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Angeline
Thu, Oct-15-09, 08:22
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/Diet+recipe+good+health+Doctor/2082526/story.html

ALERT BAY, B.C. -- Greg Wadhams tipped the scales at 291 pounds when he joined a bold dietary experiment in this island village.

Today, he's a poster boy for the Big Fat Diet, one of the most extreme dietary interventions for diabetes ever tried in Canada.

The low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet is heavy on traditional foods like seafood, game and oolichan grease, a delicacy finer than the best olive oil to connoisseurs here on the Pacific coast.

Doctors say the benefits of the diet, for diabetics who can stomach the strict regime, can be remarkable.

Within weeks of giving up sweet, starchy foods, Wadhams lost 19 pounds and went off the diabetes medications he had been swallowing for years.

"It was incredible," the 56-year-old Wadhams says. "It was like I was young again, I had energy to burn." Three years later he is down nearly 40 pounds and still off the medications.

"What more can you ask for?" says Dr. Jay Wortman, a Métis doctor with Health Canada and a maverick when it comes to nutrition and diabetes.

He recruited Wadhams and close to 100 residents of Alert Bay, off the northeast tip of Vancouver Island, to try his "therapeutic diet" for a yearlong federally funded project.

He says the Canadian Diabetes Association, which sets guidelines for doctors and nurses treating the two million diabetics across the country, needs to wake up to the benefits of eating more fat and eliminating carbohydrate-rich foods like pop, pasta and potatoes.

"This diet should be offered as a valid option," says Wortman, who describes Type 2 diabetes as an "intolerance" to carbohydrates that are loaded into many modern foods. In susceptible individuals, he says, eating sweet and starchy food drives a "vicious" metabolic process in which excess sugar gets stored away as fat, often leading to Type 2 diabetes.

Low-carb diets "take away the trigger" driving the cycle, says Wortman, who is a walking endorsement for his diet. He developed diabetes seven years ago and has kept his blood sugar in check by eliminating carbs.

There appears to be no going back once an intolerance develops, says the 58-year-old Wortman, who eats eggs without toast, meat without potatoes, fish without chips.

Wortman says First Nations people appear to be particularly susceptible to carbohydrate intolerance, which made Alert Bay an ideal setting for his experiment, which began in 2006. The community of 800 residents is home to the Namgis First Nation and had plenty of potential volunteers who were overweight and either had, or were at risk of having, diabetes.

"We keep seeing more and more diabetics," says local physician Dr. Clayton Ham, who was skeptical about Wortman's diet at first. But Ham grew so intrigued he signed on to help chart the dieters' progress.

So did local filmmaker Barb Cranmer, who co-produced a documentary, My Big Fat Diet, about the project with Vancouver director Mary Bissell. Local merchants bought in, with the Pass'n Thyme restaurant introducing Wortman's ribs, made with the doctor's recipe. Sales of salad greens, cauliflower and eggs soared at the grocery store and the dieters' bimonthly potlucks became major social events.

"My specialty was seaweed and clams," says Wadhams, who learned he had diabetes when he dragged himself off his commercial fishing boat about five years ago. He headed straight to the local clinic and left on medication to control his sky-high blood sugars.

This story is part of a Canwest News Service series that has been funded in part by a journalism award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

The Big Fat Diet has reinforced Wadhams' belief, shared by many, that a traditional diet, or a modern version of it, is a recipe for good health. First Nations on the Pacific Coast sustained themselves for thousands of years on a high-protein, low-carb diet of seafood, game, roots and berries.

Alert Bay is in the Broughton Archipelago, which was one of the most bountiful places on the planet until industrial logging and fishing depleted its resources. "It was a Garden of Eden," says Wortman.

The locals still fill their freezers with clams, salmon, halibut, prawns and wild game -- "goodies," as Wadhams describes the foods that are mainstays of the Big Fat Diet, which is basically a traditional take on the controversial Aitkens Diet.

Oolichan grease, an amber-coloured oil rendered from smelt-like fish that spawn in glacier-fed rivers, is also allowed.

"I can't eat fish without it," Wadhams says of the oil so sought after by coastal people they used to lug it over mountains on "grease trails." Recent chemical analysis shows oolichan oil to be ideal fuel for the human body.

For those without access to seafood and game, the Big Fat Diet permits unlimited amounts of beef, lamb, pork, chicken and turkey. It also allows bacon, eggs, butter and cream, which doctors and nurses -- and the dietary guides from Health Canada and the Canadian Diabetes Association -- have long urged diabetics to avoid.

While Wadhams was invigorated by the diet, not everyone could stomach it. "I love my rice and pasta," says Art Dick Jr., who lasted just a few weeks.

In the end, about 60 participants stuck with it and collectively shed 1,213 kilograms after a year. They celebrated in the "Big House," showing how much weight they'd lost.

"I carried in 40 pounds of flour," laughs Wadhams, over a recent lunch at Big Al's, the local diner that has several low-carb options on the menu. Wadhams had Caesar salad topped with grilled chicken, without bread.

Even more notable than the weight loss, the diabetic dieters eliminated or reduced their need for drugs and insulin to control their blood sugars, says Wortman. He doesn't go so far as to say the diet is a cure, but he says it can keep blood sugar at healthy levels.

The American Diabetes Association guidelines issued earlier this year say low-carbohydrate diets can help diabetics lose weight. And Wortman is calling for the Canadian Diabetes Association to endorse low-carb, high-fat eating. He cautions that medical supervision is needed as the diet's effect on blood sugars can be dramatic in the first few weeks.

The Big Fat Diet has certainly raised eyebrows, says Dr. Keith Dawson, who started one of British Columbia's first diabetes clinics and works closely with aboriginal communities.

He says Wortman's experiment builds on evidence Type 2 diabetics on low-carb diets can lose "prodigious" amounts of weight and reduce their need for medications. "And that's a really important thing," says Dawson, who wants the diabetes establishment and dietitians to acknowledge the potential.

Dietitian Shelly Crack, who works on Haida Gwaii off the B.C. coast, cautions that The Big Fat Diet is so restrictive it sets most people up to fail. She favours a more balanced approach that promotes "healthy eating and active living."

Dr. Sheldon Tobe at the University of Toronto is intrigued by Wortman's diet, but warns that diabetics with signs of kidney disease should stay away from it. "When someone has kidney disease, a high-protein diet is not good," says Tobe.

"I'm cautious," says Tobe, who is looking forward to seeing a detailed report on Wortman's experiment. "He's got to get the data out."

Wadhams has managed to keep his weight down, but many of the Alert Bay dieters started to pack it on when the project wrapped up and Wortman curtailed his monthly morale-boosting visits to Alert Bay last year.

Andrea Cranmer says she tried to carry on, but gained back 12 of the 22 pounds she lost. "I got bored," says Cranmer, co-owner of the Culture Shock Gallery, which serves up cappuccino along with jewelry and award-wining videos about First Nations culture.

She and her sisters are now working to keep their weight down through a combination of diet and early morning workouts at Alert Bay's waterfront gym, lifting weights and running the treadmill as bald eagles soar by the window and otters eat fish on the beach.

Wortman can't say how many people have stuck with the diet, but Ham estimates there are "enduring benefits" in about 25 per cent of the participants. He also points to "ripples" like the healthy foods that continue to show up at community feasts and events.

Wadhams, a Namgis band councillor, say there should have been more followup.

"We told Dr. Jay that it's crazy to come somewhere, find a solution and then all of sudden shut the taps off," Wadhams says, noting that many more people were game to try the diet but need support.

Wortman says it's a valid criticism and he is keen to build on the project.

"It hasn't been for lack of trying," says Wortman, who has Health Canada funding for a half-time nurse in Alert Bay and hopes to soon return to motivate the community to continue.

For more information on the Big Fat Diet:

www.drjaywortman.com/blog/wordpress

www.mybigfatdiet.net

Mousesmom
Thu, Oct-15-09, 09:45
I was just about to post this..... too bad there wasn't enough support to get people to continue with it.

Julie

Angeline
Thu, Oct-15-09, 10:35
The locals still fill their freezers with clams, salmon, halibut, prawns and wild game -- "goodies," as Wadhams describes the foods that are mainstays of the Big Fat Diet, which is basically a traditional take on the controversial Atkins Diet.

If this really constitute the mainstay of their diet, they this is WAY better than Atkins. It's actually much closer to a paleo type diet. I can only drool at the idea of having access to such a great source of wholesome food. What a great omega 3/6 profile this diet must have.

mike_d
Thu, Oct-15-09, 13:18
What is Oolichan grease I guess the closest thing we can buy is sardines?

http://www.cbc.ca/thelens/bigfatdiet/grease.html