A New Approach to Healthy Eating
Diet books that promise a slim waist and a long life are dime-a-dozen. But few things seem to be well-settled in nutritional science. For decades, dietary fat was the villain and suddenly now dietary fat is good. Dairy products were good, then bad and then good again. Sugar consumption has been quietly rising for decades when fat was the villain; now sugar is the main culprit behind the global obesity epidemic. One day, coffee is good and the next it isn’t. A common person may be pardoned for thinking that what passes for dietary guidelines is really snake oil. What makes it worse is industry funding of researchers who tailor their results to suit their benefactors. 
 
So, what does The Pioppi Diet by Dr Aseem Malhotra and Donal O’Neill have to offer? There is little extra you will gain from this book that you will not get by following the writings of Dr Malhotra, a celebrated UK cardiologist, who has made it his mission to change the way people think about diabetes, heart disease and obesity. Fat is not bad; sugar is the killer; and stop counting calories, is the mantra here. Pioppi is a small place in Italy where people have been living long and healthy lives. But there is hardly any solid information about its claim to fame; perhaps the authors assume we are all supposed to know everything about Pioppi.
 
In the words of the authors: “The Pioppi Diet is designed to help you tune into your body and recognize and respond to its requirements: food, sleep, movement, breathing and ‘exercise’ - which we prefer to call mindful movement.” The book is a spinoff from the 2016 documentary film, The Big Fat Lie, which was co-produced by Dr Malhotra and former international athlete and film-maker Donal O’Neill. It is divided into three sections: the first describes what is good and bad in food; the second offers a 21-day plan of exercise and diet; the third section lists recipes. This 364-page book in large fonts and wide spacing could have been easily compressed into 250 pages. 
 
The first section explains, among other things, how processed food harms us, why sugar is bad, saturated fats don’t clog the arteries (contrary to what almost all cardiologists say), cholesterol is not all bad, regular movement is as important, or more important, as exercise, and intermittent fasting is greatly beneficial. Chapter 14 offers straightforward guidelines; so let’s go there straight away.
Enjoy:
  • Eat three meals a day and eat until you feel full;
  • At least two to four tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil daily;
  • One small handful of tree nuts (walnuts/almonds/hazelnuts/macadamias) daily;
  • At least five to seven portions of fibrous vegetables and low-sugar fruits a day. We suggest one or two pieces of fruit and at least five vegetables a day;
  • For potatoes, opt for the sweet variety and if you are overweight or have type-2 diabetes, try to limit consumption to no more than two portions a week!
  • Vegetables with at least two meals daily, preferably three.
 
 
Avoid:
 
  • All added sugars (it’s everywhere, check those labels), fruit juice, honey and syrups;
  • All packaged, refined carbohydrates, in particular anything flour-based, including bread, pastries, cakes, biscuits, muesli bars, packaged noodles, pasta, couscous and rice; 
  • Industrial seed oils typically used for cooking (i.e., no sunflower, canola, rice bran, corn or soya bean oil). 
 
Apart from this, the authors recommend fasting for a 24-hour period each week combined with better lifestyle that includes breathing exercises, socialising, sleeping (reduce exposure to the blue light of phones and computers at least two hours before bedtime and, of course, exercise. Before the book takes you into shopping lists and recipes, it lists the top-10 foods you must focus on. The list includes: extra virgin olive oil (I guess, coconut oil is a good substitute), nuts, fibrous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower), fruits (apples and berries), herbs and spices (ginger, turmeric, basil, cinnamon), fatty fish, dark chocolate, coconut, eggs and full-fat and fermented dairy. This is a list for now. Wait for some new research to turn it upside down.
Comments
Ramesh Poapt
8 years ago
dr.Hegde on the subject please...
Pradeep Kumar M Sreedharan
8 years ago
Earlier, we had a Giant Carbs only research (making hellova lot of money in the process, as against paying for it) and now we have the Giant Fat supremacy research, again without paying for the Giant clinical trials.
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