Socialist healthcare sucks! You pay for everyone else not to bother keeping appointments. My small granddaughter has to wait 3 months to get her tummy seen in the UK. A lot can go wrong in 3 months. Here in the US she’d be seen the same day.
Kids eat CRAP
Brunneria
#83
It appears that you have been misinformed about the UK NHS on several levels.
I live in the UK, and while I am the first person to admit that the NHS is not perfect and has massive room for improvement, your criticisms show a fundamental misunderstanding of how it works.
Firstly, the NHS is not a socialist healthcare system. Calling it that shows a lack of understanding about what socialism is, and how it works.
Edited to add the following sentence: I think you may mean ‘socialised healthcare’ not socialist. They are quite different things.
Secondly, the NHS prioritises referrals according to their urgency.
The fact that your daughter’s appointment has been put on a waiting list means that it has been assessed for urgency. If the qualified medical professional who assessed her had considered it necessary she would have been seen the same day, or within 24hours. Obviously this does not please concerned family members, but it means that people with urgent needs are seen quickly and efficiently.
Thirdly, in the UK there is ALWAYS an option to have a private medical appointment. This can be arranged at short notice. Private medical insurance is also available if people go that route. No one is barred from taking extra care of themselves. Yes, it costs money. Yes it works alongside the NHS. However, in my experience, after comparing prices and contributions with friends in America, the cost of paying into the NHS out of my pay packet, plus the cost of paying for private medical insurance, is still a smaller payment than I would have to make to get the same medical cover in the states.
My criticisms of the NHS (I am never going to claim it is perfect!) stem from the fact that the staff are trained to give out dire diet advice, based on national guidelines, and that they are more likely to hand out prescriptions like sweets, rather than dig deeper for the root cause of the problem. But I think those are problems that happen the world over.
This link provides a comparison of the American and UK health systems from the point of view of someone who has experienced both for decades. I found the price comparisons particularly interesting.
Wishbone
#84
Hahaha, 3 months to wait is “PRIORITY” my family live in the UK, I know exactly what the NHS is. Its a bunch of old people dying in beds with “Nil By Mouth” written on it. 9 hour wait times in A&E, and millions of immigrants pouring in to pay for the elderly of the future. The NHS is collapsing, it cannot be sustained, and those in the UK will be shocked when they have to start THINKING for themselves instead of asking their government.
“Ask what you can do for your country, not what your country can do for you” GOD BLESS AMERICA!
barefootbob
#85
Some times I want to f’ing scream at people. My ex in-laws brought my kids home from a visit today. This was in my little boy’s hands.
but hey, it’s caffeine free and low sodium! 
KirstenB
(Kirsten)
#86
The problem is even deeper than “government interference.” It would be interesting to see how much money lobbyists are paid by the likes of Tyson, General Mills, Kraft, Nabisco, Kellogg, Cargill, Pepsi…
Our government is held hostage by these businesses.
Bellyman
(Brian)
#87
That’s the ultimate vote.
I don’t buy the boxed and packaged crap in the grocery stores. It won’t matter how much they advertise of give away free samples or put it on sale, I just won’t buy it.
People can say a lot of stuff. They can rail against the sugar industry, they can rail against GMO foods, they can rail against factory eggs, etc., but at the end of the day, none of that matters a hoot if they go to the store and buy their pop tarts, captain crunch cereal, and $0.49/doz commercial-as-commercial-gets eggs… oh, and let’s get a couple dozen Krispy Kreme donuts for on the way home. When that is the “railing”, it’s not much more than free advertising for the producers involved. When people “put their money where their mouth is”, it matters.
cloudy
#89
Which means if some other food industry wants to help people(those keto food manufacturer) and wants to sell their product, they need to give more promotions on their product to make people willing to use their product instead.
points at some industry like coconut oil user, butter user You all should have lots of money to fight against those conventional guys, right? <_< There is a need of food revolution to fight against such thing, and this revolution needs A HUGE LOT OF MONEY that is going to be burnt… and yet one cannot see the profit.
Let’s hope that there will be some people, who eat keto, to get FILTHY rich so that we will have chance.
Edited one more time: People make choice based on lots of factors, and health effect might not be one of the first factors YET. There are lots that come before health: (short-term) finance, flavor, convenience
The reason why I added (short-term) in front of finance is because it is obvious that if you don’t eat in a healthy way now, you get disease in the future, so it burns your wallet in the FUTURE, but then again, if you try to eat in the healthy way now, it burns your wallet NOW. Comparing NOW and FUTURE, I think it makes more sense to choose “not burning your wallet NOW”. Besides, who can be sure that if you eat those healthy thing(whole food), you don’t get disease? Maybe despite all your effort eating whole foods and stuff, you still get something like cancer/diabetes… In that case, it will become “burn your wallet NOW and FUTURE”.
It only means that you need to have lots of money before you try to start revolution, so that when you get threatened, you can fork out your own money and tell them to f*ck themselves.
cloudy
#90
So I decided… in the future, when I have a kid, I will make sure that the kid WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO SEE ANY SWEET and CARB. <_< (What I mean is that I will try to make them ignorant of the existence of sweet/carb, not tell them that they cannot eat: Just that they won’t even have the knowledge about carb)
It is so that they don’t even know the existence of sweet, thus less need to control them.(at least till 6 years old)(by the time that they are schooling in elementary school, they get used to low-carb lifestyle.
If they still like to eat sweet and carb despite all the effort making them ignorant of the existence of the carby food, then it just means that the kid really likes carb and it is natural(instead of getting conditioned that sweet is rewarding by the parents’ “innocent” act).
Capnbob
(Rob)
#91
Not likely to work unless you are Amish or you make sure they don’t have friends or socialize. I think you are better off educating them about the true bio-chemical nature of carbs (in a child appropriate way). They are FINE if you treat them as a treat, not as a predominant staple. Make sure they get to ENJOY keto foods not find them a chore. Kids can probably have 75-125g a day of carbs depending on age/size (and probably more) and never dent their metabolisms unless they are genetically unlucky and they won’t have to feel guilty about carbs or find them as exciting as ‘forbidden fruit’.
Carbs aren’t evil, sweet things aren’t evil IF you are educated and mindful about them. That should be your legacy to your kids, not the paranoia of a deranged carboholic which is unfortunately where most of us start our keto journey.
Saphire
#92
I did not have American style sweets until I was 5. I more than made up for it after that. It is very hard to limit your children if they have friends and are in school
cloudy
#93
I know, but I also heard that the habit since young can carry for lifetime. If the kid never gets the chance to taste carb during their childhood(at least till 6), then in their mind, they will need more time to get used to carb, and this is the hindrance I want to implant to the kid.
Old habit dies hard, and if they have the habit to eat keto before having chance to touch carb(and reward is also keto-type), then when carb presents themselves to the kid, the kid will at least need some times to get used to it. It is easier this way.
Let me put it this way: I intend to make the kid like the keto food JUST LIKE how they can like sweet. Mad craving for keto is better than mad craving for sweet. I know extreme is bad, but this extreme is a necessary evil if we want to change our kids’ future.
One more thing to mention: the sweet makes us hard to follow keto lifestyle at the starting phase, then how about we do it in the reversed way?
Capnbob
(Rob)
#94
If you are a high insulin, predominant carb burner. Don’t transfer our deranged reactions and habits to healthy children. If you don’t let your kids become insulin resistant, a keep a healthy psychological relationship to carbs, they won’t suffer like we do. You don’t need to do 20g keto or anything near to that if you don’t get yourself into trouble in the first place.
This is like getting an alcoholic to teach kids about a healthy relationship with alcohol. Life should not be about being ‘scared straight’, it should be about not getting into trouble in the first place. The vast majority of people have a perfectly healthy relationship with booze (even if they binge once in a while).
cloudy
#95
Erm… Okay.
Well, actually my point is more on “making your child like keto before having a chance to touch carb”.
Not “scared straight”, but “ignorant of the existence of carb” in the first place.
Capnbob
(Rob)
#96
It’s a good theory, but it’s hard in the modern world and has a greater chance of backlash… “why did you pretend all these awesome things didn’t exist”, “why can my friends (who are healthy) have sweets and I can’t”. You can’t hide kids from the world.
I’ve seen friends’ kids who were raised vegetarian really go off the deep end in reaction to the enforced restriction.
cloudy
#97
I know that also. But others also said that habits since young stay for quite long. As long as parents pretend for 6~7 years(because after that, they are in elementary school), then they can start the education part. Without much carb in their system yet with the education, they will be like “oh… then?” attitude to carb.
and at the very least, if it still failed, at least it will give the kids more allowance to eat carb.(As their body doesn’t take in more than few carb in their childhood, their metabolism won’t get affected too much, so they can afford to have more carb.)
And in this “very least” case, it means that carb is, after all, necessary. If the carb is still able to take hold of them despite all the training and education, it only means a human might already be genetically affected to eat carb(not necessarily in a good way, but it is something natural)
Capnbob
(Rob)
#98
Exactly - the habit you should be teaching is that carbs/sugar are fine as a treat, not hiding them away as the forbidden fruit. Elementary school is not when they are exposed. It is playgroups, playdates, daycare, babysitters, family, (definitely family), etc.
That’s not how a young, growing, highly flexible metabolism works. Again you are applying deranged adult metabolic logic. You do not have a lifetime safe carb/sugar limit (eat less early and you can eat more later). If anything it would probably make your kid more susceptible to carbs ill effects since their metabolism will likely be even worse at safely processing them.
If and when you have a kid, do what you want and let us know.
cloudy
#99
… erm… Okay.
I think I might be just expressing my hatred to the society for making me like carb, when carb is not a good thing.
And the hatred to the society that makes low-fat the trend that is still on going, making keto lifestyle a hard life.
Countdown2020
(Mary)
#100
I do understand what you’re saying and I truly wish you good luck with helping your (future) child not get sucked into carb addiction.
There seem to be physiological and psychological issues with carbs/sugar that perhaps we don’t understand. Our daughter never tasted sugar until she was in elementary school (we gave her fruit and other “healthy” carbs, of course, but never cookies, cakes, etc.). She is now 25 and has an appalling carb addiction. When did it happen? How? It doesn’t matter. The only thing I’m sure of is that the habits we cultivated in her from birth to 5 have not helped her avoid carb addiction as an adult.
“Mad craving for keto is better than mad craving for sweet”. This is the physiological part I’m talking about - keto (fat and protein) doesn’t seem to cause actual cravings. We may like them very much and really enjoy eating them but they don’t cause deranged behaviour like a box of doughnuts does.
Anyway, this is entirely n=1. I guess I just want to suggest that we don’t have as much influence over other people’s behaviours as we’d like to think.
FueledbyFat
#101
Long post-i guess I am more upset about this thaN I realized. Scroll to the bottom for the short version.
I am going through this with my 16 y/o daughter. I feel terribly guilty for the way she eats. She has seen me (and heard me talk about) low fat, vegan, everything in moderation, you name it and now keto. She has watched Fed Up multiple times in health and culinary classes. I had her sit down to watch That Sugar Movie. I have tried to talk with her sincerely about a ketogenic lifestyle, but she says she thinks it’s stupid. Finally, I bought Fathead Kids, let her know it was there and left it out for her to see. She hasn’t read it. Every night I come home after a 2.25 hour commute (each way) to make a keto dinner for my husband, her and me. My husband is T2 diabetic (a bit in denial) and will eat nearly anything keto I out in front of him but also goes off to eat carbage still quite a bit but to a lesser degree than before.
My daughter is overweight but not terribly so but it’s definitely becoming worse as she gets older. Her father died of Type 1 diabetes complications at 35. She has decided she hates her body and is fat, like so many boys and girls. It is breaking my heart. Her latest: She and my husband went to the store and she bought tons of fruit and veggies, some nuts, and poppyseed muffins. She might as well have bought cake. I actually said that to her. A bad parenting moment. She let me make her a steak salad for dinner last night, so at least that was healthy. But this morning I went out to the kitchen and she had a huge bowl of freshly cut up fruits she was shoveling into her mouth. I said, “hey, how about some protein. Want some bacon?” No, she says she has packed some for lunch.
My teenage years were a period of starvation, stealing my mother’s diet pills (at age 13) multiple sports, and always feeling fat although I really wasn’t.
So this long diatribe is basically this: I feel terribly guilty for years of teaching her the wrong things to eat. Now she won’t listen because a)she has heard it all before and b)she is 16. I am scared for her future and just want her to be healthy. I don’t know what to do or say next to not increase her poor self esteem but still steer her in the right direction.
Thanks for listening.