THE CSIRO total wellbeing diet is Australias best selling diet book. This is a low fat, high protein diet. Like all low fat diets, weight loss will occur. These low fat diets have been around since the 1960's, the most well known advocate being Pritikin. On his diet people lost weight initially, and cholesterol levels and blood pressure declined. Those people who persisted with his low fat regime developed low energy, difficulty in concentrating, depression, weight gain and mineral deficiencies.

The glaring flaws in the CSIRO diet are the recommendations to use margarine and equal. Margarine contains trans fatty acids. An article in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition Aug 2000;54;625 discussed research that showed margarine and trans fats increase heart attacks. The authors noted,..the increased risk (of heart attacks) may be due to trans fatty acids or to some other factors associated with margarine consumption. The new soft margarines (recommended by the CSIRO diet) while lower in hydrogenated fats are still produced from rancid vegetable oils and contain many additives. (Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon and Mary Enig. Ph.D.) Equal. Aspartame is the technical name for the brand name Equal (and others).

Aspartame accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the US FDA. The most serious are seizures, and death. (Feb 1994 Dept of Health and Human Services Report) A few of the other 90 documented symptoms are migraines, dizziness, weight gain, depression, vision problems and heart palpations. A common complaint is memory loss. In 1971 Olney a neuroscientist and researcher informed G.D. Searle, the manufacturer of aspartame that this compound caused holes in the brains of mice.

The European Food Safety Authority has now (2005) ordered an expert assessment of the data on aspartame "as a matter of high priority". Not before time. It saddened us that a once famous beacon of light in science has been forced to find sponsors in business in this case Meat & Livestock Australia, Dairy Australia and Goodman Fielder. Like Weston Price who refused all requests to ally himself with any commercial products, the Price Pottinger Nutrition Foundation and the Weston A. Price Foundation (of which we are volunteers) is completely independent of any commercial interests. That way the integrity of their research is not contaminated. I will mention three fad diets.