Slimmers ‘need supplements not food’

DOCTORS should tell dieters to stop eating normal food to beat obesity, experts say.

GPs should prescribe an eight-week diet plan that replaces breakfast, lunch and dinner with specially-formulated supplements such as milkshakes, soups and meal bars.

An Oxford-led study found slimmers on such diets – only 800 calories a day – went on to lose more than a stone and a half.

Study leader Nerys Astbury said: ‘We have grown up in an environment where we have food everywhere … I think these people are overweight because they have an unhealthy relationship with food. We take food out of the equation.’ In the study of 278 obese adults, 1 per cent of whom were women, half were put on the Cambridge Weight Plan involving milkshakes and meal bars, for eight weeks, with food gradually reintroduced at the end.

They were also given support by a counsellor, dietician or group sessions.

The rest were given standard weight loss advice by the NHS.

A year later, those who ate meal replacements had lost an average of 22lb, while the lost just 7lb. Other programmes such as Lighter Life, Optifast and Counterweight Plus would yield similar results, the researchers said.

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