Message from Tony Sangster

Hi Andrew,

Glad to see you have seen the ‘light’ and retired.

In my experience the timing is very individual and one needs to be certain that life after retirement is planned out.

For me, life in Adelaide is quite pleasant once I get over the discomfort of disc prolapse, calcific tendonitis - hips and shoulders and some spinal arthritis - a mix, I suspect, of family history and being now 55 years on insulin.

I remain and identify as a healthcare consumer and advocate, trying to dip an oar in to keep medical researchers on their toes, and clinicians too.

It has been a labour of many to raise the profile of the those challenging the evidence base and probity of  the Aussie Dietary Guidelines, in particular, the 2013 ones. And preparing for a possible fight when the 2024 ADGs are released.

And question how dietary dogma has been perpetrated for more than 40 years - yes, we of class 1971 arrived newly graduated not long after the US Dietary Guidelines of 1977 were pronounced. I have many references (some from internal documents of the sugar industry) that illustrate how the food industry engineered these guidelines to demonise fat and thus raise the % of carbs consumed - a particularly egregious thing for all diabetics.

Furthermore these fundamentals - fat less than 30% of daily energy intake (and saturated fat ideally less than 10% of that 30%), protein with its satiating effect steady at about 15 to 20%, and the remainder of carbs at 50 to 55%. Down fat, up carbs.

A systemic review and meta-analysis of 2015 - affirmed that the dietary fat restriction guidelines of the US 1977 and 1983 dietary guidelines were against the RCTs of those times.

The % of each macronutrient has not altered since those times. No evidence just confirmation bias.

We were or are part of that time. see also Dr Demasi: 2017: Who Influences Dietary Policy in Australia?

And there are now 4 Cochrane (evidence level A) trials (2000, 2011, 2015, 2020) all showing no association between fat intake in humans and cardiovascular disease. No association means no causation can be attributed. Yet 2003 Aussie G/L missed the first one, and 2013 used an illogical means to skip the second (see Dr Mason: 2017: Saturated Fat is Not Dangerous). Since the 2000, 2011 were recently reviewed that should put all four up for consideration in the 2024 Aussie guidelines formulation.

And let us not start on statins, the next big con since 1980/90s onwards.

And from the 1980s up went incidence of T2D, pre-diabetes, NAFLD (now called Metabolic Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease) etc. 

And that seed oils with relatively unstable PUFAs oxidise easily to create oxidised LDL-C ( a marker of CVD) in the circulation.

Worse still, each dose of fructose from sucrose containing foods, and from soda drinks and commercial fruit juices, consumed by children, teens and adults overwhelms the liver to produce fatty liver, a precursor of CVD. (just like alcohol does - yes, we have ben feeding our kids, nephews, nieces with a substance just as damaging in some ways as alcohol) see video: Lustig: 2009: The Bitter Truth

Of course these foods contain very little fibre, but whole fruit contains the fibre to delay absorption of fructose to a more manageable level. 

Did you know that Medical Director, that ‘trusty’ prescribing program, used to be owned by the SDA Church, the owners of Sanitarium.

Wondered why it had ready-made diet plans (fashioned by that food giant) to print out for patients?

We have trials showing up to 30% of those with T2D can reverse their diabetes with well formulated low or very low carb diets - at potential savings in health (from blindness, kidney failure, amputation etc) and huge healthcare cost saving from de-prescription of medications.

Yet we have one medical College where, it is alleged, at least 2 members on a guidelines committee have known conflicts of interest with the pharmaceutical industry.

The guidelines of this College, as those of past years, push patients towards continued dependency on medication when scientific studies show many may reduce or cease medication.

Similarly Dietitians Australia and others keep pushing the calorie theory of weight loss which just keeps the pharmaceutical industry in profit as well as some doctors and dietitians.

Ever heard of the cabohydrate-insulin model of weight management?  see Dr Mason:video: LCHF- A Doctor’s Perspective

Simply put: consuming 100 calories of bread leads to 90 calories stored as fat and 10 calories burned

                   consuming 100 calories of steak leads to 70 calories stored as fat and 30 calories burned - 

there is a video entitled Is A Calorie A Calorie? with good reason.

So my registered)medical career might be over but not my health consumer one.

Even if one just subscribes to zoeharcombe.com there is a wealth of information and an expert dissection of dietary and health literature to delight the most statistics-phobic person alive

Look up lowcarbdownunder.com, at its splendid video library - did you know that the lipid-heart hypothesis has a new contender?

See Cummins: 2020:Inside Out or Outside In? Pathogenesis of Athersclerosis - look up you tube:Subbotin: 2020: CrossFit An Alternative Hypothesis of Coronary Atherosclerosis. And a Dr Seyfried talks in another rviodeo about cancer as metabolic disease.

By comparison kite flying and making have taken a regretful backseat: another cancelled Easter kite festival as the site does not make for easy management of crowd numbers and social spacing.

C’est la vie.

 Please all stay well

Best Regards, Tony Sangster