I have just attended an X-pert course, it was useful in a much as knowing how diabetes affects your body and how your liver and pancreas work together etc, but when it came to the dietary advice, I was appalled, they were advising everyone that they could have a treacle pudding, rice pudding, pie and custard etc for desert, as long as they cut out potatoes in their main meal and they could replace a meal with as much fruit as they liked and if someone tells you they have tested and have a high reading, they have either not washed their hands properly or they haven't tested correctly (Fruit does not raise bg) that a diabetics diet should be the same as hers just smaller portions and that nothing was forbidden.
I strongly disagreed with the dietician dietary advice and was told by the dietician that because I followed the LCHF diet, I wouldn't be able to keep the weight off that I had lost, I would put it all back on again and wouldn't advise the others to try it, She told me that I was definitely an exception to the rule and the way to go was 50% carbs at each meal (eat well plate) She also told me that I would probably be on insulin much sooner than everyone else on the course. I advised her that there were at least another 107,000 people on this website alone that were all an exception to the rule in that case, and strangely enough a lot were diet only (I have reduced one tablet and hopefully will get rid of the other at the next HbA1c test in August) and a lot were able to reduce their insulin by following a LCHF diet, so could she explain why I should stuff my face with carbs that could kill me and risk nasty complications later in life if I lived that long lol. She refused to comment.
She also told everyone on the course not to test, that it was not necessary and that most meters we unreliable and would only cause people to be anxious and worried because they didn't understand the readings. I ask her why they didn't educate people, as surely having a stable bg level was far better than waiting for the next HbA1c test when you could be walking around with high levels and not know (she had already told us that symptoms don't appear unless you are 10mmol/l or more). Again no comment.
Sorry for the rant, but when I heard the news this morning about surgery for obese diabetics I just saw red, at the end of the day the NHS are responsible for a lot of the problems they are facing due to their lack of knowledge and unwillingness to accept that they are wrong, it's all well and good offering surgery, it might temporarily solve the obese problem, but it won't solve the problem of surgery for complications. When will they realise that if they gave the right dietary information and test strips to start with they wouldn't be in this situation and would save millions on all types of diabetic related surgery.
Rant over
Take care everyone
Marilyn