Doc's diet advice: crisps and ice cream

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DIET ADVICE: An Australian doctor says the best way for some people to lose weight is to eat a little of the foods they crave.

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Eat the foods you crave and still lose weight? It is possible, an Australian anti-obesity doctor says.

Dr George Blair-West, in the country for Diabetes New Zealand's annual conference, reckons he understands why diets don't work - and that the solution to effective weight control is about getting around our psychological attachment to food.

He says traditional diets that deprive people of food they have an attachment to - called "restraint" theory - are ineffective and research shows that ultimately people rebel against this deprivation and end up over- eating.

"Traditional deprivation diets have a five-year success rate of around 5-20%. We're better at treating most cancers than we are at treating obesity using this traditional approach."

Blair-West's 2008 book, Weight Loss for Food Lovers, says that giving up forever the foods we crave doesn't work, the trick is to regularly eat controlled quantities of the foods we desire - a small bag of potato chips, say, or perhaps a small portion of icecream.

"If I was working with someone, I would work out what they have an attachment to and then prescribe them that two to four times a week," says Blair-West. "When you allow people to have the food they crave, their cravings disappear."

The method works, he says, because it recognises the emotional importance of food: it provided us with emotional and physical nurturing as an infant and this continues through our lives.

Blair-West says another factor that causes over- eating is many people not savouring food.

He says we need to control our intake by eating properly, but not indulging too much in the food we love.

Diabetes has had a devastating effect on Kiwis' health - it is estimated 200,000 have the potentially fatal condition and nearly 30,000 die each year.

However, Blair-West says it responds well to dietary intervention, so the public needs to be made aware of how to stay healthy.

- © Fairfax NZ News