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?

The NHS advice for diet is an absolute disaster, unless you literally do the opposite of what they recommend.

I agree OP, the NHS must have a dire lack of nutritionists.

Have you seen the diet advice you get with a cancer diagnosis? The emphasis on not loosing any weight so recommendations of pastries and puds with lots of custard, full fat everything… It’s basically what the WHO would class as a cancer-causing diet.

And don’t get me started on the hospitals that treat a cup of tea like a meal!

Because people cannot control their weight.
And more clarifies in butter than margarine?
I completely agree with you - but sadly the focus is on calorie control not nutrition per se.

@TrickorTreacle

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

That's a sample of 1 then.

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.

Same! I was dubious but thought the NHS would surely know best. Ended up with blood sugar levels way too high 😩

I love butter. We had it last night on some proper jersey new potatoes which I had to wash the mud off, rather than the pre packaged ones, so they tasted a bit ‘earthy’. It was the best part of the meal, which was chicken grills and salad. I do quite like the low fat cheese spread which I use instead of butter in my roll I take to lunch for work. Low fat spread on toast is a no, no though. It makes the toast soggy.

YANBU

My FIL was diagnosed T2 diabetes and was not very overweight, he followed the eat well plate and diabetes worsened, now he has dementia. If only he’d known about Dr M Mosley alternative diet advice. Diabetes is I believe the leading cause of dementia. Now he’s dying before his time.

The NHS dietary advice needs an overhaul. Yes it’s encouraging people to eat ultra processed food over healthy natural foods. Goes against all the science we now know.

Margarine is edible plastic.

Their diabetes advice is criminal. Type 2 diabetes can be easily and quickly reversed with a very low carb diet.

Not all calories are equal - different foods do different things to your body. Sugar and refined carbs are the worst

Low fat is not healthy and does not protect your body from heart disease. It’s a myth peddled by the processed food industry

NHS needs to get with the programme and update the advice. Sadly they won’t because we won’t be able to feed the nation and it’s worse for the planet. Vegan diets tend to be heavily processed so it’s only going to get worse

@Cazzovuoi yes it’s criminal, truly believe it’s made people more ill and develop linked diseases like dementia. It’s made the pharma companies richer though!

@lljkk

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.

Read anything about partially hydrogenated fats, and you’ll never want to be anywhere near margerine again

Grim stuff

There is hope though. NHS funds the healthier you programme for pre-diabetes and some of the providers (digital apps) like Second Nature offer a low carb diet

Nobody in the NHS is telling people to stay away from olive oil. All fats in moderation, obviously.

www.audible.co.uk/pd/Why-We-Eat-Too-Much-Audiobook/0241450284?source_code=M2M30DFT1BkSH10161400FZ&ipRedirectOverride=true&gclid=CjwKCAjwzOqKBhAWEiwArQGwaAkBL3x6NvgczvRRPBGajWzM26FadxPbYEt8wfdsgjn53FRKyb3arxoC6HcQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

This guy’s book is fascinating and really wel researched.

YANBU.

I thought this article was interesting www.theguardian.com/food/2021/sep/26/food-myths-busted-dairy-salt-steak-swedish-study-science-health-advice

And yes, that Eatwell plate is years out of date. Anyone else ever notice the “My Day On A Plate” column in the Waitrose weekend paper? The nutritionist who “rates” a celeb’s food is obsessed with starchy carbs at every meal. You’d think someone like that would keep up with changes in thinking.

Last year, my DW andd I were doing a lot more walking (something which had never seen us lose weight) and substituting butter for olive spreads. We each lost around 7Kg in weight. Somoene earlier said that butter is "processed", well all cooked food is processed. The difference is that butter is all natural ingredients, no additives, except for a pinch of salt.

We switched to butter years ago. Not the spreadable, but the block of butter in a butter dish. We keep it in a cool cupboard rather than the fridge and regardless of any advice, it’s what we’re sticking to. No chemicals, minimal if any processing. It is delicious and in moderation absolutely fine imo.

Surely it should be anything, but in moderation?

one persons moderation is 3x a day and others have moderation as once a month

and there in lies the problem

I use olive spread but normal margarine is yuck. Butter is much better!

Same goes for all the soft drinks with nasty artificial sweeteners. Sugar may be bad for you, but it's not as bad for you as artificial sweeteners are.

@Greyrootszerohoots

I agree OP, the NHS must have a dire lack of nutritionists.

Have you seen the diet advice you get with a cancer diagnosis? The emphasis on not loosing any weight so recommendations of pastries and puds with lots of custard, full fat everything… It’s basically what the WHO would class as a cancer-causing diet.

And don’t get me started on the hospitals that treat a cup of tea like a meal!

No they have a shortage of properly qualified and registered dieticians but there are far to many "nutritionists".

Any idiot including journalists and medics with no dietetics or food training can set themselves up as nutritionists and promote fad and fashion diets. That is the problem.

Most of the large scale longitudinal research shows that the guidance for a diet rich in complex carbs, mixed fruit and vegetables and moderate fats (predominantly unsaturated), moderation on the meat front produce the best outcomes overall.

That doesn't preclude different recommendations for specific health conditions such as cancer or in old age.

So glad to see this thread. Sometimes I think I'm going nuts when I talk to NHS doctors and nurses and listen to their dietary advice. Oh, and of course there's also the classic bullshit around how 'bad for me' oestrogen patches are post-hysterectomy

Women need to look after their bone health. By ourselves if necessary.

Some of their so called dieticians in the weight loss clinics are atrocious.

I would be astonished of anyone has ever managed to lose weight following their advice. Margarine crops up there as well.

Nobody pays any attention to the nHS guidelines anyway

Not a soul

Also, people won’t die of a bit of low-fat spread, many regularly eat junk/ takeaways with 100x the fat

Nobody heeds their advice anyway (just look around you)

@LaurieFairyCake

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)

Exactly. It's not a processed food. We made it at primary school in the 1970s - shaking our tiny bottles of full cream school milk until they turned solid. (Very clever teacher's idea of how to deploy our excess energy!)