A doctor says wellness culture is a con. He's half right. We fact-check The Fat Doctor Podcast on carbs, exercise, sugary drinks and type 2 diabetes.

Health Griftluencer October, week four. After a chef, a doctor and a woman who wasn't sick, Burndog and Julie take on Dr Asher Larmie (he/they) and The Fat Doctor Podcast episode "Wellness Culture and Diabetes Care". There's a lot to agree with: moralising about health is real, stress and sleep really do move blood sugar, and most people with type 2 diabetes don't need to test all day. But "carbohydrates are essential for life", "exercise raises blood sugar" and "there's no decent evidence diet and exercise help" don't hold up against the trials.

In this episode:

• Can you actually live without carbs? What the Institute of Medicine says
• Does exercise raise or lower blood sugar? The ADA guidance, and why hypo warnings matter
• Sugary drinks and type 2 diabetes: what 17 studies found
• "Good diabetic, bad diabetic", and why that moral language does harm
• GLP-1 side effects, and why you shouldn't just push through (or just stop)
• Wellness culture and disordered eating
• A book plug in an episode about people selling you things

We're a podcast, not your doctor. If you have diabetes or take diabetes medication, talk to your GP or diabetes nurse before you change anything.

If anything in this episode about food or body image hit close to home, the Butterfly Foundation is on 1800 33 4673, or at butterfly.org.au.

Support the show and the search for Karl: patreon.com/karlstefanogriftshow
Clips nightly on Instagram (@karlstefanogriftshow) and YouTube Shorts (Karl Stefa-no Grift)

Sources:

• Carbs and the lower limit "compatible with life" (Westman, citing the IOM Dietary Reference Intakes): https://www.researchgate.net/publication/11393183_Is_dietary_carbohydrate_essential_for_human_nutrition
• Exercise and blood sugar, ADA/ACSM joint statement: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2992225/
• Aerobic exercise and 24-hour glucose, 2024 meta-analysis: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2024.1496271/full
• Sugary drinks and type 2 diabetes, Imamura et al., BMJ 2015: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4510779/
• UKPDS 10-year follow-up, NEJM 2008: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0806470
• DiRECT, Lancet 2018: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29221645/
• Diabetes Prevention Program, NEJM 2002: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa012512
• Heritability of type 2 diabetes: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4282306/
• Global diabetes, 108 million to 422 million: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/861591
• NICE NG28, type 2 diabetes in adults: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng28

Belle Gibson, Pete Evans and Karl Stefanovic walk into a juice bar. "I don't have cancer", says Belle. "Neither do I", says Paleo Pete. "What did you call me?" says Karlost. On this week's health Griftober episode, we talk about Belle Gibson. A terrible topic for people who want to hear about a proper grift.

Karl appears to have returned and he brought a friend with him. Dr Nick Norwitz is definitely not Pete Evans, but were there still chinks in his shiny peptide fuelled armour?

With Karl still technically, physically, and actually lost, we find ourselves starting a Health Grifter Month! Hooray! Episode one of this series sees us go back in time to May 2026 (back when Karl had a day job) and Karl's first sit-down chat with Mr Activated Almonds, Paleo Pete Evans. This results in a longer than usual episode as we try to verify the wheat from the activated whole grains.

Karl sits down for a chat without pushback with another moderately boring person. Join us!

With Julie unwell, Burndog bravely enters the fray alone for this week's shortened episode. This is The Kar Stefanovic Story. The tale of a kid from Queensland who missed drama school but found himself...or missed himself as well...and found not much at all. Except a Podcast and a need for cash.

A blast from the recent past with Karl chatting with award winning self-promotion unit and t-shirt wearer, Topher Field about the Fabian Society. We also go over his documentary Battleground Melbourne about the Melbourne COVID Lockdowns and Topher...it is about Topher.

Where is the biggest Wally in Australian media? Karl's having a liiiiiitttle breaky now that Ringers Western have left his cult and gone back to their own. WHile we wait for Karl to work out how to get paid, we will take a look at the life and times of a true criminal and Australian legend, Jack "Democracy Manifest" Karlson.

So, get your hand off my penis, and know your judo well, becuase it is 1991, there is a fish tank, and shit is abouit to get real...