Keeping schtum

I'm a pretendy low carber who tries to be goodbut falls off the wagon more than someone who falls off a wagon for a living but... the example set by true low carb folks is what inspires me to keep trying. Thanks to you and others like you I manage to keep trying and have got my readings down, if not to brilliant levels, at least to fairly good ones.

Why some folk feel the need to be so vehement when they don't agree with someone else's choices is beyond me. It's almost part of the human condition that automatic antagonism follows news of someone else's success.

I've done quite a lot of reading both on here and on other sites and in books and my one conclusion is that no one diet suits everyone. Some people do well on the low fat/high carb diet. Others are more suited to low carb/high fat and protein. What works for me probably won't work for others but I wouldn't dream of slagging off their choices. Do what works for you, post your success stories and let others make up their own minds. Oh, and stuff the twonks!

Not easy is it Simon? We know a Paleo/Primal diet works - we live it, yet people are still happy to ridicule it. Maybe trying to point out what we know will help, but I think it's a bit of a long shot. One day folks will see the benefits of low carbs, but until the medical profession are prepared to openly state it works, then people will debunk it. Just keep eating a diet that works for you and let the nay sayers get fatter and fatter and more and more sick, then they might listen.

swimmer2 said:

I just read an article on the Huffington Post taking a look (and actually a pop) at the Paleo diet. It repeated the usual stuff about how grains are vital and yoghurt should be low fat, meat should be lean etc..

I started to post a comment and then realised I had to sell my Facebook soul to do so, so gave up.

Now I'm wondering whether defending the way I now eat is worth the bother. I eat this way because I think it's good for me - so far it demonstrably is. I try to help new arrivals here because Diabetes is a killer and it just seems right to try and pass on any knowledge I've I've discovered. But as far as the rest of the world are concerned (friends and family apart) wouldn't it be easier to keep schtum ?

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I'm beginning to think that diabetes is given to us for a reason. The reason being to teach us all to listen to what our own bodies tell us rather than what the 'experts' tell us. I'm not saying ignore medical clinicians but to remember that no-one is an expert on anything, ever.

For years I've heard and read that grains, pulses, wholemeal bread etc are very healthy for us. US being the operative word here. Who the hell is US? My body has definitely been telling me for years that while those things might be good for SOME OF US, they are NOT good for ME.

I'm sick of having my mind messed with by blanket advertising terms such as 'Healthy Eating'. There's nothing truer than the phrase 'One man's meat is another man's poison'.

Posting a good news low carb message on here Swim is great as it reaches a good number of people. Hopefully so many members have now seen and achieved such good results that it has become self sustaining. Like yourself I do think twice about posting anywhere else. I did try the DUK facebook page but it made me very depressed.

I tend to keep quiet but because I'm eight stones lighter than I was four years ago, people to tend to ask. I'm very good though, I always warn them what they have let themselves in for!

I am happy to say that I am surrounded by friends and family that low-carb, all because they have seen my success. Colleagues at work I don't know well will secretly come up to me and tell me that they low-carb too. The nicest thing is seeing my son and daughter follow my lead, my son is an amazing cook and is making a low-carb chinese meal for me and 6 other friends, all of who understand and embrace the lifestyle.

Oh yes, one other thing, those I work with are HCP's of varying qualifications, as am I and nobody can quibble with what works.

wiflib

I would shout it from the roof tops. I have nurses in the family who know better than me, who say low carb is bad, but then the poor things do work for the NHS and have swallowed the book.

I don't mention low carb/high fat... I just tell people to google the "Scandinavian diet"...

Re: the "us" comment (and at the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist!) - the "us" that they refer to, are the vast majority, i.e - the people that do not necessarily need to follow a strict eating regime and stay lean. So the advice works for them.

We are in the minority, and the truth is, in the past, we would be the ones that thrived during fast/feast periods. Thruth is, our bodies are just super efficient at storing fat. In the past, this was a great help, we survived. But now, during the feast/feast periods that we are in due to all the cheap food, this is our downfall. No-one told our bodies that there was no impending fast period...

dawnmc said:

I would shout it from the roof tops. I have nurses in the family who know better than me, who say low carb is bad, but then the poor things do work for the NHS and have swallowed the book.

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Ha! Swallowed the book. I love it. :lol: That's exactly what it's like these days when you go to see a doctor or a nurse. Feels like they've not only swallowed the book but have been totally brainwashed into believing it's the ONLY book they ever need to refer to. I think joining the NHS as a HCP must be a bit like joining a cult because they are mostly all so very sure that what the NHS teaches them about health is RIGHT. And a lot of people don't question the fact that it's the pharmaceutical companies who are REALLY in charge now. Medicine is not really about healing any more, it's about being a middleman for pharmaceutical companies. The other aspect is of course, like the Police Authority, the reams of data and paperwork that is now processed by the system. HCPs like Police Officers become so entrenched in the paperwork that they don't have time to think outside the box perhaps.

Talking about HCP, article in the Guardian by Ben Goldacre, re a doctor being misled by BIG PHARMA, he was dishing out antidepressants and was rueing the fact that trials arn't true, that the drugs trials are skewed. Poor wee soul, I was dragged up a cynic and to question everything, and he's just coming to the conclusion that stuff juat aint true. Such a shame.

I always defend my low carb approach and challenge the "poppers" to prove their point. They usually give up, because they are the ones without any evidence.
I even do this among fellow diabetics, many o whom simply don't want to admit they are looking for an easy way out.
[ I meet many who would rather use mega doses of insulin and risk repeated hypos than to cut back on carbs.]
I hope i'm not offending half this community, but I met such a one only a couple of days ago. I'd met him before, years ago and his health has deteriorated in that time.
Hana

Thats really sad Hana, esp. when its so unncessary.

Ah thankyou CC, no I wasn't, will look now. Think he has been missing from the Guardian for a bit tho'.

They're wrong. The science of the high carb, low fat was done by someone called Ancel Keys in the 70s where he picked and chose data that fitted his theory and didn't use data that didn't. This has been largely discredited, but noone seems to have caught up yet. Point them in the direction or Gary Taubes' Diet Delusion.

As much as I think that the NHS's diabetes infrastructure is excellent, they're not pragmatic enough with they're dietary advice. Probably because the government are too scared to advise a diet high in fat.