AN AMERICAN NUTRITION PROFESSOR has cast new light on the established theories of dieting – by proving that you can lose almost two stone in 10 weeks simply by eating sweet food considered traditionally ‘bad’ for you.

Mark Haub, a lecturer at Kansas State University, set out on his so-called ‘Twinkie Diet’ – named after the brand of sugary cake he used as the staple part of his diet for the experiment – in order to question whether weight loss had much to do with the quality of ones diet, or whether it was entirely based on calorie intake.

CNN reports that having replaced his entire diet with nothing but high-calorie Twinkie cakes – and eating practically nothing else for the entire time – Haub’s “convenience store diet” caused him to lose 27 pounds, almost two stone, simply because the 1800 calories taken in through his crash diet was significantly less than the 2600 calories he ordinarily took in every day.

The only other foods Haub ate for the entire challenge were an occasional stick of celery or green beans, and a daily multivitamin pill. His body mass index went from 28.8 – statistically marking him as ‘overweight’ – to 24.9, which is normal. Haub now, CNN says, weighs about 12-and-a-half stone.

His weight loss has not come, as one might have expected, to the detriment of other aspects of his health: his “bad” cholesterol, or LDL, dropped by 20% while his HDL, or “good” cholesterol, increased by the same amount. The level of triglycerides, which are a form of fat, in his body fell by 39%.

“That’s where the head scratching comes,” Haub asks. “What does that mean? Does that mean I’m healthier? Or does it mean how we define health from a biology standpoint, that we’re missing something?”

He does not recommend replicating his crash diet, however, saying it will take much longer for him to be able to offer a true indication of whether the diet will have adversely affected his overall health.