Colesterol and statins

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mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
Not to the whole truth but what he says makes sense
What does he say? The nazi bar formerly known as twitter seems to be blocking me.

WHen I met my wife she was very critical of the "Butter is bad" stuff
she reckoned that a small amount of butter was better for you than the processed low fat stuff pushed as an alternative
Butter is also processed! It don't come out of the cows like that. It depends what butter and what marg, but all else being equal, less is probably better.

However, a lot fo whatthe government said was accurate

they just didn't jump on the food industry when it said that their over processed high sugar were the greater thing for health ever
ratehr than pushing the lowfat due to eating nutritious stuff like fruit and plain veg
That message was out there
but as always, the high profit products had advertising that drowned out the stuff that was good
Agree with that.
 
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dicko

Legendary Member
Location
Derbyshire
My recent blood test and diabetic review show my cholesterol, both good and bad, are just fine exactly where it should be my diabetic nurse tells me.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
Marge is classed as ultra-processed, butter isn't. The definitions are here.
No, that only says ultra-processed foods include margarines. It'll include some, but not all margarines are ultra-processed. You can make one with plant oils, coconut fat, water, salt and beans that is only processed, not ultra-processed, but you probably want to add reduced carrot juice to make it a more palatable colour. There's a couple like that still on widespread sale.
 

PaulSB

Squire
For a properly scientific take on it, suggest reading the Tim Spector books. “Spoon Fed” is very thought provoking
I haven't read the book but I am aware of his views on low fat diets, fad diets and preference for a more Mediterranean style diet, something I would agree with.

However having experienced the manner in which Zoe Ltd behaves, a company Spector co-founded, I wouldn't trust anything he has to say whether or not it is based on proper science based research.
 
I haven't read the book but I am aware of his views on low fat diets, fad diets and preference for a more Mediterranean style diet, something I would agree with.

However having experienced the manner in which Zoe Ltd behaves, a company Spector co-founded, I wouldn't trust anything he has to say whether or not it is based on proper science based research.

Interesting. Care to share?
 

PaulSB

Squire
Interesting. Care to share?

Certainly. I'm a firm believer in taking part in public research where possible. I'm currently signed up to an NHS trial to prevent bowel cancer, I don't have the disease but following a colonoscopy was told I fitted the profile the study wanted to investigate. I'm also signed up for the current UKHSA study. I feel it's important to help where one can. The UKHSA told me they had an issue because the majority joining the study were already unwell. Fit, healthy individuals were badly needed. I do take part in other commercial research as it interests me and one can learn from this.

When Covid arrived I signed up to the Zoe Study within a week. I genuinely saw this as "my duty" and a contribution to society. I reported every single day. Sometime later, when Covid was over, I received an email inviting me to take part in further research, I forget the exact subject but it was from Zoe. I completed an extensive questionnaire, many, many pages of detailed personal information. When I hit submit I was presented with the credit card page and invited to pay a fee of +/- £300 followed by £50 monthly payments. I would then be sent my kit.

I was extremely p1ssed off, emailed the company expressing my views and asked why Zoe attempted to sell me its product using what appeared to be an appeal for help with public research. I didn't receive any sort of reply. A bit of digging revealed Zoe is a company jointly founded by Spector and I had been freely contributing my personal information to that company throughout Covid and without knowing who was using the information. Perhaps this makes me a fool but I feel the way the Zoe Study was presented suggested it was public research. I felt conned.

I understand Tim Spector is a highly respected scientist. My problem is with the manner that his company conducts its business. I wouldn't trust Spector at all. I have two friends who did sign up, handed over a lot of money and haven't received much in return. Interestingly from having regularly talked about their "results" it is never mentioned now.
 
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mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
I recall you expressing those concerns. At the time I disagreed, I now know you were right to be very cautious.
Well, patients with incurable chronic illnesses seem to be prime targets for various medical "entrepreneur" scam businesses, so I've seen far too many in the decades since I was diagnosed. They offer hope, often for free at first and later try to cash in on that goodwill somehow, but the bottom line is that incurable is incurable, for now at least. I don't expect to ever be cured. Only treated and hopefully decline slowed. Maybe I can help the next generation of my family, but I'll probably be helping them more if there's public-sector or "common wealth" (social enterprise, community-benefit, patient co-op, or similar) involvement in the cure, rather than it being locked up solely in the private sector.

I admit I didn't expect Zoe to use the good old charging-for-tests method. I expected something more innovative with patient data and probably even grubbier!
 
I'm probably a bit of a Spector fanboy and I suspect he might not have anything to do with the running of the business that he started - he is a research scientist so not his area of expertise. Still at some point the buck stops with him (along with the other owners). Saying that I think they have done some public spirited work. The original app was due to come out just as Covid hit and they repurposed it to help - they were the ones who alerted the authorities that a loss of smell and/or taste were (then) Covid symptoms. Afaik they didn't (at that point) make any money from that but potentially saved a bunch of lives. That's not to excuse (sadly common) subsequent actions - though I'm guessing at least some subscribers get value from it and definitely from the associated podcast which is free - but hopefully puts things in context. I'm not a huge fan of privatised healthcare by any means, but it's hard to see the public sector doing this kind of thing, if only because we don't seem to be prepared to pay for it via taxation.
 
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Well, patients with incurable chronic illnesses seem to be prime targets for various medical "entrepreneur" scam businesses, so I've seen far too many in the decades since I was diagnosed. They offer hope, often for free at first and later try to cash in on that goodwill somehow, but the bottom line is that incurable is incurable, for now at least. I don't expect to ever be cured. Only treated and hopefully decline slowed. Maybe I can help the next generation of my family, but I'll probably be helping them more if there's public-sector or "common wealth" (social enterprise, community-benefit, patient co-op, or similar) involvement in the cure, rather than it being locked up solely in the private sector.

I admit I didn't expect Zoe to use the good old charging-for-tests method. I expected something more innovative with patient data and probably even grubbier!

That has been going on for many years

My Dad was nobody's fool but when he was injured during the war and got out of hospital in 1947 (!) then he tried a few places that Promised they could fix his spine

One was in teh Isla of Mann and after seeing the quack he sat down with his Dad and they discussed it and decided that they had to accept that a broken spine was not going to get fixed
in spite of the claims they had been told about

and this was before they could use the Internet to get a wider audience!!!!
 
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