Pay it forward, or why you should come out of the low-carb closet

August 24 2017 by in Low carb & high fat

Eating low carb has been one of my best moves ever for myself. It’s given me so much: I lost more than 32 pounds (15 kg), I have beautiful and steady energy, I feel great all the time, even when my 18-month-old boy keeps me up all night, I can fast very easily, I sleep well, and my sinuses have never been happier (I used to have recurrent bacterial sinusitis multiple times a year).

Indeed, eating low carb has so profoundly changed my personal life, that I felt my patients were entitled to be informed about this approach. So, it has completely changed my practice too.

Every time I see a patient with pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, hypertension, and obesity, I get a chance to practice good medicine by taking the time to explain why they have these health issues, and how it can be solved with lifestyle changes.

Sometimes, at the end of the appointment with the patients, I end up prescribing pills to manage those health issues. And sometimes, I end up prescribing a healthy low-carb diet. But at least my patients were given the proper explanations, and a chance to make their own informed decisions. And sometimes, even when I do prescribe pills, I may have unknowingly made my patients move up one stage in the Prochaska model of change. You never know who left your office in contemplation, after what was discussed, and decided, all of a sudden, to get started. I’ve been surprised on numerous occasions so far.

As a busy doctor, though, the easiest thing to do is to prescribe pills, and teach nothing. It’s also what pays the most in my healthcare system. The more patients I see in a day, the more I fill my pockets. The more I push pills instead of food, the more time I save, the more money I make. Basically, I work in a sickcare drug-centered and surgery-centered system, not a healthcare system interested in prevention and lifestyle approaches. Sounds familiar?

Paying it forward

But despite that, I feel this is the only way to practice good medicine: informing patients properly on their options, respecting their choices, and counseling them along the way towards health, or at least towards a stabilisation of their health problems.

And despite the time-consuming nature of properly counseling patients on lifestyle changes, I feel like I am paying forward. I have received a lot from this way of eating, it’s only fair that I give back to others. Especially since I call myself a doctor. And I am entrusted with the health and lives of my patients.

I recently attended the Low Carb USA Conference in San Diego, early August. It was amazing! I think the audience was probably half health care professionals, half people from the general public. Some were new to this way of eating, some have been low carbing it for years.

One thing in particular struck me, aside from the actual presentations. Many of the people, whether presenters or vendors or attendees, seemed to be involved in some form or another of spreading the word, of helping others find out about low carb, of trying to change how things are done locally, nationally and internationally. Some, like me, through free public conferences, some through the establishment of a foundation, some through petitions, some through non-profit organizations, some within their work places or the places where they do volunteer work.

The vast majority of the presenters, as well, are happy to answer multiple questions, even to answer emails. Many are willing to teach other healthcare professionals at their clinics. All for free. Take Dr. Jason Fung, for instance. When I approached him about a year ago and asked if he and Megan Ramos could train me, he said yes. Just show up. He didn’t say “yes, sure, but I will charge you $2000/week.” He could have. These two are super busy. But they said yes. And it was free. Because they want to spread the word, and I’m guessing because they’re also paying forward.

Last Monday, my nurse Sylvie, my kinesiologist Marc and myself gave another free general public conference on reversing type 2 diabetes and obesity with a low-carb diet. We give free public conferences because we feel people deserve to know this is an option. As you can imagine, it costs us money to rent a room, and it takes time away from our families.

I recognized many faces in the crowd: patients enrolled in our low-carb program, sitting next to relatives and friends with whom they want to share this approach. Because it works for them, and they want it to work for their relatives. They want to spread the word. They want to pay forward the health that they have gotten back. And it warms my doctor’s heart.

If you are a doctor or a healthcare professional who’s been on low carb for a while, with successful outcomes, but have kept this as a secret so far, it’s time to come out of the closet. It’s time to start counseling patients about this. Perhaps you don’t know how to start, lack educational tools, are uncertain of the response you will get from patients or colleagues. This is understandable. But that shouldn’t stop you. Start low and go slow. Pick one open-minded patient who’s complaining about being on multiple pills. Take the time. Teach that patient.

If you’re a doctor or healthcare professional who’s been counseling patients on low carb for a while, pay it forward by helping other doctors and professionals learn this approach. Share your clinical experience, even if you feel like an impostor compared to Dr. Phinney and Dr. Westman, to name just those two. You have been helped by the low-carb community, you have learnt through them. It’s time to help others too.

If you’re not a healthcare professional, but have adopted this way of eating and have benefited from it, give back by sharing your success with others, and by teaching others what you know, even if you don’t know it all (nobody does!). Start spreading the word, even if friends and relatives are finding you annoying. Give someone else the opportunity to get their health and their healthy weight back. Get involved locally, nationally and internationally. Pay it forward.

—
Dr. Èvelyne Bourdua-Roy

Keto for beginners

Earlier with Dr. Bourdua-Roy

Top success stories

My low-carb story with Marc Gossange
03:01
After living somewhat of a high-carb life and then living in France for a few years enjoying croissants and freshly baked baguettes, Marc was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
My success story with Kenneth Russell
02:52
When Kenneth turned 50, he realized that he wouldn't make it to 60 the way he was going.
My success story with Chuck Hicks
02:39
At nearly 500 lbs (230 kg) Chuck could barely move at all anymore. It wasn’t until he found a keto diet that thing started to change.
A low-carb story with Dr. Sanjeev Balakrishnan
01:59
How can you as a doctor treat patients with type 2 diabetes? Dr. Sanjeev Balakrishnan learned the answer to this question seven years ago. Check out this video for all the details!
My success story with Carole Freeman
02:58
Carole’s list of health issues had been growing longer and longer over the years, up to the point when it just got to be too much. Check out the video above for her full story!
MEMBERS ONLY
Living low carb with Chris Hannaway
08:19
What does living low carb look like? Chris Hannaway shares his success story, takes us for a spin in the gym and orders food at the local pub.
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
My success story with Jim Caldwell
02:23
Jim Caldwell has transformed his health and gone from an all-time high at 352 lbs (160 kg) to 170 lbs (77 kg.
Living low carb with Yvonne Lane
05:51
Yvonne used to see all those pictures of people who'd lost so much weight, but sometimes didn't really believe they were real.
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
Pie-making champion goes low carb
03:23
Learn how this pie-making champion went low carb and how it changed his life.
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY

Name

Provider / Domain

Expiration

Description

ckdc-premium

.dietdoctor.com

1 month

app-banner

.dietdoctor.dev.dietdoctor.com

1 day

This cookie shows whether user closed the App Banner prompt

_gaexp

Google LLC

dietdoctor.com

1 year

Used to determine a user's inclusion in an experiment and the expiry of experiments a user has been included in.

_gaexp

Google LLC

.dietdoctor.com

1 year

Used to determine a user's inclusion in an experiment and the expiry of experiments a user has been included in.

_opt_awcid

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_opt_awmid

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_opt_awgid

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_opt_awkid

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_opt_utmc

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_opt_expid

.dietdoctor.com

25 seconds

gtm_auth

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

gtm_debug

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

gtm_experiment

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

gtm_preview

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress

Hotjar Ltd

.dietdoctor.com

30 minutes

The cookie is set so Hotjar can track the beginning of the user's journey for a total session count. It does not contain any identifiable information.

_ga

Google LLC

.dietdoctor.com

2 years

This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics - which is a significant update to Google's more commonly used analytics service. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports.

_dc_gtm_UA-3268327-1

.dietdoctor.com

1 minute

This cookie is associated with sites using Google Tag Manager to load other scripts and code into a page. Where it is used it may be regarded as Strictly Necessary as without it, other scripts may not function correctly. The end of the name is a unique number which is also an identifier for an associated Google Analytics account.

_hjFirstSeen

Hotjar Ltd

.dietdoctor.com

30 minutes

The cookie is set so Hotjar can track the beginning of the user's journey for a total session count. It does not contain any identifiable information.

_dc_gtm_UA-22012422-2

.dietdoctor.com

1 minute

AWSELBCORS

Amazon.com Inc.

www.podbean.com

5 minutes

The cookies AWSELB and AWSELBCORS are functionally the same cookies. The latter has an explicit SameSite attribute set because of changes made from Chrome 80 and upwards.

_ga_YMCP8KW9S4

.dietdoctor.com

2 years

_hjIncludedInSessionSample

Hotjar Ltd

www.dietdoctor.com

2 minutes

This cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the data sampling defined by your site's daily session limit

__cf_bm

Cloudflare Inc.

.vimeo.com

30 minutes

This cookie is used to distinguish between humans and bots. This is beneficial for the website, in order to make valid reports on the use of their website.

_gid

Google LLC

.dietdoctor.com

1 day

This cookie is set by Google Analytics. It stores and update a unique value for each page visited and is used to count and track pageviews.

CookieScriptConsent

CookieScript

www.dietdoctor.com

1 year

This cookie is used by Cookie-Script.com service to remember visitor cookie consent preferences. It is necessary for Cookie-Script.com cookie banner to work properly.

__cf_bm

Cloudflare Inc.

.podbean.com

30 minutes

This cookie is used to distinguish between humans and bots. This is beneficial for the website, in order to make valid reports on the use of their website.

_hjIncludedInPageviewSample

Hotjar Ltd

www.dietdoctor.com

2 minutes

This cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the data sampling defined by your site's pageview limit.

_dc_gtm_UA-22012422-1

.dietdoctor.com

1 minute

_gaexp_rc

.dietdoctor.com

25 seconds

Name

Provider / Domain

Expiration

Description

IDE

Google LLC

.doubleclick.net

1 year

This cookie is set by Doubleclick and carries out information about how the end user uses the website and any advertising that the end user may have seen before visiting the said website.

_uetvid

Microsoft Corporation

.dietdoctor.com

1 year

This is a cookie utilised by Microsoft Bing Ads and is a tracking cookie. It allows us to engage with a user that has previously visited our website.

loc

Oracle Corporation

.addthis.com

1 year 1 month

Stores the visitors geolocation to record location of sharer

test_cookie

Google LLC

.doubleclick.net

15 minutes

This cookie is set by DoubleClick (which is owned by Google) to determine if the website visitor's browser supports cookies.

_gcl_au

Google LLC

.dietdoctor.com

3 months

Used by Google AdSense for experimenting with advertisement efficiency across websites using their services

_uetsid

Microsoft Corporation

.dietdoctor.com

1 day

This cookie is used by Bing to determine what ads should be shown that may be relevant to the end user perusing the site.

uvc

Oracle Corporation

.addthis.com

1 year 1 month

Tracks how often a user interacts with AddThis

YSC

Google LLC

.youtube.com

Session

This cookie is set by YouTube to track views of embedded videos.

MUID

Microsoft Corporation

.bing.com

1 year

This cookie is widely used my Microsoft as a unique user identifier. It can be set by embedded microsoft scripts. Widely believed to sync across many different Microsoft domains, allowing user tracking.

_fbp

Meta Platform Inc.

.dietdoctor.com

3 months

Used by Facebook to deliver a series of advertisement products such as real time bidding from third party advertisers

VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE

Google LLC

.youtube.com

6 months

This cookie is set by Youtube to keep track of user preferences for Youtube videos embedded in sites;it can also determine whether the website visitor is using the new or old version of the Youtube interface.

Name

Provider / Domain

Expiration

Description

_ga_7S1SXKKDKN

.dietdoctor.com

2 years

Name

Provider / Domain

Expiration

Description

_hjSession_1945121

.dietdoctor.com

30 minutes

_hjSessionUser_1945121

.dietdoctor.com

1 year

_ga_Y4DLH4EPXM

.dietdoctor.com

2 years

Pay it forward, or why you should come out of the low-carb closet

Paying it forward

More

Earlier with Dr. Bourdua-Roy

Top videos with low-carb doctors

Top success stories