BUSINESS FORUM

Libra Life

I live in Gt Missenden and since lockdown myself and 3 partners have started a new business. We have a commercial kitchen in High Wycombe and are an online business selling a weight loss plan and delivering it to people's doors. We have clients in Devon and Dorset as well as locally. Our food boxes are filled with all fresh ingredients, all portioned out so people can't overindulge and there's no need to shop as we provide everything needed for a week's worth of meals.

The most important thing is that this diet is extremely beneficial for people suffering with Type 2 Diabetes. After years of research, scientists at Newcastle & Glasgow Unis with Diabetes UK have found something that can help people lose weight fast and reduces high blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetics. This can result in people putting their diabetes into remission.

Dr Roy Taylor is a professor at Newcastle University who spent 30 years researching the possibilities of (as he says) 'reversing' Type 2 Diabetes. He worked with Prof Mike Lean, Professor of Human Nutrition at Glasgow University and they received funding for a research programme called DiRECT (Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial) from Diabetes UK.

Dr Michael Mosley wrote a book called the '8 week blood sugar diet'. As a result of this research, Prof Roy Taylor has also written a book called 'Life without Diabetes'. Michael Mosley's book has a foreword from Prof Taylor in 2015: "Now we have completed careful studies which have shown that people who really want to get rid of their type 2 diabetes can, in just 8 weeks, lose substantial amounts of weight and return blood sugar to normal or near normal. They remain free of diabetes provided they keep the weight off. We have shown that it is possible to reverse a disease that is still widely seen as irreversible."

Prof Taylor's trials involved giving T2Ds 800 calories a day for 8 weeks, this in the form of bars/shakes or a liquid diet. There were issues with people then returning to normal foods afterwards. Dr Mosley's book instead indicates doing the same thing to put T2D into remission by eating real food.

Our weight loss plan is exactly that. We deliver all fresh food, portioned out with a meal plan devised by our chef. The plans average about 800 calories a day with a low carbohydrate intake each day too. The food is interesting, with lots of variety and our clients love it! We provide all the food required for a week so no need for shopping. No temptation, no impulse buying and it does work.

We are passionate about getting the message across to people that this doesn't have to be the dangerously progressive illness it was thought to be. It doesn't have to result in strokes, heart attacks, blindness, amputations - but it can! Did you know that in the first wave of Covid deaths, 30% of people who died had type 2 diabetes? Scary.

Stacey Lyons, www.libra-life.co.uk