In a seaside surgery, a burned-out GP and his psychologist wife discovered the secret wasn’t just cutting carbs – it was cultivating hope. Now their approach is spreading across Britain, proving that decline after 50 isn’t inevitable.
Dr David Unwin was reaching the end of his tether. He felt defeated by the depressing fact that he had a procession of patients coming into the surgery with diabetes who seemed on a downhill path.
The sixty-something GP had become, in his own words, “a doctor who hated diabetes.” He’d grown so demoralised by the relentless progression of the disease that he’d farmed out their care to his junior doctors. As he told Guardian reporter Jon Ungoed-Thomas, “I wasn’t making a difference. I was just adding drug after drug after drug. It was miserable medicine.”
Unusually, it was a patient who gave him a push in an entirely new direction. He had called her in to cross-examine her about why she’d stopped her metformin against medical advice. To his surprise, the patient was scarcely recognisable. She had lost three stone. On top of that, she was in a combative mood. Why had he not alerted her to the cure for diabetes she’d seen online?
When the flood of recriminations stopped to a trickle, he had the answer to what had been bothering him for a long time. His transformed patient had put herself on a low-carb diet.
“She was hopping mad,” Unwin recalls. “She said, ‘You’ve given me these pills for ten years, never asked about side effects, never offered alternatives. I’ve done this myself, and I feel fabulous.’”
The rebuke stung because it was true. Her blood tests showed that she was in remission. This in turn indicated that Type 2 diabetes wasn’t necessarily the chronic, deteriorating condition he’d been taught to believe it was.
The Psychology of Transformation
Unwin was both intrigued and taken aback by the encounter. But instead of filing the incident away and carrying on as before, he reacted.
What distinguishes Unwin’s approach from countless other dietary interventions isn’t just the low-carb protocol – it’s what he and his wife, clinical psychologist Dr Jen Unwin, call “the medicine of hope.”
Jen, winner of the British Psychological Society’s Karen Ehlert Lifetime Achievement Award, had spent her career studying hope’s role in chronic disease. Her research showed that hopeful people take fewer medications, report fewer symptoms, and live longer. When David came home that day in 2012, shell-shocked by his patient’s transformation, Jen saw an opportunity to merge their expertise.
Together, they developed what they call the GRIN model – Goals, Resources, Increments, Noticing; a deceptively simple framework that flips the traditional medical consultation on its head.
“Most doctors nag patients without hooking them first,” David explains. “We tell them what to do without understanding what they want. It’s like being a golf instructor who doesn’t know where the hole is.”
Envisaging Change and Cure
Consider how a typical diabetic consultation unfolds: the doctor reviews worsening blood work, prescribes additional medication, and warns about complications. The patient leaves feeling defeated, clutching another prescription.
The Unwin method turns this approach on its head. In one of his many illustrations, David Unwin sketches out the type of conversation he held with a recent patient – apparently called Margaret. At 73, she was struggling with knee pain and diabetes:
“Before we discuss your medication,” Unwin begins, “I wonder if you have any broader health goals that might make your knees—or even your life—easier?”
A pause. Then: “Well, I know I should lose weight.”
“Good point! What difference would that make to your life?”
“My daughter’s getting married in July. I’d love to breathe more easily. It’s embarrassing, gasping and sweating after short walks.”
Within minutes, the conversation has shifted from problem to possibility. Margaret isn’t a diabetic with bad knees; she’s a mother who wants to dance at her daughter’s wedding.
The Quiet Revolution
What began as unpaid Monday evening support groups in 2013-run by the Unwins in their spare time-has evolved into something approaching a movement. Today, 125 patients at Norwood Surgery are in drug-free diabetes remission, representing 20% of their entire diabetic register. The practice saves £68,000 annually on diabetes medications alone.
The results defy medical orthodoxy. Among patients diagnosed within the past year who follow the programme, 77% achieve remission. Even those diagnosed 6-15 years ago show an 11% remission rate – remarkable for a condition considered irreversible at that stage.
But here’s what should make every reader over 50 pay attention: older patients consistently outperform younger ones. Unwin’s oldest patient in remission is 92.
“They’re organised, have time, know how to cook,” Unwin observes. But Jen adds a psychological dimension: “Older people are motivated to stay well. They don’t want to be ill. Their memory, energy and sleep all improve remarkably. It’s an overall wellbeing improvement.”
The Sugar Deception
Central to Unwin’s approach is a revelation so simple it seems absurd that it’s not common knowledge: starch is concentrated sugar.
Working with glycaemic index researchers, Unwin developed infographics showing that 150 grams of boiled rice—a small bowl—affects blood sugar exactly like 10 teaspoons of table sugar. These charts, now translated into 37 languages and downloaded millions of times, provide the “aha moment” for many patients.
The shock is manifold. We may think that a breakfast of orange juice, wholegrain toast, and low-fat yoghurt is healthy. Not really. “It’s essentially 20 teaspoons of sugar,” Unwin explains.
The midwife at his practice lost four stone. The practice manager went low-carb. Today, Norwood is effectively a “low-carb practice”, with most staff following the approach. They’ve become, as Unwin puts it, “magicians of metabolism.”
Beyond Southport
The revolution has spread far beyond one seaside surgery. Near Braintree in Essex, the Freshwell Low Carb Project has created a community phenomenon. Over 750 local members have collectively lost more than a metric tonne – 1,103 kg – of weight.
Drs David Oliver and Kim Andrews, who established Freshwell, have made the approach accessible to all income levels with meal planners featuring recipes costing no more than £1.25 per portion. Their free app uses a simple traffic-light system – green for eat freely, amber for caution, red for avoid.
“When people stop eating processed food and excessive carbohydrates, they’re not as hungry,” Oliver explains. “The weight drops off. They feel better.”
The Hope Dealers
But weight loss and blood sugar control are just the beginning. What the Unwins have discovered – and what makes their approach particularly relevant for those navigating life after 50 – is that hope itself is therapeutic.
In their Monday groups (now on Zoom post-pandemic), participants don’t just learn about carbohydrates. They explore what Jen calls “preferred futures”-detailed visions of what better health would mean personally.
This approach has an important logic. Jen has seen for herself that for most people, deciding to control blood sugar or lose weight is too nebulous to act as an incentive. What tends to motivate people is understanding how much better their lives would be if they addressed their weight in a holistic manner.
“Most people don’t want to lose weight or control blood sugar as ends in themselves,” Jen explains. “They want to play with grandchildren, travel without worry, feel confident again. When you connect dietary change to these deeper motivations, compliance becomes irrelevant. People do it because it matters to them.”
The psychological sophistication shows in small details. Patients rate their progress on a scale of one to ten. When someone says they’re at “three”, the Unwins don’t focus on the seven-point deficit. Instead, they ask: what makes it three and not zero? Fixing on the person in front of them – rather than setting unrealistic expectations or making them feel far behind – validates their success rather than undermines it. It also gives them agency and belief in themselves.
This “solution-focused” approach – looking for what works rather than dissecting problems – transforms the entire dynamic. Patients become heroes rather than failures, and clinicians find themselves energised rather than depleted.
The Critics and the Converted
Not everyone appreciates the Unwins’ approach. Some even see it as heresy. Traditional diabetologists warn about the “dangers” of low-carb diets. Public health officials fret about sustainability. The Unwins’ response? Point to their outcomes.
Marcia Mawdsley, 55, four years into the programme, has lost 20 kg and stopped insulin entirely. “It’s not about being thin—it’s about being healthy. I have energy now.”
Audrey Jones, 78, was denied hip replacement surgery due to her diabetes. After five months on the programme, she’d lost 10 kg, normalised her blood sugar, and been approved for surgery. “I thought I’d be on metformin forever,” she says. “Being free of it feels like a miracle.”
Even more compelling are the unexpected benefits. One 65-year-old patient saw his “heart age” drop from 79 to 70 in two years. Cardiovascular markers improve across the board: cholesterol profiles, triglycerides, blood pressure. Patients report improvements in conditions from arthritis to anxiety.
The Digital Democratisation
The approach has gone digital, making it accessible beyond the lucky few near pioneering practices. The Low Carb Program app, developed with the Unwins’ input, reports that one in four participants with type 2 diabetes achieves remission at one year. With 450,000 users and counting, it’s becoming a parallel healthcare system – one focused on reversal rather than management.
But technology isn’t the secret. As the Unwins stress, the magic happens when healthcare becomes collaborative rather than prescriptive. “I offer patients choices,” David explains. “I say, ‘Your blood is very sugary. I could prescribe metformin—or we could try reducing the foods that turn to sugar. What interests you?’”
Nine times out of ten, patients choose the dietary approach. Why? “People don’t want more tablets,” Jen notes. “They want agency. They want hope.”
The Food Addiction Factor
There’s a darker dimension to the story that Jen, in particular, is working to illuminate. Many patients aren’t just eating badly – they’re addicted to ultra-processed foods designed to be irresistible. Her work with the CRAVED framework (based on substance use disorder criteria) gives people language to understand their relationship with food.
“When patients hear about food addiction, they say, ‘That’s me!’” Jen explains. “It’s not moral failure – it’s biology manipulated by food engineering.”
This understanding transforms shame into comprehension, guilt into action. For the over-50 demographic, often weary of decades of “failed” diets, this reframing is liberating and long overdue.
The Medical Mutiny
Perhaps most remarkably, the revolution is spreading through the medical ranks themselves. Doctors attending Unwin’s presentations frequently approach him afterwards – not about their patients, but about themselves.
“They whisper, ‘I’ve got diabetes,’ or ‘My wife has been diagnosed,’” Unwin reveals. “They want to know if it really works.”
The medical establishment is slowly, grudgingly, accepting the evidence. The NHS now includes low-carb as an option for diabetes management. Even the government’s soup-and-shake diet programme, while different in approach, acknowledges that diabetes remission is possible—though with only 32% achieving remission and just 12% completing the programme, it pales compared to the Unwins’ results.
The Future of Ageing
Personally, I’m struck by the profound shift in how we as a country can tackle ageing. This isn’t about extending life – it’s about extending healthspan, that precious period where we’re not just alive but vital. It’s also democratising the longevity debate, whose solutions often cost far more than ordinary people can afford.
“I should have retired years ago,” David admits, “but this work has changed everything. It’s such cheerful medicine now.” At 63, he runs regularly, follows his own low-carb prescription, and radiates an energy that belies the burned-out doctor he once was.
For readers contemplating their own health trajectory, the Unwins offer a different narrative. You’re not condemned to progressive decline. Your metabolism isn’t broken—it’s responding normally to abnormal inputs. Best of all, change doesn’t require superhuman willpower; it requires hope, support, and understanding.
The couple’s next frontier? Training other healthcare providers in their GRIN approach and preparing for the International Food Addiction Conference Jen is organising. But their core mission remains unchanged: proving that ordinary people—especially those written off as “too old to change”—can reclaim their health.
The Choice
In the end, what the Unwins offer isn’t just a diet – it’s a choice between two futures. In one, you accept the conventional narrative: progressive decline, increasing medication, managed deterioration. In the other, you join what Unwin calls “the metabolic rebels” – people who’ve discovered that much of what we call ageing is actually the accumulated effects of decades of metabolic dysfunction.
The science is compelling. The results speak for themselves. But perhaps most importantly, the approach acknowledges something the medical establishment often forgets: patients aren’t problems to be solved – they’re people with hopes, dreams, and the capacity for remarkable change, regardless of age.
Unwin himself is no longer depressed when he encounters someone with early-stage diabetes. He shares one final thought:
“To me, it presents a chance to get healthier than you’ve been in decades.”
For those over 50, facing down diagnoses that seem like life sentences, that’s not just medicine… it’s hope squared.
For more information on low-carbohydrate approaches and the psychology of health transformation, readers can explore the Freshwell Low Carb Project at lowcarbfreshwell.com or the Public Health Collaboration at phcuk.org. The Unwins’ GRIN model and sugar infographics are freely available for download.
