Fruit juice causes type 2 diabetes?

Nutritionists prove link between
fruit juice and type 2 diabetes

Dr Lydia Bazzano and colleagues from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in Louisiana and other medical and academic centres across the USA carried out this study. The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health. One of the researchers received a grant from the Office of Research on Women’s Health and Office of Dietary Supplements. It was published in the peer-reviewed medical journal: Diabetes Care.

This was a cohort study of over 70,000 female nurses followed for 18 years to determine the links between diet and risk of various outcomes. The study has published many parts of its results over time, and in this particular paper the researchers report on the association between all fruit and vegetables, particular types of fruit or vegetable, and fruit juice with the onset of type 2 diabetes during the 18 years of follow-up.

This confirms advice by qualified nutritionists, good dietitians and the Food Standards agency that warn it's whole fruit and vegetables you need for optimum health not fruit juice.

No matter how much juice you drink it only counts as 1 portion towards your 5 (better 8 or 9) portions of fruit and veg per day.

Juice is quite often not juice at all and this study doesn't seem to differentiate. Many juices on the market are 'fruit drinks' with added sugar or worse still added sweeteners. Juice is very rarely fresh more likely pasteurised that would kill the beneficial enzymes that you would get from live fresh fruit. Even smoothies are pasteurised so although you benefit from the fibre and are thus better than juice or no fruit at all they are still not as good as a home made berry smoothie or the fresh fruit itself.

Intake of total fruit and green leafy vegetables appeared to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes which confirms nutritionist and Raw Foodists claims that green is the most important colour in your rainbow menu.

Advice?

Same old same old - 3 portions of fresh fruit and 5 portions of vegetables per day with a rainbow of colours - emphasis on the green. Fresher and the least processed (raw?) the better.

Fresh smoothies are getting easier to buy with smoothie bars opening up in shopping malls - they usually use frozen berries which some would argue is better than limp fresh ones. For convenience you could add a heaped teaspoon of green hemp protein or seaweed and algae to your fruit smoothie to lessen the strain of the sugar on your insulin levels or eat a handful of seeds with your smoothie.

The one juice exception may be wheat grass but I suspect we'll have to wait quite some time before we see a research study of 121,700 nurses on their wheat grass juice consumption and the effects on insulin levels over 18 years even in the USA

Foods for life - Nutritionist London

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Nutritionists and Dietitians

If anyone had any doubt about the differences between Nutritionists and Dietitians Catherine Collins put them straight on Radio 4 recently - 'if your urine is too dark or you are thirsty then drink squash and coffee' she told the Radio 4 listeners

She insinuated her clinics are full of people maimed by incompetent Nutritionists. In our nutritional therapy clinics we regularly see people who feel they have to pay £95 an hour because they have been failed by their NHS GPs and dietitians, left to suffer for up to 20 years with missed obvious clues to their underlying symptom causing conditions.

I guess that's another difference with dietitian Catherine Collins and a good nutritionist , instead of hyperbolic whinging on the radio that all Doctors and dietitians should get some basic nutrition training or be thrown in jail, qualified Nutritional therapists get on with the job of healing people.

The final difference between Nutritionists and dietitians is the most important one. Patients rarely get 'sent' to a nutritionist, they don't have to come, sent by their doctor. Patients choose to come, choose their therapist, choose to pay and choose to follow a nutritionist's advice. Patients usually arrive at our clinics after a personal recommendation from someone who's life we have already transformed.

Yes it is a constant thorn in our side too, that there are some truly awful practitioners out there that call themselves nutritionists. Surprisingly we can't get wait to get regulated (as long as the EU leave us the tools to do the job). However although regulation will weed out some of the Personal Trainers that call themselves nutritionists and a host of other 'Jack of all trade' alternative therapists it won't solve the kind of problems that provoke Collin's vitriolic attacks. GP's are heavily regulated, it doesn't stop them missing things that experienced qualified nutritional therapists regard as blatantly obvious. You can't know everything - that's why you have specialists.

It's great that dietitians are finally regulated and now required to participate in regular professional development but old habits die hard and there are still the odd few that are able to do more harm than good. (Ice cream and custard creams for osteoporosis!!??!!) Frustated by the constraints of dietetics as a therapeutic tool some dietitians have gone on to learn about nutritional therapy and are now some of the most dynamic practitioners out there.

A modicom of common sense maybe useful here. Choose a nutritional therapist who specialises in nutrition, with experience, with insurance, with recognised qualificatons and preferably with a personal recommendation.

Nutritional therapy is performance based. If therapists don't get people well, patients won't come back, they won't tell their friends and they won't pay the money. Chances are they won't be in business for very long.

If you want a dietitian make sure you get a good one

Always go to your Doctor first (it's free!) if they can't help you give us a call!

Tony Bishop-Weston - Nutritionists London Foods for Life

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Secret Ingredients in Takeaway Food

Of course most restaurants don't want you to know what's in their food. If you did you think twice about eating it. Pizzas, Kebabs and curries have been shown to have more than a whole days allowance of saturated fat. Chinese food can not just have over the odds on saturated fat but up to 19 teaspoons of sugar per dish.




Yvonne Bishop-Weston Nutritionist London on GM TV this morning says "People can't make healthier choices if the nutritional information is kept secret. The simplest idea is to extend the Food Standards Traffic light system - If people then have a dish with a red rating for saturated fat or sugar they then know they factor that in for other food they eat that day.



Leading takeaway chains still offer little if any nutritional information to help customers make healthy choices, a study has found. None of the major takeaway restaurants give nutritional details on menus or menu boards, despite Britons eating almost two billion of their meals a year, the National Consumer Council (NCC) said.

Customers find it difficult to work out how much fat, salt and sugar they are eating, and cannot compare meals to choose healthier options, the NCC said. The survey of seven restaurant chains named Pizza Express as the worst offender for offering no nutritional information at all in its stores or online. Wimpy, Pizza Hut and Domino's Pizza only offered information on their websites.

Only Burger King made details available before ordering in the form of a leaflet at the counter. KFC and McDonald's printed information on the back of tray liners. The NCC found that nutritional information was often hard to find, complex and difficult to understand. None of the information allowed consumers to compare the relative healthiness of different meal options at a glance.

A poll of customers by the NCC found three quarters would find nutritional information useful in takeaway restaurants, while 61% would use it to choose healthier meals. The study found a KFC meal of a Tower Burger, regular BBQ beans, yoghurt and cola contained nearly a whole day's salt and more than two thirds of the recommended daily amount of sugar.

In comparison, a KFC drumstick and breast, regular fries, Munch Bunch raspberry yoghurt and a regular diet cola provided less than half a day's salt and a sixth of the daily amount of sugar.

The Cabinet Office Food Matters study released this week recommended looking at ways to help consumers have access to healthier choices when eating out and having more information about the health and environmental impacts of their diet.

Recent studies have warned that single take-away meals such as curries or Chinese dishes can include more saturated fat than an adult should eat in an entire day. NCC policy expert Jeff Allder said: ``It's important that people can choose a healthy option if they want one, especially with consumers' growing appetite for fast food and the rise of obesity and diet-related illnesses.

``If people are going to change their eating habits they need clear, up-front information about what they are eating. The largest takeaway chains should take a lead from supermarkets, which provide a lot of information at a glance.''

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