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Saturday 26 February 2011

Dietitians and Antis "Let them eat cake"

It’s no accident that this blog and our website features vegetables prominently. When some of us started low carbing, (getting on for three years ago), we were often told by a demented dietitian, scurvy was on it’s way. We were also eating so much protein, our kidneys would be wrecked in no time, and the amount of fat we were consuming, was a one way ticket to the knackers yard. With no shortage of low carb antis (some suffering from diabetic complications and high BG numbers) joining the chorus of doom, pushing a lowcarb lifystle was not the most relaxing of pastimes.

What seemed to escape the antis, was that we realised very quickly, that high BG numbers were highly dangerous and our first priority was to reduce them, if possible, to non diabetic. If we could do that with no or minimal medication, so much the better. Within a week, all of us saw our BG numbers plummet. At our next hospital blood tests, our home BG testing and great results were confirmed, lowcarbing was the way to reverse our type two diabetes, please note ! I did not say cure.

After reversing our diabetes, we were not slow in realising, what was the point of obtaining non diabetic blood numbers, at the expense of nutrient deficiency and leaving ourselves open to other health problems. The foods that were dropped, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, high carb/starch, the sort of foods most dietitians, the NHS and DUK tell us we should eat, the foods that guarantee highly elevated BG numbers and expensive medication to control (often failing), are nutritionally very poor. Check out the “lowcarb diets-what are we missing" post at the beginning of this blog.

Still with me ? Good.

So, back to vegetables. Fresh vegetables are now the mainstay of our diets, in fact one of our team is a vegetarian. We add high quality protein foods, fruit (mainly berries) seeds and nuts. Total calories are topped up, with the fats that man has eaten for hundreds of thousands of years, before obesity, heart disease and type two diabetes became the huge epidemics they are today.

One more point. The dietitian, who can be spotted around various forums, squawking “it’s the junk” or “Wales are playing today” or “LOL” stated this week. “I have been misquoted by the press on several occaisions so now if they ask me for a comment i am very caeful what I say - I am a dietitian by the way!” and “Constipation is a problem for alot of low carbers - it is obvious why the fibre intake is low.” is wrong as usual. With our high vegetable intakes and the use of seeds such as ground flax, constipation is not a problem for us. Perhaps she could send her clients over here and we can put them straight ! And no, we are not laughing out loud. For us diabetics, diabetes is a very serious subject. Something the dietitian should take on board!


"Let them eat cake" supposedly spoken by "a great princess" upon learning that the peasants had no bread. Although they are commonly attributed to Marie Antoinette there is no record of these words ever having been uttered by her.

5 comments:

dave said...

For the life of me i cant think who you are blogging about :-)

Anonymous said...

I'm a member of Diabetes.co.uk and I know the dietitian you are referring to and have read many of her posts, she seems to held in awe by the moderators who never challenge her, despite the fact she is putting putting forward nutritional comments totally at odds with published values.
As far as her 40% calories from carbohydrates goes I'm not a low carber, but that amount of carbs would put my blood sugars at dangerous levels.
I'd seriously question her credentials no self respecting dietitian would say that you need potatoes for folic acid, I had gestational diabetes which unfortunately developed and I am now a Type 2. At no time was I told by my dietitian about the need for potatoes as source of folic acid, in fact she was insistent that I should keep my intake of all starchy foods to an absolute minimum as it was important to keep my blood sugars within pre-set targets, the emphasis was on green vegetables plus a supplement.

Gill

Anonymous said...

Below is a quote from the Dietitian on the DCUK forum, it's not hard to understand why we doubt her claims to be a qualified Dietitian.


"What do you miss from carbs - fibre ( that seems to be why constipation is a problem) folic acid and vit C ( pots) or and seratonin which increase from carb consumption and makes you happy - that might account for the loss of a sense of humour in alot of low carbers or is it the hangover from all the alcohol they seem to consume !"

Anonymous said...

Does seem a bit unfair she does not get a right to reply!

Lowcarb team member said...

Anyone and everyone has a right to reply here !!! Don't confuse us with other places !

Eddie