NHS will grind to a halt under weight of diabetes epidemic, warns a TV doctor

TV DOCTOR Michael Mosley,

yesterday warned that the NHS will “grind to a halt” unless more is done to tackle Britain’s diabetes crisis.

The creator of the popular 5:2 diet insisted that stricter government legislation was the “only way” to force the food industry to reduce the amount of salt, sugar and fat in food.

He said: “I can understand the problem if you’re a manufacturer.

“They did a low-salt version with Heinz tomato soup and they didn’t sell it. People said, ‘We think this one’s tastier’.

“The only way of changing things is through legislation, unfortunately, because then everyone has to abide by the same rules.

“What we haven’t factored in – in the free market – is the fact that eating these foods has a very high cost. Type 2 diabetes costs more than £20billion a year.

“The NHS is going to grind to a halt unless we do something about it.”

Speaking at the launch of his new book, The Fast 800, Dr Mosley, added:

“We’ve been through it with cigarettes. It took a long time to accept that cigarettes are bad for you and then people started doing something about it.

“It was a lot of different stuff – making it difficult to sell to kids, making it much more expensive, making it much less accessible.

“And then ultimately it was vaping which came in, which also helped the shift.

“We’ve yet to find the food equivalent of vaping.”

Dr Mosley has created a number of diets, including The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet to help diabetics to reduce their blood glucose levels.

The Fast 800 recommends a rapid weight loss diet of just 800 calories a day.

It combines Mediterraneanstyle recipes with an online 12-week lifestyle course.

Mr Mosley said: “The point of The Fast 800 is that it’s extending an idea.

“The Blood Sugar Diet was specifically for diabetics and prediabetics. The Fast 800 is really for everyone.”