Just read this- are we all making a massive mistake?

[Leahanddog]

Hi everyone, just joined mumsnet and I've been following the low-carb threads/ diet for about 3 weeks and was just shown this by a friend:

www.nhs.uk/Livewell/loseweight/Pages/the-truth-about-carbs.aspx

I had no idea the NHS thought low-carb was a bad idea But I can see what they mean about all the added saturated fat and everything and am now really concerned.
Friend has also criticized me saying that the diet is selfish as it is awful for environment and people owing to the high greenhouse emissions from large amounts of meat and dairy?

Just thought this should be seen, wibu to stay on low-carb on should I try and find another diet?

The Seven Nations study by Ancel Keyes which was used to demonise dietary fat was the one that was heavily manipulated wasn't it? He actually took data from around 22 countries and simply left out the ones which didn't fit his hypothesis.

OP if you're genuinely interested try reading The Obesity Code by Jason Fung - he explains really well why the "eat less move more" approach to weight maintenance is so flawed for many people.

Was the Framingham study the one where they completely manipulated the figures or am I thinking of another?

No idea, but I would not be surprised... lies, damn lies and statistics.
You can make numbers prove almost anything you want them to prove.

@Leahanddog that article was written in 2013, and with a google search you can find out what is work with the manner it was written.
Diet Doctors is up to date and contains lots of information on how LCHF can help with individuals issues.

Doing LCHF is not a 1or 2 week calorie reduction diet it is a long term progress.
Please don't faithfully stick with an article written by some one who is paid to fix your diet. Read and research and do like 1,000s of people make an informed decision and DON'T pay for anything other than your food.

I must say I have found the high fat element hard to get on board with, and have successfully lost a lot of weight with low fat low carb, and am now maintaining. Eating so much meat and cream just felt wrong to me on many levels. But have not investigated the science on either side.

There are only three food groups - protein, fat & carbs. It's obvious that if you reduce one, you have to increase one or both of the others.

Low and ultra-low carb diets have been shown to benefit people with insulin resistance. However there is not enough evidence and acceptance of benefit to bring it into mainstream NHS practice.

Agree with an earlier poster, once you get rid of the habit of refined carbs then appetite decreases. So although when I started on a low-carb diet I was compensating by eating more fat (mostly in the form of dairy) within about a month my consumption of all food groups except carbs was the same as it had been before I started the diet - that equals a significant reduction in calories for virtually no effort on my part.

It was my cardiologist who recommended LCHF to me.

They are our national health service often at the front lines of medical research.

Ha ha ha ha

If only this were true. Sadly, it's so way off it's a joke.

Promoting a high carb/low fat diet is well entrenched now, and it's really scary when you realise that this has been driven by politics as well as the commercial imperative. And it's worth knowing that various GPs/doctors who have been on Bootcamps previously have told about just how little of their training is spent on food/nutrition - around a week, one said!

OP - if you're really concerned about low carbing, then do some reading up about it, so that you can make up your own mind.

One final point, no-one doing Bootcamp is encouraged to stuff their face with bacon, cream and cheese! Those foods are allowed, but Bootcampers are told quite strongly (!) that they should be eating plenty of vegetables and salad - this is where their carbs will come from. It's a low carb diet, not a no carb diet.

Perhaps in terms of research they are, but not in terms of information trickle-down to the front line.

My family have often been told "ABC" by HCPs, and when we tell them "New research shows it is XYZ" or "New best practice is XYZ" been met with serious scepticism. Occasionally even after we had supported it with good, scientific evidence - because they had not been 'officially' informed.

Two GP's I know both eat low carb, the NHS tide is turning - they seem to focus on sugar more than fat being the problem more and more. But it's a mammoth and slow task- can you imagine them suddenly saying 'oh we've been really wrong all these decades'?
There would be uproar and possibly court cases.

I think the really interesting thing about all of this is that the research isn't actually very conclusive, except in a few areas, for example a Mediterranean-type diet has been shown to be effective at preventing reoccurrence of coronary artery disease. A lot of dietary recommendations are just based on extrapolation from studies such as this. One thing that really interferes with the research on saturated fat from the 20th century was the presence of large amounts of trans-fats in commonly consumed saturated fats in those days. These are now known to be strongly linked to coronary artery disease and other problems. So it's hard to distinguish whether it was the saturated fats themselves or just the transfats that caused the problems. Dietary research is extremely difficult!
Out of the people I know working in research in these fields and in diabetes research, some personally eat low saturated fat, some focus on low carb and some just try to take a sensible middle course. (Others still are overweight and drink too much, but that's another story altogether )

Hi found an interesting read on the subject,
700+ Plus doctors Signed end to the low-fat nutrition dogma

Lots of links and real studies showing current advice in many countries is plain wrong.

Mostly based on assumptions - like eggs have cholesterol therefore are bad --- WRONG.

So to answer your title's question I for one would say
NO, LCHF is the way to go forward

People are making a massive mistake following current NHS guidelines.

Have a great day.

I am a GP - I've lost 3+ st doing LCHF and I am maintaining.

I personally know a GP who was told he was diabetic and 'reversed' his metabolic problem by eating LCHF and losing 4st. His blood sugars and HvA1c are now normal i.e. not diabetic.

I know it this examples are only anecdotes, but they do tie in with an awful lot of research.

It is interesting how my late grandfather (b. 1906) when he became diabetic after WW2 was taught about counting and restricting carbs, when this is a kind of new and all radical like thing now...

LCHF suits me better than anything I have ever done. I have lost a stone in three months without being hungry or shaky as I have been on other plans. Its not a diet but a way of life now. Maybe eating a bit more dairy but no crappy carbs or cake, biscuits etc. Can be done without dairy but as a non meat eater, cheese is important to me. Many people don't understand it. There are carbs in veg so a food group is not being cut out.

Yes I think the one thing everyone can agree on is that whatever the strategy aimed for, large quantities of highly-processed carbs and fats in the form of cakes, biscuits, crisps etc are best avoided!

I have to say I've stopped discussing low carb instead I say clean eating, which it is lots of veg, low sugar and non processed foods. No one has anything to say about the woe.

The way I look at it is that carbs are mostly a processed form of food...cakes, bread, starchy shite added to bulk up stuff. And no one needs all that really

So, I low carb, but I do have very small helpings of potatoes, fruit, carby veg on occassion

It's low carb/no processed/clean eating sort of theory and for me it works so long as I stay off the bloody bread!

AND although I do get hungry, it's a different type of feeling to the one that would entice me to have a cup of tea, several biscuits, a couple of bits of bread and butter, eat my main meal and still be feeling like a snack 90 minutes later.

Protein and fat are more filling and are a much better fuel for me

Clean eating has been hi-jacked as well though as a 'thing'

I just don't talk about it in RL - I just eat what I eat

My practice nurse and GP also recommended Low carb. I think the tide is slowly turning ( even weight watchers have adapted a low carb plan yuk I hate wws!)
Any advice for a wagon taller offer to get back on low carb. I'm desperate to do it but just struggling to get a good week behind me help!

Wagon faller not taller (am neither tall or thin!)

"All things in moderation" my late DM used to say. Can't really go wrong with that advice to be honest.

OP was so interested in the discussion that they haven't bothered to come back to it since the day they first posted. The initial post reminds me of the sort of drivel people like to write as a 'review' of the low carb books on Amazon. Then at the end they go on a tirade about how we should all be vegans.

Obviously cutting out heavily processed carbs containing sugar is beneficial for everyone, but perhaps low carb which cuts out all starchy carbs is unnecessarily restrictive for most people? LCHF appears to be beneficial for people with insulin resistance issues, but I think if everyone else simply cut out the processed carbs there's probably no need to stop eating carrots and potatoes as part of a healthy meal. I really struggle with the suggestion that vegetables and fruit growing in my garden can really be bad for my health.