Audrey Eyton

Audrey Eyton (11 January 1936 – 30 June 2019) was an English animal welfare campaigner, journalist and writer. She is best known for creating the F-Plan diet, a high-fibre diet that has been criticized as a fad diet.

Biography

Eyton was born in Blackburn and as a child developed a passion for animals. She co-founded the Slimming Magazine in 1969 with her husband Tom Eyton, in Caterham, Surrey.

She took part in animal rights demonstrations and raised several rescue pigs at her home in Canterbury. In her later years, Eyton was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease but continued her support for animal welfare.

F-Plan diet

In 1982, Eyton authored The F-Plan Diet that was translated into sixteen languages. The book, which promoted a high-fibre diet became a bestseller and had sold over three million copies by 1985. The book was very successful in New Zealand and sold 75,000 copies in 49 days.

Eyton was inspired by the research of Denis Burkitt. The F-Plan is low-fat, but not vegetarian. Dairy and meat are allowed in small amounts.

Reception

The F-Plan diet is in alignment with mainstream nutritional advice in regard to consumption of fruits, vegetables and whole grains and research has continued to indicate the health benefits of eating high-fibre foods.

Nutritionist Judith S. Stern criticized the F-Plan diet as the fiber consumption is too extreme but described it as "one of the more benign fad diets". Conversely, Nutritionist Jack Z. Yetiv praised the F-Plan for preaching a "sensible diet plan" and noted that it is in the direction in which national dietary recommendations are being focused.

Selected publications

The F-Plan Diet (1982) The F-Plan Calorie and Fibre Chart (1982) The Safeway F-Plan (1985) The F-Plus Diet (1986) The Complete F-Plan Diet (1987) Amazing High-Fibre F-Plan Diet (1989) The Kind Food Guide (1991) The F2 Diet (2006)