How to make diseases disappear – Dr. Chatterjee’s awesome TEDx talk

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee can make common chronic diseases disappear, like type 2 diabetes. In this awesome new TEDx talk he shares how. It’s not about prescribing drugs – they can usually only cure acute diseases.

To cure chronic diseases we need to target the core reasons that people got the disease in the first place. So there’s nothing “magic” about what Dr. Chatterjee is suggesting – it’s something any doctor could do. If they knew how. But sadly, almost no doctors learn how to do it.

I think everyone should watch this 18-minute talk, it’s truly great. Please feel free to share it!

More

Low Carb for Beginners

How to Reverse Type 2 Diabetes (and make it “disappear”)

Videos

Seven Tips to Make Low Carb Simple – Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
What's It Like Being a Low-Carb Doctor on TV? – Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Low carb, slow carb and the microbiome

23 comments

  1. bill
    Here we go again. Doctor Chatterjee talks
    about "...refined or processed carbs or sugar..."
    This leaves all the people watching this talk
    thinking, well, a potato isn't processed,
    Corn on the cob is not "refined."
    Boiled rice is not "refined." Fruit is not "refined." Carrots
    are not "refined." Jams and jellies are not "refined." Whole
    wheat bread is not considered "refined." Honey is not
    "refined." Maple syrup is not "refined." Low fat milk is
    not considered "refined." Apple juice is not considered
    "refined."bread isn't "processed", pineapple isn't "processed",
    whole grains aren't processed, so I can still
    eat them. But, alas, these things turn to
    glucose in the body. Why can't Dr C just say
    "carbohydrates"? It's not just refined or
    processed carbs, it's carbs. Get it? Carbs.
    He's still confusing the issue.
    Replies: #2, #5, #23
  2. Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt, MD Team Diet Doctor
    I highly doubt many people – if anyone – get type 2 diabetes because of carrots and broccoli.
  3. bill
    Thanks for that highly selective response.
    I really wish you would try to understand
    my reasoning here.
    Reply: #8
  4. Tim
    He presents this as though it's recent knowledge...it's been known for more than a hundred years.
    This whole problem is more a lesson in following herd opinion, and letting elitist nannies do your thinking for you.
  5. Fiona
    The important message Dr. Chatterjee focused on is how shocked he was when he recognised that he as a trained doctor was unable to recognise a nutrient deficiency as the cause of his son’s health scare. It took that frightening event with his son to study the role of nutrients in health. He identified that medical training focuses on treating symptoms not understanding underlying causes. As a result of that experience he can now help his patients make their chronic diseases disappear having learnt about underlying causes based on science that was not in his training as a medical doctor.
  6. Monika
    I need subtitles on videos please. Dr Rangún doesn't have any subtitle or closed caption.
    Reply: #9
  7. Jean
    This is a great talk. I appreciate Dr Chatterjee's passion and commitment. TED talks are always short which means that things get condensed and much of the detail and nuance is necessarily left out. I think what he had to say about the concept of disease is very important. The more people introduced to these kinds of ideas the better.
  8. Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt, MD Team Diet Doctor

    I really wish you would try to understand my reasoning here.

    I try, and find that reasoning oversimplified.

    Reply: #10
  9. Peter Biörck Team Diet Doctor
    Hi Monika!

    Try clicking on "CC".

    I need subtitles on videos please. Dr Rangún doesn't have any subtitle or closed caption.

  10. bill
    Okay, Dr. E:
    So, just where on your site have you
    explained just what a "refined or
    processed" carbohydrate is? And do
    you agree that eating potatoes, rice,
    whole grains, and pineapple are just
    fine?

    Must something be complicated to
    be effective? You're disparaging my
    reasoning, not addressing the issue.
    It IS simple. It's carbs. Your site is
    even subtitled Low Carb, High Fat.
    Pretty simple, wouldn't you agree?

    Replies: #12, #14
  11. Pritam
    Fantastic talk. Reason from First Principles and fundamentals if you really want to understand a problem. Not by analogy.
  12. Chris
    I'm very confident in claiming "DietDoctor" is for people with ALREADY developed disease. If you're still in good shape carbs are definitely no trouble. It's stuff like Coke, Sprite, Froot Loops etc that destroyed us. Not apples, bananas, potatoes, broccoli, carrots...
    Reply: #13
  13. Tim
    What about bread and pasta?
  14. Apicius
    I think what bill is saying has some value. Yes, Coke and Froot Loops, as well as bread and pasta, are part of the reason for the obesity epidemic today. But, the ingredient they have in common with pineapples, bananas, grapes, potatoes and oranges is carbs. So, we cannot ignore that either.

    However, the point I think bill may be missing is if we turn the clock back 200 or 300 years, and look at the eating customs of say Europeans at that time, we observe a few other variables not present today in the "modern western" diet. In those days, global supply chains delivering bananas and pineapples at your local food stand was not common. When exotic fruit appeared, it was darn expensive. Children would get an orange in their Christmas stocking, and be grateful for it. Strawberries were eaten during the two or three weeks they were harvested. And then that's it! Wait till next year to see them again....and pray that the next harvest cycle has no problem, like drought or hail storms.

    Also, another convenience we have today is refrigeration, mechanical processing of food and food preservatives. This encourages the proliferation of more carbs, that would otherwise rot in a week or two, or would take way too much manual labour to build the abundant inventory we see today festooning the endless rows of shelves in the grocery stores.

    So, yes. Bill is correct. In our modern western diet culture, we cannot discount the damaging power of fruit, and minimally processed foods like apple juice and maple syrup. These products were indeed present 200 and 300 years ago, and people were not obese. But, these products were not omni present 12 months of the year like today, and mechanically produced, to bring the costs way down so that the lowest paid employee in any company can afford to eat them daily.

    I don't think the Diet Doctor site makes this phenomenon clear in its message. Or, perhaps it does and I completely missed. Please accept my apologies if that is the case. So, I believe this is the issue bill is trying to bring forth? Indeed, eating pineapple and grapes very sparingly, when in season, and never as a daily ritual is a very important message. Taxing people for purchasing Coke, but not taxing them for buying apple juice is illogical. Sugar is sugar. Period. So, yes I believe the term of "processed carbs" is confusing. And the absence of the message of the dangers of "out-of-season fruit eating" is missing too. Just my observation.

    Want to eat fruit? Go ahead...but, only local to your geography and only when in season.

    Want to eat bread? Go ahead, but only if the grains were manually stone ground by you. And you make the bread.

    You want to eat potatoes? Of course, go ahead. Buy the quantity that you need, put them in your cellar, or basement or cupboard....and when they run out, tough. You wait until next year to buy them. That's what they used to do 200 or 300 years ago. If you calculate that you need 50 bags of potatoes to sustain your potato habit, and not enough space in your house to store them, then voila, you just identified the root cause...you are eating way too many potatoes!

    You want to eat pasta? No problem. Stone grind the wheat, and make the pasta with your hands. Ask an italian grandmother who grew up in the old country if making pasta at home was common....it was!! They used to bring their wheat grains, that they grew or bought from a farmer, to a local stone grinder, and then they stored the flour at their home. When it ran out, tough...wait until next year!!! So, that forces you to limit the amount of pasta that you eat. By the way, the homemade pasta also contained free range eggs. Not like the cheap durum wheat hard pasta monstrosity we see today.

    So, that leaves us with perishable foods...like fresh fish, seafood, cheese, butter, lard, beef, pork, lamb...etc. these items were purchased 12 months out of the year. From the local fish mongers, butchers and farmers. So, go ahead. At the grocery store, knock yourself out and buy fish, lard, chicken...etc...at your will. These items will not make you fat.

    So...that's my two cents. Bill has some truth in his message, and Dr Eenfeldt has as well. I think both are right with some points and wrong with others. I think both seem to completely miss the influence of our modern food supply chain. It defies the weather/harvest cycle and removes the hard manual labour component.

    Potatoes, pineapples and pasta aren't bad for you...the modern supply chain makes them bad for you.

  15. Tim
    ...the modern supply chain makes them bad for you.

    No, people not taking responsibility for what they put in their mouths is at fault. They let nannies lead them around by the hand.

    Blaming a supply chain is like blaming your vehicle for you driving into the ditch.

    Reply: #16
  16. Apicius
    Tim,
    I didn't blame the modern supply chain. I just pointed out the synergy of the modern supply chain with foods that used to be rare, or only available when in season.
    Some people are blessed with raging metabolism. I've seen adults eat four servings of lasagna, and continue the outrageous trend daily, and they are lean. I can't even fathom doing it once.
    Before, both types of people would look the same, because food selection was tightly associated to regional agriculture.
    But, today, those blessed with raging metabolism get away with eating more or whatever the heck they want, and others need to manage the food they put in their mouth to not wake up the "insulin monster".
    The modern supply chain changed the type of food available.
    Some people can get away with eating a handful off grapes everyday, 12 months out of the year, while others cannot. I happen to be one that cannot. It's a fact that I came to learn about myself, and in response, I substituted the grapes for other stuff (like bacon :-) ). It's not so bad to have bacon everyday....can't call that a sacrifice really :-)
  17. Eleazar
    I really want to share this with my family and friends but they don't understand English. Isn't there a subtitled version in Spanish?
  18. Roderick
    All great talks - motivate lots of good discussion. What a huge sense of relief that there are people out there willing to put jobs careers and personal reputation on the line. Not sure there are many NHS Doctors here in the UK who would deliver such a passionate speech on helping chronic diseases disappear by just changing diet. The airing of such talks can only bring us closer to the day when Medical people on a senior level start the process of questioning this openly, and maybe admit we have got it wrong, but now know there is an easier way to reduce disease and government debts! Spend £20 billion on drugs and care or save £20 billion by changing the diet. Sadly it is clear which way we have gone these past 100 years. To change that way of thinking will take a lot of Doctors putting their heads on the block so we will all benefit. Hats off to you Dr. Rangan Chatterjee for adding your thoughts to the debate, may your colleagues have the courage and strength to join you and add weight to your call.
  19. Kath
    Hi Bill. Just wondering where you're coming from as you seem as passionate as Rangan. Are you a health care professional or a member of the public suffering under the same bad advice as the rest of the population. I'd love to know why you are so opinionated.
  20. Marcin
    Apropos to the Kath's comment it would be interesting to know why Bill seems to be so aggressive in his comments!
    A couple of years ago some friends introduced my partner and I to the concept of low carb eating. My partner who had lived with chronic arthritic pain for some time and had been encouraged by naturopaths to use expensive fish oil/chondroitin supplements with no real effect, thought he would have a go at this new way of eating. After a short space of time the pain disappeared and the mobility returned to his fingers. No medication, just a change of diet!
  21. Ebi
    Love this talk. I see a naturopathic doctor when I get sick for the same reasons that this doctor is explaining. Life is a balance of many things.
  22. Jeff
    Make Diseases Disappear is a waste of time. Dump him.
  23. Apicius
    Bill,
    I think You may be interested in this new information I came across recently - helps to put "processed food" and effects of carbohydrates from different food sources into more detailed perspective. I came across this excellent lecture by Richard Wrangham, professor at Harvard, who specializes in primates, and their evolution into human, and also including the spectrum of natural diets of primates and ancient humans and how they evolved through the ages. Really interesting stuff!! Check out his lecture called "the cooking ape" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trSRozVaco0

    He too is a believer that the calories in - calories out perspective is no good, and that metabolism dominates the formula. His research shows how the "processing" of food makes them more "bio available". For instance, by grinding and cooking food (meat, vegetables, etc) you make them more digestible. Otherwise, somewhere around 25% of the unprocessed food would be excreted into feces and never get a chance of digestion. He came across this discovery when he studied how ancient humans started pounding and cooking food over fire, and the impact it did to nutrition in those times. In those days, pounding and cooking increased bioavailability, which was important because food was more scarce. Today, the extra processing of food is completely unnecessary because we live in a world of plenty. Our access to out of season and out of geography fruits and vegetables, like strawberries 12 months of the year, completely negates our need to process food. This means a natural high carbohydrate food, like a carrot, would be made more bio available if we process it (I.e. If it is boiled and mashed). Another example, Liquify ing strawberries in a mixer to make a smoothie makes them more bio available. Better to eat them raw and whole - less processing of the food will make you eat less because you will be more satiated and you will still get sufficient nutrition because of the variety of nutrients in our modern food sources. Very interesting stuff!!

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