To think the NHS healthy lifestyle advice is unrealistic for most people?

[Theboredpanda]

Just did an NHS ‘healthy choices’ quiz and the results were so negative! Advice like “you’re at risk of harming your health”, “you need to start moving more”, and telling me I should swap full-fat products (like yoghurt) for low-fat alternatives as it could result in weight gain and health complications. I’m early 40s bmi 23, I weight train 3 x a week, play football for 3 hours a week and do plenty of walking. I drink maybe 2 glasses of wine twice a week. I eat mainly whole foods, cooked from scratch, probably 3 or 4 portions of fruit & veg a day, only drink water. I thought I was doing pretty well! AIBU to think the expectations from the NHS about healthy lifestyle are just unrealistic for normal people? Do you think they need to be lowered to fit with what people can realistically achieve? Or do I need to quit alcohol completely, start running 15k every morning, and exist only on chicken and broccoli to get to a decent level of health & fitness?? Also, I thought low-fat foods were packed with sugar & UFPs hence why I eat full-fat. I’m not overweight so I don’t see how this is worse than eating low-fat products

I think you are fine.

You're asking a lot of different questions in one

NHS algorithms can only ever be blanket, so it will assume that someone eating high fat (which I do) must therefore swwap over for all sorts of reasons

Low fat foods are not necessarily UPFs so I dont know why you would think that, I had a bean stew this evening with tofu (dont mention the tofu), this is very low fat, apart from the olive oil I use in cooking, but a lot of foods are low in fat.

The NHS has already lowered its advice, we should be advised to eat 10 a day, 10 veg and fruit a day, with the emphasis on veg, not fruit, but it was deemed that the UK couldnt handle, so thats where our 5 a day came from.

The humblebrag is so stealthy we can't detect it

Did it specifically say to eat low-fat yoghurt?

don't worry about it anyway!

YABU unless you post a link to this quiz so we can see.

YANBU. I tried that quiz and as someone who lives a fairly healthy lifestyle compared to most people I know, I thought I'd do ok. I run (at least 5k)/go to the gym (for at least 40 minutes)/do kettle bells three or four times a week, eat more than 5 a day (more veg than fruit) wholemeal bread and rice (although I do have white pasta), and have half a bottle of wine at the weekend.
It said I don't exercise enough, don't eat enough fibre and drink too much. 🤷‍♀️ I think it's set up to be unachievable for most people so they won't even try.

https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/healthy-choices-quiz/

Well it's a vague guidance, its not holding you at gun point. It just offers up areas of improvement for people doing a quiz about ways they can improve their health. If you are satisfied you have a healthy lifestyle why on earth would you do the quiz?

Its obviously a complete load of shit

I only do walking and it says Im doing a great job of staying active but I am sedentary outside of that and take no other exercise

It thinks Im going to give up or reduce cheese. CHEESE!!! As if

Wants me to go on lower fat or non dairy items, no thank you.

I thought the advice now was to eat healthy full fat foods in small quantities rather than ‘low fat’ with lots of additives and sugar which is now considered bad for us (eg Michael Moseley and Claire Bailey recommend intheir books and programmes). OP you sound super healthy to me.

Why would the NHS create a quiz that’s so unachievable for people that it puts them off trying though? It’s in their interest for people to be healthy

Yeah I thought that was the advice too

It seems poorly designed.
eg It says which of these foods do you eat most of (select 3 / 5 etc), so I tick the ones I eat most of from the list... Cheese…. And it tells me to cut down cheese. But I actually rarely eat cheese… it was just more than the alternatives listed!
i thought a lot more effort would have gone into designing a public health tool.

I don't think they set it up on purpose to be unachievable but however they've created it has resulted in it being so.

Also it told me my excercise was good and I do less than you, didn't mention anything about eating low fat and just mentioned alcohol for me and fibre (which I'm happy I eat plenty of) so maybe it's a bit random.

I think the guidance is reasonable. It's asking you to eat wholemeal carbs, 5 fruit and veg a day and do a couple hours cardio a week. None of it is extreme or out there health advice. I don't think any of that is unrealistic. It is for people looking for ways to improve their health, and looking for simple resources to help.

Posters are acting like an orange box saying try to improve is like a scarlet letter on their forehead 🤣

Tax payers money has gone into this, some private company got money for putting this there so that the NHS can be seen to meet some target or other

Scam, just like the PPI scam. Private enterprise using up money from our national assets and not delivering anything.

Pointless. Unhelpful. Not effective.

It was fine for me. 10/10 it said. I eat 5 portions of fruit and veg. No alcohol or smoking. Active lifestyle (8k steps per day, 3 x 3k runs a week, 3 x 1hr 20 weight lifting sessions). Not dissimilar from you. Perhaps try it again?

It's not unachievable though is it? "Eat a bit more fiber" is hardly difficult. You obviously do exercise so can ignore the bit about moving more

It's not a summons or an order. It's a simple tool with basic advice on it, and areas you could improve on if you wanted. Presumably you got a good overall health score?

Its difficult to fit the fibre and exercise in on top of the chocolate and gin. And full fat cheese.

I got the same result for movement and all I do is get pulled round by the dog. Very surprising.

You sound obsessive. Ignore it. Use your common sense. Like we did before apps.

I think official NHS advice might be a bit behind on the fats in foods thing.

I got 9/10 but got marked down on eating before I eat full fat yogurt and cheese. It said I should eat plant based alternatives. No thank you! Full fat yogurt and cheese helps to balance out blood sugar and provides me with protein and calcium. My BMI is 19 😂

Most of these type of quizzes or apps are a very blunt tool.
But they seem a bit stuck in the 80s/90s when the overwhelming message was low fat everything, fat was the enemy.

There was a food scanner one that came out several years ago. If you scanned anything sweet eg chocolate , it would direct you to a "low fat," processed cereal bar, as the healthy alternative - imo not really much healthier than a few squares of chocolate.
My worst vice about eating or drinking, is diet coke. But the food scanner congratulated me on a good choice. Because it had no sugar or fat. Im under no illusion its in any way healthy, it would probably be better to have a cup of tea or coffee!

I've gone right off the grog in recent years, which can only be a good thing. Any amount of alcohol is harmful to health, processed food, sedentary jobs...I guess the NHS needs people to get real before it collapses under their weight.

Some of it is a bit weird. But tbf to it, it really shouldn't be that hard to eat 5 or more portions of fruit and veg, and it seems unlikely a diet is very healthy overall without that.