June 2009 Club Email

Hi all,
Here’s the Harcombe Diet Clube news for June…
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…

There have been three particularly interesting press stories in May, from around the world:
1) Researchers at the World Health Organisation (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention, at Deakin University, (that’s a mouthful!) have just completed a study into the obesity epidemic in the US. They concluded that “Diet, not lack of exercise, is to blame for obesity.” The findings were presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Amsterdam in May. For the WHO-Deakin study, researchers calculated what Americans should weigh based on their current, higher food intake and compared it with their actual weight to estimate physical activity being done. Their first conclusion was that people have actually increased their physical activity over time. Their main conclusion, therefore, was that it was food intake that we need to manage to overcome the obesity epidemic. Professor Boyd Swinburn, from Deakin University, said that the findings would be similar for other developed countries in showing that changes in exercise played a minimal role relative to food intake.

Followers of The Harcombe Diet will guess that I love this study! In both books I say exercise is a great thing to do for general health and well-being, but, in no way is it going to solve a weight problem or an obesity epidemic. As a simple example of why not, I point out that we can eat in 45 seconds what will then take 45 minutes to burn off. The WHO-Deakin researchers use a similar comparison. They say that the average American needs to cut back by the equivalent of a fizzy drink and a small portion of fries, or walk an extra 2.5 hours per day – which is more likely?!

2) Many thanks to Paul ‘PJ’ James from Australia for providing the next bit of research. PJ was a super fit, ‘male model’, gym instructor in Melbourne, Australia who decided to deliberately gain weight, to see what life was like for his overweight clients at the gym. You can check out pics of PJ before and after at the following link: (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1184450/From-super-fit-super-fat-Muscly-fitness-instructor-ballooned-20st-experiment-lose-weight.html)

PJ has found he has not only gained several stone (he was once 12.5 stone and is now 20 stone), but he has gained cravings for ‘junk’ foods that he has never previously enjoyed. He has been shocked by the emotional side effects, the lack of energy and just how quickly you can ruin your body with a bad diet. The cravings don’t surprise me at all – PJ has almost certainly developed one or more of the three conditions that are behind food cravings. The good news is that he should get rid of these if he returns to the fish, meat and vegetables that he used to enjoy before (the foundations of Phase 1 essentially).

3) There was a horrific study in the UK in May called “Junk Food for Babies.” Well done to the Children’s Food Campaign lobby group (of which I am a member) for highlighting this outrage. The survey of more than 100 foods, marketed for babies and toddlers, found that many are high in fat, salt and sugar – setting children up for a lifetime of wanting these kinds of foods. (What better time to get people addicted to sweets than when their taste buds are still forming?!) Farley’s original rusks had more sugar per gram than McVities Chocolate Digestives. Cow & Gate Baby Balance Bear biscuits contained transfats, which are the worst possible fats for a human to consume (literally, hydrogen is added to manufacture these fats).

I don’t know which is worse – these findings, or the fact that Heinz tried to knock the study and defend its own position. (Heinz make Farley’s Rusks and a number of the other products in the survey). Corporate affairs Director, Nigel Dickie, said that Farley’s Rusks were enriched with vitamins and minerals. It’s OK to give infants junk, therefore, if we add in a few nutrients to compensate?! Cow & Gate’s response was much better – they announced that they are stopping production of the biscuits containing transfats.

What I’m up to:
1) The work with the London publicist, EdenCancan, is going from strength to strength. We had a ‘walk the pavements’ day in May where we went to four different publication houses and met 12 different magazine and newspaper editors and health editors. Interest has been really good and a number of articles are now in the pipeline….

2) … The first one being – UK club members look out for the News of the World magazine (Fabulous) on Sunday 7th June – we have a double page feature of Phase 1 going in. With 5.6 million readers, this should be the best coverage to date!

3) There are two blogs, which you may like to check out – the members’ blog can be found at: (http://membersblog.theharcombediet.com/). I’m following “Britain’s Biggest Loser” at the moment and writing about this in the (http://whydoyouovereat.blogspot.com/) blog. The weight loss makes for a real live obesity experiment. These 16 people have pretty much single handed blown apart the calorie theory… the blogs explain how…

4) … Talking of which, I attended the first obesity conference in Wales on May 12th and I can honestly say I have never felt such hostility in my life. I had the audacity to say that I didn’t believe the calorie theory and to offer some facts as to why and I was literally ostracised by some people (dieticians mostly) for the rest of the day. I said things like “the average person in the UK is eating 1.6lbs of sugar per week – that’s 400 empty calories a day”, to which one dietician replied “it’s all energy” and another replied “what’s wrong with that?”

Thank you so much to the dieticians and doctors there who were open minded and who were interested in all views. Thank you especially to the conference chair, Dr Haboubi, who has invited me to meet with him to discuss my research and views in more detail.

5) We’re still doing diet tips of the week and these are still going up on the members’ blog. We’re still having great fun with Beacon Radio in the Midlands. Fresh & Jo are the breakfast presenters there and they are so funny. We’re still doing some case studies and have the first before and after pictures already – Laura has lost 2 stone in about 6-8 weeks and is still working towards her natural weight, but is looking sensational already. She’s also the loveliest lady you could possible meet, so it’s been wonderful helping her get her life back.

If any of you have any before and after pictures – we’re really happy to get you payments from magazines for them (the bigger the difference, the more they pay)!

A request from my publisher and publicist – please can any of you who like the diet go on Amazon and leave a book review! I have thousands of email testimonials and about 3-5 reviews on Amazon! Thank you SO much.

Nearly beach time for the Northern Hemisphere club members. If you’ve left it till late, Phase 1 can always help!

All the best – Zoë x