Positive Health Online

In his book Dr Paul Clayton provides a plan of nutritional therapy and exercise to achieve sustainable weight loss, optimum health and happiness without resorting to long-term, low carbohydrate diets.

Clayton provides detailed explanations with references to studies as to why certain low carbohydrate diets may not be optimal for long term weight loss and health. He writes of certain concerns that high fat, high protein, low carbohydrate diets could contribute to heart, kidney and bone problems and reduce women's chances of pregnancy. Diets restricted in valuable phytonutrients and antioxidants resident in fruits and vegetables could perhaps lessen defences against cancer, or leave the body undernourished because of a chronic depletion of micronutrients such as vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, fibre and phytonutrients, which he defines as type B malnutrition.

Clayton then explores variations of current regimes which he considers to offer superior health benefits. Clayton's diet differs from Atkins in two main areas.

The first area is the way the affect of foods on blood glucose is measured. Clayton believes that the classification of foods according to Atkins' glycaemic index rating is too simplistic and foods need to be measured by their glycaemic load (GL). The GL takes into account not only whether a food releases glucose quickly or slowly, but also the amount of carbohydrate in that food. This gives a more accurate indication of the overall impact that food will have on blood glucose levels as some foods release glucose quickly, but in fact contain very small amounts of carbohydrates.

The second is that Clayton advocates carbohydrates, particularly fermentable carbohydrates such as lentils and legumes for both well being and weight loss. Fermentable carbohydrates are low in calories, slow the absorption of glucose from any digestible carbohydrate and once in the large intestine act as food for the health-promoting bacteria resulting in short chain fatty acids, which have important health benefits, and have been linked with appetite reduction.

Clayton's diet is based on an emerging science of pharmaco-nutrition, which is using the nutrients from foods to affect the metabolic processes to improve health and fight disease processes. The diet provides a wide variety of foods with high levels of fibre and micronutrients and allows 25g of oils and fats, 450g of protein and fermentable carbohydrates and 800g of fruit and vegetables daily (approximately 9 portions), doubling the WHO recommendations. The high levels of fruits and vegetables are linked with disease prevention as they contain high levels of phytonutrients, sterols, vitamins, minerals and fibre.

Clayton gives quality guidelines as to the practicalities of the diet and provides a delicious recipe section. There are further chapters on exercising, stopping smoking, natural facelifts, natural Viagra, new ways to burn fat and fighting diseases.

Clayton's book is informative and educational especially for individuals who would like to improve their health or achieve and maintain weight loss.

Further Information

Readers wishing to purchase this title should contact TBS Ltd on Tel: 01206 255800; sales@tbs-ltd.co.uk