There’s more to my hypothesis than a peculiar effect of nuts. I need to find out if the right kind of food in general can regulate my body weight for me, as opposed to the calorie and carbohydrate counting that dogs my days. But nuts, bless their hearts, were the catalyst for the hypothesis.

Despite steady weight loss on my diet, an air of doom hung over the future. Maintenance frightened me--I didn’t think I could hack it. Until my nut epiphany, I vaguely intended to intermittently starve, or something, on maintenance–staving off weight gains with gritted teeth. The prospect filled me with grim horror, I who love meals. The nut thing didn't offer a broad solution to maintenance--it just seemed an oddity of nature--but at least it offered the prospect of nut days instead of fast days. Nuts were a handy trick to have up my sleeve, nothing more; all dieters have one or two of those.

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It may appear that I'm heading in the direction of a primal, high-fibre diet of some sort. Well, organic food is mostly too expensive for me, so that’s out for a start. And I’ve no wish to give up the likes of rice, dairy food, or beans, which I enjoy--sometimes all at the same time. Besides, I believe we’ve evolved since the days of bonking each other over the head with cudgels and can comfortably digest many modern foods that paleo theory turns up its nose at. As it happens, I don’t eat wheat or oats, so I’ll not be stuffing a cartload of bran down my neck–nor anything else with the texture of animal feed and the smell of damp trousers; and I shall not start wearing sandals or listening to the Grateful Dead. I think one can eat a diet of mainly unprocessed food without becoming a faddist or a raving nightmare to cater for.