Weight Management

Welcome! 

By adopting a real food diet, lower in carbohydrates many of our Torridge PCN patients have managed to lose weight and to reduce their blood sugars, blood pressure and cholesterol. 

Since 2018 Dr. Ruth Tapsell, a GP at Hartland Surgery has been promoting a real food, low carbohydrate diet for patients with problems like type 2 diabetes, pre-diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity at Hartland Surgery and across Torridge PCN (Bideford, Northam, the Wooda, Torrington and Castle Gardens Surgeries).
This lifestyle approach was inspired by Dr David Unwin, a GP from Southport, who has had some amazing results, helping his patients to lose weight and improve or reverse their Type 2 Diabetes. His patients have remained slimmer and healthier than they have been for decades, with the added benefits of stopping many (or all) of their medications as well as enjoying other benefits including more energy, better mood and concentration, less joint pains etc. We’ve had some really exciting results of our own since then, with several patients achieving similar success. We want to see more of you succeed!

The general idea is that if we reduce our intake of processed food, and specifically our intake of carbohydrates in starchy foods such as pasta, bread, potatoes, rice and pastry we are often less hungry. 
The emphasis is on eating REAL FOODS including meat, fish, cheese, eggs, vegetables (except potatoes), nuts, full fat milk, cream, butter, olive oil, the non-sugary fruits (berries, apples, pears etc) among others. It’s much easier and less restrictive than most diets you may have tried in the past, and much tastier! And the best bit: you don’t need to count calories! It is higher in fat but that’s OK! The “low fat, high carbohydrate” advice that has been given for the last 40 years has coincided with an increase in obesity and diabetes and we’re now realising that we’ve had it round the wrong way. It’s not the fat that makes us fat, it’s the carbs! Why? Probably because they make you produce more insulin, which then makes you more hungry.

In January 2020 we launched our first Low Carb, Real Food Programme. We met every Thursday evening for 6 weeks to learn about a low carb lifestyle and support each other. There was an option of a private weighing and having BP and waist measured. Since then, Dr. Ruth has worked in collaboration with Health Coaches to offer many further Lifestyle Programmes over Zoom. 

We have collected some resources and links to videos here that we hope you will find helpful. If you would like to buy a cookbook, we recommend “The Diabetes Weight-loss cookbook” by Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi and “The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet Recipe Book” by Dr Clare Bailey (forward by Dr Michael Mosley)
If you are interested in attending our next interactive Lifestyle Programme, please send a message via Accurx to your surgery, asking for a referral to the Wellbeing Team.

If you have any questions after attending a Programme  or watching our Webinar, please contact your surgery via Accurx, asking them to send a message to the Wellbeing Team. 

Please note, we endeavour to reply to all questions within 2 weeks. 

Wishing you all the very best.

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Dr. Ruth Tapsell  GP BSc 1998, MBBS (London) 2001, MRCP (UK) 2005, MRCGP 2009, GMC 6031178

 

Sophie Potts Health and Wellbeing Coach 

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