What's your opinion of the recommended dietary guidelines?

[Watchkeys]

I wonder how people who are trying to lose weight feel about 'the healthy diet' that's recommended to us, and whether they generally feel that it is, actually, a healthy diet, in terms of ensuring that we get the right nutrients.

I'm a PT, and have my own views on this, but I'm curious about how people feel about it generally, and what knowledge people base their opinions on, re nutrition.

I think official dietary advice is always way behind the curve because it takes a loooong time for new findings to be adopted.

Imo there should be a move away from advising people on the proportions of macros / food groups to eat and a move towards strongly advising people to avoid ultra-processed foods and sweet soft drinks. That won't happen though, because the big food corporations are too powerful, and because the profit margins on selling natural unprocessed foods are too low.

I'm currently reading 'Ultra-Processed People' and it's pretty depressing tbh!

I wholeheartedly agree with moving away from UPF.
I also think that the protein guidelines are too low - DD at medical school was told an adult needs 40g which I think is way too low especially with age related loss of muscle and that older people need more because they don't use it as efficiently as younger people.

@Fairislefandango @WithIcePlease

Are you both trying to lose weight?

I agree with you both, follow my own guidelines rather than the official ones, and have never been overweight.

Are you both trying to lose weight?

I guess like many women I've been in a continuous on-and-off state of trying to lose weight since my 20s (I'm 51). I'm 5'6" and was a size 18 at my largest and a 12 at my smallest. My 'normal' is a 14, which I'm currently edging up out of. Hence reading the book about UPF, because I'm sick of trying diets. Low carb and low fat both 'worked' for me while I was able to stick to them!

I feel healthiest and most satisfied when I follow a low carb high fat diet, I lose weight on it too.

My mum follows a low fat diet which incorporates carbs - it work for her but would make me sluggish.
I believe in finding what works for you personally.

I think nutrition science is progressing rapidly and it’s difficult to keep up with consistent messaging to the public.

I agree that ditching UPFs should be incorporated into national guidelines particularly here in the UK where the NHS (and the taxpayer) is picking up the bill for poor food choices.

Interesting people mention protein, the latest studies on protein show the average diet is providing more protein than the average person needs but there is a drive (in UPFs) to add protein to everything. We don’t need it, protein supplementation is only need in rare cases eg. Very old age with low appetite and elite athletes.

@Watchkeys no I'm not. Never been overweight (bmi >25)

And I don't follow guidelines
I generally eat nutrient dense food and quite high protein for muscle building

I don't tend to follow any guidelines other than trying to eat "real food". I focus on eating a range of coloured veg, proper bread, some portions of rice and pasha but not huge. I suppose closest to a Mediterranean style diet. I don't deprive but I try to have balance. A croissant from the French bakery is a lovely treat but I wouldn't have one every day. I'm not on a diet, I was briefly overweight after my son and having a period of chronic ill health but back to normal now.

Guidelines are just that, guidelines. They are never going to work for every individual because they're written at a population level. Current guidelines are probably a little out of date, I admit, but if you're eating crap all the time and you change and follow the NHS guidelines, you're still going to be eating a hundred times better than you were.

So, the following the guidelines might be better or worse for you, depending on who you are, @mynameiscalypso ? That's a bit weird, isn't it? If you already think you eat well, following the guidelines might make your diet worse.

@Watchkeys If you already eat well, the guidelines aren't really there for you are they? Most people I know who are interested in food/nutrition/exercising etc follow their own ways of eating because they have researched the topic and can make healthy choices and, probably, haven't a clue what the official guidelines say and care even less. Their purpose is really for those people who don't have that kind of knowledge or education (for a myriad of reasons but mainly societal reasons like poverty) as a starting point to point them in the right direction.

So, the national nutritional guidelines aren't for everyone? Where have you got that from? They can't just decide that they're not for x, y and z sectors of the population, and then expect us to 'know' who they are an aren't for.

Can they? Does that actually make sense to you? The national guidelines aren't for people on low calorie diets, keto, low carb, high fibre, cabbage soup diet, all-chocolate-diet, OMAD followers... or, maybe they are for some of those people? How am I supposed to know if they're for me or not?

'If you already eat well'

How are we supposed to know what this means, if not by referring to the 'Eat Well Plate'?

I'm not sure why you're so aggressive about guidelines. They're a starting point, that's it. Eating well means something different to lots of people but if they help some people make better choices, how is that a bad thing?

But also, yeah, loads of people make decisions every day that they're going to ignore guidelines whether it's the amount of exercise, safe sleeping, Covid guidance. People make their own choices.

I'm not aggressive.

Eating well means something different to lots of people

Eating healthily isn't about opinion, it's about physiology.

How am I supposed to know if the guidelines are for me? Your reasoning doesn't make sense @mynameiscalypso

As a for instance, I think looking after my biome is important so I eat loads of different veg, raw or cooked for micronutrients and fibre. I have kefir and Greek yogurt daily. Also occasional kimchi
This will also cover my fibre needs

I think protein important for me so I have lean meat and fish

Beans and pulses are meant to be good so I'll have those in a recipe dish or salad or cooked as a veg side

Dairy is important for calcium so I have some cheese as well as yoghurts.

Healthy fats are meant to be good so I have salmon, mackerel and avocado and usually cook with olive oil/peanut oil

I eat berries and sometimes other fruit as a snack or if I fancy it or as a dessert

White carbs I don't see as nutrient dense so rarely have potatoes or rice but I have other carby veg like carrot or butternut squash sometimes and full enough from vegetables generally

Basically, I think like many people, I just make it up from general nutritional knowledge.

This is not put as any sort of shining example of good nutrition but what I do based on stuff I have read. Looks sort of Mediterranean diet I suppose?

Eating healthily isn't about opinion, it's about physiology.

Well it kind of is about opinion, since even experts don't seem to be able to fully agree on what makes a healthy diet, and official advice changes (eventually).

@Fairislefandango

That seems to be a comment on how/why the guidelines are made, rather than a view on what's good for us. You're saying that we don't know, essentially, aren't you? So the guidelines aren't reliable guides?

What's your opinion then OP?

The Eatwell plate seems reasonable. If using it as a guide to lose weight, there are options. Smaller overall meals and portions is one, cutting out a single food source is another (low carb or low/lower fat) is another and so is IF etc

What's your take as a PT then?

That seems to be a comment on how/why the guidelines are made, rather than a view on what's good for us. You're saying that we don't know, essentially, aren't you? So the guidelines aren't reliable guides?

Yes, I am to a certain extent saying we don't know. I'm currently convinced by the argument that avoiding UPF is at least part of the key to eating healthily. But I'd be the first to admit that I've been convinced by other theories before. And maybe in the future I'll be convinced by other advice I haven't yet heard about.

@Watchkeys do personal trainers have qualifications in nutrition? What training does a personal trainer have to become a personal trainer? I'm genuinely curious.

As far as healthy eating guidance goes I think it's fine. Balance is important.

@AutisticLegoLover

We're basically taught to educate people about the guidelines, and a bit extra about how protein helps build muscle.

It's interesting some of the responses I've had on the threads I've posted over the last few days; some people obviously think that PT's are expert biologists, when in reality it's a 6 week course and you spend a lot of that time in the gym. There are additional courses on nutrition, so many PT's will have more nutrition qualification than me, but I'm reluctant to do one of those courses because I don't like the Eatwell Plate or the energy balance equation, so I don't want to teach them to people. I have to be careful how I say things to people because if I start telling people that the Eatwell Plate is wrong, I'm outside of regulations.

It's good to hear others' views.

Why don't you like it?