Gary Taubes: Unintended Consequences of Weight Loss “Wonder” Drugs

Did you know that doctors were treating diabetic patients with high-fat low-carb diets all the way back in the 1700s?
Though high-fat ketogenic diets were found to effectively treat diabetes for over a century, they were largely abandoned due to the rapid adoption of insulin in the 1920s, which was considered then to be a miracle cure.
Prioritizing drugs over lifestyle with insulin therapy, however, led to unexpected long term complications in patients, including damage to large and small blood vessels that results in heart disease, strokes, kidney damage, neuropathy, amputations, blindness, dementia, and a decrease in life expectancy.
Once a rare condition, diabetes is now so common that drugstores dedicate entire aisles to it. One in every $4 spent in American healthcare goes to diabetic patients, with over $300 billion in direct costs every year.
The Diabetes story is a metaphor of the rapid adoption of a wonder drug without knowing the long term consequences.
And in an age when Hollywood influencers in the media are touting the seemingly miraculous benefits of our latest weight loss wonder drugs GLP-1 agonists like Ozempic, it's worth examining the long term risks and consequences of heavy handed pharmaceutical interventions.
Today, we're back with our friend Gary Taubes, an award-winning investigative science and health journalist and bestselling author of “Why We Get Fat” and “Good Calories, Bad Calories,” as well as his new book “Rethinking Diabetes.” Gary has dedicated his work to dismantling conventional nutritional theory with his research lectures and books. And at this point, Gary is better versed in diabetes literature than pretty much anyone alive.
In this episode, we’re chatting about:
Why lifestyle interventions that effectively treated diabetes for over a century were abandoned by the medical establishment
How flawed dietary guidelines in the 1970s recommended high-carb diets for heart health without evidence
Why the modern push for plant-based diets is based on bad science and misconceived journalism
Why the wide adoption of diabetes and weight loss wonder drugs like GLP-1 agonists should raise long term safety and side effect concerns
And much, much more…
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