Labour MP Keith Vaz has called on MPs to adopt the Pioppi diet during their summer recess, a diet which has shown to help reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Mr Vaz, who has type 2 diabetes, advocated the diet last week in the final Commons appearance before the break. He also promised to write about it to 100 members with the most people with diabetes in their constituencies.
“I want everyone to take it up for 28 days in August and to see, when they come back, whether it has made a difference,” he said.
The Pioppi diet made national headlines this month following the release of a book (called The Pioppi Diet) by cardiologist and obesity campaigner Dr Aseem Malhotra and Donal O’Neill, a documentary maker.
The book reports on the diet eaten by people in Pioppi, ‘the world’s healthiest village’, in Italy. It recommends not fearing saturated fat and shows that reducing sugar and refined carbohydrates can help to reverse type 2 diabetes.
Malhotra highlights the benefits of basing diet around vegetables and healthy fats such as oily fish and olive oil, similar to a Mediterranean diet.
In Pioppi, people live on average to the age of 97, which is in part also due to eliminating sugar and starchy carbohydrates, such as potatoes and rice.
“We have wonderful farms and food makers in this country, but we do not spend enough time looking at what we eat,” said Mr Vaz.
“Of course, we all have diabetics in our constituencies, but the [House of Commons] Library has provided me with statistics for the top 100.”
“I ask those Members to take up the challenge of the Pioppi diet. It involves getting rid of sugar, which is a killer, keeping away from potatoes – and, for men, rice – and concentrating instead on the good food that is available around the Mediterranean.”
Eating low-carb has also proven to help reduce dependency on medication for people with type 2 diabetes. The Low Carb Program is a 10-week course that teaches about healthy living and how carbohydrates adversely affect blood glucose levels.

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