General Rules for Healthy Eating

Counting calories, counting carbs, counting fats, counting protein grams, counting points, counting minutes on the treadmill; there's a lot of counting you must do to follow the popular diets. But if your math isn't too swift, your calculations can come out all wrong. To top that, ask any expert in nutrition and you could come up with entirely different numbers.

Which Diet Plan Is Best?

Some nutritionists say to eat 25% fat in the diet, while others say 30%, or even 15 % fat. Some say to go low-carb for health, while others say that cutting carbs is disastrous for trying to stick to a diet. Then there are nutritionists who claim that high protein diets work best for weight loss or low fat diets are the ticket. Vegetarian or vegan experts claim that going meatless is a sure way to get into shape and stay in better health. So who is to be believed? Who has the answer to weight loss and good nutrition?

Any day, you can read hundreds of weight loss "secrets" on the web. The secretes come with wondrous testimonies of how a product helped someone lose over a hundred pounds. In fact, you don't need to look on the web. Watch an hour of television, and you will see Jenny Craig, Nutri-System, and Weight Watcher ads on multiple channels at nearly any hour of the day--each claiming the secret to weight loss.

The Real Secret to Weight Loss Is No Secret

It's no secret; effective weight loss is still about the calories. If you consume too many calories and exercise too little to offset over-consumption, gaining weight is the natural result. And if you want to raise your metabolism, the tried-and-true way is to add exercise. If you want to be in good physical health, you should avoid eating too much fat, avoid eating too much protein, avoid eating too many carbs--especially processed ones with little fiber, and get regular exercise.

Instead of trying to sort out all the different diets and nutritional information that's out there, just stick to what's been common knowledge all along. Eat a balanced diet--low in animal fats and high in whole grains, fruit, and vegetables. Avoid eating chemical-laden foods, and eat the least processed, freshest version of the food as possible. These are not secrets. You don't have to pay for a program or a product to learn the general rules for healthy eating. You just have to decide to make healthy food choices.