health
There is no “one size fits all” approach to losing weight, according to a top British nutritionist and fitness adviser, who believes that modern lifestyles and refined foods have led to the proven benefits of a low fat/high carbohydrate diet becoming skewed.
Will Williams is the scientific advisor for the hugely popular UK diet organisation, All About Weight. He is responsible for checking and working with the Mealpak formula which forms the base of the company’s successful weight loss plans.
Mr Williams said Diabetes UK – the country’s leading charity for people with the disease – recently reviewed their nutritional recommendation that diabetes sufferers should eat less fat and more carbohydrates, both to control their weight and blood glucose levels. This strategy is also the basis for a host of popular commercial diets followed by the general population.
Diabetes UK now suggests that optimal carbohydrate intake is an individual affair, and a high-carb diet may not be the only option (if alternatives are carefully monitored by a sufferer’s dietician or doctor).
Mr Williams thoroughly endorses this view – not only in respect of diabetics but for anyone wanting to lose weight and become fitter.
“Part of the reason that the low fat, high carbohydrate diet has not been effective at slowing the rising tide of obesity and type 2 diabetes is not that the recommendations are wrong – rather, the problem is that the strategy has been misinterpreted and corrupted by modern diets and lifestyles,” said Mr Williams.
Ideally, he said, a Mediterranean style diet rich in fresh vegetables and fruit,unprocessed whole grains, and low in saturated fats is an effective way to reduce the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, as well as helping to control weight.
“However a diet like this is rare today and unfortunately the messages are all too often boiled down and oversimplified. We are simply told to eat less fat and eat more starchy food.”
Mr Williams said refined carbohydrate foods are “cheap, ubiquitous and often aggressively marketed”, with all their beneficial wholegrains removed and often harmful ingredients like trans fats added. “This is not what the low fat/high carbohydrate dietary guidelines are really about”.
“Coupled with this, people today are much less physically active than they used to be. If we take in more energy than we expend, in the form of carbohydrates, it is stored as excess body fat,” said Mr Williams.
“Our modern lifestyles and intensive food production have confounded dietary guidelines that were based on solid evidence, so that well-meant healthy eating messages may have actually served to exacerbate the problem of overweight and diabetes in the population,” he said.
Keeping abreast of current research is an important part of Mr Williams’ function at All About Weight, which offers a set of different plans to suit the varied requirements of clients – including diabetics.
“The key to successful weight management in this obesogenic society is breaking dependence on refined carbohydrates and high calorie, low nutrition foods. We believe that each individual should establish their own optimum level of carbohydrate in their diet to maintain a healthy weight, and this should come from nutritious food.”
All About Weight offers a specialised eating plan – known as D2 – for people with diabetes which improves their health and weight, is nutritionally complete and cardio-protective.
Tagged in Diet