DUK Number One UK diabetes charity still pushing the diet of death !

Having a trawl around some diabetes forums I came across this story. A very well controlled diabetic (surprise, surprise a lowcarber) sent a letter to Diabetes UK, not be confused with the website and forum diabetes.co.uk. The person had sent a letter to DUK part of below.

“As the leading representatives of diabetics in the UK, DUK is very influential and yet on the web site and magazine, there seems to be very little encouragement of diabetics to eat a lower carb diet. The UK's record for attaining safe blood glucose levels among Type 1s is shockingly poor and among Type 2s it is not much better. As an influential lobbying organisation, I believe it is important that DUK puts the lower carb message to the forefront of its literature and helps improve the figures for those attaining safe HbA1cs.”

And this was the response from DUK.:

“I can appreciate your comments on low-carb diets and how in your case it was important for you to change your diet to obtain control over your diabetes.

With regards to whether people should eat low carbohydrate diets and diet information in general, Diabetes UK believes that for most people it is sensible to eat a balanced healthy diet which is low in fat (especially saturated fats), low in sugar and highly refined carbohydrates, and low in salt.

What we want is to help people to find a way of eating healthily that they can stick to and enjoy - and for most people with diabetes (and for most people without diabetes as well) that means that people are better served by a diet that incorporates a reasonable portion of starchy carbohydrate at each meal. If you are overweight, it is important to lose weight by watching the amount you eat as well as the kind of foods you eat

The actual amount of carbohydrate that the body needs varies depending on your age, weight and activity levels, but it should make up about half of what you eat and drink. For good health most of this should be from starchy carbohydrate, fruits and some dairy foods, with no more than one fifth of your total carbohydrate to come from added sugar or table sugar.

I will pass your email onto our relevant team for their views and I thank you for bringing this issue to our attention.

We do hope this has been helpful but please do get in touch with us again if you need to. You can also call the Careline on the number below if you would like to talk things through.”


The gruesome NHS audit figures for HbA1c for England. HbA1c is arguably the most important factor to avoid diabetic complications. Most of the numbers in this audit are way above the level serious organ damage occurs.

Results for England. The National Diabetes Audit 2010-2011
Percentage of registered Type 1patients in England
HbA1c >= 6.5% (48 mmol/mol) = 92.6%
HbA1c >   7.5% (58 mmol/mol) = 71.3%
HbA1c > 10.0% (86 mmol/mol) = 18.1%

Percentage of registered Type 2 patients in England
HbA1c >= 6.5% (48 mmol/mol = 72.5%
HbA1c > 7.5% (58 mmol/mol) = 32.6%
HbA1c >10.0% (86 mmol/mol) = 6.8%

Similar stats. reported for the previous five years. 

Eddie

Story honestly stolen from the Eat To Your Meter Diabetes Forum.