I bought Robert C Atkins "New Diet Revolution" book. My whole approach to nutrition has changed. Atkins teaches you to limit your carbohydrate intake, virtually eliminating "empty calories" from refined sugar and bleached flour. He also advocated cutting trans fats and nitrates from your diet, as well as the use of supplements for health and wellness. On Atkins, the only carbs you eat are healthy ones, primarily from veggies with a low glycemic index.
The advantages of this style of eating are many. First, since you get most of your nutrition from fats & protein, you're virtually
never hungry. You'll look at the clock and say to yourself,
gee, is it time to eat again already? And it's much easier to stick with that your typical "diet", because you can eat pretty much til you're full, so you're never feeling deprived. Plus, since you utilize the metabolic advantage you get from eating things that require more energy to digest, instead of restricting calories, you won't lower your basal metabolism.
That's the main problem with "diets"-
starvation response. When dramatic lower your caloric intake, your body "turns down the furnace" so to speak to conserve fuel. This is a mechanism that evolved in mammals to survive periods of famine and food shortage. Unfortunately for the overweight person, this means that if you used to burn, say, 2400 calories a day, your body may slow it's metabolic rate to burn only 1600 calories per day. So once you've lost the weight and resume eathing a sensible diet of 2200 calories, you actually begin to regain weight again. Sadly, many will gain back all the weight, plus some. This simply doesn't happen when you go with a high fat & protein diet.
Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now!
But I strongly recommend the book to anyone, especially those that are borderline diabetic or over 100 lb everweight. It's changed my life and improved every aspect of my health.