Dr David Unwin: A long-serving NHS GP near Liverpool, named one of the UK's top 10 most influential doctors in 2018, known as 'lowcarbGP'. He pioneered using low-carbohydrate diets to put type 2 diabetes into drug-free remission and co-founded the Public Health Collaboration charity.
What this episode covers
Dr David Unwin walks Steven Bartlett through how excess dietary glucose, especially from foods people assume are healthy, gets stored as fat in the liver and pancreas, causing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. He shares how a patient and his psychologist wife Jen converted him to a low-carb approach in 2013, after which he saw liver function, weight, blood pressure and blood sugar dramatically improve in volunteers. The conversation covers his 'teaspoon of sugar' infographics, ultra-processed food addiction (illustrated by harrowing patient stories), and his wife's GRIN behaviour-change model. They also discuss the sugar-cancer link, the UK and US healthspan crisis, magnesium and supplementation, and simple self-tests like the waist-to-height string test and continuous glucose monitors.
Recommended on this episode
Continuous glucose monitor
various
“I think continuous glucose monitors Which, by the way, are only 20 30 dollars on on Amazon... they could try a continuous glucose monitor and find out.”— Dr David Unwin
Magnesium supplements (citrate / glycinate / threonate)
various
“magnesium supplementation for most people... In myself, it was magic at getting rid of muscle cramps. I sleep a lot better.”— Dr David Unwin
The guest's own work
Fork in the Road
Jen Unwin
“this is Jen's book... it's Fork in the Road with the idea that in your journey, which one are you going to pick?”— Dr David Unwin
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Escape the Diet Trap
Dr. John Briffa
“she saw some a discounted diet book. That one. That's the book. Escape the diet trap by Dr. John Briffa.”— Dr David Unwin
Neko Health body scan
Neko Health (founded by Daniel Ek)
“Neko Health, you walk in, $299, whatever, you lay down, you get all of your your sort of blood tests done... it's actually a company started by the founder of Spotify, Daniel Ek.”— Steven Bartlett
Ozempic (GLP-1 drug)
Novo Nordisk
“I gave him a low dose of the new GLP-1 drugs... The Ozempic helped reduce the noise, the cravings in his head.”— Dr David Unwin
Big reveals from this episode
- Claims 93% of his pre-diabetic patients reach normal blood sugar on low carb, dropping to 73% then 50% the longer type 2 diabetes is left untreated.
- A furious patient who quit her metformin and normalised her blood sugar by cutting bread triggered his entire change in practice.
- Admits he was financially incentivised to keep patients on metformin under his payment structure.
- Confesses that for 25 years he wrongly blamed patients for failing to lose weight when his own advice was the failure.
- Tells of a patient so addicted to bread his wife sprayed bleach on it and left the can by the bin to stop him eating it.
- Steven offers to buy 1,000 copies of Jen Unwin's food-addiction book to give away to listeners.
- States every English taxpayer pays an extra £7,000 a year for the consequences of ultra-processed food.
- Frames his Liverpool clinic as a real-world proof of concept since he is allocated patients by the state and cannot cherry-pick.
Worth remembering
- Every year of poorly controlled type 2 diabetes costs roughly 100 days of life expectancy.
- 150g of boiled rice equals about 10 teaspoons of sugar on his glycemic-load scale; plain cornflakes equal eight.
- Around a third of people in the developed world now have fatty liver, often silently for about 10 years.
- White chocolate is roughly 70-80% pure white sugar.
- A person's entire 5 litres of blood contains only about one sugar cube's worth of glucose when blood sugar is normal.
- A standard bottle of barbecue sauce contains around 30 teaspoons of sugar.
- His wife Jen estimates about 14% of the population has some degree of ultra-processed food addiction.
- Modern crops contain far less magnesium and zinc than a century ago due to soil depletion, making deficiency common.
- After smoking, diet is the next most common cause of cancer.
- UK healthy life expectancy has fallen by roughly 2 years over the last decade, with people spending up to 23 years in poor health.