5:2 diet could cut the risk of heart disease

FOLLOWING a 5:2 diet in which you cut back severely on calories two days a week reduces the risk of heart disease, research suggests.

The diet had a far greater impact on the body and sped up the metabolism more than normal calorie counting.

People who followed a 5:2 diet were able to clear harmful fats from their blood more quickly, scientists found. This has longterm benefits for the heart, cutting the risk of cardiovascular disease, they said.

The 5:2 diet involves eating normally for five days a week and then on two days a week cutting intake to just 600 calories a day, by eating only soups and diet shakes.

The researchers, from the University of Surrey tracked 15 overweight people on this diet, and compared them with 12 overweight people who completed a normal calorie counting diet, in which women restricted their consumption to 1,400 calories a day and men to 1,900.

The scientists, whose findings are published in the British Journal of Nutrition, tracked the groups until they lost 5 per cent of their body weight.

Blood tests performed at the beginning and end of the trial showed the 5:2 group were left with far less triglyceride fat in their blood stream after eating a meal. Their blood pressure dropped by 9 per cent, compared with a 2 per cent increase among the conventional dieters.