Dieting: Hollywood-style: according to the stars, it's not fat that makes you fat. It's carbohydrates. Is this really true? How does it work? And what about all those other options for getting in shape? (Food: loosing weight).(reducing diets)

Publication: Choice (Chippendale, Australia)

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COPYRIGHT 2002 Australian Consumers' Association

All Hollywood's at it. Friends stars Matt Le Blanc and Jennifer Aniston swear by it. You can reportedly add to the list ex-Spice Gerri Halliwell, Minnie Driver, Sandra Bullock, Catherine Zeta-Jones, even Madonna and Cindy Crawford. It's the big thing in weight control: a low=carbo diet.

"Eating rich, delicious gourmet foods can be your path to permanent weight loss." That's the claim on the back of bestseller Dr Atkins' New Diet Revolution. According to author Robert C Atkins, you can eat "an almost limitless variety of meat and fish and salads and vegetables prepared in the most appetizing manner" (that is, with butter and cream) while you're on the road to weight loss. For example, an Atkins recipe for lobster soup calls for three tablespoons of butter and three cups of double cream.

So in the Atkins diet you can embrace the old forbidden foods, such as those high in saturated fat, and avoid the new forbidden food -- carbohydrate.

GETTING INTO THE `ZONE'

The high-profile Zone diet takes a more moderate approach. As outlined in the book Enter the Zone, by Barry Sears, you're supposed to eat twice as much protein as recommended in the more conventional nutrition guidelines. You're also meant to keep control of your fat intake and make a big cut in your carbo intake.

These measures are to get you into `The Zone' -- a place where your weight is under control and you're "refreshed, alert and full of energy". Sears also suggests that some carbohydrates, such as bananas and orange juice, "could be dangerous to your health".

COMMON APPROACH: CUT CARBOS

What links these popular diets is the theory that if you cut back on the carbohydrates in your diet, you'll lose weight. Each sets out strict levels of carbo intake you're expected to stick to. Atkins says 25-90 grams a day. If you're on the Zone it's precisely 40% of your energy intake, and you must also exactly balance your fat and protein requirements.

So, while dietitians and most other food/health experts say it's good to get around 55% of your energy requirements from bread, pasta, rice and other cereals, low-carbo advocates beg to differ.

DO LOW-CARBO DIETS WORK?

Jennifer and her Hollywood friends aren't deluding themselves -- these diets can lead...

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