Introduction: Why Take-Out Beats Diets

Chapter summary

The problem: Bookstores hold thousands of diet books and people spend billions on them. Yet about two-thirds of adults in the UK, US and Australia are overweight, and one quarter of those are obese.
How much we want to be slim: A University of Florida study found formerly obese people would rather be blind, deaf or lose a leg than be obese again.
Author’s start point: Hugh Butler was close to 60, 10kg over his desired weight and just inside the healthy BMI range at 24.9. He had a PhD in plant physiology and biochemistry, 38 published papers and 20 years in business. He wanted to find the science that was sound, the science that was poor and the claims that were fiction.
Personal history: He lost 10kg in 1998 on a doctor’s simple advice (light beer, no chips, salads, more fish), then lost another 5kg with gym work. His weight stalled. His doctor then threatened statins, and his fasting sugar was a little high.
Family risk: His father had a heart attack at 82 and could not walk by 94. His mother had dementia at 82. He wanted to avoid the same path.

Conventional view: One pound of fat holds 3,500 calories, so a 500-calorie daily deficit loses one pound a week. Eat less and move more.
The author’s view: If that were enough, everyone would have succeeded. Weight is controlled by hormones, behaviour and society, not arithmetic alone.
Fat and cholesterol: Many doctors still teach that dietary fat raises cholesterol, which raises heart attack risk, and that a low-fat diet is the answer. The author says this is dogma that came from the mid-1960s and the evidence does not support it. Doctors who hold the traditional view would point to decades of guidelines built on it. This book argues the guidelines are overdue for review.

There is a short list of changes that deliver most of the benefit. This is the 80/20 rule, or “low-hanging fruit”.
The approach is to take things out rather than add pills, shakes or “miracle” foods.
Prevention beats waiting for a cure. Pills can have side effects and may never arrive. Diet and lifestyle change works now.
Commercial interests, from food companies to supplement sellers, are the biggest obstacle to simple advice.

Most diets fail because of behaviour and society as well as biology.
Change is hard to start, do and sustain.
Josh Kaufman’s “first 20 hours” idea applies. Plan, learn the principles, then practise until it becomes automatic.
The book sets a 20-day starting block and a 12-week plan.

Diets were hijacked in the 1960s to mean low-fat weight loss. They were about health.
Most diets fail, so the focus is a whole-life approach.
Remove a few harmful foods and habits before adding anything.
Read the evidence, not the marketing.

Butler, H. (2014) The Take-Out Diet, Introduction.
Kaufman, J. (2013) The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything… Fast. Portfolio.
Gillespie, D. (2008) Sweet Poison. Penguin.
Mosley, M. and Spencer, M. (2013) The Fast Diet. Atria Books.