The president of the British Society of Gastroenterology has said that followers of fad diets are developing a ‘quasi-religious’ attitude towards the right foods to eat, despite their being little to no scientific evidence that they are beneficial.
Speaking at the Gastro 2009 conference, Professor Chris Hawkey drew attention to over a dozen diets that have hit the headlines, such as the alkaline diet, which advocates eating certain foods to maintain the slightly alkaline nature of the blood, rawism, which believes that eating uncooked food is more nutritious, and the ‘chewing diet’, which claims that chewing each mouthful 32 times aids digestion.
He warned especially that the grapefruit diet, beloved by celebrities like Kylie Minogue, in all likelihood didn’t work as the enzyme in the fruit that has been proven to aid weightloss would probably be broken down in the gut before it had time to break down body fat.
He said that since the start of time, food has been ‘shrouded in myths and fairy tales’ but warned that despite the different diets which were gaining popularity, the country was still losing its battle against the obesity epidemic.
He added that the obesity problem was not a result of the kinds of food being eaten but the quantities they were being consumed in. He recommended that ‘quirky’ diets be abandoned in favour of increased exercise and sensible eating to prevent long-term conditions.
The Online Clinic is prepared to help those for whom normal dieting and exercising has not assisted with a noticable weight loss. We can presribe medication but only after a sensible weight loss plan has not worked.