IT’S utter sacrilege; a direct shot at what embodies being an Aussie.
The Australian way of life is under attack by new preventive health guidelines that take aim at the traditional barbie.
Red meat and grog are under fire from our trusted GPs, who are being urged under new preventive health guidelines to tell their patients to eat less of the former, and drink less of the latter.
In new guidelines in the GP’s “guide book”, out go the steaks on the barbie and the tin or four of VB, and in comes a revolutionary new-world thinking of “restraint’’.
Doctors at the Royal Australian College of GPs meeting Perth this week suggest this will keep weight under control and reduce cancer, but it will cause untold confusion at backyard barbecues from Bondi to Burke.
The confronting new guidelines come just as Aussies prepare to fire up their barbies this weekend for the football finals.
The new Red Book suggests red meat should be replaced by chicken, fish and vegetables on the hotplate.
“Limit red meat (three to four times per week) and limit or avoid processed meat,” the guidelines say.
Aussies are also told to limit their alcohol intake to no more than two drinks per day.
With more than two in three Aussies now overweight GPs are being told to measure the waist of their patients every two years.
Males with a waist measurement over 94 centimetres and women with a waist measurement over 80 centimetres will be advised to go on a diet to lose 5-10 per cent of their body weight.
Patients will also be quizzed every two years on how much alcohol they drink, they will be advised to consume no more than two drinks a day and never more than four drinks on a single occasion.
The Red Book is produced by the Royal Australian College of GPs that sets practice guidelines for the nation’s 28,000 GPs and it will be launched at their conference in Perth Thursday.
RACGP president Frank Jones says the Red Book draws on the latest evidence about nutrition and prevention of chronic disease.
“On behalf of the RACGP, I strongly urge all general practices, GPs and their teams, to prioritise evidence-based preventive activities,” he said.
It also tackles controversies over whether men should be screened for prostate cancer and whether some non-aggressive breast cancers should be monitored rather than removed.
“Screening of asymptomatic (low-risk) men for prostate cancer by prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing is not recommended because the benefits have not clearly been shown to outweigh the harms,” the guidelines says.
On breast cancer it warns that while screening reduces breast cancer mortality by 15%, every 2000 women invited for screening over 10 years, one will avoid dying of breast cancer and 10 healthy women, who would not have been diagnosed if there had not been screening, will be treated unnecessarily.
“An extra 200 women will experience important psychological distress including anxiety and uncertainty from false positive findings,” the guidelines say.
Source: news.com.au