Nourishing Change: Elevating Healthcare with Nutritional Therapists in NHS Primary Care

Nourishing Change: Elevating Healthcare with Nutritional Therapists in NHS Primary Care

As the NHS marks its 75th anniversary, a new report reveals that Brits' general well-being has declined, with only 53.9% satisfied with the health system. With the rising burden of chronic disease and the limitations of conventional medicine, the need for change in healthcare becomes evident. Shifting the focus to preventative care and empowering patients to improve their diet and lifestyle habits is crucial.

Chronic diseases, like Type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and gastrointestinal disorders, threaten the NHS's future. Over 15 million people in the UK have at least one chronic condition, putting strain on healthcare resources, costing billions, and ultimately reducing the quality of life. Conventional medicine's pill-based approach often falls short, emphasizing the urgency for a new strategy. Registered Nutritional Therapy Practitioners are well-equipped to provide personalised nutrition and lifestyle advice, bridging the NHS's resource gap.

While conventional medicine excels at acute illnesses, managing chronic conditions proves challenging. Anyone who has suffered from IBS, Ulcerative Colitis, or Crohn's Disease would most likely attest to this. Standard treatments often involve long-term medications with side effects and GPs express frustration at their inability to help patients fully. Integrating PSA-accredited BANT nutrition practitioners into primary care could address this gap, offering expertise in diet and lifestyle interventions.

Often overlooked, diet and lifestyle significantly influence chronic diseases like IBS, Colitis, Crohn’s, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Nutritional therapy offers personalized interventions, supporting patients in making sustainable changes. Group programs and one-to-one sessions have demonstrated success in managing chronic conditions. BANT practitioners' skills in managing "syndrome" conditions make them vital assets in primary care. By providing personalized dietary and lifestyle guidance, reliance on medications could decrease. This approach aligns with the NHS's future sustainability and empowers patients to take an active role in their health.

Only Registered Nutritional Therapy Practitioners and Registered Dietitians have the proper training and qualifications to work with patients one-on-one according to national standards. The difference between Registered Nutritional Therapy Practitioners and Dietitians is their focus. They both have clinical skills, but Dietitians are regulated professionals who usually work in hospitals, addressing dietary and nutritional issues. Registered Nutritional Therapy Practitioners mainly work in private healthcare, giving personalised advice to improve health and manage diet-related chronic conditions. This is what GPs want and what NHS primary care needs. Often, it's too late for prevention by the time a patient sees a Dietitian in the hospital. We have the solution ready with around 3,000 experienced BANT practitioners accredited by PSA.

In celebrating the NHS's anniversary, the article calls for a transformation in healthcare. Recognizing the impact of diet and lifestyle interventions and harnessing the potential of nutritional therapy could usher in a patient-centered era. Integrating Registered Nutritional Therapy Practitioners into primary care is the key to a healthier, more sustainable future for the NHS.

As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the NHS, there's a powerful change we can bring about. By understanding that we can make a difference in chronic diseases through diet and lifestyle changes, and by embracing the proven benefits of nutritional therapy for chronic conditions, we can create a new era of healthcare that truly focuses on patients. This is why having Registered Nutritional Therapy Practitioners in NHS primary care is so important. We should bring nutritional therapy from private practice to the broader public, making it accessible to everyone for better health.

This challenge has been wonderfully articulated by Clare Grundel and can be found on the BANT website: Nutritional Therapists Should Be In NHS Primary Care – BANT

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Unravelling Chocolate's Allure: The Science of Satisfaction!

Curious why sometimes you feel like you can’t live without chocolate? Brace yourself to find out exactly why it can be so hard to resist this tempting treat.

Imagine this: that velvety chocolate square meets your taste buds and a delicious dance of flavour and texture unfolds. Researchers at the University of Leeds think they have unlocked the magic behind turning solid chocolate into that smooth and velvety sensation.

The upside of their discovery might pave the way for a new era of luxury chocolate – just as indulgent, yet healthier. By diving into the world of ‘mouthfeel’, these experts aim to craft next-generation chocolate that tickles your tastebuds but isn’t such a challenge for your health.

Guess what? It's all about lubrication! Whether from chocolate's own ingredients, your saliva, or a mix, it’s the lubrication within our mouth that creates that heavenly chocolate experience. It is thought to be the fat content in chocolate that takes centre stage when it connects with your tongue, which when blended with cocoa particles, creates that unique and satisfying texture. Interestingly, it is the location of the fat rather than the quantity in chocolate that is responsible for this texture.

Professor Anwesha Sarkar, from Leeds School of Food Science and Nutrition. “Lubrication science?gives mechanistic insights into how food actually feels in the mouth. You can use that knowledge to design food with better taste, texture, or health benefits.??

“If a chocolate has 5% fat or 50% fat it will still form droplets in the mouth and that gives you the chocolate sensation. However, it is the location of the fat in the make-up of the chocolate which matters in each stage of lubrication, and that has been rarely researched.”

“We are showing that the fat content needs to be on the outer layer of the chocolate, this matters the most, followed by an effective coating of the cocoa particles by fat, these help to make chocolate feel so good.”??

“With the understanding of the physical mechanisms that happen as people eat chocolate, we believe that a new generation of chocolate can be developed that offers the feel and sensation of high-fat chocolate yet is a healthier choice.”??

As a chocoholic, I’m watching with eager eyes to see if a healthier yet no less satisfying chocolate is on the horizon. Until then, I’ll continue to enjoy chocolate in moderation.

To read the full article please click the link: Why chocolate feels so good? It's down to lubrication | Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences | University of Leeds

To read the full study: Insights into the Multiscale Lubrication Mechanism of Edible Phase Change Materials | ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

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