Government food advice and conflicts of interest

#1

Still punting dodgy advice.

  1. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-eatwell-guide
  2. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7f7cc3ed915d74e622ac2a/SACN_Carbohydrates_and_Health.pdf
  3. https://www.bmj.com/content/386/bmj.q1909
#2

Thanks, I always like to read guidelines, I wonder how similar it is to ours (those are utterly horrid, especially for me, I never ate so incompatible with myself)!

45g protein for me. What. But… Protein is a rare point where people tend to agree: we need WAY more than that! We don’t just want nitrogen balance, we want it to be optimal… And I have thought long and hard about this once while walking. I would be forced to do my absolute best to avoid almost all food in existence. Many vegs and grains are too protein rich to keep it this low… What would I eat, sugar and fat? I wouldn’t live for long (I would kill my jailor and myself first) but I would suffer like crazy. And I won’t talk about my personal mission to minimize protein. But it’s 130g, theoretically possible and I need this limit for fat-loss but I just can’t stay that low often. I know it’s the lowest amount enough for my body (at least my experiences say so) but things happen.

I feel very strongly about protein and food joy and not forcing ourselves to eat in a horrible way so I am somewhat upset now :frowning:

I hope they think it as lower limit but it’s still super low. No, it seems to be a target. Or IDK but it doesn’t have the “at least”. No, carbs have that. At least 267g carbs… Tell me you are kidding, whatever made this thing…

Free sugar was a new term to me.

Do they think everyone the same, by the way…? :thinking: Okay that it’s a general recommendation but I still would think about low-carbers, even if I was a high-carber…

Nothing new and interesting here. And I still don’t know how they imagine an active adult woman eating 45g protein. It’s worst for me as I basically only eat protein sources. It’s what satiates me, it’s what I like. I can’t just eat, IDK, eggless pasta with potatoes and fat (we have a similar traditional food but it uses eggy pasta and that is just too protein rich) or butter and dates or whatever. Even a nice looking colorful vegan dish has legumes or some other more protein rich stuff or else it is just an appetizer… 45g is… Almost nothing. My SO regularly gets this much from his grains alone! That’s not complete protein though so it’s good he have many protein sources.

I really, really doubt one can easily keep such a super low protein intake without having some quite nutrition deficient diet. And people won’t put huge effort into researching how to avoid protein and getting everything else… (And why would they. Protein is quite important, it’s known. Even the guide knows it, older folks should eat a bit more! 46.5g instead of 45… I laugh but it’s not a happy one.)

It was less fun than I hoped :frowning:

(Jane) #3

The Eatwell guide is the same old ■■■■■■■■ of reduced fat, reduced salt, pushing whole grains as healthy, small amounts of unsaturated fats, reduce consumption of red meats…

A mirror-mirror of how we eat.

(Geoffrey) #4

I think ours over here are probably worse than yours. It’s all profit motivated drivel.

#5

My problem is with the new no-fat BS in some places. I can’t just look some recipes online without seeing it… It only happened in the last months, maybe. NON-FAT everywhere. What. And for items where even low-fat makes zero sense if you ask me (but I am biased and always did my best to deny the existence of low-fat dairy. had no idea non-fat existed but sadly my innocence is gone now). Like cream cheese. Philadelphia has reduced fat option… (It’s like watered down butter here… People actually pay for water in it… Wow.) And it’s so weird that other countries have low-fat and non-fat(!) Greek yogurt. (I still don’t think non-fat dairy is a real thing, it can’t be. I know they sell something like that but it’s some weird thing, not dairy.) Greek yogurt basically means 10% fat here, I only saw a lower-fat options once in my life and as I buy the stuff now and then, I actually check them out. It’s virtually always 10%.

Oh I have just looked at the very first pdf in point 1. Yep, just like out guide about many tiny meals a day. No thanks.
And less fatty and less sugary dairy? Why don’t we just drink water then? Watery stuff void of much sugar and fat doesn’t taste good… It may work for meat to some extent but dairy… Of course tastes differ but don’t force this on everyone. I need my calories and my body is fine with saturated fats. And animal sugars too, actually. Seriously, how much sugar I can get from dairy (a ton if I am not careful but it’s still nothing compared to guidelines)?

I really, really could use some lean protein sources but alas, most of them are totally inedible for me. Today I ate chicken liver, that is one of the edible ones, not the best but I barely can eat any due to the too high nutrient content anyway. (I hope the tastier heart hasn’t this problem!)

And again. We aren’t all the same. Of course we shouldn’t follow the same guide! Even if it would be more sensible.

And I have no idea what 1 portion of veg and fruit is. Not like it matters, obviously as my goal is zero (I fail but it’s usually good enough for my body) but I get curious sometimes. Not enough to look it up… Portion means absolutely nothing to me, no matter the food but veg and fruit? A portion of fruit may be 10g or 1000g, both are perfectly valid (even for the same fruit sometimes, like apple). There just isn’t a normal portion, isn’t it highly individual…? I suppose it is somewhere in the middle but the actual item must matter.

(Joey) #6

Wow. I’d laugh at the UK’s wonky guidelines… but those of us here in the USA know whence they came. Again, sorry! :roll_eyes:

As for conflict of interest, one might suspect that shortening our lifespan helps reduce pressure on our perilous Social Security trust fund. Food for thought?

#7

I’ve started to look up ours. We have a thing called “smart plate” now. It doesn’t seem smart to me but there are interesting guidelines:
We should eat red, orange and dark green colored vegs for every main meal, apparently. That was new to me.

#8

I’ve been saying that for YEARS! Longevity is bad for their wallets, yet another reason on the list to abolish social “security” and people can save their own money. At no point has that crap system ever delivered, and it never will. That’s ignoring creating and changing never end rules to limit when and in what qualities we “qualify” for OUR money, that they stole in the first place.

It’s no different in the countries with socialized health care, even worse actually, their financial burden is even worse if they live longer! Plus, it’s not like the concept of big food doesn’t exist everywhere, whenever dietary guidelines are a product of the government, and the gov’t also regulated the food industry, the bribery begins…