My January health and fitness column from Magnet Magazine.

Since the 70s, the elastification of waistbands has increased in direct correlation with a greater consumption of low-fat, high sugar products! 

So, while cutting down on fat doesn’t appear to be bad advice - fat is highly calorific - it is actually the last thing you want to do in order to successfully lose weight! 

Fat not only makes food taste and smell good, it also makes you feel full!  (I’m talking natural fats, not man-made trans fats – generally, fat that’s mixed with flour is BAD!)  A full-fat, Greek yoghurt, for example, will leave you feeling satisfied in a way that the low-fat alternative will not. 

Here’s why: the low-fat version is crammed full of sugar!  When sugar floods the blood stream, it is mopped up by insulin.  The sugar (blood glucose) is stored in muscles and the liver (the greater your percentage of muscle mass, the greater your potential for storing glucose before it is turned to fat, which is why working out raises your metabolism) and any remaining is converted to fatty acids and stored in fat cells.  However, after high-sugar, low-fat food, insulin can leave you with a blood glucose deficit - a sugar crash – so you search for more calories elsewhere. This results in still more blood glucose in your already full system so it gets converted straight to fat! 

If you seriously want to lose the elasticated trousers, ditch the low-fat products, and cut your sugar intake instead!