for christ's sake NHS

[lolliwillowes]

Why are you still advising people to choose low fat margarine over butter?
The entire food plate thing is a disaster, encouraging people to stay healthy long term by substituting natural fats for Frankenstein-fats.

Surely I am not BU?

YANBU... butter is bloody delicious. I would eat it by the spoonful if I was also not envisaging it clogging my arteries at the same time. Margarine might be ok for baking etc, but I want something tasty on my crumpets.

My dad has eaten butter and full fat milk in abundance all his life no margarines will pass his lips. He is 90

Surely it should be anything, but in moderation?

@XenoBitch

Surely it should be anything, but in moderation?

I agree, and that includes the dreaded, uncool carbs! But that food table thing is a disaster. It is about 30 yrs out of date.

I ditched the low fat margarine shite in favour of actual butter ( In moderation) and lost loads of weight. Anything processed was off the list and it certainly helped with significant weight loss.

I'm with you!
And I believe salt is good for you.
Oily fish and lots of eggs
Offel
Plenty of dairy
High in natural fats.
Balance of calcium and vitamin k2.

Butter is the best.

Their diabetes diet advice is also seriously out of date.

@B1rthis I think this too after watching a documentary where elephants were lacking the ground for salt. why would they do that if they didn't need it?

our horses used to have salt licks! but that was over 30 yrs ago, maybe they all developed issues {grin}
We do know that there is too much unnecessary salt in processed food though. What I can't understand is the NHS reluctance to update it's info.

As far as I am aware, they actually agreed that natural fats and such are ok, but never actually updated their public info. I currently have neighbours who are elderly and fairly trusting. Both of them are suffering various health issues including diabetes. When they have discussed advice given by tier GP ive been gobsmacked (stay away from olive oil, cheese, butter, concentrate on low fat bread, weight watchers ready meals, etc).

@Finfintytint

I ditched the low fat margarine shite in favour of actual butter ( In moderation) and lost loads of weight. Anything processed was off the list and it certainly helped with significant weight loss.

Butter is a processed food though

When I had gestational diabetes I was given awful advice about eating low fat yoghurts (full of sugar or sweetener) and cereal bars and pasta. And it was all processed stuff that they recommended. Much better off concentrating on good quality protein and vegetables with a small quantity of wholefood cards.

The NHS moves so slowly on things like this.

Carbs!

My Nan was a 40-a-day smoker and made it to 92

Butter is less processed than margarine. Humans have eaten it for thousands of years. It tastes great too.

I remember an advertisement on TV years ago.
A child asked him Mum what is butter? She said 'it's a solid fat made from churned cream.' He asked what is margarine? her reply ' ask your Dad he's the chemist '. Put me right off margarine.

There is certainly a process that produces butter but it’s a simple process that either adds salt or doesn’t. Far better than margarine.

Butter is MILK SHAKEN

It's not 'processed'

I've actually made butter and that's ^^ all I did (you don't have to add salt - I did though because salted butter is the best)

YANBU. That Eatwell plate needs ditching.

Butter isn't considered to be an Ultra Processed Food though. If you have cream, or even natural milk, i.e. milk that hasn't been homogenized,you can make it yourself. By hand. You couldn't make a ready meal by hand, you would need access to a far larger kitchen with a lot more equipment, & a lot more ingredients, many of which are not natural foods & which would be impossible to measure accurately if you were just cooking one meal/portion.

Why is margarine a "frankenstein fat" ?

Most foods are processed, btw, wholemeal flour is processed, plain unsweetened yogurt is processed, tomato puree is processed, etc.

Since my DD died at the age of 70 having spent all his life not smoking, drinking, eat healthy and regular exercise I am of the opinion that a little of what you fancy does you good.

I agree.

My DD grew up poor but ate well, and by well I mean nice, pie, bacon, sausage, but in moderation with veggies and lots of boiled or mashed potatoes.

And a pudding after every meal washed down with gallons of sugary tea.

He made 89 and would have been 90 now if Covid hadn’t got him first.

He didn’t have any teeth though so that bit of advice is probably true!

@TrickorTreacle

My Nan was a 40-a-day smoker and made it to 92

Not sure why you commented on a food post. So was my grandma died at 70 So was my mum died at 61. Both smoking related lung diseases.

No sure what your point is. Should the nhs be recommending smoking cos your Nan was lucky?

I totally agree OP. I think they should put Dr Micheal Moseley in charge of the change. It’s ridiculous what they still promote.

It might be more helpful to talk about Highly Processed Foods rather than processed. It’s HPF that are the most damaging. There was a great BBC documentary on the effect of HPFs a few months ago called something like What We Feed Our Children.