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Trust Me, I'm a Doctor tonight.

C

carol43

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,198
Location
South Nottinghamshire
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
They were talking about lowering cholesterol. Split into three groups, one had low fat, one had oats and one had almonds. The low fat group had the lowest results. Perhaps they should be looking at carbs as well as my cholesterol levels have fallen.
 
I found it interesting particularly as at my last check last week my HDL was 2.3 and LDL 2.5 which are both within the recommended range, yet my DN told me it needed to be lower because I was diabetic even though my BS was in the normal range (hba1c 36)!!
 
Daphne917 said:
I found it interesting particularly as at my last check last week my HDL was 2.3 and LDL 2.5 which are both within the recommended range, yet my DN told me it needed to be lower because I was diabetic even though my BS was in the normal range (hba1c 36)!!
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Makes you wonder just how much these 'professionals' actually know.
 
carol43 said:
Perhaps they should be looking at carbs as well as my cholesterol levels have fallen.
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My cholesterol dropped from 5.5 to 3.5 just by going low carb, on it's own, it proves little, good result, if I believe everything they say about the evil cholesterol.
 
I found the bit about the reduced fat group having lower cholesterol than the 'normal group interesting as it goes against a lot of the thinking on this forum? It was one of the most unscientific programmes the BBC has done in a long time; why didn't they have a low-carb group? Can anyone explain why the low-fat group had improved cholesterol when many LCHF followers on here wouldn't agree? I like the way the 'doctor' just assumed high cholesterol was associated with higher CVD problems with no reason to state that other than popular mantra.
 
The science that doctors believe isn't guaranteed to be right, but by the time people start making reality TV shows based on it, it's pretty much guaranteed to be wrong. :-)
 
Strange why this Dr was surprised that nuts and oats help lower bad cholesterol levels, oats contain beta glucan which has been known to be beneficial to heart health for years.
 
Daibell said:
I found the bit about the reduced fat group having lower cholesterol than the 'normal group interesting as it goes against a lot of the thinking on this forum? It was one of the most unscientific programmes the BBC has done in a long time; why didn't they have a low-carb group? Can anyone explain why the low-fat group had improved cholesterol when many LCHF followers on here wouldn't agree? I like the way the 'doctor' just assumed high cholesterol was associated with higher CVD problems with no reason to state that other than popular mantra.
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Haven't seen the programme myself, but this popped into my head while reading your post.

Do you think they used fasting cholesterol tests or non-fasting for their various checkups?
I think non fasting tests on fat eaters would show higher trigs, frm their last meal, and skew the results (please guys crrect me if I am wrong?).

That is of course, pure speculation. but it looks like it was a badly done study, and the non-fasting tests are cheaper, if they just want total cholesterol. Also easier to schedule when monitoring a group.
 
Did they consider trigs? High trigs are supposed to be related to high carb consumption, certainly mine dropped like a stone with LCHF although total cholesterol has stayed much the same (something I couldn't care less about as my lipid ratios are fine). And yes you should fast in respect of a trigs test.
 
It's a joke if they used total cholesterol as a measure. It predicts absolutely nothing, apart from lower (not higher) levels predicting early death.
 
They talked about total, HDL, and LDL. I heard no mention of Trigs.

What a shame. A missed opportunity Dr Moseley.
 
Ironic and.sad as it should be called "You can't trust your doctor" (on diet anyway). You would think if the doctors were going to go on TV they would update their knowledge first instead of spouting the same old nonsense.
 
They should get Dr Malcolm Kendrick to do that sort of TV show.
 
Brunneria said:
Haven't seen the programme myself, but this popped into my head while reading your post.

Do you think they used fasting cholesterol tests or non-fasting for their various checkups?
I think non fasting tests on fat eaters would show higher trigs, frm their last meal, and skew the results (please guys crrect me if I am wrong?).

That is of course, pure speculation. but it looks like it was a badly done study, and the non-fasting tests are cheaper, if they just want total cholesterol. Also easier to schedule when monitoring a group.
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Purely anecdotally, Divinissima, yes. Fasting isn't requested before doing a lipid panel blood test these days. I had an unscheduled lipid panel blood test in Feb., 90 mins after having a butter coffee. Then in May, the repeat I'd asked for was done, and I fasted (and had no red wine the night before). The two sets of numbers were very different.
 
Daibell said:
I found the bit about the reduced fat group having lower cholesterol than the 'normal group interesting as it goes against a lot of the thinking on this forum? It was one of the most unscientific programmes the BBC has done in a long time; why didn't they have a low-carb group? Can anyone explain why the low-fat group had improved cholesterol when many LCHF followers on here wouldn't agree? I like the way the 'doctor' just assumed high cholesterol was associated with higher CVD problems with no reason to state that other than popular mantra.
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It's called wishful thinking science, if something looks like it will disagree with one's hypothesis, ignore it!
I was also intrigued that the low fat group gave up prawns (0.325% sat fat, by weight) and eggs (3.3% sat fat, by weight), not exactly high in sat fat terms, in fact some would say that their monounsaturated fat content is good. As you say, very unscientific and why they avoided low carb I have no idea, except there's lots of manufactured food stuff that comes under the carb banner, can't have people not buying the junk they're pushing on us.
They also started with the premise that everybody must lower their cholesterol, without saying how much was good or bad for us. I think I'm going to stick with the British Heart Foundation CVD/Cholesterol chart. Seems total cholesterol of 5.4 is optimum.
 
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