May 2009 Club Email

Hi all,
Thank you so much for signing up, buying books and for your queries – however you came to be on this email list. Please feel free to unsubscribe at any time if you don’t want any more updates.
This month I wanted to share with you some of the diet news stories that have been in the press since the last update and also to share some personal news about what I’m up to…

April press stories:
1) There was much excitement in the UK with the launch of some clinical over-the-counter diet pills. The first one, Alli, has been available over-the-counter in North America for some time and on prescription in the UK.

a) Alli, made by GlaxoSmithKline, works on the principles of digestion: carbs start being digested in the mouth, protein in the stomach and fat digestion doesn’t start until the fat reaches the colon part of the body. Alli works on the basis of trying to get the fat through the colon and into the toilet as quickly as possible, so that the fat can’t be absorbed. You can probably work out the key downside already: Some people reportedly don’t even make it to the toilet before the tablet works! GSK must be aware of this as the leaflet advises wearing dark trousers and carrying a spare change of clothes. Nice! The tragedy is that people are so desperate to lose weight that they would even consider taking this. The only way to lose weight is to work with your body – never as violently against it as this entails!

b) Appesat is a seaweed extract, which expands in the stomach and is meant to curb appetite. I’m rather sceptical about this one also. For one, we generally manage to finish almost every meal before any food reaches the stomach and starts registering fullness. More importantly, people who find themselves eating things that they don’t want to, despite wanting so badly to be slim, are addicted to food. Food addicts have no concept of feeling full. We (I was a food addict once) eat way beyond any feeling of fullness and we have a physical ‘need’ for a particular food – driven by Candida, Food Intolerance and Hypoglycaemia. In my experience appetite has very little to do with any of this!

2) A study in Britain, the US and Norway has been done into possible genetic reasons for anorexia. The study of 200 sufferers, aged between 12 and 25, found that 70% showed signs of damage to certain brain cells. This seemed quite exciting until the study acknowledged that perhaps only 1 in every few hundred females may be born with this condition and there are likely to be at least 1 in a hundred sufferers of the condition. My experience and research has led me to believe that anorexia is primarily a psychological disorder, with a need for control and low self esteem at the heart of the condition. More interestingly – most anorexics go on to develop some kind of binge eating and it was this observation, (that trying to eat less leads to overeating), which was behind many of the breakthroughs that led to The Harcombe Diet.

3) The UK is behind the US again – this time in putting calories on menus of fast food restaurants. A compulsory scheme was introduced in New York in 2008. A voluntary scheme has just been introduced in the UK – Pizza Hut and KFC are amongst those who have signed up. The menus in these establishments will now tell us that an individual pizza has 880 calories and 3 pieces of KFC with fries will deliver 867. What the menus should say is – don’t worry about the calories in these – it is the fact that they are full of hydrogenated fat, sugar and processed nasties that should make you run out of here and into the nearest Italian restaurant where you can have a healthy plate of fish and salad!

What I’m up to:
1) I’ve started working with a publicist in London called EdenCancan and they are just wonderful. We have been in “Closer”, “Psychologies”, “Bella”, “FHM”, “Take 5” and “Women’s Fitness” already. We have more articles for Women’s Fitness lined up, along with an article going to print for “Cosmopolitan” and a major feature planned for “She” magazine.

2) Following a number of requests, we’ve set up a member’s blog for club members (http://membersblog.theharcombediet.com/) where you can see back issues of the monthly newsletters and add your own comments and questions about the diet and answer each others.

3) We’re doing Diet tips of the week and issuing them to all magazine and newspaper editors and TV/Radio stations. The first 5 have been put on the members blog – “ How to avoid the afternoon slump”; “When fruit is not good for you”; “How to enjoy a healthy Easter Egg”, “How to carb load for the marathon” and “Why diet is much more important than exercise in losing weight.” Several more are ready to go and these are generating publication and radio interest each time they go out.

4) We’re having a wonderful time with Beacon Radio in the Midlands. Fresh & Jo are the breakfast presenters and they invited me on to talk about the marathon and we ended up talking about why people overeat and everything! I’m going to be doing some regular phone ins with their listeners and helping one of the presenters personally.

5) I’m working with some case studies where we have taken some ‘before’ pictures and I’m helping them slim down for the ‘after’ pictures. One woman lost 20 lbs in between getting a copy of the book and the photo shoot! She did 10 days of Phase 1 and is just thrilled with the result. Another one wants to lose about 8 stone before her sister’s wedding in December. Finally – the assistant editor of a very high profile women’s monthly magazine lost 8lbs in 5 days on Phase 1 – the first weight she had lost in 10 years! I am working with a couple of men too, in case you’re wondering!

That’s it for this month – we’re into the season of salads, BBQ meat & fish and berries, so no excuse for checking out the menus at Pizza Hut or KFC!
All the best – Zoë x