You never know who is gonna be impacted by livin’ la vida low-carb, but it doesn’t take very long for the benefits of this way of eating to start to show up. Just ask Dr. Ted Jones.

Dr. Jones is a [...]]]>
Dr. Ted Jones is convinced low-carb is a healthy way of life

You never know who is gonna be impacted by livin’ la vida low-carb, but it doesn’t take very long for the benefits of this way of eating to start to show up. Just ask Dr. Ted Jones.

Dr. Jones is a clinical psychologist in the Knoxville, Tennessee area specializing in helping people who deal with chronic pain issues at the Behavioral Medicine Institute. One area he started researching in regards to helping his patients deal with their pain and depression is diet and, more specifically, a low-carb diet. Although he wasn’t morbidly obese or anything like that, Dr. Jones did face some rather grim realities in his health when decided to begin on a low-carb regimen in October 2006.

He weighed 199 pounds in that picture to the left at the top of this column. That slightly pudgy belly sticking out wasn’t the only issue Dr. Jones was dealing with. His fasting blood glucose was an incredible 306 and his HgA1c number was a shocking 11.6–both of these indicators of severe insulin resistance and pre-diabetes (if not full-blown Type 2 diabetes!). Additionally, his lipid profile showed he had a total cholesterol of 363 (I don’t know what the HDL or LDL number breakdown is or what the particle size of the LDL showed, but it likely wasn’t very good) and triglycerides of (this is NOT a typo!) 2023!!! Yes, Dr. Jones was in pretty bad shape from a health standpoint.

Thankfully for Dr. Jones the diet he chose to go on was the most effective for someone with high insulin levels–controlled-carbohydrate living! After just one year in November 2007, all of those numbers improved dramatically just by consuming less carbohydrates in an effort to control the insulin. Dr. Jones’ weight dropped to 174, his fasting blood glucose level fell to 114 (still higher than it should be, but substantially lower than it was), HgA1c level cut in half to 5.5 (NORMAL!!!), total cholesterol at 162 (no doubt the HDL was SIGNIFICANTLY higher and LDL way down from where it was before) and triglycerides falling quadruple digits to 144!

To say livin’ la vida low-carb has changed Dr. Jones’ life is a huge understatement. He’s living proof of how well low-carb works not just for weight loss, but for managing diabetes and overall health. Today he is using his own experience with low-carb to help his patients dealing with pain issues associated with obesity and diabetes. Back pain and joint pain are both common ailments that patients complain about who deal with a weight problem and Dr. Jones is more than happy to tell them about the low-carb answer he found. Additionally, diabetics contend with neuropathic pain because their disease is not properly managed. Again, low-carb swoops in to help those patients, too.

In a handout to his patients, Dr. Jones admits that “your physician may not have mentioned these ideas to you, (but low-carb dieting)…is backed by a huge amount of scientific evidence and need to be considered strongly if you are serious about weight loss and controlling your diabetes.” He goes on to list many of the “facts” about livin’ la vida low-carb that cannot be refuted.

“Low carbohydrate diets are the most effective way to lose weight. Large well-designed studies almost universally show that low carb diets lead to more weight loss than low calorie diets.

Low carb diets do NOT lead to increased heart disease. In fact, almost all indicators of heart health are improved on a low carb diet. Other indicators of health also improve with a low carb diet. Diabetes is particularly improved with a low carb diet.”

True, true, true and true again! Dr. Jones doesn’t promote any specific low-carb plan, but believes any of the major ones, including South Beach, Atkins, Zone, Protein Power and Sugar Busters simply “work.” He also highly recommends Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes and The Diabetes Diet by Dr. Richard Bernstein to learn more about the science behind low-carb dieting. He was also kind enough to provide a link to my blog to show his patients that there are other real people out there who have experienced dramatic results from implementing their own low-carb plan for success.

Come to think of it, my pain is substantially less than it used to be now than it was when I weighed 410 pounds. But I’ve never been depressed or dealt with any anxiety issues that required medication or therapy either. I consider myself a fortunate man and I’m sure Dr. Ted Jones does as well. After all, our lives were dramatically changed for the better because we made the fateful decision to start livin’ la vida low-carb. And we will never be the same again. Cheers to you, Dr. Jones, and keep up the great work you are doing there in Knoxville, Tennessee!

Plans have been made for my wife Christine and I to drive three hours up I-85 this Sunday for a trip to the Triangle area of North Carolina (aka Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill) for a series of events centered around the subject of [...]]]>
I hope to see you at the Rio Churrascaria in Cary, NC on Sunday

Plans have been made for my wife Christine and I to drive three hours up I-85 this Sunday for a trip to the Triangle area of North Carolina (aka Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill) for a series of events centered around the subject of livin’ la vida low-carb.

First up is Sunday, May 4, 2008 at 6:00pm when we hope to meet so many of YOU at the uniquely low-carb Rio Churrascaria Brazilian steakhouse restaurant in Cary, NC. Their address is 107 Edinburgh Drive South right across the street from MacGregor Downs Country Club. I’d never heard of a Brazilian steakhouse until last month when friends of ours in Atlanta took us out to one and now I’m hooked! If you like to eat meat (and most low-carbers I know do!), then this is indeed your place to eat! Check out the menu for yourself by clicking here.

If you would like to come, we have dinner reservations for a party of 20 and we already have over a dozen signed up to be there. Please e-mail me at livinlowcarbman@charter.net if you are planning on coming so I can make sure we have a seat for you when you come on Sunday night. It’s gonna be exciting to get to meet you all and there’s a fairly large contingent of readers in that area. I’ll have a special surprise gift for everyone who comes, so I hope you can make it out.

Then on Monday night, May 5th, I’ve been invited to come speak to the patients of Dr. Eric Westman, a well-known low-carb researcher and practitioner from Duke University who actively seeks to help people dealing with weight and health issues by using a low-carb nutritional approach. He’s a real trailblazer for the work he is doing and I’m honored he would ask me to share a few words with his patients about my low-carb success. I’ll be at Dr. Westman’s clinic at 6:30pm on Monday for their monthly “Low-Glycemic Diet Support Group” and I look forward to meeting many of my readers who found out about him from my blog.

Finally, on Tuesday morning, I’ll get to see Dr. Westman and his team in action at the Duke Lifestyle Medicine Clinic located at 4020 N. Roxboro Street in Durham. If I’m able to fit it into his schedule, then I may try to shoot some YouTube video footage. Otherwise, I’ll just be observing what happens when someone comes into the clinic for help and see for myself how it all works. I know Dr. Westman told me when I saw him in Phoenix a few weeks ago that he has a full load of patients that keep him quite busy. That’s a good problem to have!

Again, I hope to see you North Carolinians from the Triangle area on Sunday! Don’t forget to let me know you’re coming for dinner and I’ll make sure you have a seat reserved JUST FOR YOU at 6:00PM. SEE YA THEN!