5. Grapefruit Diet. Eating half a grapefruit before every meal probably wouldn't be too bad. You certainly would stay on top of your vitamin C needs. No scurvy for you!

4. Cabbage Soup Diet. This is a 1 week on and 2 weeks off diet. Personally, I don't think I'd make it through a week of cabbage soup. I mean eating cabbage for just one meal sounds like enough torture to give up chocolate. Sure there are some other veggies mixed in here, but yuck.

3. Fat Flush Diet. This is all about flaxseed oil, cranberry juice, and supplements. Forget about caffeine and alcohol. And ladies, apparently, you have to forgo birth control pills. Talk about a double whammy on this one.

2. Coconut Diet. Coconut oil is supposed to boost metabolism. It's also high in saturated fat, which can raise cholesterol. I mean seriously, how about just eating a little extra coconut? Why make a whole diet out of it?

1. Bento Diet. No, you aren't eating bento boxes, but you are doing portion control by putting your food into them. The lady who created this diet actually has some pretty common sense weight loss advice. She's working with a 4:2:1:1 ratio of veggies, protein, grains, and fruit. But I'd never thought of using Bento boxes as portion control. Maybe I should start the Nike shoe box diet.

One of the dangers of dieting is the ‘diet mentality‘. The constant need to weigh, measure, count and account for food that most dieters feel can become an obsession with food that comes close to that experienced by someone with an eating disorder. Is it possible to lose weight without becoming obsessed with food?

Dr. David Katz, author of “The Way to Eat”, suggests a better way.
While it’s important to balance the calories you eat with the calories you burn, he says, it’s not necessary to obsess about food by counting every calorie. Instead, he suggests, focus on eating well for your health and permanent weight loss will follow.

Dr. Katz’s suggestions include replacing highly processed foods which contain added sugar, fat, starch and salt with more wholesome foods with short ingredient lists. Avoid foods with added ‘flavor enhancers’ like monosodium glutamate and high fructose corn syrup which tend to stimulate the appetite and make you want to eat even more.

Instead, focus on healthier alternatives within food groups. That’s far easier to do than you’d think. A simple change in your diet like replacing the light cream in your coffee with low-fat milk can save you 50 calories per cup. If you drink a lot of coffee, that could add up to a substantial lowering in your overall daily calorie intake - with the added bonus of giving you all the calcium and vitamin D you usually get with less than half the fat.

But, you say, you just can’t drink your coffee with skim milk? That’s fine, too. We all have little luxuries that we think we can’t live without. Take a few minutes to analyze your diet and figure out which things you just can’t give up - then make adjustments in other areas to account for them. Can’t live without cream in your coffee? Skip the muffin you usually have with it, or replace the butter you use on it with a low-fat margarine substitute. Eating healthy is about choices - not obsession.

Here are some other suggestions to help you stop obsessing about calories and start eating healthier:

1. Toss out sugared breakfast cereals in favor of a whole-grain cereal that has little or no added sugar and drop a few berries into your bowl
instead.

2. Switch to an all natural, no additive peanut butter instead of a highly processed one that contains added sugar and oils for stabilization.

3. Keep a baggie of dried fruit in your desk drawer for a
high-potassium pick-me-up at mid-morning. You’ll be far less inclined to overeat at lunch - and you won’t find yourself yawning at 11 A.M.

Anyone Hungry? Six Strange Ready-to-Eat Canned Foods
The world is buying more and more food all the time. One hundred years ago it was being cooked by the family over the course of a day for some meals. Now we simply go to the store and buy canned or frozen food.

Here are 6 of the strangest canned foods you can find being distributed at your local supermarket. I left out food meant for animals as that is completely different.

1. France - Canned Duck Fat

This is a product that doesn't get much attention in the United States food markets. Canned duck fat is actually a rather rare treat for people in France. For 67.5 oz of duck fat you can expect to pay around $60. We usually cut the fat off of our meat which makes this a very weird canned food.




2. Sweden - Canned Cheeseburger


This delicious cheeseburger originates from Sweden. It is strange simply because of the pieces used to make the cheeseburger. I would be worried about the quality of the bread, cheese, and meat after getting this shipped across seas. For the price of $6 you can get a cheeseburger in a can, or you can head over to McDonalds and get 6 of them for the same price.




3. New Zealand - Canned Tongue

New Zealand lamb tongues are definitely something that is not seen in many American grocery stores. However in New Zealand this is a great delicacy that is a very common item at a dinner table. The prices range depending on the brand, expect to pay around $5 for this can of tongues.




4. Korea - Canned Silkworm Pupae

These silkworm pupae are very popular snacks in and around Korea. They are prepared simply by stewing and seasoning them. You can get these at just about any supermarket or gas station in Korea as they are to them as something like peanuts are to us. Silkworm pupae are generally a cheaper food, you can pick up a can like this for around $4.



5. Scandinavia - Canned Reindeer

This delicacy is actually very healthy for you compared to other red meats. Since reindeer are raised on a farm on diets of moss and lichen these animals have only a 2 percent fat content. Due to the time and costs in farming these animals you will have to dish out close to $30 for a can of this arctic delicacy.



6. Thailand - Canned Scorpion

Scorpions are a delicacy in most of Thailand. These are already cooked and they can be eaten whole without risk of poison from their venom. There are thousands of different species of scorpions and you can eat a good percentage of them. Expect to pay around $6 for a can of scorpions.

Most of these are delicacies from other countries that are available in the United States as well. They are all eaten without disease however they may not look that appetizing to us. Next time you go to the supermarket look at all the different kinds of canned food you see. Did I miss anything?