Do we need another diet book? Yes, says Fiona Kirk

There’s a middle road to eating safely while losing weight, says the Glasgow-based nutritionist

If there is one thing the world does not need, it is another diet book. Amazon already lists 11,427 titles in their “losing weight” category.

The literate fatty can chose from the GI, the GL and the PH methods of de-larding. Dr Atkins, Paul McKenna, many earnest Americans who love the exclamation mark and someone called Skinny Bitch all have an opinion on the subject. What can there possibly be left to say on the subject of cutting down on pies, holding back on pints of lager and learning to love the edamame bean?

Quite a lot, according to Glaswegian nutritionist Fiona Kirk, who is adamant that her masterwork, So What The F*** Should I Eat?, will demystify the diet debate and banish the muffin top for ever.

“It’s easy to blame the government, easy to blame the manufacturers, easy to blame big portions. I’m going to give you some knowledge to empower you, because you’re the only person who can do it,” she says.

Kirk, at 54 slender enough for a biker’s jacket and diaphanous blouse, is an impressive advertisement for her own message. She truly believes that there are swathes of the population — the educated, book-buying, lecture-attending population — who are still unsure what constitutes a healthy diet. She used to be one of them. Private clients would ask her about supplements, about drinking water, if fish was good for them. When she started giving talks to larger audiences, the questions multiplied.

“I realised how confused everybody is,” she says, waving her fork over a roasted goat’s cheese salad. “I have quite a simple brain — I seemed to have a way of explaining a complicated issue in a straightforward way. There is a joyful moment when you’re talking to a crowd of people, when you see some light bulbs going on. So I decided to write some of it down. I thought I could cut through the confusion a bit.”

What the groaning library of existing weight-loss books does not offer, according to Kirk, is a happy medium. “They are divided into two camps. There is the mad, quirky, wacky celebrity crash, all the diets which generally are not particularly good for many of us, and the weight does not stay off. They’re the ones that fly off the bookshelves. Then there’s the other lot: I’m a nutritionist and I’m here to tell you that you’re staring death in the face unless you watch what’s on that fork.

“It’s quite hard to live either way. There is this middle road, I hope.”

Kirk’s map to it is not published until next year, but she is already warning that it’s not easy. She does not completely dismiss the bonkers regimes — drinking maple syrup, eating only foods that begin with J (I might have made that one up) — that will see the pounds go avalanching off. If you have iron willpower and a seminaked photoshoot coming up, there is, she says, a place for extreme regimes. For the rest of us, there is only one solution and it is, no matter how many expletives she uses to dress it up, the sensible one.

“I’m not saying that suddenly sparkling water’s going to be bad for you and alcopops aren’t. Not a lot has changed: fruits and vegetables and whole grains and water are never going to budge off the top of the to-eat list. We have to accept that. But if you live the 80-20 rule,” — this is one of Kirk’s guiding principles, doing the right thing 80% of the time and going wild for the remaining 20% — “you can have the cheesecake whenever you want. Just not every day.

“My grand plan,” she says, “is that you can create your own diet with my assistance. I’m trying to make it easier for you.”

While learning to love quinoa and celeriac is important, doing so with a positive attitude is crucial. “Everywhere you read that 80%-95% of dieters fail, so don’t do it, you are wasting your time and money. My point is, what do the other 10% do? They are obviously getting it right.”

Kirk is convinced that anyone can lose their unwanted lumpy bits and find a weight that works for them. She admits that her own method — hard-core exercise, smaller portions and a double espresso after lunch — may not be for everyone. “People ask me, ‘How do you stay so slim?’ It’s because I run up and down these bloody stairs every morning.” Kirk lives in the Park area of Glasgow, where giant staircases lead up to grand terraces.

“I drag myself out of bed, in the rain this morning. That’s the way I’ve chosen to do it in my life. I’m certainly no saint when it comes to the eating and drinking.”

Kirk was converted in her forties, when her own health problems were not responding to conventional medicine. She went on to study at the Institute for Optimum Nutrition, run by the controversial nutritionist Patrick Holford. There is a website, Holford Watch, dedicated to pointing out the “bad science” in his work. While Kirk is keen to avoid such negative scrutiny of her own work, and is meticulous about research and making claims, she is still in contact with Holford.

Armed with his nutritional therapist’s diploma, Kirk came home full of linseeds and crusading zeal. “When I first qualified, I was absolutely intent on healing the world. Scotland was suddenly going to know what it was all about,” she says. A decade of private practice, lecturing and now writing later, Kirk has put world-healing on hold. If Alex Salmond phoned tomorrow, asking her to be his broccoli czar, she would knock him back. “I would say no thanks. I’m busy next week.”

Changing our eating habits is not, she says, the government’s job. The responsibility for getting into our skinny jeans lies with us alone. And if we would only stop comparing ourselves with Jennifer Aniston and despairing about our family’s inability to sit down round a table together, we would all be able to wear them.

“We end up beating ourselves up about so much. I want to put a slightly nicer face on it. When Alexander McQueen designs a really beautiful dress, he wants to share it with the world. When I have what I regard as a healthy but slightly naughty-round-the-edges approach to food, I want to share it with the world. It’s maybe not as much fun as dress, but it’s certainly cheaper.”

So What The F*** Should I Eat? is published by Zymurgy next year

www.fionakirk.com

Anna Burnside, The Sunday Times 01-11-2009

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Anna Burnside

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