The Atkins Diet is out of favour, so it's time for another weight-loss fad. The latest one might even be good for you, writes Kate Holmquist
'The Maker's Diet" is branded as "a biblical diet you can have faith in". Its author, Dr Jordan S Rubin, sees "life and death in a long, hollow tube" (your bowels, in other words). Sample family dinner menu (as dictated by God): five-pound chuck roast rubbed with a quarter-pound of butter and rubbed with Celtic sea salt, whatever that is. Breakfast: buttery scrambled eggs (with more Celtic sea salt). Lunch: soup made with coconut milk and cream.
You don't have to be a nutritionist to know that followers could be meeting their makers sooner than they think.
Whether or not decreed by God, though, the fad diet is the ultimate product.
When a diet doesn't deliver, the consumer's lack of self-control is to blame, enabling it to constantly rejuvenate its market. Witness the rise and fall of the late Dr Atkins's "diet revolution".
This week, potato farmers across the US celebrated the bankruptcy of Atkins International, the anti-potato, pro-meat diet that made "low carb" a catchword for all that is right and holy.
The demise of living la vida low carb was inevitable, as was the passing of such fashions as the cabbage soup craze, the blood-type diet, the grapefruit diet, Chinese weight-loss tea, the apple cider diet, the popcorn diet and the Slimpatch.
But nothing has held dieters in thrall like the phrase "low carb", a marketing tool so profitable that manufacturers imitated the Atkins line of foods, even to the extent of offering low-carb biscuits, low-carb chocolate bars and - in the US - even low-carbohydrate ketchup.
Like the Scarsdale Diet before it, Atkins's high-protein, high-fat diet made dieters lose water and muscle tissue so fast that it induced ketosis, the body's appetite-suppressing emergency response to starvation. The US government stepped in with warnings once long-term risks became evident: kidney damage and gout, caused by over production of uric acid due to high meat consumption; constipation and bad breath; deprivation of essential nutrients and fibre, plus dangerously high levels of triglyceride, a type of blood fat that can lead to heart attacks.
Fortunately, your average yo-yo dieter doesn't stick to a particular food fad long enough for damage to occur, says Sarah Keogh, consultant dietician with the Irish Nutrition and Dietetics Institute. The real blow to Atkins was that there is another diet method that does seem to work: a long-term, low-GI (Glycaemic Index) food plan.
Easier to stick to because it has variety and balance, a low-GI diet involves eating more foods that the body burns slowly - like certain fruit, veg and wholegrains - and fewer foods that the body burns fast - such as certain fruit, veg and wholegrains. This is where it gets a little complicated.
"The lower the GI of your diet, the more weight you will lose and the more improvement you will see in the symptoms of metabolic syndrome, or Syndrome X, which leads to heart disease and Type II diabetes," says Keogh.
A high-GI diet can lead to the worryingly common Syndrome X, a key sign of which is the "apple" body shape, as opposed to the "pear" body shape, especially in women. Many doctors now measure waist size, as well as weight, in determining patients' health. A girth broader than 36 inches in men and 34 inches in women signals trouble.
Low-GI diets are wiping the floor with competitors because not only are they scientifically proven in proper studies to work - which is unusual in the diet business - they keep blood sugar levels fairly constant so that cravings are kept at bay, while metabolism, moods and weight loss remain steady. And you don't need to buy a book to follow one. The GI is available free on the web.
Developed in 1981 for diabetics, the GI ranks foods as low, medium, or high on a scale of 10 (broccoli) to 100 (a baguette is 95).
"Choosing a low-GI diet definitely works, and it can be maintained long-term as part of a healthy lifestyle," says Keogh, adding that the food pyramid, recommended by the Department of Health and Children's Health Promotion Unit, is basically low-GI. "But a sensible nutrition programme based on the food pyramid is boring. People love to talk about dieting, so when women get together, talking about the South Beach or the Zone (both GI diets) makes you interesting," says Keogh.
Talking about GI certainly will keep a conversation going. While the food pyramid does give the impression that all wholegrains, fruit and vegetables are 'good', the GI follower will have a little packet of pumpkin seeds, peanuts or dried apricots in her Louis Vuitton bag, while whispering, for your own good, that your muesli bar is high-GI. Her sandwich will be on medium-GI pitta bread, rather than a high-GI bagel, and she'll even have the occasional medium-GI nibble of chocolate or crisps, while you creep off with your high-GI rice cakes and Ryvita. At a dinner party, expect her to do something wonderful with lentils and butter beans, the low-GI wonder foods.
As for the humble spud: farmers shouldn't celebrate quite yet. Potatoes are medium to high GI, depending on how they are cooked, so the days when we ate platefuls are well over - for the moment, anyway. There's no point, though, in doing a GI analysis of your diet if you're going to stuff your gob.
"Portion size is crucial," says Keogh. "You can eat pasta, but the pasta should cover only a third of your plate, not the entire plate. A doctor I know used to advise his patients, 'exercise the mouth less and the body more,' and there's a lot to be said for that approach."
Further information from www.indi.ie, www.glycemicindex.com