BANTING was once unheard of in the impoverished Cape Town suburb of Ocean View. Now even taxi drivers are trying the low-carb, high-fat diet. BANTING was once unheard of in the impoverished Cape Town suburb of Ocean View. Now even taxi drivers are trying the low-carb, high-fat diet.Forty residents are hooked after participating in a six-week Banting programme that was completed last weekend. Many suffered from high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease.Local actress Eudia Samson made the programme a reality after she tried the diet to battle her weight gain. She teamed up with the Tim Noakes Foundation and Groote Schuur Hospital doctor Hassina Kajee. The foundation is now planning to roll out similar programmes in other poor communities.The idea of taking the Banting diet to Cape Town's poorer areas came to Sampson while she was doing a six-week Tension and Trauma Release Exercise programme in Delft. Samson said poor people were encouraged to harvest fat from meat to fry foods, eat more vegetables and cut out sugar. Cheaper foods such as chicken livers and salmon offcuts were also included in their diets.She explained there was no need for expensive free-range eggs as ordinary eggs would do. Michelle Mokuane, 35, has always suffered from high blood pressure because she has Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. Her blood pressure was as high as 170 - even on medication. But she said she has brought her blood pressure under control and lost 8.5kg - a feat she attributes to Banting.She said: "There is no looking back. It is not a diet, it is a lifestyle ."Darrol Fowkes, 42, the only man participating in the group, said he lost 7kg in three weeks.But the anti-Banting critics remain unconvinced.Dietician Kari Naude and her colleague Kelly Lynch believe not enough research has gone into the diet. They said some of their patients have had increased cholesterol levels since starting Banting. Said Naude: "There's no need to be extreme. It's a hell of a lot of work cutting out carbs. We adjust carbs according to what they need."..