ASHY BINES - DANGEROUS ADVICE TO PREGNANT CUSTOMER

WE CONSULTED QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS TO PROVIDE ADVICE IN RELATION TO THIS MATTER - THANK YOU DIET CHAT http://www.dietchat.com.au/

Firstly this was the question posed in the forum to Ashy Bines:-

We passed this post to them together with a request to provide a qualified response to this question of a pregnant mother!  The truth once handed to a professional was shocking. We are committed to ensure that if ABBBC or Ashy Bines wants to provide advice, the advice is provided by a qualified member of staff, this sort of advice is negligent and could lead to ABBBC being sued in personal injury (Torts Law)- for failure to provide advice when you ought to have known that advice was inappropriate or you were not qualified to provide it.

Pregnant and Breastfeeding mothers beware.

Response By Diet Chat - University Education Nutritionists / Dieticians - 

Why have an APD dietitian employed to answer questions on the forum if you are not going to refer clients that have special needs/requirements such as pregnancy to her?  

Your plan is certainly NOT ok for pregnancy!  I wonder if one day when you yourself are pregnant that you will be so ‘flippant’ with your diet.  You really show your  inexperience more than ever with this response and highlight EXACTLY why you need to be reprimanded for your behaviour.  Time for you to look up the words  ‘due diligence’, which you can ‘Google’ it if you aren’t sure what it means.   

Due diligence is exactly why we at Diet Chat, qualified APD dietitians, have replied to this post.  We are shocked that you would promote a ‘bikini model diet plan’ to someone who is pregnant!  Your diet plan may help women shed kilos fast but it isn’t sustainable for long periods of time let alone for during pregnancy.  You should have referred her to someone qualified who would have advised the following.

It is very important during the pregnancy to maintain healthy weight gain and not to diet or skip meals. Not gaining sufficient weight can increase the risk of preterm birth however gaining too much weight during pregnancy can increase your risk of high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, birth defects and difficulty losing weight after the birth of your baby.

During pregnancy it is quite normal to gain between 12-14kg. Your weight gain will depend on your weight and BMI (Body Mass Index) before you became pregnant.  As a general rule the below table can provide you with a guide of how much weight you should gain:

BMI prior to falling pregnant      Expected weight gain

Less than 18.5kg/m²                       12.5 to 18kg

18.5 to 24.9 kg/m²                          11.5 to 16kg

25 to 29.9 kg/m²                             7 to 11.5kg

Above 30 kg/m²                              5 to 9kg

To address each point individually the client has asked you what the best things are to eat for pregnant people, your reply is “everything on the plan is fine hun”.

In our qualified opinion, your plan is certainly not suitable during pregnancy.  The plan discourages dairy, fruit and carbs and worst of all promotes calorie restriction which is certainly not recommended during pregnancy.  Calorie restriction during pregnancy can lead to increased risks of developing coronary artery disease and diabetes later in life along with a negative effect on physical, developmental, mental and cognitive development.  Not to mention it can cause the development of a genetic link to the ‘thrifty gene’ predisposing the child to obesity later on in life.   In your plan you also recommend a variety of protein powders and supplements that contain ‘secret ingredients’ that do not legally have to be disclosed on the label.  These additives have not been tested so we certainly would not recommend these during pregnancy.  The only supplement we recommend during pregnancy is a Pregnancy Multivitamin such as Elevit and more specific vitamins/minerals such as iron/folate if needed.

A pregnant woman must try to get foods from each of the food groups on a daily basis.  We recommend the following:

Food Group	Number of serves/day during pregnancy	What is a serve?
Breads, cereal, rice, pasta, noodles	8         - 12	·         1 slice bread ·         ½  medium roll ·         ½ cup cooked pasta/rice/noodles ·         ½ cup cereal ·         ½ cup muesli
Vegetables	5-6	·         ½ cup cooked vegetables ·         1 small potato ·         1 cup salad vegetables ·         ½ cup legumes
Fruit	4	·         2 small fruits ·         1 medium fruit ·         ½ cup fruit juice ·         1.5 tbsp sultanas
Dairy products – milk, cheese, yoghurt	2	·         1 cup milk ·         2 slices (40g) cheese ·         200g yoghurt ·         1 cup custard
Meat, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts, legumes	1 ½	·         65 – 100g cooked meat/chicken ·         80 – 120g cooked fish ·         2 small eggs ·         1/3 cup peanuts/almonds
Extras	0-2	·         3 to 4 sweet biscuits ·         30g potato chips ·         2 scoops ice-cream

Your next recommendation is to “try to cut carbs out at the end of the day” when in actual fact there is an increased requirement for energy and carbs especially during the 2^nd and 3^rd trimesters.  Our recommendations are: 

Energy requirements (kj/calories)

First trimester:   No additional energy required  

Select nutrient dense food sources;

-              Whole-grain bread and cereals

-              Legumes

-              Dark green vegetables

-              Citrus fruits

-              Milk products

-              Meats, fish, poultry and eggs 

Second Trimester:    Additional 1430kj (340 calories) per day (on top of non-pregnant  female energy requirements)        

Third Trimester :   Additional 1900kj (450 calories) per day (on top of non - pregnant female energy requirements)       

Carbohydrate requirements

Carbohydrates are essential to providing sufficient energy and it is generally recommended between 135g to 175g or more per day but rather than focusing on the total amount each day we prefer to recommend pregnant women include carbs with every meal and snack - 15-30g.  It is best to select fibre containing carbohydrate foods such as whole grains and fruit/vegetables and these should not be avoided or decreased during pregnancy.

You then recommended 3L water daily but for most this is actually too much water and can lead to a condition called “hyponatremia” (low sodium levels caused by too much fluid diluting these levels).  As consulting dietitians to a private hospital we see many people admitted to hospital with this condition which is basically a result of 'eating too little' and 'drinking too much water'.  So you can have too much of a good thing! We see many inexperienced weight loss gurus recommending 3-4L of water along with an extremely low calorie diet without realising just how dangerous and life threatening this can actually be, particularly if you are pregnant.  Current recommendations for pregnancy are 1.5-2L daily.

In summary, this table clearly shows the recommendations for non-pregnant, pregnant and lactating women and your plan is not suitable for either pregnancy or lactation and doesn’t meet some requirements for non-pregnant women either!

Your blasé response to this question is disgraceful and you really should be held accountable for your recommendations and actions as you are putting this woman’s own health and the health of her baby at risk and I would hate to think of how many other customers  you have provided such vague and inexperienced advice to.  

We take this opportunity to thank DIET CHAT - who assist our page on a regular basis. If you need free advice contact http://www.dietchat.com.au/ or Diet Chat on facebook. https://www.facebook.com/dietchat

RECAP OF THE SALIENT POINTS.

Why have an APD dietitian employed to answer questions on the forum if you are not going to refer clients that have special needs/requirements such as pregnancy to her?  The  plan is certainly NOT ok for pregnancy!  

Due diligence is exactly why we at Diet Chat, qualified APD dietitians, have replied to this post and not at all because we are ‘fat and lazy haters’ as you brand anyone who disagrees with you! We are shocked that you would promote a ‘bikini model diet plan’ to someone who is pregnant!  Your diet plan may help women shed kilos fast but it is a bikini model pre-competition diet and is not sustainable for long periods of time for anyone let alone for during pregnancy.  You should have referred her to someone qualified who would have advised the following to your poor customer who asked a very important question and got a very lazy answer…..

It is very important during the pregnancy to maintain a healthy weight gain and not to diet or skip meals. Not gaining sufficient weight can increase the risk of a preterm birth and birth defects.

During pregnancy it is quite normal to gain between 12-14kg. Weight gain will depend on your weight and BMI (Body Mass Index) before pregnancy and is more if underweight before pregnancy and less if overweight.

To address each point individually the client has asked you what the best things are to eat for pregnant people, your reply is “everything on the plan is fine hun”.   In our qualified opinion, your plan is certainly not suitable during pregnancy. 

The plan discourages dairy, fruit and carbs and worst of all promotes calorie restriction which is certainly not recommended during pregnancy.  Calorie restriction during pregnancy can have many negative effects on the development of the baby in utero (physical, mental, cognitive and developmental) which all carry on once the baby is born.  Calorie restriction can also pre-dispose the baby to an increased risk of developing coronary artery disease and diabetes later in life.   By starving your body, you are starving your baby. Your baby will learn to survive off of less energy/nutrition and this can continue on after birth causing ongoing weight and health issues for the child in the future!

Read this article Starving for Two in the NY times discussing pregorexia! http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/starving-for-twoa/

When you are pregnant, your baby also needs calcium not only for building strong bones and teeth, but also a strong heart, nervous system and muscles. If calcium is inadequate then the baby will draw as much as it can from its mums bones but this deprivation can lead to problems later on in life for both mum and baby.

Inadequate intake of wholegrains, fruit and food variety in general also leads to poor health for mum and bub, not to mention the lack of fibre which can lead to constipation.

In your plan you also recommend a variety of protein powders and supplements and even though the woman has stated she is ’16 weeks pregnant’ you proceed to ask her if she is breast feeding?