About The Food Fix:
The Food Fix makes a clear, evidence-based case that carbohydrates — not fat — are driving New Zealand’s epidemic of metabolic disease.
Written by Auckland GP Dr Marcus Hawkins, the book draws on nearly four decades of clinical practice and published research to explain why type 2 diabetes, obesity, fatty liver disease, cardiovascular disease, and several other chronic conditions share a common root in insulin resistance — and why reducing dietary carbohydrate addresses that root directly.
The science is accessible without being simplified. The clinical evidence is substantial: randomised controlled trials, systematic reviews, and real-world audits from New Zealand primary care, including a multi-site study covering a Māori health provider. Patient stories give the numbers a human face.
A dedicated chapter examines the disproportionate metabolic disease burden on Māori and Pacific communities through the lens of dietary displacement rather than genetic destiny — drawing on the author’s own published research on pre-European Māori diet.
The book also confronts why New Zealand’s clinical guidelines have lagged behind international evidence, and closes with a practical guide to getting started, monitoring progress, and sustaining change.
The Food Fix is for anyone who wants to understand their metabolic health — and do something about it.
Buy the book:
Author Bio:
Dr Marcus Hawkins is an Auckland-based general practitioner with nearly four decades of clinical experience. He holds a BM BS and FRNZCGP, and practises at Highbrook Medical Centre in East Tamaki. His clinical focus is metabolic medicine and therapeutic carbohydrate reduction, an area in which he has published in the Journal of Primary Health Care, the Journal of Metabolic Health, and Nutrients. He leads an online community of eight thousand members focused on low-carbohydrate nutrition and offers individual metabolic health consultations. He co-authored the first multi-site New Zealand primary care audit of therapeutic carbohydrate reduction, including a dedicated Māori health provider cohort.