SLIMMERS should be weary of popular low-carbohydrate diets, warns a Swindon expert.

Sara Young, area manager for Slimming World, believes trendy diets such as the Atkins diet are not sustainable and has urged those wanting to shed the pounds to re-evaluate their eating habits instead.

She said: "These diets require you not to eat certain types of food. Clearly this is not sustainable. You cannot live the rest of your life without eating pasta and certain vegetables.

"If you want to lose weight you have to develop a suitable and balanced eating plan and combine it with regular exercise."

The advice follows a warning from a US-based coalition of health groups, which says people should cast off low-carb diets or risk damaging their health.

Although no specific link has been proven between health defects and the Atkins diet, Mrs Young, a former nurse, says low-carbohydrate diets in general carry risks.

"There have been numerous reports in the press recently concerning possible links to kidney damage this is obviously quite worrying," she said.

"Our diets are based on educating people. Our diets are about eating the right amount of the right food.

"These fad diets are also not practical because most protein-rich foods contain carbohydrates."

Barbara Moore, president of the Shape Up America, which formed the coalition, said: "Low carbo-hydrate diets conflict with decades of solid scientific research that encourages us to reduce saturated fat and boost fruit, vegetable and fibre intake.

"Restricting carbohydrates stresses vital organs and alters brain metabolism while offering no advantages in terms of either fat loss or long-term weight control."

The group, called the Partnership for Essential Nutrition, has the backing of the American Association of Diabetes Educators, American Institute for Cancer Research, and the American Obesity Association.