I remember my mum going on a new diet in the 80s. It was called “The F-Plan Diet” by Audrey Eyton. The idea behind it was that you ate so much fiber that the world fell out of your bottom. Actually, that’s me being naughty because I think the idea was that the fiber was supposed to make you feel full, so that you would eat less. I don’t know if “F” was supposed to stand for “Full” or “Fiber”, but the diet soon became known as “The F for Flatulence Diet”, or the “Fart-Plan Diet” for short!
Over 30 years later and it was with much amusement that I saw this headline on the 9th February 2017. The article loosely described a randomised controlled trial where two groups of volunteers were fed essentially the same diet, except that one was high in whole grains (think brown bread) and the other high in refined grains (think white bread). The bottom line claim was that the whole grain group were getting a 100 calorie a day advantage with a combination of a metabolism boost and a reduction in food absorption. One of the key outcome measurements was weight of “faecal matter.” Was this a test of the F–Plan diet therefore?
Let’s take a look...
