MSP’s diet call after losing three stones and reversing diabetes
AN MSP and a top scientist both insist Scotland could overcome its growing diabetes problem by following an 800-calories-a-day diet for eight to 12 weeks, after it was revealed more people have the disease than ever before.
Midlothian North and Musselburgh SNP MSP Colin Beattie no longer has Type 2 diabetes after he decided to take action and lose three stone on a radical weight-loss programme.
And Professor Mike Lean, a human nutrition expert at Glasgow University School of Medicine, is behind the programme, called Counterweight, which is already available in a number of health board areas in Scotland.
Both of them say that if every health board in Scotland “stopped trying to reinvent the wheel” and stuck to the tried-and-tested programme, it could save lives and the NHS millions of pounds.
Diabetes Scotland has just released figures to coincide with the start of Diabetes Week, which aims to raise awareness of the condition. The charity revealed the number of people registered with the condition reached an all-time high of 276,000 last year.. About 90 per cent of these had Type 2 diabetes.The charity also said an estimated 45,500 people were living with undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes in Scotland.
Professor Lean said: “Ninety per cent of all diabetes is Type 2 and that’s because people are overfat. You can be overfat without being miles overweight, so people don’t notice it because most people are overweight.
“If you don’t want the horrible complications of diabetes you have to keep your waist circumference down – for women below 32 inches and for men below 36.
“If you have been diagnosed with diabetes, the evidence says you need to lose between two and three stones to take the diabetes away. Not tables, more exercise or fad diets. It is time all the health boards in Scotland stopped trying to reinvent the wheel because the Scottish Government has done the research.“The Counterweight programme is the best we’ve got... and Scotland is leading the world in this.
The Co u n t e r w e i g h t programme is a liquid diet approach over about 12 weeks to lose three stones.
Mr Beattie went on a similar diet last January after being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and has managed to keep the weight off.
He said: “You can never guarantee it’s never going to reappear but at the moment I am within normal levels and I don’t have diabetes. I am in remission.”