| The Diet Delusion |
| Monday, 21 January 2008 | |
There’s an article in this week’s edition of New Scientist (19th January 2008) concerning his new book The Diet Delusion Now I haven’t read the book, only the article, which says that whilst the established advice for those who want to lose weight is to consume fewer calories than you expend, this doesn’t actually seem to reverse the course of obesity. It’s certainly becoming common knowledge that diets don’t work in the long term, in my opinion because people do not usually address their underlying habits around food, thus returning to their old ways and regaining their weight when the diet finishes. I also think diets send the body out of balance, not knowing whether to expect feast or famine, and cause our metabolism to work more efficiently, therefore regaining the lost weight, and more. Taubes questions why the advice to eat less is constantly rolled out, when it doesn’t seem to work. Is it, he asks, really because people are ignorant, or unwilling to change, or lack ‘moral fortitude’? Whilst accepting that we must be taking in more energy than we’re giving out Taubes says we should look more deeply into the cause. What else could be going on? There is mounting evidence says Taubes, that the obesity epidemic is caused by a hormonal phenomenon, triggered by the consumption of refined carbohydrates, starches and sugars. These prompt excessive production of insulin, the primary regulator of fat storage. Basically if insulin is elevated, fat is stored in the body. This process causes an increase in hunger and a decrease in energy expended in metabolism and physical activity. Now, where have I heard that before? Atkins – do you remember the Atkins diet? It was nearly all protein, with many people experiencing unpleasant side effects like constipation and bad breath. But if you read the introduction to his book Atkins says almost exactly the same about the role played by insulin. Taubes concludes that we need more scientific study to replace the simplistic view that restricted calorie intake alone is the answer to obesity. There’s a lot to think about here. I’m neither scientist, nutritionist, nor dietician, but I work with a lot of overweight people and have tried various eating plans myself over the years, including the Atkins diet. My personal experience is that if I overload my system with certain carbohydrates I am far more likely to experience low blood sugar symptoms, feeling slightly dizzy and almost desperate for something to eat, preferably rich in sugar. Cutting out many, but not all, carbs leaves me feeling much more in balance. However I do not advocate the Atkins diet because I think it is too extreme. My understanding is that excessive protein consumption can cause acidity in the system, which the body compensates for by leaching calcium from the bones. Hmmn, what then? Osteoporosis? I have found the concept of the ‘cave man diet’ fascinating (there’s a book about it featured in my Amazon shop) because it tries to reach back to the diet we’re genetically designed for. Now for some reason, this modern interpretation of the diet advocates eating hardly any carbohydrates at all, especially ones we have to cook, like potatoes. Yet according to Ray Mears ‘primitive’ people today will dig up carbohydrate rich roots, often as a dietary mainstay. I actually think cave men would have eaten whatever they could get their hands on at the time, whether they killed it, dug it up, or picked it. Our food today is very different. The more refined it is the more at risk I fear we are from falling into the insulin trap that Taubes and Atkins describe. And it’s curious how addictive these carbohydrate rich foods seem to be. How much blame should lie at the feet of the food industry, providing high calorie cheap food that is quick to prepare and consume? Taubes’ big omission is that area around food and eating which is closest to my heart. Most people who come to see me do not overeat just because they feel hungry. They overeat because of some other underlying factor, whether it’s stress, need for comfort, protection, habit or something else. They wonder why they eat when they’re not hungry. They feel they are out of control. Whilst this may be exacerbated by the types of foods on offer these days, it is those underlying issues and attitudes around food which need to be addressed at the personal level, whilst hopefully people like Jamie Oliver will continue to take on the food giants and get more healthy products on the shelves.
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by Gary Taubes.
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