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?

@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.

thats why there is now the description of "ultra processed" for what used to be called "processed"

@Cazzovuoi

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

That's incorrect. It cannot be reversed, it can go into remission. I'm in remission but if I went back to eating sweet food, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, [all carbs turn to sugar in the blood] then my blood sugars would soon be back into the diabetic range.

Is she a actual qualified dietician? Or just the HCP lumbered with the annual checks ticking of a check sheet when looking at areas outside their expertise?

The practice phlebotomist got lumbered with my last annual 'review of a long term condition'. Neither of us had a clue which condition she was reviewing for.

One of the questions she read off the screen was, 'Do you have a good diet?' I said yes, and she ticked the box. That was it.

At least she didn't mention cheese.

My mum (a chronic Weight Watcher since the 80s) brought me up on skimmed milk and "lighter than light" margarine, which looked like melted plastic

As soon as I moved out I switched to butter and whole milk, and my life is much happier for it In all seriousness though, a little bit of the good stuff fills me up easily, keeps me mentally satisfied and tastes better.

When I was a kid I used to refuse margarine because I thought it tasted like plastic. As an adult I discovered that their chemical formulae only differ by something like an atom. Lurpak all the way for me. Or the Aldi version Nordpak.

Cholesterol is another disasterous policy and statins are also on extremely shaky evidence

The government policy on all things lifestyle are pretty disastrous. Lose weight by exercise? Also a disaster.

www.theguardian.com/food/2021/sep/26/food-myths-busted-dairy-salt-steak-swedish-study-science-health-advice

@Greyrootszerohoots I didn’t get that advice with my cancer diagnosis, I was just told to eat a normal diet. Actually it’s hard during chemo as your appetite and tastes are all over the place. I did see a dietician advising a woman to add butter and cream to soups etc as she was losing a worrying amount of weight which can be dangerous for treatment.
Evidence is really mixed on the best diet for cancer avoidance - there are studies that show dairy is a concern for breast cancer, there are others that show it can prevent it. It’s very hard to know the best thing to do when so much evidence is conflicting and a bit flimsy (participants are self reporting their diet which may not be accurate). Being a healthy weight does seem unequivocally important. But my mum was slim and healthy and died of a brain tumour at 62- a lot of it is down to luck.
For me I find sticking to a low GI/ healthy carbs and lots of protein diet is the most effective way to lose weight. 16/8 fasting too.

@JemimaTab

Their diabetes diet advice is also seriously out of date.

So out of date that for most diabetics and pre diabetics it makes it worse or actually causes diabetes.

@Etotheipiplus1equals0 I think a lot of the advice given by our local hospitals is related to chemo and doesn’t account for newer drugs with different side affect profiles. It’s good to hear a dietician was giving advice though - we don’t seem to have to at luxury in our area, just a stack of outdated leaflets!

@theDudesmummy

I saw that article last week and it’s the best I’ve seen for some time in mainstream media

@TrickorTreacle

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

But did she eat margarine??

I find butter too salty (even the low salt ones) so buy margarine

You should be able to get hold of unsalted block (and in some cases tub - usually labelled ‘spreadable’) butter in most supermarkets.

What I don’t know is whether ‘spreadable’ is indicative of undesirable added ingredients or not!

[quote Moneysavvymam]@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?[/quote]
No one has disputed we need it. We do and the NHS will tell you we do. However it's in excessive amounts that we don't need it.

@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!

Yes because right at that moment the major need is for energy, and cancer patients on chemo often feel very nauseous and don’t want to eat. They often lose enormous amounts of weight and get very weak. The main acute need is to get very high energy food into them, within reasonable boundaries. So no, you wouldn’t want them eating high energy food that is low in nutrition and highly processed, like sausage rolls every day or something. (Although now and again is fine). Something like avocado, while being both nutritious and high in fat would probably not be that appealing to someone feeling nauseous and poorly.

It’s a bit daft to suggest that the foods you list are going to make their cancer worse, really. Food has the ability to potentially cause mutations in cells over many many years, it doesn’t happen overnight from eating a few sponge puddings and custard.

@amusedbush

My mum (a chronic Weight Watcher since the 80s) brought me up on skimmed milk and "lighter than light" margarine, which looked like melted plastic

As soon as I moved out I switched to butter and whole milk, and my life is much happier for it In all seriousness though, a little bit of the good stuff fills me up easily, keeps me mentally satisfied and tastes better.

I’m a chronic slimming worlder who is trying to break the habit and eat low carb instead. I agree, a bit of fat can really keep you going for longer. I used to make a SW friendly brunch on Sunday mornings using frylight and low fat versions of everything. I’d be hungry a couple of hours later and craving sweets for some reason. I switched to using the proper versions of things and I was amazed how full I felt afterwards, even without a big chunk of bread on the side. I can now eat brunch and pretty much get through until dinner time.

I’m also glad to never see another muller light again.

@Spanielsarepainless

My husband had a heart operation and his first meal in the CCU was ham and cheese crumble. Difficult to think of something higher in salt and fat.

Similarly, a family member after a heart attack was served pasty and chips.

@CandidaAlbicans2

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

The NHS mainly employ Dietitians (which is a protected title unlike "nutritionist") who have been trained on NHS bursary courses at uni. As a PP said, anyone can call themselves a nutritionist which is worrying. The NHS do recognise, and sometimes employ, those who have an Association for Nutrition registration (requiring at least a BSc on a science/evidence based approved course), and I can tell you they are taught to critically appraise any dietary recommendations, even the NHS's. Governments are often slow to change with the science unfortunately, and Dietitians have to follow government advice.

What is the point of being professionally trained and having a protected title if you can’t exercise that professional opinion and instead are compelled to parrot government advice? May as well be any random on minimum wage. What job satisfaction could you possibly enjoy otherwise?

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).

Unless you heard it from the horses mouth, I would be dubious that a GP has recommended weightwatchers ready meals.

For anyone interested, I have type 2 pre-diabetes and I ditched pasta, until I found Einkorn flour.
It's made from an ancient, non hybridized wheat and is reputed not to spike blood sugar like modern wheat. I make my own pasta with it.

Yes, it's sugar not fat that's most risky to our health.

But it was thought to be fat for years (because of male egos, basically).

This article on it is fascinating IMO. Long, but well worth a read.

"In 1972, a British scientist sounded the alarm that sugar – and not fat – was the greatest danger to our health. But his findings were ridiculed and his reputation ruined. How did the world’s top nutrition scientists get it so wrong for so long?"

www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/07/the-sugar-conspiracy-robert-lustig-john-yudkin

It was from dietician, not a GP, but yes, I have heard it first hand.

Lurpak all the way for me. Or the Aldi version Nordpak.

Or Tesco’s Butterpak! Supermarkets do love wagon-hitching

They also recommended the muller light type of yogurt.

I read somewhere once that even mould won't grown on margarine.

I don't know how true that is but it won't ever enter my fridge. Lurpak or nothing in this house! Although I do quite like Asda's own real butter, I just can't spread the fucker.