Maybe you’ve tried a low carb ketogenic diet, and maybe like us you have reversed your own type 2 diabetes, and you might be wondering why everyone isn’t talking about this.  And you might be wondering why diabetics are still in 2016 being recommended to eat a high carb low fat diet, and told to simply restrict calories and increase exercise when THAT advice only ever leads to diabetes progressing and getting worse.

The reality is that when medical professionals DO speak out in support of a hormonal solution to diabetes that IS working, and against the Calories In: Calories Out model that has never worked – they are bullied into shutting up.  We’re going to do a series of posts about how the people who do stand up and get bullied … but let’s start with;

Dr. Jason Fung.

You probably know of Jason Fung.  Carl and I interviewed him on Episode 26 – The Obesity Code with Dr. Jason Fung.  Still the most popular podcast we have ever done.  If you listened to the podcast or have have ever heard Jason’s many YouTube recordings you know his premise;

• It’s not your fault you are fat, your hormones are driving this not your choices
• Medical Science has lied to you by telling you that it’s your fault you eat too much and exercise too little
• The 2 compartment model explains how you became diabetic, and how you can reverse your diabetes

Jason has put all his content, free, online on YouTube for years … and millions of views later – Carl and I hear everyday from people who have watched his videos and it has changed their lives.  He also has a clinical practice in Toronto that has successfully treated over a thousand patients.  And he also has 2 books out;

The obesity code

The complete guide to fasting

Enter the Cyber Bully

Recently, Dr. Yoni Freedhoff flew into a Twitter rage about Dr. Jason Fung being a fat shamer.

On the face of it, that is a ridiculous assertion for anyone who has ever seen any of his presentations.

We’ve interviewed him, watched all his online presentations, and followed his blog for years.  Carl and I have always believed that Jason had an extraordinary compassion for obese patients.  He also helps them for free.  No doubt he makes a decent living treating patients in his clinic, but he also gives away all the same techniques on YouTube for free for anyone to apply in their own lives.

For years Dr. Fung has been critical of the obesity establishment, the ‘experts’ that have allowed this epidemic to happen, and he blames them for failing to understand the obesity problem.

The other day Dr. Fung posted a tweet, which specifically identified his problem with the keynote ‘experts’ of an Obesity conference in New Orleans who were concerned about genetics and calories rather than what is self-evidently the problem – hyperinsulinemia and the hormonal theory.  He also linked a picture to it.  It was a mildly ironic tweet, for those accustomed to Dr. Fung’s blunt style.

Nevertheless, some people found it offensive.

A normal person who found offense, might reach out to Jason to ask him to remove the tweet.

Yoni Freedhoff, however immediately started his hate-filled attack.  Fat-shamer he cried!  Where was this fat shaming?  Jason Fung had not mentioned weight.  Was it in the picture that he had attached?  That picture was taken from the very pictures provided by the conference itself!  If Jason was fat shaming, then surely so was ObesityWeek 2016 itself.

A sorry history of cyber-bullying

A review of Dr. Freedhoff’s tweets of just the last month reveals the real issue here.  This is only the latest in a long string of hateful tweets by Freedhoff against different doctors.  Consider the evidence in black and white. To protect the innocent, I’ll redact the names of the victims of his bullying.

On October 14, he urges one doctor to “Delete your medical license”. For what?  This poor man simply expressed his opinion.  Understand that this doctor that Freedhoff is attacking is not simply a family doctor like himself.  He is, in fact, a Harvard trained professor of surgery.

On October 26, he calls another victim ‘idiotic’ for having an opinion.  But Freedhoff, knowing he has a large Twitter following immediately uses it to bully.  Freedhoff pretends to be a professional, but publicly calling others idiotic proves that he is anything but professional.  This is cyber-bullying of the first order.  We teach our kids not to do it, but this assistant professor of family medicine routinely engages in it.

On October 31, he publicly alleges that yet another doctor, a well-respected internal medicine specialist is selling ‘bullshit’. Says who? Freedhoff thinks he knows so much about everything that his own opinion is gospel truth? Once again, doctors may not always agree, but each is entitled to their own opinion. This is clearly yet another intimidation attempt.

On October 31, he accuses a Doctor of ‘unflinching scumbaggedness’.  He offers no proof of his assertion other than his own opinion.  This is all within the space of a few weeks!  This hate filled character cannot stop cyber bullying his colleagues for more than a few days.

Bullies pile on

Worse, consider what happened next.  Even as Dr. Fung apologized, Freedhoff and his fellow cyber-bullies and notorious anti-keto trolls gloat all over the Internet about how they ‘took him down’.  Absolutely outrageous.  Jason Fung simply made a human mistake and apologized.  It was disgusting to read doctors and dieticians applauding this horrible behavior, obviously not understanding that ‘to err is human’.  They littered the Internet with their hate-filled invective.

The real point of this bullying

You know why they are doing it, don’t you?  This has nothing to do with protecting the fragile egos of 2 obesity experts.  This has everything to do with the fact that Jason Fung’s continued success at reversing Obesity and type 2 Diabetes in thousands of patients challenges their worldview.

If Dr. Fung can help people to reverse their Diabetes with ease, and they are finding that their techniques don’t work nearly as well … then he must be BURNED AT THE STAKE.

A captive ‘journalist’

To complete his character assassination, Dr. Freedhoff had his girlfriend, journalist Julia Belluz (who writes for Vox.com) write an immediate article composed entirely of his tweets.  Clearly she is not acting in the role of a Journalist here.  She did not do her research.  She did not bother to find out who Dr. Fung was.  She did not bother to find out his well-known opposition to the old-fashioned calorie based thinking – which was where this tweet was directed.  There is obviously something highly conflicted about their relationship if she will uncritically drop everything to promote his bullying tirade.

Hundreds of people who reversed their Diabetes thanks to Dr. Fung, and who know this accusation of fat shaming to be ludicrous, tweeted defending this man who had made such a difference in their lives.  Dr. Freedhoff of course is silent.  There is no acknowledgement.  There is no recognition that perhaps Fung has helped many people.  He just doubles down on his original claim of fat-shaming.  The man is a serial character assassin by the evidence of his own twitter stream in just the last month, and he will evidently slander for sport.

Jason Fung was only the latest in a long line of targets for this guys bullying.

Dr. Freedhoff was the only one who observed that the 2 keynote speakers of an Obesity conference were themselves obese.  I have not seen @YoniFreedhoff apologize for being a fat shamer.

He values his own opinion so highly that all others must be ‘idiots’ and ‘scumbags’ who must ‘delete their medical license’?  

Is this what he teaches student doctors at the University of Ottawa (@OttawaU) in his role as an assistant professor?  That it is acceptable, to sling insults at people with dissenting opinions, rather than mounting an argument against that opinion?  

That is the difference between a professional, and a cyber-bully.  

Cyber-bullies attack the person, and avoid engaging the argument.