To be pissed off about the so called healthy eating advice we've been given for years ?

[Scarletohello]

I did the Atkins diet about 8 years ago when it was considered faddy and dangerous. Low fat was the healthy way to go. I got so much hostility about it, almost like I was a climate change denier. To my surprise,I lost 2 stone easily and quickly. Unfortunately I got scared by all the health warnings about how bad it was for you so eventually went back to a ' normal' diet. And put it all on again. Am currently watching the C4 doc about how sugar is bad for you. Of course it bloody is !!

Why can't the authorities wake up and realise its not fat that makes you fat? It's sugar and fast acting carbs.

It's time we had a major overhaul in our thinking about what really makes us fat...

Aussiemum - real mayo doesn't contain dairy - ever! - at it's purest it's just an emulsion of oil, vinegar, mustard, pinch of salt and egg yolk.

I think everyone got is wrong about low fat - it was a big mistake but it amazes me how stubborn the medical profession can be when it comes to admitting they are wrong.
A friend of mine had very high cholesterol - she was size 8 and had eaten a low fat/ low cholesterol diet, nothing more could be done, her GP said it was time for Statins! I told her to read up on Paleo, drop the grains and the sugar and embrace animal fat. Within 3 months - she had lost more weight - unintentionally, but her cholesterol levels were normal for the first time ever! Her GP said whatever you are doing don't stop.....until she told him and he just couldn't get his head around her diet he urged her to revert to low fat and take the statins option despite what he saw in front if him.

My dad is diabetic - he visits the dietitian as part of his care programme - she advises pasta, rice and bread along with low fat - great way to keep your blood sugar elevated - I don't get it, it's not science, it's not even common sense. Loads of people control, some even cure their diabetes using a low carb diet but it doesn't get endorsed by the NHS - the drugs companies sponsor the diabetes diet sheets which recommend a high carb diet - drugs companies seem to own the NHS.

How is cutting out sugar making money procrastinating?

The same way sticking 'low fat' or 'lower fat' on various products has. If you have cereal in the house with a low fat label on it go read it, with a few exceptions it will be full of sugar.

Wow lots of examples of why low carbing is so good for your health! Not much evidence against it really ... A few posters trot out the same 'don't cut out an entire food group' but that's not what happens at all.... Very interesting

And I'm very disappointed with the NHS.... Can't believe they promote aspartame and margarine type 'spreads'!!

I underwent a 'protein-heavy' diet as part of a medical research study. My weight didn't budge because during the trial we discovered I had 'enhanced metabolic efficiency' (basically my metabolism adjusts radically to keep my weight maintained), but what was interesting to note was that there was a very pronounced positive impact on my liver fat % as measured by MRI. This is the kind of 'hidden' fat that kills even thin people. Another tick in the box for Atkins.

aussiemum here in the Netherlands those struggling with fertility (particularly PCOS/syndrome-x) are strongly encouraged to follow a low-carb diet.

I despair of the dr Atkins death stories I really do. What on earth is so sinister about "old man slips on icy New York pavement and bangs head"? Are we saying that Michael Schumacher is only in a coma because he's a big fat fatty fat mcfatterson?

If you don't know what the ingredient is, don't eat the damned thing. It's ironic that mn is home to "omg I feed my pfb organic mung bean and apricot stew" yet they'll eat any old crap themselves.

squiffy I'm nodding sadly in your behalf, but I hope you acknowledge that once the zombie apocalypse comes you'll be laughing, fit and healthy. (And running from those brandishing cutlery and hungrily eyeing up your succulent rump!)

And finally, I am furious on my mum's behalf who as a T1 diabetic has had 40 years of NHS bollocks "fill up on weetavix and brown toast with lf marge dear", she's nearly lost a limb, has had cataracts removed twice and permanent kidney damage.

Oh Dolomites, your poor mum! So many been victims of this low fat, high carb garbage. And at NHS advice also, ditto some Nat curriculum "science facts" on food and what makes a balanced diet, read and weep!

thing is that as a nation we are very resistant to change. I would love to see the NHS advocating just water or non fizzy drinks. I think if they did tbis then they would have even less compliance...and more complaints than they get now.

In a nation addicted to sugar it just has to be about limiting the damage.

It would be better if they also advised that fizzy drinks in all forms cause horrific tooth decay. That a smart swap would be no added sugar fizzy drinks but a smarter swap is no fizzy drinks at all.

I am overweight, I am now doing very well on Slimming World in as low carb a way as I can go. My carbs come from vegetables and some fruit. I rarely eat bread or cereal..., occasionally I have porridge. I will have to follow this way of eating for life.....it isn't a diet, diets have end points.

I also have DS on the same eating plan, he is autistic and has no stop button when it comes to food.
Slimming World produce a booklet for children aged 11-15 which also does smart swaps....but crucially they also suggest smarter swaps.

So fizzy drinks have a smart swap no to no sugar fizzy drinks and a smarter swap to water, milk etc.

I don't see why the NHS cannot do the same.

DS also has an SOS day (Sweets On Saturday ...or Sunday) and is doing well.

He is also lowish carbing but does have bread once a day and I will do boiled new potatoes etc for him.

I think pasta is a useless starch personally but DS likes it so I use it occasionally. Its all about balance.

I went low carb because I was having issues with being hungry every two hours and when I got hungry I couldn't think about anything but food until I got some. Then I read Dr Briffa's webchat on MN where he talked about carbohydrates causing insulin levels to rise (which promotes fat storage) then plummet (which causes hunger). I cut my carb intake from 300g to 50-100g per day and now it's no problem to go from breakfast to lunch without needing two snacks in between. As a bonus my skin is better, I've stopped snoring, my asthma has improved, I don't have period pain any more, I have more energy... oh and I lost two stone in six months without doing any extra exercise.

It really is a revelation. After years of following the eat less, move more myth and trying to be healthy, the weight just kept creeping on. The turning point for me was when I looked at the ingredients of the 'healthy' low fat yoghurt I had been eating for breakfast for years and found it was full of sugar, syrup, flavouring, stabiliser, colouring. Compared to a full fat Greek yoghurt (that doesn't cost any more) which has the ingredient milk. All I've done is cut out the bread, pasta and rice and I eat more veggies instead and I use more butter or olive oil.

"I would love to see the NHS advocating just water or non fizzy drinks."

Erm, they do!

The NHS advocate a balanced diet, so no cutting out any food groups, as this has been proved the healthiest option for the majority of people. Of course some people have particular conditions that mean they should follow particular diets - e.g. low GI for diabetes (NOT low carb, totally different things!), or low protein for kidney patients, but for most of us the NHS advice really is the best.

It really hacks me off that people waste time blaming the NHS for their own failure to stop putting too much food in their mouths!

Apologies I've not read the whole thread, but my MIL was a type II diabetic who stayed off insulin for years by managing her diet. Guess what - protein, lots of veg (mostly greens, light on the carrots), cream on fruit salad for dessert (but not too much fruit) - no bread or potatoes. One roastie was a treat at Christmas.

Not quite sure how she'd worked this out, it started well before Atkins. Eventually she did have to go onto insulin, and at that point she did have to eat some carb, but would always read labels and check carb content.

She became a diabetic at about 50 and lived into her nineties, without much damage (her eyes were going towards the end).

YABU.

Why be angry over well-meant, well-supported, well-researched advice that reflects the knowledge of the times?

As science progresses the advice changes. It's not deliberate misinformation. Our dc will be advised differently to us, just as we are advised differently to our parents.

30y ago my dad was told to cut out eggs because they were rich in cholesterol and therefore bad for his heart. Nowadays he is told that, not only does the cholesterol in them have no ill-health effects, but that he must eat at least three eggs every day to help his vision.

50y ago my mum was told to breastfeed at strictly-timed intervals, for strictly-timed sessions.

And so on.

About this here paleo diet- has anyone checked what the life expectancy used to be like in the palaeolithic era? Any evidence at all that our bodies have evolved to eat a palaeo diet for 80-90 years? Which is what we expect of any diet we adopt.

Also, these days we expect any eating plan to do for everybody and be rolled out nationally. In palaeo days you would eat what you could get hold of, if it didn't agree with you you would die- problem sorted.

Just stick to the old 'meat and two veg rule'.

It has to be healthy fats, you can't just make a blanket statement that fat is good it's as misleading as the original atkins diet.

I am old enough to remember when diets used to consist of large quantities of boiled spuds, small portions of meat or fish, plenty of root vegetables and brassicas and modest amounts of bread. And I don't remember many overweight people on that diet. More fruit would of course have been good for us.

Change4life (part of the NHS) advocates "smart swaps"...so suggests going from full sugar fizzy drinks to no sugar fizzy drinks. They do not in the "smart swaps" leaflet mention any of the negative research about fizzy drinks on teeth for example and don't suggest a smarter swap to water. So NO the NHS do not ALWAYS suggest just water etc.

I can completely understand why they DON'T do this....as I said further back, a friend lost four stones simply by swapping her full sugar fizz for the diet version (which tells you how much of it she drinks).

She will need a whole new load of support to get off the fizz completely.

In a nation as obese as we are then smart swaps to minimize the damage is the first step to making changes in as painless a way as possible for people....and it needs to be as painless as possible or as a netion wh whinge.

I think sugar is very addictive, you could argue that by swapping to the sweetener versions we are not breaking that addiction either. It is worrying.

I started low carbing on the 1st January. Apart for the weight loss, it am amazed how different I feel in myself. I have more energy, I don't feel depressed, I am calmer and more patient.

If I eat carbs, any carbs - not just wheat, I crave more and more and more. If I have porridge for breakfast, you can guarantee I will break mid afternoon and crave more carbs.
I am looking at low carbing as a way of life, not just a quick fix to lose weight.

The other thing I object to about the change4life leaflets is the way they are given out in schools, ds came out of school with plans to raid our fridge for all the unhealthy stuff (full fat milk, butter etc), so he has already started down the NHS plan to encourage unhealthy eating and obesity, which will inevitably lead to poor health in adults and line the pockets of big pharma, who ultimately keep the NHS exactly where they want them.
He has taken a lot of persuading that the info on the leaflet, that his teacher went through with him, was actually wrong and quite dangerous.

"Then it will be no-sugar processed foods, and possibly even a no-sugar diet group"

sounds sensible to me. I remember going to a well know diet group and being astounded at the crap they encouraged people to eat - whole lists of highly processed, additive laden food. and the emphasis was supposedly healthy eating. crazy stuff.

When people obsess about low carb, they always go on about no rice, pasta and wheat- surely if you just cut out the cakes and biscuits and sugar in your tea, you would lose weight, even if you ate loads of pasta! The problem with sugar is that it's very easy to eat. It is not that easy to eat a load of calories in fat, unless it is combined with sugar ( in cakes, biscuits and chocolate). If you eat fat but cut down sugar, you will probably be more satisfied and eat less reminds self to follow own advice

plenty of root vegetables and brassicas

So farty!

A healthy diet and a diet that enables you to loose weight are not the same thing.

Government advice (eat less fat, eat 5 a day) is not the same thing as food produced by the food industry that latches on to this advice, but is essentially produced to make money. (low fat biscuits full of sugar, manufacturers desperately trying to adjust products so that they can fit the '1 of your 5 a day' criteria).

Agree Sybil. I think the problem is that the NHS advice is rather boring, (Avoid sugary drinks and drink water, and by the way the stuff in your tap is quite safe) but the food manufacturers and diet book writers scream so much louder. This isn't really the fault of the NHS, it's just the way of the world.

"lose" weight.

loose weight would be like that episode of Doctor Who.