Firstly thanks to all the good folks that shared their thoughts with me before the Preventing Illness conference.
Here’s my feedback from the event.
The event was attended by about 200 people from the world of science, medicine and public health. Most of them were mid-level such as local directors of Public Health England or Clinical Commissioning Groups and a few movers and shakers.
About 50% of the speeches and workshops were about diabetes – these were mostly looking at the scale of problem, the failings in prevention and treatment and some of new technology ideas to support diabetics. The failure rates on Type 1 diabetes are particularly worrying.
LCHF diet etc. You might be aware of the Eatwell Plate. It is the NHS recommended balanced diet for normal healthy people: http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodfood/Pages/the-eatwell-guide.aspx. Many of the delegates made the point that they understand that the Eatwell Plate is not necessarily the right diet for many diabetics and that there should be a greater focus on low carb.
But…..firstly, any change in the official recommended diet by the NHS takes time to implement. It needs to be thoroughly supported by research, have wide considering of the options, consult with numerous organisations and individuals. It also needs to be supported by a training, implementation and communication program. All of which takes time, public policy moves painfully slowly.
Secondly, there is great concern about how you educate on LCHF. A good long-term LCHF diet is actually very complex to get right and very easy to get wrong, and if you get it wrong the consequences can be quite serious. A LCHF long-term diet means very little of the wrong carbs, sufficient of the right carbs to give you enough fibre, good fat but not so you exceed your calorie requirements and very little of the bad fats + you need protein + minerals etc. They need to figure out how you effectively communicate this to an audience that may not be that engaged or educated.
Thirdly....there is very little resources due to government cuts
If you have followed my other rants on this blog then you’ll know that I was recently presenting at the Childhood Obesity Summit and a big conference for the hospitality industry. This week I have been meeting with Jamie Oliver to discuss how we can lobby the BBC to improve the presentation of food on children’s TV and what we want from London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, who is very supportive of our work. One theme comes through in everything I do – we diabetics need to be making more noise if we want to be heard.
Here’s my feedback from the event.
The event was attended by about 200 people from the world of science, medicine and public health. Most of them were mid-level such as local directors of Public Health England or Clinical Commissioning Groups and a few movers and shakers.
About 50% of the speeches and workshops were about diabetes – these were mostly looking at the scale of problem, the failings in prevention and treatment and some of new technology ideas to support diabetics. The failure rates on Type 1 diabetes are particularly worrying.
LCHF diet etc. You might be aware of the Eatwell Plate. It is the NHS recommended balanced diet for normal healthy people: http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodfood/Pages/the-eatwell-guide.aspx. Many of the delegates made the point that they understand that the Eatwell Plate is not necessarily the right diet for many diabetics and that there should be a greater focus on low carb.
But…..firstly, any change in the official recommended diet by the NHS takes time to implement. It needs to be thoroughly supported by research, have wide considering of the options, consult with numerous organisations and individuals. It also needs to be supported by a training, implementation and communication program. All of which takes time, public policy moves painfully slowly.
Secondly, there is great concern about how you educate on LCHF. A good long-term LCHF diet is actually very complex to get right and very easy to get wrong, and if you get it wrong the consequences can be quite serious. A LCHF long-term diet means very little of the wrong carbs, sufficient of the right carbs to give you enough fibre, good fat but not so you exceed your calorie requirements and very little of the bad fats + you need protein + minerals etc. They need to figure out how you effectively communicate this to an audience that may not be that engaged or educated.
Thirdly....there is very little resources due to government cuts
If you have followed my other rants on this blog then you’ll know that I was recently presenting at the Childhood Obesity Summit and a big conference for the hospitality industry. This week I have been meeting with Jamie Oliver to discuss how we can lobby the BBC to improve the presentation of food on children’s TV and what we want from London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, who is very supportive of our work. One theme comes through in everything I do – we diabetics need to be making more noise if we want to be heard.
