It’s one of the most exciting breakthroughs of my lifetime

For many years I have been reporting medical breakthroughs. But this study by a group of British doctors, which proves it is possible to prevent and reverse a widespread, devastating disease, is one of the most exciting I have come across.

Diet, not medication, really could revolutionise the treatment of obesity and Type 2 diabetes, improve the lives of the millions who have it and save the NHS billions.

Since 1996, the number of people living with diabetes has more than doubled. My interest in it began five years ago when I discovered, after a routine blood test, that I was a Type 2 diabetic. This was a particularly nasty shock, as my father had died at the relatively early age of 74 from complications of diabetes.

rather than start on medication, which is what my doctor advised, I wanted to overcome diabetes without drugs.

In the course of my research I came across ‘ intermittent fasting’. The theory is that instead of dieting every day you cut your calories a few days a week. I ended up creating what I called the 5:2 diet, where I cut my food intake to around 600 calories a day, two days a week, and ate as healthily as possible on the other five days.

Using this approach I rapidly lost 10kg (1st 8lb) and returned my blood sugars to normal.

I later wrote a book with journalist Mimi Spencer, The Fast Diet, all about the benefits of intermittent fasting.

But why did losing weight make such a big difference to my blood sugar levels? Soon after writing The Fast Diet, I met diabetes expert roy Taylor, professor of medicine and metabolism at Newcastle University and the leader of the latest study.

He said the main reason so many people develop blood sugar problems later in life is because we put on too much visceral fat — the fat we get around our tummy. This not only makes us look chubbier, but clogs up our liver and pancreas.

‘Get rid of that fat,’ he told me, ‘and most people can get their blood sugar levels back to normal without medication.’

This was a remarkable claim because I was taught at medical school that Type 2 diabetes (the type that usually occurs later in life and is linked with lifestyle) is incurable and invariably progressive. Most of the doctors I spoke to were sceptical that patients would start a weight loss diet, let alone stick to it.

But there is an urgent need to do something other than simply keep dishing out the pills. These drugs can have significant sideeffects and once you start, you often progress to stronger and stronger medicines, until you end up injecting insulin.

There are more than 4.5 million diabetics in the UK, and a further 12 million of us have pre-diabetes, where blood sugar levels are raised but not yet in the diabetic range. Complications of diabetes include an increased risk of going blind, heart attack, kidney failure or losing a limb.

The claim that losing a lot of weight rapidly can reverse diabetes may sound too good to be true, but it’s based on years of solid research. And Professor Michael Lean, of Glasgow University, who co-led the study, argues that rapid weight loss can be a more successful strategy than trying to lose it gradually.

‘Doing it slowly is torture,’ he says. ‘ Contrary to the belief of many dietitians, people who lose weight quickly, more emphatically, are more likely to keep it off long term.

‘What doctors haven’t recognised is how much people with Type 2 diabetes hate having it. In my experience people will jump at the diet given the chance.’

Two years ago, I wrote The 8 Week Blood Sugar Diet (Short Books), which includes a detailed programme for reversing prediabetes and Type 2, based on Professor Taylor’s work.

Since it was published I have received thousands of letters and emails from people who are back to full health. People such as Cassie, a nurse, who within weeks of starting was able to come off insulin injections.

In a couple of months, she lost over 20kg and then managed to get pregnant. ‘ You have helped make a little miracle possible,’ she wrote, ‘for which I can’t thank you enough.’

As I pointed out, she should really be thanking the scientists and doctors whose research made this breakthrough possible.