Click here to listen to the interview with Prof. Matthys (in Dutch)
Whole grains, vegetables and fruit
According to Prof. Matthys, the healthiest diet is an eating plan based on plenty of whole grains, vegetables and fruit, which includes all types of food with a controlled balance between ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’. If you eat lots of whole grains, vegetables and fruit, you can eat large quantities. Because you get plenty of fibre, you will also feel full quickly. It is important that your food is tastily prepared, has flavour and is part of a social occasion, where you can also help others to eat tasty and healthy food.
More efficient metabolism
The big challenge of a diet is not losing weight: low-calorie diets do affect your weight, but fail to stabilise your weight loss afterwards. When you eat less and lose weight, your metabolism becomes more efficient. This means you burn fewer calories because your body switches to ‘scarcity mode’. If you start eating more again after a period of calorie restriction, your metabolism will still burn fewer calories for the same activity because it wants to store as much energy as possible in preparation for a potential new period of scarcity. In other words, excess energy is stored more quickly as body fat.
Intermittent fasting
All kinds of slimming diets (keto diet, low-carbohydrate diets or intermittent fasting) are hugely popular today. Most of these diets arose because people are looking for a solution to their excess weight, but they are not based on scientific principles. As for limiting the time window in which you eat: research shows that this has the same effects on your weight as calorie restriction. Eating only during certain periods of the day has the psychological advantage of being easy, because it provides structure and fits easily into a daily schedule. This may be one reason why it works well for some people.