Diagnosed three months ago, I was invited to attend an 'education' afternoon at the NHS Diabetes Centre in Dorchester, Dorset.
My thoughts on the visit:
- I seemed to be the only one who really understood the condition. Many people knew absolutely nothing. I suspect that Google doesn't exist in their lives.
- There was basic Q&A about blood testing and urine samples. Advocation that all T2's need is urine test, but admitted that nothing would show up unless you were maybe 10mmol. No further chat about blood testing or whether it should be done....appears they don't think so.
- The 'specialist' dietician made some very odd statements in places:
"You can't have too little food" was the one that stuck out for me. She claimed that you eat very little and 'maybe' your metabolism would slow down, but that's OK, because it will pick up and all will be well. She inadvertantly advocated starving yourself.
- Sugar is good, fat is bad. Sugar=good, fat=bad(repeat!). Even though we're diabetics. It's OK to eat alot of sugar, as long as you keep the fat down.
- She claimed that men should be eating at least 10 pieces of fruit a day. But not all at once you understand, because that might be too much sugar at one. She said she'd shoot my practice nurse who told me to perhaps keep fruit to maybe 3 pieces a day. Cos that is NOT current thinking. See.
- She was baffled at why Shredded Wheat and Fruit N' Fibre should double my blood glucose levels. "Maybe it was a one off" she says.
Despite saying that we're all different, we respond differently to different foods, she heavily played the 'one size fits all' government 'balanced diet'.
One woman was concerned that after drinking a glass of apple juice(which is very high sugar) and eating a banana(also high in fructose), she went for a walk and felt light-headed. The advice was - basically, that's OK as you're having a banana. Even though previously, the dietician had said that really, all fruit juices should be really avoided......as they're concentrated fructose, 'but the real problem here is that they don't have the fibre..'
- No investigation whatsoever into any other diets, although there was a brief mention of the Glycemic Index diet, but no real explanation of how it would differ to the government/NHS prescribed 'balanced' diet. Although if you do follow the GI diet, watch out, as fat/meat is low in GI....and you don't want to eat that do you? I at least expected her to attack the low-carb diet....
- At one point, the dietician was advocating eating a Kit Kat chocolate bar than something more higher in fat! I mean, come on! It's SUGAR that's the problem for us!
One more : One woman, who was faithfully following the NHS plan said that her urine was registering high amounts of glucose. The response? "Perhaps they would need to increase your medication." rather than "Perhaps we should look at your diet."
I was very disappointed in this. It felt almost like propaganda. Same old. Keep taking the poison, but just find the 'slower hit' poison. I wouldn't be so suspicious if I didn't see the NHS advocating this 'balanced' diet in almost every condition I read about, as well as trying to force it down the public's neck at every opportunity. Whether people want to hear it or not, we diabetics are not the same as everyone else, there cannot be a one size fits all diet for us and how we should follow the same diet as you normals(!) is beyond me. Anyone with any sense should be weary.....
Anyway, time will tell. Either I'm(and many other diabetics) are completely wrong or, the government is feeding a nation of diabetics a bad diet that will progress the condition quickly to the point of complication and a much shorter life. Now why would they do that?
My thoughts on the visit:
- I seemed to be the only one who really understood the condition. Many people knew absolutely nothing. I suspect that Google doesn't exist in their lives.
- There was basic Q&A about blood testing and urine samples. Advocation that all T2's need is urine test, but admitted that nothing would show up unless you were maybe 10mmol. No further chat about blood testing or whether it should be done....appears they don't think so.
- The 'specialist' dietician made some very odd statements in places:
"You can't have too little food" was the one that stuck out for me. She claimed that you eat very little and 'maybe' your metabolism would slow down, but that's OK, because it will pick up and all will be well. She inadvertantly advocated starving yourself.
- Sugar is good, fat is bad. Sugar=good, fat=bad(repeat!). Even though we're diabetics. It's OK to eat alot of sugar, as long as you keep the fat down.
- She claimed that men should be eating at least 10 pieces of fruit a day. But not all at once you understand, because that might be too much sugar at one. She said she'd shoot my practice nurse who told me to perhaps keep fruit to maybe 3 pieces a day. Cos that is NOT current thinking. See.
- She was baffled at why Shredded Wheat and Fruit N' Fibre should double my blood glucose levels. "Maybe it was a one off" she says.
Despite saying that we're all different, we respond differently to different foods, she heavily played the 'one size fits all' government 'balanced diet'.
One woman was concerned that after drinking a glass of apple juice(which is very high sugar) and eating a banana(also high in fructose), she went for a walk and felt light-headed. The advice was - basically, that's OK as you're having a banana. Even though previously, the dietician had said that really, all fruit juices should be really avoided......as they're concentrated fructose, 'but the real problem here is that they don't have the fibre..'
- No investigation whatsoever into any other diets, although there was a brief mention of the Glycemic Index diet, but no real explanation of how it would differ to the government/NHS prescribed 'balanced' diet. Although if you do follow the GI diet, watch out, as fat/meat is low in GI....and you don't want to eat that do you? I at least expected her to attack the low-carb diet....
- At one point, the dietician was advocating eating a Kit Kat chocolate bar than something more higher in fat! I mean, come on! It's SUGAR that's the problem for us!
One more : One woman, who was faithfully following the NHS plan said that her urine was registering high amounts of glucose. The response? "Perhaps they would need to increase your medication." rather than "Perhaps we should look at your diet."
I was very disappointed in this. It felt almost like propaganda. Same old. Keep taking the poison, but just find the 'slower hit' poison. I wouldn't be so suspicious if I didn't see the NHS advocating this 'balanced' diet in almost every condition I read about, as well as trying to force it down the public's neck at every opportunity. Whether people want to hear it or not, we diabetics are not the same as everyone else, there cannot be a one size fits all diet for us and how we should follow the same diet as you normals(!) is beyond me. Anyone with any sense should be weary.....
Anyway, time will tell. Either I'm(and many other diabetics) are completely wrong or, the government is feeding a nation of diabetics a bad diet that will progress the condition quickly to the point of complication and a much shorter life. Now why would they do that?