Eulalee Thompson

Dr. Robert Robinson wants us to eat our dinner at breakfast. And, when he says dinner, he's not talking about a light, mid-evening snack but a real, hearty Jamaican spread.

Take your rice and peas, chicken, a little curried goat, vegetables and a side order of potato salad at breakfast but, only if you are trying to lose weight. Well, who wouldn't want to lose at least those last five vanity pounds, but some of us don't even eat like that for dinner much more for breakfast. Anyway, hold your skepticism and read on, there may be some method to his madness.

"When I started to look at the science in the body, I found that some changes occur in the mornings but not in the evenings. We have hormones that fluctuate throughout the day ... the circadian rhythm refers to changes in cortisol," explained Dr. Robinson, a specialist in internal medicine.

In a nutshell, the burden of Dr. Robinson's nutrition theory is that the hormone cortisol (linked to the stress and the fight or flight responses) has its peak circulation level at about 8 a.m. and its lowest level at 8 p.m. Cortisol encourages the breakdown of fat and through this action impacts the body's metabolic rate. So, no heavy meals in the morning will see peak cortisol circulation with inadequate food to act on, impacting fat metabolism and the switch on/switch off action of fat enzymes.

It's about cortisol

Starving cortisol of food to act on in the mornings when it's at peak activity only triggers off a fat retention cycle that will continue throughout the day, in consort with the levels of other hormones such as insulin and leptin. Eating a heavy meal in the mornings, according to Dr. Robinson 'resets the system and keeps it in balance'.

"If the body knows that it has a high supply of food, it doesn't go into the conservation mode ... eat a strong breakfast and then you are free to do what you like for the rest of the day," he said.

This weight management regime is called the Sabbatical Diet. Dr. Robinson admits that this diet's philosophical underpinnings are linked to the Bible and his Christian faith but also points to the integration of his scientific training. He makes Biblical references to diet - Peter's experience in Acts, dietary restrictions in Levitical laws, and the numerous references to greed and gluttony as a violation of the principle of contentment, among others.

The Sabbatical diet sheet goes like this:

Breakfast must be your largest meal for the day. Eat heavily six mornings per week.

Breakfast should consist of a full meal with a balanced intake of meat or fish, starch and sugars, vegetables and fibre, fruits and milk products or legumes. According to Dr. Robinson, you should not be significantly hungry again until in the evening, that is, at 6 p.m.

For lunch and dinner eat according to your needs, no restrictions though high- protein foods are recommended.

The seventh day is for fasting from food or you can have low-calorie foods such as vegetables and soups for breakfast. Eat in the evening according to your needs.

Does this diet really work? Well, Dr. Robinson said that he had been struggling with his overweight tendency since 1989 and was only able to achieve sustainable weight loss after 2003 when he applied this diet formula to himself. He explained that when he started the diet, he weighed 245 pounds with about 33 per cent body fat. He lost 35 pounds within three months by eating hearty breakfasts and cut his body fat by eight per cent.

Obesity clinic

As a medical practitioner, he has also been recommending the diet to several of his patients and associates and, he claims, with good results. In fact, so convinced is he of the sound science of the diet that he is now going about opening an obesity clinic in Kingston, just to show people how simple it is to lose and manage their weight.

He has had lots of controversy over this Sabbatical Diet but Dr. Robinson said that the basic point should be whether or not the diet works.

What do you nutrition scientists and other readers out there think? I would love to hear from you.

Eulalee.thompson@gleanerjm.com