This site was moribund until he resurrected it. I was totally apathetic about HU despite posting for years. I am a moderator for one branch (still) but banned on another, along with another stalwart Fiona Benson. I moved to the Public Health Collaboration (PHC) as an ambassador
I was wrong, for this forum has gone from strength to strength, primarily as the folk coming here are more concerned with improving their health, looking at the evidence rather than arguing the merits of this and that and 'You are wrong...'
I tired of that so long ago and only kept a jaded eye on the forum.
We have a great resource here with many enthusiastic members disillusioned with the current paradigm.
Long may it continue, and long live the Toad!
Written by
MikePollard
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Mike and I first met at HealthUnlocked some years ago until I was blocked by the admin of the HU team from all groups I was a member. When I saw the discussions on this group I tried to rejoin and to my delight was able to rejoin. My HU name is because I have lived with Lymphoedma from a teenager and now in my 70s - so was even blocked from sharing with those on the Lymphoedema group. I have to say that I just assumed I would become bigger with age because of the condition. I still live with my bigleg but as a result of the victims of the cancer industry there are compression garments now available on the NHS. For most of my life I had to self-fund and there was limited access to manual lymphatic massage. I had a brilliant masseur in 2006 - she removed 5 1/2 litres fluid and I learnt how to compression bandage. The LCHF lifestyle absolutely has helped as I have no infections and no dry skin issues - often a common problem with Lymphoedma. My husband and I first adopted the LCHF lifestyle in 2003 - after reading Dr Atkins. That enabled us both to lose stones in weight and my husband to reverse his type 2 diabetes diagnosis.
Thank you TheAwfulToad for developing this group to enable constructive discussions.
I genuinely wonder if we're living through one of those deeply-irrational periods of human history where people get caught up in a collective madness that's objectively ridiculous, but nobody can spot it from within. The NHS is now spending about a quarter of its budget on diseases caused by its own policies (and exacerbated by same), plus who knows how much on a disease that doesn't exist (hypercholesterolemia), and no doubt about a quarter again on cancer treatment - which surely shouldn't occur in nature as often as it does in modern Britain? Unlike obesity and diabetes, nobody knows for sure what the causes of cancer are, but I suspect some environmental factor(s) will be unearthed eventually. I'm confident red meat won't be on the list.
My mum was a nurse from the late 50s to the mid-70s and she swears a lot of modern diseases simply didn't exist back then. Kidney failure, for example, was virtually unheard-of; it's now becoming as routine as appendicitis, possibly as a consequence of diabetes.
Interesting that both you and Mike were banished for evangelism. Same thing happened to me some time ago. I'm actually surprised this group hasn't been shut down. HU has some sort of relationship with the NHS (I'm not sure exactly how that works) but the fact that we're still here may be an indication that NHS policy is lumbering in the right direction.
Congratulations on your excellent results, by the way. I also got into this by reading Atkins's book, about 15 years ago now.
Aw shucks. Thanks. I was actually very happy to see the veterans like yourself and moreless coming back and helping to get things reinflated. I did browse through older posts when I first stumbled on the forum and there's some good stuff buried in there, so hopefully we'll at least get back to that level of interest.
I've noticed something interesting with LCHF: as long as you've got an open mind about it, it's very easy to get your head around and you quickly become an expert - presumably because the theory is internally-consistent. cheritorrox , Stoozie and Lytham spring to mind, who have been helping the newbies a lot and spreading the word elsewhere.
You're absolutely right that people are coming here to improve their health - or at least realise quickly that that's what LCHF is about, even if they initially come here to lose weight. It annoys me that the NHS even uses the phrase "losing weight" in its advice - the goal is maintaining a healthy weight by eating healthy food. Getting fat is simply your body's way of keeping you alive under an onslaught of junk, as prescribed by the nutritionists: it's caught between a rock and a hard place and chooses the least-bad option (dying slowly instead of dying quickly).
I wouldn't worry about being contentious. A lot of what used to be contentious is now mainsteam, and it's being presented by proponents who really know their onions. The videos about cholesterol, fat and whatnot that we've been posting occasionally have a very positive reaction. As bigleg said elsewhere, the times they are a-changing and we can now say certain things without being shouted down.
I do appreciate that everyone has a slightly different way of doing LCHF, and that's fine. I try not to tell people (for example) you have to eat this or that item or it won't work, because LCHF seems to work across a surprising range of variation - at least once you get into maintenance mode. Unwin's diet, as I mentioned earlier, is a typical example: it's just good, old-fashioned food with the stodge removed. It looks close enough to the Eatwell plate that his employers don't throw him in the dungeons. And it works.
A lot of people have proposed that LCHF ought to stand for 'low carb healthy fat'. I wish we could get rid of that 'low carb' bit too, because most people end up eating a modest amount of carbs. To put things in their proper context, we really ought to be relabelling the mainstream diet as 'ECIF' - excessive carbs, insufficient fat.
Love the ECIF!!! Thanks for all your words TheAwfulToad. Talking about no money in curing I came across a small saying that I use a lot now - unfortunately I have no name to credit it to:
There is no money in Curing People
There is no money in Dead People
The Money lies 1/2 way inbetween
Below is a picture of a person in a hospital bed hooked up to a drip
On the cancer causes, there are probably many diffferent causes given the toxic air and food environment we now live in. However, many say that cancers require sugar to thrive hence the reason that once Gary Fettke discovered LCHF his cancer went into remission. They use sugar in the blood when they are scanning for cancer. In one of Belinda's blogs she references Gary's tumour lighting up when he has sugar in his blood streem. In her summary article, have you noted the influence of Dr Stare and his influence at every level: isupportgary.com/articles/t...? It is necessary to scroll down quite a long way into the article.
Wonderful to be able to enjoy the sun this weekend.
It depresses me to think that doctors are keeping people in that twilight zone between dead and alive just to keep themselves in work.
The only other plausible theory is that they're incompetent, which is even more depressing.
It's just nice that there are plenty of doctors who have got with the programme, who do read the research, and are kicking up a fuss. More power to them.
Yourself and the above named people have helped me a lot since starting the lchf. Much appreciated and of course not forgetting the ones that are not named here. You are all an inspiration to me. Thank you!
Hear, hear, Mike, I couldn't agree more! I just wish HU would get their finger out and give him an Admin badge!
I think the majority of people that arrive here, do so because they're at the end of their tether, because what they're currently doing just isn't working. To have someone explain how to make the change, without making the person feel foolish for not having realised decades before, is the way to make converts/ambassadors.
I will be forever grateful for TheAwfulToad , Hidden , bigleg and anup who have all found themselves banished for their enthusiasm, but have happily all been reinstated, bar one. I am a cowardly convert, I shy away from conflict, much to The Toad's disgust and prefer the slow burn. It's taken a long time to earn people's trust and encourage a more open-minded approach and I'm so happy to see so many people from the Weight Loss forum here now. I hope the same will become true for the other forums, where people are struggling with huge cocktails of drugs, rather than addressing a simple root cause for their ailments, their diet!
I still class myself a beginner and have huge gaps in my knowledge, but continue to be inspired and supported by The Toad.
nooo ... not disgust, moreless. You're just way too modest. It's a pity we can't pin some of your older posts, because the reality is you're the grand high poobah of weight loss around here, and you seem to be embarrassed about being so hugely successful. Your story is inspirational. All those people struggling with borderline eating disorders and failed calorie-counting plans really need to read it.
I have been lazy, not having posted for a while. I feel evangelical about lchf and read all posts here, I am greedy for them! But I’m a newbie and not as informed as I should be. I just know that like moreless said I was at the end of my tether, and I know this works for me.
Apologies for not being more active and encouraging of others, like I said it’s a case of knowing there are better informed people here. And there’s a part of me that’s always hated the never ending discussion about food/ what to eat/ how best to cook it/calorie counting which has always bored me, didn’t want to spend my days obsessively scrutinising data, when there’s more interesting stuff to do.
What is brilliant about lchf is it’s simple, I can do it and forget about it at the same time, probably because hunger is so reduced as a result.
Paradoxically I will talk to anyone who’s interested to listen and everyday I am grateful for how I feel now. Lighter happier and more healthy!
There are a couple of things I want to discuss, but will leave them for another post!
Thanks to all who / post/ discuss etc, you have been, and are, important for my journey along the road to better health. 🌈
I would not be where I am now without him - 4 stone lighter for one thing! ...and despite what he says, he IS patient with our sometimes idiotic questions!
ALL HAIL THE TOAD
PS He's truly ambassador across lots of other HU communities too even if they don't always take notice!
You do a great job over on the other forum raising awareness of our existence, by the way. I dunno why Mike is singling me out in particular when it's basically you guys (BridgeGirl , Lytham ... ) who piled in and got the ball rolling.
I always enjoy reading the Toads posts....always interesting and informative. I discovered LCHF before I found this forum, but I am always eager to know more about it and why it works. Life before LCHF for me was all about constant hunger cravings, bad health and being very over weight, no matter what I did. Life afterwards was a sustained and steady improvement in my health and weight and no unhealthy food cravings. I just wish more people were aware of of how to improve their health through changing their diet and the Toad is doing his best to increase that awareness.
TheAwfulToad has been really instrumental in bringing this site to life. I hope members continue benefiting from his knowledge and expertise for years to come. LCHF/KETO approach is unstoppable.
I'm particularly happy that you're here, Praveen. Sorry I forgot to give you a shout-out in my first response. You're like the bass player in a band. You just sit there at the back making sure things tick along smoothly, but everyone would notice if you weren't there
Absolutely!!! I found this forum shortly before Christmas having struggled with my weight all my life. The toad welcomed me and suggested I try a LCHF diet. It's still very early days, but far from gaining weight over Christmas as I would normally have done, I actually lost a lb. and over the last 3 weeks, have lost 6lbs. He is so supportive and generous with his time. Hurrah for Toady!!!
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How many grammes of fat a day?
Ketogenic Advice please?