Dr Mary Barson is a GP based on the Surfcoast of the Bellarine Peninsula, in Victoria, Australia. Mary first completed an honours degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Melbourne University where she developed a deep appreciation for the nutritional and environmental factors needed to support health and wellbeing. Later, during medical school Mary found her passion in General Practice and in whole-person, holistic care.
While maintaining a broad interest in all aspects of General Practice, Mary has particular interests in Nutritional & Environmental Medicine, Lifestyle Medicine and Mind-Body Medicine. She is particularly passionate about metabolic health, combining compassion centred care with real food nutrition to empower people to reclaim their health and regain control of their weight naturally and sustainably.
Mary has undertaken additional training in Medical Hypnotherapy, Mental Health, Stress Management, Children’s Health, Palliative Medicine as well as Lifestyle Medicine and Nutritional and Integrative Medicine.
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16 responses to “Dr. Mary Barson – ‘Everybody Wants To Be Healthy – But What Is That?’”
Metabolic flexibility.
II was an extremely skinny kid also blessed??? with extremely insulin resistant genes as well. Only now, at the age of 86, have I found that a low carb diet has fixed pretty well all of my health problems, especially skin and lung problems. My blood tests from before low carb diet to after low carb diet are dramatically different, and I am now blessed with a healthy old age life. Thank you so much for all you and your colleagues on Low Carb Down Under do for the ordinary person struggling with all the disinformation of a so called healthy diet dished out to the general population.
Wow! Good for you!
It has been suggested that we need to be careful when using BMI when trying to correlate obesity with all-cause mortality.
Firstly, because BMI is not a very good measure. I am personally lean, with a height/waist ratio in the ideal range (< 0.5) yet my BMI classes me as overweight. BMI is biased against people with greater than average lean muscle mass, when there is evidence that retained muscle mass is strongly correlated with longevity. Secondly, because those who die of cancer often lose weight dramatically in the late stages. So they got the cancer that is killing them when they were heavier, but died when they were lighter. This is a confounding factor when cancer is one of the most significant causes of mortality in the developed countries. Weight may be a symptom rather than a cause, but ignoring the symptom and claiming that it doesn’t matter, is and excuse for ignoring the causes.
Love low carb down under. Thank you for getting me to try keto . Off meds and insulin. Brain fog gone, diabetes gone, diarrhea gone , heart troubles gone. And the information is so very good. Thank you bunches
“Hypnosis” followed by “Im a scientist” oh the irony
Excellent!
462 days no carbs to speak of. 😊
Engaging speaker.
I’m a LCHF HOTI, who would have known!?! I’ve received my blood tests back and they confirm it. I’m still considered obese but I’m still on that journey. Thanks for a great talk.
Jesus…🤪
“…the perfect body…”
The larger sized women who went out and got their own larger sized photo shoot are really taking the wrong approach. The best response is not to feel shamed but to take a stoic approach and decide that other people’s opinions of you is none of your business. To feel the need to get the opposite photo taken is still to be under the power of the “perfect body” troupe. It is not in opposition to that pressure and a response to that pressure. It is to have your emotional buttons pressed. It is a response to what other people think of you and that is not in your control. To feel “proud” of your body, slim or overweight, is to still buy into body image empowerment at all. I would call it “anti role modelling” but it is still role modelling with the script reversed and you are still dependent on other people’s opinion of you to be empowered.
Role modelling is to be avoided in any case. To live your life using others as a role model is to give up yourself and your own self exploration. To try solve to social problems by using a role model, a singer or sportsman or someone greatly admired to akin to feeding a man a fish which will feed him for a day instead of teaching him how to fish so that he can feed himself for life. There is also the danger that the role mask slips to reveal a darker reality of the celebrity. Many people will be shocked when this happens but I see this as a good thing. It is a useful lesson for a young person to learn that all heroes have feet of clay he will be more mature for learning this. It offers an inoculation against manipulation by others or society. A value which needs a groupie role modelling to disseminate is not worth a dime.
So we need to stop blaming us for shaming this or promoting this and start empowering ourselves by not putting any value on the opinions of others.
What has this to do with low carb? I live on a low carb diet myself and if I had regard for other people’s opinions I would be upset that they lecture me about its harms. Instead I take ownership of such upsets as being my own and not seek to blame others.
I just eat meat, get sun and move around – Proper Human Behaviour.
Well done and said! – On of the best presentations I’ve heard in this space. Thank you Mary!
In the 50s and 60s body size was more uniform. There was very underweight people after and during wars. And less over weight peoples.
If I had to guess I would say that stress and highly processed food created the distribution of excess and lack of the uniformity in body size.
Every time you here health is related to the blue zones the med diet. The Okinawans who are held up as icons of longevity.
I wonder what their teeth and bones are like?
I commend you for embracing difference in body size and focus on health.
The other thing I think is the pharmacy problem a pill for all I’ll.
Injections for all.
How much damage to DNA is caused by the chemicals.
I have bee on many diets crazy resistance to insulin. Now I look at food as not a pleasure but a fuel.
I turn off cooking programmes and try and eat almost Carnivore once per day.
I try frequent fasts and do fall off the wagon but oh my it’s so much easier than weighing and counting.
Thank you for this wonderful video good luck everyone.