Optifast: why is it prescription only in UK?

I think you will find that the makers of Optifast, ( Nestle!!) recommend that their product be used only under medical supervision.

It does seem a contradiction that one of the biggest suppliers of confectionary and junk food makes a Slimming Product. "Fill up on our products and then we will help you slim."

 

You can buy it through amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb...st&sprefix=optifa,aps,209&rh=i:aps,k:optifast but it's really expensive compared to any of the other shakes/soups of that type

 

Hi guys, Amazon do indeed sell optifast products but they do not sell the product used on the Newcastle diet, the one used is called Optifast 800 if i am not mistaken.
Sorry for jumping in here.
Jim

 

I would suggest by being prescription only its premium priced and therefore by being on px they are monopolising (sp?) the market of the NHS.

Its probably a marketing ploy to skim the market.

 

I don't know what the Asda shakes contain but Optifast claims to be 'nutritionally complete' and lists a whole raft of vitamins and minerals.
http://www.nestlehealthscience.us/products/optifast-800®-shake-mix
They say it's developed for 'medically supervised weight loss. If it's only on prescription it also puts a responsibility on the doctor for monitoring. The UK version is not the 800 one. (haven't checked to see if they are different)
http://www.nestlehealthscience.co.uk/products/optifast

 

there are some good cooks/knowledgeable people on this forum , come on, a challenge devise a low carb mix or shake for us, full of vitamins and minerals and some fibre ,cheep and chearfull and we decide on whether to use it.

 

Hi Christine, i am on the Ultraslim from Tesco, they taste just like Milkshakes, yes i use skimmed milk, i know its a cheat but it is still working and working good, third day in a row now and morning tests are at 5+ seems to be stabilizing pretty well, yesterday evening for some reason dropped to 3.9, still felt Ok but pinched one of my sons jaffa cakes he left here and went back up to 6,6 so all was good.
Christine i have brought myself one of those Soup makers, the cheaper one (Morphy Richards) people have said in the past why not just use saucepan, well i am no cook, was never a Soup person, but this thing is great, put me veg in, press the button for either smooth or chunky soup and just leave it, no keep topping up because of condensation escaping, beeps when done in 25min, pours straight out into Bowl, no ladle no saucepans to wash, just bowl spoon and the maker which is simple as there is no blades in the Bowl, blades are attached to the lid.
So just good wholesome soups, smoothies for my grandson which are not full of preservatives, just health in a glass.
Jim

P.S, nearly forgot, i brought the zip freezer bags from Tesco (medium) pour in the soup when cold lay flat and stack favorite soups in the freezer.

 

Hi Jim, I like ultra slim,too and I like Cambridge cappuccino, I just use water to mix. Asda used to do a cappuccino diet mix but they don't any more I love home made soup ,once a day, watercress is my fav. I love salad, in the winter its hard to get English/British stuff, but I always try to buy it, thanks for the tip about the soup maker.
eeh I don't know how the food industry can live with themselves putting all that sugar in our food,do you. xx hug.

 

Got my vegetable soup done, Carrots, Swede, Celery, Onion, chicken stock, one for tonight and one for the freezer, tell you one thing, i don't even know whether i want to go back to meat, these vegetable soups are lovely, works out so cheap, not had to do a proper food shop yet lol, nust have saved a few bob, whatever "Proper food shop" is, must be biscuits, cereals, fatty foods and lovely Carb filled stodge lol.
Christine will look see what i can do with Watercress and if its Ok for my Angina Meds, that's the problem got to watch out for that as well, right pain in the butt.

Jim

 

I just finished mine but added a few small bits of chicken, a handful of coconut and half a bag of spinach, half cup of curry mix, I expect I have overdone it again lol.

 

I was looking at using shakes over summer, to try out the Newcastle diet.
I'll be starting at a bmi of 25, which is where I want to be, as I've lost enough weight already, so I'm probably not going to last the full stretch, but I want to see what it does for my diabetes.
However I don't fancy low carb, as I thought about this for another post.

I'd be interested if anyone does manage a very low calorie, very low carb version of the diet though.

 

Not my words just copied and pasted.

Before industrial agriculture and CAFOs, (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation ) before processed foods, McDonald’s and TV dinners - people ate real food. This real food consisted of whole fruits and vegetables eaten in season or preserved in the summer months for a long cold winter. Real food came from animals that grazed on pasture and were allowed to live out their natural instincts by scratching, pecking, birthing and wandering as they wanted.

But now industrial agriculture has taken over our food supply. In an attempt to feed more people in a easier and more productive way, food has become food “products” full of chemicals not real food. This denatured food contributes to diseases that are shortening the human lifespan for the first time ever. Obesity, cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes are at an all time high, and most of these diseases are controllable by the food we consume.

Jim

 

Doesn't mean you have to be a Hunter gatherer lol.

 

You reminded me, i have coconut milk in the cupboard, may give this a go soon, never had Pumpkin, only seen it in use with holes in and candles lol.

500 g pumpkin
4 carrots
4 parsnips
3 onions
1 garlic clove
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 (440 ml) can coconut milk (8)

 

how about a pkt of movacol and a multivitamin tablet lol

 

Hi Guys,

Sorry for jumping in.
Raspin to sell a prescription only (even though it makes no sense for optifast to be a prescription only) is illegal in the UK due to the medicines act.

As optifast won't be prescribed by my doc either I'm using the Atkins shakes as they are low in cal, fat, carb and sugar and protein normal.
It's been 3 weeks since starting the Newcastle uni diet thing and have lost 7kg.
I emailed the uni and found quorn can be used in the evening meal if anybody had questions over that by the way


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

 

I'm not quite sure if you're suggesting this as an alternative to the Optifast or as an addition.

I put your recipe into a calculator,
I had to guess at how much 4 parsnips weighed (well one source said 250g so I used that ) The calculator accepted 4 carrots.
I also had to use a middle amount of calories for the coconut milk as they seem to vary a lot. This one came from Tescos.

If divided into 7 servings , each would have about 225 calories
19 g carbohydrate
( of which 10.8 sugar)
8.5g fibre
13 fat
(of which 11.0 saturated)
3.5 g protein

So compared with 208 calories from Optifast , it's a wee bit lower in carbs (bit les sugar) , a lot more fat , more fibre but it's only got a fifth of the protein . I'm not an expert but I think that protein is important on a low calorie diet to preserve lean tissue

Each portion has lots of vitamin A*, 42% of your vit C for the day, 17% of the iron but only 5% of the calcium you need. The calculator didn't have the other vitamins and minerals .

( On a lighter note, you might turn orange* if you regularly ate the same soup several times a day for lots of meals, It can happen to vegetarians, and young children with a diet high in beta carotene , pumpkins and carrots are very high in betacarotene. )
*. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carotenosis