Facility Nutrition Nurse

There you have it, the facts. From a professional

I was first sent to a NHS nutritionalist almost 9 years ago with my T2. It was coming up to Christmas. She was obese - strange ad for a nutritionalist?
Anyway, I asked her (being innocent and naive) about mince pies. Her words "I'm not going to ruin your Christmas. If you want a couple of mince pies, you have them" (Didn't want to ruin my Christmas, but apparently didn't mind ruining my life)
Her parting words were "On the way out, their is a tin of Roses chocolates a grateful patient gave me. Help yourself"
My wife was with me, as we assumed there would be all sorts of dietary changes she'd have to make. But apparently not. Just eat loads of spuds. We both agreed this diabetes thing wasn't so bad after all.
I had some more Roses chocs over Christmas, after a mince pie, and tested with my new testing machine. Interesting readings.

Grazer said:

I was first sent to a NHS nutritionalist almost 9 years ago with my T2. It was coming up to Christmas. She was obese - strange ad for a nutritionalist?
Anyway, I asked her (being innocent and naive) about mince pies. Her words "I'm not going to ruin your Christmas. If you want a couple of mince pies, you have them" (Didn't want to ruin my Christmas, but apparently didn't mind ruining my life)
Her parting words were "On the way out, their is a tin of Roses chocolates a grateful patient gave me. Help yourself"
My wife was with me, as we assumed there would be all sorts of dietary changes she'd have to make. But apparently not. Just eat loads of spuds. We both agreed this diabetes thing wasn't so bad after all.
I had some more Roses chocs over Christmas, after a mince pie, and tested with my new testing machine. Interesting readings.

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Hi Grazer, it does make the eyes roll! Don't forget though that obesity is not necessarily down to bad nutrition so there's no reason why she shouldn't be a nutritionalist.

You are right, but from what she was telling me about her food, and encouraging me to eat, I'm pretty confident it was.

Some would argue that for the first time in modern history we are not living longer. What is known is that we are living sicker. Kendrick reckons that 30 years ago T2 was a disease of the over 65s. In that time T2, obesity and cardiac conditions have risen.
In N.America today children are being found to have fatty liver and Ivor Cummins mentions (in an aside so no details) that a child has been diagnosed as T2, that child was two and a half years old. Lustig cites two babies each of six months old having raised bg levels This means that the diagnosis rate has not gone up because people are living longer, all age groups are affected now.

I was listening to a podcast the other day and the boffin was comparing the progneses of a ten year old child with T2 and and an adult who developes the condition later in life. It was not pleasant listening.

Guzzler said:

I was listening to a podcast the other day and the boffin was comparing the progneses of a ten year old child with T2 and and an adult who developes the condition later in life. It was not pleasant listening.

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Do you remember where/how you found that podcast?

briped said:

Do you remember where/how you found that podcast?

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I shall have a look at my YouTube history, please bear with me and I will try to find it.

Edited to add.

It was possibly this one but I couldn't swear to it. Ludwig is a Paediatric Endocrinologist so chancesare he has something to say on the matter.

Guzzler said:

I shall have a look at my YouTube history, please bear with me and I will try to find it.

Edited to add.

It was possibly this one but I couldn't swear to it. Ludwig is a Paediatric Endocrinologist so chancesare he has something to say on the matter.

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Thanks a lot, Guzzler. I'll tune in right away

Grazer said:

She was obese - strange ad for a nutritionalist?

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Just FYI really.

The title "dietitian" is protected by law. So you can't call yourself a dietitian unless you're properly qualified and registered with the HCPC. The title of nutritionists isn't protected by law, so anyone can advertise their services as a nutritionist. Maybe she just called herself a nutritionist. There is an Association of Nutritionists and there's the British Association of Nutritional Therapists both of which require some sort of entrance requirement like a degree in Nutritional Medicine.

The Nutritional Therapist is more involved with the science that interprets the interaction of nutrients and other substances in food in relation to maintenance, growth, reproduction, health and disease of an organism. It includes food intake, absorption, assimilation, biosynthesis, catabolism, and excretion. So, a bit more complicated than a dietician.

Having looked at some of the training material I found that they also seem to go for the eatwell plate type of thing. However, I have been consulting a Nutritional Therapist for some years and she is very much a low carb advocate. You're right that it's a strange advert for your nutritional therapist to be overweight but she will be more concerned about what you eat and not how much. I also think that some NTs can completely forget that one is diabetic and not appreciate the constant task of avoiding carbs.

KK123 said:

Hi Grazer, it does make the eyes roll! Don't forget though that obesity is not necessarily down to bad nutrition so there's no reason why she shouldn't be a nutritionalist.

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Totally agree with you.

I am obese, and have been obese for my entire adult life. Interested in nutrition all my life. Lots of reasons for my size, including PCOS, prolactinoma and reactive hypoglycaemia, vit D deficiency and insulin resistance.
Long term use of very low carbing has reduced my weight a little and improved my health a lot.

Does my weight mean that I shouldn't have opinions on food, eating and health? Or have a career of my choosing.
I think not.

I can remember a wonderful post from someone (sorry, can't remember who) about their Diabetes Nurse, who also happened to be a diabetic nurse, and who was using low carb on herself, and suggesting it to her patients. She had lost 6 stone on LC, and had something like 4 stone still to go. Marvellous achievement.

How many of her patients took one look at her, saw a fat nurse, and dismissed her advice because she was 4 stone overweight, and therefore didn't have a clue?

Obesity in and of itself isn’t necessarily a marker of ill health. It’s actually a perfectly natural mechanism that nature uses in order to safely stash away unused glucose so that it may later be reconverted for use as fuel. In the context of metabolic dysfunction it’s even protective. Intra organic fat is the real harbinger of problems, but people are only interested in the “eat less move more” b******t mantra.

Looks like I might have offended some in my comments about the nutritionist I saw being obese, so apologies if I did. My concern was not about her weight, but about the fact she said it was fine to eat mince pies, and offered me sweets. The obese comment was because I went into the room with my expectation of what a nutritionist would look like, never having met one, expecting to see some sylph like creature resembling Michelle Pfeiffer (yes I'm old) and, well, she didn't.

Grazer said:

expecting to see some sylph like creature resembling Michelle Pfeiffer

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you wish!

But if she was, and she still said the same thing about mince pies and helping yourself to some roses chocolate would it have made it any better or worse?

Grazer said:

Looks like I might have offended some in my comments about the nutritionist I saw being obese, so apologies if I did. My concern was not about her weight, but about the fact she said it was fine to eat mince pies, and offered me sweets. The obese comment was because I went into the room with my expectation of what a nutritionist would look like, never having met one, expecting to see some sylph like creature resembling Michelle Pfeiffer (yes I'm old) and, well, she didn't.

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Lol, well I'm always expecting George Clooney but mostly get George Formby but whilst we're on the subject how many thin nutritionists follow a 'healthy' diet I wonder?, you simply cannot tell.

slip said:

you wish!

But if she was, and she still said the same thing about mince pies and helping yourself to some roses chocolate would it have made it any better or worse?

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Michelle Pfeiffer? She could tell me anything and I'd do it. Remember her as CatWoman in Batman? When she first dressed up in black plastic bin bags that suddenly looked like sprayed-on latex? Is it really just me?

Grazer said:

Michelle Pfeiffer? She could tell me anything and I'd do it. Remember her as CatWoman in Batman? When she first dressed up in black plastic bin bags that suddenly looked like sprayed-on latex? Is it really just me?

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So... it would be no good Michelle Pfeiffer taking your blood pressure readings then...

Grazer said:

Looks like I might have offended some in my comments about the nutritionist I saw being obese, so apologies if I did.

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I know exactly what you're talking about, I'm not offended, I hope nobody else was. Many years ago I used to follow Tesco Diets and because they weren't so many men they asked me to do a photo shoot for their advertising and I said exactly what you did "I wasn't exactly a good advert for the diet as I was still very heavy" (can't remember exact details, it's a long time ago).

Ha! I don't know what you are all complaining about.
When was the last time you saw a male nurse at a doctor's surgery? Eh?

And if I ever DO encounter one, I would like to place an advance order for George Clooney. I know he is probably overqualified, having been an ER doc, but a girl can dream...