Eat FAT to stay Slim

Sceptical? So was SARAH VINE until she tried a diet revolution

FIrsT of all, a disclaimer: I’d never say I was perfect. I would not be seen dead in a bikini and the last time my upper arms saw the light of day, the Queen Mum (gawd bless her) was still knocking back pink gins and having a flutter on the 3.45 at Aintree.

My spaghetti ain’t courgetti — and though I try my best to be a sugar-free zone, the occasional scoop of ice cream does, I’m ashamed to say, find its way into my gullet. Washed down, more often than not, with a nice glass of wine. That said, knocking on 50, fully menopausal and with a long-term underactive thyroid condition (in weight loss terms, a bit like running the London Marathon with a small elephant strapped to your ankles), I am in better physical nick than I’ve been for more than a decade.

I still have too much visceral fat (the technical term for a spare tyre), but the rest of me, when I scrutinise my carcass in a full-length mirror, is...well, it’s OK. Not going to win any beauty pageants, I’ll grant you, but presentable.

To what do I owe this very pleasing transformation? To nutritionist and personal trainer Zana Morris, an affable Irishwoman who, long before the National Obesity Forum (NOF) announced that eating fat could help keep weight off, introduced me via her revolutionary book — The High Fat Diet — to a way of eating that, despite my persistent cheating and ongoing lack of discipline, has transformed my shape.

Just to recap: two weeks ago, the NOF published a report that sent seismic waves through the diet industry and got a lot of people very hot under the collar.

In a nutshell, the charity overturned decades of perceived wisdom about the

31 The number of years a woman spends on a diet in her lifetime

benefits of a low-fat diet in preventing heart disease and high cholesterol. instead of insisting on a low-calorie, lowfat diet, the authors of the report claimed that a diet rich in ‘good’ fats — avocado, cheese, fresh meat and dairy products — could help protect the heart and lower levels of obesity.

in particular, anything labelled ‘low-fat’, ‘lite’ or ‘low cholesterol’ was to be avoided like the plague, and people should return to eating natural, unadulterated foods.

What ought to have triggered an interesting debate instead triggered various knee-jerk reactions.

Public Health England (PHE) dismissed the report as an ‘opinion’ paper and called it irresponsible and misleading. it reiterated its advice to ‘base meals on starchy carbohydrates, especially wholegrains’, ‘eat at least five portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables each day’ and ‘cut back on food and drink high in saturated fat, salt, sugar and calories’.

this advice is not wholly wrong, of course. But it is stubbornly resistant to certain aspects of the nOF report that suggest a more intelligent approach to tackling obesity is needed.

in particular, PHE’s response refused to acknowledge one important factor highlighted by the nOF, that ‘obesity is a hormonal disorder leading to abnormal energy partitioning which cannot be solely fixed by increasing exercise’.

And the key point, which is this: calories from different types of food have ‘different metabolic effects on the body’. if this sounds technical, let me simplify. bowl of cereal with semi-skimmed milk may seem like a healthy choice. in fact, it is a nutritional time-bomb. the milk has had the fat taken out of it, but in the process most of the nutrients have gone.

Meanwhile, the sugar and high carbohydrate content of the cereal causes an insulin spike as your body rushes to process the glucose — which then enters your bloodstream, causing a ‘sugar high’.

But unless you use up all that energy through physical activity, it is eventually converted into fat, mostly around your middle. Moreover, because your low-fat meal is high in flavour but low in fat, you very quickly get hungry again, and so the process is repeated.

Worse still, because some of these foods are so highly processed the body doesn’t recognise them as foods — so their consumption fails to make us feel full. that is why, for example, you can eat a whole tub of ice-cream in one sitting, but can only get through half a sirloin steak.

Fat and protein, by contrast, are very effective at triggering the body’s full response. Even better, their low sugar content does not cause the disastrous insulin spikes — and the resulting hormonal roller coaster and hunger cravings. in fact, if you follow a diet rich in good fats and protein and low in carbohydrates and sugar, you will rarely feel hungry.

You will enjoy your food because it will taste real and not like sugared cardboard.

Better still, as i found to my amazement, you will find yourself eating a lot less. Which, if you really must obsess about calories, is all to the good. none of which helped the authors of the report, several of whom resigned after the backlash.

But then, last week, vindication. A spanish study conducted over five years returned conclusive proof that a low-fat diet is less effective at controlling diabetes and reducing so-called heart-attack fat, ie, that pesky visceral fat that so many of us suffer from. the research tracked nearly 7,500 men and women. One group had an unrestricted Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil, a second had a similar unrestricted diet packed with nuts, and the third followed a conventional ‘slimmers’ diet’ that avoided all kinds of fat.

Waist circumference increased by 1.2cm in the low-fat group, compared with 0.85cm in the olive oil group and 0.37cm in the nuts group. in other words, curbing fat consumption was the least effective way of controlling those spare tyres.

But while that study may go some way towards vindicating the nOF report, i can understand why people are sceptical. After all, it is a counterintuitive theory, and had i not tried it

myself, I, too, would probably have thought it hokum.

The problem is that people will misinterpret it. Because done properly, this high-fat diet works a treat; done badly, it can make things much worse.

In fact, rather than describe it as a high-fat diet, it might be easier to cast it as low-sugar.

Unless you make a real effort to cut out carbohydrates and sugars, you will find yourself with the worst of both worlds — and a one-way ticket to the cardiology ward.

When they say no sugar, that really means no sugar — not even milk in your tea (milk is high in lactose, a form of sugar), though you can have cream in your coffee (more fat, no lactose).

And when they say no carbs, that’s no carbs of any sort, even, for example, carrots. As for alcohol, well, that’s just more sugar. I can get used to black tea — but not being able to sip a nice glass of prosecco on a summer’s evening seems too high a price to pay.

Hence no bikini. Put it this way, if I could just give up alcohol, I’d be as thin as a pin. As it is, I’m a lot less fat than I was a year ago.

On my first foray into the high-fat diet, however, I did obey the rules. Even I can give up booze for a fortnight. I ate tons of avocados, nuts, simple protein (chicken, fish, steak), bacon and eggs. I was allowed low-carbohydrate vegetables — basically anything green.

I embarked on a daily exercise programme of high-intensity weight-training sessions to convert my blubber into muscle.

By the end of the 14-day ‘blitz’ I had achieved what endless low-cal, soul-destroying diets over the years had failed to achieve: significant inch reduction.

In the first two-week phase of my programme I lost 7lb. Over subsequent months the rest of me started to shrink and, thanks to the exercise, firm up.

After three months I had lost 4in on my tummy. The calliper readings for my arms and back were down significantly.

But perhaps the best thing is that I’ve kept it up for over a year.

And because I have a proper diet rich in nutrients, I’m not exhausted and/or hungry all the time.

The exercise means I can run for a bus without falling in a heap. And my energy levels are stable.

I’m not super-strict, but I stick to the basics: no processed foods, ready meals or takeaways. A typical supper for me will be peppers, courgettes and asparagus, roasted in a bit of olive oil and chilli with some tasty fish or meat, griddled, and perhaps some avocado on the side or nuts to start with. If I’m still hungry, a bit of cheese will do the trick.

For breakfast, I have eggs, or mushrooms tossed in coconut oil and herbs, or smoked salmon.

I keep a jar of dark chocolate buttons for emergencies.

But what about the booze, I hear you cry? Well, dear reader, a girl must have some vices.

A glass of red wine or two (better than super-sugary white) or, at a party, a vodka, lime and soda, aka a Skinny B **** .

And why not? After all, I’ve always longed to be one.

THe High Fat diet: How To Lose 10lb In 14 days by Zana Morris and Helen Foster (Vermilion, £7.99).