Are We Starved Of Information?

A Reader's Digest report investigates confusion surrounding dieting and the diet industry

Summertime sees many people looking towards the latest fad diets for a fast track way of losing weight, but a survey in the July issue of Reader's Digest shows that many of us are ignorant about good nutrition and healthy guidelines for dieting.

A poll carried out by MORI for the Reader's Digest report shows that:

• Only four in ten (39 per cent) of women know that 2,000 calories is the ideal amount they should be consuming each day. 29 per cent thought it was 1,500 calories.
• Less than a third (31 per cent) of men are aware that 2,500 calories is their target. 22 per cent thought it was 2000 calories.
• Only 44 per cent know that the safest amount of weight for the average person to lose per week is between one and two pounds. 23 per cent thought it was between two and three pounds.
• Of those respondents who had dieted, half admitted they did not achieve their target weight loss. One in five said they had actually gained weight.

However, the poll also revealed that people are fed up of being told what to eat - 50% per cent said they have had enough of the Government lecturing them about their eating habits.

Should We Trust These Trendy Diets?

A report published in conjunction with the Reader's Digest poll looks at the claims made by the diet industry.

Nutrition and medical experts interviewed for the report argue that many of the latest fad diets lack any sound scientific theory to back them up and some could be dangerous.

Experts interviewed were sceptical of detox diets largely based on fruit and vegetables, such as a diet described in the video "Carol Vorderman's 28 Day Detox Diet", claiming to clear your body of toxin build up. "Detoxification mechanisms in humans are pretty complex and have been refined over thousands of years to cope with all sorts of foods. I would question the need for a detox diet at all," says Liver expert Dr David Mutimer of Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

Wendy Doyle, state registered dietician at the British Dietectic Association has concerns about the diet from a nutritional point of view. She says: "No dairy products are allowed and this is worrying, especially if the diet is continued for a long time, because we rely on dairy products for 50 per cent of our calcium needs. It is particularly important to have enough calcium in your teens and early twenties - the age group of girls that will find this diet attractive."

Claims made in Dr Atkins' "New Diet Revolution" which advocates high fat and protein intake and strictly limited carbohydrate are also questionable according to experts interviewed. Susan Jebb of the Medical Research Council's Human Nutrition Research centre in Cambridge says: "If the Atkins diet helps people get slimmer - and some claim that it does - it is only because so many foods are restricted that it becomes difficult to eat too many calories. People have a hard enough time losing weight without being confused by unnecessary complications."

Another diet covered in the report, "The False Fat Diet" by Dr Elson Haas, says that if you are overweight it may be due to allergies, not overeating.

The diet claims that between 80 and 90 per cent of overweight people may have food allergies. "Much of your excess weight isn't even fat," claims the author. "It's false fat - the bloating and swelling caused by allergy-like-food reactions."

Maurice Lessof, emeritus Professor of Medicine at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London says, "Fat people, for the most part, have a lower than normal percentage of fluid in their body. And there is no evidence that people with food allergies have any tendency to be fat. This diet may appeal to many vulnerable, overweight people who are pleased that someone acknowledges that obesity is 'not their fault' - as it may not be. Sadly a lot of them are taken in by diets like this, which have no scientific basis."

Steps to healthy weight loss

1. Keep a diary of what you eat and drink every day. That will help you pinpoint the times of day when you are most likely to overindulge.
2. Come up with an achievable, realistic eating plan you can maintain long term and integrate it into your family meals. If it's too restrictive you won't stick to it.
3. Question whether you need to lose weight. It is often unrealistic and unhealthy to look like celebrities. Your doctor's practice nurse can advise you on ideal weight and body fat.
4. Make exercise a regular part of your life. The more muscle you have, the quicker you burn off calories.
5. Don't feel bad if you have the occasional relapse.

Technical details

MORI interviewed 2,017 British people aged 15 plus face-to-face between 19-24 April 2001.