by Caleb Wyeth

Created on: September 30, 2009

The health industry is rife with misinformation. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than with nutrition. With a wide array of fads, miracle pills, magic formulas and extreme dieting tips, it's no wonder would-be dieters are frequently tripped up. The truth is that losing weight takes time and effort, and what sounds too good to be true probably is.

Fortunately, there is also extensive research conducted on nutritional claims on an ongoing basis. Science overwhelmingly points to sensible, rounded, natural food-based diets as the most effective for attaining healthy weight loss. Still, people who believe they maintain a healthy diet may be overlooking some common pitfalls that, when removed from the diet, yield additional health and weight-loss benefits.

Below are five of the more common diet-busting items that can frequently be reduced or eliminated, even from what on the surface appears to be a healthy diet. Each, when given time and incorporated into permanent lifestyle change, can yield significant improvements in health.

1 - SUGAR

Everyone knows sugar is problematic when it comes to dieting and weight loss. Refined sugars, including high fructose corn syrup, are sure fire diet busters. One cannot underestimate how difficult it is to remove these from a diet. Synthetic substitutes in the form of artificial sweeteners such as Splenda, NutraSweet, and the like, are often just as damaging. According to WebMD's experts, and a study published in the July 2004 issue of the International Journal of Obesity, research has shown that these substitutes interfere with the body's natural ability to count calories based on a food's sweetness and make people prone to overindulging in other sweet foods and beverages.

2 - ENERGY BARS

The next time you are in the supplements section of your grocery store, read the labels on a sampling of energy bars and pay close attention to how much stuff is packed into them. In addition to significant amounts of sugar, there are often a number of processed ingredients mixed in with the beneficial nutrients, making them high in calories. For the typical dieter energy bars may seem like a quick, convenient and sensible alternative, but they typically should be avoided.

3 - PROCESSED MEATS

Specifically, watch out for turkey. It's easy to make the mistake of selecting meats based on the type of meat, rather than the fat content. So you pick ground turkey instead of beef, but that turkey may have more fat content than a lean ground beef.

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