassina was invited onto the Noakes Foundation as a director and she is also the medical director for the Eat Better South Africa Foundation.

Learn More about the Nutrition Network Courses

What an amazing couple. Dorian Greenow and Gemma Kochis, the founders of Keto-Mojo, talk about the establishment of a non-profit called the Ketogenic Foundation to fund further research into the keto diet and it’s many health benefits.  They are utilizing Keto-Mojo profits as well as all affiliate link monies raised by Keto-Mojo to fund the foundation. Not only that but they have huge plans to encourage other businesses in the keto space to contribute to the effort as well.

At the super successful Boca 2020 event we had a moment where Dr. Robert Cywes was at the Q&A mic and made a blanket comment that protein just turns to sugar. Dr Goldkamp voiced his disagreement with that but the Q&A session did not allow the time for either to elaborate further on the issue.  I decided to take a chance and get the two of them on at the same time and discuss the issue further.  Both of them were extremely respectful and a brilliant discussion ensued.

This is one of the best episodes we've done so far.  Sorry it ran so long, but I couldn't cut it short,  The discussion had to play out.

You Can find more on Dr Cywes here.

If you want to get hold of DR Goldkamp you can look him up in our list of providers.  Use the zipcode 28560 to search for him.

Pam talks today with Karen Parrott.  She has been an awesome supporter of ours and has volunteered at almost all our San Diego events.  We learned about her amazing personal story and have been meaning to get her on the podcast for a long time.  So glad we have finally managed to do so.  Karen has struggled with her weight and binge eating since she can remember and was morbidly obese for much of her life.  She had turned to every conceivable diet, without success.  When she finally discovered the ketogenic diet she did have some success but kept slipping until she learned about the concept of carb addiction and learned how dealing with that addiction could helpher so much.  She is now 8+ years into what she cals ‘Food Sober Living’ and has kept the wieght off for that 8 years!

You can reach Karen @karenspaleolife on Instagram and @gardengirl_kp on twitter.