Now yo-yo dieting’s good for you after study gives all-clear
REPEATED crash diets are not harmful and could help to tackle the spiralling obesity crisis, a top scientist claims.
In the past experts have questioned the benefits of so-called yo-yo diets that see slimmers pile the pounds back on afterwards.
But a senior researcher is now saying that crash diets benefit our health and he compares them to regular dental appointments.
Dr David Allison, a biostatistician in the US, said he found repeat crash diets did no harm to obese mice and serial-dieting animals lived longer than those that remained obese.
He said the findings debunked the previous widely-held view that yo-yo dieting was harmful and should be avoided.
Crisis
Dr Allison, from the University of Alabama, said: “If you go to the dentist for a six month check-up they find there’s plaque around your teeth and scrape it off. Then they give you a toothbrush and piece of string and send you out and say, ‘keep up the good work’.
“Six months later the plaque is back. Just like with extra weight. It comes back. Nobody says dentistry is a failure. They say, ‘that’s OK’.”
Dr Allison told the American Association for the Advancement of Science: “We think it’s probably not a bad idea to lose weight even if you are going to gain it back and redo it every few years.”
The findings will relieve millions
FATAL HEART CONDITION ‘UNDIAGNOSED’
THE majority of people with a potentially fatal inherited heart condition are not being diagnosed, a charity warns.
The British Heart Foundation says 85 per cent of people with familial hypercholesterolaemia could be undiagnosed.
The condition causes abnormally high levels of cholesterol in blood, leaving otherwise healthy individuals at a much greater risk of a heart attack while still young.
If it is caught early patients can be treated with statins.
About 250,000 people in the UK have the condition, said the charity.
The children of adults with the condition have a 50 per cent chance of inheriting it.
Health officials recommend genetic testing for immediate family members of those affected, but the charity said access to the test is “patchy”.
Its spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said: “We are now able to diagnose people and prevent them from a sudden death at a young age.
“We need to ensure that everyone at risk has access to these tests.” of Britons who struggle with on-off diets in the growing obesity crisis costing the UK billions every year.
Described by healthcare workers as a “time bomb”, it has been blamed for sharp rises in Type 2 diabetes, liver disease and some cancers.
Figures show 67 per cent of men and 57 per cent of women are overweight or obese and the problem is becoming acute in children.
Also in Britain, 19.1 per cent of boys and girls aged 10 to 11 are obese and another 14.2 per cent are overweight.
Among children aged four to five, 9.1 per cent are obese and 12.8 per cent are overweight.
A third of 10-to-11-year-olds and over a fifth of children aged four-tofive are too heavy.