There is always a new piece of advice regarding our health and the latest, from the National Obesity Forum, that eating more fat could cut obesity and type 2 diabetes has put the cat among the pigeons.
Public Health England’s chief nutritionist Dr Alison Tedstone said this advice was irresponsible and potentially deadly.
The Faculty of Public Health’s Professor Simon Capewell told the BBC that the focus on nutritional guidelines was ‘a huge distraction from the real causes of obesity’ such as advertising cheap junk food to children.
And the government’s obesity adviser Prof Susan Jebb said the ‘current dietary advice is based on the best evidence we have’.
She said the debate should be widened from a focus on fat.
“We’re eating too many calories – if we want to tackle obesity people do need to eat fewer calories and that means less fat and less sugar.”
All of this is in response to a statement by Dr Aseem Malhotra, a senior adviser to the National Obesity Forum, who said: “The change in dietary advice to promote low fat foods is perhaps the biggest mistake in modern medical history.
“We must urgently change the message to the public to reverse obesity and type 2 diabetes. Eat fat to get slim, don’t fear fat, fat is your friend.”
So, which is worse, sugar or fat? We’ve all heard that carbohydrates (sugar) can lead to weight gain and also that fat can cause weight gain and the low-fat versus low-carb battle continues.
But sugar turns into fat once eaten so there is the thought that all sugars are bad. And some fats, like vegetable oils, are trans-fats can be bad for us too while fats from meat, butter, coconut oil and so on are saturated fats and are said to be okay.
While these debates rage on, and various diets go in and out of fashion, there is one sure way to weight management and that is through clinical hypnotherapy.
The National Council for Hypnotherapy, the UK’s leading professional body which has more than 1,800 highly-trained therapists across the country, says hypnotherapy has proved successful in breaking unwanted habits and treating physical conditions.
Managing weight loss is one of the most effective results of hypnotherapy. Rather than just reducing calories that we are likely to put on again in the longer term, hypnosis gets us in touch with the reasons why we unconsciously eat.
Quite often, ‘unconscious’ eating can be the result of a variety of distressing feelings such as panic attacks, anxiety, jealousy, guilt, anger or inadequacy. Eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia can also be effectively treated with sessions of hypnotherapy.
Says the NCH: “Hypnotherapy is the application of hypnotic techniques in such a way as to bring about therapeutic changes. The therapist assists in activating the inner resources of the client in order to achieve realistic goals.”
An eating problem can often make you feel out of control but when seeing a therapist for overeating, you may find out you are nourishing yourself with food, rather than love, for instance.
“When you see a hypnotherapist for weight loss they will ask you lots of questions about when you eat, what you eat, what triggers you to reach for food when you are not hungry, or how often you unconsciously polish off a packet of biscuits and avoid doing exercise,” adds the NCH.
Hypnotherapy for weight loss is about changing your habit with food for the rest of your life, whether it is eating too much fat or too much sugar.
Unlike crash diets the therapy treatments change the root of compulsive eating so you are free to enjoy the rest of your life. So, no matter the outcome of the fat versus sugar debate, clinical hypnotherapy can help you eat healthily and, as a result, live longer and happily. It has to be worth a try!