I think that many of us will have realised how comfort food plays an important role during periods of intense stress and living through a pandemic has been hard work emotionally for the majority of us all in one way or another.
Around half of the UK population has put on weight during this difficult time and me included. I wanted to put on weight as I'd had a lot of stress with moving then more stress with buying this place and organising the work to be done and then last summer I realised that pandemic or not I'd got the main structural work done and could relax and my weight returned to my ideal weigh range.
To me we have survived thus far through this insidious pandemic which is cause for celebration rather than beating ourselves up for putting on a few extra pounds.
Here's a link for the BBC website on how 48% of those surveyed have put on weight during the lockdown and pandemic with tips on healthy eating and exercise, which we all know is the answer to maintaining a healthy body weight, please see:
Here's a photo of some of my favourite foods, I've been buying Cornish new potatoes they are expensive but so delicious and I eat lots of raspberries so I eat well even though I do like my treats...
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What a fabulous photo Jerry, yummy fresh vegetables. I'm not surprised people have put on weight as a lot have been working from home and not travelling to and from work.
I'm pleased you are at the weight you should be and that you can relax now.
Hope you've had a lovely day.
Alicia 🍆🍠🥕🥭🥒🥔🍅
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That’s right Alicia and comfort eating is tempting when we’re under stress.I’ve managed to get lots of things done during the pandemic to my home and that is very satisfying as moving is stressful.
You have lots of exercise which’s a real stress buster. 🌈🏃♀️😊
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It certainly is Jerry. I'm really pleased you've managed to do lots of things on the property. I totally agree that moving is very stressful, you are now in a place you'd never want to move from.
When I saw the email link to "Have you put on weight during the lockdown?" I followed it expecting to click on an opinion poll option🤣.......I would have selected YES!
Out of all the many ways the governments contrived to inflate the COVID situation from a manageable tragedy into a major catastrophe, it appears that handing out stupid advice about diet will continue on schedule - which is absolutely despicable, considering how much death and mayhem that advice has caused over the past year or so. People who are obese and diabetic died in disproportionate numbers, and they were obese and diabetic because they followed the standing advice.
Adding another piece of fruit to your diet is in no sense a positive change towards healthy eating, and having a piece of cake instead of a proper meal is not "being kind to yourself". I'm one of those people whose stress levels have gone through the roof during 2020; not because I fear for my personal safety, but because I'm appalled by the spectacle of leaders accustomed to paddling in the intellectual shallow end making up silly rules, and a paranoid, superstitious public going along with it all.
My weight has stayed the same. I suspect not owning a TV and living out of the reach of lockdowns (天高皇帝遠, "the sky is high and the emperor is far away") has something to do with it.
Hi TheAwfulToad I think that this is so untrue as the U.K. govt has pulled out all the stops to get everyone immunised.
In my opinion the govt is a reflection of the society that they represent and members of the govt have the same health issues as the general population.
The real problem in my opinion is slick advertising and the promotion of fast food which’s why so many U.K. residents are obese and or have diabetes. So your constant negative tirades against the U.K. govt and our wonderful NHS is empty and disrespectful.
The NHS promote a balanced diet and are not obsessed with an LCHF diet which’s not a balanced diet it’s an unbalanced diet to help those with diabetes and or obesity regain a balanced lifestyle so it’s a remedial diet not a healthy lifestyle.
We in the U.K. have now immunised half the population against COVID now compare this to India where 350,000 are being diagnosed with COVID everyday and we in the U.K. are coming out of lockdown my area has 6 cases per 100,000 and the majority of us in the U.K. are very proud of our NHS and our marvellous NHS staff so your comment is insulting to the NHS who are the envy of the world.
So I’d keep you political views out of this as many U.K. residents have made real changes to preparing food and eating healthier and because of our governments efforts we are in an enviable position.
It’s been a wake up call for many as they’ve realised how their lifestyle was not sustainable and have seen the need to change so I’d get your house in order before telling us how to get ours in order.
Here's what the United Nations FAO suggest and one of the recommendations is reduce fat salt and sugar, please see:
Vaccination is completely irrelevant. TAT was talking about 2020. Vaccination didn't start until December and only really ramped up when the added AZ in January. Yeah, they are doing vaccinations well, but that's because they finally let the NHS handle it, rather than treating giving it to their friends and donors. Maybe test&trace would have actually worked if they gave it to the NHS? 🤔
But let's not allow this one success to let us forget what a mess the government has made up to now. I wrote this in January, when 1 on 35 Londoners had active covid, and no one had been vaccinated long enough to have significant immunity.
Can someone explain this to me? The UK government has apparently focused coronavirus, listened to scientists, imposed heavy restrictions that were mostly followed etc etc.
In the meantime, the US government has been lazy and absent. Much of coronavirus control has been passed to states that were antilockdown and and antimask.
US death toll today 1.1/100,000
UK death toll today 1.9/100,000
Nearly double. WTAF?
There are tens of thousands of people who would still be alive if the government had done their job properly.
And the EatWell Guide is not balanced and not healthy. It says fill a third of your plate with low nutrition carbs like pasta or potatoes and avoid natural fats. Eating like that for 40 years will ruin your metabolism. DAMHIKT. Well, actually you can. 😁 Looking at your posts, I don't think you eat like that.
All countries have been ill equipped to deal with the pandemic and thats all too obvious at the moment, we in the west have adopted some very unhealthy eating habits that are way beyond the control of NHS and politics.
Immunisation is the way out of the pandemic so is very relevant, the fact that the general population was ill prepared for COVID has shown how unhealthy our society has become because of the obsession with junk food.
So let's look at advertising and the power of adverts to influence people to consume and then consume some more!
I'm a coeliac so need a gluten free diet and try to eat myself healthy with the best choices for my body and its needs.
People do indeed get the government they deserve. It doesn't make it any less painful to watch the inevitable consequences play out.
It's true that the UK got their act together regarding vaccinations, but that was a case of too little, too late. The entirety of 2020 was a shambles. A relative of mine is a doctor so I got my news from "on the ground"; she is now leaving the profession, in no small part because of the disgraceful behaviour of the NHS management and the political handling of the crisis.
As for diet: I realise that you have no idea what LCHF even is and aren't interested in finding out, but that wasn't even the point of my post. I'm happy to acknowledge that there is no One True Way, but the NHS promotes a diet that makes people fat and ill. Most of the junk food that people consume is compatible with the Eatwell plate, which represents possibly the most unhealthy diet anybody can consume. The results speak for themselves. 28% of the general population are obese. 25% of nurses are also obese: it is quite obvious that the medical profession are not in the best position to hand out advice on the subject. The phrase "Physician, heal thyself" springs to mind. I don't care if this is disrespectful. I am under no obligation to respect people who harm those they are supposed to care for and support.
Not only do we have an epidemic of chronic disease, 2020 was marked by deaths which need never have happened. I stand by my assertion that the NHS, in no small part, was directly responsible for those deaths (and the accompanying strain on healthcare resources). And from the linked article, it seems the advice is still the same.
The FAO, incidentally, may be singing from the same hymnsheet, but that just means they're wrong, too.
I think that lots of countries got it wrong and badly wrong look at what DT was coming out with and he knew best. So now is not the time as its not fair to single out the UK or our NHS. At the end of the day it isn't what we say it's what we do that makes a difference.
The NHS isn't perfect but its the envy of the world and thats a fact so maybe you should be looking at capitalism and the effect that has on encouraging us to over consume as thats whats caused the obesity crisis, over consumption of food and the wrong foods!
I don't need an LCHF diet as my body doesn't like lots of fats and I like healthy carbs fruit and veggies.
Donald Trump? That's exactly my point. He is a vile, greedy grifter who does not care at all about anyone but himself and his immediate family. He was not interested in fighting the pandemic, just on making himself look good. He is quite happy for people he doesn't know to die. Indifferent to science he ignored an undermined the CDC etc advice. He shamelessly held countries hostage until they supported his election bid. He was prepared to undermine US democracy rather than admit he lost. He got vaccinated in private and secrecy, even though being seen to be vaccinated would encourage his supporters to do the same, and save lives - and why? because apparently he doesn't look good in short sleeves. He silenced the experts who worked for him, and amplified the crackpots that suited his interests.
Yet somehow, they had less deaths per capita than we did last year. Our politicians are smarter and better educated than Trump, but they are just a venial and grasping as he is. And as shameless, as they haven't resigned.
The U.K. is much more densely populated than the US so it isn’t fair to single the U.K. out nor our NHS. I think those who deride the NHS should think about what they’ve been through these last 15months as it must be disheartening being criticised when they’re tired and run ragged because of their vocation.
So I am going to show my solidarity with our NHS workers against some of the comments made against them.
Really we should all be working together to beat this virus and then look at how we could’ve done things better as now is not the time as we have to beat COVID first.
We have to take responsibility of our eating habits and not blame the govt or anybody else.
And that what we try and do on HE. And a healthy diet for us and our needs.
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I don't think any is deriding the individual workers on ten hour shifts with all they've had to cope with. The NHS is not just the peoples on the front lines and in all fairness the people on the front lines have also had to a lot to say about how the nhs as an organaisation and managment system has made their jobs Harder. And they should know they have to work in the system and its failures to respond to whay they know is needed for their work and their patients. Its definitely better than a lot of other countries but that doesnt mean it doesn't have criticism due to it.
I think we need to separate poor dietetic advice and unhelpful management systems from the huge body of patient facing NHS workers who have worked so hard over the last year to cope with the pandemic and it’s many consequences. I work for the NHS and have my own gripes about how things are run, things that get in the way of us doing our jobs.
I am paid to work 37.5 hours per week, that’s a standard NHS full time job but I never work less than 40 hours and often nearer 50. I’ve
gained a stone over the last year, I don’t like junk foods and usually eat lowish carb for my blood sugars but the weight has happened from sporadic binge eating - triggered by pandemic related stress, purely psychological.
I work in the community, relatively lower risk and less pressure than a hospital environment so I can’t even imagine how colleagues on Covid wards or ICU have kept going through this.
I’m fully vaccinated now, a little less worried about taking infection home to my family or to my very vulnerable patients. I’ve lost a couple of those extra pounds. But this pandemic has done a number on my mental health.
Absolutely. Glad you've got protected ..when all the older people are donand the front line health workers and then the teachers next I hope things will be a lot less unbalanced. I'm lucky I don't work and homeschooled my kids but my parents are older my aunt HSS got hers but my mom is afraid from all her conspiracy theory friends on face book. And she has diabetes and kidney issues so I can only try to protect her now. Facebook is a terrible place. It doesn't help that NHS data is out of touch because then people don't trust it when it comes to things like this. My mom has been told 1950s outdated info so why would she believe them when they say the vaccine is safe when she knows they've been so wrong on other issues. It just doesn't do anyone any good to not be very clear and factual and up to date with info. They dumb things down to a point of becoming untrue. It just helps nobody. Anyway glad you're getting it I'm on the bottom of the list but I'm happy to see the most important people who risk so much getting helps first at least they've got that right.
Hey thank you Fran for this reply and a bigger thank you for being part of the NHS front line workers as we have awesome respect for you guys and I object to these sweeping generalisations criticising the NHS and the U.K. govt as it’s unhelpful.
It’s easy to criticise with words as the NHS is the best it’s not perfect but it’s still the best and it’s the best because of you the front line workers.
I think it’s understandable that you’ve put on weight with the extra hours and stress and we will help you lose weight as you’ve done so well with reversing pre-diabetes.
Population density is irrelevant if you don't try to stay away from each other. In America there was a lot of resistance to social distancing - they mixed, and they got sick. We obeyed the rules, and we got sick.
Korea is twice as densely populated as us, and has a similar population size, yet they have had 1/100 the number of deaths!
I can criticise something, while supporting it. I was told by an NHS consultant to cut the fat out of my diet and move more. I told her I watched fat religiously (which I did) and at a minimum walked an hour each day. She basically called me a liar in the letter she sent to my GP, repeating the advice, despite me telling her I was following it. If I had not abandoned that advice, I would have been in a high risk group for coronavirus with elevated blood sugar and visceral obesity. It is also now clear to me that those two things are the only risk factors that put me in the hands of said consultant; so following that advice has definitely shortened my life. The NHS and you are blaming the victims; I followed that advice, I studied food labels and based my meals around carbs. I was taking responsibility for what I was eating, but it was hopeless because the advice was wrong.
And the consultant? She was morbidly obese. I don't know what that means. She must either realise the advice is hard to follow or she must be following it, yet no losing weight. Either way, 🤪
As for supporting the NHS, I think practical support is worth more than uttering platitudes on the internet. Since March of last year, I have logged thousands of hours (6395 hours to be precise) on duty as a NHS Community Responder volunteer, and since the 7th of January I have worked hundreds of hours as a voluntary marshall at more than a dozen different vaccination sites. In fact, I had an 8 hour shift on Sunday afternoon supporting 2nd AZ vaccinations at a local medical centre,which is why I wasn't able to respond then.
They do that a lot. Advise people to eat small amounts of carbs in six meals a day which is scientifically the exact opposite of what is helpful for keeping insulin resistance at bay and carbs all day is the worst scenario to reduce insulin resistance. They still tell people this. They just told my aunt who has osteoporosis and diverticulosis that she should eat white bread and pasta... 🤯 this is an 80 year old woman who can't eat a lot of food and they're advising her to eat the food that will cause her the most muscle loss the most constipation a degree of leeching of calcium... It just blows my mind. The simple things they don't do and the totally opposite to science advice the give is just. Bonkers. And when people realise these simple things are wrong then the don't trust them when they say something true like wear a mask. It cost lives indirectly ad well as directly.
Here's a group of concerned individuals in the profession who are addressing the issue in england good for them! hrbopenresearch.org/article...
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Hey this is great because there are things that I feel really need changing.
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Yeah hells to the hells yeah! Here's the list of their sponsors on their own page. Thankfully not coca cola like america but who knows does danone own coke or coke own danone now...bda.uk.com/news-campaigns/w...
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Wow I made that as a joke. actually coca cola and danone have loads of connections ... I think I sicked a little in my own mouth there. If this is where the NHS gets their info then that pretty much explains everything about why their information is so abominable.one of those companies also make a protein drink of the elderly which has so much sugar. And I have bought infant formula once... I thought it moght do for some kittens but it isn't good for them so I thought well I'll use it up...Christ it was some of the sweetest crap I've ever eaten. It was basically palm oil and glucose and lactose ...like sweeter than coca cola or rice pudding. So insanely sweet .... And people feed babies that!! Babies!! If they're willing to mess with babies then none of us has a chance ...its not a trustable source basically. If advice comes from the NHS via this system its probably safer to eat the leaflet than eat what it reocmends.
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Ok Hidden what we have to so is raise awareness of where change is needed. You don’t like the dietary advice regarding carbs. I’m a coeliac and in some areas coeliac can get bread and flour on prescription and this bread is made with wheat that’s been washed in solvents to remove the bulk of the gluten rendering it inert so they fortify it with calcium and vitamins.
Now it gets worse you could go to a large supermarket with a chemist and a free from section and either get some on prescription from the pharmacy at a cost of £8.40 for a 400g loaf or buy one in the free from aisle the same brand 400g loaf for £2.80 now this is not fair on our NHS and some areas won’t fund it and I don’t blame them.
Now this is the NHS following advice and thinking it’s doing right by coeliac. So of course we need an overhaul of thinking and advice.
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Omg I've seen that! That's not giving people any choices. I think here you can get an added extra bit of money if you have celiac but you can spend it however you like. Its a supplementary allowance paid to the person so they can choose how its spent. Not paid to the company making extortionately overpriced foods. You can also get tax back on gluten free products but as you say a gluten free product is one which is labelled gluten free and usually has been processed. You can't claim tax back for the almonds or the porridge oats you make your own bread with. So that's not good. And I'm not sure anyone would go through their receipts and log their gluten free biscuits for an entire year just to get the tax relief. I mean you'd have to pay me more than 8 quid to go rummaging for a receipt and open the revenues horrendous online forms lol! Who actually bothers to do that.
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