Science - November 17, 2011
‘It doesn't look at the origins of an eating addiction'
In the TV programme Obese, we met extremely overweight people embarking on strict weight loss regimes. Does this sort of programme help in the battle against obesity?
It isn't a bad programme, though. I think that it carries a warning for many overweight people: this is where obesity can land you. Hopefully this will work on people's unconscious: I mustn't get too overweight, otherwise I will end up in a negative spiral. The skin hangs off the people who lose weight - which is pretty off-putting. I could imagine that this would be enough to persuade people who are ten kilos overweight to lose five kilos.
I once lived on an unhealthy diet for a month to see what it does to you, for my book Gezond eten, gewoon doen (A healthy diet: just do it). I ate a high calorie diet with lots of sugars, salt and saturated fats and hardly any vegetables or fibres. Within days my bowels were knotted with constipation, but after a week I was used to all that sweet and salty stuff and then I started to enjoy it. I put on more than two kilos, but what worried me most was how quickly you get used to it.'