For many Dr Michael Mosely will be that popular television doctor who debunks the science and puts the myths about diet and lifestyle to bed. To me, Mosely is the lifeline medicine failed to give me when I was diagnosed with Type2 diabetes a few years ago.
First up let me assure you that this is not a new craze which will die out in a few years’ time or be debunked with new science, Mosely focuses solely on scientific peer-reviewed fact-based solutions to modern inflammatory disease. Like me, he began the research when he was unexpectedly diagnosed with Type2 diabetes.
Returning for a moment to my own diagnosis… … this came when I was preparing for an overseas trip. I decided to get a full health check so that any unexpected illness would not void my travel insurance. After a full medical and a raft of blood tests, I returned to the surgery for my results. The blithe question “Did you know you had diabetes?” came out of the blue.
True, I had been feeling unwell for some time with a stubborn recurring tooth ulcer, a spot on my cheek which would not clear up and a nose bleed which came out of nowhere. But I was getting at least an hour of good exercise a day and prided myself on always eating a good, healthy diet. I was overweight; obese even by contemporary standards, but I knew that being overweight did not necessarily mean I was unfit
I was shocked. But I was also stubborn, and a journalist to boot. Telling me I would be on medication for the rest of my life was like waving a red flag before a bull. I decided to do my own research and see if there was any way to overturn the diagnosis naturally.
Time and again the 800 diet came up, each time with impressive accounts of people just like me who had put their diabetes into remission using Dr Mosley’s method. Within four weeks of following his recommendations and on the eve of my departure for Europe I returned to the surgery for the results of my latest tests. The diabetes nurse was stunned. “Keep going like this and we’ll remove your diagnosis,” she said.
Fast forward to today and I can tell you that it has not all been all beer and skittles. While the effects were almost immediate, overturning the bad habits of a lifetime has taken me a while. I have lapsed and relapsed. But it is said that relapse is part of recovery and I am now on the path to recovery. Whenever I fall foul of the fast regime, I return again to Mosely’s methods to get back on track. Take it from me, it works. Fast. Very, very fast. Better sleep, better health, more energy, lower blood sugars. And ever more faith in Mosley’s method of overcoming illness.
The fast 800 offers the latest research from around the world, combining it into an improved regime comprising the 800 diet with the time restricted eating (TRE), high intensity training (HIT) and following up with the 5:2 approach of intermittent fasting as a way of life. Mosely believes (as do I) that following the Mediterranean diet and restricting calories obtained from high GI carbohydrates will help reset and repair the body.
It’s also the easiest weight loss diet I have ever followed because you do lose weight fast, which is an enormous motivator. And if you continue to follow Mosely’s method and adopt it as a way of life you will keep the weight off and remain well. The thing is Mosely debunks the myths of rapid weight loss = rapid weight gain with fact. He brings together in one place the results of long terms studies of people just like me who have done what their doctors failed to tell them they could do: become well without medication.
In many places in the world doctors are forbidden to talk to their patients about diet and lifestyle. Sometimes they are ignorant of the facts and often they are in the thrall of the medical companies. They thrust pills at you and ignore the evidence of the side-effects. For years we have been the victims of pharmaceutical companies and factory farmers turned lobbyists who legally push their products. For example, patients only receive subsidies for blood sugar monitors if they take medication.
We are facing a modern epidemic of inflammatory illness. Mosely has the answer.
Reviewer: Peta Stavelli
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