To expect fat nurses to have some insight?.

[Vikingess]

Just had a routine health check today at my GP surgery. Two nurses - both considerably overweight - dispensing advice on diet. I
am not overweight -AIBU to expect health professionals to demonstrate the the standards they recommended or at least admit to falling short.

You clear are overweight or they wouldn’t have been giving you the advice.

There's numerous individual and societal reasons why people don't follow advice that improves or protects their health. They all combine to result in individual decisions on lifestyle. But the numerous minimisation posts on this thread about how it doesn't matter that health professionals are, on the face of it, not following their own advice clearly demonstrates one of them. A collective defence and rationalisation of a situation that is not a satisfactory situation at all. The OP raises a valid point about credibility of health messages and the general response are to find reasons why the health professional can not follow their own advice. Which is, of course, exactly what those receiving the advise and not acting on it then do.

Indeed. You need to separate the two out. One of my obstetricians was telling to be sterilised when I had my third child whilst telling she had 6 kids. I could listen to her reasoning and advice whilst respecting it's not advice she would have chosen to listen to herself.

I took on board her more qualified opinion and went against it on my own comfort balance of risk.

These people really aren't saints. It's like in my profession. I'm a programmer. I never back up my phone. I loose data. I'm not a Saint.

Friend of my parents, when asked by his doctor how much alcohol he drank, always said "about as much as you, Doc"

There is a difference between giving medical advise on different options available to enable informed decisions by a patient and giving health promotion advice on lifestyle choices. These are very different roles for health professionals.

I would feel so uncomfortable if someone I didn't know was apologising for their life choices. I'd spend my time trying to reassure them it didn't matter and end up feeling bad when all I wanted to do was get my appointment done and go. I can't imagine many people would feel comfortable with that. It's not really professional either.

As someone with a chronic illness and friends who are also ill I'm well aware that there are many reasons people are overweight including medical causes, medication, mental illness. I think we'd all be the better for giving others a little grace instead of judging them for the wrongs they've supposedly committed.

Given all of the comments on here I have to ask what exactly is the point of all of this public health advice?
If nurses who see the adverse effects of smoking/drinking/overeating don’t bother following the advice why on earth would anyone else?
Might as well just save the money and let people get ill.

Yes so many hcps are overweight and that's up to them but I wouldn't tolerate being given healthy diet advice from an overweight Dr or nurse either. It's just hilarious that they'd think it was inappropriate.

Why do people think only overweight people need healthy eating advice?

Knowledge does not equal ability to put that knowledge into practice. I KNOW that I'm an unhealthy weight. I KNOW that I could.lose weight if I reduce my food and drink intake and exercise more. I sometimes have the energy and inclination to eat well and exercise but more often I don't. I also have several health conditions and between the conditions themselves and the treatment for them, my energy levels are all over the place.
So, giving advice is easy but cognitive dissonance is powerful.

Part of my job involves advice giving. When I do it I always say, "I know it isn't always easy to do this, I don't always manage it myself, but it is best practice and if you can manage it, you will get positive results." I don't think there is anything wrong with professionals relating to their patients/clients in this way. It's better than leaving them feeling patronised and belittled.

I once went to see my Health Visitor as a new mum because I felt like my exclusively breast fed baby wasn't pooing everyday. Another health visitor was milling around the room and glanced over at us and said "well you know mum's diet is really important, a glass of orange juice every now and then wouldn't go amiss". At no point did she actually ask me about my diet, she just made an assumption and a snidey comment. So I think that how health advice is delivered is more important that the actual words said. It sounds like there was no real connection between you and the nurses. Probably because at some level they feel hypocritical.

We have moved on a bit. We have photos of a Dr smoking in the maternity ward in Limerick in the 1970s whilst doing a consultation. Common enough at the time apparently.

Fat people are thick and stupid or they wouldn't be fat @HappyReunion at least that is what people on here seem to think!

Well this is a vile thread.

You know nothing about why someone is overweight. What battles they are fighting. They're a paid professional.
Be fucking kinder.

YABU. Weight isn’t just diet and exercise. It’s all kinds of factors. Genetics, social economic context, emotional stability. Some people are in abusive relationships and comfort eat. They probably know it’s wrong but it’s a coping mechanism. They still need to work and provide for their families. Stop being so judgmental.

Depends on what they're saying.

If they're chastising you or telling you to lose weight when you're not overweight, that's not okay.

If they're simply giving you general advice about healthier choices then you're being incredibly judgemental and unkind. How do you know they don't follow that advice? Perhaps they eat lots of healthy foods, but in too large amounts. Perhaps they eat lots of healthy foods but don't move enough (for a variety of reasons). Perhaps they used to be a lot bigger but are losing weight now by following their own advice. Perhaps they're struggling a lot with their mental health or dealing with a huge amount of other stuff and healthy eating has taken a back seat for a bit.

The fact of the matter is that health professionals are qualified to make recommendations. But they don't have to follow it themselves, nor do recommendations cure/prevent every ill or account for people's complex lives that can make it extremely hard for some people to lose weight and maintain that weight loss.

Equally, does every dermatologist wear SPF 50 every day? Would you judge them if they had spots? And if you spotted a dietician in the supermarket with a trolley full of crisps and cakes would up think they were being inappropriate? What if you went to see an orthopaedic surgeon and they had a limp? None of these things are absolutely optimal in some respects, but no person is 100pc of the time.

The nurses are human beings and are, as such, flawed. If the advice is evidence-based and if it's delivered in an appropriate way for you then just let them do their job. They're paid to think about your health; you're not paid to think about theirs.

Same for anyone really. I’m assuming it’s more time efficient to give the basic NHS advice to everyone. It would be better if the nurses and other HCPs had time to sit down and offer a personalised service but this is the best way, for now.

@Hollysberries, yes, I agree.
The great shame is that obesity is stigmatised so much. It means that the medical advice is hard to separate from social judgement. One can certainly be useful, the latter almost never is.

And tbh, most health services don't exactly support their staff in making healthy lifestyle choices, do they. Shift patterns, crap canteens, not enough break time to exercise and eat properly, stress resulting in comfort eating or quick alcohol wind downs, bullying, patient abuse, management abuse, the list goes on so maybe it's no surprise some result in poor diet or over eating. Maybe we should consider how they are supported first.

Incidentally, Novo Nordisk used to have campaigns to encourage healthy living. Posters of lots of shiny, slim people with big teethy smiles on family bike rides. Of course, it was ineffective as they were harder to relate to and having bigger people in the posters was marginally less rubbish.

Given that some of the "advice" has been proved incorrect or misleading, I'd tend to agree.

These days, everyone has smart phones or laptops so could easily find better advice if they bothered look. We don't need people telling us generic advice word for word from a leaflet that is probably completely out of date and not in accordance with more up to date research as it was probably first written decades ago!

It was actually quite refreshing to have a brief consultation with our GP "practice diabetes specialist GP" a few years ago, whose "advice" was to join a couple of Facebook groups and he then scribbled down the names of the groups on a scrap of paper which he gave me. I joined them and became much better informed than from the "information/advice" I'd been given previously from a succession of dieticians, GPs and specialist diabetic nurses. I'll be forever grateful to him for actually thinking outside the box rather than glibly repeating memorised platitudes from NHS leaflets!!

I have spent a LOT of time at hospital recently because my DH has cancer and yes, quite a few nurses are somewhat overweight - BUT they work so bloody hard, they are rushed off their feet, doing crazy hours, so I can completely see why they would struggle to find the time for things like exercise or cooking healthy food from scratch etc If I was in their position I would grab whatever was easiest because the time to do otherwise is not always there. They put their own wellbeing to one side because their time is filled up with caring for others. Given the reality of that then no, I wouldn't judge them at all, they are doing their best with limited time for their own health.

Because many, many people don't know.

So health professionals need to let people know and then the person is informed and can make their own decisions.

And before anyone says 'everyone knows x, y or z' no they don't.

I spoke to an acquaintance this week who has a young DD recently diagnosed with CRPS who had been advised via a support group that a 'Mediterranean diet' was anti-inflammatory so bought lots of fish, vegetables etc but ends the meal with a magnum or a sugary dessert and still gives her cheese strings, milkshakes, sweets etc as her DD has always had a high-sugar high- processed food diet and she doesn't want her DD to be deprived of her usual 'treats'.

And she even said 'treats won't undo all the good she gets from a meal of fish and vegetables'.

Hopefully once she gets to see a dietician she'll get the information she needs.

Obviously weren't able to follow it themselves??????

How judgemental - you know absolutely nothing about them!!!!! A friend of mine for example (a nurse) has just completed chemotherapy - because of steroids she put on A LOT of weight. So perhaps keep your judgement to yourself as you have no idea what goes on in strangers lives

I had an appointment yesterday with a very overweight Dr and I could cry writing this because he was the kindest soul i've ever encountered in a GP surgery. I'm worried about a health issue being something sinister and he went above and beyond to not only reassure me, but to comfort me. I left the appointment feeling like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

A stark comparison to the skinny Dr who all but snapped at me a few weeks before for leaving seeing someone so long. He left me with such anxiety and fear that i've hardly slept since.

I know which GP i'd rather see again.

I love you!!!