In the last several months. I’ve watched many Youtube interview videos hosted by Dr. Mark Hyman. He is a successful author, family physician, and smart interviewer. The video interview below features Dr. William Li, an accomplished physician and author who embraces the whole idea of food as medicine.
Dr. Li’s resume impresses and his observations about the healing powers of food inspires.
Dr. Li received his undergraduate degree with honors from Harvard College, his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and his clinical training in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed scientific and clinical articles, book chapters, and abstracts, including publications in leading journals such as Science, Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, and Nature Reviews. Dr. Li has held faculty appointments at Harvard Medical School, Tufts University, and Dartmouth Medical School. He serves on the board of directors of the Angiogenesis Foundation, the American College of Wound Healing and Tissue Repair, and Wound Reach Foundation, as well as public and private companies focused on health and life sciences innovation.
While this video interview does not address the interests of people with diabetes directly, I think the concepts it discusses can certainly help us. In my 35 years of living with T1D, the biggest health gains I have made have been related to my lifestyle changes, especially food changes.
I recently was able to put my gastroparesis into remission and I credit sustained changes to my diet with that success. My adoption of a low carb way of eating 7 years ago led to many improvements in my health and quality of life.
Here’s Dr. Mark Hyman’s interview of Dr. William Li.
For more about Dr. Li’s new book, Eat to Beat Disease, check out this three-minute video.
Someone please explain this to me. My husband and I followed the very low carb diet for 11 yrs. I think it is an outstanding diet for diabetes. No doubt about it. But, what about the rest of the body? I realize that Dr Bernstein has had great results.
And what about eating good food to live in general? Because of my type 1 and because of the way I was raised our diet has been pretty healthy for years. Before low carbing we were vegetarians who ate a lot of fruit and vegetables but also pasta, dairy, whole grain bread etc. i was able to keep my A1c around 6.5. Then I dropped dairy, and my A1c fell some.
Then we switched to Bernstein’s woe. I loved it. But my LDL rose to dangerous levels and i needed heart stents. I had just reached the 50 yr mark for diabetes. I am not ignoring other reasons which might have contributed to stents being necessary. I still have Gary Taubes book on my bookshelf, but changed my mind about his wisdom after needing stents and reading all the criticisms of his work. I also developed debilitating migraines which disappeared after stopping the low carb diet. Maybe my husband and I have bodies not meant for very low carb eating.
During that year, I also had kidney stones and a tiny bit of bladder cancer. My husband in the past 10 yrs has had cancer 3 times. He never had anything seriously wrong with him until he was 60. No one in his family
has ever had cancer.
We have have eaten low fat vegan foods for 2 1/2 yrs. Two weeks ago my almost 70 yr old very fit husband started having pain and stiffness in his shoulders and palms. I thought it was because of too much time on the rowing machine. He stopped going to the gym. Soon he had to crawl out of bed in the morning because putting any pressure on any part of his arms was excruciating. His knees became very sore also. He could hardly walk. We got a diagnosis and it is an autoimmune form of arthritis. He is now on prednisone and feels so much better. Horrible med though and he will probably have to take it for several years.
We have eaten well and healthy for years, and still get hit with more than our share of illnesses. We very rarely eat out. We eat almost no processed foods. Everything we eat is organic.
I would understand it we ate the way most Americans eat and didn’t exercise, or drank, or smoked but geez, life can be grossly unfair and many people have it so much worse.
My husband likes to remind me that I might not even be alive or in much worse shape if I didn’t make the effort I do to eat well and stay active. My husband’s doctor says that my husband is about the healthiest patient that he has especially for his age. I am just mad that he has been hit with so much in the last 10 yrs. Maybe my husband’s illnesses have been caused by the stress caused by my diabetes and our son’s severe illnesses. I suppose that could be one explanation.
