Franziska Spiztler is one of those truly rare individuals who went through the effort and training required to become a registered dietician, and then discovered that what she was taught was mostly wrong. She had the courage and the integrity to challenge the system.
Franziska and her husband, Mark, were among our tablemates for dinner on the 2014 LCC cruise. When I learned that she was a registered dietician who bucked the system and went low-carb, I immediately asked her if she was willing to do a video interview, and she agreed.
Mark turned out to be a techie like me, with a background chock full of video work, and he volunteered to help with the camera. You will probably notice that the video quality is better on this interview than on some of the others, thanks to Mark. And also thanks to the time of day (more natural light).
We had a really nice chat (despite an interruption by our room steward), with occasional off-camera comments by Georgene & Mark.
Notes:
- 00:00 Introduction
- 00:10 Franziska’s website http://www.lowcarbdietitian.com/ When you visit her site, be sure to sign up for her newsletter!
- 01:15 Her close call with diabetes, “despite” a low-fat semi-vegetarian diet, led her to start looking for different answers
- 02:40 Her fear of ketosis kept her from going to less than 80g of carb/day for a while
- 04:00 She never had a weight problem, so low-carb was for maintaining a healthy blood sugar — and to fix the problem of being hungry an hour or so after meals (reactive hypoglycemia)
- 05:10 She quit her job at the VA medical center because the doctors there simply were not on board with low-carb
- 06:30 Surprisingly little backlash from other dieticians — at least not publicly
- 10:00 Other influencers included Steve Phinney, Jeff Volek, Dr. Eric Westman (whom, unfortunately, I did not get to interview), and Dr. Steve Parker (diabeticmediterraneandiet.com)
- 12:15 Her consulting business is going well, and she is writing for some high-profile professional publications, in which she is doing her part in pushing low-carb into the mainstream
- 13:30 Her plans for writing a book
- 19:30 The Final Question
- 22:50 Her exercise routine
