UK Health Minister reveals success with low-carb eating
, medical review by Dr. Bret Scher, MD
in Low carb & high fat, News, Weight loss 
At Diet Doctor, we don’t venture into political debates. But we do like to highlight hopeful progress no matter where it comes from. That’s why we took notice when UK Health Minister Matt Hancock stated he supports eating low-carb in order to encourage weight loss and better health.
In 2012, Hancock lost “two stone” (28 pounds or about 13 kilos) by avoiding carbs in his diet. “I did it over three months by not eating bread, potatoes or pasta,” Hancock told The Telegraph in 2018. Then, during the 2019 election, Hancock lost around 10 pounds (4.5 kilos), again by cutting out sugar and starch, explains Dr. David Unwin, a low-carb general practitioner.
In addition to the weight-loss benefits Hancock experienced from eating low carb, medical professionals are now speculating about whether the health minister’s lower body weight may have helped him to recover from the coronavirus after he contracted it in March of 2020.
When Hancock first announced that he’d tested positive for coronavirus via Twitter, he reported only “mild” symptoms and was working from home in self-isolation. After just “a few days’” time, Hancock told BBC Radio Suffolk that he was “on the mend.”
According to Dr. Unwin, Hancock’s speedy recovery may have been a result of the weight he lost while eating low carb. Early research suggests that obesity is a risk factor for a more difficult recovery from Covid-19. That does not mean we know for sure that weight loss played a role in his speedy recovery, but it sure didn’t hurt.
Now more than ever, it’s important that we all begin to take our metabolic health more seriously — especially in the face of a pandemic.
If, like Hancock, you’d also like to attempt eating low carb for the purpose of improving your overall health and potentially losing weight, you should definitely check out our free 2-Week Get Started Keto Challenge. So far, over 1 million people have signed up. Join us.
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30 comments
Any way of getting the message out is worth doing in opinion.
It is about time people started taking responsibility for their own health rather than relying on the overburdened NHS.
Ancel Keys mistakenly thought that eating fats would make us fat. That was in 1980. Since then we now have an obesity and diabetes epidemic as well as numerous other diseases that have been described as the diseases of 'civilisation'. Surely it's high time to think again. Unfortunately Ancel Keys was completely wrong, and the opposite is true. Frequently eating carbohydrates, cause the insulin level to be elevated, and this prevents using stored energy in the body in the form of fat. Reducing carbohydrates to less than 20 grams per day, will allow the insulin level to decrease, and the body can then access the fat stored, for energy.
It's simple really, but not so easy to change the 'habits of a lifetime'.
Until everyone understands these things, we have a problem, and it won't go away....
I have been following a Ketogenic way of eating and will continue to do so.
The manner of your tone is showing how contentious is the political climate is in UK.
On this site we don’t usually involve politics we talk about lifestyle that helps many people despite of the political affiliation.
This politician is however the public figure; he has supported Dr. Unwing by promoting the cards that show to people how much teaspoons of sugar is in a bowl of rice or serial or in a banana. This may be a useful information for you as well. I myself did not know until I have printed them.
This issue is not a partisan issue it is about health of people with chronic diseases. LCHF helped a lot of folks some of them are Dr. Unwing’s patients. These people are the leaving and breathing facts you can find out about them from their support group on line.
And if you think that leaving this way is dangerous for you; you don’t have to do it.
Hall “debunked” nothing.
Here’s an excellent takedown of Hall’s spurious claims by Dr. Jason Fung:
https://thefastingmethod.com/heres-5-kevin-hall-go-buy-clue/
Relevant quote from the article, illustrating Hall’s pseudoscientific sophistry:
“Let’s take an analogous situation [to Hall’s claims]. Suppose we are teaching math. We teach a semester with no tests, no exams, no checking of homework and no projects. Students are just supposed to spend 1 hour in class and 1 hour of homework a day. They all say they do it. Then, unbeknownst to them, we test them on a standardized test. They do really bad and score 65%.
“Next semester, we have daily tests, a final exam, and daily checking of homework. They still spend 1 hour in class and 1 hour of homework. Scores should be theoretically unchanged, because they were doing the same amount of work. Of course, in reality this is completely false. Because they know we are regularly checking them, they do a better job. Now they score 80%
“This is the same effect we see when people enter a study. No matter what we are measuring, things improve simply by entering a study. It happens with blood pressure, blood sugars, cholesterol, diets, depression – everything. But the results do not get better indefinitely. It’s a one time benefit. Students score might improve from 65 to 80 in one semester. This does not mean that another semester of testing will raise their scores to 95. Instead they will likely stay at 80. But this is exactly what Hall does – he assumes that this one-time benefit will persist indefinitely.
“By making this assumption that the SAD diet will continue to cause fat loss (which logic tells us is false) you can make a positive result negative. So, yes, KD does cause fat loss, but does not INCREASE fat loss and then you can make this your conclusion. Since most of Hall’s journalist friends never read the paper and only the abstract, it’s easy to convince them.
“According the Halls assumption, you should therefore simply continue eating the SAD with 25% sugar and expect to lose weight indefinitely. Go ahead. See what happens. I already know. So do you. You’ll get fat, you’ll get type 2 diabetes, and then eventually, I’ll put you on dialysis and chop off your feet when they go gangrenous. But at least Hall can say that he was right.“
Calling people names such as “moron” doesn’t establish whether something is true or false. It’s up to you, but perhaps you could grow up a bit more and troll a bit less? Just a suggestion.
I’ve heard the argument that the Inuit’s high rate of heart disease- in the 21st century - is caused by a high fat diet, while ignoring the fact that A and B existing together does not mean A caused B. For example, the Inuit have among the highest rates of smoking in the world. https://nationalpost.com/health/inuit-once-relatively-cancer-free-now...
As for caring what a politician eats, it’s ultimately no different than caring about what anyone eats, such as the success stories of non-famous people featured here, which are not presented as anything other than anecdotal, i.e. separate from the information on scientific studies (RCTs, meta analyses, etc.) featured on the site. To quote from the above article: “That does not mean we know for sure that weight loss played a role in his speedy recovery, but it sure didn’t hurt.”
As far as I’m concerned, the article is relevant and belongs on the site.
Please provide evidence that UK Govt has an effective health strategy for combatting rising obesity and diabetes rates - has any real action been taken to tackle the food giants in reducing sugar and processed foods? The real secret is that Hancock's party is funded by the multi-nationals, including the sugar and food industry and by the drug companies - the idea that he is taking serious steps to tackle these issues is laughable. Please provide BALANCED coverage and fact based evidence - before promoting politicians in future.
I am sorry you feel we were unfairly promoting a politician. We wanted to highlight his success on his weight loss journey, just like we do with any of our inspirational stories. We embrace the hope that he can use his experience to benefit the public good. At Diet Doctor, we do not take a political stand. We simply share stories that give us hope.
The Diet Dr celebrates this man.
You may find our guide to cholesterol interesting. https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/cholesterol-basics