Fresh fruit is OK, but try to limit yourself to a maximum of two pieces of fruit per day.

Any foods containing wheat should go – these include biscuits, cakes, crackers and many types of processed foods. Sugary snacks and confectionery should not be available. Replace the ‘treat’ box with a visible fresh fruit bowl. Pre-packed fruit juices and dried fruit should also be avoided as these will give you a sudden sugar bomb.

There should be no bread in the house; you can probably remove the bread bin as you won’t need this any more.

The big drivers of insulin spikes in our current Western diet are sugar, wheat and corn. We will replace these with more natural foods that are less damaging to our metabolism.

The first step will focus on decreasing your average daily insulin levels – but at the same time you can eat really well.

different. Instead of dieting, we are going to change the environmental signals that our body is picking up. These signals will reset your weight set-point at a lower level and then the hormonal and metabolic signals will drive your weight downwards (towards the lowered set-point). As a consequence, you will notice a natural decrease in your

The solution is to create your own personal environment, one that insulates you from those obesity triggers that your genes are looking for.

Our genes and our epigenes, triggered by our environment, control our own personal weight set-point. Just like farm animals, most humans have little personal choice as to what size they end up – skinny, slim, average, big or obese. If you happen to have the wrong genes in the wrong environment, then it is almost preordained that you are going to

Our stressful, sedentary and sugar-laden lifestyles don’t affect everyone in the same way, however. Some people can breeze through life without a thought for their waistline and remain slim; they seem somehow to be protected against obesity, almost as if they are immune to it. Other people go through their lives being stalked at every corner by the