Why the academics weighed in with the ad men to confront a growing nutritional concern

Kellogg's two-week challenge diet might sound like a dubious marketing scam for breakfast cereals, but it is backedby some leading nutritionists, writes Olga Wojtas

The cabbage soup diet. The steak and Stilton diet. The grapefruit diet. And now, the breakfast cereal diet. As surely as elasticated waistbands follow the excesses of the festive season, millions of us are in search of the ultimate plan to help us shed those surplus pounds for good. And millions of us have embarked on the Kellogg's "two-week challenge", which offers the hope of losing as much as 2.5kg in two weeks if we replace one main meal with Frosties, Fruit 'n' Fibre or any other of our favourite Kellogg's cereals.

The two-week challenge has a unique selling point: higher education endorsement in the shape of "nutritionists at Queen Margaret University College", Edinburgh. Academics helping Kellogg's to sell even more Corn Flakes? Are they naive dupes or simply desperate for funds? Queen Margaret's centre for nutrition and food research is not only unrepentant, but positively evangelical about the collaboration. Far from being exploited by Kellogg's, the researchers see the company as a vehicle for getting across their healthy-eating message.

Terry Kirk, Queen Margaret's professor of human nutrition, says: "Obesity is the number one nutritional problem. Half the people in the United Kingdom are overweight, and 20 per cent of women are obese. The health service will not be able to cope if these trends continue, and we are doing what we can to make sure they do not."

There have been many government attempts to reduce obesity, but these have been unsuccessful partly due to lack of resources, Kirk says.

"If we are going to make an impact, we believe we have to work with industry for the benefit of public health and harness its marketing and communication expertise and financial muscle."

It was more than a decade ago that Kirk first mooted a collaboration among nutritional scientists, dieticians and industry to promote "responsible marketing". The campaign stems from a philosophy he outlined in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics , arguing that nutritionists were strapped for public cash when trying to get their message across. Why not capitalise on the limitless budgets of food companies and their undoubted expertise in predicting and influencing what we buy? In the meantime, the Queen Margaret researchers were investigating how to prevent obesity and built up strong evidence that the best way forward was to focus on increasing the amount of carbohydrates we eat. "One of the important sources of carbohydrates in the diet in affluent countries is breakfast cereals," Kirk says. "We wanted to make a substantial impact on raising consumer awareness of the role of carbohydrates in a way you cannot achieve by using conventional health-education channels. It occurred to us it would be beneficial to collaborate with a major manufacturer."

Television advertising and cereal packaging have brought the Queen Margaret message into people's living rooms and kitchens. But surely a breakfast cereal diet is simply encouraging faddy eating?

"The two-week challenge is not a diet per se," Kirk says. "It is a novel method of kick-starting things, because it induces reasonable initial weight loss of an average of 2kg in two weeks. That is enough to motivate people. This is just the opposite of a faddy diet. It has a scientific basis."

This is of key importance for Bill Hardcastle, dean of the faculty of health sciences. "One of my concerns was that there should be a peer-reviewed piece of work to back this up because I thought we could come in for a bit of stick. There is no question about its credibility. Our strategy at Queen Margaret is to pursue research that is socially relevant. The guidelines that come from Kellogg's are about healthy eating, not just eating Kellogg's products."

Twenty-two overweight or mildly obese staff at Queen Margaret became guinea pigs for a fortnight. Each ate the same as usual, but replaced one main meal with breakfast cereal. Replacing a typical meal could mean cutting back on fruit, vegetables, meat and fish, and possibly losing micronutrients, vitamins and minerals that the body cannot produce itself, the research paper published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics warns. "However, these potential adverse effects are minimised by the use of breakfast cereals, which are fortified with micronutrients (six B vitamins and iron), and are eaten with milk, another micronutrient-rich food." All the staff lost weight, 86 per cent of them losing more than 1kg, while half of them lost more than 2kg. They were then encouraged to follow a high-carbohydrate diet, with plenty of bread, potatoes, rice and pasta. After six weeks, 82 per cent had kept the weight off.

The original research data is on Kellogg's two-week challenge website ( www.kelloggs.co.uk/product_info/products_cereals.html ), which has attracted some 100,000 visitors. "About 10 per cent read the research paper. How many academic articles are seen by 10,000 people?" asks Anne de Looy, professor of dietetics and head of Queen Margaret's department of dietetics and nutrition. Twenty per cent of visitors looked up the "hints and tips" on healthy eating, with another 20 per cent investigating how to maintain their weight. And some 300,000 have rung the Kellogg's helpline for advice.

The Queen Margaret team's main concern has been to promote changes that people can retain in the long term. The researchers insist that all the Kellogg's information makes it clear that replacing a main meal with cereal should last for two weeks only. There is also a chart to ensure that only the overweight take the two-week challenge in the first place. "We're interested in helping people to prevent weight gain, but not to help people who are slim already to get any slimmer," Kirk says.

The research underlying the two-week challenge is not a one-off, but part of an eight-year investigation into preventing obesity. Kirk queries the standard public health advice of cutting back on fatty food and sugar and not snacking between meals. People are more receptive to positive messages rather than negative ones, he says, hence Queen Margaret's advice to eat high-carbohydrate food rather than not to eat fatty food.

The researchers have found that for most people, snacking does not seem to pile on the kilos, and it can help them not to over-eat. Cutting back on fat is a good thing, they agree, but they do not demonise sugar. "Sugar is a carbohydrate," de Looy says. "If you ask people to increase the amount of bread they eat, but without fat on it, you have got to put something on it to make it palatable. Jam is a good idea."

People feel incredible guilt when they eat sweet things, and this can drive them over the top, she says. They eat a couple of chocolates and then feel so bad about it they decide they might as well eat the box. "What we are trying to do is normalise how people look at their food, and get rid of the myths."

People have a better chance of sticking to a low-fat diet and keeping off the weight if they are allowed sugar, the researchers have found. There is evidence that sweet foods are more satisfying than fatty foods, and that, as you increase your carbohydrate intake, this displaces fatty foods in your diet. And for long-term weight control, they say, people need to be allowed to eat a reasonable quantity of food. And yes, the trim-looking Kirk does practise what he preaches.