24 Sep 10 Diet Adelaide

Diet: What does it really mean?

When I was at the University of Adelaide medical school I remember noticing that the word diet looked a lot like the word ‘die’ – with a graveyard cross ‘t’ after it.

Then I got the rest of my medical training and GP training and that idea was forgotten.

Because, of course, dieting is meant to be such a great solution for so many things, isn’t it?

Even alternative health practitioners think so, and multibillion dollar industries rely on it. It seems like you can’t escape it!

But that ‘die-t’ idea comes back to me today with the work I do and the way I approach the whole area of food and weight loss.

Let me sum up all the research into diets and dieting methods in one sentence…

NO diet shows more than 6 kgs (14 pounds) of weight loss beyond one year.

That’s right, low GI / low GL, varying the protein, fat & carbs, with or without psychological support, low calorie diets (LCD) or the extreme very low calorie diet VLCD of Oprah fame, Weight Watchers, for adults, and for kids. The rest have not been sufficiently researched to provide a solid evidence base. So the conclusion is, all diets end up the same.

For most people, who are wanting to lose more than 5kgs of weight and keep it off for a lifetime, this means…

Diets Don’t Work.

If all you are wanting is 2-5kgs of weight loss, then lots of diets have been shown to do this.

(If you only want to lose 1 kilogram then exercise will do fine.)

If your real goal is to live longer or improve your health without losing weight, then getting fitter, or losing a couple of kilograms is enough to do that nicely. You don’t need big results to be healthier.

How To Lose A Significant Amount Of Weight.

To lose more than 5 kilograms, then various forms of stomach surgery are the ONLY research proven method for doing this.

But many people don’t want or can’t have surgery.

In this case, you need to stop and be highly critical of ALL the information out there about diets and their claims.

When you see the word ‘diet’ with it’s ‘die’ + the ‘t’ cross at the end, realize that it is really saying to kill the false hope of diets. Stop it. Once and for all.

Despite all the other medical counselling work I do in Adelaide, this still is the most important weight loss message that people need to know when they consider dieting and being on a diet.

Educate yourself so you will never need to diet again.

-Dr Martin Russell

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