David Unwin is a general practitioner working within the National Health Service (NHS). His work focuses on metabolic health and the management and remission of type 2 diabetes through dietary interventions. His published research investigates the clinical applications and safety of ketogenic and low-carbohydrate diets, intermittent fasting, insulin resistance, and their effects on obesity, hypertension, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
There are only three dietary macronutrients: protein, fats, and carbohydrate.
"The simple point: nutrition, we're not teaching it. So there's only three macronutrients. There's only protein, fats, and carbohydrate." (said at 0:34:53)
While carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are the three primary energy-yielding macronutrients commonly emphasized in dietary discussions, standard nutritional science definitions of macronutrients are broader. Standard classifications typically include water as an essential macronutrient required in large daily quantities, and fiber is often categorized alongside carbohydrates as a macronutrient. Additionally, alcohol (ethanol) acts as a calorie-providing macronutrient yielding approximately 7 kcal/g, though it is not an essential nutrient.
Dr. David Unwin has achieved drug-free type 2 diabetes remission in 157 patients in his clinical practice.
"One of my patients with type 2 diabetes, we got drug-free remission. Hooray! I've done that now 157 times." (said at 1:31:00)
Dr. David Unwin has published serial audit data from his UK general practice (Norwood Surgery) evaluating a low-carbohydrate dietary approach for type 2 diabetes. In an 8-year service evaluation published in 2023 (PMID 37559961), 51% of 186 participating patients (approximately 95 patients) achieved drug-free diabetes remission, up from 46% of 128 patients (~59 patients) in an earlier 6-year audit (PMID 33521540). The figure of 157 remissions reflects an updated clinic total as his ongoing practice audit continued beyond the published 2021 study cutoff. Because these findings come from an uncontrolled, self-selected general practice service evaluation rather than a randomized trial, the certainty of evidence for the intervention's broad efficacy is very low, though it accurately documents his clinic's ongoing real-world experience.
Diet is the second most common preventable cause of cancer after smoking.
"because we know that I think after smoking... diet is the next commonest cause of cancer." (said at 1:48:45)
Epidemiological analyses evaluating population attributable fractions consistently show that tobacco smoking is the single largest preventable cause of cancer (accounting for roughly 15% to 20% of cases). However, excess body weight/obesity ranks as the second leading preventable cause (accounting for 6% to 8% of cases), followed by alcohol consumption. While diet is a major contributor to excess body weight and individual dietary factors (such as high processed meat or low fiber intake) contribute directly to cancer risk, specific dietary factors by themselves rank below obesity and alcohol in modern attributable risk models.
- context: The fraction of cancer attributable to modifiable risk factors in England, Wales, Scotland… (British journal of cancer 2018) · cited 561x in the literature
"Tobacco smoking contributed by far the largest proportion of attributable cancer cases, followed by overweight/obesity, accounting for 15.1% and 6.3%, respectively, of all cases in the UK in 2015." (abstract, results, passage verified)
pubmedfull study (doi) - context: Proportion and number of cancer cases and deaths attributable to potentially modifiable ri… (CA: a cancer journal for clinicians 2024) · cited 179x in the literature
"Cigarette smoking was the leading risk factor contributing to cancer cases and deaths overall (19.3% and 28.5%, respectively), followed by excess body weight (7.6% and 7.3%, respectively), and alcohol consumption (5.4% and 4.1%, respectively)." (abstract, results, passage verified)
pubmedfull study (doi)