We’re told to avoid saturated fats, are marketed health food that is laden with sugar and encouraged to pound out miles at the gym. However, our chances of getting obese are increasing – raising our risk of Type 2 diabetes as well as other diseases. Yet in the tiny Italian village of Pioppi, life is as simple as it is long and healthy. There is no gym, no supermarket, the food is delicious and they enjoy a glass of wine every evening. Here, people live on average 10 years longer than anywhere else in the world.
In this new book, cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra and Donal O’Neill combine the wisdom of this remarkably long-lived population with decades of nutrition and medical research to cut through long-standing dietary myths and create an easy-to-follow lifestyle plan which should see readers lose weight, but also seriously reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes, other diseases, and save the NHS millions.
People with diabetes may already need to lose weight when diagnosed, while others might end up gaining weight over the duration of their diagnosis. This book can help to clear up confusion about fats and oils, fads and fakes and help you see through the current epidemic of misinformation out there.
Malhotra regularly writes in academic medical journals and print newspapers such as The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Daily Mail and is regularly seen on broadcast media in his campaign against sugar and highlighting the harms of too much medicine. O’Neill is an Irish born, independent documentary filmmaker. A former international track and field athlete, in 2015 he joined forces with Malhotra to make The Big Fat Fix (2016).
Dr Malhotra’s eight steps to Pioppi-ing, as printed originally by The Telegraph
• Don’t fear fat; sugar and refined carbs are the enemy
• Keep moving – exercise for health not weight loss (and walking is best)
• Extra virgin olive oil is medicine, as is a small handful of nuts – eat both, every day
• Get seven hours of sleep a night
• Stop counting calories – not all are created equal
• Eat 10 eggs a week – they’re satiating and full of protein
• Have two portions of veg in at least two meals a day
• Fast once a week for 24 hours – have dinner, then don’t have breakfast or lunch the next day.
The Pioppi Diet by Dr Aseem Malhotra and Donal O’Neill is published by Michael Joseph, £8.99
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