To prevent lifestyle disease, a balanced approach is needed – not a high protein diet

AS SOMEONE who is prone to arthritis and has high cholesterol, I have found that my body cannot tolerate high levels of animal fat. Therefore, I am loath to follow Professor Tim Noakes’s advice.

I’m also reluctant to listen to someone who has gone from one extreme dieting position to another, and whose thinking flies in the face of every dietitian I have ever consulted.

Noakes told Safm last Saturday that his new high-fat diet was based partly on research done on the Bushmen, who traditionally ate a highfat diet.

Development as we know it, said Noakes, was achieved by pioneers who ate a high-fat diet, rich in animal fat.

He said he did not eat veg- etables, much, but had better advise listeners to eat them as he had come in for flak on that point.

My problems with his stance are that:

We don’t live like the Bushmen of yore. We are more sedentary, for one thing, and we have more choice.

Eating meat creates acid in the body, while eating veg etables increases alkaline levels. Acidity causes joint pain and ultimately diseases such as arthritis and gout.

Vegetables provide essential vitamins and minerals that animal products do not.

Relying on dairy for protein and calcium is out because people are increasingly manifesting a lactose intolerance.

Many people in developed nations are substituting animal products with vegetarian sources of nutrition so that our animal friends do not have to be reared in such numbers or killed at such a rate.

Nuts and pulses such as lentils, chickpeas and beans are excellent sources of protein, without the high fat.

Noakes has pointed out that he is pre-diabetic and so his diet is suited to him, but many people will not hear that and will rush to cut out the carbs, veg and fruit.

To prevent any of the lifestyle diseases – such as diabetes, arthritis and heart disease – a balanced approach is needed.

Yvonne Fontyn