Myths about Nutrition

FTA69 · 01-02-2014 11:27AM #1

I was just browsing the NHS website and had a nose at their advice on nutrition and it got me thinking, how could a reputable health service advocate such complete and utter bullsh*t? For instance have a look at their advice about takeaways:

Fish and chips

There are lots of ways of making your trip to the chippy a healthier one. Have a portion of baked beans or mushy peas and bread with your fish and chips. Watch out for other foods that are high in fat, such as pies and sausages.

Why would adding bread and sugary beans to an already stodgy and calorific meal be helpful?

Thai curries, such as the popular green and red curries, contain coconut milk, which is high in saturated fat. If you choose a curry, try not to eat all the sauce. Have some steamed rice with your meal instead of egg fried rice.

Fair enough if you're counting calories, but personally I thought that coconut fat would be infinitely healthier than some of the trans-fat rubbish we find in food today?

Most of us should eat more starchy foods: try to include at least one starchy food with each main meal.

Really? Most people I know eat mounds of rice, bread and pasta and it doesn't do them many favours.

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodfood/Pages/eight-tips-healthy-eating.aspx

Basically I'm curious as to whether there are vested interests in pushing this sort of thing nationally, and if so who are they?

December2012 · 01-02-2014 11:31AM

FTA69 wrote: »

if so who are they?

Weightwatchers?
Slimming world?
Gastric bypass surgeons?

01-02-2014 11:32AM

Food pyramid.

Need I say more.

steddyeddy · 01-02-2014 11:32AM

Yes the food pyramid is a collection of nutritional b%&*ox that was designed by vested interests.

Banjo String · 01-02-2014 11:36AM

FTA69 wrote: »

I was just browsing the NHS website and had a nose at their advice on nutrition and it got me thinking, how could a reputable health service advocate such complete and utter bullsh*t? For instance have a look at their advice about takeaways:

Why would adding bread and sugary beans to an already stodgy and calorific meal be helpful?

Fair enough if you're counting calories, but personally I thought that coconut fat would be infinitely healthier than some of the trans-fat rubbish we find in food today?

Really? Most people I know eat mounds of rice, bread and pasta and it doesn't do them many favours.

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodfood/Pages/eight-tips-healthy-eating.aspx

Basically I'm curious as to whether there are vested interests in pushing this sort of thing nationally, and if so who are they?

Morning Gillian.

anncoates · 01-02-2014 11:38AM

Is this one of those threads if you keep saying Special K is full of sugar, you collapse under a blizzard of thanks?

myfriendtom · 01-02-2014 11:41AM

That ad campaign brennans bread had a couple of months ago.
In September they had bill boards up saying that Brennans white sliced pan was "a good source of protein."
That kind of misleading information should not be allowed !

Also the whole "eat 6 small meals a day to fire up your metabolism and lose weight". At the end of the day, it does just come down to calories in vs calories out.

01-02-2014 11:41AM

anncoates wrote: »

Is this one of those threads if you keep saying Special K is full of sugar, you collapse under a blizzard of thanks?

Crunchy nut cornflakes are where it's at.

Mmmmmmm sugary goodness.

By covering them in lovely proteiny milk they make for a very healthy breakfast.

Oranage2 · 01-02-2014 11:45AM

People really Haven't a clue about nutrition at all, for example very little people know that a carrot is probably the single worst food you could possibly eat!

01-02-2014 11:46AM

Oranage2 wrote: »

People really Haven't a clue about nutrition at all, for example very little people know that a carrot is probably the single worst food you could possibly eat!

Is that why you're oranage?

suicide_circus · 01-02-2014 11:48AM

Oranage2 wrote: »

People really Haven't a clue about nutrition at all, for example very little people know that a carrot is probably the single worst food you could possibly eat!

how is a carrot worse than a deep fried battered mars bar?

nibtrix · 01-02-2014 11:49AM

Oranage2 wrote: »

People really Haven't a clue about nutrition at all, for example very little people know that a carrot is probably the single worst food you could possibly eat!

Say what now? Sure they have sugar in them, but they also have fibre and vitamin a. You'd have to eat a lot of carrots to get as much sugar as a chocolate bar.

Capt'n Midnight · 01-02-2014 11:50AM

Biggest myth is 5 a day.

In the UK it's 5 but it should be a lot more, it's just 5 seemed like a realistic target to set people.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-1349960/5-day-fruit-vegetables-myth-claims-nutrition-expert.html

Brussels Sprout · 01-02-2014 11:51AM

Here's an article that gave me the rage. Extremely smug and extremely wrong.

I mean we all know that the Daily Mail is a glorified tabloid celeb fanzine masquerading as a news site but at the end of the day millions of people read this every day and articles like this are massively irresponsible.

Ben Goldacre, who's a GP, who wrote a book called Bad Science which was focused on modern day quacks (such as Gillian McKeith, Patrick Holford and the homeopahy industry) had this to say about the author of the article:

Zoe Harcombe sells diet books. This week in the Daily Mail she was explaining that fruit and veg are actually no good for you. There’s a fascinating conversation to be had about the evidence base on the relationship between diet and health: would you start with Zoe’s work?
We all rely on heuristics, or shortcuts. Trusting an authority is one. Zoe boasts in the Mail that she is “studying for a PhD in nutrition” but she admitted to me, tediously, inevitably, that she’s not registered for a PhD anywhere (although she is thinking about doing one in the future).
Does it matter? We read a precis of research as a shortcut, but once you lose trust, to double check whether someone has fairly represented an entire field, you’d have to read that field’s entire canon, and after many years of work, whatever your other conclusions were, the strongest would be that any timesaving benefit from reading a precis has plainly been annihilated. Given that this is the case, I know it’s harsh, and you may disagree, but in a busy world, I’m not sure I see the point of a Zoe Harcombe

link

Edit: Wow, I had no idea you were going to post that while I was writing my post-nice timing

Spunge · 01-02-2014 11:52AM

fat makes you fat
carbs make you fat
sugar makes you fat
protein cant make you fat

The Backwards Man · 01-02-2014 11:52AM

Beans and bread got me through college and I'm healthy as a trout.

It's not what brand of diesel you put in the tank that matters most, it's how well you keep the vehicle serviced.

bbam · 01-02-2014 11:52AM

The thing is people are fickle and want quick fixes for wverything including their weight.
Most see their weight as a seperate entity to themselves and their lifestyle.
They just want to be told it's someone else's or something else's fault. Hense the popularity of fad diets and people loving things like "avoid white bread cos it's evil and you'll loose weight"

The truth is that there is too much focus in food and not enough on exercise and healthy lifestyles.

People want to cut out white bread so they can continue to fill up on empty calories and sit on their fat asses watching tv celeb shows that make them feel worse about themselves so te have a drink or chocolate cos it makes them feel better.

Lifestyle is the key. Eating a balanced diet, that can include a drink or a slice of cake and even the evil bread stuff. Just not heaps of any one thing. Lots of fruit and veg.
Exercise and getting up of your ass is just as important.

But people just want the quick fixes. Cut out bread, cut out grain, go paleio, Atkins or whatever some nutjob is shouting and promising instant results for no effort.

FTA69 · 01-02-2014 11:53AM

anncoates wrote: »

Is this one of those threads if you keep saying Special K is full of sugar, you collapse under a blizzard of thanks?

Not really. I actually meant to post it in the Nutrition Forum but put it here by mistake.

Since it's here in After Hours can we just turn it into a fatty-bashing thread?

Chazz Michael Michaels · 01-02-2014 11:55AM

Over emphasis on calories in/calories out.

Completely ignores the variety/quality of nutrition you get.

Chazz Michael Michaels · 01-02-2014 11:56AM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Beans and bread got me through college and I'm healthy as a trout.

It's not what brand of diesel you put in the tank that matters most, it's how well you keep the vehicle serviced.

An apt username.

Spunge · 01-02-2014 11:57AM

In fariness those diets like paleo and atkins do require a lot of mental effort, and thats probably why people give up on them and then go back and binge.
People just need to count calories, read the macronutrient content of everthing they eat, and eat a proper balanced diet and dear god dont fall for any marketing on foods.

suicide_circus · 01-02-2014 11:57AM

likelihood of people posting in this thread how much they can bench despite not being asked: very.

Brussels Sprout · 01-02-2014 11:58AM

Oranage2 wrote: »

People really Haven't a clue about nutrition at all, for example very little people know that a carrot is probably the single worst food you could possibly eat!

I'm sorry but that's just nonsense. Can you at least give us a source for this idea?

bbam · 01-02-2014 11:59AM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Beans and bread got me through college and I'm healthy as a trout.

It's not what brand of diesel you put in the tank that matters most, it's how well you keep the vehicle serviced.

Maybe so when your 17 or 18 with the metabolism of a horse.
Bit as the body clock moves on people need to watch it more.

01-02-2014 11:59AM

Ah lads will ye remember this is after hours and not to be taking posts so seriously!

Liger vs Tigon · 01-02-2014 12:00PM

myfriendtom wrote: »

That ad campaign brennans bread had a couple of months ago.
In September they had bill boards up saying that Brennans white sliced pan was "a good source of protein."
That kind of misleading information should not be allowed !

Also the whole "eat 6 small meals a day to fire up your metabolism and lose weight". At the end of the day, it does just come down to calories in vs calories out.

No its not just about calories in versus calories out. Some calories aren't bioavailable. There is a huge amount of calories in petrol but you won't get fat drinking it.

dxhound2005 · 01-02-2014 12:02PM

I'm fed up with (pun intended) people telling me that I can't eat bread spuds pasta rice legumes etc etc. Things which people have been eating for thousands of years. If all these things are supposed to be poisoning us how come life expectancy in Ireland is 10 years more now than it was in 1960?

Every one of the fad diets like Atkins depend on reducing carbs to a ridiculous degree.

j@utis · 01-02-2014 12:04PM

Spunge wrote: »

fat makes you fat
carbs make you fat
sugar makes you fat - sugar is carbs.
protein cant make you fat

protein ONLY diet would kill you in about two weeks time.

Spunge · 01-02-2014 12:05PM

I tried low carb once (less than 50g per day) and i felt like i had a hangover for 4 days, so i said ****thi**** had a huge bowl of porridge and was back to normal, ahhhh

Capt'n Midnight · 01-02-2014 12:14PM

Brussels Sprout wrote: »

Edit: Wow, I had no idea you were going to post that while I was writing my post-nice timing

Deleted User wrote: »

Ah lads will ye remember this is after hours and not to be taking posts so seriously!

I posted a link to a "science" opinion piece promoting a book, in Daily Mail.

/sarchasm

:pac:

The Pheasant2 · 01-02-2014 12:15PM

That you can "turn fat into muscle" absolute bollocks, completely different body tissues

Myths about Nutrition

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