The Holford Diet
The Holford Diet (named after author Patrick Holford) is a new book (apparently released only in the UK). Patrick Holford is a prolific nutritional writer, and brings a lot of knowledge into the area of fat loss.
UPDATE: Book can be ordered in the US here via Abebooks.
I had the opportunity to browse through the book. At a hefty 320 pages there is a lot of impressive information in this book.
Holford's concepts of fat burning diets revolve around Glycemic Load (which in my opinion is a far better measure than Glycemic Index alone). The diet basically consists of quality lean proteins, the right fats, and low GL carbs - such as whole wheat breads, oatmeal etc. He advocates exercise - not just as a fat loss exercise - but as a good appetite suppressant.
- Glycemic load builds on the GI to provide a measure of total glycemic response to a food or meal
- Glycemic load = GI (%) x grams of carbohydrate per serving
- One unit of GL ~ glycemic effect of 1 gram glucose
- You can sum the GL of all the foods in a meal, for the whole day or even longer
Quoted from http://www.glycemicindex.com/
It's hard to do justice to this book in a few paragraphs. The book expounds what many fitness trainers and bodybuilders know. The same information seems to be coming out again and again. Maintaining balanced blood-sugar levels, getting enough good proteins and fats seem to be the common threads that are tying many successful diets together. This is the same nutritional basis as Body For Life, Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle, and even The Abs Diet.
However The Holford Diet is written from a more nutritional perspective that adds considerable credence and science to the diet.
Are we finally coming up with a balance? Lean proteins, whole carbs, essential fats, and exercise (and weight training). No extremes, no dropping of entire food groups. I believe extremes do have a place - but only for a small section of the population. Each of us will have our own variation because of our unique genetic makeup.
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26 Comments
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Created / Updated: November 15, 2011
I hear an extensive interview with Patrick Holford early hours of today and feel the principles and theories of his diet may be revolutionary.
ReplyI am going out today to buy the book!!
I spent some more time looking at the The Holford Diet. I must admit, there is a lot of real meat (no pun intended!) in the book. Patrick Holford already has a string of quality nutrition books under his belt, and it seems like this book is no exception.
Expect to see more of the Holford Diet. I don't know if I would call it 'revolutionary' - but very balanced and well researched. Will it appear in the US?
Replydo you have a diet for eliminating or controling
Replypsoriasis
... This guy?s only recognised nutritional qualification is one from his own institute (part time courses in nutritional therapy). His book merely follows findings from qualified academics in the field of nutrition.
Unless someone is a qualified dietitian (SRD RD) or a qualified nutritionist (been to Uni and studied for 3 years)i really wouldn't bother... and this 'Holford' diet is next to near impossible to fit into any busy lifestyle...
ReplyPatrick Holford was on the news in Singapore recently. Judging from the way he talks about shedding the fat, I wonder if his book, The Holford Diet, applies ONLY to the Caucasions? Does it apply to Asians like me? (PS: The BMI Index in Singapore has recently been modified because an Asian with a similar BMI as a Caucasion has more body fat than the Caucasion.) Can anyone please address this matter?
ReplyPatrick Holford is unashamedly British, and the book is written very much for a UK audience. Your question is an interesting one, given than Asian body types are more prone to being ectomorphic.
I think many of his principles could be followed, but he may not be the best source for info on Asian weight loss.
ReplyI am Asian (of Indian origin) I have been on the Holford Diet for four weeks and have lost half a stone, my husband is the same ethnicity and has lost almost a stone.
However, i would like to point out the the recipe section of the book is full of typographical errors and unless you are quite a good cook already and able to recognise these errors you will soon run into trouble.
I think it is a pretty poor show when a "nutritional expert" allows a sub-standard text to be published in his name.
Replyhello there,my daughter and i are both on the holsford diet and in just ten days we have both lost over 5kgs each.ijust could not believe it,thinking that our scale had was out of sorts i called over my taiwanese friend and asked her to step on the scale,she looked at me and said "whye mee i no put on weight" i replied "no no no i think the scale is kaput broken"she replied "no is collect" so a hearty big thankyou to MR HOLFORD and we are both going to continue eating healthy food.
ReplyGoing to be as brief as possible here...
Had to lose a lot of weight when I was young, about 80 or 90 pounds. In the last four years I've made quite a number of attempts to lose the remaining ten or fifteen pounds. The Holford diet is really the only one that I had any kind of success on. I also lost about a pound a day and felt really really healthy. For the first time in my entire life I reached my optimal body weight with this diet. It felt amazing. I have since slipped a good bit but am back on it now...
Good luck all.
ReplyAt end of December 2004 I weighed 117Kg with the associated problems of high resting heart rate and raised blood pressure and then in February 2005 I decided to look at the GI diet - I did not have Holfords book at that time but found that I was soon losing the weight and by Mid Summer I was down to 84Kg - and I hadn't made time for the exercise and fitness side at that time. This was achieved without the cravings associated with all other diets.
Sometime during the early part of diet, I discovered the holford GI book and now the GL book - and started following the other aspects - seeds,supplements, oils etc. I do not believe that there can be any criticism of these books as to do so would mean that all the healthy lifestyle books based on the sensible GI/GL principle are also to be criticised. I now eat healthily following all or most of guidelines and since October 2005 - sensibly take all the exercise I can reasonably achieve with job and home.
Follow the guidelines, do your best and it will work - no other diet worked for me - and many made me ill.
This lifestyle change seems sensible - My optimal body weight is still some way off and as I am starting to build muscle probably will take some time to re-balance weight gained through muscle vs fat loss.
Anyway Good inspiring book but my advice is read others and if necessary read around the subjects - I think however you will find that they do support the Holford principles.
Good Luck and don't forget even if you can't do it all - any small change for better is beneficial.
ReplyI bought this book with the intention of leading a healthy lifestyle. So far what I've read makes a lot of sense and will start putting it into practice soon. I'm 26 and in good shape but suffer from anxiety and stress so am hoping there's something applicable for me. Good luck to all with the Holford diet..
ReplyHolford has just recently published a new version of this that is widely available (see Amazon for instance).
I agree with your review...this diet looks pretty good.
ReplyI really like this diet. I'm in Virgina in the US and am unable to get a hold of any Get Up & Go? Is there anything close to it I can use?
ReplyCan you help?
I have just been getting to grips with the book this weekend. The comments about blood sugar are the key to a lot of my health/weight problems. So I am giving it a go.
Just one thing confuses me a bit. Half the plate is supposed to be filled with veg, do we need to count this veg in the daily 40GL? He mentions many vegetables in his unlimited veg list, do we need to weigh/count these?
ReplyI have started reading this book and it seems very very interesting. However I am wary of the fact that Holford promotes his own brand of vitamin & mineral supplements a lot. I've been browsing the internet and have only come across one comment which voices the same concern. I want to improve my diet and the benefits Holford proposes (&all those who've written in this forum) sound great - but I do not wish to fall victim to any scam. Any advice?
Reply