NEXT MEETING
Bank Holiday Monday, 5th May 2025: 7pm
Broughton Road Community Centre
66 Broughton Road, Skipton BD23 1TU
Go past Morrisons and you will see it on the right.
Note that this is the FIRST Monday of the month!
PAST MEETINGS
Monday, 4th November 2024
Venue: Elsworth at the Mill, Skipton
Meeting Notes:
You may have noticed reports of the recent verdict in the libel action by Zoe Harcombe and Malcolm Kendrick against the Mail on Sunday. This has huge significance for the way in which the media reports on medical/health topics.
Kenny and Verner gave an overview of the background and the group discussed the implications.
Monday, 7th October 2024
Venue: Rendezvous Hotel, Skipton
Meeting Notes:
Antje Wartena is from the Netherlands and worked with Kenny on a diabetes form. She will be visiting the United Kingdom at the beginning of October and has volunteered to speak at our meeting. Here is her story briefly:
“I’m a T1 diabetic and have been for 8 years, although I was misdiagnosed as a T2 for the first two years. Choosing LC makes managing my diabetes much easier, and possibly it has saved me from gaining weight once I started insulin. Not sure about that though, I started cutting carbs right after my diagnosis and have never looked back. Being fat and having T2 running in my family means I also have a fair bit of insulin resistance, I might have been a T2 if I hadn’t developed T1 first. I’ve been asked to tell something on what I’m going to be talking about. I have some ideas but I’m not sure yet what my angle will be. So this is the perfect opportunity to chip in with your suggestions or questions, they might make my talk much more interesting! Simply post them on https://www.facebook.com/groups/2406305399596193 and I’ll see it. On myself, I’m from the Netherlands, 47 years old, I’ve worked closely together with Kenny for a couple of years when we were both volunteer moderators on a diabetes forum. I love sailing and open water swimming. Any tips on good swimming spots around here are very welcome, I’m trying to keep up my daily swims even on holiday.”
Meeting Notes:
Antje Wartena is from the Netherlands and worked with Kenny on a diabetes form. She will be visiting the United Kingdom at the beginning of October and has volunteered to speak at our meeting. Here is her story briefly:
“I’m a T1 diabetic and have been for 8 years, although I was misdiagnosed as a T2 for the first two years. Choosing LC makes managing my diabetes much easier, and possibly it has saved me from gaining weight once I started insulin. Not sure about that though, I started cutting carbs right after my diagnosis and have never looked back. Being fat and having T2 running in my family means I also have a fair bit of insulin resistance, I might have been a T2 if I hadn’t developed T1 first. I’ve been asked to tell something on what I’m going to be talking about. I have some ideas but I’m not sure yet what my angle will be. So this is the perfect opportunity to chip in with your suggestions or questions, they might make my talk much more interesting! Simply post them on https://www.facebook.com/groups/2406305399596193 and I’ll see it. On myself, I’m from the Netherlands, 47 years old, I’ve worked closely together with Kenny for a couple of years when we were both volunteer moderators on a diabetes forum. I love sailing and open water swimming. Any tips on good swimming spots around here are very welcome, I’m trying to keep up my daily swims even on holiday.”
Monday, 2nd September 2024
Venue: Rendezvous Hotel, Skipton
Meeting Notes:
At this meeting, Rowana Statham presented: “Beware of the Oxalates”.
Rowana discussed the health risks of excessive oxalate consumption, which can be found in common foods like spinach, rhubarb, and almonds. Learn more about these risks and practical steps to reduce exposure.
Monday, 5th August 2024
Venue: Rendezvous Hotel, Skipton
Meeting Notes:
Click to download the PPT presentation >
On Monday 5th August, 2024, we had Ray McCaughan who has just established a new business, Horizon Health Clinics, in Skipton, as our guest speaker
Ray is a qualified nurse of 24 years with a broad range of experience, from acute care in A & E to chronic care conditions in the home. He is convinced that diet/ lifestyle is the way forward. The primary objective of the business is to ensure that individuals and companies who wish to adopt the principles of Lifestyle Medicine have the necessary motivation and tools to make progress. He is very well tuned in to the low Carb approach.
A summary of the main points:
The main points were:
Lifestyle medicine is a professional organisation of Doctors, Nurses, Psychiatrists, Physiotherapists that believe in evidence based medicine that supports behaviour change to improve physical and mental health.
The 6 pillars of lifestyle medicine are areas in life that can be addressed through personal changes:
- Mental wellbeing
- Healthy relationships
- Eating well
- Physical activity
- Sleep
- Minimising harmful substances
Lifestyle medicine looks at treating the root cause of an illness and not the symptoms.
Horizon Health Clinics based in Skipton provide a range of services from a one off appointment, to an 8 week programme, that assesses the physical and mental state then examines the current lifestyle aspects above to see what changes are needed and where to benefit health.
Horizon health offer physical examinations and blood tests that can inform individuals about their own current health status.
Monday, 13th May 2019 7:00pm
Venue: Rendezvous Hotel, Skipton
Meeting Notes:
The talk at this meeting was given by Frank Kuhne who is a Bradford Community Health Champion and volunteer within the NHS and is also a licensed Lay Educator in Diabetes Prevention. From Bingley, he runs courses at his GP’s local surgery and, within the district, gives talks to educational, social and church groups.
Present at the inception of Low Carb Skipton, Frank is an Ambassador for the Public Health Collaboration, a charity dedicated to informing people about health matters.
Frank gave a demonstration and talk at the meeting centred on showing how much equivalence of sugar (unknown to most people) is hidden within starchy foods. This has a severely damaging effect upon people’s metabolisms, seriously compromising their life-span and health-span.
Frank explained that there are about 60 to 70 different names for sugars & so even reading food labels it can be difficult to find out how much sugar foods actually contain. He had samples of various different foods (please see table below – updated since the meeting to show the impact on blood sugar levels) accompanied by jars of the associated equivalent of teaspoons of sugar in the foods.
He explained that the body only needs one teaspoonful of sugar at any one time but as his table shows it is very easy to exceed that even when eating foods that are generally considered to be healthy.
As usual handouts were provided for members to take away with them. These include an illustration of the amount of sugar in everyday (supposedly healthy) starchy carbohydrates and ideas re what to eat, recipes etc.
Following Frank’s talk members then formed into smaller groups where they could talk to others who have personal experience of various health challenges and find out how a low carb lifestyle could help. The small group topics are usually Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and healthy eating/weight loss but may vary according to the interests of attendees.
Low carb eating can help with a range of health conditions. Interested to know more? Then why not come & join us at a meeting? All welcome.
Monday, 8th April 2019 7:00pm
Venue: Rendezvous Hotel, Skipton
Meeting Notes:
Our April evening meeting was, as usual, well attended by both existing and new members.
Hilary Allan gave a brief introductory talk to welcome the new members, explaining some key points about low carb eating.
As usual starter packs were provided for the new members to take away with them. These include an illustration of the amount of sugar in everyday (supposedly healthy) starchy carbohydrates, information on how to get started with a low carb lifestyle and ideas re what to eat, recipes etc.
After this two people recounted how making key adjustments to their lifestyle had greatly improved their health.
John Goodall, from Settle, talked about how he had come to follow a low carb lifestyle. He had been diagnosed as pre-diabetic and had subsequently tried unsuccessfully to lose weight. He then found out about low carb eating and by following that had lost two stones in weight but, importantly for him, he felt able to enjoy his food without feeling guilty or that he was denying himself. His blood pressure and cholesterol level had also reduced.
John’s wife added that ‘the diet has been fantastic for both’ saying that the switch was ‘incredibly easy’ to make.
Then Philip Coope, from Skipton, told us about his experience. When Philip joined Low Carb Skipton in April 2018 his main health concern was heart disease. He had always tried to eat a healthy diet, had no weight problems and had never smoked or indulged in too much alcohol.
He had taken statins for 24 years during which time he had had three heart attacks so although the statins had reduced his cholesterol they hadn’t prevented progression of his heart disease. He had also felt tired and had achy, painful joints which he thought might be side effects of the medication.
After attending his first Low Carb Skipton meeting he and his wife began following a low carb way of eating. At around the same time he also decided to stop taking his statin medication. Twelve months on from then he has more energy and his aches and pains have all gone. Subsequent blood tests have shown that his cholesterol is stable and has not increased.
As usual members then formed into smaller groups where they could talk to others who have personal experience of various health challenges and find out how a low carb lifestyle could help. The small group topics are usually Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and healthy eating/weight loss but may vary according to the interests of attendees.
Low carb eating can help with a range of health conditions. Why not come to one of our meetings and find out more?
Wednesday, 3rd April 2019 2:00pm
Venue: Rendezvous Hotel, Skipton
Meeting Notes:
A monthly meeting for those interested in Low Carb matters, and who would prefer to meet during the daytime.
7:00pm Monday, 11th March
Venue: Rendezvous Hotel, Skipton
Low Carb Skipton, March 11th 2019 Meeting Notes:
Our March Low Carb Skipton evening meeting was well very attended by existing members and a good number of individuals joining for the first time and interested to learn more about adopting a low carb lifestyle to improve their health.
Hilary gave a short introductory talk to welcome our newest members, explaining how starchy carbohydrates convert to sugar when eaten and raise blood glucose levels. The talk explained 10 key points and practical tips to getting started with a low carb way of eating. All new members received printed handouts to take away with them. These starter packs demonstrate how much sugar is contained in common (so-called ‘healthy’) starchy carbohydrates such as wholegrain cereals and pasta, and explain how to get started with a low carb lifestyle. New members also received food guides showing all the tasty low carbohydrate foods.
Verner delivered a talk about cholesterol and shared information from a clinical trial that showed why aggressively lowering cholesterol levels with medication, especially in the elderly, has been shown to be detrimental when death from all causes is the measured outcome.
Following on from this, Sarah delivered a talk to the group about low carbohydrate diets for weight loss. This talk covered a range of factors that affect appetite and weight control including hormone signalling, our hormonal response to foods, hyper-palatable processed foods and an environment which tends to encourage obesity. Members also learnt about the importance of our satiety hormone leptin, and our hunger hormone ghrelin (the Gremlins).
Members then formed into smaller breakout groups for the remainder of the evening where they could find out more information about a particular health concern.
Those with a diabetes or pre-diabetes diagnosis joined the diabetes group where they are supported by existing members who are managing both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
The second discussion group this month was hosted by Sarah and followed on from the weight loss talk. Members in this group raised questions they had about weight loss and low carb eating. One new member was looking for help with getting started with what to eat and low carb breakfast ideas.
The third group this month discussed low carb lifestyles for cardiovascular and blood lipids (cholesterol) conditions. This group was hosted by Verner and also included patient-experts who have experienced dramatic health improvements in their own cardiovascular risk markers.
If you are dealing with health issues including diabetes, excess weight, low energy, aches and pains or brain fog and would like to know more about how reducing your carbohydrate intake can be a delicious way to improve your heath, then join our next Low Carb Skipton meeting.
Low Carb Skipton hosts monthly meetings at The Rendezvous Hotel in a relaxed, friendly environment sharing information and guidance on eating low carb for better health. We bust through the confusing media headlines and conflicting dietary advice and share simple strategies to cut your carbs whilst eating lots of delicious foods that are usually banned on a typical ‘diet’. There is also time during the evening to chat to other members and find out how low carb eating is working for them.
Apart from evening meetings the group also stages afternoon get-togethers. Watch out for details on this website.
11th February 2019
Venue: Rendezvous Hotel, Skipton
Meeting Notes:
At our February Low Carb Skipton meeting Verner gave a talk about commonly used medical health markers, including BMI, cholesterol, triglycerides and HbA1c, and explained how useful they are in determining our long-term health risks.
Following on from this, the group discussed the importance of measuring blood glucose, especially in those members who have been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. Consistent measuring of blood glucose, especially before and after meals, is critical for anyone with diabetes. Only through regular measuring can individuals understand the effects that the foods they are consuming are having on the body; blood glucose constantly elevated above normal healthy levels is extremely damaging and can eventually, over years, lead to tragic health complications commonly seen in unmanaged later-stage diabetes.
Members of the group with both Type 1 and 2 Diabetes shared their experiences of blood sugar monitoring, including the practicalities of finger-prick testing and the use of continuous glucose monitors, frequency and timing of measurements, and challenges or difficulties that can arise. Anyone interested in understanding more about the importance of knowing their blood glucose numbers in order to better manage their diabetes can come along to a meeting and ask members for information and support.
As is the usual format at Low Carb Skipton meetings, the members then joined smaller breakout groups for the remainder of the evening where they could find out more information about a particular health concern and comfortably ask questions.
New members, attending for the first time, have a choice of groups to join-in with. Those with a diabetes or pre-diabetes diagnosis may join existing members in the diabetes group where their concerns and questions can be addressed and they can be supported by existing members who are managing diabetes. There is also a weight focused breakout group hosted by an experienced low-carb advocate who can talk about how low carb is beneficial for weight loss and walk them through how to get started on their low carb journey. A third group this month discussed low carb lifestyles for cardiovascular and blood lipids (cholesterol) conditions and included host members who have experienced dramatic health improvements in their own cardiovascular risk markers.
All new members receive information and handouts to take away with them. These handouts demonstrate how much sugar is contained in common ‘healthy’ carbohydrates such as wholegrain cereals and pasta, clearly explain how to get started with a low carb lifestyle, list the tasty foods that can be enjoyed, and include recipes and delicious food swaps.
If you are dealing with health issues including diabetes, excess weight, low energy, aches and pains or brain fog and would like to know more about how reducing your carbohydrate intake can be a delicious was to improve your heath, then join our next Low Carb Skipton meeting.
Low Carb Skipton hosts monthly meetings in a relaxed, friendly environment sharing information and guidance on eating low carb for better health. We bust through the confusing media headlines and conflicting dietary advice and share simple strategies to cut your carbs whilst eating lots of delicious foods that are usually banned on a typical ‘diet’. There is also time during the evening to chat to other members and find out how low carb eating is working for them.