Enzo and I are committed to the re-introduction of real food to our table. There are many of us who already have a sense that the amount of chemical enhancement, interference and general messing with the foods that we consume is effecting our ability to maintain good health.

We are also committed to re-introducing the notion of cooking for yourself and your family, and demonstrating to children that growing your own food and bringing into the kitchen to cook, is actually really cool. Just ask Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall and discover his Edible Projects, or Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Of course if you can't grown your own potatoes, tomatoes, chickens or pineapples, we hope that you can at the minimum recognize a real one if you saw it. It may seem strange to you, but a study comparing British and French school children discovered that many British children could not recognize an artichoke, or knew that potatoes grew under the earth. The French children on the other hand were fluent in fruit and vegetable.

Let's see if we can't first dispel some myths about the food we eat and the idea of diets. It is now becoming understood that healthy food doesn't just mean the green stuff. It is understood that: A happy healthy pig, chicken or fish raised free from unnecessary hormone injections and other chemical interaction, is healthier for you to eat. That organic food doesn't have to mean some twisted carrot or frost bitten tomato that costs the earth, but can be as simple as those fresh herbs lined up on your window sill. That sustainability means shopping in your nearest farmers market or supermarket and identifying crops and food stuffs that are grown in your local area.		Top 10 brain healthy herbs and spices

All of the above notions are well understood across Europe: France, Spain and Italy notably are renowned for the way that they approach their food. Hence the Mediterranean Diet has become synonymous with good health. But the Mediterranean Diet is not a DIET, it's a way of life.

Let's turn over a new piece of toast and begin understanding the source of our food prior to bringing it to our family table.

There is no doubt that dieting has become a very successful industry which is often surrounded by confusion and ultimate failure. So let's start with some facts about you, your diet and the ever increasing need for people to diet. With a new approach to the way in which we eat, we'll be able to approach a plate full of food without fear or threat.

As I take another bite of this superb chocolate cake, this from Bryan Spondre, which reminded me of the advertising I frequently viewed on French TV telling me that if I rubbed their special cream on my bum, that all my cellulite would melt away - like magic!

Instant Weight-Loss Schemes: Give me your life savings and I will give you the secret to instant weight loss With an estimated 25% of the American population overweight, quacks selling weight-loss gimmicks have a sizable market for their wares. Unfortunately, there is no quick way to lose weight. According to National Council Against Health Fraud's Jarvis, fraudulent weight-loss schemes are usually heralded by full-page newspaper ads promising rapid, dramatic and easy weight loss or by single news column ads that look like news stories except that the word "advertisement" is written across the top. Radio and TV ads typically list 800 telephone numbers to facilitate credit card charges and private parcel deliveries. This allows promoters to circumvent the postal service's laws against mail fraud, Jarvis says. Some of the latest gimmicks in instant weight-loss plans have included skin patches, herbal capsules, grapefruit diet pills, and Chinese magic weight-loss earrings.

Is there anyone else out there intrigued by a pair of those weight-loss earrings? I only ask because a friend of mine, Belinda invited me into her pantry one day. There on the shelves were copious amounts of portion-size boxes covered with the word Nutrisystem. She went on to tell me that it was a really easy diet to do because, well the food is delivered and you just stuff it in the microwave.

My first instinct was to ask how long she had been on this particular diet. "A few months," she told me - and she was still waiting to lose weight, but went on to explain that she did have a weakness for chocolate. As she was telling me this oh so familiar tale, I took a box from the shelf.

Now I know that I need to wear glasses and that without them all words blend into one, but honestly. Even with my arm outstretched I could not read the ingredients. Not because I couldn't see them, but because the words were so long that I gave up after the 4th letter!

Something in my head just snapped! This wonderfully, kind and beautiful woman with the biggest smile of any human being living on this planet, measured herself my the inches and pounds she either gained or lost. So without further ado, let’s take a look at some dieting facts.

 

 

• Low fat foods don’t work

You cannot lose weight using Low Fat Diets. Low fat foods have been popular for more than 15 years, but yet our society is getting more overweight as each year passes. This fact alone should tell you that eating a purely low fat menu is not the answer to losing weight.

• Low calorie diets don’t work 

You won't lose weight using a low calorie diet plan either. In fact, eating low calories is the worst thing that you can do to your body, since that will only slow down your body's fat burning engine and ruin all chances of losing weight low calorie diets may allow a few pounds of weight loss for the first few days. After that all weight loss comes the phenomenon that a lot of us have become familiar with: the 'dieting plateau'. You can never get slim by starving yourself. We’ll explain that statement more fully later.

• Low carbohydrate plans don’t work 

You'll probably find it extremely difficult to get slim using a low carbohydrate diet plan. Diets low in carbohydrates have recently become popular, but the problem with many low carbohydrate menus is that they are too strict and too hard to follow for average people. Low carbohydrate menus tend to rob your body of too much energy (carbohydrates) and make it nearly impossible to remain on the program for very long.  This is why so many dieters find it difficult to follow a strict low carbohydrate menu.  

• What about Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig Dieting Plans? 

Weight loss programs such as Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig usually involve slower dieting progress over a longer period of time. While these programs generally promise a healthy 2-3 pounds of weight loss per week, they usually involve buying special meals and/or dietary supplements during the initial phases of the program and can prove costly.