- Doctors aren’t taught about nutrition and exercise, says TV doctor Mosley
- While UK is in grip of ‘major health crisis’ of ever-rising blood sugar levels
- More than four million people now have type 2 diabetes linked to being fat
- Dr Mosley says he reversed his own diabetes and lost 22lb four years ago
Dr Michael Mosley For The Mail On Sunday
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One of the best diets for overall health, a Mediterranean-style diet, is relatively high in fat and low in carbohydrates. It includes not only lots of oily fish, olive oil and nuts, but also wine and dark chocolate Michael Moseley says we should adopt a Mediterranean-style diet to improve our health and wellbeing
Evidence for the benefits of this diet come from multiple studies, one of the most impressive being from one titled Primary Prevention Of Cardiovascular Disease With A Mediterranean Diet – or PREDIMED.
Begun in 2003, this was a huge and very expensive randomised controlled trial involving over 7,400 Spaniards, many of them type 2 diabetics. The volunteers were allocated either to a standard low-fat diet, with lots of starchy foods such as potatoes and pasta, or to a Mediterranean diet.
Both groups were encouraged to eat more fruit and veg and minimise processed foods including cake, biscuits, salami and bacon.
Only the Med diet group were encouraged to consume lots of olive oil, nuts, eggs and oily fish. Also on their menu was full- fat yogurt, wine with meals and dark chocolate.
At the end of the trial, compared to those on the low-fat diet, deaths from heart disease and stroke were down by 30 per cent and the chances of becoming a diabetic were also 50 per cent lower
NHS choices, the website that provides information to the public, writes approvingly of the Mediterranean diet. Yet oddly enough it goes on to state: ‘You can make your diet more Mediterranean-style by eating plenty of starchy foods, such as bread and pasta.’
And it adds: ‘The diet is similar to the Government’s healthy- eating advice set out in the Eatwell Guide.’
Except it clearly isn’t.
The Eatwell plate recommends a standard low-fat, high-carb diet and includes few of the elements that make the Mediterranean diet particularly healthy.
Fruit should be an important part of a diet but more emphasis should be placed on vegetables which have lower sugar content
5. Exercise won’t help you lose weight
Doing exercise burns calories, so surely it will help you lose weight?
Unfortunately, that is not what usually happens.
The trouble is that people underestimate how much exercise they need to do. To burn off a muffin, you would have to run at least four miles at a moderate pace.
To burn 2 lb of fat, you would have to run at least two marathons.
We tend to reward ourselves for doing exercise by eating more, while unconsciously compensating for calories burnt by moving less.
Exercise is great for the heart and the brain, and it is an important way to control blood sugar levels. But cutting calories and changing what you eat is a more effective way to achieve weight loss.
6. It’s good to go hungry
The standard advice is that you should avoid getting hungry because otherwise you will gorge on unhealthy foods.
This is what I used to believe until I started researching something called ‘intermittent fasting’ for a science documentary called Eat, Fast, Live Longer.
This led to the invention of what I called the 5:2 diet, where you cut your calories to about a quarter two days a week (600 for men, 500 for women). On this diet, I lost 22 lb and reversed my diabetes. Many others have done so with similar success.
7. Drinking alcohol can be good for you
Drinking large amounts of alcohol is bad for you and helps pile on weight. A small glass of wine or a pint of beer can come to nearly 200 calories.
Alcohol also lowers your inhibitions, so you are more likely to snack and also more likely to have another glass.
On the other hand, drinking a glass of wine with your evening meal is unlikely to do you much harm, and the evidence from a number of studies is that it may do you good.
- Michael Mosley is the author of The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet. For more information, go to http://ift.tt/1tCooet.
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