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

Probably the cheeky joint (with tobacco) have a couple times a week with those wines. Any time you mention smoking on anything like this it’s like everything else you do goes out the window and it’s an instant fail 🤣

My results were good although I’d personally judge my eating as average and I was honest in the quiz. It just told me that I need to sleep more, but it didn’t tell me how I can achieve this with a small toddler that wakes often at night and tends to start the day at 5am.

🙄

I have a not dissimilar lifestyle to you OP and took the quiz out of interest, got 8/10 and advice to look at increasing activity and reduced saturated fat (it didn't solely mention low fat yoghurt), seems fine to me. It's obviously meant as a quick and easy tool for the average person (and you must know you're above average already health wise) to get some ideas for improvements they can make not some kind of complete guidance or universal scoresheet with the aim of every single person scoring 10/10. As someone else says it doesn't even ask how much cheese, yoghurt etc you eat and some of the categories are very broad e.g. the exercise bands. It's clearly not meant to be 100% precise or encompass the whole of the government's public health advice, for that you can read the actual guidelines which are based on solid science. From the sounds of things you already do most of what's in there and you're very clued up on health so you're fine already and probably not the target audience for this quiz?

And the guidance on MH suggests there is ample support. Call your GP? Chances of getting through on any given day are about 2%....chance of gp being able to put you in touch with someone who might be able to help...sometime this year....probably lower! (I put I was occasionally stressed or anxious - not overly so, I dont feel its a problem, but if it was, id have limited confidence of getting any support in a timely manner, other than being prescribed anti depressents)

Well yes it is from up to date sources but the NHS is about 30 years behind on nutrition. 🤣

I only got 5/10! I didn’t think I was particularly above average. I know I’m not unhealthy or unfit but don’t think I’m super fit or super healthy. I’ve been trying a lot harder with eating more healthily recently as I was always a bit lazy with cooking but have been getting a lot more into it recently, mainly cos I’m trying to cut out UFPs. But my point wasn’t so much about my score, it was more about thinking the NHS needs to set more realistic targets for people. If someone’s been trying really hard to make healthy choices and they do that quiz and get told they’re doing nowhere near enough, they might just end up demotivated and thinking fuck it I’ll never get there, I may as well give up. But a PP said these tools are made by private companies not the NHS so 🤷‍♀️

It didn't ask me how many secret wagon wheels I ate today, so I hardly got accurate feedback

Not really

Funding for the NHS is very strange. They get financial incentives for certain things. All our money of course.

Does it not distinguish between good and bad fat?

It all sounds weirdly unspecific from something that's clearly designed to give 'specific' advice (if its not going to be specific, why spunk £000s on developing an app when they could print a few leaflets? )

Again because it's a massive gravy train.

I've just completed that out of interest. I have similar lifestyle than you. I guess, I don't eat yoghurt so for dairy section I put plant milks and cheese. I also drink tea and coffee, two units of spirits in one sitting. Sedentary job with moderate physical activity. My results were 9/10 and no mentioning of harming my health. It did suggest I ate more fruits and veg which is valid. I only manage 2-3 portions a day.

I just did it and got 10/10

When I scrolled down it says about swapping yoghurt and milk to low fat which I disagree with. I try to avoid artificial sweeteners if possible.

It's just basic generic advice which I think is probably helpful to some.

Probably pointless for most!

I got 7/10 which compared to the OP who got 5/10 is ridiculous. I would not say I have the same or better level of lifestyle health/choices

It goes mad at me because I'm obese according to it and also a eat full fat, no upf diet.

Look after your muscles, mobilise your joints, keep your VO2max as high as possible, don't eat shit and it's all good.

I also got 7 out of 10 and I'm a total couch potato. And eat full fat yoghurt (it's a job in itself to find the stuff these days). To be honest, @Theboredpanda I can't see how you got 5 out of 10! But I scored well on alcohol (virtually none) tobacco (never used) and sleep (good). Did any of those drag your score down?

OP- I really do not think this sort of quiz is designed for people like you, who are just tweaking around the edges of an already healthy lifestyle. You know that you have a pretty healthy lifestyle (cheeky joints notwithstanding). When my work takes me to very deprived towns or certain parts of london, the abysmal state of people’s physical and mental health, even relatively young people is something that has to be seen to be believed and it’s easily forgotten by those of us who live in more affluent or even ‘normal’ areas. Some pockets of the UK have people living in terribly poor health, much of which is related to their lifestyle, although other social and environmental factors are obviously at play. Although the likelihood of many of those people completing this quiz is also pretty small.

I imagine it works reasonably well on a population level. The advice about cutting down fat foods are simply about reducing calorie intake because many people are obese. Obviously, if you have a healthy BMI and have done your own reading about ultra processed foods and different kinds of facts, that doesn’t really matter. Similarly, the advice around movement is relevant of your sedentary, but it is not going to pick up on all of the subtlety of peoples exercise choices. If you smoke, in any way it is obviously going to tell you it is a good idea to stop and this will be harming in your health.

Anyway, I would just carry on doing what you are doing, as in my own qualified opinion you sound like you are living a pretty healthy but enjoyable lifestyle.

It's not unachievable. It offers to 'tell you how to improve' in certain areas. I just did it, got 7/10 and a suggestion that I swao to low fat foods and cut down my drinking, although I only drink 5 units a week over several days. Perhaps tge alcohol questions are misleading or I misread them, but anyway cutting down could be a good idea.
It may not be useful for people who already pay attention to their lifestyle and inform themselves, but could be for people who don't.

Your excercise clearly exceeds recommendations, so it'll be your diet that 'lost you points'.
If you're only eating 3/4 veg portions a day you must be relying a lot on other food groups which may mean you're consuming things like meat and dairy at higher than optimum levels and missing out on the nutrients fruit and veg can offer. A lot of people who follow keto/low carb/meat/ fat heavy diets fall into this trap as the obsession with protein and 'good fat' and fear of carbs leads them to an imbalance.

I got 10/10 drinking alcohol 1-2 times a month and eating full fat yoghurt. I eat loads of veg, rarely eat processed food and do a couple of hours of exercise (walking, running, weights) most days though.

I just did me and I am 'doing a great job'! Even though I drink wine every day and have a sedentary job... I think the results are dodgy!

Guess it's the low fat yogurt keeping me alive...

I did it and I think it was fine.

Such quizzes are aimed at the "average" person. I work on a farm, and the quiz results inform me that I need to do more of a variety of exercise to improve my heart health, and to lose weight. After 14 hour days, I don't have much time or energy left for exercising, and I'm more muscle than fat. I do try to eat healthily, but because I have a manual job, I can eat portions for two in one go... and I still struggle to keep weight on.

Also, low-fat alternatives are said to be full of sugar, so it could result in health complications either way!

You seem fine - I am going to do the quiz now.

I got 10/10 - I don’t drink, that could be why