Today, Steve Wright in the Afternoon, on Radio 2, featured Rosemary Conley, the proprietor of a British low fat, high carb diet. This woman is already amazingly successful and wealthy, from her nationwide network of slimming clubs, books, magazines and videos. She is one of the major forces of the commercial diet industry in Britain today. But her interview amounted to brazen nationwide publicity in the UK and a ringing endorsement by Steve Wright of her diet, books, slimming clubs, etc etc. During the interview, Steve Wright specifically asked her about low-carbohydrate diets, and she dismissed them as an irrelevancy. I have contacted the programme, and told them that if the BBC is to honour its tradition of impartiality, fairness and balance, Steve Wright will have to let me go onto his programme and rectify the wrong impression given by Rosemary Conley, and to put the case for low-carbing. I have made the most powerful case I can to be given the right to reply. If I am successful, you might all hear me yet (even if you haven't seen me to date) but if I am not successful, I might come back to call on you all to lobby the BBC for fair play. Why should someone be allowed to go on national radio and rubbish our way of eating and living, without giving us the chance to explain and rectify the situation, and give our view of it?

Andy

I know exactly what you mean, Andy- it makes me really angry that magazines at best misadvise on the low carb woe.

I'm familiar with one of Rosemary Conley's diets- the hip & thigh diet- where she claims that the only way to lose weight from your hips & thighs is to eat no fat at all! And guess what? You're ahead of me aren't you?! Also, fat IS essential in the diet, particularly for women, for various complicated reasons. And how many posts on this site have reported improvements in skin & hair texture with low carbing?

Some of my friends & family are genuinely worried about my eating, because they've read such bad things about low carbing in various magazines- the hysterical article in Heat almost put me off trying Atkins, before I'd read his book! I tell my friends now that journalists aren't medically qualified & obviously they can see the results for themselves.

Rant over! I know I'm preaching to the converted here! Just wanted to lend my support. Good luck!!!!

Daisy

Thanks Daisy, I appreciate your support. You are right. Misinformation is creating a lot of family pressure on lowcarbers, and worse still, is preventing a lot of people from getting a painless dietary cure who in their ignorance have to suffer horrendous surgery instead. I will keep trying to rectify these false impressions wherever I see an opportunity, but I don't get many chances with what seems to be biased media. If the BBC persist in not giving us chance to set the record straight, I will lodge a formal complaint. People paying their licence money do not expect it to be used to give nationwide publicity to the likes of Rosemary Conley. They expect fairness, impartiality and balance, and in terms of diet they are not getting it...yet. I intend to keep trying, though...

Andy

I remember seeing "dear" Rosemary on Richard and Judy (oh how I miss them) Tell a girl to give up her 1, uno, singular tablespoon of olive oil a day! It makes me so so angry. I really need to get a life!
Doods.

Hi Andy

I haven't listened to Radio 2 for well over a year but I can imagine the sort of mis-information you are talking about. That is exactly the reason why I only "almost" manage to persuade members of my family to try LCing.

{Andy: She (Rosemary Conley) is one of the major forces of the commercial diet industry in Britain today. } Their success in capitalizing is seen as the success of their misinformation. The layperson truly needs pioneers like you to break through the mould.

If you need support we are right behind you. It is not only on Radio - almost all the diet and weight programmes on TV and magazines are based around low-fat. The results speak for themselves too in the increasing number of surveys which indicate that British children and adults are becoming heavier, diabetes is on the increase.

By the way Doodle, Richard & Judy have a spot on Ch4 now 4 or 5pm if you miss them that badly. They do have a genuineness and charm of their own. The "younger" model replacement just doesn't hold the same appeal.

Take care.

Good luck to you Andy, all the media seem to dismiss this WOE, and my husband was worried that I was damaging my health by LC-ing. Then his (big macho) mate started Atkins and lost 6 lbs in 10 days, and says he feels great. Suddenly low-carb is OK....

Thanks for your support, Doodle, Fiona and Maggi. Will keep you posted about progress. Yes, she is very anti-fat, and was advising listeners when frying (if they had to fry) to use a "dry pan" i.e. no fat in it, or at the worst if you cook in fat not to eat it. No wonder people think I'm barking mad! We have a lot of ground to make up here. Will keep in touch.

Andy

I totally agree with you guys - it seems that no matter how you explain the science behind the diet, say how successful dieters have been or say how much better you feel from low carbing, people can not believe in the WOL. I got very angry when i went to buy my soy flour from Holland and Barratt and was badgered into buying there health magazine, only to read an article saying that low-carbing was very bad for you.

You would be better off trying to convince them that the world is actually flat - they would probably believe that before they believed in us.

Hi Andy,

I'm with you too on this one.

I often wonder when I'm looking on the supermarket shelves at the low fat products available and think when is it going to get known that this WOE is the healthies. They replace all the fats with sugars and this in itself is going to make an awful lot of people far worse weight and health wise.

I hope eventually that with the media and celebrities doing this diet that this WOE will become more accepted and used. I think Trisha on a morning programme did this diet and has successfully lost a lot of weight on it. I don't know any more than that though as I work and don't get to see daytime television but I read an article about her and her weight loss.

The other thing is, my niece read an article about diets and ours was given a good review although I wanted to look I had my oversea's visitor with me at the time so I'll have to go back and have another look at what was said.

Anyway, good luck with whatever you decide to do and let us know any dates or the outcome of what you do.

Bez

Yes and if you do get to go on a Chat show let us know in advance so we can all ring up and make the Presenter trully aware of how biased and WRONG they are in a supposedly democratic society by sharing our own success stories.

Take care.

Thanks all. This affects how I speak to people, if I do get the chance (no sign so far). Yesterday, by chance, there was a discussion even in the House of Commons as to whether the BBC is as impartial as it ought to be and is expected to be. So this is a good time to make a complaint official that they are showing bias (and by deduction favouritism). I will give them another few days to reply, then put something in writing (will post a copy up here, if it gets that far).

I told Steve Wright in my initial e-mail that I would be happy speaking on the phone, as long as I could rectify the incorrect information broadcast by Rosemary Conley. In view of the amount and strength of support emerging here, it might be better to go to him mob-handed and representing a group, rather than just stating the views of one disgruntled individual.

So if there is no response from him or his programme in a few days, I will word my next communication with this in mind. Maybe we could ask to go on his programme en masse to redress the balance. That way he would know it is a lot more than the ravings of just one "crank". In fairness to his programme, though, they must get thousands of communications in a day, and if they are going to respond, it could take a few days. I'll give them till next Monday night, unless anyone thinks this is too generous.

Juicijacki - perhaps I ought to address it to the Old Fossils at the Flat Earth Society, eh?

Bez - thanks for your support. Glad to know there are no differences between us.

Andy

Fiona,

What about making the next group meeting the premises of just such a programme as this (maybe even this one, this time) and showing a united front? I have to see the surgeon about my leg tomorrow, so if the operation is going to be soon, I could be fit to undertake a long journey myself before long!

Andy

I've just caught up on this thread. I'm with you guys. If there weren't so much b**s** about low-carb, I might have done it years ago and saved myself a load of grief.
How many other poor sods are out there as miserable as I used to be, who could be helped by this wol and who are put off by the likes of Rosemary? And her motivation is pretty blatant - can nobody else see that?

Hi everyone,

When I am in Saudi (I am in the UK until 12th Dec.) I sometimes watch Carlton Food Network, Taste Channel, and Rosemary Conley has a programme on there, I find myself shouting at the television, telling her not to be such a stupid woman, and to go and buy the Atkins book and READ IT!!!!!

I have also seen many other programmes where the low-fat way of eating is pushed, but I do not think I have seen one where low-carb is the norm. Though saying that, there was a Ready Steady Cook on BBC 2 last week, and one of the contestants was following Atkins, but she took potatoes along with her other food, as I missed the very begining of the programme I am not sure why she took them.

I hope you do get a reply from Steve Wright, Andy, though I would not be able to join your groupe if you went 'mob handed' I would be with you in spirit!!

Hi Folks, and thanks for your continued support on this. A quick "Hello and Welcome" also, to those new members of the forum I haven't met before. I spoke to my brother about this on the phone today. He is the one who listens to the Steve Wright show, and contacts me when there is something on it he thinks I ought not to miss. It is my brother's view that the BBC, or Steve Wright, could take the view that in a roundabout way they are being fair. This is because Steve Wright interviewed David Baddiel on the show recently, a man who was supporting the Atkins diet through his praise and personal account describing his own good results . Also, and maybe because of David Baddiel, Steve Wright was asking Rosemary Conley about the effect of carbohydrates, and apparently did try to get this point across, but was shot down by Rosemary Conley and apparently did not feel well enough informed to argue with her about it. So it does look as if Steve Wright himself was trying to be balanced and impartial, but the situation was exploited by Rosemary Conley. However, I still feel that if she was given 5 minutes to talk about her diets, books, videos, etc., we deserve 5 minutes of airtime to talk about low-carb diets in order to balance things out. Advertisers pay a fortune for a 30-second national advert, and 5 minutes amounts to massive promotion slot for free. I take seriosly the comments made by Ezandreth and Mummybear about how this woman's pronouncements continually set us back, and think it's time we responded. Amazing that she gets airtime in Saudi Arabia as well!

Andy