# Public Health England: Advice to eat more fat 'irresponsible'



## Northerner (May 23, 2016)

Advice to eat more fat is irresponsible and potentially deadly, Public Health England's chief nutritionist has said.

Dr Alison Tedstone was responding to a report by the National Obesity Forum, which had suggested eating fat could help cut obesity and type 2 diabetes.

The charity had said promoting low-fat food has had "disastrous health consequences" and should be reversed.

Other experts have also criticised the recommendation to eat more fat, saying the report cherry-picked evidence.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36345768

Grrrr!!!!  They had a report on the news about this, featuring a Type 2 who had been on 'maximum medications' (presumably excluding insulin), but who had followed an LCHF diet and had been able to come off all medication and was now scoring well on all the indicators for good health. It's not something that will work for everyone, and not sustainable or achievable for everyone, but to condemn the report as 'dangerous' and wheel out the same sorry old advice that has been clearly failing for decades is plain wrong  I thought the comment 'most people don't follow the guidelines anyway' as a reason for them failing to prevent obesity and associated problems is just astonishing!


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## New-journey (May 23, 2016)

Yes, I have just seen this too. Big Grrr. Also wonder why the low carb part is just ignored. I could imagine people only hear the high fat and not the low carb message. So frustrating.


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## Northerner (May 23, 2016)

New-journey said:


> Yes, I have just seen this too. Big Grrr. Also wonder why the low carb part is just ignored. I could imagine people only hear the high fat and not the low carb message. So frustrating.


What annoys me is that the evidence for LCHF is being totally rejected - why can't they accept that it is another strategy that people, especially if they have particular problems like diabetes, can benefit from? If you are medicated up to the eyeballs and walking around with constant high blood sugar levels that's far more harmful to your health than the alternative of extra fat, lower carbs and well-controlled levels


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## New-journey (May 23, 2016)

Absolutely! Well said.


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## Robin (May 23, 2016)

Interesting how the tone of the BBC article supports PHE. The article in our paper, (which frequently has LCHF advice in its'living' and 'health' sections) is much more supportive of the anti obesity charity, and gives PHE a brief footnote.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...30-years-of-flawed-dietary-advice-is-disastr/


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## Ljc (May 23, 2016)

New-journey said:


> Yes, I have just seen this too. Big Grrr. Also wonder why the low carb part is just ignored. I could imagine people only hear the high fat and not the low carb message. So frustrating.


Yes it's very frustrating.
Personally I don't believe in buying food labelled low fat ie yogurts or ready meals that sort of thing not only do I think they are unhealthy,  to me they don't taste nice and the texture leaves a lot to be desired plus often have too much added sugar.
Im finding it much easier to lose weight since I discovered low carbing on this forum.
Though I've cut down a lot I'm not actually low carbing and I'm certainly not scared of eating fats , I was bought up on them and was as skinny as a rake as a child.


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## Northerner (May 23, 2016)

Robin said:


> Interesting how the tone of the BBC article supports PHE. The article in our paper, (which frequently has LCHF advice in its'living' and 'health' sections) is much more supportive of the anti obesity charity, and gives PHE a brief footnote.
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...30-years-of-flawed-dietary-advice-is-disastr/


Yes, I was surprised about the tone of the article - the news report gave a more balanced view, I thought. They interviewed a professor chap on BBC Breakfast and he was in agreement with a lot of the report, but anti 'certain sat fats', vaguely talking about 'junk food and sugary drinks'. It wasn't quite as confrontational with one of the writers of the report as I thought it would be, but he didn't really offer much clarity. I think the whole point when you are using terms like 'healthy' and 'junk food' is that a lot of non-junk food isn't actually that healthy either e.g. fruit juice, 'low fat' products, most processed foods, white bread etc. How many people consider white bread to be junk food? Higher GI than table sugar!  One thing that slightly annoyed me was that the dietician woman stressed that insulin caused weight gain, but obviously didn't have time to go into detail, so I suspect it will have reinforced the fear of a lot of people with diabetes that 'insulin makes you fat'


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## Northerner (May 23, 2016)

Guardian report on the report :

http://www.theguardian.com/society/...eat-low-fat-diet-is-wrong-says-health-charity

In defence of current PHE guidelines, "“This country’s obesity epidemic is not caused by poor dietary guidelines; it is that we are not meeting them.”  Sorry, that is just horsesh**  So, people have not been influenced at all over the past 30-odd years by the demonising of fat and promotion of carbs, or been subjected to products catering to that ideology with little real hope of escape?


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## Ljc (May 23, 2016)

Northerner said:


> One thing that slightly annoyed me was that the dietician woman stressed that insulin caused weight gain,



If that's the case why isn't everyone fat, honestly it makes me want to spit .
Tbh since I've just st been on insulin I've found it easier to lose weight but perhaps nobody has told my insulin lol


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## Northerner (May 23, 2016)

Ljc said:


> If that's the case why isn't everyone fat, honestly it makes me want to spit .
> Tbh since I've just st been on insulin I've found it easier to lose weight but perhaps nobody has told my insulin lol


I've lost a stone since January, yet my insulin requirements haven't changed, it's due to the fact I stopped drinking alcohol  It's a shame because her point was valid - more carbs means you need more insulin, and if you don't use the energy insulin will store it as fat - it's thought to be a reason why many Type 2s are overweight at diagnosis, because of insulin resistance their pancreas is producing far too much insulin - this is the distinction she needed to make, but didn't have time.


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## Ljc (May 23, 2016)

Northerner said:


> I've lost a stone since January, yet my insulin requirements haven't changed, it's due to the fact I stopped drinking alcohol  It's a shame because her point was valid - more carbs means you need more insulin, and if you don't use the energy insulin will store it as fat - it's thought to be a reason why many Type 2s are overweight at diagnosis, because of insulin resistance their pancreas is producing far too much insulin - this is the distinction she needed to make, but didn't have time.


I agree with you about the carbs etc.
If I hadn't  put so much weight on through eating too much .......
Still then I wouldn't have needed to find this forum and that would have been


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## Northerner (May 23, 2016)

Here's the little report about the man who used LCHF successfully to manage his diabetes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36356756

Diabetes UK have also released a statement of their position:

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/About_us/News/Diabetes-UKs-statement-on-todays-NOF-report/


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## Annette (May 23, 2016)

Sounds like DUK are finding their seat on the fence quite comfy, tbh...


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## Northerner (May 23, 2016)

Annette Anderson said:


> Sounds like DUK are finding their seat on the fence quite comfy, tbh...


Yes, I did have similar thoughts!  An improvement from past positions though, I think. It's true that a diet needs to be sustainable, which is why I would be an advocate of finding your own particular tolerances so you don't unnecessarily restrict your diet and consequently find it hard to live with


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## Martin Canty (May 23, 2016)

Who remembers tubs of bacon drippings in their refrigerator when growing up? Or their mothers cooking with lard.... I won't suggest that we were all skinny then but certainly there was not the T2 & obesity rates (along with other chronic conditions)

I must admit that I went from about 170 (roughly my current weight) to 200lb quite quickly in the mid 80's; after leaving home & eating a predominantly a carb based diet. At DX I was 220lb, still on a high carb & relatively low fat diet.
I went LCHF in the new year, at that time, though my numbers were better, I was having issues with Glyburide. Quit Glyburide within a week & since then my FBG is quite comfortably in the 4.something range. At DX my triglycerides were through the roof (600+ in US measurement), last check in February they were OK (except for slightly elevated LDL which could be accounted for by having just started LCHF)

IMHO there is a lot to be said for LCHF, it's not for everybody though!!!! I am eating a whole lot better now, feel better, more energy. There are other ways of eating e.g. HCLF plant-based diets which are reported to benefit T2's but at the end of the day I think that it's the quality of the food that makes a difference.

Now, down to the conspiracy theory bit (I don't usually subscribe to conspiracy theories but in this case....) There is so much money to be made in the 'diet food' industry that it behooves them to keep the population in a permanent state of dieting. Reading ingredient lists of ready meals reveals so many hidden carbs, it's like a chemical concoction rather than real food. The food industry would suffer greatly if we went back to eating real food.


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## Northerner (May 23, 2016)

Yup, it was a treat for us to have dripping on bread crusts, with a sprinkling of salt!


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## Pine Marten (May 23, 2016)

I was never a fan but my mum loved her 'bread 'n' drip'! 

As well as there not being the T2 & obesity levels then, there didn't appear to be so many allergies either


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## Ljc (May 23, 2016)

Northerner said:


> Yup, it was a treat for us to have dripping on bread crusts, with a sprinkling of salt!



Not forgetting suet puds , belly of pork, a bag of crackling with chips. 
Yummmmmm


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## Martin Canty (May 23, 2016)

Ljc said:


> belly of pork


Hmmmm.... Loved them.....


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## grovesy (May 23, 2016)

Public health have also been tweeting all day saying it is on dodgy research.


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## Martin Canty (May 23, 2016)

grovesy said:


> dodgy research


Really? Ancel Keys 7 Countries study is hardly the paradigm of quality research; hand picking populations which supported his hypothesis.


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## Northerner (May 23, 2016)

grovesy said:


> Public health have also been tweeting all day saying it is on dodgy research.


I find it strange that something like the Newcastle Diet, based on 11 participants and as yet no long term follow up (with 4 of the 11 failing to go the initial distance) can be hailed as a 'cure', gaining support from organisations as a breakthrough - yet something like this can be dismissed as 'dodgy' and contrary to all the available evidence.  The same went for gastric band ops - they were hailed as a cure, yet in many cases, even after the op, patients have subsequently failed to manage their levels well. The strategy needs to fit the individual. I find it hard to accept that the main reason why we have an obesity crisis is because most people actively ignored the guidelines...


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## Northerner (May 23, 2016)

Martin Canty said:


> Really? Ancel Keys 7 Countries study is hardly the paradigm of quality research; hand picking populations which supported his hypothesis.


Yes, it's a bit like when I asked a GP to explain why I should take statins, and he mumbled on about some Northern Chinese tribe with low cholesterol and no cardiovascular disease  Picking irrelevant research doesn't prove your point very well


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## Annette (May 23, 2016)

Lies, damned lies, and statistics...


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## Maz2 (May 24, 2016)

I found this astonishing too. I was recently told I was a high risk if I did not change my diet and lifestyle.  I am not overweight.  When I checked my carb loads and took advice from here I realised what I thought was a healthy diet was not.  Too much fruit, particularly at night, was a starter, not to mention pinching dried fruit before I went to bed!!.  I thought I read yesterday that they were saying we should have a quarter of our calorie intake as "carbs."  For me that would be about 400 calories.  I reckon I eat about 1600 cals a day. Cannot eat 2000 as have sedentary job.  My previous carb load was about 250 to 300.  I have reduced this now to about 70 to 120 ish. If I had carried on with a carb load of 400 cals a day I dread to think what I would be like!!! Cannot have another HBA1c until July so not sure what effect it has had but would not wish to increase the carb load to what they are suggesting. Must at some stage get a machine.


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