CARBOHYDRATES have not only led to Australia’s obesity epidemic, we have absolutely no nutritional requirement to eat them.

These are among the claims made in Catalyst on Thursday, the ABC’s often contentious science affairs series.

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Leading the debate is sports medicine scientist Professor Tim Noakes, who admits himself he’s made a 180 degree turn on the issue after a career loudly saying the opposite.

After telling elite endurance athletes for 33 years to carbo-load, he now says the liver produces as much glucose as the body requires and marathon runners should be fat-loading instead.

But what about the elite, endurance office worker? Is this kind of change safe and healthy for the average person?

media_camera Advocate of the Paleo diet ... Pete Evans in his kitchen.

Thursday night’s persuasive episode — chock-full of experts (including My Kitchen Rules’ Pete Evans) encouraging us to indulge in a diet rich in buttery goodness as well as unfamiliar, disturbing animal parts — may well close the door for many people on any lingering doubts about whether to have a bacon and egg fry up or stick with the bowl of cardboard every morning.

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media_camera “Eat real food, not out of a box” ... Dr Maryanne Demasi, presenter of science show Catalyst, on ABC.

But with some 60 per cent of Australian adults now overweight or obese, according to figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Catalyst host Dr Maryanne Demasi believes the health benefits of throwing out the packet of cereal are tangible.

“What our research came up with, a lot of people can have carbohydrates without a problem but as you age you lose the ability to metabolise carbohydrates as well as you did when you were younger. (Presumably this is why your risk for developing diabetes increases as you age.)

“And lots of people have a different tolerance in being able to metabolise carbohydrates — some do it well, some don’t.

“I would say that many people in the population — and the stats vary, we could never really get a strong handle on just how many people would be suffering from diabetes and obesity; some say it’s 30 per cent, some say it’s much higher because people suffer from pre-diabetes — but there’s a significant proportion of the population who would benefit from lowering carbohydrates because it aids in weight loss and it doesn’t stimulate the hormone called insulin which essentially causes fat in fat cells.”

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This thinking bucks the low-fat advice that’s prevailed throughout the rich world for the past two generations. So the notion that the more fat you eat, the more you lose is something of a hard concept to accept, sports scientist Dr Peter Brukner admits. He’s working with Cricket Australia and is on Catalyst with low carb adoptee, Australian cricketer Shane Watson, who he describes as “always having a weight problem,” despite doing high levels of exercise.

media_camera Changed to a low carb diet for weight loss ... Australian cricketer Shane Watson.

The other benefit of Watson’s low carb weight-loss? “He’s much less grumpy than he used to be than when he was dieting,” says Brukner — who himself stopped eating carbs and lost 12kg “easy as you like ... just fell off.”

But Watson wasn’t immediately convinced about eating all this fat. “My first question was, what about my arteries?”

And what about fibre. The health benefits of a diet high in fibre — as a protection against certain cancers, for one thing — appear to be well documented. “I think you can get a lot of fibre from green leafy vegetables and that’s certainly what they promote in the low carb diet. We’re not saying for people to completely cut out whole grains. They can certainly get fibre from other sources. I think it’s a bit of a furphy when people say you might end up without essential nutrients, because any diet when followed in the strictest terms you might end up with a deficiency.”

However many widely respected bodies around the world recommend a daily calorie intake comprising between 40 — 65 per cent carbohydrates. The Mayo Clinic, for instance. “Diabetes Australia recommend a diet that’s low in fat based on high fibre carbohydrate foods,” Demasi says. “And a lot of people question that advice.

“We really do have to start looking at the guidelines again.”

She says the “best advice for everybody is just eat real food.

“Not out of a box.”

media_camera Fresh coconut ... A perfect food for a high-fat diet that is good for you.

Note: Catalyst doesn’t include any women in the episode, who tend to lose weight at a different rate to men, nor any people who don’t do a lot of exercise.

OFF THE MENU

Hot chips, cold chips, pizza, bread, pasta, a nice cold fizzy drink, chocolate cake, banana cake, any cake.

MUNCH OUT

Bacon, eggs, full cream latte, steak, lamb chops, lamb roast, mashed potato with butter, coconut, the cheese course, Pete Evans’s spag bol: liver, heart, bone marrow and — yes — some beef, zucchini instead of spaghetti. Mmm.

Catalyst, ABC, Thursday 8pm

Originally published as ‘12kg just fell off ... easy as you like’