To be annoyed by NHS healthy choices quiz

[Notmycircusnotmyotter]

This seems to be on radio / tv adverts on repeat, featuring a seriously irritating hamster.

what's really annoyed me is the crap advice that you should choosing low fat versions of food (specifically yoghurt) rather than whole foods and full fat versions. AIBU to think this is outdated bad advice?

I would be saying as a professional that eating whole foods first and having at least 50% of your plate as vegetables is probably where to start. Lots of people I talk to will eat the carbs and protein and if full leave the veg. Where we should be ensuring we eat the veg first- as it generally has more nutritional value than anything else, and then protein and then veg ...
Low fat again is for me a it depends- if you have certain medical conditions low fat is key. However most low fat food is full of crap- but 0% greek yogurt is actually a great food- has no added rubbish and is higher in protein than the full fat version....

It's poor advice. A handful of almonds is still only about 2g fibre. If I had that at 8am I'd be hungry again at 10am.

If you have 150g Skyr (not a "massive bowl" and more natural protein than Greek yoghurt) frozen berries and a good nutty granola you can have 22g protein, 8-9 fibre and one portion of fruit. It's the protein with fibre that fills me up, not protein on it's own, or being higher or lower in fat. Better still, learn what suits you. Most days that's not having breakfast at all for me, eating later and having a high protein and fibre brunch.

Salmon is high in fat and protein, but I could eat salmon sashimi until it comes out of my ears before I'd be full, and I'd probably have had a whole salmon's worth of calories and would still be overweight if I ate like that.

Oh man, your last paragraph really got me. I feel that one. Same with my dad’s side of the family. All farmers who ate what they grew, extremely active into old age. Then their minds went.

My poor dad had dementia. When he’d see a dr, they would marvel at how healthy he was, how amazing his colesterol, blood pressure, heart and lungs were. They would tell me how healthy he was and how lucky he was - while he was sat in a chair, staring ahead, unable to speak more than a few garbled sentences, trapped in a hell in his own head. His healthy body kept him trapped in that hell for years (his mother lived like that for over a decade, until she was 97 as her body wouldn’t give up)I used to wish he was unhealthy so a heart attack or stroke would release him from the torture. A healthy body is no good when your mind has gone.

So I understand completely what you mean.

Well, it’s enabled me to lose 15 stone and keep it off for years, as I changed everything. my blood pressure is now normal, my blood sugar is now normal, I no longer suffer from a whole host of medical issues and I am no longer on any medication.

I ate very low fat very low protein for years. It was my natural preference, but it did me no good. I think the best advice is to focus on unprocessed or only slightly processed food and a wide variety of fresh veg, all eaten in moderation.

Ironically, as a fat cow, I scored 10/10.

I rarely eat sugar, eat enough fruit and veg a day, get enough protein and aim for 30-40g of fibre a day. I exercise everyday, walk for 2-3 hours and run three times a week. I’ve lost a huge amount of weight doing this.

I totally agree with this. I have told DH if my body tries to pack in when I am in my 70s I want DNR. He thinks this is really bleak but I have seen both my parents brought back from death in their 70s only to live an extra 20 years of bewildered pain. Why? They are not enjoying their lives.

Whats your point about having previously been overweight though? I’m pleased for you that you’ve lost weight, but if it was through WLI or surgery, then having been overweight is of no relevance. If you lost the weight by transitioning to full fat options, then you’re a medical marvel.

Losing weight by reducing calorie intake works. The problem is if you’ve overeaten so much as to get to 26stone, or have had medical conditions that have caused that, then youre unlikely to be able to lose all that weight as it’s too far gone. By that stage, your metabolism and habits are too engrained. The odd person can do it but it’s rare, and definitely rare to keep it off.

Going full fat is a good idea if you’re already a healthy weight and can maintain it.

But for the majority of the population, who cannot keep a healthy weight, going full fat would be the wrong advice. They need to lose weight first - and adding calories isn’t the way to do that.

Yeah that is really bad advice but you can't trust any arm of the state to give good advice because of vested interests in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

WLI don’t melt fat. You still need healthy habits.

Well I just did the quiz and there wasn't a hamster in sight! Not even a guinea pig. Maybe they've changed it after reading the ops post 😂

Advice seems fair to me. Eat more fibre, try and get better sleep, go easy on the alcohol.

I lost weight as I cut out all processed food. I changed everything.

I didn’t have any surgery or weight loss medication.

I was morbidly obese as I used to eat my body weight in Greggs and cake everyday for years on end.

My point is, that I radically changed my diet for the better. I didn’t “go on a diet” I changed my whole way of thinking (although, I will say that being diagnosed as coelic helped 100% as I couldn’t eat most of the shit I did now even if I wanted to).

Few people do that, or want to do that.

And medical marvel? By just eating natural foods that haven’t had anything taken from them or anything added in?

I’m not sure people are replacing Greek yoghurt with fat free and that’s making them fat. I think they’re replacing nuts and fruit with donuts and crisps. There is a cost problem, a food environment problem and a time problem, a knowing how to cook problem…

😥I love hamsters and guinea pigs, not relevant but just saying 😉
I'm diabetic and vegan, it's an 'interesting' diet but cutting back on right back sugar helped me to get down from 18st to 9st and I've come off insulin and meds but obviously have to monitor my diet carefully.

Well of course. When I was morbidly obese I knew how to cook. I knew how to eat. It was just more fun sitting on my arse eating takeaways and chocolate all day. I didn’t care.

The point is, the advice is a bit shit.

What really changed my mindset was when I first decided to lose weight, I went to a couple of slimming world meetings and it just seemed a bit ridiculous. All the slimming world products, filled with absolute shite. It opened my eyes.

Same with my mum. She died of dementia in her late 80s but aside from that there was nothing wrong with her, in as much as no cancer, no diabetes, no high blood pressure, never been overweight, organs all healthy. It really plays on my mind that I will go the same way. I stay curious and engaged and do puzzles etc to try and keep my brain exercised but I fear dementia more than any other disease.

The definitely do not address parents’ sleep on their general snapshot sleep advice on healthy living.

If the nhs put more resources into campaigning against junk food/fast food and got some wider support from government against the likes of McDs, Greggs etc al the country and the nhs would maybe make some progress on the shocking obesity in this country.

I agree it’s very outdated. That said I have lost 3.5 stone with SW lately - I know SW is often slammed on here as being shit but I’ve tried everything else and I can’t get on with low carb (though I don’t actually eat too many), calorie counting just feels too restrictive.

I also don’t eat many processed or fat free foods, with the exception of yoghurt, but (and I don’t know if this is the fat or something else) eating full fat yoghurt used to trigger my IBS and give me diarrhoea. I’ve always used semi skimmed milk as I prefer the flavour. I’ve never been able to stomach whole milk.

My daily intake averages something like this;

FF Protein Yoghurt (one ingredient) with a big serving of berries. Apple and a satsuma about 11.

Lunch is usually something like homemade soup, sometimes with a wholemeal roll, or smoked salmon and scrambled eggs.

Evenings tend to be lean protein and veg - last night was chicken skewers and salad. Sometimes it will be salmon and veg (I pan fry the salmon in butter and count it). Other times it will be things like homemade chilli, a roast dinner. Snacks will be oily fish, fruit and veg.

I got 7/10 on the test but that’s because I don’t exercise or sleep well due to having M.E. The sleep is also affected by peri and I’m hoping it might improve once I start HRT.

That’s truly amazing and well done, it can’t have been easy to change years of bad habits, especially when your body has gotten used to being larger and the ill health that comes with that (musculoskeletal at the least).

I said medical marvel because the % of people who can lose weight from 26st to a healthy weight and keep it off is marginal. Like VERY rare. Whether that’s due to physical or mental heath reasons.

You made a radical change which is what anyone who’s that weight needs to do. You didn’t simply switch from low fat options to full fat. You changed every aspect of your diet. Most people won’t do that, so adding full fat options will not work.

I had gestational diabetes and had to go to an "education" session on diet by the NHS. I was so shocked at how awful it was. Highly focused on carbs like pasta, and eating cereal bars and artificially sweetened low fat yoghurts. I tentatively suggested that eating more fat and protein would help with blood sugar control and was completely dismissed with a wave of the hand and told I should be eating bowls of cereal for breakfast rather than eggs, for example. It was infuriating!

It's really badly put together. The questions are not subtle enough, and end up being wildly inaccurate in an individual level.

DD is an athlete. She eats a really good diet but high in protein and carbs, as well as fruit and veg. She spends 25 hours a week training in the gym and swimming. She scored 2/10. On tweaking the replies, that increased to 7/10 by just adding wholewheat bread to the answers, she doesn't really eat bread at all. Ridiculous.

Totally, my thinking is someone who is probably at home in the daytime watching this advert who eats a beige diet may be incentivised to make small changes. It won’t make them a pro nutritionist but it’s a start I suppose

I got 9/10 with a suggestion to eat low fat yoghurt and cheese instead of full fat. No thanks. I do actually love cottage cheese but nothing would induce me to eat low fat cheddar - yuck!

I’ve seen the hamster on TV, funnily enough they were showing the ads a lot during the breaks of that Tim Spector programme on channel 4 which gives different advice in parts to the NHS!

there’s a lot of outdated advice being issued, I also wish they would bin the coloured food labelling. Noticed at Tesco the other day that they have avocados labelled red…I mean yes it’s high in fat but hardly nutritionally equal to a chocolate bar!!