I'm home and I've calmed down now but I am truly shocked on so many different levels. I'll try to break it down.
The first is how little interest people have on their condition and how they seem to plod along regardless, not taking it seriously or owning their prospects. That they want to be sat down and talked at for 2.5 hours a week and be fed the wrong information. Pun intended
The second is how ridiculously behind the times their philosophy is. This Eat Well plate is fine - if you aren't diabetic. They presented the ideal plate for someone without diabetes - ON A DIABETES COURSE!!! ***?! And why is no one questioning it?
They advocated eating dried fruits and cited that dried fruit and whole fresh fruit were in equal nutritional values when most people know dried fruit is significantly higher in sugar. Cue McGee here - I got out the iPhone and googled it, then shared my results with the group 'dried apricot contains 36g carb per 100g and fresh apricot contains just 7g per 100g.'
The leader said I wasn't comparing portion sizes, therefore I was incorrect. I piped up and reiterated they were both based on 100g at which point the rest of the group were shocked. But the worst thing wasn't that it was incorrect - it was that she instantly tried to brush it under the table and poo poo the correct data instead of saying 'oh, I'll look into it' or 'yes you're right!'
She then went on to promote the 5:2 diet and told people to eat fruit and veg all day and drink a pint of milk on a fasting day!!! What she should have said was people should research it and decide if it could work for them and explain why you starve on two days a week. I announced I'd done it and was told by doc to stop, to which she had nothing to say.
Then I announced I'm on LCHF and lost lots of weight, ate a whole lot less, felt happier than ever on it and my BG is now stable....her response was to **** off the go to stats, to which I stated mine are all in check. I also presented the facts that the Diet Doctor promotes - that low fat = more carbs = diabetes increase. Again, they quickly moved on.
At tea break I was the only one left in the room with the two presenters and I tried to strike up a discussion with them about modern diets and info, to which they physically turned their backs on me and wouldn't look at me!!!
They couldn't handle having someone question their advice.
I sat there for the next 90 mins literally counting down the seconds til home time.
I am so infuriated with this. If diabetes is such a huge epidemic and is a burden on the nhs so much, why aren't they open for a debate?
Fair enough there isn't any money in the system to find testing strips for everyone, but don't poo poo testing individual foods if that person wants to. It is disgusting.
Above all what breaks my heart is that people will go away with all this advice onboard and stick to their recommendations, only to be tested again in three months' time to discover the same, if not worse results. The doc will accuse the patient of not taking control, the patient will feel disheartened that despite all their efforts and will ultimately just give up
I wish I was rich - then I'd set up a revolutionary diabetes course with RELEVANT and up to date information, instead of this Fisher Price brainwashing.
Thank you!
Deb xxxx
