Woman’s Hour is an hour-long radio show on the BBC’s Radio 4 station. On Tuesday, I was invited onto the show to discuss weight loss. The item centred around the plight of Sue Lyons – an obese lady who has (like millions of others) failed to control her weight through ‘dieting’. Sue recounts a commonly-heard story of yo-yo dieting and fluctuating weight. The other guests asked to contribute to the discussion were life coach Sue Thomason and Dr Susan Jebb, chief advisor to the UK Government on obesity. You can listen to the item here.
Dr Jebb was first to comment, and the presenter Jane Garvey was quick to point out that her recommendations were essentially to do what Sue had tried (and failed at) before. For my part, I attempted to explain why ‘eating less and exercising more’ generally destines would-be slimmers to failure. This is a personal view, but my overwhelming impression from Dr Jebb was that she could only trot out the tired conventional wisdom about weight loss and the need to find a plan Sue could stick to, without ever considering why individuals can’t stick to ‘diets’ or make them work.
Is this the best the British Government can do in terms of weight loss advice? I suspect many will feel somewhat let down.
I am quite-often asked why someone like Dr Jebb would continue to persist to spout the usual rhetoric regarding weight loss despite the fact it clearly does not work, and that plenty of evidence exists to show this too. That is not really a question for me to answer, but for her.
However, it occurs to me that one reason why Dr Jebb would take the line that she does is because, to be frank, it pays her to do so. Here, for example, is an excerpt from a declaration of Dr Jebb’s conflicts on interest from a paper she published in 2010 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition:
SAJ [Susan Jebb] is a member of Scientific Advisory Boards for Coca-Cola, Heinz, PepsiCo, Nestlé and Kellogg’s.
This does not mean that Dr Jebb is corrupt. But it also should not stop us asking questions about the independence of someone who hold considerable sway in terms of health policy.
It should also perhaps be noted that another ‘acknowledgement’ in the paper referred to above tells us that Dr Jebb:
[sits] on government advisory boards that also include food industry members.
How does look to you? To me it looks like our Government and its chief advisor on obesity have a unhealthily cosy relationship. Some may know that the British health minister Andrew Lansley has been criticised for partnering with food companies in an effort to crack our obesity. Talk about getting the fox to guard the hen coup.
The Government set up an expert advisory group on obesity, chaired by Dr Jebb. Many members of which were publicly critical of the Government’s alliance with the food industry. What did the UK Government do? It disbanded the group near the end of last year.
Though we’re informed that one member of the group would be retained to advise the Government. Guess who?
So more conflicts of interest and “insider trading”…and we thought it was just the bankers who had it so good. Nice one Dr B..expose the whole lot!!
I listened to that programme and that is what prompted me to look you up! I wholeheartedly agree with you about Susan Jebb. It was like listening to a politician evading answering a straightforward question, and putting the onus firmly back on to Sue Lyons to find a plan! Mind you, I thought the life coach was equally weak in her answers.
Personally, I have managed to put on 2 stones during my forties and now I am fifty and STILL can’t shift it. Well, I can shift it but it comes back. I have tried juice diets, vegetarian eating and veganism. I have upped my exercise and go to the gym 3 times a week. I have a physical job as a massage therapist and walk and cycle whenever I can. And that 2 stones refuses to budge completely. I am now eating primally and will see how that goes. It seems to make sense. thanks for being on Woman’s Hour (I was listening while getting ready to go to the gym!).
I read Your Articles in the Times from your new book in January. I have lost 1 stone in 7 weeks by cutting out bread, pasta and potatoes and following my normal diet of fish and vegetables cooked with coconut oil and eating full fat Greek yoghurt for breakfast and avocados and goats cheese for lunch. I walk Everyday but have not increased my exercise. I have not felt hungry and have plenty of energy. Many Thanks the easiest diet ever.
Drink manufactures also sit on Gov. bodies! As someone who spent over 30 years in the NHS – most recently working on public health & alcohol strategies I despair. What about the evidence base? How come the Swedes are moving DOWN the obesity tables?? (dietdoctor.com)
Low carbing works!! Since Xmas I have been low carbing & have lost 17lbs – at the age of 65. I am slimmer and fitter (aiming to lose another stone) than I have been in 20 years. All those years wasted calorie counting, being hungry & humiliated at meetings!
I follow what is known as “The Idiot Prroof Diet” & get support from the pig2twig websiite forum. Members heard your broadcast & virtual cheers went up! Your book has also received very positive feedback.
The reason the government fired Dr David Nutt as stated by Alan Johnson “”He was asked to go because he cannot be both a government adviser and a campaigner against government policy”. Well that pretty much rules out anyone advising the government on nutrition then doesn’t it, given that government policy is decided in cohorts with the major food brands and companies that are largely contributing to the obesity situation? Funny as I thought the idea was to take advice then decide policy whereas the reality is to decide policy then find someone to advise who agrees with it!
Sadly this situation is not very surprising. Interesting though is the psychological aspect that the woman in question dismisses (she is in fact quite happy apparently, so happy that she wrote to a national radio show about her issues with dieting and weight loss). Her instant objection to eating a lower carb diet, along with the usual tarring of it as ‘high protein’ (despite the fact that protein remains fairly constant on most diets, including Atkins where it would be more correct to term it a high fat diet), as too expensive indicates a lack of readiness to really change her lifestyle long term. As long as she fails to show real intent and confidence in the ability of her changes to work, she is destined to not succeed.
One of the depressing aspects of health in the UK is how gyms pump out the received wisdom on the lipid hypothesis as well as advocating low fat and health whole grains. I wonder if the threat of litigation might give some of them pause for thought.
Nice one John – Jebb is also funded by the diet industry so has both sides covered. http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Health/article359154.ece
She’s on Rosemary Conley TV and appears regularly in the magazine. The Times article criticizes her for promoting Conley’s portion pots at a government event and the nutritional government body she heads up – the MRC – took almost a million pounds from Weight Watchers to run a study showing that Weight Watchers works better than doing pretty much nothing! http://www.zoeharcombe.com/2010/07/weight-watchers-works-according-to-a-study-funded-by-weight-watchers/ Jebb then personally presented the ‘evidence’ at a conference in Stockholm – expenses paid I presume.
I thought you were fab on Woman’s Hour, and tweeted so. Shame the punter was so dismissive – she’d have done well to listen to such brilliant free advice as you gave her. And low carb is not expensive – I’ve just done a BBC Wales TV prog where I fed a 30 stone guy for 1 week on £25 with liver, pork, sardines, eggs, loads of veg/salad, dairy etc. He had the same £25 challenge and came in at £40 with ready meals and the usual calorie counted rubbish.
Real food, managed carb – it’s the only way!
I listened to the Woman’s Hour programme too and I wrote about it yesterday in my blog here http://wildeaboutobesity.blogspot.com/2012/02/womans-hour-why-diets-dont-work.html saying that of the three guests giving advice, yours was the only helpful advice. It’s incredible that the nation’s health is being so greatly compromised by Government advisers and nothing significant being done to bring the baddies to book and to correct the misinformation!
It’s a pity the diet item was rather rushed. I felt that your contribution certainly merited more time.
The Life Coach person just talked garbage: nothing practical in the way of helpful advice. But Dr Jebb’s advice was actually malign in my opinion.
Don’t feel alone–things are probably worse here in the States. The FDA is now pushing low fat foods and whole grains on our school children just as the science is heading in the opposite direction. As a practicing physician and scientist, I am constantly amazed at the lack of science in the field of nutrition. Grains, dairy, sugar and legumes are not traditional human foods. Because genetically we are still hunter-gatherers, eat these foods at your peril. I recommend sticking with meat, fish, seafood, fowl, vegetables, fruits and nuts. Our bodies know what to do with these substances. By the way, “Waist Disposal” is an excellent book for anyone wanting to learn about the healthiest way to eat.
Concerning conflict of interest, remember one simple rule–follow the money. This is another area where we in the States have you trumped–we really know how to buy opinions with money and our multinationals are flush with loads of cash.
Dr. Wilson
The interview was v.frustrating….the Radio 4 interviewer seemed dismissive/didn’t listen….and how is a low carb diet expensive? why didn’t the test lady mention vegetables?
Here in North America (Canada and the USA) it is believed that our National Nutrition Guides were written with full input from various food industry interest groups. Nothing new about conflict of interest here.
Now for the issue of losing weight. I am in my late 50’s and after a photograph taken of me that showed me beyond a shadow of a doubt that I had a pot to shed I did something about it. Here is what I did and I lost over 20 pounds in less than six months.
1. No more potato
2. Low fat but large breakfast.
3. All vegetable dinner (a mix of cauliflower, carrot, and Broccoli may help burn fat.) We call it California mix over here.
4. exercise more.
Now here is the big part. Read carefully: In the morning you must break fast. You can’t break fast unless you have a fast to break.
That is to say that your smallest meal must be at night and you do not eat anything after 7.00 at night.
If you do this combo of all vegetable dinner before 6:00 and do not eat anything after 7:00; when you have breakfast the next day (break fast) you may have had at least a 12 hour period of not eating and most of it was while you were asleep.
Do that at least 5 days a week and you would have got by almost half the week without eating. Moreover, you did not eat at a time when your body needs it the least.
It is not easy. And I have strayed off this diet this winter and I have to loose 6 pounds. But the diet works to get off the excess weight.
But as always print this out and take it you your doctor to make sure it is safe for you.
The sad thing is, that no government in the world will promote this lifestyle because they will have the fast food lobby all over them.
One last tip, get to bed early. And if you get hungry at night drink some flavoured water that has no sugar in it. Two tablespoons of concentrated lemon juice in a tall glass of cold water worked for me. The flavour fools your brain into thinking that you ate something and the water fills the gut.
Good luck to all of you who are fighting the battle of the bulge. I hope that we can win this battle.
John Kerr
Guelph, Ontario, Canada
One group of people know which side their bread is buttered .. ..
.. .. while another group of people have been discouraged from buttering their bread .. ..
.. .. and all around us can be observed the consequences of the false advice that saturated fat and cholesterol are bad for us.
Well Done Dr Briffa.
I too am exasperated at these so called “experts” who trot out the government or corporate line without reference to real science.
I am a hypnotist working with many obese clients who are desperate to do whatever it takes to lose weight. Most have been subscribed to the popular diet and weight loss companies and have “failed”
When they see me – it’s often their last resort and think that they lack will power.
“Please fix my cravings” – “Make me not want to eat puddings, crisps, chocolate ” etc.
Are they in for a surprise when they see me?!
I spend the first hour or two just understanding what they eat now…. Most times people say “I’m really good, I have weetabix or Special K for breakfast, a banana ( or two) mid morning, a jacket potato for lunch with low fat butter etc etc….”
Once I have taken them through (the layman’s) version of your book – Escape the Diet Trap – they actually get it!
They see that there is no way any of the so called diet or weight loss plans can actually work. They see that it’s not really about will power or self control. They see that they are just responding to the hormones within their bodies.
After some gentle relaxing hypnosis to reinforce new shopping and eating patterns and later an introduction to resistance training, pretty much all of my clients are losing an average 2-3 kg per week eating fat, protein, very few carbs, lots of water and without dieting, without calorie counting and without going hungry.
So Thank you again Dr Briffa for bringing all this “real science” into one easy place in the form of your book – which, by the way, should be selling really well down here in Poole where I work!
I trust that you will continue to be a force for real good in the somewhat ignorant, commercial and political world called weight loss!
Very Best Wishes
Peter Foggin
I have been on a primal diet for almost 1.5 yrs and lost 70lbs and my husband lost 50lbs so far and we didn’t measure our food, we didn’t count calories, we didn’t even exercise really due to pain. We are in our mid 50’s too. We thought we were doing this for weight loss but found out so many health issues resolved. We followed Dr. Cordain’s book The Paleo Diet who is THE researcher in the U.S. regarding primal diets.
He also is making a path for folks with autoimmune conditions and has an autoimmune protocol. From there I have figured out more food sensitives. I have learned that I can control my eczema with diet, I can control my Rosacea with diet, I can control my IBS with diet. I can control acne with diet. I can improve my Fibromyalgia with diet. His new book out The Paleo Answer talks about how AGEs in food cause inflammation. It is how we cook our food that cause foods to have even more AGEs. I do believe Fibromyalgia is an inflammatory condition and now cooking this way will improve my Fibromyalgia even more. I do not need my cpap anymore or my allergy meds and spray anymore.
So many skin issues slowing improving. No more skin tags all over. A large Seborrheic Keratosis melted away. I watched one of those precancerous red spots on my forearm I had had for two years and meant to have it burnt off, well I watched that dissolve within the first 3 months going Paleo.
I used to choke on food quiet often and don’t anymore. Swelling all over gone and pain too. Planter fasciitis is no more too and don’t need orthodics to walk with.
What I learned after going Paleo for two months and then cheating with dates (sugar bombs) I ended up with gout for the first time in my life! I was insulin resistant and no one docs glucose test caught that before. I think there are millions out there who are insulin resistant and our methods of testing for it are inadequate.
Energy is up, mood is up and not so deep into the Fibro Fog and memory is better. Not back to what it once was but improving. I also think it may take me another year or so to achieve more weight loss since I have another 70lbs to go and my husband another 50lbs to go. I am finally seeing all those small broken capillaries in my feet and ankles repairing from so much swelling in the past. It takes a long time for the body to rebound and you have to be a patient patient. My husband hates diets and has always struggled with his weight as I have and this is the first diet he can actually do for a long time since he can eat all the meat he wants and that makes him feel full and satisfied.
In the U.S. North Carolina is now taking legal action on a diabetic blogger who went from 4 shots a day to zero going on a primal diet. They are telling him he can not give any dietary advice.
http://www.diabetes-warrior.net/2012/01/28/this-site-free-speech-are-being-investigated/
In the U.S. they are trying to pass laws to prohibit only certified individuals from giving dietary advise and basically wanting to squash free speech regarding diet. This would certainly prevent new ideas from coming out much especially when the louder message is the same old bad advise that doesn’t work. Are the food police going to police the watch cooler too when folks talk about their diets to co workers next? It is men like Dr. Briffa in the UK who we need to support and Dr. Cordain in the U.S. to make sure their message gets out to others.
I found Dr. Briffa this week and watched his interview with Matt and he is saying basically the same thing as Dr. Cordain. However Dr. Cordain believes that dairy actually causes a high insulin response too and for other reasons as well. We avoid dairy. Instead of nuts like Dr. Briffa recommends since they are higher in AGEs I would recommend getting yourself a dehydrator and making Paleo jerky as a handy snack instead. American indians dried meats and salmon and traded with it. They used to put in their deer skin pouches as a snack. Drying doesn’t contribute to higher AGEs. I love the way Dr. Briffa talks about this diet from a physicians stand point and his humor and intellect. I am a fan across the pond and he really needs to speak at the Ancestral Conference in the U.S. this summer which is THE primal conference in the U. S. at Harvard University this year. We need to from Dr. Briffa over here and you need to hear from Dr. Cordain over there before he retires.
I was listening on Tuesday too – so pleased that you had a voice & was shouting encouragement & agreement at the radio as I was driving! It was a great shame that your suggestions were quickly dismissed as too expensive.
I also listened to Woman’s Hour and if I was Sue Lyons I would have felt very disappointed by the whole exercise. The other two experts did not really recommend any postive action that Sue could take. Susan Jebb just gave out the government advice that Sue had already tried and failed. And the advice given by the life coach was a complete waste of time. Your advice was really useful but seemed to be dismissed due to a lack of time. It would have been better if the whole programme had been devoted to this topic. I have been following your plan since the 9th January and I have lost 1 stone and have never been hungry and the food is delicious, probably because I have been able to eat things such as cream and cheese. I feel very let down that for years I have been given the same old advice which clearly doesn’t work in the long term.
ever since i read the dr briffa’a article in readers digest in dec 11, i have been following his advise.
i am officially diabetic and had been to control it by eating a lot salad, however my blood sugar level was always on the border of being diabetic. however since i have started following dr briffa’s advise my blood sugar level is way down and it is now normal healthy non diabetic level, which just wonderful. on top of that i have lost 2 kgs weight in the last 7 weeks, thanks dr briffa, please keep spreading the word, more and more people want to know what you are advocating
As an attempt to do something about this at a political level I wrote to my MP. I asked him to obtain funding for research that would put this whole issue to bed once and for all. I appreciate that it would be difficult because of the vested interests trying to de-rail it, but there is a cost, the health of the nation, the economic ability of the people and the cost to the health services. I received a response this morning saying that he has passed on my request to the under-secretary for Health and will let me know the outcome. I will inform this group of the outcome if this is desired. If others also wrote to their MP I would’t be a lone (almost typed loan then :-)) voice in the dark…
I hate, hate, hate it when it is implied that people are fat because they have some sort of mental or emotional problem or weakness. Must have been an amazing coincidence when I suddenly became “mentally and emotionally healthy” the very moment I stopped eating all but about 20 grams of carbs every day!
It’s the carbs people! Low carb and now low carb paleo for me has meant over 120 lbs lost.. vibrant health, amazing energy, and no hunger…I am 51 years old and have maintained my healthy weight easily for nearly three years… don’t wait, get started today!
Back in the 60s when we wanted to lose weight, we always cut out bread, potatoes, cakes and biscuits and all sweet thisngs and the weight reduced. That was the advice then and it worked. Pretty similar to what Dr Briffa is advising now, except grains were not mentioned and we probably ate little nuts, BUT more sense than what is being advised now. Progress?
So what are we all going to do about it? I had the same idea as Chris Hilder above, (and wrote about it in my blog too.) but I woosily didn’t send it to my MP. So I’m off to do just that. The more pressure, the more they are likely to do something. The sooner the research can start the sooner things can change. We just need to make sure it’s thorough.
So much of what passes for a new innovation in diets is simply a variation on low-calorie dieting. The only thing that has happened in the U.S. is that the various camps who feel that someone else is to blame for their results (big Pharma, low-fat, low-calorie, doctors, the scientific community in general, dieting support groups – WW, TOPS, OA) have become more hysterical about how the world works against them. People do maintain weight loss and they agree on how they do it: see the National Weight Loss Registry. Whichever advice you wish to take, ‘Stick to it’ is as basic as it gets.
I lost 7 stone in a year by following the paleo diet and eating every 3 hours. (Lost 10 and a half stone in total) Wish I could give my view on these radio shows, but I have written a book on my journey – Fat to Fantastic and spreading the word as far as I can. So much rubbish is spread about, and I hate the way that diet clubs promote diet ready meals. I love telling people that diet cola makes you fat, because it makes you crave carbs
The same, industry-funded experts who tell us to just eat less and exercise more are the ones who also tell us that ‘there is no such thing as a bad food, only a bad diet.’ That neatly exonerates the food industry and blames us for not being able to cobble together a ‘good’ diet.
Annie – Thanks.
Marie, I agree with you but that’s only because we (as a society) allow them to. If we confront them with good science (Gary Taubes Diet Delusion) and show them the bad science ( http://theharcombediet.com/video/part-1-eating-saturated-fat-does-not-cause-heart-disease/) then we should win the day and society will be better for it. Still the hippy idealist after all these years 🙂
I heard the Woman’s Hour chat and was horrified. Not only was Dr Briffa the only decent speaker with the knowledge required but he was not even given the time to get his point (the only interesting point!) across to the listeners! It has taken me over a week to find time to write these few words on Dr Briffa’s website and I am sure there are many more who heard the same interview and also thought they would write something but as yet……are still looking for those few free minutes to do so! I love getting Dr Briifa’s information and pass it on to my own customers when they come in to my natural skincare shop. I often find that people say they want a solution to this or that problem but as soon as a solution to a problem is offered, one that is actually going to work, they find a reason to avoid getting better/losing weight or just sorting their personal issue once and for all.
That is why I always ask people….” How well do you want to be”? or ” How much do you want to get this fixed”? When they say they really do, I pull out all the stops and frequently refer them to Dr Briffa’s website and articles/books.
I don’t believe the lady in question REALLY wanted to lose the weight or she would have tried what Dr Briffa was talking about. She had tried everything else and it had not worked. What had she to lose, except for some money, a better healthier quality of life and a shed load of weight! Sorted!
Keep going Dr Briffa!
Weight-loss clinics run by many GPs are still dishing out the same unhelpful advice; I consider most of the nurses in charge woefully ignorant. I attend a heart clinic ( since a heart attack); the nurse is quite obsessed with my cholesterol. After having a stent fitted, my consultant lectured me about cutting out salt (I had already) and fat. I didn’t bother to tell him about my very stressful job.
Are newspaper food and recipe collumnists also “in bed” with big business? They too peddle the same ideas.
Great article, thank you. I echo the words of those espousing a low-carbohydrate diet. I’ve been a Type 1 diabetic since 1965 and so was always careful of high-carbohydrate foods, but still I ate grains and dairy (high in lactose). I discovered the writing of Dr. Richard K. Bernstein, most notably “The Diabetes Solution,” and because of his advice, shifted to eating mostly vegetables, meat, fish and low-carbohydrate dairy (cheese, not milk), in addition to sugar-free soymilk.
Low-carbohydrate works. Eating fat and protein satiates you, thereby avoiding that feeling of deprivation so many diets cause. You will encounter plenty of studies that dismiss low-carbohydrate diets as being unsustainable, but I can’t imagine where they get this estimation. I’ve taken off 38 pounds over the course of 6 years, with no yo-yo’ing whatsoever.
I’ve said time and again that Susan Jebb has single-handedly caused more misery to more people over the last decade than any other individual.
“Vested interests” is putting it mildly, with Tate & Lyle, the Flour Advisory Board, the Grain growers organisation, Unilever’s Slim-Fast and bathroom scales being just a small selection from her portfolio!
Unfortunately she has contaminated a whole generation of “experts” – what hope for the British population?
I am Sue Thomason the life coach that spoke ‘garbage’ on the Woman’s Hour show. It’s funny how I spoke so much garbage but have had emails from more than 50 women who said they identified strongly with what I said – including Sue Lyons herself who I am now helping!
I’m not a life coach and I don’t know why they called me that. I am an expert in both body image psychology, weight issues, dieting and eating disorders. My work is founded in more than two decades of research. It probably sounded like rubbish to those who know nothing about the subject. Unfortunately, we’re in a position today where that is the norm. Even more unfortunately for all of us, people who know nothing about the subject think they know everything.
Compulsive overeating cannot be ‘cured’ by any type of diet, not even a low carb one, simply because dieting/food restriction and control is the cause of the problem. That is a biological fact.
Yu may remember that I wrote on this comments page that I had written to my MP.
I received an interesting response today. The document itself was astonishingly arrogant and dismissive pointing out the Government’s position on Carbohydrates but towards the end also pointed me to the work being done by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, which has a Carbohydrate Working Group. The membership appears quite prestigious but does not include John or Zoe which is a considerable shame IMHO. The website is at http://www.sacn.gov.uk There are minutes from the last working group meeting posted and I was invited to respond to the report from the committee through the web site. I will respond but it would be good if others could too. It appears that there is a draft report but I cannot find any option to review or comment as yet.