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Exclusive: NRL boss demands more resources for ASADA

Fast way to a new diet craze

A NEW fad diet that concentrates more on the “fast’’ than the “food’’ is about to give Australians a weight loss boost.

The “5:2 diet’’ – otherwise known as intermittent fasting – allows participants to eat whatever they like for fi ve days a week, but they must consume just 500 calories or less on two non-consecutive days.

Patricia Mazza uses a fasting diet.Picture: Justin Lloyd

» Full reports pages 14-15

SIMON BENSONNATIONAL POLITICAL EDITOR

NRL CEO Dave Smith has demanded the Gillardgovernment dedicate more resources to the druginvestigation threatening to tear up rugby league —offering financial support to speed up the inquiry.

Mr Smith said yesterday the Australian SportsAnti-Doping Authority had too few people toinvestigate the drugs-in-rugby-league saga fastenough ‘‘to lift this big black cloud that is hangingover all of us’’.

‘‘Everyone knows I’ve been pushing to movethis thing along as quickly as possible and we’veoffered up resources with our integrity unitmeeting on a weekly basis,’’ he said.

‘‘ASADA has been given a huge task and it

needs more resources to get it done as it only has asmall unit for a very large task.’’

While Mr Smith is demanding action because offears the investigation could last the entire season,Sports Minister Kate Lundy said she could notpressure ASADA to speed up the process andcalled on fans to ‘‘be patient and keep the faith’’.

She said the government would boost theagency’s resources — if it requested it.

Fears about an under-resourced ASADAemerged as the NRL’s chief medical officer calledon all players to stop using supplements.

‘‘People take these things as a shortcut torecovery and improved performance,’’ Dr RonMuratore said last night.

FULL REPORT PAGE 4

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14 TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 2013 // THETELEGRAPH.COM.AU

THE 5:2 DIET

How I lostmyself indisciplineTAYLOR AUERBACH

The new Taylor Auerbach.

ONE large, double quarterpounder meal and a triplecheeseburger, please.

This was a phrase I wouldrepeat often — more thanonce a week — from behindthe wheel of my car.

Sometimes, after the fiveminutes it took me to inhalethe 2000 calories in the Mc-Donald’s carpark, I would fireup the engine and do anotherloop of the drive-through.

I would then head home fordinner.

A year of this self-inflictedabuse took my weight to 93kg.At 178cm tall, I was a chocolatebar away from entering the‘‘obese’’ category.

So I did it. I dived into anextreme regimen in which I’veeaten on only 27 days sinceJanuary 8. I’ve since learntthat ‘‘intermittent fasting’’ is aworldwide fad.

But I wasn’t interested inday-on/day-off sort of stuff.

At the strictest point in mydiet I was eating only twice aweek. I now weigh 74kg —that’s 19kg, or 20 per cent, ofmy original bodyweight gonein just over two months.

Yes, on my days off, restaur-ant menus become fascinatingand tantalising literature.

But it’s very easy when Ihop on the scales, hungry atthe end of the day, and askmyself a simple question:‘‘Would you rather a piece ofcheesecake now or to weighhalf a kilo less tomorrow?’’

Cut out the foodNATHAN KLEIN

THE secret to losing weightand lowering your risk ofcancer, heart disease and Alz-heimer’s is to starve yourselfevery other day, according toscientists.

Fat loss pills and strenuousexercise could be a thing of thepast, with a new diet claimingto improve your waistline aswell as extend your life andkeep wrinkles at bay.

The 5:2 diet — also knownas intermittent fasting — re-quires two non-consecutivedays of ‘‘fasting’’ each week,when the dieter is to consumeno more than 500 calories ifthey are a woman and 600 ifthey are a man.

There are no dietary restric-tions for the remaining fivedays, which are often referredto as the ‘‘feeding’’ days.

The diet has gone viralfollowing the BBC document-ary Eat, Fast and Live Longerby doctor and journalist Mi-chael Mosley, which screenedin the UK last year.

It is expected to create asimilar craze when it screens inAustralia on SBS on April 22.

The program follows DrMosley on an intermittentfasting investigation.

In six weeks following thediet, he lost over 6kg and 25per cent of his body fat.

His cholesterol dropped andhis blood glucose, which hedescribed as ‘‘borderline dia-betic’’, went back to normal.

Dr Mosley also found thatfasting lowered levels of IGF-1in the body — an insulin-growth hormone — which inturn lowered blood pressureand the risks of cardiovasculardisease, cancer and diabetes.

There are now 5:2 groups onYouTube, Facebook and Twit-ter, as well as blogs dedicatedto the diet.

Sue Hollis said she dis-covered fasting through herRaw Fit trainer Ricardo Ris-kalla — and dropped 8kgalmost instantly.

‘‘I tried Atkins, the lemondetox, you name it, I’ve givenit a shot in the past,’’ she said.

Starvation triggers the metabolismNATHAN KLEIN

Lara Grinevitchrecommends fasting.

Picture: Annika Enderborg

FOR years we have been toldeating small meals more oftencan kickstart a slow metab-olism and help burn fat.

Eating snacks like almondsand seeds between our mainmeals and cutting out thesugar would do the trick, dietexperts told us.

But, for most people, shed-ding kilos has never been easy.

In fact, all the small meals

seemed to do was make ushungrier than ever.

Until now, it seems, withexperts claiming less is more.

Naturopath Lara Grinevitchsaid there was a reason whymany of us struggled withweight loss.

‘‘We’ve been getting thewrong advice,’’ she said.

‘‘Three meals plus snacks isa strange artefact of modernliving and it puts considerablestress on our immune systemand metabolic hormones.’’

Ms Grinevitch, who recom-mends intermittent fasting tosome of her Sensitive-Alternative Hormone Clinicpatients, said fasting reducedsystemic inflammation in thebody and increased thedieter’s metabolic rate.

‘‘This is the same inflam-mation that leads to obesityand degenerative diseases,’’she said.

‘‘Multiple day fasts are qu-ite difficult and nobody reallywants to do them. (But) for

many people, the 5:2 diet is likejust having a late breakfast.’’

Ms Grinevitch agreed withother experts that fastinglowered levels of IGF-1 in thebody, which in turn loweredblood pressure and the risks ofcardiovascular disease anddiabetes. She said, by puttingyour body through a shortperiod of ‘‘starvation mode’’,it gave it time to repair existingcells instead of more beingproduced, leading to decreasedrisks of cancer.

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