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Eat Well For Less (BBC1)

I dont understand why carbs of 230g are recommended for children at all.. are they really, really essential? I never had that Qty of carbs a day as a child... (or adult)... Is this why all the critical illnesses are increasing and todays children are expected to have a decreased life span?
 
I found this show interesting but only from a financial point of view. But that was all I was expecting. In terms of my own personal diet and diabetes, I'll make my own choices and discuss with my DN.

I did feel it was sympathetic towards diabetes, though. Which has to be a good thing.
 
I think it did well at presenting the realities of living with type 1, the pain in the neck of carb counting and I thought they explained why they had to carb count well.

They said they were buying low carb ready meals for Harry because they didn't know how to carb count a home cooked meal and with a ready meal it's all there on the label. So I thought it was a shame that when mum started cooking meals there was no discussion on how to carb count a recipe. Dear Harry's mum, it's totally doable, use my fitness pal or cook and count.
 
Bobbin said:
I'm surprised no one on here picked up on the whole wheat pasta recommended by the expert, but it was the shop value brand white pasta in the shopping bags that they'd been feeding them.
The school lunch with the fruit drink and crisps.... My kids aren't diabetic and they always went school with a healthier lunch than that.
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I picked it up and was shouting at the TV. Yes the program was about feeding a family for less, and is a little formulaic. However, they chose to feature a type 1 diabetic, but didn't then talk about how to easily work out carbs in home cooked food or indeed use wholewheat versions of basic foods. I do feel, that as a growing child he needed to eat a good all round diet, featuring all food groups. But with the healthiest carbs possible. And why he wasn't drinking water at lunch, I have no idea. Most schools I have worked in insist on this. Indeed they could have reduced the bill even more by turning on the tap at home instead of opening a can or bottle full of fizz whether sugar free or not.
 
Well I finally got to watch the programme and felt that Harry's mum was doing pretty good job of knowing to much starchy carbs was not good. What I did think though was that he was having an awful lot of protein as his snacks were mostly meat and he ate a lot of them everyday. Ok his mum gave him those because she knew they were virtually carb free but to me that was much to much protein for a child of his age he must on some days have been eating more than the amount of recommended protein for a adult .I think the daily pressure on the mum was not Harry's diabetes but the fact that she had to cook a different meal for each of them every meal time because they were all so fussy At least with the new way of eating they were having the same meals and Harry was not having so many meaty snacks so it seemed pretty good . No mention of his BG levels were made after the new diet the only time we saw that was at the beginning of the programme when it was 6.8 which he said was good so they must have been happy with them after he started on the new food regime.
 
Well I was fairly appalled by the program. Yes, it helped highlight the problems of managing T1 in a child and handled that fairly well but the diet mantra from the 'nutritionist' was the usual rubbish about the brain needing carbs etc when the average person can get all the glucose he/she needs from fats and protein. The supported input from DUK was equally stupid. They should have mentioned the need for the fibre within the carbs which vegetables can largely provide and the carb itself is less important. Then there was the bit about saturated fat and salt being 'major' cause of heart disease when the evidence is very suspect......
 
Pinkorchid said:
Well I finally got to watch the programme and felt that Harry's mum was doing pretty good job of knowing to much starchy carbs was not good. What I did think though was that he was having an awful lot of protein as his snacks were mostly meat and he ate a lot of them everyday. Ok his mum gave him those because she knew they were virtually carb free but to me that was much to much protein for a child of his age he must on some days have been eating more than the amount of recommended protein for a adult .I think the daily pressure on the mum was not Harry's diabetes but the fact that she had to cook a different meal for each of them every meal time because they were all so fussy At least with the new way of eating they were having the same meals and Harry was not having so many meaty snacks so it seemed pretty good . No mention of his BG levels were made after the new diet the only time we saw that was at the beginning of the programme when it was 6.8 which he said was good so they must have been happy with them after he started on the new food regime.
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There was also a 9.6.
 
I go well over the 200g carb and 70g fat guideline daily amount but tend to eat for comfort because most of the time i'm depressed and don't care if i'm damaging my body than eating to function properly
 
douglas99 said:
Non diabetics can get to 11.1, so no point in shaming a single 9.6.
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Not trying to shame anyone, as I understand the guidelines a 9.6 is outside of the range "After eating (post-prandial) levels should be below 9 mmol/l when tested 2 hours after a meal". Your point about an 11.1 actually supports and underlines the direction of my views about the type of food which causes these highs.
 
pinewood said:
Anyone else watching this? The family have a child with T1D and it's interesting to see their shopping habits etc. with carb counting.

Unfortunately BBC got a few things massively wrong though, particularly when they proclaimed that "1 in 10 people in the UK has Type 1" .... rather than 1 in 10 diabetics!
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I re watched the episode and they say 1 in 10 people, with diabetes, have type 1.
 
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