The Meat Eater's Diet

Diet books - not a week goes by without at least a dozen new ones being published.

This is another one, based upon now well-established ideas about restricting carbohydrates whilst eating proteins and fats without restriction.

The Meat Eater's Diet was written about fifteen years ago, but at the time it was impossible to find a publisher who was interested (a common enough story). Now, thanks to the glory of Amazon, I can publish it myself and not worry too much if no one buys it.

I have edited it, but not updated it, yet think the book is still of interest, primarily because it has a go at explaining where the idea that dietary fat causes heart disease came from, and why it might be wrong. In this respect it goes further than most diet books in explaining the theory behind the diet, as well as contradicting the still believed idea that fat (especially from meat) can kill you.

I feel it is necessary to point out that I am neither a doctor nor a nutritionist but wrote this book in an attempt to get to grips with dieting. Lots has been written since I first penned it and the argument about what constitutes a good diet has become more complex in the interceding years, not less. Read it as a 'snap-shot' then, set in the context of the ocean of other diet books that reel off the printing presses as frequently as newspapers do, or so it seems.

I would also repeat the well-worn advice that no one should embark upon a diet or exercise programme without first running the idea past their doctor. This is not just a legal formality, but rather because there may be reasons why you should not attempt this or any other diet, reasons only apparent after your doctor has considered the proposition.

If you are very overweight and unfit, suffering from high blood pressure and raised cholesterol levels, then you should consider dieting as a medical imperative. And whether you choose to follow this diet or any other, you should only do so under medical supervision. Don't underestimate this. If you fall into this category and you suddenly throw yourself into a diet and/or exercise programme you risk killing yourself.

If, on the other hand, you are relatively fit and exercise regularly and are no more than a stone or so overweight, with blood pressure and other levels within normal limits, then dieting will most likely be more about aesthetics than health. For you, dieting may be considered more of a choice than a necessity, but take the precaution of consulting your doctor before embarking on this or any other plan.

I am in the latter group - sometimes it is important for me to be thinner, at others the idea of avoiding butter-laden croissants and baguettes filled with camembert (especially when I am on holiday) seems too absurd to even contemplate.

Read on if you are interested and weigh up the arguments for yourself. It's your life, after all, and you are responsible for what you do with it.