Let’s not talk about diets. Diets are punishment – like being sent to bed without dinner. Diets take some of fun out of living. Many diets or supplements are harmful to your health or even dangerous, if you have certain risk factors.

Forget any past diet failures and push aside any guilt or shame you harbor about your weight. It’s time to look forward; not back. You have whole future in front of you to get better every day. It's time to eat healthy.

This is not a short term fix. Isn’t your health more important than your weight? Let’s be sensible and talk about eating healthy for life.

Don’t get me wrong – diets do help many people lose weight – for a time. Almost any restrictive diet can give one a jump start on weight loss; and many people are so encouraged by rapid weight loss that they are motivated to stay on diet.

Studies have shown that only diets that work are ones you stick to. That why majority of people who successfully lose weight on a restrictive diet run into trouble when they move to maintenance phase. So again I say, you need a plan to eat healthy for life.

As with most things in life, there’s no ONE solution that suit’s everyone. When choosing to eat healthy, a plan for rest of your life, you want to find one that YOU can live with.

If your choice of plan starts with an initial (less than nutritious) restrictive phase, consider what supplements you ought to take during that phase. Also be sure that maintenance part of program meets generally accepted nutritional guidelines or that you can make it do so with minor adjustments or supplementation. You definitely need to think long term when choosing to eat healthy.

What We’ve Known All Along

With all diet programs, books, ads and fads these days, it’s easy to lose sight of some really basic facts of some very convincing long term health studies that can guide us to healthier eating.

1.Calories In vs. Calories Expended

The human body is a marvelous machine. It can be pushed to great lengths, like pre-exam all-nighters, or to perform amazing feats, like running marathons or scaling mountains. But it is a machine. It needs to be cared for and properly maintained.

The more it is abused or pushed to max, greater chance that parts will break down prematurely or beyond nature’s ability to repair them. Like any machine, it needs fuel to operate. Give it improper or insufficient fuel and it won’t run as well, if at all. Give it too much fuel and that will gum up works. Now here’s where analogy breaks down.

With a man made machine, excess fuel simply overflows and makes a big mess. Unfortunately, human machine has amazing capacity to create unlimited new storage tanks for excess fuel – even to point of death. Further, once that excess fuel is stored, it is difficult to dislodge – but not impossible. That’s Calories In part of equation.

The fuel you take in is burned by every single movement you make: breathing smiling, kissing, walking, dancing, chewing and even digesting your food. The more you move, more fuel (calories) you burn.

The part of your body that has ability to move other parts is muscle. Ergo more muscles you have and more you use them, more calories you burn. In fact, every ounce of muscle you add increases your basal metabolism – rate at which your body burns fuel.

One pound of fat contains 3500 calories. If you cut 250 calories from your daily diet and burn another 250 calories with exercise, you can lose one pound in a week!

The most efficient way to eat healthy operates on both sides of equation. Monitor your fuel intake of course; but just as importantly, get moving to burn that fuel. And better yet, build new muscle to boost your metabolism – rate at which YOUR body burns fuel. This way you’ll burn more calories every hour of every day for rest of your life.

2.Secrets of World’s Healthiest Populations

Global epidemiological studies have identified some unusually healthy populations and linked their health to diets that differ in significant ways from typical Western diet.

Prostate cancer is most common cancer found in men over age of 50 years, with more than 200,000 new cases each year in United States. The cause of prostate cancer, like many other cancers, is unknown; however, some studies suggest alterations in testosterone metabolism may play a role in its development. Prostate cancer is generally slow growing and may not cause any symptoms until late in disease. Symptoms may include frequent or painful urination, dribbling after urination, sensation of incomplete emptying of bladder, or blood in urine. The symptoms of prostate cancer are similar to those of a non-cancerous condition called benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), so men experiencing these symptoms should consult their physician for an accurate diagnosis.

In new study, 54 men with advanced prostate cancer were randomly assigned to have surgical removal of testicles (orchidectomy) alone or orchidectomy plus oral supplementation with 4 mg of lycopene a day. Measurements of PSA (a blood marker of prostate cancer activity), bone scans, and urinary flow were taken initially and every three months for two years. Men receiving lycopene started on day of their surgery.