Introducing one of the world’s leaders in addiction therapies, Bitten Johnsson. Bitten is a nurse, a recovering addict herself and an addiction specialist. She is on a mission to free people from this painful illness and to decrease the shame and stigma around addiction.

We are going to be exploring how sugar can be a gateway drug into food addiction, alcoholism, nicotine and harder drug addiction because of the impact the sweet stuff has on rewiring our brains and desensitising our dopamine receptors. 

Addiction is actually far more prevalent than you might think as we seek dopamine highs through social media, shopping, food and illegal drugs. These addictive behaviours often begin in childhood and escalate from one drug to another… Bitten shows us how a low carb approach can be used to heal the addicted brain. We start by discussing the reptilian brain, what Bitten calls the ‘red dog’ and how it attempts to persuade us towards immediate gratification and prevent us from achieving our goals. Even if you have no addictive tendencies this is an enlightening look into the biochemistry of the brain

This week we have the awesome Dr Tommy Wood, a biochemist, doctor and neonatal brain health specialist. We have a great conversation about the nutrients you need to build a healthy brain. Why we need DHA, ketones and cholesterol. The best course of action to take after a brain injury to promote recovery. How babies are born in ketosis and why they have Michelin man rolls of fat in contrast to all other mammalian newborns. How we can store different types of fat in our own body fat stores—not just toxins. And finally, we discuss how on the quest to being healthy you can become unhealthily obsessed with health—to the extent that how we think and eat can become more important than what we eat—and have a more negative impact. 

This week we have the incredible Gary Taubes, investigative journalist and debunker of health myths.

Gary is a best-selling author, his books include The Case Against Sugar, Good Calories, Bad Calories and most recently The Case for Keto.  A serious critical thinker on how conventional wisdom is formed. 

We have an incredible chat-Gary is so much fun and seems to be looking younger and younger—a testament to the keto diet and the Californian sunshine. We discuss how the focus on calories and energy expenditure debate has overshadowed the examination of the endocrine system, our hormonal mechanisms for fat accumulation and obesity; that carbohydrate consumption and the resulting release of excess insulin is really why people keep getting fatter. 

We discuss the type 2 diabetes epidemic; how hard it can be to get your own doctor on board with your own health issues and what it will take for the ‘New Science’ to be reflected in government nutritional guidelines…particularly in light of the plant-based movement gaining traction. 

I really hope you enjoy episode one as much as I did!