FAD DIETS: Why they make you fat

BRITAIN’S obesity crisis is being made worse by fad diets which promise a quick fix but are often doomed to end in failure, a major health conference will hear today.

OBESITY Fad diets are being criticised OBESITY: Fad diets are being criticised

Doctors have criticised the extreme nature of so-called ‘super’ diet ­techniques, which people cannot adhere to and then end up seeking solace in unhealthy foods.

Some of these extreme diets also cause people to eat too much of certain types of foods, causing them to still put on weight.

The only way to tackle the fat problem, they say, is to go back to basics and the simple principles of eating a variety of good foods, not consuming too much, and exercising.

Professor Chris Hawkey, president of The British Society of Gastroenterology, will warn in a key speech today that if Britons carry on gorging as we are, by 2050 nine in 10 adults will be overweight or obese.

He will say: “The problem facing our ­society is not the content of our diet but it’s the quantity we are consuming and the consequential impact on obesity.

“We need to do away with quirky diets and get people to realise what will keep them healthy in the long run.” Prof Hawkey believes our obsession with quick fix weight-loss plans like the ­Atkins and Stone Age diets mean that the nutritional values of a well-balanced diet are being lost.

Even if a fad diet does lead to some initial weight loss, people are then coming off it and eating unhealthily again, he will say.

People are putting on weight as the fad diet has not installed in them the principles of eating well and not piling too much on their plate.

He warns that if current eating trends continue we will have a ­dramatically shortened life expectancy, obesity will be the main cause of death and there will be a surge in obesity-caused liver disease.

Fad plans, such as high-protein or high-carbohydrate diets, can actually be unhealthy, and rarely work as a long-term way of managing weight, he believes.

Similarly, slimming aids that ­suppress the appetite or speed up metabolism may produce short-term results but the weight soon creeps back on.

Despite this, almost £30billion is spent globally on the diet and ­slimming industry each year.

Catherine Collins, a clinical dietician working in the NHS, backed Prof Hawkey’s argument.

“The problem with these sort of ­diets is it’s extreme dieting which most people can’t ­continue,” she said.

To lose weight and keep it off she advises simple techniques such as keeping a food diary, including fruit and vegetables at every meal and down-sizing treats such as chocolate to smaller portions.

“If you want to lose weight, it’s a marathon, not a sprint,” she said. In his speech, Prof Hawkey will say: “What’s important is to recognise that despite the popularity of fad ­diets, we are losing a grip on the fight with obesity.

“Our research shows that 62 per cent of the public think obesity will continue to increase for at least the next 10 years.”

Prof Hawkey will present the alarming new research at Gastro 2009, the world’s largest gastroenterology conference in London featuring 12,000 scientists.

The YouGov study, commissioned by the British Society of Gastroenterology, aims to establish the public’s attitude towards food and dieting.

It found that nearly half of Britons (49 per cent) classify themselves as overweight. It also discovered one in 20 women would try the Atkins diet if trying to lose weight.

Speaking to the Daily Express ­before the conference, Prof Hawkey said: “Despite an interest in lots of different types of diet, as a society we are getting fatter.

“The problem is we have a lot of ­diets around and we have people starving themselves, then putting the weight back on and that is not the way to go.

“Choosing a diet for a particular content isn’t going to stop people getting overweight.

“The issue is obesity and we don’t know how to tackle it.

“In the whole of human history, there has never been anything quite like this.

“It is going to become the biggest cause of death and the biggest cause of liver disease, overtaking alcohol.”

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