(Gloucestercitizen) - ON the face of it, it sounds too good to be true. And usually when that's the case it's because it is. But the concept of eating chocolate and drinking red wine in order to lose weight is fast becoming THE diet to follow this year and with such a premise it's not hard to see why.

If you haven't heard of The Sirtfood Diet already then readers, it would only have been a matter of time.

The weight loss programme is fast becoming the trendiest way to shed the pounds, attracting the sort of recognition that the famed 5:2 fasting diet has courted in recent years.

Among its celebrity pilgrims include chef Lorraine Pascale, ex-model Jodie Kidd, sailing legend Sir Ben Ainslie and boxer David Hay who all follow it religiously, swearing by its ability to help them stay on top of their game and function better than ever.

"I'm healthier, more alert and in top physical condition," Sir Ben testifies."

"Sirtfoods are key for me reaching new peaks in performance to face the upcoming challenge in British America's Cup history."

This not your average fad diet straight from a new incarnation of Mr Motivator presiding in Beverly Hills; the concept of Sirtfoods is all about switching on your so-called 'skinny gene' by increasing specific foods into your diet.

Red wine, chocolate (providing it has a high cocoa content – we're talking 85 per cent or above), coffee, chilli, strawberries; they're all Sirtfoods.

By eating more of them we help to stimulate the creation of mitochondria and the more mitochondria we have the more energy we can produce, blocking fat storage and encouraging the fat-burning process of existing blubber.

This by no means entitles you to have carte blanche over the buffet table but by following a nutritionally balanced diet with your extra dose of Sirtfoods – no starving yourself or ingesting weight loss supplements with dubious claims here – you should, on average, lose half a stone. In a week.

Phase one of the diet – "the hyper-success phase" – is intense. For the first three days you have to drink three sirtfood green juices (kale, rocket, parsley, celery, green tea) and one balanced main meal (ie aromatic chicken breast with a tomato and chilli salsa) that amounts to 1,000 calories.

By day four the calorie intake is up to 1,500 with two green juices and two main meals and thereafter – hallelujah! – three meals a day.

Sirtfoods are rich in natural plant chemicals which help to activate "sirtuins" in our body and in short these genes do the same job as exercising and fasting by helping to burn through the blubber.

Researchers first came across them when they found the compound resveratrol – thought to have antioxidant properties and lower the risk of bowel cancer – in red grape skin, pomegranates and Japanese knotweed.

But now you know just why red wine has been given the thumbs up (especially Pinot Noir) there's no cause to crack open a second bottle – we're talking a few small glasses a week and nothing more.

Aside from the fact this means dry January is over and finally there's a diet plan you have a realistic chance of following, the discovery has been hailed as one of the most influential since vitamins more than 100 years ago.