I just got back from the US and just before I returned I was in a restaurant with one of my mates. While looking at the menu, when I noticed a very peculiar low carb meal option. Guess what it was - a massive plate of pasta topped with chicken and vegetables with a tomato based sauce. I stopped to think, hang on the vast majority kilojoules (calories) in this dish clearly came from carbohydrates. How on earth could this be called low carb? Was it a misprint? I don’t think so. At various other times I have noted that salads, breads and even fast food outlets such as Subway have labeled some their range as low carb, even though their ingredients lists demonstrate that in fact the bulk of kilojoules are derived from carbohydrates. What’s doing?
This carb mania is largely the result of the late Dr Atkins New Revolution diet, which lately has been toppled by and replaced by the Dukan and South Beach diet as the king of diet books. Both diets are pitched as being more moderate, easier to follow and - they claim - far safer than Atkins but from what I can tell, the weight loss wolf has just put on a different set of sheep’s clothing.
All of these diets are divided into three stages all three diets severely limit carbohydrate intake during the first phase and all three are heavily based on meat, dairy and eggs. Both the Dukan and South Beach diet for example prohibits bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, baked goods, sugar and even fruit during the first two weeks. After that you can be weaned back onto carbohydrates until you are eating what appears to me to be a fairly typical Australian diet. Perhaps this is why both the Dukan and South Beach diet is such a hot seller.
Now according to the Dukan diet web page and the South Beach diet web page, one quote from a leading Australian women’s magazine wrote the real value of both books is its sound nutritional advice. Both retain the best part of the Atkins regime (meat) while losing the tenet that all carbs should be avoided
Who at this leading Australian women’s magazine reviewed the literature to know whether this is sound nutritional advice or not? And if you have the Atkins diet plus some carbs how different is the diet from the standard Australian diet - the toxic diet that has been shown to make us fat, give us heart disease, destroy our kidneys, make us blind and lead us to Alzheimer’s, cancer and a host of other medical problems? These are merely examples of the current state of nutritition awareness in Australia. Every day, I am reminded that Australians are drowning in a flood of inaccurate nutritional information. I always thought Australians could spot “bullshit”, pardon the swear word, but it appears to me that we are not as good at it as we think.
But I have faith in the average Australian. It’s not true when it comes to the media - we are a becoming a lot smarter. I am starting to see more people asking me what is the truth and keep telling me they just want the truth but have not been able to find it. This because we are so drowned out by media spin and the messages put out by other interest groups (MLA, Dairy, Eggs, etc). Very little nutrition information that makes it to the public consciousness is soundly based in science and we pay a grave price. One day olive oil is terrible the next it is heart healthy. One day eggs will clog your arteries the next they source of protein. One day potatoes and rice are great the next they are the gravest threats to your weight you will ever face.
My goal at Transformation is to redefine how we think about nutrition – provide clear, accurate information, eliminate confusion and make health simple.
The guidance we give is based on evidence generated by peer-reviewed, published research. Publications such as the China study are the very first place you should start.
I want to condense the nutritional lessons learned from this broad range of evidence and from my studies and my experiences over the last 10 years into a simple 12-week program to guide you to good nutrition. I have condensed my knowledge down to several core principles that will reveal over the 12-week program how good nutrition and health truly operate.
Furthermore I have translated the science into dietary recommendations that you can introduce over the 12-week program. Not only will you gain understanding over the course of this time, you will get to see exactly which foods you should eat and which foods you should stay clear of. And the changes you make could be life-changing. Or life-saving.
I’ll end with a line from The Disposable Heroes
“Don’t believe the hype.”
Book a session now.
Stay green.
Sean Kirsten
