Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Counting calories does more harm than good, experts warn today. In a damning analysis of decades of dietary advice, doctors say we have been misled about the best way to stay healthy.

We should focus on the content of our food, rather than how much of it we eat, say cardiologists, and we need to lose our fear of fats – some of which can be good for us. The experts, writing in the BMJ journal Open Heart today, say that existing advice has been so bad that it has contributed to Britain’s obesity crisis. Doctors say we have been misled on the best way to stay healthy and our obsession with calories has only made the obesity crisis worseThey write: ‘It is time to stop counting calories, and time to instead promote good nutrition and dietary changes that can rapidly and substantially reduce cardiovascular mortality.’

The NHS advises women to eat no more than 2,000 calories a day and men to consume no more than 2,500. But the authors, led by cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, of Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey, say that focusing on these arbitrary limits has actually encouraged people to eat junk food. A low-fat yogurt, for example, contains fewer calories than a full-fat version – but far more sugar, a major cause of obesity and heart disease. The authors accuse the slimming industry and food manufacturers of exaggerating dietary myths. Simply limiting the amount we eat, rather than focusing on the quality, does not help people stay healthy. ‘Weight-loss interventions are rarely sustained,’ they write. ‘Long-term follow-up studies reveal that the majority of individuals regain virtually all of the weight that was lost during treatment, irrespective of whether they maintain their diet or exercise programme. Simply limiting the amount we eat, rather than focusing on the quality, does not help people stay healthy, doctors say. ‘Shifting the focus away from calories and emphasising a dietary pattern that focuses on food quality rather than quantity will help to rapidly reduce obesity, related diseases, and cardiovascular risk.

‘The evidence indeed supports the mantra that “food can be the most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison”.’ The intervention adds to growing doubts about decades-old advice that saturated fat is bad for you.