The premise of Atkins or any low carbohydrate diet is that carbohydrates are source of all our weight loss woes. There is some real substance to argument in that we Americans have been eating excessive amounts of refined carbohydrates which have caused many of us to become insulin resistant as body continues to wage war against repeated blood sugar spikes brought on by our poor eating habits.

The Atkins diet and other very low carbohydrate diets take your body out of a sugar burning state by practically eliminating all carbs for an induction period that can last two weeks or more. The body will continue to burn sugar as it primary energy source until it essentially runs dry and then converts to burning fat. During conversion, dieter can feel tired, irritable, have headaches or get dizzy. Once you get past this incredibly tough period, you are allowed to eat a few carbs, but generally not more than 60 grams a day. That’s like eating one bagel a day and then stopping. This is a difficult road to follow for a liftetime.

In fact, a recent study showed that most adults who start a low carbohydrate diet quit diet within a year. Admittedly, there is great progress by Atkins and other food manufacturers to dramatically reduce amount of effective carbs in some food offerings that could be classified as comfort foods (e.g., muffins, brownies, yogurt and more). This helps but you cannot have much if you want to stay within diet guidelines.

In addition to loss of almost all traditional comfort foods, by cutting out carbohydrates, diet is also cutting out a lot of foods that are good for us. Fruits and vegetables have fiber, vitamins and phytonutrients that help keep us healthy. Limiting fiber while consuming a lot of saturated fat, is not most heart healthy diet.

LET'S START WITH THE BODY . . .

H E A L T H

It is said that first thing a man does when he wakes in morning is to look out of window to see how weather has changed overnight, and first thing a women does on waking is to look in mirror to see what night has done to her face. Enough said ... but if your look in mirror is followed by 'Oh, my God ... I could do with a face-lift, etc. etc.' (don't worry, we've all been there) before you start layering on more make-up and deciding to embark yet again on another diet/exercise regime (which will probably have been forgotten anyway by weekend), let's stop wishing, and start by trying to make best of what we have got.

We may not be able to recapture healthy glow of youth, but we may be able to inject a little sparkle by giving as much thought to inside of our bodies as we do to outside. Just think of what would happen to a house if it were not built on firm foundations. Also how would our cars run if we filled them up with wrong fuel? Similarly, how can we expect our bodies to function smoothly if we just worry about paintwork and not concentrate on engine? So analyse what you are putting into your body. Is it mainly 'comfort/grab-a-snack - I'm in a hurry' food, eg buns, crisps, chocolates etc., or is it nourishing food with all vitamins and minerals body requires to operate efficiently?

Many moons ago, a colleague of mine, who had a connection with a pharmaceutical company, said idea had been muted within company that as elderly often start day with a cup of tea and digestive biscuit, then a good way of ensuring that they receive all necessary vitamins and minerals was to add them to digestive biscuit It seemed a great idea, but when you think of how we absentmindedly dip into a packet of biscuits, then we would probably overdose on vitamins. Although we need vitamins we can also have too much of a good thing. It is worth remembering that whereas body will expel too much of say Vitamin C, body will store Vitamins A & D and an overload of these vitamins can have a detrimental effect. So leave it to experts to get balance right. It is better to start day (together with your nourishing breakfast) with a good multi-vitamin and mineral tablet. The tablet container will show RDA (which stands for 'recommended daily allowance'), and it will also show how tablet equates with this.

A good multi-vitamin and mineral supplement is Holland & Barrett's Formula for 50 PLUS called ABC PLUS SENIOR (on half-price offer at present time).