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Sugar in hospitals gets a hearing in Parliament

Kerry Finch has sent me the draft of his Private Members speech for Parliament tomorrow.

You can watch it live via the Tasmanian Parliament website, Legislative Council at http://etaslink.com/kfmlc/Video15-10-2015.html

Kerry will specifically raise the issue of why the Tasmanian Health Minister and Government have not addressed the sugar sweetened beverage issue in the hospitals after being directed/encouraged to do so in 2013.

That should be newsworthy as the New Zealander’s did it a few weeks ago and Tasmania had the opportunity to be leaders in this 2 years ago.

Here is the draft. Thank you Kerry for doing the right thing and listening and making your own mind up.

“Special Interest Speech on Sugary
Special Interest Speech on Sugary Drinks ( for Thursday 15 October 2015)

A few decades ago MR PRESIDENT we were told by the petroleum and automotive industry that it was economically impossible to take lead additives out of petrol, even though lead in petrol exhaust fumes were hampering the brain development of our children.

But it turned out to be quite feasible, and leaded petrol is a distant memory.
Later MR PRESIDENT we were told that eliminating the billions of plastic bags from our supermarket system would increase food prices. Well, it turned out to be pretty easy and there are far fewer indestructible plastic bags in our rubbish landfills.

The big tobacco companies MR PRESIDENT said plain packaging wouldn’t lessen tobacco consumption and the resultant massive health risks. Well it has MR PRESIDENT
Now we’re told MR PRESIDENT that it’s too hard to reduce the amount of sugar in sugary drinks, even though Australia’s obesity problem becomes worse every week.

Well, that’s changing MR PRESIDENT.
Of course the best way to bring about these changes is consumer power—but government back-up and education is vital.

I’m not just jumping on an accelerating band wagon MR PRESIDENT; I first raised the problem of added sugar, especially fructose in processed foods in a Special Interest Speech on August the 29th 2013.

The main thrust of my speech was to persuade authorities to get junk food out of hospitals.
I’ll quote just two sentences MR PRESIDENT:
“It’s generally agreed that one of the big problems with our modern diet is processed foods. They usually contain substances which our grandmothers wouldn’t have dreamt of allowing into the kitchen.

There is pressure on the big food manufacturers to reduce sugar, salt and fat in their products. But all three are cheap and contribute to profits.”

Well MR PRESIDENT since then things have moved on a little, but not nearly far enough.

We’ve seen the release of that brilliant and influential film “Sugar” last year and public awareness about health and diet continues to grow.

But things seem to be moving faster across the Tasman. Every health board in New Zealand has banned the sale of sugar-sweetened drinks in hospitals.

A long-time campaigner against excessive sugar consumption, Launceston orthopaedic surgeon Gary Fettke, says, and I quote:
“ The New Zealand move is a proactive public health decision by the New Zealand government. It is a stronger stand than what was proposed by the Legislative Council to the Tasmanian Government and the Tasmanian Minister of Health in 2013. We have languished.

Added dietary sugars are recognised as a having a significant association with oral and dental health, obesity and diabetes. All of these are major public health issues.

Tasmania has the second highest rate of child obeisity (second only to the Northern Territory) in Australia.”

Gary Fettke

MR PRESIDENT.

There is also in New Zealand growing momentum for a tax on food and beverages with a high sugar content.

The Heart Foundation and the New Zealand Medical Association have recommended that the Government investigate a tax on sugary soft drinks to discourage consumption.

However, MR PRESIDENT I don’t see a sugary drink tax coming soon in Tasmania and it is to be hoped that improved public education and consumer choices could make a tax unnecessary.

Victoria seems to be taking a lead in educating consumers I quote a report in the Age newspaper MR PRESDENT:
“A graphic new TV advertising campaign that sugary soft drinks can lead to a deadly build-up of “toxic fat” around the body’s vital organs has been launched to fight the growing obesity problem.

“The campaign is the latest shot fired from the public health lobby in its war on sugar, as it seeks to reduce waistlines by highlighting the dangers of a sugary diet.

“The commentary warns that the sugar is being turned into toxic fat, which can lead to cancer, type-2 diabetes and heart disease.”

(Age Newspaper online 11 10 15)
We need more of the same in Tasmania.

I ask the Health Minister to revisit my 2013 speech and look again at the growing problem of sugary drinks in Tasmania.

Continue reading

Making some headway in Brisbane.

We have been in Brisbane the last few days and having some great discussions.

My national Australian Orthopaedic Association is on this week and I presented my Nutrition and Cancer talk in the tumour section. There were some good discussions that followed. We might be getting some traction.

Belinda and I met up with Dr David Johnson (Brisbane Neurosurgeon), his wife Jo and Mairee McNeil, CEO of the Brisbane Private Hospital.

We were there for a Q&A session that followed a screening of That Sugar Film
The Brisbane Private Hospital has adopted some real changes over the last few months. They have a real awareness campaign on the sugar content of food and have switched sparkling water for sugar sweetened soft drinks in a few environments.

The hospital chef has a low carb option on every meal and it is not costing more. Interestingly, they have decreased their wastage.

We will continue to liaise.

https://www.facebook.com/Belinda.Fettke/posts/10206887797847898

How much do we trust the ‘scientific literature’?

“You know Gary the more research I read, the less I want to read. As a scientist myself I find this realisation quite tragic. And how confusing it is to a wider audience.

I’m back to basics; working out what works best for me as an individual.

It is too overwhelming and worrying to consider more especially when so much of the research outcomes are “shaped” by commercial objectives.”

I received this comment from Kim who has her science degree and gets the same overwhelming feeling that I get from time to time reading scientific literature.

Nutritional science is inherently flawed on so many levels, even before commercial interests come into play.

What you ate yesterday will differ today and tomorrow. Even if it doesn’t then the environment and stresses vary.

I therefore don’t get caught up with exact numbers or amounts to eat or by the same token, recommend others to eat.

If you eat fresh. seasonal and local unprocessed food it ends up being low in sugar, definitely low in refined carbohydrates and generally good protein and healthy fats.

I try not to eat out of habit and try and eat when I am hungry. The trick is to stop when you have had enough. It is definitely easier now that the kids have left home as Belinda and I sort of just eat when it seems to be right.

My advice. Try not to stress out about the literature or the food too much.

 

 

 

How wrong can they be? A lot!

Gary Fettke No Fructose's photo.

How far wrong is the advice from Diabetes Australia and The Dietitians Association of Australia when it comes to managing Diabetes?

“suggest people have from 45%, and up to 65%, of their total energy intake from carbohydrate foods.”

“Accredited Practising Dietitians are the recommended providers for all aspects of the
nutrition management of people with diabetes.”

Gestational Diabetes and low carb management?

LCHF during pregnancy?

These are taboo topics and no one will come out with firm statements. No one will be accountable.

I want to start collating your stories.

Gestational Diabetes and ‘pregnancy obesity’ are out of control. Let’s start considering alternatives and good nutrition seems obvious. The only problem is defining what ‘good nutrition’ actually is.

In theory, there should be no problem with running Low Carb Health Fat during pregnancy. It has been a traditional way of eating for millennia and still is for many around the world. Embryos and foetuses will grow on ketone bodies from fat and glucose will still cross the placenta.

I know of several good news successful stories of women who have been able to control their Gestational Diabetes (GD) fabulously with LCHF. I am also aware of women that have avoided GD by being LCHF when they have had GD with past pregnancies.

I know of women who have just continued LCHF right through with no problems except when they got to the hospital food.

I have not heard of any disasters from running Low Carb yet this is touted by doctors, diabetes nurse educators and dietitians as being dangerous to your unborn child.

Let’s start putting together some information. I would like to hear the good and the bad. Let’s see if there really are dangers in running healthy LCHF during pregnancy. I suspect it is an urban myth.

If you find any literature then send that along as well.

A balanced diet in my mind equals getting the micronutrients, minerals and vitamins in the right combination with fat and protein for building cells. The energy source is secondary and can come from glucose or ketones. They both end up as Acetyl CoA which mitochondria use for conversion to ATP (Adenosine Tri Phosphate).

You may feel okay with posting your stories or send along as a separate message. I am not going to post anything that you don’t want made public. This is about collating some information that may end up being background for a pilot study.

Thank you.

https://www.facebook.com/393958287365295/photos/a.407869679307489.94446.393958287365295/903400229754429/?type=3&permPage=1

A variety of posts out there
http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/pregnancy.html

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/…/the-gestational-diabetes-…/…

http://www.babycentre.co.uk/…/is-it-safe-to-go-on-a-low-car…

Continue reading

What can you do to take back control in your cancer outcome?

What can you do to take back control in your cancer outcome?

You can starve it of glucose, but probably more importantly, starve it of insulin and IGF-1, which both stimulate cancer growth.

Cancer and Nutrition – Time to Rethink, the Metabolic Model of Cancer talk is on YouTube for the first time now.

When you have cancer you are overcome by a complete wave of helplessness.

You will lurch from test to test, and doctors appointment to doctors appointment. Your anxiety levels will go up as you hang on the results and then the ‘decisions’ of which treatment is best for you. Currently, that’s a choice between surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Continue reading

Outliers need to be studied, not mocked

Christine helped her husband take back control of his life by a ‘dangerous and unsustainable fad diet’. Did his doctor help or hinder the process? Is she right to be ‘angry’? I think so.

We as doctors need to look really hard at the outliers. Why do some patients who do the opposite of our advice get better results?

This happened with knee reconstruction surgery back in the 1980’s. At the beginning of my training as an Orthopaedic Surgeon we used to put patients in plaster for 3 months. The patients that were non-compliant and took their plasters off and walked when they were told not to ended up doing far better with better functional results. That’s why we now have rapid rehab programmes.

The medical profession has to look harder at the patients doing it differently. Over to Christine.

My husband’s type 2 diabetes was way out of control a year after his close brush with death just over 18 months ago from an infected artificial heart valve and endocarditis with septicaemia, renal failure and much more. It left his previously well controlled insulin resistance extremely brittle and his fasting blood glucose readings were north of 27mmols whilst taking 2 types of oral hypoglycaemic meds and 4 shots of insulin a day.

His GP just kept increasing the insulin and wanted him on a statin urgently. At no time was there any interest or inquiry into his diet. We never eat processed or sugary foods or drinks but unlike me (a long term low carber) husband ate grain and fruit based foods 4 to 6 times a day with large quantities of milk (raging thirst from the diabetes) and pasta, rice, potatoes in preference to meat. Apart from full fat milk and yoghurt, he ate very little fat- although we chucked out margarine and vegetable oils a very long time ago.

I worked out that his ‘healthy whole grain’ based diet with 3 serves of fruit a day equated to an alarmingly high number of equivalent teaspoons of glucose.

No wonder his blood sugars were through the roof. I went with him to the GP and asked why he was being advised by the Diabetic Nurse Educator (over more than a decade) to eat this way when he is obviously deeply insulin resistant and not responding to the increasing dosages of insulin.

The GP said diabetes is progressive and irreversible and they just had to push on until they found the right insulin regime for him. He said what he ate was irrelevant and that it was insulin that mattered as the key aim was to bring down the blood glucose, get the HBA1c under control and get his cholesterol down with statins to protect his heart. He bemused that my husband and I questioned and refused to take the statin- he said “oh, you are another one who watched that ridiculous Catalyst program”!!

I had been watching all this unfold over twelve months and bit my tongue many times determined not to interfere in his medical management seeing as he had been so seriously ill. But I couldn’t stay silent anymore.

I told my husband he was doomed to diabetic complications, a life on dialysis and early death and/or dementia if he kept following along with this medical approach to medicating symptoms and ignoring the underlying cause of his insulin resistance.

He was already suffering cognitive decline, had a 6th nerve eye palsy and couldn’t drive, kidney impairment had kicked back in and he was in strong pain from severe neuropathy in hands and feet which was keeping him from sleeping and making him utterly miserable.

He was desperate and asked me what he should do. I took a deep breath and told him to try a very low carb diet with enough healthy fat to give him energy and plenty of non starchy veggies instead of fruit. He switched onto this immediately without a whimper and he is still on it today some 5 months later. Overnight it just became a new way of life for him- it has never for a single minute been about a diet or for a fixed time period. He knows he cannot handle very many carbs each day and he enjoys the delicious and filling foods we eat. I am a pretty mean cook with excellent food knowledge – that helps.

His blood glucose levels were normal in less than 3 weeks. His Hba1c is back in a good range. Triglycerides are low, HDL is high. BP is normal. Heart function is good. He is only on a small dose of metformin and was off all insulin at the 6-8 week mark. His LDL is up a bit- GP still wants him to take a statin but he steadfastly refuses. GP just sighs in disinterested resignation- clear implication is that we are misguided fools.

His eyesight is normal, cognition good, he is back doing his physical job 4 to 5 days a week and he has morphed from a constantly hungry carb snacker to a LCHF WOE and eats mostly only twice a day with no interest in snacks at all. He also stopped drinking 4 litres of milk a day. We have butter, olive oil, fat on our grass fed meat, eggs, free range bacon and loads of veggies.

But wait- that is a dangerous and unsustainable fad diet isn’t it????

Maybe he should go immediately back to the ‘healthy whole grains, gallons of milk and fruit’ eating 6 times a day so he can get his insulin and statin deficiencies sorted out properly by his qualified doctor……and when he gets all the diabetic decline symptoms back again, he can hop onto dialysis, get his feet amputated, go into a nursing home as his dementia kicks in and be kept alive for another decade or so on an endless array of taxpayer funded tests, medications and hospital admissions via ambulance for all the evidenced based medicine and surgery they have in store for such people. And when he is in hospital he can look forward to those wonderful dietician approved ‘diabetic breakfasts’ of white bread, margarine, jam, Special K and low fat milk!!!

So brilliant is our world class health system when it comes to advancing chronic disease.

Yes- class actions around the world are just around the corner. They have much blood on their hands.

I am very very angry. In fact I have a white hot rage burning in my guts. In my work, I see the tragedy of this huge public health blunder constantly and I lurch from sadness to despair and then wanting to shake people until they wake up and see these 1000 pound gorillas all around them in plain sight. For the rampant chronic and auto immune disease, obesity and mental illness epidemics we are not even midway through around the developed world, medicine doesn’t have a pot to piss in.
______________

Hello Gary – getting back to you as promised. Husband’s results very good. HBA1C 6.5%; cholesterol 4.7; Trigs 2.7; HDL 0.7; LDL 2.8. Doc was impressed but advised him to take a statin to protect his heart. He declined. To give you more context, a year ago HBA1C was 10.9%; cholesterol 16.4; Trigs 23.8; HDL 0.8; LDL 2.5 and fasting BSL 27mmols.
[These are fabulous results in such a short time frame – GF]
______________

I just keep coming across these conversations where the key theme is anger. As people fully grasp the monumental wrongness of it all, they are getting angry. And the anger is stronger as they realise how wilful and deceptive a lot of it is – profits and egos before truth and concern for people and their health. Husband: thanks.

He had been carrying around a big tight belly full of central fat packed around his organs for 20 years and now has a washboard flat abdomen. No doubt this must be a huge advantage for his recovering heart.

I just don’t get how the GP can miss the significance of what has gone on here. Taking such a huge turnaround for granted- and harping on about a statin?? He actually never has had a heart attack- just a calcified aortic valve, AF and then the gut leak/endocarditis. I know they are trained to use a statin for protection post heart attack but I can’t help thinking that he is failing to look at this particular situation fully and consider more carefully what is unfolding and how best to support it therapeutically.

If this man wasn’t married to me, his situation would be ghastly. How many thousands of people are trapped in this way and at what cost? Uuughhhhh!!!

https://www.facebook.com/393958287365295/photos/a.407869679307489.94446.393958287365295/902768703150915/?type=3

Let’s look at the outliers and see why they do so well.

Christine helped her husband take back control of his life by a ‘dangerous and unsustainable fad diet’. Did his doctor help or hinder the process? Is she right to be ‘angry’? I think so.

We as doctors need to look really hard at the outliers. Why do some patients who do the opposite of our advice get better results?

This happened with knee reconstruction surgery back in the 1980’s. At the beginning of my training as an Orthopaedic Surgeon we used to put patients in plaster for 3 months. The patients that were non-compliant and took their plasters off and walked when they were told not to ended up doing far better with better functional results. That’s why we now have rapid rehab programmes.

The medical profession has to look harder at the patients doing it differently. Over to Christine.

My husband’s type 2 diabetes was way out of control a year after his close brush with death just over 18 months ago from an infected artificial heart valve and endocarditis with septicaemia, renal failure and much more. It left his previously well controlled insulin resistance extremely brittle and his fasting blood glucose readings were north of 27mmols whilst taking 2 types of oral hypoglycaemic meds and 4 shots of insulin a day.

His GP just kept increasing the insulin and wanted him on a statin urgently. At no time was there any interest or inquiry into his diet. We never eat processed or sugary foods or drinks but unlike me (a long term low carber) husband ate grain and fruit based foods 4 to 6 times a day with large quantities of milk (raging thirst from the diabetes) and pasta, rice, potatoes in preference to meat. Apart from full fat milk and yoghurt, he ate very little fat- although we chucked out margarine and vegetable oils a very long time ago.

I worked out that his ‘healthy whole grain’ based diet with 3 serves of fruit a day equated to an alarmingly high number of equivalent teaspoons of glucose.

No wonder his blood sugars were through the roof. I went with him to the GP and asked why he was being advised by the Diabetic Nurse Educator (over more than a decade) to eat this way when he is obviously deeply insulin resistant and not responding to the increasing dosages of insulin. Continue reading

Why are the Dutch the tallest in the world?

Dutch cumin cheese

Why are the Dutch the tallest in the world?

Is it the cheese?

“One might think that an all-dairy diet would bad for waistlines, but in fact the Dutch have grown mostly in the opposite direction.

In the mid-1800s, the average Dutchman was about 5ft 4in tall (1m 63cm) – 3in (7.5cm) shorter than the average American. In 150-odd years of scoffing milk and cheese, however, the Dutch soared past the Americans and everyone else.

These days, the average Dutchman is more than 6ft tall (1m 83cm), and the average Dutch woman about 5ft 7in (1m 70cm).

The Dutch have gone from being among the shortest people in Europe to being the tallest in the world.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34380895