26 January 2009

Nanny state at its worst

Supports the whole raison d'etre of Trick and Treat

On Monday 26 January 2009, UK's Daily Express published two stories that illustrate the sheer and utter incompetence and wastefulness of the present government and 'health' boffins. They also demonstrate how the 'health' industry is able to con the media so that they can profit from our ill-health.


Article 1:

NOW FOOD POLICE PLAN TO SWOOP ON YOUR FRIDGE


SQUADRONS of “Food Police” are to start knocking on doors to lecture families on how to feed themselves properly.

In a move branded “Government nannying at its worst”, the teams – operated by councils across the country – will be recruited to visit homes at meal times before handing out advice on diet and how to reduce waste.

Eight thousand Food Police, or Love Food Champions under their official title, will be paid up to £8.50 an hour of taxpayers’ cash. And if a pilot scheme is successful, the idea could be rolled out across the country, costing the taxpayer tens of millions of pounds.

Employed by a private contractor, the teams will advise householders on how to plan their shopping carefully so that they do not over-cater.

You can read the rest at: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/81804/Now-Food-Police-plan-to-swoop-on-your-fridge

Apart from the obvious intrusion into people's lives and the total waste of taxpayers' money (I thought we were in a recession and short of the stuff), what possible good will it do? Don't people know now that they are wasting money by buying more food than they can eat and so on?

And if these cretins think that advising people to eat more 'healthy' carb-based foods to cut the incidence of conditions such as obesity and diabetes, when there is such a huge amount of evidence that this adv ice is a major cause of these illnesses, then the result can only be that the situation will get worse.


Article 2:

OBESITY BUG YOU CAN CATCH

OBESITY can be “caught” as easily as a common cold from other people’s coughs, sneezes and dirty hands, scientists will claim today.

Researchers believe that an airborne “adenovirus” germ could be causing the fat plague that is blighting Britain and other countries.

As many as one in three obese people may have become overweight after falling victim to the highly infectious cold-like virus, known as AD-36.

Read the rest here: http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/81810

Even if this is true, which I doubt, increasing the numbers of fat cells (adipocytes) won't make you any fatter — unless you fill those adipocytes with fat!

Stories like these are making me lose the will to live (at least in this country!)

But there are two other points:

1: Just what qualifications will these £8.50 per hour 'advisors' have to tell me what to do?

2. As my doctor is cannot legally prescribe for me without my consent, what law allows the (probably unqualified) otherwise unemployed to tell me what I can and can't eat?

9 comments:

x said...

It drives me mad too, Barry. Come and live in Italy where they love their pig meat and offal. They even make ice cream desserts from pig blood apparently. This is from one of my cookbooks called 'Food and Memories of Abruzzo'. "Since nothing is wasted on a pig, when one is killed we have a feast. Delicious dishes concocted with tripe, snout, ears, head and all the innards come in succession. My favourite part was the making of the sanguinaccio, a sweet pudding made with pig blood , which even today is made all over Italy and sold in ice-cream cones in the most elegant coffee shops. This must be made quickly before the blood coagulates." This is a modern book, by the way, not something out of an antique shop!
Love this Mediterranean diet!!

Anonymous said...

Barry,
Please keep your spirits up! You are helping many. My husband eats high fat low carb thanks to you and he happened to get his lab results back today. Dr mentioned his ldl/hdl ratios were good - he has been blessed with good genes. He used to take a statin drug prior to eating the way you've taught us. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! (cholesterol and all).

Anonymous said...

From reading that it would seem that yes, the world has gone mad....

Nicki

Barry Groves said...

Hi Amanda

I do get away to the Med diet for 8 weeks a year.

My wife was fed blood in her bottle as a baby. Her father was a farmer/butcher. We both like black sausage (blood sausage), but I don't know whether I fancy blood ice-cream!

By the way, there is a study just published which shows that obesity, diabetes, etc, are currently increasing at an alarming rate across the Mediterranean countries. I imagine they are changing diets in line with 'healthy eating' Mediterranean diet principles.

Thanks Anon for your kind words. Keeps my morale up.

Anonymous said...

Hi Barry,

The idea of the "food police" makes me cringe, as it should any right-thinking person, even if they are not into low-carbs.

Just a quick comment on the "adenovirus". This was also mentioned in the recent documentary on BBC2 in the Horizon series: "What makes thin people thin" - about an overfeeding test, intercut with interviews with various researchers from differing areas of weight-loss research. One of these was going on about the adenovirus, and I wondered if was going to be the latest thing to be touted in this area. Like you, I am very sceptical, especially as we low-carbers already know the main cause of obesity.


Regards,
Mike E.

Barry Groves said...

Hi Mike

I an sceptical of this latest hypothesis. The study was done on mice and it is well known that animals have differing responses to foods.

I'm beginning to think that the 'health industry' cannot admit that they have been wrong for so long, so they are scraping the barrel looking for anything that might get them off the hook.

Even if there is such a virus, it will likely only make the sufferer more likely to put weight on. It's one thing to make more adipocytes (fat cells), it's filling them with fat from excess glucose which will make the sufferer overweight.

Anonymous said...

Someone reported reading some actual studies on the adenovirus, it appears that infected people have lower levels of glucose and lipids in the bloodstream, so maybe the virus is sucking them into the fat cells it has created? That is one of the ways Actos and Avandia work to reduce blood glucose. It's also the opposite of what happens in my family where we have skinny fit people with insulin resistance alongside the actual diabetics: we tend to keep the excess glucose and lipids especially trigs in the blood rather than grow body fat with them, or so my appalling numbers would suggest.

I am now scarcely diabetic at all, my lipids have normalised and my BP is only slightly high, all as a response to eating the *opposite* of the Heart Healthy High Carb Low Fat diet I was prescribed (which had such appalling results I was accused of noncompliance).

If the Food Police are at all related to my ex-dietician then virus or no virus we can expect further increases in cardiovascular disease including Type 2, and also obesity (sigh)

Anonymous said...

I could benefit from "FOOD POLICE" but only if sent by Mr Groves himself. 3 years ago, I followed his eating plan, lost weight and my health improved. I have slipped back into carbs-bread, fruits and all that and put on weight, feeling tired all the time. I am comming back!!!!

Anonymous said...

Food police in your home...then what next? Rationing of "bad" foods such as red meat and butter??? Scary stuff.

Keep up the good work! Your T & T book is a keeper, and your level-headed approach to low-carb eating—which has obviously worked long-term for you and your wife—is an inspiration.