by Jed Eane

Created on: May 06, 2008   Last Updated: May 30, 2009

The best piece of dieting advice I ever read was, "don't eat mayonnaise." And it's a piece of very useful advice. While mayonnaise does have some nutritional content, it packs a whopping calorific punch for what is essentially little more than something to hold your sandwich together. My advice is to avoid it wherever possible if you want to lose weight. If you're having a sandwich and you need to spread something on the bread, opt for something other than mayonnaise. Butter's not too bad, in the sense that there's less chance that you'll use as much of it on bread as you would mayonnaise - but never, ever have butter and mayonnaise together! So let's say that butter and mayonnaise are the top two foods to avoid (or at least to eat less of). The other eight foods you should avoid eating if you want to lose weight are...

Alcohol

This isn't strictly a food, but it has to be included in a list of foods not to eat to lose weight, the primary reason being that people so very often overlook what they drink when it comes to counting calories. Very convenient, of course, but it won't do anything to help you lose weight. A pint of beer contains around 200 calories; a small glass of wine around 70 (and when do you ever have one small glass of wine?!). While it's not necessary to cut out all alcohol from your diet, drinking it in moderation will definitely help you lose weight.

Soft Drinks

Ditto soft drinks. There's even less nutritional content in soft drinks. These are essentially sugared, colored, fizzy water. If you want to satisfy a craving for something sweet, you're better off sucking on a fruit pastille or a piece of hard candy. Just the one, though.

Muffins

Muffin is another word for cake. Calling a piece of cake a muffin somehow makes us feel less guilty about eating one. But the ingredients in a muffin differ very little from those in a cake. And a bran muffin is, simply, a cake with bran in it. However, not all muffins are created equally and some will do less damage than others. If you have to eat a muffin, choose the smallest one you can see - and whatever you do, don't put any butter on it!

Potato Chips

I hate to include chips in this list, because I love them, but I have to. Again, it doesn't really matter if you opt for a low-fat variety, you're still eating chips. As with muffins, size matters: buy the smallest bag you can see.

Deli Salads

The problem with salads from the deli is that they are usually loaded with mayonnaise or some other fat.

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