I'm BAAACK!  Winter was rough.

The issue I want to talk about today is these crazy fad diets.

One bunch of folks is saying to eat 80% carbohydrates and no fats.  This is conducive to developing Type 2 Diabetes. Also, our brains need HEALTHY fats, e.g. peanuts, nuts, seed oils, avocados.  Our skin and nails need those healthy fats as well. You can follow a vegetarian or vegan diet and get plenty of protein from plant sources and NOT consumer excessive starches and sugars.  One person says she eats 15 to 20 dates per day.  Dates are great, healthy even -- IN MODERATION.  They are loaded with natural sugars.

Then there are a bunch of crazies following the unbalanced Adkins Diet or other no or excessively low carbohydrate diets, insisting that they want to be ketonic. Once again, an unhealthy extreme.  High protein diets are very hard on the kidneys, and since our kidneys are particularly vulnerable if we have Diabetes, WHY would you follow a diet that further compromises your kidneys? And our bodies do need some carbohydrates, but nutrient rich ones. Don't eat that "enriched white flour" nonsense.  Whole grains are very healthy IN MODERATION.  The fiber in whole grains is great for our digestive tracts.  When we eliminate fiber, we are courting colon cancer.

You will hear people say, "Don't eat potatoes."  Hogwash!  You don't want to eat fast food fries, but boiled or baked potatoes are loaded with nutrients.  Eating a couple of servings of potato per week is quite healthy.  Sweet potatoes are even higher in nutrients.  Some people say, "Don't eat anything that grows under the ground."  More hogwash!  Carrots, parsnips, beets, turnips, etc. all have important nutrients including phytochemicals our bodies need.

You do want to balance a your meals so that you are including a variety of fruits and vegetables.  If you have a veggie burger (no bun), broccoli (raw or steamed), a baked potato with just a tablespoon of fat (I like Earth Balance vegan spread or olive oil on my potatoes), and a serving of fruit for a meal, that is a healthy, balanced meal!  I'm meeting multiple needs for my body.

Some of the high protein advocates also advocate high fat consumption.  Seriously?  Let's add heart and arterial disease to the kidney problems of a high protein diet.

What happened to a basic BALANCED DIET? The Harvard Whole Plate approach is very healthy and it's works for vegetarians and vegans as well as for omnivores.  If you want to lose weight and maintain your weight loss, measure everything and track what you eat.  I use MY FITNESS PAL, a free app.  It has a "nutrition" function where I can check how much carbohydrate, protein and fat I am consuming, as well as further breakdowns of nutrients.  Talk to your physician or nutritionist and get a calorie target.  The app will give you the divisions of fat, carbohydrate and protein for that number of daily calories, and you can go in and manipulate that, but I strongly advise against going excessively high or low with any of the nutrient groups.

Just remember, ALL THINGS IN MODERATION. Our bodies require many different nutrients.  Keep your diet balanced.