Peter Attia 'ashamed' after 'low carb' comment surfaces in Epstein files

Dr Peter Attia is a Stanford, Johns Hopkins, and NIH-trained physician and CBS News regular - whose name appears in more than 1,700 documents new documents released as part of the Jeffrey Epstein tranche.

Last week (30 January), the US Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed it had released more than three million pages, as well as videos and images, in compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act which US President Donald Trump signed into law last year.

The files were collected from various sources and saw more than 500 attorneys and reviewers from the Department contributing, it stated in the notice.

The newly-released documents confirm that Attia, 52, engaged in direct correspondence with convicted sex offender Epstein - who died whilst awaiting trail in 2019 - via email in the mid 2010s.

One particular email was sent from the Peter Attia Drive podcast host on 19 February 2016. It read: “P***y is, indeed, low carb.

“Still awaiting results on gluten content, though.”

Days earlier, he had offered Epstein his medical services, asking if he had ‘decided if [he was] interested in living longer’.

Other correspondence included the one-time author sending the disgraced financier a message with the subject line: ‘Got a fresh shipment’.

While it isn’t clear from the email what Attia was referring to, the medical practitioner has alleged that he was discussing bottles of metformin.

Metformin is usually used to treat type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes and polycystic ovary syndrome, as per the NHS.

The antidiabetic agent is prescription-only oral medication and has potential side-effects such as nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, and vitamin B12 deficiency.

In response to Attia’s, Epstein replied ‘me too’ and attached a photograph of an adult woman.

“I responded with crude, tasteless banter. Reading that exchange now is very embarrassing, and I will not defend it,” Attia said in a statement, shared via social media.

“I’m ashamed of myself for everything about this. At the time, I understood this exchange as juvenile, not a reference to anything dark or harmful.”

In his lengthy X message, shared on Monday (2 February), the Canadian apologised for past correspondence with Epstein, confirming he had never been ‘involved in any criminal activity’.

“My interactions with Epstein had nothing to do with his sexual abuse or exploitation of anyone,” he said. “I was never on his plane, never on his island, and never present at any sex parties.

“That said, I apologise and regret putting myself in a position where emails, some of them embarrassing, tasteless, and indefensible, are now public, and that is on me. I accept that reality and the humiliation that comes with it.”

In the newly-released documents, the father-of-three claimed that he couldn’t tell anyone about Epstein’s ‘outrageous’ life.

He used his X statement to clarify that he was referring to the ‘discretion commanded by those social and professional circles – the idea that you don’t talk about who you meet, the dinners you attend and the power and influence of the people in those settings.’

“What I wrote in that email reads terribly, and I own that,” he continued.

Attia also discussed a 2018 article, published in the Miami Herald, that reported Epstein had received a ‘secret plea deal’ years earlier to successfully minimise his 2008 conviction for soliciting underage sex.

He said: “I was repulsed by what I learned. Nauseated. It marked a clear and irreversible line between what I knew before and what I understood afterward.“

He alleged that he directly told Epstein that he ‘needed to accept responsibility for what he did’ but remarked that ‘in hindsight, even attempting to facilitate accountability was a mistake and once again reflected just how naïve I was at the time’.

“Once the full scope of his actions was clear, disengagement should have been the only appropriate response. My intent does not change that, and I regret not drawing that boundary immediately.”

Attia wound down his lengthy statement by reporting that he didn’t want his fans and followers to ‘ignore the emails or pretend they aren’t ugly’.

The following email is what I sent my team last night. I sent a similar version to my patients, also.

***

You’ve put your trust, your credibility, and your hard work into what we have built together, and I take that responsibility seriously. You deserve a complete and honest…

— Peter Attia (@PeterAttiaMD) February 2, 2026

“The man I am today, roughly ten years later, would not write them and would not associate with Epstein at all. Whatever growth I’ve had over the past decade does not erase the emails I wrote then," he wrote.

“I recognise that my actions and words have consequences for the people I care deeply about, including all of you. I regret the cost this has placed on you, and I take responsibility for it.”

He added that if anyone members of his team ‘questions or concerns’ then he would address them.