Dr Jen Unwin
Dr Jen Unwin is a chartered clinical and health psychologist. She worked for over 30 years in the NHS and now spends her time researching, campaigning and writing about sugar addiction. She is a founding member of the Public Health Collaboration, a UK charity campaigning for better public health advice. Her and her husband Dr David Unwin, a GP have been helping the patients in his practice adopt low carb diets to reverse their diabetes. This work has resulted in several published papers and numerous conference and media appearances. She has recently published a book called 'Fork in the Road' which is a guide for people with sugar/carb addiction. All profits are for the PHC.
Dr Jen Unwin is a Clinical Psychologist and lifelong carbohydrate addict. She noticed that if she came off plan it was hard to get back to it. She knew about addiction in her work as a psychologist but hadn’t linked it to food. Once Dr Jen became aware that sugars and carbohydrates can truly be addictive, she looked into more. Dr Jen trained with Bitten Jonsson a holistic addiction specialist. They recognised that the same problems a person has with alcohol or drugs can also happen with sugars and carbs.
Dr Jen explains that some sugar and carb addicts have to be careful with sweeteners, nuts, dairy and alcohol as they too can influence the brain pathways.
Dr Jen's Top Tips
- If you can’t moderate - try without
- If you can recognise an addiction - then abstain rather than moderate
- It’s not all about the food
Resources Mentioned
Escape The Diet Trap - Dr John Briffa
Bitten Jonsson
https://fabulouslyketo.com/podcast/011
Quotes by Dr Jen Unwin
“So I'm a bit of an all or nothing person. So I did the whole cold turkey thing, straight onto low carb. Had about eight days of feeling pretty grim. But then the lights came on, the colour came on. And I felt amazing.”
“It’s essentially the sugars that are the most addictive thing.”
“What's addiction? It's about this kind of compulsion and a difficulty resisting carrying out those behaviours even when you don't want to. You know, you're doing something that you know is harming your mental and physical health but still you do it.”
“Find your tribe. Most of us haven't got people in our family, necessarily, who understand this struggle.”
“Hope is possible. Change is possible.”
“Sugar is robbing people of their joy and their best selves.”
“Habits were incredibly powerful. Yet with willpower, we're never going to rely on it really in this regard. Because it gets hijacked by that primitive part of your brain, the survival part of your brain which is driving you to do these things as it thinks it is helping you.”
"If you're a true addict, you can't have a little bit of cake. It'll never be one bite. It'll always be a whole cake. And then it's so much more difficult to get back on board.”
“What you tend to find is actually the freedom you get of not having those cravings is so much nicer and your peace of mind that you get so much more pleasant than this sort of wrestling with yourself about should or shouldn't you have it.”
Connect with Dr Jen Unwin on social media
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jen_unwin
Clubhouse: @jen_unwin
Website Details:
If you have enjoyed listening to this episode - Leave us a review
By leaving us a review on your favourite podcast platform, you help us to be found by others.
Support us on Patreon
Help Jackie and Louise make more episodes by supporting them on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/FabulouslyKeto
Connect with us on social media
https://www.facebook.com/FabulouslyKeto
https://www.instagram.com/FabulouslyKeto1
https://twitter.com/FabulouslyKeto
Facebook Group:
Music by Bob Collum
Recommend a guest
We would love to know if you have a favourite guest you would like us to interview. Let us know who you would like to hear of if you have a particular topic you would like us to cover.
We sometimes get a small commission on some of the links, this goes towards the costs of producing the podcast.
