Dr Paul Mason
I'm an Accredited Practising Sports Medicine and Exercise Physician with degrees in Physiotherapy and Occupational Health.
While I am well known in the low carb world, I haven’t always been low carb. In fact, I haven’t always been low sugar! As a kid, my favourite drink was a sugar-sweetened fruit juice, and my favourite cereal was Fruit Loops. Basically a bowl of sugar!
Like most of us, I was introduced to the food pyramid at school, which promotes low fat, carb-laden food. And when I went to university, this message was only reinforced. So much so that I genuinely believed that consuming saturated fat was certain to lead to an early grave.
And I wasn’t shy about letting other people know. I cringe when I think about how I would lecture patients when I was a physio if I found out they were on the Atkins diet. Never mind that they were losing weight, their aches and pains gone, feeling better than ever. Looking at the world through the bias of my education, I couldn’t see the reality before my eyes. And with this belief system I developed my own sugar habit over the years.
I now know that despite exercising for hours every week, eating low fat and avoiding salt (basically following the food pyramid!) I was developing metabolic syndrome.
Only after finishing medical school did I discover the science behind low carb diets. And it shocked me. I could scarcely believe that my hard-earned medical education could have so misled me.
Over the years, I have spent more hours than I would care to remember reading nutrition science. And not only has it helped me greatly personally, but I also derive enormous satisfaction in treating patients. No longer do I mindlessly prescribe drugs according to a guideline. Instead, I witness the power of a healthy diet and lifestyle and watch as people heal themselves. And it is my absolute pleasure to share this message through the Defeat Diabetes Program.