INTERVIEW: An interview with Dr Ted Naiman, MD

Today I have the pleasure of talking with Dr Ted Naiman, a family physician and author of the P:D Diet.

The role of dietary protein in our health has long been an interest of mine, so I was thrilled when Dr Naiman published his book advocating the same message. Prioritise protein and control energy intake with carbs and fats. These are the dietary principals I have advocated for many years to my clients and is the kind of diet I follow myself.

In our chat today, Dr Naiman and I discuss his book. We talk about why protein is so important and how you can optimise your health using different protein to energy ratios, depending on your needs. We discuss what a personal-fat threshold is and how this effects your ability to lose weight.

Dr Naiman talks about his early life as a Seventh-Day-Adventist and vegetarian. He gives some tips on how to improve the quality of a plant-based diet and discusses animal welfare and environmental issues.

We also talk about diabetes, heart disease, cholesterol and whether protein causes cancer, kidney disease and gout.

I hope you enjoy listening to these videos and find some good tips for your own nutrition and health. Remember if you would like to understand more about the role protein plays in our health and how to determine how much protein you need, check out my protein videos on YouTube.

If you enjoyed this video, please share and get the message out there.

Biography:

Dr Naiman is a board certified physician with 20-years-experience in family medicine who currently works in a large Seattle Medical Centre.

He has a research focus on the interaction between nutrition, exercise and health optimisation.

He is interested in the practical application of nutrition information to the public.

He is the author and illustrator of the P:E diet.

Links:

http://www.burnfatnotsugar.com/About.html

Twitter: @tednaiman
FaceBook: burnfatnotsugar

Purchase the book in hardcopy and eBook at: http://www.thePEdiet.com

Make sure you check out all thirteen short videos.

Interview Index

Part 1:

In part-1 of my chat with Dr Naiman, he talks about growing up as a Seventh Day Adventist vegetarian and obtaining his medical degree at Lunda Loma University. He discusses his early health challenges and how one of his patients led him into nutrition research. This led to his philosophy of prioritising protein and the creation of the P:E diet. (Protein:Energy).
We talk a about breakfast cereals and the Seventh Day Adventist influence on nutrition around the world.

Part 2:

In part-2 Dr Naiman defines the concept of energy toxicity and how this happens. He discusses how carbs and fat affect our glucose, insulin and storage of body-fat.

Part 3:

In part-3 Dr Naiman talks about what happens when our fat-cells become sick and the affect this has on our health and ability to lose weight. He discusses the inflammatory process, cholesterol and heart disease.

Part 4:

In part-4 Dr Naiman explains how we can tap into our fat-stores and get better at burning fat for energy. He discusses the different ways glucose and fat are stored in our body. He also talks about the issues of glucose dependency and how this prevents from becoming fat-adapted.

Part 5:

In part-5 Dr Naiman talks about weight loss stalling on keto and how to overcome this. He explains what the protein to energy ratio means and how to use this to achieve different goals, such as weight-loss, maintenance or athletic performance.

Part 6:

In part-6 Dr Naiman explains how to work out our individual daily protein needs.

Part 7:

In part-7 Dr Naiman talks about protein and cancer, kidney disease, gout, osteoporosis and acidity.

Part 8:

In part-8, Dr Naiman talks about how being overfat triggers the insulin response. He explains the concept of personal fat thresholds and why this is risk for developing type-2 diabetes and heart disease. He describes how insulin is a fuel sensor in our bloodstream and works to keep pushing excess energy in our cells. This is why high insulin represents energy toxicity. He talks about why some people are unable to ever get really lean, but they can still have healthy fat cells and a healthy metabolism.

Part 9:

In part-9, Dr Naiman discusses nutrition for children. He explains why it is important we don’t let our children get over fat. He says, “We are really screwing them over for life, if we let them get too fat”. He provides advice for parents about feeding their children and why nutrient dense proteins are important to prevent kids from overeating.

Part 10:

In Part-10, Dr Naiman discuss protein and aging. He talks about how our need for protein increases as we age to prevent sarcopenic-obesity and osteoporosis. He believes older people are eating a starvation level of protein, with too many carbs and fats, contributing to poor health in general and diabetes and heart disease.

Part 11:

In part-11, Dr Naiman talks about vegetable oils and the importance of omega-6 to omega-3 ratios. He explains that animal foods have excellent omega-6 to omega-3 ratios whereas nuts and seeds have very high in omega-6. He describes how excess omega-6 fatty-acids become incorporated into tissues and cells causing toxicity in the body. Dr Naiman says, “This is something we want to pay attention to and why industrial seed oils should be avoided like the plaque”. He also explains that properly grown animal fats have excellent fatty-acid profiles. For example, he says, “Pastured pork fat has the same fatty-acid profile as olive oil”.

Part 12:

In part-12, Dr Naiman offers advice to vegetarian and vegans. He suggests some practical ways to ensure sufficient protein intake and explains necessary supplementation when on a plant-based diet. He talks about the ethical and environmental aspects of animal and crop foods and his experience and beliefs as a former SDA and vegetarian.

Part 13:

In part-13, Dr Naiman provides his thoughts on how best to engage with our GP’s and how to seek their support when dealing with health issues.