Like my wife’s best friend!!

Thanks for replying Marina

Re chips pies pasties cakes and biscuits. Good to limit all of these I agree (whilst not offending one’s spouse and relatives)
Again, open question, what aspects of chips are not good from a dietitians perspective? Personally, I try not to eat much of them because they are a starchy vegetable cooked in a polyunsaturated
oil ( at a guess probably soy oil as its cheap). Pretty moreish too if the cook is good.

Goodnight all

Re cherry picking advice.
Chris, this is rife whether mainstream of alternative. Crap science abounds. One easily findable example is Ancel Key’ Seven Countries study half a century ago, which really kicked off the whole ‘Saturated Fat is bad’ for real.
When I started nursing in the 1978, I got a severe bollockingon my first ward from a Ward Sister for letting an MI patient use a commode rather than perch on a bedpan. Bedrest was de rigeur for these patients back then. Now, bedrest is held to be harmful for them. Which is right? If current practice is best, then it’s likely that over a period, many people died from what was then ‘best’ practice.
I accept that the mention of products and companies on the BDA website are not ‘plugs’, presuming that none of the companies are sponsors? Call me cynical, or anything else you want to, but isn’t this is very close to what I believe is called ‘product placement’ on TV and more overtly, in films??

Promise I’ll check out some of Jules references, though there’s a lot to choose from, so if any are thought to be particularly worthy, I wouldn’t say no to a pointer.

As regards P Holford and G McKeith, IMHO, both have areas of sensible advice with an overlay of shall we say dubiousness. I’m not well up on supplements, but in the interests of disclosure. I take a moderate amount of Vit C, and Zinc/Selenium when I remember which isn’t very often.
Nutrition and diet I agree is very complex, I suspect the more we know, the more we realise we don’t know.

Another open question, as i understand it there are 3 basic foods (disregarding vits and minerals) I know that fats and protein is essential in so far as without enough of them, we eventually die, but that carbohydrates are not essential on those terms. (I am not advocating not eating carbohydrate btw I’m not a closet traditional Inuit or Masai). So then, is there a carbohydrate that is essential for life? I don’t believe so, but if there is, I’d be interested to know.

Regina Wilshire is from the USA and has her own blog in which she primarily looks at published research and health advice given to the public. I’ve no idea whether an American dietitian is the same as one from this side of the channel.

James the BDA really is funded by its members and some income from job adverts and advertising in our journal. I t was founded over 60 years ago by the first Dietitians.

Now the interesting thing is that dietitians really do work for the benefit of the profession and for nothing! There are may sub groups like local branches and specialist groups - sport nutrition .,diabetes , paediatrics etc. Thet are run by elected commitees and are unpaid except for expenses and that is fair enough. Sometimes the BDA will pay a trust for time spent away from the job. The daily functions are carried out by paid staff - some of whom are dietitians. i myself am on the commitee of sport nutriton and am a member of the Welsh Board. These groups and comittees do alot of work develping policies, position statements etc.
For a professional Dietitian the BDA is vital to develop practice. Study days are also part of this remit - CPD is now compulsory and all portfolios can be viewed by the HPC. Hope this makes sense.

The BDA also funds the yearly weight wise campaign and I was involved last year. Dietitians across the UK worked with teenagers and the intervention working with the families prooved to be very beneficial - my teenager lost over 2 stone and is continuing to lose wt - again with the right input.
The weight wise websites that recieved some govt funding has proved to be very successful and offers sensible impartial advice .

The thing is that many of the statements re diet made by the non dietitians have been cherry picked and are not worth much on their own!

I am looking forward to more comments.

Chris - you may not know who I am but I looked you up. Am really pleased someone with your background thinks my comments are valid.

Neil - I agree the power wielded by Pharm co’s is wide and powerful but lets think this through logically.

On the one hand you have dietitians who (mostly I believe) work in the NHS on poor money, giving out advice to people with no impact on their wage from recommending any products. On top of that you have the NHS which is also trying to cut costs at every level (why would the NHS used expensive drugs if “natural” cures were available).

On the other hand you have nutritionist such as “Dr” Gillian, Holford and Dr Briffa, all of whom have direct income from supplement companies (the Pharm co’s) and the media. I know “Dr” Gillian has her own brands and John has products he has developed (I hope that is the right term John). Logic tells me that one group has a personal gain from recommending supplements, the other does not.

Even more like the Pharm industry, those recommending supplements can do so on the understanding that they have got someone hooked for life, what I would call a cash cow.

So which one do you trust? The one who benefits personally or the one who is independent (even if the BDA is not (which I don’t believe) its member will not gain a financial advantage from their advice). The logic just doesn’t add up.

John - On a plus side, I am pleased you do believe in conventional medicine to treat HIV. I wish you would focus your attention on the very dangerous views of Holford rather than attack NHS professionals (why have you not looking into his research?). I think your efforts would be much better served there and you may gain more respect in your field (I have not seen any support for you from any health professionals). How you can take his views in isolation is beyond me.

As a passing comment, I cannot believe you do not understand that your USE OF CAPITALS, is rude, aggressive and unprofessional I hope your bedside manner is less agressive.

You won’t believe me, but a serious question based on a comment above, do you give your dog supplements?

I won’t respond to all the individual points as many are really petty ones, correcting perceptions, responding to specific points, etc…. Details of who supports our campaigns and healthy eating messages is available on the BDA website (www.bda.uk.com) - just go into the area with campaigns info and look at the Partnerships for the Food First campaign. You can also find our annual report on the website which details some of the activities and the companies we have worked with. I don’t know why there is a perception that we are not open about our links when there is info on our website? If anyone wants to know more about industry partners connected with advertising they are welcome to apply for BDA membership, receive our publications, attend our annual conference and meet those companies who exhibit. Again, membership info is available to all on our website.

I don’t know why the issue of the BDA’s links with industry has arisen, other than through Ben Goldacre’s article. In some ways I am bemused that such an issue has been raised about the BDA. The basic principle is that this is a matter between the industry partner, the BDA and our membership. The issue of ‘transparency’ or accountability is one that our members alone need to be satisfied about, as in the case of other professional associations. We are accountable to our members for the our actions, we have no need to justify our actions to anyone else other than our primary stakeholders.

I am pleased to see the comments from dietitians and others about the profession of dietetics and the scientific knowledge and principles that underpin it. I am not a dietitian so am not able to comment further.

If anyone wants to ask specific questions about the BDA then (as per usual!) contact details can be found on the BDA website. I can’t add any more to what has been posted to date.

Contrary to some of the views here, we do not advise the same diet for every person as we treat everyone as an individual. At the end of the day, although we adhere to a code of conduct, we are autonomous practitioners and have a responsibility to keep up to date with current research. In our training we were taught how to critically appraise and do not just accept what we are told we should believe. We then pass this knowledge on to patients to help them choose what they should eat - we do not dictate to them. We see people with a wide range of conditions, as Chris has said and although I do not doubt that there are some “bad” dietitians out there, just as there are “bad” doctors, dentists etc, please do not tar us all with the same brush.

You state ” commend you for providing all those studies, but not one of them refutes or rebuts the specifics of my original post.”
What do you mean? It is clear from what I stated in my post that I do not agree with you original post where you state that the cornerstone of dietetic advice to aid weight loss is via “low-fat eating” / “a diet low in fat and high in carbohydrate”. so why would I try to prove something that I don’t agree I do. I therefore provided relevent and up-to-date references to support the type of dietetic advice that I would use. I suggest you read them before dismissing them. Many involve RCTs and RCT meta-analyses so what is wrong with them.

I also found it somewhat patronising that you said “I commend you for providing all those studies” - you can’t have your cake and eat it. You asked for references and got them. Because they are not what you want then you dismiss them.

In response to “With regard to accountability, I am bound by the code of conduct set out by the General Medical Council. Do you feel I ahve transgressed? If so, how?”
I do not know if you have transgressed from the GMC code of conduct. My point was that the nutritional advice you provide is not regulated, which as far as I am aware is not an area that the GMC would particularly consider. Furthermore, you were suggesting that dietitians are not accountable and I gave evidence that they are - to the Health Professions Council.

In response to “But please stick to studies that are germaine to the points I made in my original post about low fat diets and weight loss, dairy and bones, cholesterol-reduction etc…” - I have given my thoughts on ‘low fat diets’ already and if you REALLY want could do so for the other areas you have mentioned. However you will just dismiss what I present to you as you have obviously not taken a look at the references I have given.

Also, could you please clarify what you mean by “cholesterol reduction” - are you refering to dietary cholesterol or plasma cholesterol? If it is the latter are you talking about total cholesterol or HDL, LDL, VLDL-cholesterol - as it makes a difference if you are just talking about total cholesterol. What are your thoughts on triacylglycerol levels? How about the atherogenoc lipoprotein profile?