Hi Dave,
The argument that you will hear a lot of on this forum (and is also a hot topic on most other forums that I have seen) is over the "official" dietary guidelines issued by the government's medical advisors that everyone should eat a diet that is far higher in carbohydrate than anything else (the high carb, low protein and very low fat diet).
Even if this was good advice for the general (non-diabetic) public - and that has now been seriously questioned in the US where the original idea came from (see my note at the end!) - a high carbohydrate diet is plainly absurd for a diabetic. Diabetics struggle to control blood sugar levels and what causes blood sugar levels to rise? - Carbohydrates.
Many newly diagnosed Type 2 diabetics rigidly follow the dietary advice they are given by GP/nurse/dietician to follow the high carb route. Then they find their blood sugars climb ever higher, resulting in higher doses of medication, until finally they reach the point where no amount of tablets will help them and they have to go on to insulin injections. Some people will work out for themselves that their diet is not helping them, others get advice from this and similar forums that they are free to follow or not as they see fit. All we can do on here is to point out the facts - which is something you won't see from any official body!
To finish, how on earth did we get into this situation where we are being given mis-advice by those that we are supposed to be able to trust? Quite easy really. The UK has never been strong on scientific research programmes, especially ones that involve nutrition which by their nature require large test groups that need to be closely monitored over long periods of time. This kind of research is enormously expensive and way outside the financial means of our State funded system , so we have always relied on research undertaken by countries with deeper pockets (put another way USA). Whatever they recommend is what we follow suit and also recommend.
That is fine when that research can be relied upon to be (a) accurate, and (b) impartial. Unfortunately too often it isn't. The whole concept of a healthy modern diet was dreamed up by just one eminent, highly charismatic and publicly popular US scientist (think of a cross between Jamie Oliver and David Bellamy!). His proposal was that dietary fat is totally to blame for heart disease. So popular was he that whatever he said just had to be right and was accepted without question. It was the basis of what became the food triangle in the US and a few years later the healthy eating plate in the UK. Unfortunately it has taken more than 30 years in which obesity and diabetes has reached epidemic proportions, and heart disease has gone through the roof, for the US medical authorities to start to question the original findings! Recent research has been undertaken by the most eminent and totally independent research body in the US, and it has shown the original research to be totally (almost criminally) flawed. They found that original research that didn't support the desired outcome was simply ignored as irrelevant! Some "results" were found to be not even the result of research - just a scientist's opinion unbacked by any facts! And the final nail in the coffin of the high carb and low protein diet was that the university in which the research was undertaken was entirely funded by an association of American wheat producers. Was it any surprise that the recommendation was to eat as much bread and pasta as America's growers could produce?
Perhaps the biggest shock to come from the new research was that fat and protein is not the biggest cause of heart disease. It is carbohydrate. The tests proved beyond any doubt whatsoever that those on the highest carb diets have the highest risk of heart attacks, while those on the highest protein diets have the lowest risk. There will of course be those who simply refuse to accept the new findings. Unfortunately "head in sand syndrome" is almost as prevalent as diabetes and obesity, but the only losers will be themselves.
So what now - well in the US the government has taken on board the new research (funded this time by the American Medical Association to avoid any bias). The result of this is a completely new recommendation that a healthy diet should comprise EQUAL measures of carbs and protein, with a slightly lower level of fats. But will the UK ever scrap the current recommendations and follow the US's lead? For them to do so would be an admission that for the last 25 years they didn't know what they were doing and have managed to get it completely wrong. Apart from loss of face (and inevitably votes!) probably the greatest fear is of damages claims from people who have blindly followed the guidelines and become ill as a result. Perhaps one day we will adopt the new US healthy eating philosophy, but probably not until we start to look ridiculous by being the only country in the world to still stand by a completely discredited policy.
If youv'e managed to read right through to the end - well done - I just hope I haven't bored you to death!!)
