The Food Hospital (UK Channel 4 TV programme)

[Jenny]

This programme is shown on Tues evenings. It deals with how particular diets help certain conditions, using case studies. The approach is simplistic, and I expect the patients who appear are part of a selected group who have had positive results.

Anyway, they haven't included anyone with ME yet, but their website has information on it. It's indexed as CFS:

http://foodhospital.channel4.com/conditions/chronic-fatigue-syndrome/

Not surprisingly, the 'treatment' link takes you to the NICE guidelines, with its recommendations of CBT and GET.

We need to complain. They have a facebook page with a discussion section:

http://www.facebook.com/thefoodhospital

Jenny

 

[Jenny]

As it happens, it seems they will be covering what they call 'CFS' tomorrow (8pm).

Jenny

 

[allyb]

Thank you for posting this Jenny, as always we need to be in the know.

When I read your post, my heart sank as I immediately thought, Oh dear; I bet this will be more negative press but ever the optimist I clicked on the link.

Food hospital!! Sadly, I think its the psyche ward or SWs version of the naked chef.

From the opening lead I quote

Treatment often involves adjusting the sufferers lifestyle to include regular eating patterns and adhering to a routine such as going to work and exercising, and can involve taking medication such as antidepressants

ahh if only

It then goes on to say
Find out what effect the following foods have on Chronic fatigue syndrome
What fun
And you can click on a bar of chocolate.... and if you do it says

THE CLAIM
In people suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome, eating chocolate could help alleviate their symptoms/ improve their quality of life.
THE OVERVIEW
Chocolate contains compounds that kick off neurotransmitters in the brain that deal with stimulation, happiness and pleasure. Sufferers of CFS often suffer from an imbalance of these.

So here you have it, you should all be cured at Christmas.

On a serious note (if you will permit me) what they don't say is; for those amongst us for whom HSV may be a contributory factor, chocolate is high in Arginine an amino acid that is thought to aid growth and replication on this virus. Sorry

Conclusion
To be fair if you read on past this superficial cursory account of ME/CFS you then get to more in depth facts. Lets hope people bother to read on.

 

[Jenny]

Well the person with ME had trouble swimming for more than 20 mins three times a week. She was told she may have fatigue because she wasn't having regular meals. Lo and behold, after a few weeks of regular meals she was much better, and back at work.

Jenny

 

[Wonko]

It was a little annoying, but not unexpected. It seems every condition which costs the NHS money can be easily cured with proper diet, which makes me wonder why we pay all these consultants and drug companies nearly 200billion a year to not cure people of these same conditions. Surely they should all retrain as chef's (or at least greengrocers, if such a thing still exists) as they are clearly incompitent - channel 4 says so after all, and they must know what they are talking about, surely?

 

[Esther12]

Well the person with ME had trouble swimming for more than 20 mins three times a week. She was told she may have fatigue because she wasn't having regular meals. Lo and behold, after a few weeks of regular meals she was much better, and back at work.

Jenny

lol.

To be fair though, I've improved a bit since eating a lot more, and having four meals a day (hard to do on benefits). If it means we get takeaways on the NHS, that would be an improvement!

 

[Jenny]

Good to see lots of complaints on their facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/thefoodhospital

Jenny

 

[Calathea]

Did they seriously recommend dark chocolate based on that study? It was a pilot study, with a small number of participants, a very high drop-out rate, and a poor placebo (white chocolate dyed dark). Based on the pilot study, it was decided that it was not promising enough to be worth a full trial. Unfortunately the press completely missed the point, and went around braying that dark chocolate would cure ME. It's actually the one I quote to people to show how badly the press misinterpret research on ME, as it's so daft that you can be light-hearted about it.

 

[sianrecovery]

I watched it with dismay. All part of the seamless presentation in the UK of ME sufferers as lazy neurotics who just need a kick up the arse - and I wonder who's agenda that echoes? Pah...

 

[Jenny]

Did they seriously recommend dark chocolate based on that study? It was a pilot study, with a small number of participants, a very high drop-out rate, and a poor placebo (white chocolate dyed dark). Based on the pilot study, it was decided that it was not promising enough to be worth a full trial. Unfortunately the press completely missed the point, and went around braying that dark chocolate would cure ME. It's actually the one I quote to people to show how badly the press misinterpret research on ME, as it's so daft that you can be light-hearted about it.

Yes they did. But the patient featured didn't follow the recommendation because she didn't like the taste! (It didn't matter as she recovered anyway!)

Jenny

 

[Esther12]

Did they seriously recommend dark chocolate based on that study? It was a pilot study, with a small number of participants, a very high drop-out rate, and a poor placebo (white chocolate dyed dark). Based on the pilot study, it was decided that it was not promising enough to be worth a full trial. Unfortunately the press completely missed the point, and went around braying that dark chocolate would cure ME. It's actually the one I quote to people to show how badly the press misinterpret research on ME, as it's so daft that you can be light-hearted about it.

Thanks for the details. I've never looked in to that study (it didn't seem like it could do much harm, and didn't seem to be claiming much).

 

[jonnyboy]

I saw this programme, after a friend text me and told me it was on.

It just made me very angry as I couldnt relate to the woman shown and her problems at all. What I'd give to be able to swim 3x a week.

I just hope not too many of my friends saw it, and I assume I'm just like her.

 

[justinreilly]

what garbage!!

 

[allyb]

:Sign Good one:

Accurate and succinct Justin

 

[alex3619]

We should combine this with what Sharpe (?) said: make some choc bananas, combine it with some apples and serve with coconut milk ice cream (this came up on chat the other day). Then just enjoy it without listening to Sharpe or the food hospital, because it seems like they are eating those funny cookies. Bye, Alex