I have just done the xpert course. The leader was really nice, but didn't really know much.
She was t1d and told us that it was all our own fault. Not in so many words, but she did say that she keeps telling her husband that if he does not watch his weight he will end up with t2d.
She said that there are no long term studies of lchf, didn't know about its use for other health problems or why its a good idea.
She said take metformin with food because it works on the food response (?) and that it is useless to take it without food. Not because of tummy problems, but because of the insulin response!
She took time to explain the starvation mode (I kid you not) and said that t2ds must not use intermittent fasting.
She said that we could eat up to 260grms carbs a day, but less was ok. But not too much less. But we needed to eat carbs because that is brain food.
She said we can eat anything we like, so long as we don't eat too much. No mention of carb craving, hunger response etc.
She di9dnt know anything about reasons for t2d, except we are all fat. Not everyone in class is overweight. I am not, but she made no mention of that)
She did give us all a glucose metre and said she would ensure we all get given strips. Hurray!! But then said we only need to test once or in exceptional circumstances, twice a month. Not a day. A month. How that helps I am not sure.
On the other hand she did explain food labels, which was correct.
It has taken nearly a year to get on this course, and I am so glad for the delay. If I had got on it at the beginning I would not have gone looking for myself and found this forum, Jason fung and keto.
I did start out thinking I was going to argue, but decided not to--not because I am shy but because I think that for about 2/3 of the class this was probably the only input they have had into t2d. Some of us had already done a fair bit of digging, but most had not. Some had never heard of carbohydrates although we all had heard of calories.
Nothing I said was going to make any difference to her and it would have confused some of the others. I did disagree with her on the section about carbs and fasting, but she just skated over the bits I disagreed with--and just carried on.
My experience has just shown me that no one size fits all. Some people needed a great deal more than the few classes that were offered and some (like me) probably didn't need any. It is not a good system but is better than nothing.
There is a written appraisal and I will be honest. But I don't think much will change. It takes actual money to change anything. And as long as the nhs is willing to pay for this rubbish it will keep getting pushed on us as helpful.
Strangely enough, the book was far more helpful, more balanced and much more up to date. Think there might be a problem with the training.
Sorry, not a funny response!!!
