Dr. Wortman is a Metis physician from northern Alberta. After working in construction for ten years he returned to school to obtain a BSc in Biology and Chemistry at the University of Alberta, an MD from the University of Calgary and Family Medicine training at the University of British Columbia. After working in general practice he shifted to public health where he became the Associate Director of Sexually Transmitted Disease at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control.

Dr. Jay Wortman in Alert Bay.

He moved from there to Health Canada where he was a program specialist in HIV/AIDS and where he developed the Aboriginal component of the National AIDS Strategy. During this period he also developed the concept for the Dr. Peter AIDS Diary, a weekly television appearance by a young physician dying of AIDS, which achieved acclaim and resulted in an Academy Award nomination for a documentary compilation of the Diaries.

For the past ten years, Dr. Wortman has served in senior management positions in the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch of Health Canada where he is currently the Senior Medical Advisor. He recently completed a two-year research interchange at the UBC Faculty of Medicine where he studied the role of traditional diet in the prevention and treatment of obesity, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes in First Nations.

In 2003, Dr. Wortman received the National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Medicine. Dr. Wortman lives in West Vancouver with his wife and young son.

Visit his website for more information about his research.

The Diet

The study diet is based on the traditional diet (wild salmon, oolichan grease) but also includes modern market foods, (bacon, eggs). i.e. foods that have protein and fat but no starch or sugar.

Vegetables, meat and some fats were allowed on Dr. Wortman's diet.

Permitted foods include; beef, pork, chicken, fish or seafood, cauliflower, broccoli, all the salad greens, eggs, cream, but not milk. Milk contains lactose, which is sugar.

Not permitted are starches like pasta, rice, potatoes, bread and sugar. Dr. Jay Wortman believes that it was the introduction of these by Europeans over a hundred and fifty years ago that caused the rise of diabetes and obesity.

And so the key to this diet is the avoidance of starch and sugar because those were not common components of a traditional diet.

An interesting component is oolichan grease. It's a very healthy fat and in the fact it was a big part of the diet in the past, was one of the reasons it was such a healthy diet.

This poster (.pdf file) presents an interim analysis of results from study at Alert Bay. A final analysis  will be done soon,  once collecting data on everyone has been finished.

PLEASE NOTE: The research in this study is still being evaluated. Anyone taking medication for diabetes or high blood pressure should consult their doctor before starting a low-carb diet.