Jumping on the ‘bant’-wagon
Tim Noakes’ dieting regime presents nothing new in the world of dieting, yet South Africans are enthralled with the low-carb, high-fat diet despite scientific studies exposing the diet’s flaws. What are some of these flaws and how can one safely ‘bant’?

Stellenbosch – Lizandré is a Stellenbosch local and works in business management. Like many women - and men - her age, she has tried her fair share of diets, following the crowd from one fad to the other.
Some of these diets actually yield results – though they don’t last most of the time. But perhaps that is why people jump from one fad to the next, when one diets stops working just move on to the next. It’s almost like the dating app, Tinder, where you browse until …show more content…
She went in head-first, losing some weight fairly easily, but later on the criticisms she scoffed at realised themselves.
The Banting craze has hit South Africa hard, with Noakes’ The Real Meal Revolution selling over 200k copies since its launch. Restaurants and bakeries across the country are now offering exclusive ‘banting’ and ‘low-carb’ options with prices to match. Who could blame them for jumping on the ‘bant’-wagon? A diet that contains bacon sounds great!
According to Good Housekeeping, the Banting diet is a low-carbohydrate, high-fat (LCFH) dieting regime. Its core notion is that by following this specific diet, a person’s body will start burning fat for energy instead of carbs, and in this way start losing weight.
This particular diet is no revolution in the dieting world, as Real Meal Revolution claims it was first conceived in 1861 when an obese undertaker named William Banting lost an incredible amount of weight with the help of the surgeon William Harvey, who made him follow the low carbohydrate dieting regime.
The diet was then rediscovered by the infamous Dr Robert Atkins in 1974 who led hordes of people to follow the Atkins diet. The diet is still around today and has its fair share of enthusiast, though the US News on Wellness gave it a score of 2.3 out of …show more content…
“I’m not saying it’s something you can do over a short period, but it is based on your body and how much weight you want to lose.”
Patrick Holford stated that it is increasingly important for people to find a dieting regime that best works for their individual needs. “The big downside to most low-carb diets are their reliance on animal and dairy protein, which is linked to serious medical conditions.
“I am not against low carb low GL diets. They have their place, but I see no evidence that they are more effective than the low GL approach which is much easier to stick with in the long term,” he said.
Lizandré has never done any research on Banting, only following basic instructions she finds on the internet. When she finally did some digging, she recognised the flaws all the studies had pointed out.
She still considers herself as a ‘banter’, but she has now limited her ‘banting’ to only during the week and then eating normally over weekends. “I prefer doing it this way as my weight doesn’t fluctuate that much anymore. I’ll most likely be a banter for the rest of my life,” she