Dr. Robert Cywes

The physiological impact of carbohydrate consumption as the primary cause of the current Chronic Non-Communicable Disease (CNCDs) epidemic

Dr. Robert Cywes specializes in Weight Management and Bariatric Surgery for adults and adolescents in West Palm Beach, Florida. He has been doing bariatric surgery for 18 years performing over 8000 surgeries.

In 2004, Dr. Cywes established JSAPA to continue his work in both adolescent and adult obesity treatment and surgery, and in 2013 opened a practice in Palm Beach County, Florida. He now works with a highly experienced team of professionals from a variety of medical sub-specialties to better care for obese patients. He has developed the practice into an internationally recognized Center of Excellence for obesity surgery. The practice uses a cognitive behavioral therapy approach that addresses carbohydrate addiction, along with bariatric surgery, to help patients manage their obesity long term. Based on his extensive clinical research and observations, Dr. Cywes lectures internationally regarding the physiological impact of carbohydrate consumption as the primary cause of the current Chronic Non-Communicable Disease (CNCDs) epidemic.  He also lectures on the behavioral aspects of carbohydrate addiction as the cause of obesity and obesity-related co-morbidities and the use of substance abuse methodology, rather than a diet and exercise approach, to the effective long term treatment of obesity.

Beliefs that certain things are good or bad for us are 100% unsupported by science.

If cholesterol is bad for us, how come an egg, which becomes a chicken, has so much cholesterol and no sugar?

Cholesterol is reparative and doesn’t cause injury.

We’re all going to die.  How we get there is our choice.

What do statins do to the body?

People who die of clogged blood vessels either smoked or had chronic excess sugar consumption.

Majority of high school kids vape, which has 5 times as much nicotine per breath as smoking.

Can people with damaged blood vessels get better?

Doctors aren’t looking for issues from eating processed carbohydrates.  Study of Harvard medical students showed many have unknown profound medical issues.

Carbohydrate – dose matters.  We eat in one day what we used to eat in a month 50 years ago.

Doughnut carbohydrate molecules are same as apple carbohydrate molecules.  Both are bad for the diabetic.

People eat sugary goods for instant gratification and mental health value.

Insulin shoves sugar into cells for energy.  Excess fat comes exclusively from excess carbohydrate.  Impossible to get fat from protein and fat.

Water consumption is tightly controlled.  Alcohol and sugary beverage consumption overrides those controls. 

Carbs and fruit goes to liver which makes the fat.  Sugar at high levels is toxic to cells.  Insulin transforms cells in liver to fat.  Sugar builds up in blood stream because cells have locked the sugar out.  High insulin producers are obesogenic.  Versus those with elevated blood sugar have damage to the cells in the bloodstream, which causes type 2 diabetes.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) becomes Alzheimer’s.  Study of women with PCOS and MCI put on a low carb diet and MCT oil reversed their MCI. Their average age was 23. 

The brain prefers ketones.  3 healthiest non-animal oils are  coconut, olive, avocado.  PUFAS are worst.  Omega-6s send an alert, Omega-3s put out the fire.  Need 1:1.5 to 2 ratio of 6:3. 

Autism and Autism Spectrum incidence used to be 1 in 20,000.  Now 1 in 48.  Young brains need adequate fat.  Babies need to chew on meat to develop strong jaws and teeth.  Baby food bad.

Lipofuscin is associated with fatty liver disease but is a consequence of carbohydrate consumption and doesn’t cause fatty liver.  Brown fat is healthy fat.  Gets produced when you eat fat.  Yellow fat gets produced from sugar converted to fat and is unhealthy.

What are carb cravings?  It’s a mental thing, nothing to do with the body’s needs.  Correlated with emotional tension.  Never a valid reason to eat sugar.

Human brains evolved because of our consumption of marine fat.  Grains store well, but our bodies aren’t adapted to them.

Sugar sucks up water.  Each carbon molecule requires 6 molecules of water. 

Carnivore diet is to correct a problem.  Are making a sacrifice to nutrition to lose weight.  Follow for 6 months to 2 years.  Most effective anti-inflammatory diet.  Eggs are very healthy, but deficient in calcium and Vitamin C.  Dairy has everything to grow a baby, especially goat’s milk.  A good condiment to add to diet.  Liver and kidneys have a vitamin store.  Small fish, sardines, oysters have a broad range of everything.  Butter, ghee, tallow, lard are excellent.  Fat suppresses appetite, but after a while, only want to eat the fat that comes with the food. 

Eventually people on a long-term carnivore diet will need to find triggers for insulin.  Body transforms from Insulin resistant to insulin sensitive to insulin suppressed.  Long-term want ratio of ketones:sugar 70:30.

Vegetables – people differ genetically.  No mammal tolerates grain products, which trigger an inflammatory process in the gut.  Plants can be okay to eat in small amounts unless they trigger inflammation.  People have lost capacity to ferment plants.  We are enzyme digesters.  Primary source of oxalates doesn’t come from the diet, but from the production in the liver during the Krebs Cycle. Very few plants are natural, the way they grew in nature. 

Wild salmon is good for you.  1 portion has almost all the omega 3 you need in a day. 

Grass fed, grass finished beef is best.  Do GMO grains fed to beef get in us?  Is the GMO for profit or to modify a disease process?  First step, eliminate sugar and starch.  Then, good enough can suffice.  Quality of animal is not critical.

Formula fed babies poop more often than breast fed babies.  Formula milk has added fiber.  We think we’re better than nature and God. 

Human intestine is longest of all mammals.  We need the length for enzyme digestion.  Cause of intestinal disorders is because we believe we need fiber in our diet.  No fiber is necessary; it ferments.

Need different bacteria to digest meats versus vegetables. 

Esophagus is alkaline.  Stomach is acidic to kill bacteria.  Once food enters small intestine, alkaline bile neutralizes the stomach acid.  Digestion happens in an alkaline environment.  pH of meat doesn’t matter, because digestion changes it along the way.

Son had a full mouthful of teeth at 10 months.  Breastfed for 6 weeks, then formula because no breast milk.  Then raised as a carnivore.  Started on ribeye steak as first food at 4 months. 

Pasteurized milk, butter, cheese vs. raw.  Raw always best.  Whole milk in the US has had some of the cream removed.  Raw benefits from being full cream plus unpasteurized.

Omega 3s.  Requirement of 1000 mg DHA per day.  Liver makes some DHA.  Get some from marine food, shellfish, only a small amount in butter and cheese.  Defense against APOE4-caused Alzheimer’s is taking fish oil.

How to tell if insulin resistant? Need bloodwork.  Find a provider at thesmhp.org for interpretation.  Self-interpretation can lead to incorrect conclusions.      

Dr. Cywes does consults but earliest available appointment is 7 months away.  His nutritionist is also available for consults.

Feeling ill is insidious.  Can’t tell we’re ill by how we feel.

Glycobiome changes with a carnivore diet.  Quality of sleep improves, quantity decreases.

Do the experiment.  Can start with keto, then progress to carnivore.

See Obesityunderstood.com for his medical practice.  Carb Addiction Doc on social medium and YouTube.

Carb Addiction Mom for his wife’s account.

Dr. Cywes part one

Cr. Cywes part two