Why don’t diets work? The Food Doctor answers.

Ian Marber, co-founder of The Food Doctor Clinic and author of a number of books on food and diet; his latest, ‘Supereating: Getting the best out of your food’, shares his thoughts on why diets don’t work.

Ian Marber is 45 and it wasn’t until his early 30′s that he decided to study nutrition based on his own quibbles with food since he was a child. His real turning point was at age 27, he was diagnosed with coeliac disease and told what he could and couldn’t eat.

As the nations focus in the rising risks of obesity and our unhealthy relationship with food is ever increasing, the Food Doctor answers, what are we doing wrong?

Why are we seeing such a problem of obesity recently?

“It’s a car crash of reasons. People prefer TV to physical activity. There is too much bad fast food been scoffed. And many cookery programmes are based on sheer entertainment – presented by people like stand up comedians, who have no knowledge of food. These shows don’t help people learn to cook healthily. Then there’s yo-yo dieting, which messes up the metabolism so the body stores fat cells.”

Why don’t diets work?

“Well actually they do, as long as you adopt something that’s balanced and practical in the long term. The main problem is that we generally undertake diets with very unrealistic expectations and use them to compensate for over-indulgence. I have found that simply planning a diet usually makes us eat more beforehand, much like overeating at weekends then starting another diet on a Monday. My advice is to find an eating plan that’s enjoyable and not too restrictive, and stick to it.”

Why do you put on more weight when you eat normally after a diet?

“Highly restrictive plans invariably fail as we can’t stick to them, and they force our metabolic rate to think we are in famine and so, simply put, it adjusts itself to get by on a smaller calorie intake. When we have lost the weight and we feel it’s okay to eat again, the calorie intake that used to be adequate is now excessive, and the extra is stored away as fat. This type of dieting is almost guaranteed to lead to a lifetime of being on and off diets.”

Several of your titles are described as diets for weight loss, so doesn’t that make you apart of the problem?

“My books are eating plans that promote a healthy balance of food, but the publishers felt they’d sell better with the word ‘diet’ on the cover. In my books, I do not advocate restrictive diets with a wagging-finger approach and I advise people not to count calories. My 30 day plan, for example, contains sensible, nutritious, well-balanced meals that sustain you while enabling you to lose weight without depriving the body of nutrients. Diets are bad when they lead to hunger, cravings and energy troughs because glucose levels have become unbalanced, which is when people often give up. Some regimes promise magical transformation – but if this doesn’t appear to happen, the person is left with a sense of failure and self-loathing.”

You have a new book out – is there really anything else to say about healthy eating?

“I have misgivings about fashionable super-foods, because no one food can be the definitive answer. So my book shows how you can pair foods in order to get maximum benefit from the combinations.”

Selected items from the Food Doctor’s healthy eating range are available from Waitrose. The Food Doctors new book is titled ‘Supereating: Getting the best out of your food’. Check out the website here, for advice and help on nutrition.

Let 100% People know what you think of the book and the methods suggested in this article. Have they been successful for you? Do you have any recommendations?