Doctor Wendy Denning (left) and nutritionist Vicki Edgson reveal how reasonable eating habits, knowing the real meaning of 'diet' and paying attention to poo can keep you thin and healthy
Fad diets have dominated the headlines and our lives in recent years, each promising thin thighs and trim tummies, usually thanks to a restrictive diet that leaves us craving variety or gnawing the furniture to curb hunger pangs. Wendy Denning and Vicki Edgson, with their book and TV show, are promoting a plan that focuses on health first, with inches to follow.
Of course, there are several diets and gurus these days that don't just help you lose weight but purport to solve your health ills. So what's the difference with the Diet Doctors? A real doctor, they say. Wendy Denning is a qualified GP with more than 20 years' experience in medicine and has also trained in acupuncture and Chinese medicine. Her partner Vicki Edgson is a qualified nutritionist with a private practice in central London.
Their book The Diet Doctors Inside and Out provides guidelines for evaluating your health at home, using your observations about your hair, skin, nails, tongue and faeces as clues. Then it provides recipes and strategies for eating your way back to good health.
And unlike your average GP, who in the rush to handle their patient load can only focus on single problems such as obesity or low energy, the Diet Doctors approach looks at the whole person.
The real meaning of diet
'We've gone back to the original sense of the word 'diet', which is to nourish, to nurture and to feed,' says Edgson. People associate dieting with limitation, she says, but their holistic approach focuses on not just cutting the bad foods out but getting the good foods in.
And our bodies are telling us what we need, they say, through everything from the appearance of our tongue, the texture of our hair, the clearness of our skin and the consistency of our faeces. For example, a pale tongue can indicate a vitamin or mineral deficiency in the body, while peeling nails hint at insufficient stomach acid and protein.
So what's the scoop with poo?
'Nobody discusses their bottoms more than the British,' says Edgson. But paying attention to poo isn't just a load of, um, rubbish. One of the most interesting parts of the book, and an issue addressed in their TV show, is bowel movements. 'We are not just what we eat,' says Edgson. 'We are what we eat, digest, absorb and eliminate. All those need to be working properly.'
'We have one of the highest constipation rates in Europe,' says Dowling. In an episode of their TV show one of the women they treat had gone without a bowel movement for two weeks - which was remedied when she began following the DD's advice. 'If you don't have regular bowel movements, you are keeping what we consider to be toxic material in your colon,' says Dowling. 'You don't have to be a doctor to understand that's not going to be a healthy situation.'
Doing it for yourself
Of course we'd all like to have a consultation with a nutritionist and doctor to address all of our health and diet concerns - if we had the money and time. That's where the book comes in. Created as a guide to various physical symptoms and accompanied by photographs, The Diet Doctors Inside and Out serves as a DIY manual for addressing what's troubling readers, even as they wait for the next appointment with their doctor, says Wendy Dowling. 'It gives the reader - the layperson - some clues and indicators of what to look out for,' says Edgson, using your own observations about your hair, skin, nails, tongue and faeces as clues. (On that all-important topic of poo, there are even illustrations of the different types; what you should strive for: a sausage with surface cracks or a log that's smooth like a snake.)
The last few sections address food and include appealing recipes for meals and snacks such as lemon chicken with green vegetables and smoked mackerel dip. And the good news, the Docs say, is that once you start eating to nourish your body, as well as exercising it (they recommend a very do-able routine of 20 minutes of exercise, 4 times a week), the pounds will come off. 'If you are eating healthfully and you are overweight,' says Edgson, 'you will automatically lose weight until your body finds it own balance.'
'You don't have to be a goody-two-shoes to make this work for you,' says Edgson. 'Both Wendy and I have found that once people realise just how good they can feel, they throw up their hands and say, Why would I go back to what I was doing and feel so awful?'
The Diet Doctors: Inside and Out airs Thursdays 8pm on Channel 5