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  • posted by sunshine-girl
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    I have just started a Future Learning course called The Diabetes Epidemic and was very pleased to find in the first couple of section that a) they talk about the problems with eating simple carbs, i.e. potatoes, rice, pasta, etc etc all the things we talk about, and b) they are advocates of Prof Roy Taylors research and it gets an encouraging welcome very early in.

    I know a few of you on here are also doing the course, how are you finding it. It goes into a lot of details about diabetes, what it is, how the body works, the differences between T1 and T2, all expressed in simple or diagrammatic terms. I think I am going to get a lot out of this. A lot of the ‘students’ are diabetic health professionals, doctors, nurses, dieticians, carers etc, so the teaching of Prof Taylor are becoming well recognised. Take a look or sign up yourself.

  • posted by Verano
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    Just thought I would revive this thread for the forthcoming courses.

  • posted by Theodora
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    Great idea, V, thank you for bumping. Hopefully everyone who is registering for a course (particularly the Science and Nutrition one starting on 8th Jan) will post on this thread, including their Futurelearn user name, so that we can all be study buddies. Like you, I have now introduced myself (Theo J) and am now “following” you. Perhaps we can all “follow” each other?

    S-g, thank you so much for drawing our attention to Futurelearn. I have also registered to take the Nutrition and Wellbeing course, starting on 15th Jan, if anyone feels like joining me?

  • posted by Verano
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    Theo … I’m following you!

  • posted by Verano
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    Have joined the 15th Jan course too Theo….we ar going to be so busy!

  • posted by Esnecca
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    I just posted on the welcome thread and followed you all. 🙂

  • posted by Theodora
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    WooHoo, V – we’re going to be study buddies x 2😊 Let’s hope we can find enough time to take 2 courses concurrently, and make it to the end.

  • posted by Verano
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    We will Theo it really doesn’t take up as much time as they allocate. Sunshine-girl where are you???

  • posted by sunshine-girl
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    Hey V, I’m here, I have posted about this on a couple of other threads and given info on the Science of Nutrition courses running in Jan and March to a couple of interested people. I wont be doing anything myself although someone mentioned a cyber security course which I will look at as I got hacked over Christmas (very painful). I want to concentrate on my French and I have 3 courses in the pipeline which I never seem to get around to. Always interested in FL courses and they send me emails every week so if I see anything interesting I will post here (or other thread). By the way, I still have the Science of Nut on my computer as I completed it last year so could dip back into that but might see you in March.

  • posted by marie123
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    Hello All
    Have posted this as a response to sunshine-girl on another thread – forgotten the name already – but makes sense to re-post here.

    Hi sunshine-girl
    What a pain about your Amazon account. I know I’ve had a couple of attempts on different accounts, too, hence my interest.
    Here is the address of the cyber-security course I mentioned in the earlier post:
    https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/introduction-to-cyber-security
    It’s titled Introduction to Cybersecurity. The start dates: 8th Jan, or 7th May. It runs for 8 weeks, 3 hours per week – run by the Open University.
    To be honest, I started this course last September and unlike the other courses I’ve done, I gave up the ghost part way through – probably because it’s a course I feel I need to do rather than want to do. But I’m starting it again on 8th Jan – I’ve started so I’ll finish etc. But this time I’m going to take Esnecca’s approach and ‘romp through’
    When I was looking for the above just now I also came across this course which might be worth looking at:
    Cyber Security: Safety at Home, Online, in Life
    https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/cyber-security#section-overview
    This runs for 3 weeks 3 hrs per week – run by Newcastle University
    You can join now, 5th Feb or later….
    I might well join this one at weekend and try to whizz through it before Jan 8th. May not need to do the longer one!
    Hope this helps. Let me know how you get on.
    Marie

  • posted by sunshine-girl
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    hi marie123 thanks for that, unfortunately I am only just getting over doing course after course leading right up to 3 days before Christmas that I promised myself a break. The cyber course sounds hard going but I will check it out and maybe reserve it for the next run. I dont know how I was hacked but leading up to Christmas I kept getting spurious emails from Amazon but not uk, but .com which I never use as that it the American branch and actually has no link at all with UK site. They kept telling me I had forgotten my email address and sending me a code to get into my account as long as I clicked on the link, also emails saying I had posted reviews and would I like to read them in full, go click on the link and then those that said my parcel had been delayed and I could, yes you’ve guessed it, click on the link to track it. I am not stupid and I never clicked on anything. I did forward a few of them to the genuine A site as they have a spoof stopped section.

    Anyway, couple of days after Christmas I had an email saying thank you for advising us of your change of email address from ????? to a serious of meaningless numbers. Rang A straight away and they said I didn’t have an account. I do, no you dont, not under that email address, no someone has changed it, that must have been you. It went on and on, they wouldn’t check my account as according to them I didn’t have an account. They got into the account but wouldn’t talk to be about who was using it and what was the new email address. Then I remembered I had kept all the order confirmation and despatch emails from things I had bought leading up to Christmas and they accepted that this was, in fact, my account. It was so frustrating. Then I remembered I had a credit card registered with A so I could do ‘one click’ Kindle book purchases. Cancel credit card and still waiting for new one. Turned out they didn’t get access to my credit card as they didn’t have the 3 digit code on the back. My account was recovered in less than 12 hours and everything is okay.

    Lesson, do not register credit cards with online accounts – pay as you purchase then delete the details.

    Thanks for the update marie.

  • posted by Julia V
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    Hello Fellow Futurelearners!
    I posted about being uncertain about trying this diet &, as you see, I have now registered. I am following Verano, Theo, Esnecca & anyone else on Futurelearn who mentioned BSD.

  • posted by Verano
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    Hi Julia and welcome. I don’t know how much you have to lose but there are some very inspiring stories here and more importantly there is a group of ‘maintainers’ who have lost weight and stayed at their goal for 12 months and longer. Have a look at the ‘Take at look at this’ thread for some websites/apps for counting carbs etc. Just type a word or two into the search box at the top right of the page and you will find lots of really useful information and much inspiration. Join one of the challenge threads there’s an 8 week’s one that started last Tuesday of a 4 week one that started the week before.

    Don’t worry too much about exercise at the moment there are many of us who, for various reasons, can’t exercise but have still managed to lose weight and reverse our T2. Best of luck, enjoy the journey and ask away if you have any questions.

  • posted by Esnecca
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    Hiya Julia, I’m so glad you decided to pop in and say hi over here too. Do you have any particular interests you’re hoping to explore in the Science of Nutrition course?

  • posted by VictoriaM
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    Hi all,

    I’ve just registered on the discussion of 8 th Jan course as VM and have liked a few of the BSD names that are registered. I’ll go through throughly and pick up the rest of the names later.

  • posted by Theodora
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    Hey, great to see you have taken the plunge and joined us here, Julia.

    Victoria, I’ll watch out for you on our soon to begin Futurelearn course, I am now following both you and Julia..

  • posted by Verano
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    Hi …. well I have started both of my courses. The Science and Nutrition course is slightly ‘dry’ at the moment but interesting nonetheless. I am as far as the protein section but I started this course last year so maybe repeating it is making it not quite as enjoyable for me.

    The Liver Disease course is fascinating. Quite technical but I’m only a short way in and have already learnt new things. Maybe I’m dim but I had no idea the liver regulates cholesterol in the bloodstream. For anybody interested in how the body functions this course could be good. They are already talking about diabetes, and obesity and fatty liver. May not be to everyone’s taste but I’m loving it!

  • posted by Theodora
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    Hi V – I too have just started the Science of Nutrition and agree that so far it’s a bit dry, haven’t actually learned anything new yet. But early days. Can you enlighten me though – when you are “following” someone, is there a facility to see what they have to say, without trawling through everything? Otherwise, can’t see much point in following, so hopefully I am being dense and have missed this function?

  • posted by VictoriaM
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    Yes, I’ve Just started Science of Nutrition as well and haven’t learnt anything yet, but they will have to assume a low starting level, and we will have probably thought more carefully than some about why and how we eat. I’m not sure about comments from people you are following, I haven’t had any notifications about others I’ve followed yet, only notifications of people following me.

    Sound like I might do the liver one next. I don’t have a direct liver problem at the moment, but it’s very caught up with diabetes and obesity.

  • posted by Verano
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    Victoria I don’t have a liver problem either but I thought that the liver is one of the most important organs in our body and it really seems that it is! The liver course just started today and is just three weeks so still plenty time to join.

    Theo look at the top right hand side of your home page and next to the little bell you will see a number, for messages, if anybody has responded to your posts etc. I think!

  • posted by sunshine-girl
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    Also if you read someone and you either know them or are interested in what they are saying you can tick a follow button.

  • posted by Theodora
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    Thanks V and s-g. I’ve done that – ie gone to notifications etc – but it only shows when someone has replied to a comment I have made. So far I am “following” 4 people and 3 people are following me. But I thought the whole point of “following” someone was so that you could see the comments THEY had made? Otherwise I can’t see much point in following them!

    Just wondered if I was missing something?

  • posted by Theodora
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    Aha!! Found what I was looking for re followers. Simple really – at the start of the comments, there is a filter button which can be set to show all comments, bookmarked comments, your own comments, or comments by people you are following! So problem solved – obvious really, think I was just being a bit dense!!

  • posted by Verano
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    Thanks Theo! Yes simple!

  • posted by VictoriaM
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    Thanks Theodora

  • posted by Theodora
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    Hi – not a lot of action on here, so just wondered how my study buddies are doing?

    I’ve just finished the carb section (1:14) so am over half way through the first week.

  • posted by VictoriaM
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    Hi, just started the carbs. I usually do first thing it in the morning with my first coffee, but I had to go for a blood test so didn’t have tone this morning. Will catch up tomorrow. I’ve leant a few things so far, but am finding it a bit simple. They also seem to be pushing the standard fats are bad line with just a nod to the fact that new research might be saying something different.

  • posted by Theodora
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    Hi Victoria – I agree, so far I’m not sure I have learned anything that I didn’t know, but then a lot of BSDers have already read a fair bit on nutrition.

    I agree about the fats (though they are doing the same for sugars), and I am making comments at almost every opportunity to the contrary, but there don’t seem to be comments from other BSDers I am following. Maybe that’s just because I am ahead of you all? Perhaps I should backtrack and look.

  • posted by Verano
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    Yes Theo I’ve not looked at it since Monday …. shame on me but I will catch up…. promise!

  • posted by Theodora
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    Hey, V – some study buddy you’ve turned out to be😉😜😊😘 I have done quite a lot today because I was supposed to be out with friends all day, but it was unexpectedly cancelled, so found myself with a very unusual free day. Now, a free day could be spent on Futurelearn, or catching up with much neglected housework…………………no brainer!😝

    I’m now up to 1:19 – benefits of fibre. After that, only 2 more to go to finish this week, and those are a quiz and a summary of week 1. Frankly, I’ve whizzed through week one because most of the information given, I was already aware of. So, so far, not learned an awful lot of new stuff – hopefully this will improve in future weeks. But will be interesting to see how much I do actually know when I take the quiz😝

  • posted by Carolg
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    Hi guys,
    Thanks for posting about this course.
    I’ve signed up for the one starting on the 15th

  • posted by Verano
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    Sorry Theoi promise to do a little more and report back!

    Carole I think the course starting next week may be a bit more interesting than this one ….. we will have to wait and see!

  • posted by Esnecca
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    Theo, I had much the same reaction as you to the material in week one. I’ve done so much reading on nutrition since 2016 that there wasn’t much I hadn’t encountered before. I was glad to see the cautious approach to thorny issues like whether saturated fat really does cause high cholesterol, and the emphasis on vegetable cellulose as the primary source of fiber rather than wheat. That’s one of the things I’ve encountered most frequently in conversations about this WoE: if you don’t eat bread/oats, where do you get fiber? People are so weirdly convinced that bread is high in fiber when it’s actually dismally bad, whole wheat, multigrain, Ezekial bread, you name it. It all sucks compared to spinach.

    To my eternal shame, I tanked the protein question on the quiz. I mean, tanked it hard. Like I picked the right answer dead last.

  • posted by Verano
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    Good morning all. Well finally finished week 1 and I must say it was hard going certainly not a ‘joyful’ learning experience. If it wasn’t for you making me feel ashamed for not completing I would have given up out of boredom! I also took four attempts to answer the protein question Esnecca. I think it’s the question not us!

    I’m off to finish week 1 of my Liver Disease course now but here’s to week 2 and let’s hope the new course is more exciting.

  • posted by VictoriaM
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    I agree, very hard going this week. Here’s to better things next week

  • posted by Theodora
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    I’m now 2/3 of the way through week 2.

    In week one, I kept thinking “I know all this” so before I even began week 2, I skipped straight to the quiz at the end to see if I actually did have the knowledge contained therein, or only thought I had. But I did actually get them all right! To be fair, there are only 5 questions, so I went back to the beginning and am reading all the articles in the hope of learning something new. Interesting exercise though, so will probably repeat it for weeks 3 and 4 when I get to them. I do think, however, that week 2 is slightly more interesting than week one and, as I said previously, us BSDers have probably read more than a lot of people about nutrition before starting the course, as lots of the comments are things like “how interesting” or “I didn’t know that”, rather than debating the subject.

  • posted by Verano
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    Theo how do you have Week 2? I do have it from my original course last year but thought I would save that ‘treat’ until Monday when it’s released again!

    I have to say the Liver Disease course is far more interesting and I have learnt quite a bit. I hadn’t realised just how important an organ the liver is. Fascinating really even though the course just skims the surface it does provide quite a chunk of science too.

  • posted by Theodora
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    V – I have all 4 weeks. They are all in a row at the top of the course page, and I just click on the week I want. Week 2 focusses on digestion, week 3 on ingredients and food labelling, and week 4 on healthy eating.

    Further to my earlier post, I should say that although I completed the test at the end of week 2 successfully without having actually read week 2, now I have gone back to read the articles, I have learnt some things I didn’t know beforehand, not a lot, but at least some, so that’s a plus as I learnt nothing new at all in week one.

    I start the Nutrition and Wellbeing course on Monday, but maybe I’ll give the Liver one a go later on.

  • posted by Verano
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    Hi Theo you really do learn something new everyday! I had no idea all the weeks were downloaded together. I’ve been waiting for ‘mondays’ to start the next week! Dim or what!!

  • posted by Verano
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    The Liver one is just 3 weeks and so may be worth downloading. It’s available until mid February.

  • posted by Theodora
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    Haha, V – maybe I should start a Futurelearn course on Futurelearning!🤗

    Thanks for the suggestion of downloading the liver one now, I may have a look, but not sure I want to be doing 3 at once. But if not this time…………………..

  • posted by Theodora
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    I have started my 2nd FL course today – Nutrition and Wellbeing – and, so far at least, I have found it far more interesting than the Science of Nutrition one, but early days. Is anyone else doing this one – if so, what do you think?

    Verano, interesting enough, and further to our conversation about all the weeks being available at the same time, the Nutrition and Wellbeing one doesn’t appear to be. This is a shame, as far as I’m concerned, as it means I cannot get ahead when I have more time to devote to it. But you would assume it would be standardised, wouldn’t you? It may be because the Science one is provided by Open University, and the Wellbeing one by Aberdeen University.

  • posted by Verano
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    Theo just a thought but maybe be you have to comlete all the elements in week 1 before you can access week 2. Yes I am also doing that course but haven’t started it yet. If you’ve got time on your hands try the Liver one!

  • posted by Theodora
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    I don’t think so, V, because on the Science one I could access all 4 weeks right from the start. Only time will tell however – atm if I click on week 2 it says it will be downloaded next week 😢

    I don’t actually have time on my hands atm, quite a frenetic week actually, it was more a comment for “as, or indeed if, and when”. But I have registered to do it in the future, thank you for the recommendation.

  • posted by Theodora
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    I’ve finished the Science of Nutrition course, didn’t find it at all inspiring I’m afraid, so rushed through it. It was either that or just give up on it, and I don’t like to think of myself as a quitter😱

  • posted by Verano
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    Hi Theo I’ve not continued that course this week but I have it permanent access from last year so no need to rush. I have to say that I’m not enjoying it so far I was hoping it would improve!

  • posted by VictoriaM
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    Hi, I haven’t continued studying this week either, as I got bored. Must make the effort this next week

  • posted by Theodora
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    Even finding the Nutrition and Wellbeing course a bit hard-going (boring??) now, though still plodding on – and it IS feeling like a plod!! even though it is much better than the Science of Nutrition course.

    So I decided to do a course totally unrelated to food and plumped for The American South from colonial times to the present day, and am finding it far more stimulating and actually feel I am learning something new. The American South is somewhere that I have always found fascinating, and have visited on a few occasions (though not enough) The course itself is well presented, but also provides links to lots of peripheral reading which I am thoroughly enjoying. Also, lots of the other people on the course (many who live in the American South) seem to be really well informed so making for good, informative discussions, unlike the nutrition courses. BTW – who knew that The American South officially includes the states of Maryland and Delaware? Well, you Americans, maybe, but certainly not me!!

  • posted by Verano
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    Hi Theo I have to agree with you. Maybe we know enough already and there isn’t enough new content to keep us interested. Still loving my Liver Disease course though. You’re idea of something totally different has made me think and so an email today has got me to sign up for a ‘Humanist’ course next month. There are so many ‘horrors’ in this world carried out in the name of ‘religion’ that it will be really interesting to see the views of those who live without a religious bias.

  • posted by Theodora
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    I think you are probably right, Essie – we haven’t come this far and been this successful on BSD without a lot of peripheral reading about nutrition and understanding how our bodies deal with it.

    I have registered my interest for the Liver course, but just wanted something entirely different to spike my interest again. The American South course is doing just that, as so far it has covered the geography/climate/demographics/slavery/economics/the bible belt/the Union Gospel Tabernacle (Grand Ole Opry)/ and now I am onto the music, (which would stand a course all to itself) – and that is just week one to date. Still to come this week are Literature/Films/TV and Food (even providing some quintessential Southern recipes to try at home). So something for everyone – what’s not to like!😊 I haven’t even looked at what’s covered in the next 4 weeks, (maybe going into the above in more depth) but I’m really excited about it.

    Your Humanist course sounds interesting, too.

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