Exercise Excerciseor orDie die Two Scotland’s top professors Oil &ofGas will continue to offer careers on on thegreat importance of regular and off-shore exercise for a healthy life.
ISSUE 10
perfORmance performance improvement improvement Monitoring Scotland’s overall sports performance.
is diet diet the Is the key? keY? The founder of Diet Chef discusses the science behind calorie counting.
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Who Are THE
Dr Stephen Breslin Chief Executive Glasgow Science Centre
Science and sport come together in Glasgow this summer
athletes of
tomorrow
?
Glasgow is at the heart of all that’s going on this summer, as host city of the Commonwealth Games.
As athletes from all over the Commonwealth compete to win medals and set new records, it is the best time to reflect on the vital importance of good health and dietary habits as much as on sporting achievement.
Together, those themes encapsulate one of the major issues facing Glasgow, and Scotland as a whole.
Scotland has achieved great things in sport during recent years, not least through the medal grabbing success of sportspeople like swimmer Michael Jamieson, cyclist Sir Chris Hoy and rower Katherine Grainger CBE. This summer we’ll all be hoping to build further on the achievements of those great Olympians with a clutch of medals at Hampden and other venues all over Glasgow.
But Glasgow already holds a few records that it would rather not “enjoy”, not least in terms of alcohol consumption, disease and a mortality rate that is higher than many other developed nations.
?
3 The reasons are manifold, and the theories behind them are complex and sometimes controversial. But there is no doubt that the city needs to tackle its reputation as a place of poor health, alcoholism and poverty. In this issue of Mercury we examine the efforts being made to raise awareness, improve education, and to get to the root of the problem. Elsewhere we celebrate our nation’s sportspeople, whether or not they will be competing in the Commonwealth Games. We also take a look at the academic research that is challenging conventional thinking about how we keep fit. Scottish companies are at the forefront of research into sports clothing and healthy diets. Our universities employ some world-leading experts in performance improvement and nutrition. In this edition we look at the work of Glasgow and West of Scotland universities, as well as leading companies like Endura and Diet Chef, both working at different ends of the sport and fitness spectrum. Glasgow Science Centre has celebrated its most successful year ever, with more than 300,000 visitors during 2013/14. Many were attracted by our popular BodyWorks exhibition, which opened at Easter 2013. BodyWorks helps all of us – young and old – to understand our bodies and how they work. Hopefully some of the youngsters who have flocked to the exhibition will become the academic researchers, fitness coaches and athletes of tomorrow. || For more information visit: www.glasgowsciencecentre.org/blog
...the city needs to tackle its reputation as a place of poor health, alcoholism and poverty.
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ExerCise interview 1
die
Linda de Caestecker Director of Public Health NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde
or
Linda de Caestecker has one of the toughest jobs in Scotland.
As Director of Public Health for NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, Dr de Caestecker has the task of leading the charge to improve some of the worst health statistics in the western world. At her disposal are prevention programmes and education drives aimed at improving people’s understanding of our poor health statistics, and how to improve them. If only the job was that simple. Greater Glasgow’s health statistics are well known. We have some of the highest rates of cancer, heart disease and related illnesses. The mortality rate in certain parts of town is high, and life expectancy notably lower than the rest of the UK, and many parts of Europe. As the city welcomes athletes from all over the Commonwealth to compete in an array of sports, it has already set some unenviable records of its own in terms of life expectation and disease. Glasgow at times earns headlines for all the wrong reasons. Glasgow’s mortality rates are the highest in Britain, and among the highest in Europe. Life expectancy at birth in Glasgow is the lowest in the UK – more than six years below the national average for Glaswegian men (71.6 years, compared with a UK average of 78.2), and more than four years below average for Glasgow’s women (78 years, compared with 82.3). The figures are bad enough. But their causes are complex and sometimes the subject of academic dispute. It is safe to say only that a number of causes exist, and that the negative statistics result from various combinations of them. Examples include a traditionally poor diet, with too little fruit and vegetables and a reliance on fried stodge. Inevitably, the city’s long-standing, macho history of alcohol abuse is another root problem. There are various theories about the city’s industrial past having some kind of role, less clearly defined. De Caestecker has heard all the theories. Her conclusion: “The main link is between poor health and poverty. Glasgow has poor health because we have more people living in relative
5 disadvantage with the difficulties and stress associated with worklessness and lack of income. However even accounting for deprivation, Glasgow’s health is poor compared to other parts of the world and particularly western Europe.” “Like elsewhere in the world, there are real and growing problems with obesity and low levels of physical activity. Inactivity is the biggest global problem. We used to walk more. Today it is about how much ‘spare time’ we have. Notwithstanding, the main reason that Glasgow’s health is poor is because we have more people in Glasgow living in poverty, there is no doubt about that.” The irony is that, even in Glasgow, health is generally improving. Certain types of cancer, including those linked to cigarette smoking, are in decline. People are living longer, healthier lives. But in Glasgow those lives are still not so long, and still less healthy. The problem manifests itself most famously in those life expectancy statistics. More than any urban myths about the consumption of deep-fried Mars bars – it proclaims the “Glasgow Effect”. Early death from cancer, heart disease and stroke, increased deaths from alcohol and drugs are the highest profile signs of a poor health environment. But this modern health crisis is typified by the virtual explosion in Type 2 diabetes. A combination of poor diet and lack of exercise has prompted a near-epidemic across Glasgow and Scotland as a whole. Scotland can claim at least that its record of diagnosis and care management of diabetes is world-class, but that doesn’t get away from the fact that the disease is on the rampage. Prevention remains the challenge. “We are more sedentary, we are eating more, and alcohol consumption is too high. Our general health is not just a case of affluence bringing new problems. High calorie, high salt food is generally cheaper. Fast food is cheap, often with a huge amount of calories.” points out de Caestecker. “Compare our situation to Scandinavia, where people take part in much more physical activity. The Danes cycle much more than we do, for example, and cycling is kept away from traffic in a much better way. continued >>
We are more sedentary, we are eating more, and alcohol consumption is rising.
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“Even in New York City, huge steps are being made, for example in the banning of trans fats in 2006, and the introduction of ‘green carts’ which bring low priced fresh fruit and vegetables within easy reach of people in poorer neighbourhoods.” Those examples are ones that Glasgow could certainly follow, agrees de Caestecker. But her main point is that the city’s health standing will improve not because of a single action, but through a collection of initiatives covering the food we eat, the life we lead, and the things we do for ourselves. Scandinavian countries are more equal in terms of income and living standards and this leads to better health. Citing the example of Finland, whose health statistics moved from the bottom to the top of the European league within a generation, she points out that to a large extent the achievement was helped because farmers were given incentives to grow healthier food such as dark berries, now a Finnish staple. “They changed the agriculture. It became easier for people to eat more healthily.” The stakes are high, and not only for a health black spot like Glasgow. “The projections are horrific. If we do nothing, 70 per cent of the population will be overweight or obese in future.
7 “So we need to do something about physical activity, diet, smoking, alcohol, drugs and so on. And we do that in all sorts of ways, from the use of green space to the promotion of healthy food. We have great resources in Scotland. “Sometimes these can be quite simple initiatives. In Latin America, some cities have ‘car free Sundays’ when people have to walk, or cycle for example. “Can we make certain types of unhealthy food more expensive than healthy options? Chocolate or fizzy drinks for example? Certainly we should have minimum pricing on alcohol, that is proven to make a difference to consumption levels,” affirms de Caestecker. “We should encourage easier access to healthy food such as fruit and vegetables.” De Caestecker believes the health service must promote good health practice as much as treating health. “GPs are key to this, and parents are key to it”, she adds. “Glasgow has the worst statistics in Scotland simply because the biggest link is poverty. As the biggest city, Glasgow has more areas of deprivation. The most important actions to improve health will be those to create jobs, reduce worklessness, take action on poverty. “However, it has to be said that these are quite deep-seated problems. When the Centre for Population Health studied Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow, here we have three cities with very similar histories and social and economic patterns, yet Glasgow’s health statistics are poorer than the other two. “It may be a little in our psyche, but it isn’t the weather, it isn’t sectarianism, and it isn’t in our genes.” Is she optimistic? “We are a long way from reversing the situation. We still see physical inactivity in very young children. But we have to be optimistic that a combination of efforts, from education, prevention programmes such as smoking cessation, health promoting regulation and legislation and most importantly tackling disadvantage and poverty in our society to we can turn things round. It is something everybody should be concerned about, and do something to help improve the situation.” ||
For more information visit: www.glasgowsciencecentre.org/blog
The most important actions to improve health will be those to create jobs, reduce worklessness, take action on poverty.
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interview 2
ExerCise
Professor Julien Baker Professor of Applied Physiology UWS
die or
Armed with a stopwatch, Professor Julien Baker is among a group of scientists who are challenging popular wisdom about the benefits of regular exercise. It’s not that Professor Baker doesn’t believe that exercise is good for you. He is more concerned about the efficiency of that exercise and whether it actually makes you fitter. Surprisingly, it is only recently that researchers have become more and more convinced that short but very sharp bursts of activity may do us much more good than more conventional gym training. By illustration, Baker – Professor of Applied Physiology at the University of West of Scotland (UWS) – might take two volunteers and give them very different routines to demonstrate the theory that short and sharp is best. So the first volunteer might do 30 minutes of running on a treadmill, three times a week, for four weeks. Volunteer number two would be asked to run flat out for 30 seconds, four times in succession with 30 seconds’ break between each run: a total of two minutes’ actual exercise, also three times a week for four weeks. “Because the second subject is actually expending about 250 per cent more effort but compressing it into a short period of time, our research indicates they will gain greater benefit,” explains Prof Baker. “That harder and more intense work widens the blood vessels, reduces blood pressure and strengthens muscles.” The theory – also examined on BBC TV by broadcaster Dr Michael Mosley – is that this high-intensity approach can be far more effective. Mosley took up the theory when he discovered he had “pre-diabetes”. The training regime brought his blood sugars back to normal.
9 Can this be possible? Julien Baker thinks so. “There is plenty of evidence that in certain cases Type-2 diabetes can be reversed by attention to diet and exercise, although this depends on the individual, their general health, and at what stage they were diagnosed,” he believes. “Anybody considering this approach should always consult their doctor first. When we experiment we will usually measure the subject’s body fat, resting heart rate and blood pressure. People’s underlying general health is always important.” This research is not about to close down the gym industry. Many people get a great deal of enjoyment from regular exercise, whether its jogging, swimming, five-a-side football or a spincycling class. But the findings of research like that led by Baker could turn conventional thinking upside down. As we come to understand more about our metabolism, we may be learning what is actually causing the so-called modern diseases: strong evidence points to the build-up of fat around the organs, such as the liver and pancreas, for example. Baker points out that one of the common measures of “fitness”, the Body Mass Index or BMI, may not be a proper measure at all. Despite being favoured by life insurers and fitness coaches, the measurement (basically a ratio between height and weight) may mean very little. As Baker puts it: “A fat boy could have less visceral fat than a thin one.” He believes that the various solutions such as more exercise and the promotion of “5 a day” fruit and vegetables results from mass publicity about diabetes and other diseases. “It is all linked to the obesity epidemic. Scotland has the same epidemiological problem as England and Wales. Nothing really has been done about it. It is not recognised in official measures of the metabolism. We have just done a study looking at the three different measures of BMI: They all got different readings. “If you have somebody who is fit and muscular they can have the same BMI as others who aren’t. It isn’t picked up.” Prof Baker adds: “The theory of high intensity exercise makes sense if you think of children in a playground. They play in the same way, with intermittent burst of energy rather than in a continuous loop. We may well have been de-training a natural instinct. “The quality of research into this area is getting better and informing us about how we adapt diet and exercise regimes, how we achieve and maintain real fitness. From there we can examine various disciplines, from performance improvement to good health maintenance and sports fitness.” ||
For more information visit: www.glasgowsciencecentre.org/blog
That harder and more intense work widens the blood vessels, reduces blood pressure and strengthens muscles.
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Community
Outreach
Bringing the Science Centre experience to the whole of Scotland
The work of Glasgow Science Centre’s On Tour team brings the whole visitor experience far out of the city and to every part of Scotland. As the Centre’s visitor figures top a record-setting 300,000, it is worth noting that it reaches a further 88,000 people with BodyWorks On Tour. Working with numerous partners and sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the team work around the country visiting schools, communities and local events to bring a rich experience of the Science Centre’s mission everywhere they can. This summer sees them touring Shetland, the Western Isles and Orkney as well as participating in a major event at Glasgow Green throughout the Commonwealth Games. “Our content is focused around the themes of Health and Well-Being. Helping people take better care of their bodies through education and physical activity is central to our goals. We move anywhere that we can, including rural areas, underprivileged communities and places where it is more difficult for people to travel to the Science Centre. So our recent and current programme has included Dumfries & Galloway, Inverness, various prison visits, and disenfranchised parts of Glasgow. There are no bounds to where we go,” explains BodyWorks Education Co-ordinator Gaby Reid.
11 “Our exhibits are very accessible to a wide variety of groups including those with additional support needs and people with literacy problems. Because of their fun and engaging nature, we can empower people to take ownership of their own Health & Well-Being through positive personal experiences. For example we have developed a 3D show that includes MRI and CT scans of the human body, a whole body sectioned with various health and disease states, that is really visually stunning and of huge educational value.” Current programmes include Fit Lab, which helps people to explore their physical fitness, challenging them to “achieve their personal best”, and BodyVision, which shows people the benefits of a healthy lifestyle as well as explaining the dangers of smoking and drinking. “We have a pair of lungs which demonstrate the impact of smoking tobacco and its associated chemicals. People can see the limited functionality of the affected tissue compared to its healthy counterpart.” adds Gaby. “It is important that we are not ‘preaching’. We aim to encourage people to reach their own conclusions on their health and make informed decisions about their lifestyles.” Outreach has a small but close-knit team of specialists, including biologists and science communicators Lauren Reid, Steven McGee-Callendar and Rebecca Nicol, and two members from more artistic backgrounds, Andrew McGeoch and Michael Berrich. Recent partners include VisitScotland, Glasgow Life, NHS Smoke-free services, New College Lanarkshire, and various local authorities and health services. During June and July, BodyWorks On Tour followed some of the activities relating to the Queen’s Baton Relay as it reached Scotland prior to July’s Glasgow Games. Recent investment in new transport and modern exhibits has helped the team to increase the impact of its campaign throughout the country. “It means that we have been able to bring the key features of a major exhibition such as BodyWorks right into people’s communities,” explains Gaby. “We receive fantastic positive feedback from the communities we visit, and very often those visits generate a lot of local publicity. It is important that people feel they are part of the Science Centre experience whatever their circumstances and wherever they live,” she adds. ||
For more information visit: www.glasgowsciencecentre.org/blog
It is important that people feel they are part of the science centre experience whatever their circumstances. Gaby Reid Science Education Co-Ordinator Bodyworks On Tour
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Every body is Different So which comes first, the body or the talent?
Keith Cook Fencing 170cm (5’7”) 62kg (9st 11lb)
Do we develop our bodies according to our sporting interests? Or is it the other way around, our sporting interests influenced by the body-shapes our genes provide?
Iain Dick American Football 170cm (5’7”) 85kg (13st 5lb)
It’s an intriguing question, and one that divides opinion amongst those proud sports people who posed for a unique set of pictures shot by leading lensman Andy Buchanan. Andy spent a day in the specially-lit surroundings of the BBC studios at Glasgow’s Pacific Quay, capturing the wildly varying body-shapes of some leading Scottish-based sportspeople. His work is exhibited in a striking montage at Glasgow Science Centre’s BodyWorks. Each picture on the right is shown to the same scale. So it is clear that American born Sterling Davis has a frame – all six feet and seven inches of it – well suited to his favoured sport, basketball. Julia Hector and Paul Meikle have the well honed, all-purpose bodies for best use in the triathlon. Kelly Donaghy and Victoria Clow have the builds and flexibility to tackle ballet dancing and rhythmic gymnastics. Leigh “Scara-Leigh” Viola and Laura “Lola Bruises” Hoy won’t mind us saying that their bodies seem tailor-made for the rough and tumble of roller derby. Compare the raw power of Iain Dick (American football) and the soaring dexterity of fencer Keith Cook. These two share the same height, yet their weights vary by an impressive 23 kg. This summer hundreds of sports people visit Glasgow to compete in the Commonwealth Games. All of them will be at peak fitness after months of preparation to compete with the very best. Coaches tell us that competitive success is all in the mind. But mental attitude means nothing without the hours of daily graft that hones the human body for whatever purpose. ||
Kelly Donaghy Emma Nuttall
Ballet
High Jump
173cm (5‘8”)
183cm (6’0”)
54kg (8st 8lb)
69kg (10st 13lb)
Ron Rodger Gymnastics 173cm (5’8”) 67kg (10st 7lb)
Lauren McPherson Horse Riding 159cm (5’3”) 55kg (8st 9lb)
13
Leigh ‘Scara-Leigh’ Viola (left)/ Laura ‘Lola Bruises’ Hoy (right) Roller Derby 157cm/ 168cm (5’2”/ 5’6”) 88kg/ 50kg (13st 12lb/ 7st 12lb)
Rachel Walker Golf 162cm (5’4”) 58kg (9st 2lb)
Sterling Davis Basketball 201cm (6’7”) 110kg (17st 5lb)
Victoria Clow Rhythmic Gymnast
Julia Hector
165cm (5’5”)
Triathlon/Swimming
56kg (8st 11lb)
170cm (5’7”) 59kg (9st 3lb)
Jamie Graham Swimming (breaststroke) 180cm (5‘11”)
Gordie Adam Natural Bodybuilding Paul Meikle Triathlon 178cm (5’10”) 92kg (14st 7lb)
190.5cm (6’3”) 102kg (16st) For more information visit: www.glasgowsciencecentre.org/blog
Photography by Andy Buchanan
72kg (11st 5lb)
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performance
improvement Scotland at the leading edge of sports science
Summer 2014 is a vital showpiece for Glasgow and Scotland, with the Commonwealth Games a new milestone in the regeneration of the city and a focal point for its self-confidence in the 21st century. The Games represent a milestone too for the sportscotland Institute of Sport, a body dedicated to developing expertise in high performance, pushing Scottish sportsmen and women to new levels of achievement. The institute exists to take our best sportspeople, analyse their various aspects of fitness and performance– including the medical and scientific side, strength and conditioning, psychology and nutrition– and helping them to make steady incremental steps towards further improvement. “A lot of our work is about teasing out the best package in order to deliver the best returns,” reflects Dr Malcolm Fairweather, the institute’s Head of Sports Science and Innovation. A recent example has been the UK Curling teams – all Scots – that competed at the winter Olympics and Paralympics in Sochi. Three teams – men’s, women’s and wheelchair– were among the medals and all teams received intensive and long term performance and medical support. “We work on various sports within cycles of four, six or sometimes eight years,” explains Fairweather, himself a former athlete. Success is measured in outcome terms by medal tally, and the aim is to develop sportspeople who are fit and healthy, supporting the coaching process in delivering performance advantage through training and programming impact. Sir Chris Hoy, Scotland’s multi-medal winning cycling star, is a classic example of an athlete who over many years worked constantly to maximise his strengths. The British cycling team was hot-housed to success in Manchester, a set-up that the institute aims to recreate in Glasgow, now home to the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Dalmarnock.
15 Fairweather and his sportscotland colleagues, along with partners at Commonwealth Games Scotland, have set themselves an ambitious target for the Commonwealth Games: a record medal haul for Team Scotland. So where did this concentration on performance improvement begin? Historically, the Australians were the first to formally create an institute in Canberra whose basic principles have been copied by others worldwide, including Scotland. The institute here was proposed around 1996/7, and since then it has evolved significantly beyond that original model. Fairweather was the first scientist to join the team, which now includes employed staff, contracted staff and University colleagues amounting in more than 60 similarly qualified specialists. “Right now, we are concentrated on the 17 Commonwealth Games sports. Our measurement at the Games is how many Scottish medals there are, how many personal bests, and so on,” he observes. “In 2015 there will be other drivers, and the intensity of support to a number of sports will increase (e.g., towards Rio 2016) and other sports may receive a less intensity of support. We also have new developments coming up, such as the new National Performance Centre for Sport at Riccarton.” He is keen to emphasise the organisation’s close collaboration with partners including UK Sport and its English equivalent institute, and British Cycling. The sportscotland institute also works with key international partners outside the UK. In cycling, the British performance support approach is being replicated in Glasgow, with athletes able to use leading edge technologies for performance analysis. “At UK level, we are seeing a high number of Scottish staff taking part in providing services at the London and Sochi Olympics, for example, and that is testament to the value that is placed upon our institute staff,” he adds. Fairweather points out that the lessons learned in high performance sport does reach everyday society. “We can learn how to plan and eat well, how to cope with travelling and other forms of day to day stress, for example. In Scotland and around the world there are real issues of obesity and lack of fitness, and the health risks that they bring, and we can help influence society via key messages arising from the work that we do, and through athlete roles models.” The performance experts are learning about a lot more than the physical side of the human body. Their research, their constant monitoring of high level sportspeople, extends to the brain and its role in performance. “If you look at the expert performer we are looking at a process of understanding how performance is delivered and what activities stand out,” concludes Fairweather. “We can model expert performance so that we understand how to tweak certain factors and measure their effect upon performance output. “It is a scientific process in many ways, but in the end it is also about learning more about how world class performance is delivered and then adapting behaviour in order to deliver an outcome of winning more medals.” ||
For more information visit: www.glasgowsciencecentre.org/blog
We are looking at a process of understanding how performance is delivered... Dr Malcolm Fairweather Head of Sports Science and Innovation
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endura: science THE
of
cyclE
Jim McFarlane Founder Endura
Scottish company leads the world in hi-tech cycling wear
WEAR
A world beating cycle clothing business employing 100 people from a headquarters at Livingston is expanding into new markets worldwide. The specialist company Endura was founded by keen Scottish club cyclist Jim McFarlane after a 14-month stay in Australia where a theft inspired him to create his own cycle clothing. Jim had not been able to replace his specialist kit adequately after it was stolen during a team triathlon event. So he resolved to produce his own clothing that focused on function and longevity without cutting corners on materials or construction. That was in 1992. The company occupied a niche in the market until 2005, when Jim returned to take charge after a five year break during which he pursued other business interests. “Growth has been dramatic since then. Endura is about 15 times bigger since 2005. The UK is our biggest market, but in future real growth will come from international activities. At the moment we have sales of around £25 million,” says Jim. With growth in mind, Endura has established significant presences at Indianapolis, USA, and Shanghai, China, as well as distributors worldwide. So what makes Scotland special when it comes to specialist clothing for sport? The country is home to major brands, designers and manufacturers such as Tiso and Trespass, as well
17 as a major European manufacturing and design base for the US giant W.L. Gore, which has two plants also in Livingston. The answer may lie in the Scottish engineering tradition. Engineers seek to improve products and techniques that may exist already, finding better ways to do things, or new ways to manufacture more effective things, in this case cycling wear. McFarlane certainly takes that view. “There is a lot of science involved in our fabrics and components. It may be about finding or developing a better form of Velcro, waterproof zippers, hand grips or clothing with integrated LED lights for enhanced safety,” he offers. “Right now we have a patent pending for pads designed for people’s different pelvic geometries, moulded around the way they sit on their bikes, and so on.” The advanced product development centre is at Livingston. But the Endura boffins work closely with experts elsewhere. For example they test kit at the Smart Aero Technology centre at Silverstone. “Mountain bike clothing has really come from nowhere over the last 20-odd years. Back then clothing was still traditionally roadorientated and couldn’t cope with high tear and abrasion. There was a gap in the market,” recalls McFarlane. “Today we are servicing the performance market, but also urban cycle clothing and women’s clothing. We have had to adapt to changing demand and also different cycling trends.” That adapting might include providing in-built LED lighting for commuter cyclists. Or office workers who cycle may be in the market for reversible jackets that look stylish but also meet the needs of safety, visibility and tough wear. At the other end of the market Endura are testing time-trial suits and over-shoes, testing airflow control and other high-tech measures. At every step of the development path, science is being used to develop clothing that heightens safety, improves on what it replaces, and improves the performance of our cycling athletes, whether they are weekend trail warriors or stars competing in this summer’s Games. ||
For more information visit: www.glasgowsciencecentre.org/blog
There is a lot of science involved in our fabrics and components.
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is
diet the Kevin Dorren Founder Diet Chef
?
key
Scottish entrepreneur Kevin Dorren believes he has found a profitable niche in the weight-loss market.
Delivering hi-tech calorie control to your door
From an inconspicuous base just outside Edinburgh, Dorren and his team of chefs, product developers and marketing experts are growing an international business that aims to help busy people to improve their health and reduce their weight. Diet Chef is a clever business idea. Its customers are people who want to succeed with a diet that delivers quality and helps them to reduce their calories in a lasting way. “The psychology of dieting is actually really interesting,” comments Dorren. “You can help people to defend against cheating, for example. We give them structure. We have proven that people can lose 50 per cent more using Diet Chef than by themselves. The key is choice restriction, because the more choice you give people, the more they will eat.” Diet Chef started in 2008, as the UK entered what became a double-dip recession. Today it turns over £20 million and has 100,000 customers. It has expanded into Germany and is planning to enter the potentially lucrative US market. The company employs 45, mainly at its Newbridge HQ, and they work at the creative and operational side of the business – design, product development, customer service and IT. “We out-source all of the food, and the deliveries,” explains Dorren. “The science is calorie control. At an early stage we worked with a nutritionist. Our meals, which are delivered to the customer’s
19
Losing weight is more closely associated than ever with the need to maintain good health.
door, tend to be higher in protein and fibre, but we do not follow a low-carb diet. We are becoming the largest outside caterer in the world, and we use clever software and systems to achieve this.” In many respects the Diet Chef model reflects modern-day realities, at least for the affluent, who are “cash rich and time poor”. Often they will have well paid professional careers, and feel unable to spend too much time actually doing something about their health and fitness. The company’s design and delivery of calorie controlled, tasty meals contrasts with rival weight loss programmes, which might entail regular attendance at a community venue to have your weight measured along with the rest of your group. Diet Chef reckon now that they are the third-largest weight-loss programme business in the US, behind Weightwatchers and Slimming World, both of whom operate very different business models. The UK market alone is estimated at £700-800m and if anything it is likely to grow. Dorren believes the diet industry gets a “bad rap”, as people think of quick fixes, bad diets that are here today and gone tomorrow. “The truth is people’s metabolism changes. As they move through their 30s and into their 40s they find it more difficult to get into their jeans or bikinis, and they no longer want a quick fix, but something longer lasting. So our focus is the 35-plus market.” Losing weight is more closely associated than ever with the need to maintain good health. Concern about the modern diseases linked to obesity has begun to influence how people think about weight loss. By reducing calorie intake by 400-600 a day, people can lose 1-2 pounds a week. In marketing parlance, it’s all about ‘creating commitment’. Dorren is convinced he and his team have tapped into a modern desire to achieve results with a reliable system and little effort beyond will-power. “There is no miracle cure. We are trying to provide the elements of convenience, portion control and calorie counting. “You tend to find people reach a crossroads where they decide to diet, or they choose the gym. Very seldom will they do both, as they don’t have the self discipline. “From a Scottish base we are using the most modern techniques and the best research to help people tackle one of society’s biggest problems of the modern age.” ||
For more information visit: www.glasgowsciencecentre.org/blog
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BodyWorks Entering a second year, we look back at how the 3rd floor exhibition has fared.
More than a year on, and Glasgow Science Centre’s BodyWorks exhibition looks and feels as fresh as its opening night back in Easter 2013. The ground-breaking show has attracted praise from the Centre’s peers in the museum and exhibition sector, many of whom have toured as they look for practical ideas about their own displays and visitor centres. But the real achievement for everyone at the Science Centre is that BodyWorks has fulfilled its aims of attracting visitors of all ages to the Science Mall, boosting overall admissions to a record 305,485 for the year to March 2014. The initial concept had been to design a science-based fixed exhibit that works at different levels of depth in order to appeal to a broader range of visitors – young and old, science enthusiast or lay person – whilst delivering a great deal of learning and information. “It is the real mix of people on the exhibition floors that pleases me,” remarks Director of Science Robin Hoyle. “Early on you might see young children running around and having a go on everything, and later in the same day older people will be taking their turn. “We have had a number of organisations, museums and so on, visiting to see what we did, perhaps with a view to developing their own ideas about the approach to design, the building of exhibits, and the deepening of content, so that the experience has a broad appeal.”
21
The exhibition has definitely won us friends in high places... Robin and his colleagues believe that the success of BodyWorks has boosted the Science Centre’s standing among many stakeholders, including visitors, partner agencies, industry and sponsors. BodyWorks attracted more than 200 partners and two major sponsors, Wellcome Trust and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). “The exhibition has definitely won us friends in high places in terms of finding additional funding, giving people the confidence that we are a good organisation to support, and that we know how to deliver very high quality visitor attractions with a strong science base,” he adds. There have been some unexpected consequences to the BodyWorks theme, based as it is on the human body, how it works and how science can intervene. One man, visiting soon after a life-saving brain operation, met his surgeon who used one of the exhibits to explain in detail what had been done in the theatre. A family was overheard using another exhibit to understand how their father’s heart operation had worked. Robin concludes: “The great thing is that nearly every exhibit is popular, although it has to be said that few people can resist using the ‘pinwall’ to see what shapes they can make!” Meanwhile, the Centre’s next planned new energy exhibition, Powering the Future, has raised £1.1m of its overall funding target of £1.5m, and further progress is expected in the coming months. ||
For more information visit: www.glasgowsciencecentre.org/blog
Robin Hoyle Director of Science
22 ISSUE 10 : WELLBEING
Climate
Change Mark Walport Government Chief Scientific Adviser
The UK Government’s top scientist visited Glasgow recently to deliver a strong warning on the effects of climate change and the need to tackle it. Speaking to an audience of business people and academics at Glasgow Science Centre, Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Sir Mark Walport said that society and individuals share a responsibility to reduce carbon emissions wherever possible. “There is no doubt that what we are seeing now is dramatic change caused by human activities, namely carbon emissions. We are seeing the effects of that in overall climate warming, since about 1900 and perhaps even earlier, including the melting of Arctic ice, and climate disruption such as excess drought, excess rain and so on. Professor Walport believes that the country must take sustained and drastic action to tackle the problem, including change s in energy use and lifestyles. “We have to reduce our carbon emissions, using renewable sources of energy, capturing emissions, or by the use of other sources of power such as nuclear. There is no single answer,” he explained. “We in Britain are a heavy producer of carbon emissions and we have been doing it longer than the rest of the world, because we invested the industrial revolution. “Now we have a legally binding target of reducing emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, and there is no doubt that we need to do everything possible to reach that target.” Professor Walport believes that an active participation in debate about climate change helps people to understand its implication, and therefore to implement practical mitigating steps, no matter how large or small. “It is extremely important to have this democratic discussion about this. We need to debate what we are going to do about it. We can do things that are good for our health, such as cycling or walking. And we can do much bigger things, as business and organisations too.” ||
For more information visit: www.glasgowsciencecentre.org/blog
23 From 14th June 2014
The Centre’s On Tour team will be travelling around Scotland to bring science to your area as part of the Queen’s Baton Relay. Watch out for more news and dates shortly. at
GSC
Glasgow Tower Opening Late July
Glasgow Tower will open to the public, allowing you to travel around 100 metres up to the observation cabin.
GSC on the Green July 23rd to August 3rd
At part of our ‘On Tour’ public engagement activity, visit our marquee on Glasgow Green, walk inside our huge heart, try sports and explore your own physiology as part of Glasgow Festival 2014. at
GSC
Sound to Sea Two evenings of spectacle as bands, artists, fireworks and aerial dancers combine in ‘Sound to Sea’ – an extravaganza provided by Cryptic.
at
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Meet the Expert events September 26th -29th
GSC supports the school break with a wide range of ‘Meet the Expert’ activities in the Science Centre.
World Space Week October 4th – 12th
World Space Week focuses this year on the role of GPS in our lives. at
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October Holidays October 11th-19th
October School holidays with a range of practical science activities taking place at GSC to further our mission of science engagement. at
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Question of Science 2014 with Jim Al Khalili 23rd October 2014
Join theoretical Physicist, Professor Jim Al Khalili, and the Science Centre team at Question of Science Dinner in October. Dine on a sumptuous meal, hear an inspiring talk from Professor Jim and battle it out with other teams to be crowned Question of Science Quiz winners.
For more information visit: www.glasgowsciencecentre.org/blog
FOR YOUR
August 1st and 2nd
DATESDIARY
Queen’s Baton Relay
ABOUT mercury Mercury is a print and online publication produced by Glasgow Science Centre to promote science issues in Scotland, to examine the factors facing scientists and engineers, and to profile leading thinkers in industry, government and academia.
thanks Glasgow Science Centre would like to thank everyone who contributed to this edition, and especially our guests Linda de Caestecker, Professor Julien Baker, Dr Malcolm Fairweather, Jim McFarlane and Kevin Dorren. Thanks, also, to those who helped with photography and illustrations facts and figures to make Mercury as current and accurate as possible. If you would like to contribute to future editions of Mercury, please contact us at
mercury@glasgowsciencecentre.org
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