At one point or another, I've tried them all - calorie-counting diets, high-protein/low-carb, vegetarian, macrobiotic, blood type, Ayurvedic.

I don't like the high-protein/low carb, altho they will result in weight-loss for the first few weeks. We only need grams of protein a day, not ounces, and overeating protein, especially animal protein, carries heavy penalties on health. Red meat ramps up the body more so than sugar, ask any diabetic. Protein digestion is an acidic process, stressing the kidneys and depleting the body of necessary minerals.

The guidelines from the Blood Type Diet and Ayurvedic medicine are very helpful in fine-tuning, but I wouldn't let being Type O make me eat tons of protein! No, it just underscores why refined foods and Sugar caused me so many cavities. ;)

As much as I prefer a mainly vegetarian diet, I'm not about to go vegan or give up meat entirely. It's too much work! And I like a prime piece of beef every now and again, or salmon. Sue me!!! LOL!

For a happy life, a diet that is mostly 80% healthy and 20% totally decadant is a reasonable compromise.

The 80% should be real, whole foods as close to their original state as possible. A balance of 30% veggies, 30% grains, 20% fruit, 20% protein mostly from legumes is a good balance to strive for.

Eating meals that are based on veggies is great, also are meals that are grain/legume combos (3 to 1 ratio) in order to get perfect protein is also good.

Striving to only eat fats and salts that YOU add, no one else, is good. That way you only ever get Sea Salt and good oils like olive, flax, etc.

And since it's tough to get enough veggies into one's diet, a juicer or frequent visits to the juice bar is a NECESSITY.

These guidelines will ensure that your diet supports an alkaline state, which is healing and maintains vital health.

Just as important is making sure these foods get *digested.* It's not just what you eat, but how you eat it, that's where all diets fall short. No one - except for Ayurvedic and Chinese - teaches anyone how to monitor digestion. They just make dangerous assumptions that all those raw veggies will be broken down and absorbed. Sigh. Food combining theory addresses this issue but it can make you crazy, trying to follow his recommendations. Which is why my philosophy is KISS. :)

that means eating what you want - within reason - and finding ways to make sure that veggies and other whole foods are what you want to eat. It's possible! You just have to look beyond the typical boring salads made out of head lettuce, cherry tomatoes and croutons. I don't know how ANYone can eat that, and let me tell you, there's hardly any health benefit, so if you're suffering thru a boring salad, DON'T BOTHER! lol!