Sugar now provides about a sixth of the total calorie intake in Western countries. This is a particular hazard for Britons, who are Europe's heaviest sweet eaters. The people in the south or Europe have always shown a lesser risk of obesity and heart disease than those in the north, which we attribute to the 'Mediterranean diet' rich in vegetables, fruit and wine. We overlook the fact that they eat fewer sweets, and less sugar laden junk foods. Surveys reveal that compared with the British, the French eat 39 percent fewer sweets and the Italians 60 per cent less. For us, today's jam doughnut is tomorrow's middle aged spread. Most of the heavily advertised foods on television are laden with salt, fats and sugar, which is how their sales are boosted. Researchers reckon that if people only ate food which was advertised on TV they would consume 25 times more than the recommended daily allowance of sugar.
One simple way of keeping slim, and improving one's general health, is to avoid eating any foods which are heavily featured in media advertisements. The other is to reduce one's overall intake of sugar. This brings us back to William Banting, who over the years had tried a variety of ways of reducing his bulk, including fasting, spa treatments, diets and exercise regimes. Relief only came when he visited his doctor, the eminent Dr William Harvey, who advised him to adopt the low sugar diet he recommended for his diabetic patients. On this regime his fat disappeared at a rate of about one pound a month. He was so delighted than he published his experience in what became the first world's first recorded diet book, Letter on Corpulence (1863). In it he tells how by reducing his sugar intake he lost over twelve inches around his waist, slept better, moved more freely and could go up and down stairs with ease. These benefits can be achieved by any chubby person who reduces their sugar intake.
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