The government has recently come under fire for its flabby attitude to the ballooning rates of obesity in the UK. However, even if politicians weigh into this area, my instinct is that reversing our growing epidemic will be akin to steering the Titanic away from the iceberg. The situation that we have taken a few decades to get into could quite easily take a few decades to get out of. I suspect many of us will be wanting results more rapidly.
Statistics show that, at any given moment, one in four of us is on a diet. This figure bulges at this time of year as we are faced with the prospect of revealing our bums and tums on the beach. For most, the investment made in terms of dietary restraint will be repaid in the form of lost pounds. Chances are, though, that a year from now most would-be slimmers will find themselves no lighter, and may even have gained a few pounds. The problem is not just losing weight, but keeping it off.
Although the reasons for weight regain are complex, the primary cause is almost certainly reverting to our default diet. Dietary predilections are notoriously intransigent, so I was interested to read a recent report suggesting that many individuals who have come off a carbohydrate-restricted diet, such as Atkins, continue to avoid fattening foodstuffs such as soft drinks and confectionery.
This offers a glimmer of hope for those seeking to shed pounds permanently, as there is good reason to believe that long-term restriction of specific carbohydrates can help maintain weight loss. Eating fewer carbs ensures that the body makes less insulin - a hormone that predisposes the body to lay down fat and at the same time stalls the body's fat-burning potential.
Several studies show that restricting the intake of carbs is generally more effective for weight loss than low-fat diets. Considerable evidence now exists showing that low-carb eating brings about favourable changes in blood fats, including higher levels of 'healthy' high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and lower levels of unhealthy triglycerides.
Only last month, a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that individuals on a low-carb diet were better able to stick to it than those following a low-fat regime.
This mirrors my own experience as a practitioner that many individuals find eating less refined sugar (as found in soft drinks and confectionary) and grain-based starches (such as bread, breakfast cereals, pasta and rice), quite sustainable, and can look forward to long-term weight loss as a result. Basing the diet around natural, unprocessed foods (such as meat, fish, eggs, fruit, green vegetables, nuts, beans and lentils) which tend not to disrupt the body's biochemistry really does seem to ensure that weight shed this summer is kept off permanently.
