CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet members sign up for health reasons, not physical appearance
More than 3000 people who went on the CSIRO diet have revealed how successful it was in reducing weight – and costs.
Australians are more interested in improving their health than their looks when it comes to dieting, new research from national science agency CSIRO has revealed.
A survey of more than 3000 CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet online members found close to half of people who lost weight reported health improvements often corresponding with a reduction in prescription medicines.
High cholesterol, high blood pressure, arthritis and mental illness topped the list of doctor-diagnosed conditions experienced by the group of survey responders, followed by asthma, chronic body pain and pre-diabetes symptoms.
Research scientist and co-author Dr Gilly Hendrie did the survey to understand why people start a diet and the impact the diet is having on their health.
“Our analysis showed that after following the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet program, more than half of those with pre-diabetes, Type 2 Diabetes and high cholesterol reported an improvement in their health,” she said.
“Almost half with high blood pressure, sleep apnoea and mental health also reported an improvement.”
She hoped the research would encourage more people to see their GP to get their blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels tested.
Since its launch in 2005, the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet has helped more than half a million Australians lose weight.
But the high protein diet also attracted criticism for high levels of animal protein and sponsorship by meat and dairy industries.
The latest research also shows people save hundreds of dollars a year by reducing or eliminating their need for medication, with an average saving of $270 a year.
It’s also an Adelaide success story, with all the background research having been done at CSIRO Health and Nutrition on Kintore Ave, carrying on now at SAHMRI.
The latest National Health Survey data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed more than two thirds (69.7 per cent) of adults in South Australia were overweight or obese.
More than one third of all adults (37.6 per cent) were overweight and around a third were obese (32.6 per cent).
Under one third (29.2 per cent) were within the healthy weight range and 0.9 per cent were underweight.
Since 2014-15, the proportion of adults who were overweight or obese has increased from 65.8 per cent to 69.7 per cent.
In 2017-18, a greater proportion of men were overweight or obese than women (75.3 per cent and 64.6 per cent respectively).
Adults living in Outer Regional and Remote Australia were more likely to be overweight or obese than those living in Major Cities (75.6 per cent and 68.5 per cent respectively).
One quarter (25.6 per cent) of children were overweight or obese (18.9 per cent overweight and 7.5 per cent obese). The rates were similar for boys and girls and have remained similar since 2014-15.
South Australia had a higher rate of adults who were overweight or obese compared with Australia (69.7 per cent compared with 67.0 per cent). The rate for children who were overweight or obese was similar to the national rate.
Adelaide data architect and software engineer George Sainsbury of Mount Osmond signed up for the diet to manage back pain that flared up when his daughter was a year old. He lost 16kg.
“I have a chronic back injury from volleyball and since losing the weight it’s much more manageable,” he said.
“I’m able to carry her and pop her on my back and go for hikes and all sorts of things that I wouldn’t have even attempted before because of the back pain”.