Despite the long-held theory that carbohydrates do not aid weight loss, experts in America have suggested otherwise.

According to nutritional expert Frances Largeman-Roth and health editor Ellen Junes, eating foods such as pasta, potatoes and bread can help people "drop half a stone in a week."

That's the message behind their new book, 'The carb-lover's diet', which depicts an eating plan that Junes and Largeman-Roth claimed "guarantees rapid but long-term weight loss."

Their theory might interest professionals working in dietitian jobs, who typically wouldn't advise any of their patients to undertake rapid weight loss.

However as programmes of this type generally rely on little-to-no carb intake, they may approach the carb-lover's diet with a different attitude - particularly as the key to this diet is a high intake of resistant starch. The Daily Mail confirmed that this type of starch apparently encourages the liver to burn fat.

Largeman-Roth explained why she and her partner had written the book, telling The Metro: "For 20 years, diet experts and the media have spread the word that carbohydrates are bad for our health, raise blood sugar levels and make us fat. So-called healthy diets [Atkins and South Beach] have supported protein-rice plans and totally shunned potatoes, bread and pasta."

"But important research shows that people who are the most carbs (in countries such as Japan) weighed the less overall and vice verse."

The nutritionist also went on to say why she thought the carb lover's diet would appeal to the masses, claiming: "On the car lover's diet, people finally get to eat what they crave."