Ignorance of Nutrition Is No Longer Defensible

  • Thread starter Thread starter Shakuhachi
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
That was sort of true. There were a lot less choices in the cafeteria, but there were always some healthy options, especially on weekdays. The weekends were a little scant though and the healthy food was often more expensive. I was in the hospital for three weeks, but I was only a patient for the first five days of it. Once they discharged me and I was rooming in with my baby, I had to eat in the cafeteria.
 
TheLittleLady said:
While there are offerings for the patients, the cafeteria food for the family is just plain icky.
Click to expand...
Not in my hospital!

The Salad Bar is amazing! So many fresh veges and lean sources of protein.

There is a kiosk that serves lighter courses, e.g., chicken fajitas made the way the customer orders them, etc.

The breakfasts are so good that I will sometimes go my workplace for breakfast even if I’m off work! Great omelets served with anything you like!

Recently, they started serving “mini meals”-- a small scoop (like a sorbet scoop) of a meat salad e.g. Chicken salad, 1/4 cup of nuts (either almonds or walnuts), 1/2 cup of fruit (usually red grapes or sliced apples), and six tiny “crostinis” (or whatever you call those little pieces of doll toast!). REALLY yummy! I love getting these, and they’re only $3.00, which is a lot if you have the time to make these things at home, but if you don’t, it’s not bad.

And a huge selection of beverages including free ice water!

I guess I’m really blessed here!

I usually try to bring my breakfast and lunch though to use up our leftovers, save money, and get bigger portions of veges and fruits.

I 'love our food!
 
DH was in over Thanksgiving. The Cafeteria made a big deal about providing a traditional meal to the families, friends came to the hospital so we could all eat together, it was inedible from the salt.

There is a Subway in the hospital, they cook “gas station” pizza, BBQ nachos, maybe it is a southern thing?
 
To be fair, a lot of “traditional” Thanksgiving dishes are high in sodium, and they were probably making them from frozen. My hospital had a steak fajita salad that I would go back for, if parking wasn’t such a pain!
 
Fully 30% of American adults are rated obese today. Not just a few extra pounds, but flat out obese. That is double what it was in 1990. While it’s certainly true that not all obese are diabetics, it is no coincidence that the rate of diabetes has soared during that time. Sure, not everyone at Walmart is diabetic or pre-diabetic, but a significant number of them are.

Something like $400bn is spent every year now on diabetes care and that makes up a considerable portion of the total budget for Medicare and other programs for the poor. And we haven’t even got into those with pre-diabetes. It would make a considerable dent in the deficit spending just by forcing most diabetics and pre-diabetics to take the financial consequences of being too lazy to do the real work to fix their diets. Carbohydrate addiction is real, I know that, I’ve watched it first hand, hence the incentive to combat it must be powerful enough to get results.

But if we’re ever going to get our arms around this, we need some tough love to take the forefront. Denninger has proposed a simple test for diabetics. Make them spend 2 weeks on a ketogenic diet in a controlled environment where cheating is not possible. If all their diabetic markers go down markedly during that time, that’s their cure right there, they’ve been shown the way and they should be helped to implement said dietary changes in their own lives, but no more diabetes medical expenses, that’s on them now. There are still going to be those few who won’t benefit from this diet, then those people can remain on medical assistance. But there are not going to be that many of them.
 
Last edited:
Zzyzx_Road said:
Make them spend 2 weeks on a ketogenic diet
Click to expand...
Diabetic markers won’t go down in just two weeks. It takes the body longer than that to get fat adapted and to see real progress.

This is part of the overall problem with “diets”. People want marked results in 2 weeks. It doesn’t happen. It is unrealistic and unreasonable. I am a huge proponent of the ketogenic diet. I have spent a long time studying it so I understand it. It works for most people, diabetic or not. It can control cholesterol and anxiety, and a whole bunch of other health issues. After the first week or two, most people begin to feel better. But their labs aren’t going to show much of a change at all, especially if they start out as a diabetic.
 
QwertyGirl said:
Diabetic markers won’t go down in just two weeks. It takes the body longer than that to get fat adapted and to see real progress.

This is part of the overall problem with “diets”. People want marked results in 2 weeks. It doesn’t happen. It is unrealistic and unreasonable. I am a huge proponent of the ketogenic diet. I have spent a long time studying it so I understand it. It works for most people, diabetic or not. It can control cholesterol and anxiety, and a whole bunch of other health issues. After the first week or two, most people begin to feel better. But their labs aren’t going to show much of a change at all, especially if they start out as a diabetic.
Click to expand...
The markers won’t disappear in two weeks, but the direction they’re going will usually be noticeable in that time for pre-diabetes. Real diabetes will be a harder nut to crack and not so many will benefit there, I acknowledge that, but a good number will. The key during those two weeks is no cheating. That alone will be a hard one, I’ve had elderly relatives with diabetes and the food cravings these people had were off the charts.
 
Last edited:
People who are diabetic can eat very healthy meals and STILL need insulin or other glucose lowering medications. Also, diabetics (and even many with pre-diabetes who take drugs like metformin) spend a lot of “extra” money on endocrinologist appointments, drug costs, blood tests, etc. Even with insurance co-pays. It’s very expensive. You want to target one group of people with one disease which has a huge genetic component, call them lazy, and make them completely financially responsible?

Who is going to pay for this very expensive sounding “ketogenic diet test” you propose? Two weeks where people are forced into a controlled environment means they need housing, food, employees who make the food and track consumption, healthcare workers, lab workers, data analysts, etc. Not to mention people cannot just take two weeks off from work. What about their kids? Who cares for them?
 
Yes. The food cravings are typically bad for the first couple of weeks. Then they usually completely disappear, as long as the diet is followed properly. There is a lot of misinformation about how to eat keto, and it can cause a lot of rapid failure. People need to be educated.
 
I am a medical technologist (since 1980!) who has worked in microbiology for many of the last 40 years.

I think one thing that would really help obese people stay on track with lifestyle and diet adjustments would be weekly or bi-weekly lab testing on parameters like glucose, lipids, etc. (the ones that usually are affected for the good by weight loss).

Speaking from personal experience (I lost 80 pounds ten years ago), seeing those numbers improve is a fantastic motivation to stick with the healthier eating and movement habits!

But no insurance company will cover weekly lab tests for “obesity treatment” and self-pay is very expensive, not to mention that you have to get a doctor’s script in order for the lab to perform the testing.

I really wish that my “weekly lab testing” proposal could be seriously considered by the medical community and the insurance companies. Many obese people eat because they like “instant gratification”–I’m describing myself here. Seeing the scale go down, down, down is a motivator, but sometimes, the scale doesn’t budge–as many have said on this thread, reducing calories and increasing activity level does not always produce noticeable results on the scale. But the lab results don’t lie! Often even if the weight loss doesn’t show up on the scale, the improvement in blood chemistry will show up in the lab test results, and this could keep obese people from getting discouraged.
 
'“Although the ketogenic diet has garnered much attention for the dietary treatment of chronic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes, the evidence supporting its use is currently limited and the diet’s potential risks are real. Physicians and patients should continue to judiciously appraise the benefits and risks of the ketogenic diet in accordance with the evidence, not the hype.”
 
I had a misprint up above–I was gestational diabetic my third pregnancy, not the first.

Another anecdote: it was a fat dietitian.

I am a chubby lady myself, so no judgment, BUT there are some major credibility issues when you’re fat and telling people how to eat.

I was the world’s best gestational diabetic, if I do say so myself. I gained something like 14 pounds my entire pregnancy…and then delivered a 9 pound baby. However a) I was highly motivated (the baby could literally DIE) and b) sticking to my diet was almost the only thing I did that last trimester. My husband did 90% of housework and kid care. As I recall, my energy was really low. I’d have a window of 30-60 minutes of alertness after eating where I’d have enough clarity to answer school emails, and then I’d go into screen saver mode until the next time I was allowed to eat again.
 
Clementine14 said:
Who is going to pay for this very expensive sounding “ketogenic diet test” you propose? Two weeks where people are forced into a controlled environment means they need housing, food, employees who make the food and track consumption, healthcare workers, lab workers, data analysts, etc. Not to mention people cannot just take two weeks off from work. What about their kids? Who cares for them?
Click to expand...
DS is a big Keto guy.

We were discussing this article:

www.militarytimes.com

Defense Department to ban beer and pizza? Mandatory keto diet may enhance military performance

The controversial ketogenic or “keto” diet may be the future of the military, some defense officials say.
www.militarytimes.com www.militarytimes.com

Knowing first hand how bad “Keto Flu” can be, such a plan would change the nature of boot camp for at least the first couple of weeks.

The expense of getting enough calories (seems one Marine friend told me that for the activity level the men need around 6,000 per day!) for all service people is quite daunting.
 
I wonder if in-home testing would be an option (Hey, young brainaics out there, develop one!!)

My husband must watch his INR closely, we have a home testing kit so he can test weekly. A package of test strips and little stabby things is less $$ than a lab blood draw and insurance does cover it for his health issues.
 
A couple of links to whet your appetite. Or not.

www.sciencedaily.com

Low-carb diet may reduce diabetes risk independent of weight loss

A low-carb diet may have benefits for people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes even if they don't lose any weight, a new study suggests.
www.sciencedaily.com

www.sciencedaily.com

Weight management program can put type 2 diabetes into remission

Type 2 diabetes can be reversed following an intensive weight management program, according a randomized trial in adults who have had the condition for up to 6 years. Almost half of participants achieved and maintained diabetes remission at one year without antidiabetic medications.
www.sciencedaily.com
 
Yes but
“Greater adherence to plant-based dietary patterns, especially those rich in healthful plant-based foods, is associated with lower risk of type 2 diabetes.”

jamanetwork.com

Association Between Plant-Based Dietary Patterns and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

This systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective observational studies quantitatively synthesizes available evidence on the association between plant-based dietary patterns and risk of type 2 diabetes.
jamanetwork.com jamanetwork.com
 
BTW, the Science Daily article disclose:
The research was supported by the National Dairy Council and the Dutch Dairy Association.
 
Looks like I’m out of luck… Lol.

Dislike all fruit and eat only a few kinds of vegetables. Mainly a texture thing that I just cannot get past. Some is taste as well.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top