Nutritionist's advice: Stop dieting

So you started the new year on a diet, right?

Giving up carbs and starches, watching the sugars, heavy on the fish and chicken and light on the beef and pork.

Forget it, says Francie M. Berg, founder of Healthy Weight Network. She's a licensed nutritionist and adjunct professor at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine.

Skip diets and move ahead with healthy habits is her advice.

"Resolve to follow a healthy diet-free lifestyle through 2009," Berg says. "You can get your life back on track, improve your health and move on with what's really important to you."

No diet? I had to talk to her about that.

Q. Shouldn't I cut calories and watch what foods I eat forever?

A. It's helpful if you change your style of eating if you're not eating well. But, in general, eat enough food and calories so your body is satisfied. The problem with cutting calories on a diet is that the body isn't satisfied and there is this continual drive to eat more.

Q. But there are always diets, maybe always have been diets.

A. We've had diets for about 50 years. If any one of them worked we wouldn't have so many obese people.

The truth is some people are thin and some are larger. A lot of thin people are restricting their food so their bodies are not as healthy as they should be.

The real problem with people 50-plus is a deficiency in nutrients. There's a lot of emphasis on not eating meat and these people need the protein they get from meat. They are scared of what they eat. They think food is wrong and not good for them.

Q. So the answer is...

A. Eat all the food groups. Eat moderately. Eat at regular times, three meals and one or two snacks a day. If people will do that and stop dieting, they probably will get their bodies in good balance.

Q. You actually have a file on the Web site you edit, healthyweightnetwork.com, on "normal eating."

A. Normal eating. An interesting concept. It's pretty easy.

Right now, it's politically correct to be a vegetarian. I don't want to talk against that. And for some people, it works.

But most of us need animal products to get the full nutrition from the food we eat.

Q. There's more to a daily "diet" than food?

A. It's important to stretch and work on balance to keep our bodies strong - especially as we age. Of course, physical activity is critical.

Q. Your Web site always lists the worst diet promotions of the year. What's there for 2009?

A. For the most outrageous claim, we cited the Kevin Trudeau infomercials. He was fined more than $7 million for deceptive infomercials on his weight-loss book and he was banned from making infomercials for three years.

The worst gimmick is the skineez jeans ($139) that supposedly release "medication" through friction and that reduces cellulite.

The worst claim is AbGONE, with drug-like claims that it increases "fat metabolism and calorie burn."

And our panel decided the worst product was Kimins diet by Heidi "Kimmer" Diaz that charged users to her Internet diet claiming they could lose 5 percent of weight in 10 days safely and permanently. It is essentially a starvation diet. Eleven people are suing her.

Q. So you encourage people to make good food choices, eat enough to keep themselves satisfied?

A. And also to feel good about yourself and others, accept your own body. I hope we will accept and respect other people - people who are naturally larger. These people are harassed in our country.

Eat good foods and stop when you are full.

Jane Glenn Haas writes for The Orange County (Calif.) Register. E-mail her at jghaas@cox.net