Diet Novelties .com

…„With the myriad different diets out there, many backed by some slimmed-down celebrity, there’s a confusing number of diets that promise drastic weightloss - but which one is for you?

Should you food-combine proteins with fats - perhaps a nice greasy fry-up or juicy steak - for breakfast and lunch, then move to pure carbohydrate such as pasta and vegetables for supper a la Liz Hurley, devotee of the Hay or food-combining diet?

Perhaps you should discover your blood type, tailor your diet to where you stand in the evolutionary scale and then feed the inner carnivore or herbivore accordingly - like former Eastender and ‘Cockney sparrer’ Martine McCutcheon?

Or maybe you should have your face-shape checked by a Chinese dietician and adapt your appetite.

Most medical doctors and dieticians don’t think so.

The Birmingham-based British Dietetic Association, which funds research into diet, this week launched a publicity campaign aimed at dissuading people from embarking on crash or fad diets. Dietician Dr Wendy Doyle, spokesman for the association, said: ‘Ibelieve you need to take a longer-term view of weight control rather than slimming to get into a bikini for your holidays.

‘With diets of that type where you quickly lose a lot of weight, you can’t sustain that once you return from holiday.

‘All you are going to do is put it all straight back on again, as the weight you lose first is just water and glycogen, which you need for energy.

‘That can’t be good for self-esteem - particularly as you’re likelyto put on five to ten pounds the minute you stop. Going on and off diets is not a constructive way of losing weight - it’s something you need to take a more far-sighted approach by makingsmaller changes that you can sustain. ‘Avoid diets that promise quick fixes - you just won’t keep that weight loss off; and avoid diets that cut out certain food groups - fats, carbohydrates or proteins. There’s no rational or scientific evidence thatthey work.’

Dr Doyle said regimes like the blood group diet and the food-combining or Hay diet, where you can eat all proteins and fats - such as eggs and bacon - you want for one meal as long as you didn’t eat them with carbohydrates such as bread or rice, couldeven be counterproductive healthwise. ‘A lot of meat, dairy products and eggs, which are all animal products,are high in saturated facts above all and will elevate your cholesterol levels, while cutting out all cereals and plant-based products likevegetables will mean cutting out a whole range of B vitamins and fibre. ‘What we don’t like is faddy diets - cutting out all dairy products or all wheat, or a whole range of products.

‘Our bodies are much better adjusted to eating a combination of food than keeping different food types apart, like you do in certain faddy diets like the food-combining diet.’

Dr Ashton agrees. ‘The answer to losing weight is there’s no quick solution — it just doesn’t work that way, I’m afraid,’ he says.

‘But the good news is, you don’t need to lose that much weight to make a very big difference to your risk of developing diseases that obesity causes.’…”