London - New Year dieters should ditch the celery and salads and tuck in to shepherd’s pie and steak instead and even indulge in cream on their dessert, says a leading academic.
Most diets are destined to fail because they are too strict and don’t have enough fat in them, says Harvard University nutritionist Dr. David Ludwig. Traditional low-fat diets, in which fats are replaced by carbohydrates and sugars, fuel a vicious circle of hunger by throwing the body into “starvation mode”, he says.
In the end the body rebels, overcoming even the iron-willed, he argues in a new book, Always Hungry? As a result people pile back on the weight they have lost, leading to yo-yo dieting.
Ludwig, a practising medic, said low-fat diets popularised since the 1970s had “not only fuelled the obesity epidemic, but contributed to cardiovascular disease”.
The theory that high-calorie fat should be eliminated because all calories were created equal was “profoundly misguided”, he said, adding: “With low-fat diets you are destined to fail.” His book, based on 20 years of research, was an attempt to counter the low-fat dogma.
He cited one 2012 study which showed the same people burned 325 fewer calories a day while on a low-fat diet than on moderate- and high-fat Mediterranean-style diets containing the same amount of energy.
This was because the body had evolved to become super-efficient when food was scarce and humans had to forage for survival.
The secret was instead to eat “luscious” and “hearty” meals which fed the body properly and kept hunger at bay for longer, he said.
Examples of meals he and his chef wife, Dawn, have come up with include Melt-in-your-mouth lamb shanks, Shepherd’s pie with Cauliflower topping and Steak salad with Blue cheese dressing.
Desserts can be slathered in home-made chocolate sauce, using dark chocolate or cream, as long as no sugar is added.
But it was essential to cut out sugars and refined carbohydrates which lead to fat cells “hoarding” calories, he said.
Dr Aseem Malhotra, a London cardiologist and adviser to the National Obesity Forum, welcomed Ludwig’s approach.
He said: “The low-fat diet has been one of the biggest disasters in modern medicine, and in my view has fuelled the obesity epidemic.
“It’s time we stopped counting calories and ate real food.”
The Mail on Sunday