"Sheila Dillon questions whether the government's Eatwell Plate that's issued to the medical profession and used as public guidance for a balanced diet could actually be harming us. An increasing number of medics are abandoning the plate because they say it still promotes dangerously high levels of starchy carbohydrates and processed foods that contain high levels of the sugars that cause many of today's chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra author of the Pioppi diet is campaigning to change the official advice and says that a healthy diet and lifestyle are the key to reducing disease and the need for medication, but he says that vested interests from the food and pharmaceutical industries make some of these healthier choices more difficult to achieve. Dr David Unwin is a GP who has seen a huge spike in patients presenting with Type 2 Diabetes since he began practicing forty years ago. He advises lifestyle changes that include abandoning the Eatwell Guide and cutting out the starchy carbohydrates, processed foods and sugars and has seen a reversal of the disease in a significant number of patients.
Sheila also visits Tameside Hospital in Greater Manchester which is overhauling its canteen food and vending machine produce to reduce processed carbohydrates and sugary drinks and snacks. In celebration of the 70th anniversary of the NHS the hospital will go completely sugar free on July 4th.
Is it time to revise the Eatwell Guide and what will it take to do so?"
Thank, Stoozie, I don't know whether I ever heard this. I see it's from 18 months ago. I alays find The Food Programme interesting.
I worked at Tameside Hospital for a while and my parents were patients there frequently in their latter years. Food was dire. I wonder what it's like now. Aseem Malhotra's dad was a leading GP in that area so maybe that has had some influence
years ago I wolfed down a fair few stodgy dinners and pudding and custards at Tameside and I'm sorry to confess I enjoyed them! Gained a fair few lbs too
This week's programme about the Eatwell Guide featured an interview with Prof. Louis Levy from Public Health England. This is the unedited version of his interview with Sheila Dillon.
Honestly, the link that ChubbieChops posted the other day makes me a lot more pessimistic than I usually am. There you had an article on the NHS website which baldly stated: we don't care what the evidence says, we don't care how many people are getting fat and ill, we're going to carry on giving out flawed advice regardless, and we expect y'all to follow it.
We're now in religious-cult territory, as far as I'm concerned. As it was in the beginning, as it is now, and ever shall be, carbs without end. Amen.
How do you destroy cults? I vaguely remember studying this sort of thing at uni, and it's quite literally impossible. Cults are impervious not only to reason, but also to reality slapping them around the head : people who are heavily invested in nonsensical beliefs will sometimes carry on believing in them even if they have to swear that black is white.
So yeah. It's going to be interesting to watch how this all plays out, that's for sure.
I was struck by the expert explaining you have to eat glucose for brain food. You don't have to be a biochemist to prove the falsity of that. People fasting don't fall into a coma, which they would do if their brain was starved. So either by fueling with ketones or glucose neogenesis, the brain is getting food.
I also reflected on how nonsensical the eatwell plate is. I was eating a few "healthy" (as in, similar to what I might make) ready meals, but even if they were vegetarian or vegan, it was rare they contain more than one of your five-a-day. And no wonder! They follow the eatwell plate, so 1/3 or so carbs. It doesn't leave room for veggies. The 5-a-day is barely achievable on even "well designed" ready meals. That should tell us something. Why would you explicitly add pasta to the exclusion of a whole food, even if you aren't trying to be low carb?
Edit: Oh, and it starts off with a cook design a sugar free cookie. That shows they are not starting from the right place. And what's the betting "sugar free" means for of some other sucrose/fructose syrup that is currently fashionable?
That's the thing - you don't need "studies" when everyday experience contradicts much of what they're asserting. Completely agree with your remark about a mountain of carbs leaving no room for vegetables - as you say, "5 a day" is impossible if you're trying to get all your energy-calories from carbs.
Ever seen "Idiocracy"? There's a running joke about a green-coloured sugary drink called "Brawndo", which everyone drinks instead of water because (as per the advertising slogan) "it's got electrolytes". Every character in the movie is slightly retarded, and none of them have any clue what electrolytes are. But Brawndo's got electrolytes, therefore it's good for you.
Picking up on the irrational beliefs problem..... Danger ‼️ rant ahead.
I was listening to the irritatingly stupid guy at the end of the first podcast, who said the brain needs glucose from carbs in our diet, and heard him say that the eatwell plate guidelines were for people who were in generally good health. I think those might be the weasel words. Most of the population are not in generally good heath and so if you recommend this way of eating to them, you are giving bad advice. That was never acknowledged. Sounds like lawyer speak to me.
Also, because I eat in a low carb way, I can easily eat 10 or more portions of veg and fruit a day, with the emphasis on veg, since it’s one of my main food groups. If I ate things like bread, cakes and pasta, I wouldn’t be able to do this. The five a day guidelines conflicts with the eatwell plate. This isn’t joined up thinking. You can’t recommend five a day and then make it almost impossible to achieve by getting people to fill up on carbs.
And then there’s the number of teaspoons of sugar equivalent to carbs infographic recommended by NICE. How does that fit with the eatwell plate and the low sugar guidelines?
I’m sure I’m preaching to the converted 😊 but I understand your anger.
That "people who are in generally good health" thing makes me roll my eyes too. What does that mean exactly? That only a healthy body can cope with the terrible things this diet does to you? That the explicit intent is to create lots of unhealthy people who can then be treated with pills and potions? And what are people who are already in trouble (as you said, a majority of the population) supposed to eat instead?
I agree that a classic marker of an irrational argument is a lack of "joined-up thinking". What I'm wondering is this: how many doctors, nurses, etc in the NHS - who surely must be fairly smart people - have spotted this problem and are too afraid to speak out about it, lest they be hounded from their jobs?
That fact about nurses in hospitals ‘having’ to take round sugary snacks and drinks to patients routinely, was quite shocking......even if not really surprising when you consider what the average hospital vending machine contains.
My experience of gluten free hospital food was also dire. When I was in hospital a couple of years ago with a broken leg, one day I had to subsist on two sugary yogurts and a banana. 🙈
Interesting, under the Medicare system all hospital vending machines had to be overhauled years ago and any "Hospital run" cafe's also similarly, unfortunately the large franchises that buy into space in hospital foyers can do what they like. There is a traffic light system, Red foods are banned Eg processed, high fat (palm oil etc), high sugar, Amber foods in moderation and Green good to go... Not even allowed to sell those fundraising pkts of sweets on counters, went totally over the top and banned staff from bringing in raffle tickets, you know, the ones your kids bring home from Scouts or Gymnastics to raise money at Easter and Xmas by raffling a big basket of "Goodies".... Post op Pts are routinely on High Protein High Fat Diets to encourage wound healing, we can thank the work of the CSIRO for a lot of the changes introduced... There were jokes from staff that now you won't find staff hiding out in the carpark fagging, more likely smuggling in and scoffing contraband donuts... 😉
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It depressed me too
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